Yukon Valley News
Issued every Wednesday.
S. E. Hektbr.Proprietoi
Sam J. Callahan.Manage)
Subscription.—One year, $7.50; six months
$4.00; one mouth 75 cents.
Advertising.—Transient advertisements, $i
per inch for fust insertion and 50 cents for eact
subsequent insertion. Contract advertisements
to run more thau three months, per mouth
One inch, $2.50; two inches, $4; four inches, $7
•tx inches, $8.50; professional cards, eight lines
•pace, $2. Religious and funeral notices free
Twelve solid lines small type make an inch
Advertisements changed without charge.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, I904.
TO THE PUBLIC.
It was impossible to issue the second
number of the Yukon Valley News last
Wednesday. The plant on which the
paper is printed was in the hands of the
court.
People in Alaska rarely talk
politics. They seem to consider
themselves political orphans—men
without a country wuereiu they
have a right to discuss, criticise,
and help shape public policy. Ask
a man what his politics is and he
will generally answer that he used
t i be so and so. This is not a good
mental condition for Americans
to lie in. Political discussion is a
tremendous intellectual stimulant
A man keenly interested in the
current political affairs of the coun
try is always interested in every
thing pertaining to the social ani
industrial condition of the people.
In the States every man is more or
less a politician, and it is a fact
that intelligence of the individual
is accurately denoted by the meas
ure of bis political understanding.
Politics has made Americans the
brightest people in the world.
Aside from all this there is a more
directly practical reason why Alas
kans should keep in touch with the
politics of the times. Alaska will
t eed political friends at VVashing
t >n; and there is scarcely any man
i ■ Alaska who is so obscure that be
does not know some man in con
^ ress or cannot exert an influence
on some one who does.
Alaska is fortunate iu possess
ing the friendship of Senator Kuute
Nelson, of Minnesota. His sympa
j—thy for the isolated interior of
this territory will he enlarged by
jemhrance of similar—though
lea* trying conditions in his own
N »te. Only a short while ago, as
time is measured, the blii/ard
swept prairies of Minnesota were
thought by the country at large to
lx unfit for human habitation
V. hen a lew clear-beaded and con
ft cut men succeeded in getting a
I til before congress for improving
I'.duth harbor it excited such ridi
%«•* that comUf ridicule hill the
L • hor s prospect* would have 'wen
«*cad forever. Proctor knot! of
keitnckv. in a day rone from oh
scanty to national fame by giving
h>>irw>n* vent to the tnn excited
by the proposition 1st the buh r
! was improved and in an incredibly
short time elevators at Duluth and
| West Duluth, on the Minnesota
shore, and Superior and West Su
perior, on the Wisconsin shore,
were loading vessels with the prod
uct of Minnesota’s grainfields, the
greatest in the world: and today
the closing of that harbor would be
a detriment to people in every part
of the earth. Senator Nelson, in
thinking of the early history of his
own people, could but develop a
tender feeling for the folk of the
l Yukon.
1 WHA T OF THE FUTURE?
! In a Fourth of July oration at
Fairbanks, Judge James Wicker
sham, without doubt the best in
I
formed man in the country on
Alaska and Alaskan affairs, laid
before his hearers the relation this
territory bears to the United States.
Among other things Judge Wick
ersham said:
I Today eighty millions of fiee
men in joyous procession lay offer
ings of loyal love upon Freedom’s
altars, and gather strength and re
! new their patriotism with a con
templation of her bounteous gifts.
• . . We who gather around a
transplanted altar, erected hastily
in this fertile valley of a distant
province, join them today in thank
fulness for freedom’s gracious gifts
to the land of our birth. . .
In the spirit of our Revolutionary
fathers we desire to secure the
blessings of liberty to ourselves and
our posterity, though we may re
side in Alaska.
I be constitution of the United
States was adopted l>y the revolu
tionary States to form a more per
fect union between them. . . Its
provisions do not extend to the ter
ritories or to territory txrlongiug to
but outside the boundaries of the
United States. . . . During tiie
term of their pupilage as territories
they are mere dependencies of the
United States. Their people do not
constitute a sovereign power. All
political authority therein is de
rived from congress. Alaska is to
day without constitutional rights or
privileges in a slate of pupilage,
ami it is a mere de|>*mlency of the
United States \\ hat of the future*
livery foot of laud tying
between the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans, between Mexico ami Can
ada. is either a par of a sovereign
State, ami hound ami benefited by
tlu constitution>>l the United States,
or is impressed with a pledge front
our government that it shall in
proper time become *».
No such promise, however, has
been mad* by the l‘nite«t 'states to
an* tioit contiguous tir 1 .• mt let
rttorv Alesha hen wo siteb pledge
no sttpulaiHHi that she shall be in
corporated into the union of the
United States according to the prin
ciples of the federal constitution.
The third article of the treaty of
1867 with Russia for the cession of
Alaska to the United States pro
vided only that “the inhabitants of
J the ceded territory shall be admit
ted to the enjoyment of all the
rights, advantages and immunities
of citizens of the United Slates, and
shall be protected and maintained
in the free enjoyment of their lib
erty, property and religion.” Nor
was any such promise made Ha
waii, Cuba, Porto Rico, or the
Phillippines.
To accentuate the difference be
tween acquiring adjoining territory
and approving a treaty stipulation
that it should be incorporated into
the union of the United States, ac
cording to the principles of the fed
eral constitution, and acquiring
distant and non contiguous territo
ries, the senate of the United States
before it would consent to approve
the trtaty with Spain by which our
nation acquired dominion over
Porto Rico and the Phillippines,
passed the following resolution:
“That by the ratification of the
tr a!y of peace with Spain, it is not
intended to incorporate the inhab
itants of the Philippine islands into
citizenship of the United States, nor
is it intended to permanently annex
said islands as an integral part of
the territory of the United States;
but it is the intention of the United
Stales to establish on said islands a
government suitable to the wants
and conditions of the inhabitants of
said islands to prepare them for
local self-government, and in due
time to make such disposition of
said islands as will t>est promote the
interest of the citizensof the United
States and the inhabitants of said
islands. ’’
Cuba has been erected into a free
and independent republic by the
ac ive aid and participation of the
United States. . . .
On March to, last, a bill for the
election of a delegate from Alaska
was pending liefore the senate of
the United States, and amendments
thereto being in order. Senator
Platt, of Connecticut, offered the
following as an additional section
to the hill:
"Sec. 14. That nothing in this
act shall I* taken or construed to
imply or indicate that the territory
rmbraied b,- the district of Alaska,
or anv poition thereof, shall at anv
time lercafer he admitted as a
state."
The amendment was |«a* ed for
the time, the bill •(« |»>st| oned and
there the matter seems to ha*e
ended. It appears, however that
there is a strong disim lin.rion an
the part «>f the people of the United
States to incorporate non c.iiHgi
..ms territories into the union, ami
J. LIRDLIT ORKKN,
Lawyer.
Office it the Courthouse.
OFFICE OF
Commissioner and Recorder
Rooms i and a, Courthouse
The Boston Store
Our Mr. P. KAFFENBURGH is
now in the States selecting the
season’s stock.
It will be complete, as it has
always been.
I. KAFFENBURGH & CO.
Heeter’s Pack Train
Leaves for Glen Every
Five Days.
Freighting and Packing
To and From All
the Creeks.
Good Teams. Good Service
we who have cast our lot with
Alaska, who are reisdents, miner*,
homeseekers here, may we 1 pau e
an hour on this iay so dear to our
fatherland, and inquire concerning
what our kindred intend to do with
Alaska.
The Neptune Salvage Co., of Tacoma,
Wash., has located the wreck of the
Islander, lost in Alaskan waters in Au
gust, 1901 The location of the wreck is
given as eight miles north of the south
ern end #f Douglas island and a mile and
a half off shore. A large hole shows in
her how, which it is believed was made
by the ship striking a submerged reef,
and not an iceberg, as was repoited It
is said meml>ers of the salvage company
have visited the wreck three times in
their patent diving bell, at a depth of
300 feet. The firm has stated that it is
absolutely confident of not only saving
the treasure in her hull, but of raising
the Islander herself. Thirty-nine per
sons and half a million dollars in goid
dust went down with the ship
I'aul Kruger. farmer president of the
Transvaal Republic, died at Clarens,
Switzerland, July 14. from pneumonia
and supervening h art weakness. For
some time his health had I een gradually
failing through old age. constitutional
disorders ami throat trouhle, which
threatened to eatend to the lungs, lie
was described as taring a pathetic figure
of calm endurance, ami sat much with
hia Rihle ofen before him, muttering
well known passagr a
A* Frankfort. Kv rec*utly. Chief
lust ice Rurnam of th. court of an,*, .|.
signed a wrtt of error to the supreme
ceorl in the case of fames It Howard,
gte* a life iM|>r«M»iriit ♦ third Iriel
fiw the murder of C.ov Wi» UwWI
rh« If. *. mint will ho toe nails opened
at llenver Rapt 1. hoi the coinage plant
wtU not he u»»laite<4 tilt July I. iguy