The Alaska daily empire., 1914-10-12
SULZER'S FAMOUS
 SPEECH
fContlnued from Page I.l

sent hero. I desire to take this op- portunity of congratulating and thank ing those gentlemen who have been instrumental by their unceasing agi- tatlon. in bringing about this conven- tion. They have been untiring in their efforts to better the conditions of our people. and to advance the welfare of this great country. Their work is ap- preciated. I thank them for this priv ilege, and am glad to help them in every way in may power.
 Mir. Chairman. as you have so well said, government has ever been the great concern of the human race, since the dawn of civilization. Greek, Ro- man, Teuton and American have all struggled for its preservation. Good government should be the first thought of an honest and intelligent people. Our welfare, our character, our lib- critics and our happiness. depend upon our laws and our government. There are many forms of government, and our forefathers established on this hemisphere form of government that has been tested by a century and a quarter of time and has not been found wanting but has proved to be Q boon not only to the descendants of those who instituted it, but in all mankind
 As has been so we'll said, it is a government of, by and for the people not of any special interests, but of the people! It was founded upon the eternal principle of equal rights to all, of special privileges to none.
 It guarantees. Mir. Chairman, life, H. berty, and the pursuit. of happiness. It was planted and has grown rich, powerful. and happy under the God given doctrine that government riyes it's just power from the consent of the governed. Are we then, fellow delegates. asking too much when we claim our birthright-when we petition for that which has made this nation what it is today?-that which has ad- ded each bright star to the Union, and has made the American people the most enlightened, the most prosperous, the most free and happy people on the face of the earth today?
 Alaska is fitted in every sense for that measure of self.government em- bodied in the resolution now before this convention. Her population, her intelligence, her industries. wealth, and commerce, her transportation fa- cilities, her ambitions, pioneering and progressive spirit. are equal if not superior to those of almost every oth- CT district that the Congress has ere ated into a Territory. We are ask ing nothing new, my friends; we are petitioning for no strange fallacy. We are simply protesting against actual wrongs and asking that the Congress. follow the thirty glorious precedents it has already made. For our author. ity We can so back as far as tho landing of the pilgrims on the rocky New England coast, or to the rule of the~f first white man on the shores Of Virginia. For our justification we may plead every act of American rev. olution, and for our proof we may point with pride to the creation of every Territory in the Union.
 Mir. Chairman, to deny that the pGo. pie of Alaska are fit for self-govern- ment, is either an insult to the intel ligence of the people of Alaska, or else that of the pioneering men and women who were the builders of the present great American Republic. As long ago as 1872 the general court of the colony of Massachusetts re- solved: That the acts of navigation are an invasion of the rights of the subjects of his majesty In this col opy, they not being represented in the parliament" The principle that people rlust not be taxed except by their own representatives has ever been, and is I hope today, the funda- mental principle of our liberty. We can stand taxation without represen- tation perhaps; we can submit to un- just and unreasonable laws; but, MT. Chairman, we are not willing to be deprived of our sacred heritage as free men, nor to submit without E--l77y