extent are w# interested in any native. For Liu
same reason, we are interested in other races.
We wish- it understood that we are not lighting the
battier ot natives or Indians as such. Rather, we are
fiflttttns the cause of the just who suiter from ii\
A* to unsigned letters, we detest them.
We are glad to withhold the names of our corres
pondents upon request. That is one thing. Rut the
person who writes a letter and then lacks the courage
to sign it, lies to himself.
SUTHERLAND'S MEMORANDA FOR SEN. WILLIS
RE PROPOSED BILL
"An Act to authorize the payment of amounts ap
propriated by the Legislature of the Territory ot Ai
aaka on account of additional duties imposed upon
Territorial Officers.
‘‘Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Repre
sentatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled:
/‘That neither Section 1855 of the Revised Statutes
(U.S.C. 1645, par. 1457) nor any other act ot Congress
shall he construed to prevent payments for clerk hire,
office rent and other expenses of executive oiilces ui
the Territory of Alaska, including additional compensa
tion, not to exceed $2,000 per annum, to the Secretary
of the Territory, under appropriations heretofore oi
hereafter made by the Legislature of Alaska tor said
purposes." „ #
The Act of Congress which this proposed measure
would repeal in its application to Alaska reads as for
lows:
“Revised Statutes, Section 1855.
“No law of any territorial legislature shall be
made by which the Governor or Secretary »i>f the Terri
tory, or members or officers of any Territorial Legisla*
lure are paid any compensation other than that provid
ed by laws of the United States.”
This proposed measure would not only repeal the
above quoted section of the Revised Statutes in its ap
plication to Alaska, but it would also repeal a portion
of Section 11 of the Organic Act of the Territory, vvhi
reads as follows:
“No person holding a commissifim or appointment
wider the United States shall be a member of the Le
gislature, or shall hold any office under the government
of sold Territory.”
The purpose and effect of thfe bill would be to modi
fy and repeal certain statutes for the Territories which
were enacted by Congress during a period of over nine
ty years. The first Congressional Act to suppress the
festivities of Federal officers in the Territories was writ
Ion iii 18Jt>, unci Congress has repeatedly since that time
realiirmed its attitude, and has strengthened and made
more explicit the Statutes bearing on this subject,
The specilic Act which this measure would repeal
(Sec. 18 it. S.j was submitted to Congress by Hon.
James A. Garlield ol' Ohio, on January 8 1873 and
promptly passed without a dissenting vote.
Now come the Federal officials of Alaska to have
Congress repeal those laws which through the years
of our governmental history have been developed for
the purpose of safe guarding the rights of communities
of free people in their efforts to establish self govern
ment and set up independent units a3 provided for in
the Constitution and by Congressional Statutes, and
particularly those statutes that were designed to pre
vent encroachment by Federal officers on the adminis
trative powers of a Territorial people. ,
The history of those law3 are so much a part of the
history of our government itself that one would look
for respect for them and reverence for the traditions
that are associated with them, but when modern Fed
eral officials desire to get their hands into the Terri
torial Treasury all sentiment or respect for tradition
is swept aside.
The incentive behind this measure is briefly, as
follows:
For years certain Federal officials and employes in
Uaska have received payment for adminstrative ser
vices to Hie Territory. This is strictly in violation of
the law: that the} now propose to have Congress re
peal. These officers as well as the Territorial Legis
lature, have been advised by their Attorneys General,
in submitted legal opinions, that this practice is in
violation of the Organic Act, as well as of the Statute
quoted (Sec. 1855 R. S.), but they have persisted in
the practice until private citizens brought enjoinment
proceeding's in the court. They now propose to have
Congress legalize a practice that the courts must hold
to be illegal.
The responsibility for this situation rests largely
with the local Legislature which has acquiesced in the
practice of permitting Federal officials to draw com
pensation from the Territory in addition to their re
gular Federal salaries.
These practice must have been recognized in the past
as most pernicious. During President Grant’s adminis
tration he was prompted to warn Federal officials
against holding State, Territorial or Municipal office.
The language in which Secretary Hamilton Fish issued
this warning in Executive order of Jan. 17, 1873, sets
forth so clearly just what the result of a repeal of
these acts might be that I quote it to you:
“The holding of two such offices by the same per
son is incompatible with a due and faithful discharge
of the duties of either office and often results in do