The Nome nugget., 1902-10-18

of her governmental conditions, and is protesting, as did other American col onists many years ago, against taxation without representation. The Skayway Chamber of Commerce has sent an ap- peal to the Hearst newspapers to aid the cause of the 'colonists" of the north.
 In memorial addressed to w. R.. Hearst, sealed with the chamber of commerce seal and signed by J. H.. Kelley, president, and H. R. LeFevre, secretary of that body, the grievances and desires of Alaska are set forth at length. The document begins as fol- lows:
 'In behalf of the people of these out lying possessions of the United States the chamber of commerce of Skagway, Alaska, well knowing the great power and widespread influence of your iE- comparable newspapers, seek their generous cooperation in Aaska's cru,- ade for fair play from the general gov ernment. This body is encouraged in seeking the power and influence of yo r journals in behalf of Alaska from ol . serving that neither politics nor rc- ligion nor subserviency to special il- terests interferes with the admirable and fearless independence with which all abnormal conditions are barred to the gaze of the liberty-loving people of the United States"
 Like the Revolutionary Fathers.
 Then it is set forth that because the 65,O0O people in Alaska have no repre- sentative in Congress their appeals fer relief are unheeded at Washington, and then the following indictment is set forth:
 We claim that the people of colonial America suffered no more grievous wrongs when the framers of the Declar- ation of Independence arraigned the English monarch than the people Cf Alaska do under the wOeful absence of an adequate government, as we'll as under the present incongruous system known as the "Annotated Alaska Code.' In this crazy-quilt collation of provisions captioned "A Tax on Bus, iness and Trades" They should be entitled "An act to Provide Commercial Dryrot in the District of Alaska" Hu- man ingenuity in lawmaking could not have been better exhausted in an at- tempt to discourage commerce and trade within the boundaries of that district, whose patient people cry to heaven for the fostering care of the federal government. The law reads:
 The Taxes on Business.
 "That any person or persons, corpor- ation or corporations, or company pros ecuting or attempting to prosecute any of the following lines of business within the District of Alaska shall first apply for and obtain license so to do from district court" Then every conceiv- able business is designated, as follows:
 "Abstract offices, Sl0: brokers (mon- ey, bill, note and stock), $l00; billiard rooms and bowling alleys, $25; brewer ies, $500; cigar manufacturers and cigar stands, $50. drug stores, hotels, public halls, insurance agents and brokers and jewellers, $25; warehouses, $lO0; electric light and gas plants, $30O; canneries, 4 cents per case; salteries and fshOil works, 10 cents per barrel: fertilizer works, 20 cents per ton; freight and passenger transportation lines, inland waters, $1 per ton per annum on net tonnage, custom house measurement of each vessel; quartz mills, $3 per stamp; mercantile establishments doing bus mess of sl0O,0O0 per year, $500; for S155,- GOO, $375, and so on down to BIO per an mum for peanut stand. Meat markets are taxed $20; manufactories not other- wise enumerated, the same as mercar- tile establishments: itinerant physic- ians, blaming mills (when not a part of a sawmill), patent medicine vendors real estate vendors and brokers, trans- fer companies and water works, $50: ships and shipping, same as inland companies; rawnbrokers, $lOo; peddlers restaurants, tobacconists and taxider- mists, S25; railroads, $l00 per mile: sawmills, 10 cents per 1000 feet; steam ferries and theaters, $l00; tramways, 10 cents per mile or fraction"
 Just Like Tyranny.
 The memorial goes on to show that from these burdensome taxes the Fed eral government has collected more than S235, ,OO0 more than has been ap- propriated for the needs and improve ment of the country, and that the bur den is borne by the prospectors, miners, merchants and settlers. The memorial says:
 ''The honorable callings seem to be treated by tho government as are necessary evils in some large cities, and the result is strikingly humiliat- ing. Fines and imprisonments are im- posed for the infringement of the law. The entries of the prosecutions on the dockets of the court for Offenses against this act outnumber all other entries. Poor women who are deemed guilty of keeping more than ten bosrders are