The Cordova daily times., 1916-05-09
HAZELET GIVES INSIDE STORY
WRITES AN OPEN LETTER TO ED
 RUSSEL, JUNEAU

about s D. m., of the night of the con vention, during one of the many re- cesses taken for no other purpose i than to hear from Wickersham, and ask me what the Third would do if you could rustic 70 votes for Wicker ! sham, and did l not say l could not answer for all of the Third division, but I believed we could throw enough votes to nominate him, provided you could find 70 Did you not tell me half hour later that you could not find them? Was not Harry Thisted present during these talks? Did you not get up in the convention when nominations for delegate were called for, and with tears in your voice, say that you had hoped to place the name of Judge Wickersham before the con vention, but had been waiting to re- | ceive answers to certain telegrams, which answers had not been received, and therefore you would not propose his name to the convention? Did you tell us the nature of the telegrams that went to Wickersham, or what sort of an answer you expected? No you did not.
 But it was we'll understood by the delegates present, that in order for the judge to receive the nomination from the powers that controlled the convention, he must agree to have nothing to say relative to federal ap- pointments. This. was the reason, and the only reason, he did not receive that nomination, and no one knows it bet ter than yourself.
 Now, Ed, you know, and every thoughtful man in the territory knows, who has watched the trend of events that the fight has, been waged in Alaska between what is known as the Wickersham faction and the Shackle- ford faction, over political matters, is the greatest menace the territory has had.
 It was the direct cause of tying up f the resources of the country. It caused the withdrawal of the coal and oil lands from entry. It was respon- sible for the formation of forest re serves{ The withdrawal of the coal and oil stopped railway building and tnew enterprises of all kinds, and
 brought about general stagnation in
 the territory. It was the primary cause of the Ballinger-Pinchot contro-
 versy. which almost wrecked the Taft administration. Taken in it's entirety
 it has injured the territory to an ex-
 tent that cannot be repaired in the next ten years.
 , Judge Wickersham and l discussed every phase of this question when he
 dined with me at my home last year and he practically agreed with all , said He expressed a very strong de , sire to end this fight, and for all fac tions to work together for the good , of the territory. He even went SC , far as so say he would step down and
 out if this would bring peace.
 Men of all classes and in every
 section of the territory have begur - 10 feel that this fight should be stop s ped Almost year ago very promi f inent gentleman, whose name l am no lit liberty to use, but who has stood nigh in the councils of the Republican D party and been honored with high of V flee, suggested to a number of Ill
 that if some old line Republican wht f had not been identified with th' r Shackleford faction for there art g such), could be chosen national com ,- mitteeman, matters would straighte' out He said that in his opinion MT
 E. F. Ritchie, of Valdez. was such [ n man. To many of us in the Third di |, vision, this looked like a solution O