Valdez daily prospector., 1912-02-29
GEORGE BALDWIN
 ON CONSERVATION

guaranteed all the rights of American citizens. Nearly a gen. eration ago the mining laws of the United States were extended 10 Alaska; over thirteen years ago laws were passed by congress providing for an extension of the homestead laws to the territory. Eleven years ago the coal land laws of the United States were extended to Alaska. For over lhirty-tivc years after Alaska came under the Stars and Stripes not a whisper was heard against the idea that AlaSkans were to re ccivc the same just and generous treatment from the general gov crnmcnt as had been accorded pioneers from the days of Daniel Boone. Suddenly there arose d school of political economists < that found thai everything done in the past had been wrong; that our statesmen had been fools or knavrS. or both; thai our pioneers had been vandaIS and thieves. \ campaign was started that for venom and deliberate lying has never been ruualrd in the history IOr inc country.
 Alaska, being without d vote. was made the target for all these lhc"rlZInE crankS. Every scheme tn" mind of d political faddisL could conceive Was prnpusrd for Alaska.
 The present inhabitants and heir rights were to be diSrrgard- ed, the r"SollrccS of Alaska man- aged as an estate, the government debt was |" br liuuidatcd, super annuat"d cmplnyrs of the govrrn- ment pensioned, and mere triIlr ol seventy or eighty thousand dol lars paid to every man, w0man anal child in Inc United States. all ouf of the resources of thai un- fnrtunat" territory.
 A few of these fanatics ariu- ally believed in the prariicabilily of such pr"p"SirrouS ideas ideas that make Inc dreams of John Law OF Colonel Mulberry Sellers seem fame and paltry.
 In my opinion il is a cnnspli- mrni to call people with Sucl ideas Grivrling idiolS. But prr- iiapS they wrr" not all So idiulic 4 some or Them. likr IIauipton'S Magazine, wrr" probably paving | tn" way for mnnSlrOuS SwindlrS
 s"tiing their duprS into the hab- il of thinking in big figures. ana when Inc crash came their Nicti i'm. could console themselves thai their share of Alaska loot would soon come along and make thciI loss look like thirty cents.
 The real leaders of this move mcnl, while perfectly willing and anxious that the people should be dupPd by crazy communists, wrr, playing for what was iO them q higher stake. While advocalinp the rule Of the people, initiative referendum, recall, etc., their goa was that all the qana and resour- ces of the government should be placed in the hands of bureau crats of their own selection ir Washington, who authority would be far above state and territoria legislatures, and Tor practical purposes above the power of con- gross itself These burcaucrats were tO exercise despotic control depriving the people of their land ed heritage and placing on thei, necks the iron collar of serfdom
 Human nature does not chang.
 and this system will incvitabl, produce, as it has produced ir other countries, horde of tyran- nical, overbearing, dictatoriaI corrupt bureaucrats, and race of cringing, fawning slaves, de- pendent for the very necessities of life upon the whim or caDricc of appointive officials whose DOW CT no court is authorized to curb and this hideous system comes tr us labeled reform.
 For six years, at inc bchcsl of these doctrinaires, a portion of our laws has been suspended. One of the rcsources of our territory, upon the development of which depend the progress and prosper ity of many industries, is abso- luteiy locked up.
 When it comes to a proposition 10 tic up the chorus of these the-