The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-04-07

ersham had been acclaimed as the
savior of the country and came with
Pacific coast endorsements. Nor was
either of the two cursed more enthu-
siastically than their successors are
being cursed and will be cursed as long
as mining camps exist and as long as
men will fight over gold-bearing grav-
Ell, over fabulous wealth, which they
expect and imagine and which often
exists.
After Mckenzie, "The Wild Goose
Mining and Trading Co." or Charles
d. Lane. In my second year every
body had quit cursing McKenzie-only
occasionally in reminiscent mood
and everybody was cursing the cor
poration." which was gobbling up
everything and everybody, which was
crushing out the Individual miner,
which had paid claim-jumpers and
paid affidavit men who would nail"
any good claim upon which the cor
poration had its eyes. And even the
Pioneer Mining company, organized
by the original pathfinders and discoy-
erers OF gold on the Seward peninsula.
on Anvil creek, came in for lusty
all-around damning-from the disap-
pointed, mostly. But these people
were diplomats. They compromised,
They either paid something or exacted
some payments to get rid of lawsuit
or fight to finish. Be it said, how
ever, that when they paid they paid
mighty little, and when they got paid
they got paid enough and to spare, and
as rule the compromise worked out
in the end to the benefit of the cor
poration, no matter which way the
compromise went off. And these peo-
pie interested themselves in news
papers, in saloons and in dance halls,
IN local politics and they got next
to the crowd. They were able to
manufacture sentiment, and they did.
Damn Mckenzie! was a good rule to
follow to start with, and that is where
they found willing ears. A trial in
Nome during that time,. jury trial
particularly, was farce. Any shrewd
lawyer could tell after jury had been
impaneled what the verdict would
be, no matter what the facts might be.
talked to witty barkeeper and mix
er OF drinks in the Second Glass Sa-
loon" one day about Alex Mckenzie
and my friend said: IF Mckenzie
were put on trial for murder and I
were on the jury, I'd go to sleep as
soon as had been sworn, and at the
end Of the trial they could wake me
up and I'd vote guilty."
And it is that kind of atmosphere"
which Rex Beach imbibed while at
Nome. He has the poetic Temperament
and Imagination. The rest is easy.
He never talked to Alex Mckenzie
in his life; he never talked to Judge
Moves five minutes. He knew Can.
tain Mccormick, and he knew some
OF the few men who were connected
with Mckenzie, but the bulk of his
information came from the enemies of
Mckenzie and from records, which do
not always tell the straight story. 1
nave personally sat down with men
who told me to what extent they were
prepared to go in their fight with
Alex. Murder, arson, perjury they
did not balk at. One man told me
that he was prepared and had arrang-
ed to Overturn boat which was car
rying a United States deputy marshal
to steamer in the roadstead at Nome
II his scheme to get this deputy rowed
to another steamer miles away had
miscarried or been suspected by the
deputy. This deputy carried an order
from the court-whether rightfully or
wrongfully issued does not concern us
now-presumably it was the lawful
order of the court of the United
States. The anti-McKenzie crowd
knew of the order and knew what it
meant to them: 1t must not reach the
person for whom it was intended, the
deputy must be drowned like rat in
the boisterous surf Of Nome, If need
be. That the emergency did not arise
was only due to- the cunning of the
f1NN OF,
deputy, who allowed himself to be
carried three miles down the coast to
a steamer, which. when hailed, turned
out to be the wrong one-the right
one. with lights extinguished, had
moved many miles further out-and
when 1t suited the purpose of the
crowd Mckenzie was fighting. depart
ed for San Francisco and the seat of
the court, which was supposedly re-
viewing the actions of the Nome court
with all the facts before them. All
the facts were not allowed to reach
that court. Many so-called facts were
distorted. colored, due to the artificial
atmosphere created at Nome. l am
convinced that Justice miscarried.
In the meantime Rex E. Beach did
not strike it rich at the Kobuk, but
magazine managers will pay him and
others good money for stuff for which
the public is supposed to be banker
ing. The Treason of the Senate"
has existed since the senate existed
and always will; the corporations
have been soulless and greedy ever
since corporations were known, and
the trusts are octopi in no matter what
form or shape they affect the people.
remember when "Jim" Hill was
the most cordially disliked man in the
northwest He built transcontinen-
tai railroad without a foot of land
grant, paid of first mortgage of z
millions, something unknown in the
history of American railroads when
parallel land-grant roads, ,traversing
better country than the Great North
ern covered, were tossed from one
set of receivers into the hands of an
other set and millions were lost, but
eventually the people have come to
their senses and realize what great
man the same Jim, Hill is and what
an immense amount of good he has
done for the entire northwest, and SO
they will come to their senses, too,
in the matter of the "Looting of Alas
ka" and the Treason of the Senate"
But in the meantime it is rather tough
on Alec! -
The Marquis Posa.
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