Alaska sentinel., 1905-06-22
FLREKR SENTINEL
THURSDAY, JUNE p, 1905.
ONE THING FOR ALASKA.

way Alaskan very aptly says:
 The capacity of the people Of Alaska, mentally, morally and fi- nancially, for self-goyernorment is shown best by their record in the district. They do more business per capita than is done in any oth- el political division of the United States. Last year they exported to the states of the Union the pro- ducts of labor, in gold, fish, furs and other items, to the value of $21 100000 They furnished a market for goods, wares and mer- chandise to the value of $12,500,- GOO. They have established towns Hp and down the coasts and along the waterways which would do ere dit to old commonwealths. They have good schools in their incor- porated towns, of which there are about a dozen in the district, sup ported by locol revenues. They have reimbursed the federal treas ury for the cost of government in their district for the last half doz- en yeaFs and donated it a million dollars ia addition, They are the most prosperous people in the na- ton, They have further shown their capacity for self-goyernment in the manner in which they have handled the affairs of their munich palities. It has been said that the usual conditions in Alaska make self government impracticable.- Nothing could be more absurd. The only practical legislature is that wherein there are representa- tives of all sections of a country for which it legislates and in which all the interests involved are rep resented. The fact that conditions are different here from those ob- taining elsewhere makes this prin- ciple when applied to Alaska axio- matic. What would the electors of Illinois think of the suggestion of leaving the legislation on their local matters to a committee of statesmen from Ohio, Texas and Maine? In Illinois conditions are settled as much as they are in oth- CT states, yet they demand that leg islatOrs of their own selection com posed of residents of their own state to meet every two years to adjust their laws to the changing conditions, The need for a legis- lature of experienced men in a country where conditions change as rapidly as they do in Alaska, is greater than it is in Illinois. The situation in Alaska is better for the establishment of a territorial gov ernment than it was in any terri tory, save Oklahoma, that has ever been created by a United States congress. The district is large, but the means of communications are such that the various sections of it are in closer touch with each other than has been the case with other territories. Nome and Ketchikan are nearer each other, when the ex- pense and time of going from one to the other are concerned, than were Spokane and Olympia in 1860 The cost of q territorial government in this district need not be more expensive to the people than the burdens they are bearing now. It could be much less. If the 10000 poor immigrants in the Dakotas or Washington, without markets or means of transportation to mar kets, could maintain territorial governments under the conditions that obtained in them when they were first organized, certainly the ,50,0O0 or 60,000 prosperous, pro- ducing people of Alaska are pre- pared for the so-called burden.
 -