Douglas Island news., 1912-02-14
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1912.
Politics to the Front

she August election, was sounded last Saturday night at the Lyric theatre. 1t was meeting arrrnged by the Demo cratic Club of Douglas, and there were several guus-of varied calibre-im- ported from Juneau fer the occasion.
 Frank Bach, president of the Club, waited until about half past nine,. and about fifty men and voters were pres. ont to open the meeting. He told of the previous meeting at which the Club had been organized;. of the hope of Democratic success in National poli- tics: and the desire of local partisans to get in liue by electiug a Democratic delegate from Alaska. At the conclu- sion of his remarks he introduced At torney J. Hellenthal, of Juneau. MT. Hellenthal entered into general dis cussion of such matters as are most in- terestiug to Alaskans, and told his hearers that they should send delegates to the Valdez convention who would prepare a platform taking decided stand on all such questions, and then let the other fellows take the other side. If the democrats of Alaska will do this" said MT. Helenthal, "they will win. If they do not they have no right to win. The democrats in Alaska have not stood for much iu the years past, but this year they must stand for something"
 The speaker said he was not in favor of conservation, because il does not pre- vent use. "Iu the national forests you might protect certain trees, but the people would continue to build houses and streets and sidewalks, of lumber made from other trees. There should be no restriction for Alaskans in the use of the forests, but none should be shipped out of the territory. We don't want those Seattle folks to come to Alaska with their big mills and cut down all our timber. Neither do we want pulp mills, for they use up the small trees that would grow into big ones"
 In regard to the coal lands, Mir. Hellenthal said they should not be leased, because DO coal miners who knew their business would develop coal mines under a lease. If they were required to pay ten cents ton under the lease, the coal miners of British Colum bia would under-sell them aud run them out of business. The proper may to handle the coal mines is to throw them open for location; let each man or company locate but cue claim, of say fifteen hundred or two thousand acres. Require each lucator to do small amount of assessment work the first year, more the next, and so on, but when they cease working the claim, take it away from them. "This,'' said Mir. Hellenthal, "will open up our coal land and give us cheap coal, and that's what We want"
 Nothing is to be gained in taxing the fish industry, for whatever tax is applied is paid in the end by the con. sumer, aUd the people of the United States need the cheap Alaska fish to help them evade the beef trust. Let every body fish, build eanneries on every inlet, but let the government at send to the hatchery business. Multi ply the hatcheries and liberate the fry by the thousands of millions, and the Ash in the waters of Alaska will never fail.
 As to the project of government railroad in Alaska, MT. Hellenthal be- heved that the government should lay the track, and then let the mine own- CTS and others provide the rolling stock and run it to suit themselves, paving toll of so much a ton for the privilege. The government should also build an automobile road to every mine so that the mine owners could trans port needed supplies by using automo. bile trucks. The government road now running from Juneau to Salmon creek should be extended to Berners Bay; a, good automobile road should be built up to Silver Bow hasin, another to Sheep creek, and still an- other from Douglas to Nevada creek.
 Don't "cuss" the republicans, said Mir. Hellenthal. It will do no good, and some of their officials are pretty decent fellows. Alaska democrats