Iditarod pioneer., 1915-02-27
WICKERSHAM'S ROAD BILL
 BRINGS FEUD TO LIGHT

Dissatisfied with the amount of funds re duested by the war department for build ing and maintaining roads in Alaska, Dele gate NIckersham has introduced Speclal bill in congress asking for an appropriation of S750.OOO The bill has a provision that $25. .O0O of the money shall be used for the construction of bridge across the Chena river at Fairbanks, and also has special pro visions for doing other work in different parts of the territory. The bill further pro- yides that on and after July l. 1916, all moneys derived from and collected fer liquor licenses, occupation or trace hcenSes outside of incorporated towns in the territory ot Alaska shall be deposited in the treasury ot the territory of Alaska, to be wholly de voted to the purposes hereinafter ated m said territory: One-half of said fund shall be devoted to the establishment and main tenance of public schools in said territory; 10 per cent of said fund. or so much thereof as may be necessary. shall be expended for residue of said fund shall be devoted to the construction and maintenance of wagon roads bridges and trails in sad territory j; that the Territory of Alaska Is hereby au- thorized to experd the said funds for the uses designated herein by general laws passed by the legislature, and the sad terrl lorv is authorized to exercise legislative con trnl over the expenditure of all license funds collected both within and without lncor- porated towns in said territory; and in so far as the provisions of this act conflict with the provisions of any prior act ot con gress. the prior act is hereby modified or repealed.
 Wickersham Plays Richardson
 At q recent meeting of the Fairbanks Commercial Club. at which the road bill vas under discussion, letter was read from Delegate WickerSham which has reference to the bill quoted above, and which makes grave accusations against Colonel Richard son, president of the Alaska road comris- sion. namely, that he is liar, and that he iS influenced in his actions by the North ern Commercial Company. The matter was taken under consideration by the board of directors of the club and it was decided not to give it to the newspapers for pubica- ten
 Wallace Cathcart, secretary of the Com mercial club, said after the meeting that the reason for this was that the board feared
  and the chances of securing the bridge would be lessered
 However, copies of the letter had also been sent to other parties, with the state ment that it might be published and the following is an excerpt from the communl- cation as printed in the Ruby Record Cltl- zen:
 Allegations Against Richardson
 "Instead of asking for S750000, as Rich ardson has always talked to you about, he has only asked for S125,0OO and then he comes out to Alaska and lies to you people by saying that he cannot get the appro- priations he asks for. The truth IS that he makes no effort to secure any appropriation except merely to keep the work going from year to year and to keep up his commis- sion He does not want to build the bridge across the slough at Fairbanks and never will build it until the Northern Commer- cial Company tells him to- You know and l know and everybody else knows that Richardson and his road commission are under the control of the Northern Com mercial Company who want the bridge left where it now is, at Turner street, and pre- fer to have cheap bridge there than to have first class bridge at Cushman street. I have introduced bill, as l told you would, for the building of a bridge at Cushman street, introduced by me on December 17, 1914, ten days after the sec retary of the treasury put in the general estimate for the war department asking for S125,0O0 for road work in Alaska. You will notice that in my bill l have asked for $750,00O, and have required the expendi- ture of S25,000 in the building of bridge at Fairbanks. l am going to present this