GOVERNMENT OF ALASKA.                                  5
Cordova; Tanana Miner, Chena; Daily Tanana Tribune, Fairbanks; Douglas Island News, Douglas.
Mayors: E. Valentine, mayor, Juneau; W. B. Watts, mayor, Nome; L. Tonseth, mayor, Chena; L. Archibald, mayor, Valdez; C. Ott, mayor, Eagle; H. Ashley, mayor, Skagway; Joseph H. Smith, mayor, Fairbanks.
E. O. Smith, president Sitka Chamber of Commerce; F. G. Hale, president Seward Chamber of Commerce.
[Editorial from the Seward (Alaska) Daily Gateway, December 11, 1909.] NO  COMMISSION   WANTED.
President Taft could hardly have chosen a more direct way in which to call forth the criticism of Alaskans than by his proposal to appoint a commission to govern the Territory. The people of Alaska have suffered much from the lack of proper laws and from unwise legislation that has been enacted by a Congress of the United States, which, in some instances, has been densely ignorant of the needs of the people who are developing the country, and in others grossly indifferent. There is a feeling, however, that they would rather bear the ills they have than to take the chances of greater ones growing out of a government by a commission. A commission has been tried upon the Filipinos, but the intelligent Alaskan \ery much objects to being classed with those people and being subjected to a paternal, not to say, infernal, kiud of government that might possibly have some advantages for the untutored savage.
There may be some plausible reasons why Congress does not want to grant home rule to the people of the Territory in its present state of development, but may the good Lord deliver us from having a commission foisted upon us, which would be likely to be more ignorant of the needs of the Territory or more indifferent to its interests than Congress has showli Itself to have been in the past.
[Platforms of various political parties of Alaska in the election of a Delegate to the House of Representatives, August, 1909.]
PLATFOBM  OF JAMES  WICKEBSHAM,  REPUBLICAN.
I shall stand for (1) President Roosevelt's recommendation that " some form of local self-government should be provided, as simple and inexpensive as possible," for Alaska; (2) for an elective territorial legislature, with carefully limited powers.
PLATFOBM  OF JOHN CABSON, BEPTJBLICAN.
Urge home rule.
Second. We believe that Alaska is entitled to all the benefits of the ordinance of 1787, and we demand the extension of that patriotic compact to the management and control of this Territory in order that the people of Alaska may have a voice in their own affairs.
PLATFOBM   OF   THE  DEMOCBATIC   PABTY.                            #
Home rule.
First. We regard the establishment of a suitable form of governpent for the Territory of Alaska the question of foremost importance, and to that end we submit the following:
We demand the enactment of some- simple and inexpensive form of local self-government for Alaska on lines sufficiently guarding and restricting the number of subdivisions in which the Territory may be subdivided; this to the end that the property rights within the district so provided with an organic law may be, in all respects, perfectly safeguarded and protected to the fullest extent compatible with good government.
We condemn the plank in the Republican platform asking for the extension of the ordinance of*1787 to Alaska for the reason that the form of government