The Ketchikan miner., 1908-03-07
THAT CALI, BILL

In the absence oi any positive kno"i- edge uf it's provisions, other than the vague and confused outline given in the cable dispatches, an intelligent discussion of the latest Gale bill pro- viding a so-called territorial form ot government for Alaska is out of the question. Though the cable reports the bill as having been referred to the judiciary committee of the house, the reference, according to the Con- gressional Record, seems to have been to the committee on the territories where, if it's provisions be such as can only be guessed at from the meager information at hand, It is to be hoped it may be permitted to rest until the end of the session, if not till the final adjournment of the present congress If we guess aright, the bill as drawn on lines to meet the opinion of mer in and out of congress that something short of the rule which, except in two or three instances, in the organiza- tion of new territories, should be ap- piled to Alaska in that semblance devoid of the substance of self-govern- ment is proposed as an organization instead of one which will, as fully as may be short of absolute sovereignty, fully conserve the rights, privileges and immunities of the people of Alas | ka as American citizens. The Miner may be wrong in it's surmises-inded it vii be more than pleased should 1t so eventuate-but it looks very much as if Mir. Gale has unwittingly com mitted himself to a scheme devised by the enemies of A Aaska for setting at naught for the present at least the fondest hopes and anticipations of her people.
 | What else does such plan of terri toral organization for Alaska mean, if not practically denial of the right of her people to local self-government, and what else does it involve but an insult to them through the implied doubt of their capacity for it's intelli- gent exercise? The plan seems to be fashioned after that instituted in the early history of the organization Of new territories, and before the policy which has prevailed for hundred years or more was settled definitely as the rule of congressional action in the | op1 of tho territories. It recurs to an old and ob- solete plan of territorial organization which it seeks to revamp and apply to Alaska, and is utterly without merit as a system or plan of popular home goyernment-on wholly repugnant to the fundamental principles upon which the federal government is based, a fact that it did not take the congress long to discover after one or two at tempts at territorial organization.
 This latest plan, while proposed improvement on that suggested by one of the political parties of the terri tory q couple of years ago, and which it signally failed to impress favorably upon the people, that of an appointive commission to advise and recommend to congress necessary legislation for would be little if any better, for the reason that It proposes a bast- ard legislature, in which the people, though permitted to choose a so-called popular branch thereof, would he tied hand and foot by an appointive council, not more than two of whose members might be actual residents of the terri tory, but the concurrence of which CO., ordinate legislative body but would be necessary to the enactment of any and all legislation.
 Not wishing to crticise Alaska $ delegate in the premises on the strength of vague and indefinite in- formation concerning the bill in ques- tion, The Miner nevertheless inclines to the opinion that it will be better to suffer yet awhile longer the ills we now have than rush to others we know not off.