Iditarod pioneer., 1914-10-24
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James WickeTshan7

| lillO OlllCty lit'iti lilt SIty tpohNit been bought up, that voters had been brought in from the outside, and that the city had been swindled Thus believing, brought suit Bitter days followed. l was attacked by newspapers, politicians and business men, but I got the case to trial and obtained verdict of $7S7 ,000 against the water and lighting company
 By this time James Wickersham had many friends and many enemies. His friends, headed by Addison G. Foster, whom he helped to elect to the United States sen ate asked President Mckinley to appoint him a federal judge in Alaska. His enemies, without his knowledge, joined in the request they wished to get him out of Tacoma and the state of Washington. He went to Alaska as judge of the interior district
 His Big Battle at Nome About that time scandalous acts were being done at Nome Placer claims worth a million dollars each, the gold lying on the ground, almost had fallen into the hands of their discoverers, Laplanders and Norwegians, principally. Certain men in the United States organized a camorra and proceeded to rob the Laplanders and Nor weglans of their property. Government of fcers assisted in the work.
 When the government officers were taken to San Francisco under arrest, Judge Wick ersham was sent to Nome and instructed to "clean up the situation" He did so wig orously Then he resigned from the bench to become the Alaska delegate in congress Fairbanks, containing but three houses, built in a clearing in the wilderness, "500 miles from civilization" to use his own de scripton, WAS his home
 Next he grappled with the fiercest and most powerful monopoly of alt the Alaska Syndicate, composed as he still maintains, of the Guggenhems mostly He found the three southern gateways of Alaska Valdez Seward and Cordova-in posses sion of the syndicate Immediately he be- gan strenuously to appeal for natlonalized railroad running from one of the three ports named northward into the interior of the territory.
 The road has been authorized and will be built. Agricultural and mineral lands will be given or sold to settlers. Alaska will fill up with small competitors instead of big monopoists. Before long it will be a state. James Wickersham, it is reasonable to predict, will be the first senator in con- gress to be elected by the new common wealth He is 56 years cld-a gray-eyed man. with short, thick mustache, and a modern-looking man in well-ftting and high priced clothes
 Were he to be met in Wall street one would think he belonged in a bank CT a brokers office He could ride in a private car and lis very appearance would make peorle believe he was president of the road He Is no Eskimo or Indian. nor tran- per with moccasins on his feet and bundle of furs on his back.
 His Great Six-Hour Speech
 Ethnology, or the study of the races of men, has been enriched by his writings and investigations He has a decided talent for composition and oral statement and his six hour speech in the house of representatives on Alaska. its resources and possibilities brought him wide fame as an orator and an author.
 The words government ownership have no terror for me when 9 region as great Tn area as the thirteen original states of the Union, and of Vermont, Kentucky, Tennes- see, Chic, Indiana and Illinois in addition, awaits development and deliverance from monopoly" Judge Wickersham said to me "The people forget that the Cumberland road, reaching from the Potomac to the Ohio, and costing $S,000000, was built more than a century ago and paid for with money out of the public treasury.
 When we wanted railroads to the Pa cifc coast immense tracts of the peoples land were given to the men who had agreed to construct the roads. The lands were the same as money put out at interest. The government will pay for the Alaska road ard keep its Alaska lands, By and by when the lands have increased in value they can be solt. to settlers. The treasury in the end, therefore, will have taken in more than was paid out.
 T offer no excuse for urging congress to enter upon railroad building in Alaska Shall the national government, l asked in the house of representatives or the Guggen- helms control the destiny of Alaska and its pcople-which