The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-01-15
LINE SHOULD STAY
Alaskan People Are Opposed to Any
More Nap Making by England.
JUNEAU A VERY QUIET TOWN
Interview With Judge Warren
Truitt. Who Passed Four
Years i'm the Ter
ritOry

over the office and Its cares to his sue
cessor. Hon. A. X Delaney. During ais
| -four years residence in the territory,
Judge Truitt has had exceptional OPP
| portun7tles for studying the country, It's
resources. development, climate, natur-
al features and the general public ques-
tions, and the Times says;
THE unanimous opinion on the boun-
dairy question" said Judge Truitt, 'Is
alFat the line should stay right where 1t
is. The people do not want England 5
contention granted, for II would take
some of the best of Southe alstern Alas
ka, and the control of the Yukon trade
4 = people are opposed 70 any more of
highlands map-making If 1T In any way
affects our territory, and Uhey do not
want arbitration, for they consider that
there Us nothing 20 arbltrate. They
have seen enough arbitration in the
Boring sea controversy, by which En-
gland got all She desired. No more ar
filtration is wanted; the people are
afraid of Ii. The line is where IL has
been conceded for years. and why rec
ognize the contention?
IF Russia were called upon TO protect
our rights, she would say If we are a
mind 60 give up, 1T is nothing to them.
She is under no obligations if we give
IN. III i sell a horse to YOU and some
fellow should seek to deprive you of 1t,
/ do not know as | would be 10 blame,
except in case of "a defective title. Rus
STA never had a question as to her
boundary limits. We bought the ter
r3tOry watch she is known TO have
held and II is wherefore ours If we hold
1t.
The message of President Cleveland
upon the Venezuelan question is taken
to have some bearing upon the Alaskan
boundary dispute. 1t Is received with
universal favor. There is no division
math us on either case. Congress is on
the bit, so TO speak, and has supported
the message to a man. AlaSkans are
FhorouShly American. No real from
tier exists now. Certainly, we do not
get the daily papers the day they are
printed, but We appreciate and read
uhem THE more, and intelligence is
broadcast. The Indians are even thor
oughly American. They are great low
els of the stars and stripes. over their
dead THE flag always waves at half
mast; II is unfurled to the breeze in
all their cemeteries. The Indians ore
very much opposed to the British gain
ing possession of any of the territory,
and while ! have not lately seen Mr.
Duncan of the Mealakatia mission. | am
told ahat neither he nor his Indians en-
JOY the idea of going back to British
territory, from which they migrated a
Few years since, for the British claims
would place the Metlakatla island in
Cara1a.
UNIQUE GOVERNMENT.
fhe government of Alaska is rather
unique. The clerk of the United States
district court is ex-officio secretary of
state, treasurer and receiver of the
land Office. In the last named the bust
ness of his office is principally with the
mining claims, as there is no govern
1nent land. There are no territorial Of
fees except the governor, and the cities
have no organization Yet life and
property are just as safe in Juneau as
10 s,v~ -.
debt owed him he can collect 1t as read
lily and surely, and If there are not less
complications there are surely no more
The fact is that men go to Alaska for
business. The worst class does not
reach there, as the rate of travel has
always been so high, and IL any unde-
sirable characters have been brought
in 1t is because of the recent cheap
rates. Any mining camp has its gam
blers. So has any other prosperous
town, whether mining or cattle, and Ii
has always been so from Nebraska to
the Pacific. But most people who go to
Alaska are after industry and money
making.
Juneau is a most quiet town. 1t has
a deputy marshal, but he has no police
power to speak Of. yet there are no
drunken men. boisterous talk, fighting
burglary nor larceny. IL is very order
ly, with no city government. the people
virtually governing themselves. DO not
misunderstood me. Juneau has it's
vices. and is not a moral town. but an
orderly one. The respectabilty is quite
remarkable and has caused much sur
prise among visitors from the East
When / first went to Alaska the
grand iuries would not indict for liquor
selling. They simply obeyed public SEN
timent rather than the law. but now
they have changed. as under charges
,f
plain. Every saloonkeeper in Alaska
was indicted at the last term. All
pleaded guilty and paid a fine Of SO
each. There is 2 United States revenue
officer in Alaska. who. seeing the liquor
business going on, collects the revenue
tax. as it Is perhaps thought better to
take the money, as the dealers are real
~ anxious to pay. IL Is. however. pure
~ tax and gives the seller no right TO
violate the organic act. which is the
local law in this instance
CURSE OF LIQUOR.
Liquor, though, Is the cause Of
nearly all law breaking and murd as
in ALASKA. When an Indian kills an
other il is when intoxicated: when he
kills "A white ne is drunk and even the
whites in their last Sltka murder were
drunk and have only been known to kill
when drinking. The Indians are a very
industrious and frugal class readily
taking to our ways. They are not like
the Indians Of the plains. whose lazi-
ness Is 80 phenomenal. If the snug
glers' whiskey could be kent away from
them they would be an admirable peo-
pie. When they get IL they are crazy
and, like the whites. they are mean. At
the last term Of court tried three In
dams for murder. one was a case Of
killing two smugglers when all were
drums. The verdict was manslaughter.
and as there were extenuating circum-
stances brought out in the Indian evil
dence. proving that the whites started
the quarrel. the sentence was light. In
al the Siwash trials the questioning is
necessarily through an interpreter. The
language is called 'Tkiinket.' as no Chi