The Alaska daily empire., 1913-01-15
Commercial Clubs First
 Banquet Great Success

The first annual banquet of the Ju neau Commercial Club has passed in to history-or as the speakers indi cated in the keynote of their seyera addresses-ruruished the focal point for the beginning of history for the Capital City of Alaska The dinner was an meQuaHfed success in ever! respect The committee having the affair in hand spared no efforts tc make it so. The hall had been con yerted into a large evergreen glade The music was hidden behind a screen of evergreen separating the stag from the main hall.
 Carnations furnished the notable feature of table decorations.
 Judge Gunnison. toastmaster of the occasion. kept things moving at a rapid pace once the speech making was under way. The first toast was Alaska. and Governor Clark was asked to respond. The Governor in part said
 This is an occasion. Mir Toastmast- CT and gentlemen. which a large ma jority of us who are seated here to- night have devoutly hoped for at least the last three years might be brought about. It was described in advance as a get.together event; it seems to be a success, for to witness the personnel of this party gathered here under conditions of visible and substantial harmony is sufficient as surance of that. As this club stands for commercial and business prosper ity. every member of it must be glad that it is possible to join in get-to' gether feast like this; but We are all alike glad because this new condition makes Juneau a more comfortable place to live in.
 AS to the natural conditions which are requisite for prosperity there has not for many years been any ques, tion. Nature stored the gold in the rock. and the timber on the mountains and the fish in the sea The natural conditions are all right. It is only nee essary for the people who inhabit these places, made so magnificent by nature, to create and maintain a state of business and a state of society which shall match them.
 You. the members of this club. as it seems to me. have a large share of the making of the new Juneau in your hands. If I should tell you how it is to be done only through cooperation, and through reasonable harmony and community Of purpose and action; how personal spite and excessive indi. viduaI seIfiuterest have no place in the new scheme. should be uttering a lot of trite sayings, of the truth of which you are every one of you well aware.
 This is a season, once in twenty years. when great number of official gentlemen are talking about resign ing. to enter other fields of usefulness and speaking of it just as if they liked it and had expected to do it all the time So. following their example, take this occasion to say more public. ly what I said to many persons dur ing my trip through the interior-sev eral months before the general cleo tion. and without reference to the re suit of that election-that l expect to retire from office in the spring of this year. It will not be easy to leave Alaska. but it will not be hard to re linquish the office I hold.
 This territory and this town have held wonderful attraction for me for the last thirteen years. It has not always been welcome change to go back East, but it has always been easy to come back here"
 Surveyor General Distin, who is al so secretary Of Alaska, was next toast ed as the man longest in the service of the territory. He replied in a very happy vein that he was doer o' deeds rather than a speaker-but that this was an occasion when he longec for the tongue of an orator to ex press his appreciation of the great ness of Alaska and the goodness o her people.
 A silent toast was then drank tc Juneau and Harris, the founder of thu town of Juneau, and the discOverer O the Harris mining district.
 J.. A. Helleuthal, the first of the reg ular speakers handled "The Conserva ton of Our Natural Resources" in masterful way. use the only just ti tie of the natural resources" wa the keynote of his address. A sue cint history of the conquest of th West was given, how political pul and not use and development had ta ken possession of the country. H showed up the fallacies of the Pin chot idea of conservation and made plea for a return to the rules of tn old miners before the politicians tool ,,o.-,ec;o, of tba WaSt