THE ALASKA FISHERMAN_
Published the 15 of each month at Ketchikan, Alaska
WILLIAM L. PAUL, ATTORNEY FOR THE
ALASKA NATIVE BROTHERHOOD
Entered as second - class matter at the Post Office at
KETCHIKAN, ALASKA
SUBSCRPTION PRICE $2.00 FOR TWELVE ISSUES
OUR PLATFORM:
ALASKA FOR ALASKANS.
FULL TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.
ABOLISHMENT OF ALL TRAPS.
COMPETENT CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP.
HOME RULE MEASURE OF REAL MERIT
There always has been, and always will be, a
demand for greater degree of Home Rule in
Alaska. The people generally want it but they
do not seem to realize that the Territory fails
to avail itself of many of the privileges that
Congress intended it should exercise.
That this condition exists is not entirely the
fault of the people. It is directly the fault of
the successive Legislatures, which have turned
over to Federal officials the privileges and
duties that should be performed by elected Ter
ritorial officials.
The management of our Territorial institu
tions, the appointment of all our Boards anti
various of our officials are named by the Gov
ernor. He may at times be an Alaskan or a
resident of New York or Timbuctoo, but he is
only responsible to Washington, and almost in
variably when his term of office expires he hits
the trail to the Outside, to capitalize the honor
which was temporarily his.
But with every succeeding Legislature, ad
ditional burdens are placed upon the Governor,
or the Secretary, another Federal appointment
from Washington. It has grown to be a habit
and it is difficult to check the wrong. But the
Republican Legislative nominees in the First
division, who are practically certain to be elect
ed in November, will bend their efforts at the
next session to change this much deplored con
dition. And they expect to be supported by a
large majority of the membership of both Houses.
The Secretaries of the Departments of the
Interior, Agriculture and Commerce, are now
making a successful effort thru Congress to
have ex-officio Commissioners for Alaska select
ed, to secure a more coordinated, efficient,
speedy and economical administration of Fed
eral matters in Alaska. And among this num
ber will be the Governor. He will have many
additional Federal duties to perform and it is
important that the Legislature relieve him of
those Territorial burdens that have from time
to time been delegated by the Territorial Legis
lature to his office.
During the past two sessions of the Legis
lature a measure of relief from existing condi
tions has been urged in the Senate. What is
now known as the Controller Bill sought to
provide for an elective Controller, he to have
power to audit all Territorial accounts and to
perform all the Territorial duties that are look
ed after by the office of the Secretary and some
by the Governor. The bill further provides
that the Treasurer shall be elective and that the
Controller Treasurer and Attorney General shall
form a Board of Control and run our institu
tions and perform other duties now devolving
upon the Federal Governor.
This bill has twice met a 4 to 4 vote in the
Senate and has never reached the House, where
it likely would have passed. No good reason
has been advanced to defeat this measure. It
would give the people the control of their Ter
ritorial machinery. It would follow the thought
so recently expressed by President Coolidge
when he said:
“The federal government ought to resist the
tendency to be loaded up with duties which the
states should perform. The states should not
be induced by coercion or by favor to surrender
the management of their own affairs.”
And of course the same thing applies to the
Territories. The President and Congress un
doubtedly want Alaska to attend to their own
local affairs. We have no moral right to shift
the duties of local government to Federal offi
cials. True, we pay them, or their offices for
all services performed, but we could do it all
v/ith officials elected by and responsible to the
people of Alaska, just as well and at a less cost
than under the present unfair system.
Representative Mills, of New York, might
have been thinking of the Alaskan conditions
when he said at Williamsburg, Va., on May 15,
that “the country needs to refamiliarize itself
with the principles of home rule and states
rights.” Certainly we do in this northland and
there is every reason that we should follow the
example of that Virginia convention of 1776,
which “struck off their own shackles.” The
fact that Alaska Legislatures placed these
shackles upon her people is no reason why they
should longer be tolerated by giving Federal
officials control over our people and institutions,