The Wrangell sentinel., 1916-01-06
Interesting Letter On Statehood
 For Alaska
Kern Creek, Mile 7I, Alaska.
 December 1n-roIs.

| ADOWluS NouI ioynieS Ao Oui Territorial interests to be beyond question, your judgement wise and unselfish, and your influence cor respondingly hel pful, l am writing You with a View to ascertainii 6 yonr individual opinion touching the admission of Alaska to state hood: and, so far as you have ob- SC we'd, the general sentiment of our fellow citizens in your section oi the Territory with reference to that Sue. Also, ot course, any opin- ions or suggestions you may care to advance in respect of the other matters and things touched upon in this letter will be highly valued. There appear to be many good and sufficient reasons for believing that the time is at hand when the agita- ton for stateh pod should he intel ligently and conprhensively begun and systematically continued; the chief reason for which, it seems to me, is that to further delay the mat ter will correspondingly delay the accqu tion of material, political, md social benefits Which statehood would bring; and which it is idle to supp ose or hope we will ever en- joy until statehood is attained.
 We all realize, of course, that very considerable period of time will certainly elapse before we can secure the pas age of an enabling Act even after all are covinced and admit that we possess every rec essary qualification for statehood. Then, yet more time must pa.,s before we could expect to agree up, on a provisional constitution ac- ceptable to Congress,
 In other words, to become a state at all we ourselves must take the initiative, and under the most fav- orable conditions statehood cannot be attained until long after we de- deserve it.
 Furthermore, if the agitation be not soon commenced, and main tained with vigor, it is inevitable that Development Board, admin. istrative Commission, or some sim lar contrivance will be foisted up- or us; the adoption of winch will m ost assuredly tighten the claws of bureaucratic government upon ,ur people and thus postpoue self government indefinitely.
 Indeed, it seems to me, this is the most pressing danger of the mom- ent; and expediency would suggest chat we continue little to bear the ills we have, intolerable as they are, rather then fly to others we know not of. I feel entirely con- rent that the American people, our brothers, our kindred, our friends, will not long deny us the rights of freedomj but, should we sit still now, and comb!acently sub nit to some new; untried exper flmental devlce being yoked upon IS, you may be sure that the people of the Republic will require ,f us that we give it what it's apon- sers will spsciously designate a fair trial.
 This would mean simply a cont inuance for an indefinite number of years under new name and form, but in the main under the . me men -ot the administrative 1 i leHic;encv, industrial stagnation, md poltica dependency Ito which we nov suffer and have suf. tered until our hearts afe Sick.
 The odor of a skunk is not improved by changing it's name; and, we may be sure, no governmental makeshift will materially improve our inter asts until the agents who govern us are answerable directly to us.
 For my part refuse to be deceived nto accepting any other solution # our problem.
 Now, to give effective impetus to