ed hopes and shattered dreams.
Three or four hundred families,
most of them elderly pepole, live
in attractive homes on the rolling
hills covered with live oaks and
fruit trees. When they bought
they were told that in a few
years after planting the orchards
would produce an income of $400
an acre. Though many of the
orchards are eight and nine years
old, the owners have had no in
come; very, very few were able
to pay the expense of ploughing
pruning, spraying and cultivating
out of the crop receipts last year;
most of the owners, resident and
absentee, had to pay out cash to
save the trees. Hundreds of acres
had been practically abandoned by
those unable to keep on paying
upkeep expenses. The big building
houseing what is left of the print
ing plant, loudly echoed the visi
tors footsteps; only a few men
were employed to get out a weekly
paper whose principal function is
to inform the creditors of their
fate. The huge cannery and drying
plant was padlocked. A handful of
guests, mostly creditors, patroni
zed the hotel whose bell “boy”
spoke with a marked Boston accent
concerning the beauty of the
spring funa, whose white-haired
hostess read Vachel Lindsay’s
poems and the New Republic to
the guests of an evening. A few
gloomy customers came cautiously
almost on tiptoe into the central
department store. The four story
administration building in the
heart of the civic center, a bald
ing in the best exposition style
and so designed that it requires
a map or compass to hnd the stair
way leading to the upper floors,
was the Mecca of men and women
walking slowly and with drooping
shoulders to see the attorney for
the creditors. In the attractive
Community Church building with
its outdoor swimming poo^ gymn
asicm and clubrooms, dusty, black
oilcloth covered most of the pool
tables and the tips were missing
from the billiard cues. Despite
the promise of white blossoms
against green hills, despite the
jubalent song of nesting birds,
Atascadero had the forlorn, wistful
air of a mining camp whose ore
veins are pinching out.
There was scarcely a family in
the community that had not suf
fered financial loss through E. G.
Lewis; not a few of them had
»lv«n him fill they had, the earn
ings and savings of a lifetime.
Many of them had been listening
to his promises and responding to
them with their money for fifteen
or twenty years. Nearly all of them
had come to Atascadero with high
hopes based upon his rosy-red pe
dictions of quick profits from the
orchards. Now they all knew that
these predictions had been ridicu
lously, almost criminal optimistic.
Thep had seen Lewis admit he was
a bankrupt, that he owed at least
ten million dollars he could not
pay, that he had lost the money,
their money, in reckless mining and
oil ventures, yet they bristled at
the stranger’s first word derogatory
to the cause of their misery. They
came to the defense of Lewis with
pitiful eagerness, as though to
assure themselves that they had
been right in trusting him.
THE ALASKA LEGISLATURE
OF NINETEEN AND TWENTY
FIDE
We will try to give a faithful
account of the bills that were
introduced into the House of Rep
resentatives during the last session
together with sidelights that are
not generally known to the public
but which might be of interest
HOUSE BILLS
Number 1 was introduced by
William D. Grant, of the First
Division, and one of the so-called
“illiterate” representative . The
bill was for “An act to require
certain educational qualifications
for voters,” and read ac follows:
“That no one shall be permitted
to vote at any genera1, special,
primary, municipal or school elec
tion in the Territory r f Alaska
unless he or she is able to read
his or her ballot and sign his or
her own name upon the election
register by his or her c vn hand.
Provided, however, that this shall
not apply to persons who are blind
or for kindred physical afflictions
are unable to read or write.”
When the bill was intr duced. it
was instantly opposed by the Jun
c'\u Empire because it did not
“have teeth in it,” and by Strol
ler’s Weekly because “i . smelled
fishy.” But Ben A. Grier, of
Anchorage told Mr. Grant that the
bill United him f'tvl TO
just right,” and all “anybody want
ed was a fair test.”
Later on such “literary test”
advocates as J. R. Heckman told
Mr. Grant that they made a mis
take in not supporting the above
bill for the “Grier bill certainly
was no good and the situation
was just as bad as before.”
“Yes,” said Mr. Grant, “that
is the way with you fellows. My
bill was a fair bill and provided
that a man must read and write.
That is all that should be re
quired. But the Empire said “it
had no teeth’ and the Stroller said
‘it smelled fishy,’ and now you
take what you got. Serves you
right.”
HOUSE BILL NO. 2
This bill was introduced by
William L. Paul, First Division,
and provided for the repeal of
Chapter 75 of the laws of 1917,
which was the first law passed
providing for a fish commission.
The trouble with the law of 1917
was that it was not signed till
four days after the Legislature
had adjourned and therefore was
never a valid law. For this reason
the above bill,, Number 2, was re
commended favorably for passage
and supported by Joe Murray and
Speaker Wilcox. It passed the
House on April 24th. by unani
mous vote. After it got to the
Senate, Speaker Wilcox sent a
note to Senator Tony Dimond say
ing “Kill House BUI No. 2.” And
so it was killed.
HOUSE BILL NO. 3
For an act to abolish the Terri
torial Fish Commission and Hatch
eries. This act was introduced by
William L. Paul of Ketchikan on
March 6, 1925.
He asked support for his bill
as follows:
1st.- That in the si" years just
passed, the Territory had spent
a’most $300,000, and yet no per
son could, should or even claimed
that a single lish hat bed by the
Territorial hatcheries had return
ed.
2nd.- That in every stream in
Alaska that had a hatchery there
on, such a stream had been seri
ously depleted. He cited the great
Na-ah creek at Coring which had
a hatchery for over 20 years and
now no commercial fishing is con
ducted there. The same is true of
Yes Bay where the Bureau of
Fisheries has had n hatchery for
twenty years.
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