The Nome daily nugget., 1913-12-26

There is Q perplexing state Of affairs in Washington just now as regards the future government of Alaska Soc retary Lane advocates board Of di' rectors" to run the territory somehow. we presume. after the manner of q railroad or a beef trust. In view of the unquestioned bad odor that some O. the trusts are in at present this idea of governing the territory after the manner of the big corporations seems a little surprising coming. as 1t does. from a cabinet ofiicer who is presumed not to favor the trusts. Hut then the board of directors of Alaska might not bc just like the board of directors of the present "criminar' trusts. One thing is very certain. the board of directors of Alaska would be a political board and most probably would be composed of men having ao- sciutely no interests in the territory. ar of men having far to great inter rsts" in the territory.
 Without of course being cognixant ci the complete plans of the secretary cf the interior and of the manner In which he proposes to work this board of directors we cannot crit.cise 1t too severely. But on the face of 1t 1t does ,ot sound good. Good for Alaska that is.
 Tn this we seem to he in agreement with two men who have consistantly e> inced an interest in the territory and yho have unquestionably looked into Secretary Lanes plan. These two men gre Senators Pittman md Poindexter. They have at once come out to a nat footed statement in which they de- clare that they are "unalterably op- n. eed to any commission or director ate form of management for the ter ritory."
 This opposition from two men who know a grat deal moro about Alaska th,n does the secretary of the interior ceems to brand the scheme If the cabinet officer as falacious. More over it would seem to be sufficient to block any legislation tending to put the secretary's plan in operation.
 On the whole Alaska seems to need O change of government of some sort f.~ the present state of affairs is mere A pitiful traversity on republican gov ernment.
 Ii is contended that distances are so great in Alaska and that the pop ulation is SO small in comparison with the size of the territory. and. by sonno even. that there are not men In AL aska available for the important gov crnment offices. and. that all of this is reason why the territory should b. governed more like royal province than n territory of a free and indc- pendant republic. This may be good reasoning and we arc not questioning it in the slightest degree. Only VIC have vague memories of thirteen col or les which were widely seperated ns regards distance and facility of travel anG communication: that were sparse ly settled and as little developed as is Alaska. These thirteen colonies be- came tired of being royal provinces governed by men sent out from Eng iund because there were no mon avail able in the colonies for the important offices. These colonies ioi. gcd for the right of man to gov ern himself in his own lands. and, in spite of the lack of communication and of the small population and the great distance from the capital of London, they decided to do away with the governors and officers that did not be- long to the land and to run their country themselves. They did not propose a commission or a board of directors, nor did they believe that 1t was necessary to send abroad to lind men of sufficient calaber to i'll the ofysces of the new states. They believ- ea in seH government and they took a chance at finding among themselves men able to manage their affairs. Whether they succeeded or not is evi- Jenccd by casual glance at tho de- velopmant of the United States from IT'S to date.