Douglas Island news., 1912-12-18
Pinchotisn fn Alaska

Alaska's development has been held back fully ten years by "Pinchotism."
 What is "Pinchotism"? Western peo- pie, and especially Alaskans, know the meaning of it to their sorrow, but some of our eastern readers will need defin- ition, says the Pacific Mining Journal.
 Politically it is subdivision of des- potism called bureaucracy. Clifford Piuchot, a rich aristocrat, studied for estry in Germany and bureaucracy in Russia, then returned to the United States and got clerkship in the agri- cultural department because be was rich and could play "ping pong" with Roosevelt. And as the secretary of agriculture and secretary of the in- terior were only fgure-heads, Pinchot, with the cooperation of Roosevelt, pro ceeded to "RussaniZe" all the natural resources of the western states and Alaska, i. e. suspend the land and mln- eral laws, and issue decrees from the throne instead They placed the public
 land and great deal of private land, in reserves, and proceeded to govern them by despotic bureau in Washing ton. This despot spent about SSO,OO0 of the peoples money annually to ad- vertise and educate eastern people to
 look with favor on this powerful bu- reau. This despot posed a. the friend of the people, just as demagogues al ways do, and made scapegoat of the Guggenheims because they spent money freely in developing some of Alaska's resources iD a legitimate way.
 These despots, Roosevelt and Pinchot, suspended the coal land law in Alaska in 1906, which they had no right to do, but before this suspension over eleven hundred citizens had filed on coal claims in Alaska under the law as 1t had always been interpreted. These citizens (p.ospectors) discovered coal, located their claims, developed and surveyed them and paid the govern ment for these claims at the rate of Sl0 per acre and got the government re- ceipt, with q promise of patent. But up to the present time not a single acre of coal land in Alaska has been patented, and the government refuses to return this money, which runs into millions, to these poor prospectors. Many of these claimants had spent all their money and several years time and work on these claims, and they have perfect right to them. Instead of getting their claims or their money back, they are prosecuted. There is no court of appeals for land cases. The interior department is both prosecutor and judge; makes it's own laws and al- ways wins it's cases.
 The present secretary of the interior is curious person. He was appointed because of bis Pinchotism and he is under the domination of the Pinchot idea. In the Cunningham coal claim case be decided that ''no man could get a patent to a coal claim until he had made mine of it, and no man could make mine of it until he had a patent to the claimP'
 Alaskans are not allowed to mine any coal for their own use nor for the market. They are not allowed to cut stick of wood from the forest without first getting permit and paying the price and going through great deal of red tape. Railroads cannot and will not be built without coal, only a few of the richest mines can be developed without transportation.
 Hence, the reader can see how Alaska has been kept back in it's development by Pinchotism. This is the beautiful doctrine of conservation" which we call aPinchotism."
 There is a bright day dawning for Alaska and the west, because Woodrow Wilson says that he will observe his oath of office and enforce the land laws.
 No people ever received more unjust, outrageous and oppressive treatment at the hands of their government, than the people of Alaska.