The daily progressive-miner., 1916-06-07

! lOIf anu NliH tseiIS III youl FoiSc, o"J 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? Mo- you did not.
 But it was well understood Dy the l 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 better than myself.
 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 Shaekle- ford faction, over political matters, is the greatest menace the territory has had
 It was the direct cause of tying up 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 new 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 1 discussed every phase of this question when he dined with me at my home last year. and he practically agreed with all 1 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 so far as to say he would step down and out if this would bring peace.
 Men of all classes and in every section of the territory have begun to feel that this fight should be stop ped Almost year ago very promi- nent gentlemen, whose name 1 am not at liberty to use, but who has stood high in the councils of the Republican party and been honored with high of ice, suggested to a member of us that if some old line Republican who had not been identified with the ShaclIleford faction (for there are such), could be chosen national com mitteeman, matters would straighten out. Ho said that in his opinion, MT. E. D. Ritchie, of Valdez, was such a man. To many of us in the Third di- vision, this looked like a solution of the problem. However, the opposi- tion refused to take it upon itself to elect someone in place of Murrane to represent the party in Alaska? And yet, Ed, you stood there and saw the thing done, and cast your vote for it.
 It is just such work as this that de- stroys political parties and brings them into disrepute. I have no criti- cism whatever to offer of the major ity of the convention placing whomso- ever it pleases before the voters as candidates, electing whom it pleases national committeeman, and delegates to national conventions, so that it is done fairly, and I, as party man, will stand by those candidates one and all. But when a few so-called bosses seek to destroy what little party is left, and keep up a long drawn out faction al fight to the detriment of the entire territory, for the sole reason of being able to control the federal appoint ments, it is time for the mass of vot- CTS belonging to that party to call a halt; and sooner or later it will be done.
 The Third division asked for noth- ing except the right to name it's own representatives in the councils of the party-a right that every organization whether church, fraternal or political, has always had. And yet it was de- nied that privilege because, as MT. Shackleford said, he proposed to re- ward the men that stood by him, re- gardless of consequences. These men numbered five all told, Finnegan of Seward, Harvey Sullivan and Al White of Valdez, Mike Sullivan and Thompson of Katalla. They held 8