other groups behind measures of their own and
finds they all have one thing in common—the de
sire to advance their respective interests. With
their help he gets his bill passed and with his help
they get what they want—with what result? Many
added laws enacted without any popular demand
and without meeting any public need.
We often wonder what would happen if, thru
some cataclysm of government, the people had to
start all over with their past mistakes as their
chief guide in laying the foundation of govern
ment and in building the superstructure of stat
ute law upon that foundation. One thing sure;
there would be fewer laws, a closer adherence to
fundamentals, greater responsibility placed upon
the individual, less upon the government. There
would be fewer bureaus, fewer commissions, less
violation of law, because of less law to violate.
It is a picture to intrigue the imagination of
those who are growing tired of too much govern
ment; it might be worth a medium-sized cata
clysm if one could be arranged.—Seattle Times.
-x
LET’S DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT
From Seattle Star
-x
“If,” asks Governor Pinchot of Pennsylvania,
“our government cannot adjust itself to new con
ditions, meet new needs, how can it hope to sur
vive?”
. The governor comments on the extraordinary
new times in which we are living.
Lil-:e the rest of us, he is astonished that mil
lions should suffer in a country with too much
food, tco much money, too many luxuries.
He is astonished, too, that the government
does nothing to change this damnable state oi
affairs.
Jefferson, years ago, saw the same necessity
for the ability of government to adjust itself to
ciiangii. ? times.
He thought a revolution every few years would
be a g od thing. (If he thought that today, he
would I nd in prison).
Buf there is no reason why we cannot have
a peace ’ll revolution of thought.
. We must stop imagining that the presence of
six mill n jobless men and women, and their chil
dren, in a great, rich nation, is “normal.”
We must stop wagging our heads about it;
trying out palliatives for it.
We have got to DO something about it!
Our American government is going to survive,
but the machinery must be brought up to date—
and back of the machinery must be a new concep
tion of the duties of government.
Theodore Roosevelt said that this will never
be a good place for any of us to live until it’s good
place for all of us to live.
It’s up to us to MAKE it a good place for all of
us
Prodding the Dead
The time is ripe for a revolution in Alaska- -
not the revolution that spills blood, kills and
maims human life, but a revolution of thought.
A declaration of independence, if you please, and
the giving birth to a spirit which will bring forth
a change of conditions in Alaska whereby ALL
residents will enjoy a change of economic condi
tions and be better for it.
So long as Alaskans wear the slave collar and
bow their heads in bondage to the slave driving
sj stem, there will be no change—except for the
worse. And so long as this spiritless subserviency
exists the free spirit of our Colonial forefathers is
but a vague dream.
-x
HUMPBACKS AND PROSPERITY
-x
(A Fable of the Future, from Seldovia Herald)
In years to come, friends are dining on some
choice tidbit of embrosia, unknown to the present
unscientific, backward age. The host is speaking.
“I have been doing some odd reading lately,”
he remarked. “The old boys had a quaint way of
fighting back for the preservation of what they
termed Pink or Humpback, Salmon. They seemed
10 harbor the queer delusion that later-day people
v oulti come to depend largely upon this particular
fish for the maintenance of life. Reputable citi
zens were punished for casting nets within the
radii that imaginative minds established as cer
tain specified distances from the legendary
mouths of streams.
“Without doubt the situation worked hard
ship upon the independent fishermen of that day.
Apparatuses known as fish traps, the installation
cf which required capital and business affluence,
were a1 lowed to operate freely along the shore
lines of main waterways, crowding netmen into
smaller br^'s and inlets, where fishing was practic
ally nullified by forbidding markers and watchful
wardens.”
“But what is a Humpback Salmon”? some
body wanted to know, “I never saw one that I
know about.”
“No, indeed,” the other explained. “The so
called Pink, or Humpback salmon became extinct
long ago, brought about, it is believed, by spawn