The Ketchikan miner., 1915-05-13
Sulzer and Heck1nan tell of
 Legislative Experiences

people were present at the Rink last night when President Ed. Brown of the Commercial Club called the meet ing to order, and asked Mayor Beegle to take the chair. The latter did so and stated the object of the gather ing was to give the people an oppor- tunity to learn at first hand some of the things that had been accomplished at the Legislature. MT. Beegle said that introductions were unnecessary, and took great pleasure in asking Sen ator Sulzer to address the house.
 MT. Sulzer's Speech
 Mr. Sulzer, in his happy, easy way told of his coming to Ketchikan in the days of 1902, and seeing everybody on the dock to greet the boat, of his meeting with Gov. Swineford and the latter's query about his ability to play pinochle, paying loving tribute to the Governor, the pioneer advo cate of territorial form of govern ment for the mighty Northland. He said he foresaw at no far distant time a monument to Gov, Swineford, erected by the people of this region.
 "The Town was small then" he said, "and has had it's days of ella tion and depression since, but had come out bigger and better as the years went by. It had it's ups and downs, but keeps pressing ever for ward, until it is today one of the fin est in Alaska.
 ''I visited those huge mines around Juneau while north,' he continued, "and the thought came back to me that few years ago, even in my memory of Alaska, every one con sidcrcd rrcadwell fa.lure. The same was true of the great Alaska Gastineau, and the Alaska Juneau prop critics. The first owners, owing to lack of capital and knowledge of working methods, were unable to make them pay, but today these properties stand as landmarks in the mining world, and the Alaska -Gastineau alone is planning to handle the immense a. mount of 10000 tons of ore every twenty-four hours. There are numer ous other properties in that region, all of which promise to come into their own. l mention these to show you that Juneau which will be the great est gold camp in the world, was un- l very recently considered failure. Opc ofter hears the same terms ap- piled to the Ketchikan mining district; that the leads don't go down, that the values pinch out, and similar expressions, when. like it was at Ju- neau, all we need is capital and the right method of treatment. The day will come when the presence of mil lions of tons of ore in mines of this region will be proved and this district, like Juneau, will have great mines. What we need is the spirit of optimism--a concerted effort to urge the development of these great re- sources
 Now as to the Legislature. It has been my experience that most people over-estimate the importance of leg islators. It is of course important to have good laws, but it is more neces- sary to have good citizens The man who follows, rightly, his daily walks of life and business is of far more importance to Alaska than the legis- lator. Such an organization as your commercial club here can do more for Alaska than can the Legislature.
 The little that was accomplished at the session in favor of this region, was done under great difficulties. For
 instance the bounty on wolves. b. ing men who are out in the open a great deal, both MT. Heckman and myself realize the tremendous dam age wrought by wolves on the deer of the country, which are the natural meat supply for this region, as I do not think that cattle can be rais- ed here to advantage. We each in troduced bills calling for bounty of $15.00 per head on wolves, but the members from the other divisions ob- iected on the ground that 1t was too high. They hunted up statistics and made what they supposed was the dis covery that the wolf skins which had been exported from Alaska in the past had averaged about eight dollars each, so they figured that if a bounty of ten dollars was paid and the skin kept by the territory and subsequently, sold, that they would be getting the wolves killed for two dollars each. They failed to discov- CT that the skins which had been shipped were all prime skins, and that many of those which would be semi to the Territorial Traacurar ,,,ould d