The Alaska daily empire., 1914-10-21
DELEGATES RECORD ON
 GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP

-'s-
 Tho statement in yesterdays News Miner that Delegate Wickersham Is fin favor of central or local row" Is fully as authoratlvo as the state ment of the same paper that our del. egate is in favor of government own ership of a railroad or q power plant
 Delegate Wickersham is on record at Washington as being opposed to government ownership of railroads, and his support of the measure pro viding for the construction of the rail road by the government was due to the fact, as he clearly stated, that there seemed to be no other way to get a railroad. He made no secret of the fact, however, that, ou princt' pie, he opposed government owner ship.
 It is quite true, as stated by the News-Miner, that the construction of railroad from tldowater to Interior Alaska was under discussion prior to the election of President Wilson; 1t is true that President Taft appointed commission to conduct an examina. ton into the transportation question in Alaska: and 1t Is also true that, prior to the time that President Taft's railroad commission came to Fair banks, Delegate Wickersham opposed the proposition of the construction of government railroad in Alaska
 But the editor of the News-Miner evidently is not aware of the manner in which President Taft's railroad commission came to be appointed, and if he is, he is guilty of deliber. ate attempt to fool his readers. As many Alaskans will remember, at the time Delegate Wickcrsham's Home Rule bill was under consideration by the House Committee on Territories Representative Flood, of Virginia, the Democratic chairman of the commit tee, tackled rider on the bill, proVid ing for the appointment of the rail road commission and for the appropria' tion of the sum of $25,000 to defray expenses of the investigation. Dele gate Wickersham, opposed on princi' pie to government ownership of rail roads, objected to the rider on the ground that it was socialism; but 1t was passed in spite of his opposition and the commission, as we know, was appointed. Thus it will be seen that our Delegate opposed the rail- road in the first stages of it's history and later, when he stated in Fair banks, at the banquet given the Taft commission for the construction of a railroad from tidewater to the Inter for by the government, he mado 1t plain that he was opposed on princi' pie to government ownership of rail roads, and only consented to support such a proposition because there seemed to be no other way to get a railroad. Everyone in attendance at the banquet heard the delegate make the statement, and there were fully one hundred and fifty Tananaitea present.
 What the attitude of Delegate Wick ersham will be on the central power plant proposition we may judge by the attitude of the News.Miner, which offers only Encouragement. The gov ernment will not build a central pow CT plant, our contemporary tells us, and if we insist upon it's construction we will endanger the building of the railroad. That sort of nonsense in dlcates plainly that the editor of the News.Miner does not know the kind of man we have at the head of our government, or that he wahts the people of Interior Alaska to spend the rest of their days at the Sitka poor farm.
 The present adminish ation is in ia. vor of assisting the developments of Alaska in every way possible, and to that end made a government-construc' ted railroad in Alaska an administra' tion measure and forced its passage through Congress. The same admin. istration will perfect that railroad sys, tenn and make it profitable to be con structed, and give us central power plant in connection with it, if the people of the Territory will unite in their demands for such an enterprise
 Charles E. Bunnell is the only can. didate for Delegate to Congress, with good chance of winning his election, who stands for such a power plant, and We reassert that it is our patriot. ic duty and of every citizen in the Third and Fourth Divisions to vote for him. The election of Mir. Bunnell means the construction of a central power plant and the construction of central power plant means prosper. ity throughout Interior Alaska.-Fair. banks Times.
 lRANDON HOpE FOR