The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-11-28

appropriately, particularly among LnaC
element not deeply in sympathy with
the moral standards with which he
measures public and private conduct.
There have been no scandals in the
governors office. and there will be
none while he is its occupant, but
there are those In Alaska, and they are
not alone those who are out of SYM
pathy with the governor on moral and
religious grounds, who feel that a more
aggressive and progressive policy than
he has pursued would have been of ad-
vantage to the district. Among these
are the ardent advocates of terrific
rial form Of government who intimate
more or less clearly that If the gov
ernor were disposed to earn his salary
and were not over-solicitous about
holding his present job he would spend
the money his position gives him and
the leisure its freedom from burden
some duties affords in trying to i'm
press upon the government at wash
3ngton that it is it's duty to give Alaska
home rule.
One of the first things this sug-
gested to me when I discovered this
state of public sentiment was the I'M
conscious tribute it implied to the
If he were not pretty good type OF
man he would never be expected by
anybody to do a thing SO unprofes-
sional in q politician as to labor for
the abolition of the office he holds at
$4,000 year for the sake Of entering
an expensive and uncertain campaign
for one that might command less
salary.
r AM able, however, to discover other
than selfish reasons why Gov
ernor Brady is not an active adj
vocate Of territorial government Tor
Alaska. There are plenty of Alaskans
who hold no fat federal offices who
are opposed. They not only think that
the district is too big and unW1eldy,
considering the number of people 1t
contains the manner in which they
are distributed and the dlttlcultles OF
communication and transportation, TO
make it practicable to administer d.
territorial government at reasonable
expense-as I have indicated in a
previous article-but they believe the
Institution of a territorial government
would check development. 1t Is sig
nificant that this apprehension is en-
tertained quite generally among the
most substantial business men of
Alaska. Whether this is due In any
degree to the fact that they are bear
ing less than their share Of the bur-
den of taxation under the present fed
eral regime or not I shall not venture
to assert but there Is no doubt that
many of them are sincerely appre-
hensive lest capital, which Alaska
needs as much any country
in the world, may be afraid to venture
under the control of territorial GOV
eminent. No doubt capital, which Is
always tirnid, would be affected more
or less by the inauguration of a new
order of things in Alaska, but it is
not to be expected that territorial au-
thority would or could be used to dis
turb business and check development
more effectively than the federal au-
thority has been known to do on at
least one occasion. The scandals
which attended the exercise Of federal
authority at Nome for season, and
which unfortunately are not yet fully
laid, can hardly be matched by any
thing likely to result from the Gre
alton of a representative home rule
government. On the contrary, [
should look for an Improvement in
many respects when the federal
courts are relieved of some of the ad-
which would belong to the territorial
and local officers. I do not mean to
imply that the judges are now abusing
their authority, for I do not think
they are, but many of the functions
they exercise are not judicial.
"A S TT is now the judges Of the
"A federal courts are not only the
judicial but in large measure
the executive officers Of the district.
They issue licenses for all purposes,
issue franchises to business corpora
tons, grant charters to incorporated
towns, appoint United States commits
sioners who are the local justices Of
the peace, coroners and recorders, and
the officers Of the courts collect the
occupation tax which, outside of the
incorporated towns, is the only tax.
When the manufacturer, or merchant
or freighter, or fish Gamer, or hotel
keeper, or any other kind Of business
man commences any undertaking he
is required to make statement of the
amount of business he expects to do in
a year and must pay tax graded ac-
ordinG to the volume of his husi-