Iditarod pioneer., 1915-02-06
COMMISSIONER E COKE HILL
 REPLIES TO DR. STUCK

The following letter from Commissioner F. Coke Hill appeared in a recent issue of the Ruby Record-Citizen, in reply to the letter of Archdeacon Stuck regarding the removal of District Attorney Crossley and the enforcement of law in Interior Alaska, reprinted in last weeks Pioneer from the New York Evening Post:
 My attention has been called to an artl- cle in the Valdez Weekly Miner of Nov, 15, headed 'Archdeacon Stuck Protests Against Crossley's Removal which quotes from letter written by Archdeacon Stuck to the New York Evening Post, and pub lished in that paper October P. l desire to comment upon one portion only ot that letter, and ask your space {oI that pur- pose l take this upon myself Tn the ln- crest of fairness and recognition of good service, and because am particularly in position to know the exact facts shall com ment upon.
 After general statements relative to the efforts which he says were made to remove Mir. Crossley, and a statement of MT. Cross ley's neutrality in political matters while in office, and lauding Mir Crossley for his fear lessness, the archdeacon cites MT. Crossley s successes during the past summer, first Tn keeping certain white men from lntrudlng upon the native village at Fort Yukon, and then in securing no less than four convlc- tons of white men for peddllng llquor to Indians, an unprecedented success ln one term of court the archdeacon continues Tn the next paragraph Moreover, he has won his successes against the scarcely concealed
 If tho limited States marshals office instead of with its hearty cooperation.
 q would not in this letter detract word from eny honor Mir Crossley may have due him. That he was a very pleasant gentle man and fearless prosecutor l willingly concede and since he and 1 were each and are each, l believe, Republicans, l have no political quarrel with him During the past summer l have been United States commis- soner at Ruby, where MT. Crossley gained his Unprecedented success, and my rela- tions with Mr. Crossley and his assistants were most pleasant, and l believe that Mir Crossley and MT. Gardner, his Democratic assistant, will each heartily concur in every word I shall state hereafter with relation to those Successes.
 "When Archdeacon Stuck says or inti- mates that Mir. Crossley did not have the enthusiastic support of the marshaPs office in the prosecution of the four men con victed of selling liquor to Indians, either he is misinformed uniformed, or he dehber- ately falsifes. Those cases were United States vs. Ross, United States vs. Robert son, United States vs. Fox and United States vs Russell. In each of those cases the original complaint was made before me and the preliminary hearing held before me. In two of the cases the accused were we'll known to the officers as suspects, but the actual proof was hard to get In the other two cases the accused were suspects, but were not so we'll known. In two ot the cases the first news of the otfenses for which conviction followed came to the United States marshal at Ruby and the spe. cial agent appointed by the governor of Alaska from the United States marshal at Nulato In one of the other cases the first information of the crime came to me through a private citizen, and l informed the deputy marshall and in the other case, l believe, the deputy marshal at Ruby and the special agent got all the facts them selves.
 "The preliminary hearings in all of the cases were conducted, so far as the prose-