The Alaska citizen. (Fairbanks, Alaska) 1910-1917, 1912-12-23
LIZ Us GROW.

he people OF Alaska nave every
reason 10 complain OF their treat
ment by he congress of tn United
States.
- to the present time congress
VAS the only law-makiue BODY foi
his territory. and the members Of
that body did not take the pains 70
learn anything whatever about as.
o sat ncIhirg about The misiit laws
thai ere thrust upon us. and under
hieh We were ir.iug to 2oseru our
selves.
Now a; this particular time Of
disquiet III this valley. Wien The
" orst. seemingly. has come TO the
worst. hen evil has, apparent!
triumphed over good. let us stop
and take an inventory OF our stock
IL trade as a people.
We find missing from our stocn
roper machinery to suard u, agains;
The criminal greed OF such criminals
IS Z. T. Barnette. or at least. if
e have such machinery. it is so
antiguated and belated that our Ell
eincers refuse to use it, We find in
other words. that congress in its
criminal negligence OF this territory
has failed 10 give us laws that VIII
project the people from thieves like
Harnctto, or at least to give laws
covering the subject of banking
that are sufficiently clear to salts
fy the minds of the different judges
that such as Barnette can be reach
ed in a criminal way.
Judge Cushman held that he sub
iect vas covered by our erimna.
laws, and Judge Lyons held the con
;rary. and the holding of Lyons is
the last and vital holding. Tor i; is
final and binding upon us.
1t would be presumptuous on our
part 10 pass judgment upon Judge
Lyons. and we will not undertake
to do so at this time We desire frs
to hear from District Attorney Cross
ley and from Special Prosecutor Glib
son. and from Mr.. Proctor. Those
gentlemen are on the ground. and
We believe that all three of them
are now and always have been true
TO the interests of the people OF
this valley in this bank affair. and
until We hear an expression of dis
approval from them we do not feel
justified in publishing any condemna
ton If We were to venture an
advice il the matter al all, it would
be patience
We will accomplish nothing by
wholesale cOndemnatio We mus
in justice to ourselves first &c
quaint ourselves with all the facts.
and then deal out our judgmen,
sparingly. and tempered With as
much mercy as possible. 1t is so
others that one is always tempted to
10 So That is the natural inhuman-
ity in man
AS TO f. T. Barnette. all we have
to say is that he is just thief of long
standing We can find no excuse
whatever to apologize for him or his
conduct He has stolen from every
depositor in that defunct bank. and
if his moral rights were given to
him he would spend the rest of his
natural life in the penitentiary. Ii
is altogether unjust to the victims OF
his stealings here that the laws
are not such as to put him where he
so richly deserves to be, or at least
SO clear that our judges COULD not
differ.
Now as to the part taken in the
matter by John l.. McGinn and John
A. Clark AS we stated last week
the facts are not all in, and we
can we'll afford to withhold our con-
domination of those two old-time
neighbors and fellow citizens OF
ours. Upon inquiry among the notar-
les public of this town, we find
that with very few exceptions all
notarial work has been done in a