The Alaska daily empire., 1915-07-17
HICKMAN WANTS
 FOREST MONEY
 SUIT DR0PPE ED

vor oi dropping the suit began by members of the Legislature from the \ First Division to secure an iniunc itlon against the expenditure ol the ! Terriiory'e receipts from the Iongass National Forest. according to lnfor nation received from Ketchikan. Mr. ' Hickman takes the position that it were better now Go make the best of c bad ease. He saya everybody knows that the First Division w9s robbed by Che Legislature, but that it cannot afford to lose the use Of It's forest receipts and SSO000 that the road commissioners had allotted to the First Division also.
 Mr. Heckman gave expression to his views through an interview given the Ketchillan Miner His statement was based upon a telegram from Col iW. P. Richardson president of ihe Alaska board of read commissioners, as follows:
 Nome Alaska, July g, 1915. ! tHeckman and Sulzer,
 Ketchikan. Alaska
 Allotment by our board for road work ln your district was based on presumption that division of Forest ry Funds would be accepted as fixed by Legislature We understand an injunction has been filed against dis ! bursments under this distribution. 1 Unless this action is withdrawn our board win be compelled to readiust al- lotments and suspend work on new projects in your district.
 RICHARDSON"
 Mir. Heckman's interview in the | Ketchikan Miner follows:
 "The above telegram. received last ! Friday. speaks for itself and puts the question of the division of the distribution of the Forest Service funds now in the Territorial Treas ury squarely up to this division.
 Tt win be remembered that after hard fight during the last session of the Territorial Legislature, the ma jority rom the other divisions re- fused to allow this division to have the cash rightfully belonging to it which had come from the sale Of timber in tho Tongass Forest reserve. Then when Col Richardson. the head Of the Alaska Road Commission went north this spring the matter was brought to his attention, also the ur- gent need for roads in this division and he promised he would try to get us some money to take the place of of that filched by the other Divis- ions. That he had secured S30.O0o for us be notified Messrs Heckman ~and Sulzer several weeks ago. this amount being sufficient to take care of the road work wanted in this re- zion. Then. acting upon instruction from members of the Senate and the House of Representatives from this region. Representative Held recently undertook injunction proceedings to prevent the other divisions getting any of the Forest Service money except that from the Chugach Nation al Reserve which is located In the Third Division On hearing this. Col. Richardson sent the telegram, a copy of which apepars in this column.
 Yesterday the writer hereof had talk with J. R. Heckman on the sub feet and found that our representa-. tive was most emphatically in favor of dropping the Injunction suit.
 Why said Mr. Heclman com mon sense demands that we make the best of bad bargain and drop this thing. We have been robbed by the other three divisions. This is acknowledged by every fair'minded man in the Territory. and to make up for 1t. Col. Richardson has taken from the money he had planned to spend in the other districts the thirty thou sand dollars he stated was avail- able for use in this division, and of course. if our action In applying Cor an injunction against the other Div ! isions is going Go Interfere with his plans. it Is no more than right than we should drop the injunction pro- ceedings and clear mp the matter ! An injunction. even if we won would tie up matters for another two sea- sons, and # we lost we would, be out not only the cash in the treas wy but also the SSO,00o the road commission is ready to allot for the ! Southeastern Alaska work TO my notion. that S8O,OoO available for use this summer win be far and away better than a lawsuit with possible defeat, and the assurance that even if we won. we would have to wait for other session of the Legislature to make the necessary appropriations for us to have the cash. and that win be my answer to Col Richard sons letter and Che different mem ! bers Of the Legislature. ! want to see ! the Charcoal Point road and the re- pairs and extensions on the Prince of Wales portage road taken care of this season. SO that we can get some use out of them without further delay
 "The Miner man sent Q copy Of the telegram over to Senator chas A. Sulzer in today's mail, and will am nounce his attitude when his an- swer comes.
 "As far as this paper is concerned. it looks as though this region has. little f. possible to gain by pushing the injunction suit now pending. Ket- chikan needs the Charcoal Point road and t needs it NOW-not two years hence hence we had better drop the injunction and make it possible for the Road Commission to get busy