The Alaska daily empire., 1916-10-14
WHAT ALASKA NEEDS.

The foundation for the Alexander fish bill ws7 laid when Delegate Wickersham consented to th amendment Of the Alaska Organic Act which with held power to change the fish laws from the peO- pie Of the Territory. If Delegate Wickersham had been a supporter Of sefgoyernment for Alaska from principle the fisheries question and many other vexing Alaskan problems would have been settled long ago.
 The great trouble with Alaska is organic. There has been no attempt upon the part Of the man who has had the fashioning of her organic law 10 apply the fundamental American principles Of government. The foundations have not been soundy constructed. The method Of procedure that was adopted in the governmental development Of the great Mississippi Val ley, Gulf and Pacific Slope regions has been the procedure with Alaska Alaska has been treated not a part of the United States. She has been dealt with a colonial possession And unforu- naely the who has represented the Territory in Washington for eight years is who is not him self wellgrounded in American history. He has shown absolute lack of a true understanding of the meaning of the development Of AnglOSaxon cyili- zation. The lesson of Runnymede the Cromweuian revolution, the movement across the Atlantic the Aemrican Revolution. the sweep of the great Repub lie the co0tinent the growth and development of the Jefferson idea. Of which Lincoln talked so much. never learned by him. Considered at his best eliminating for the purpose of the discussion his mania for office and disposition to sacrifice any
 
 lucal fortunes. Delegate Wickersham has been a tinker He builds nothing from the foundations. He is like the old fashioned doctor who fought symp- toms rather than sought the cause of the disease.
 There is where Delegate Wickersham is different from the old guard that began the fight in Alaska for seltgoyernment before the end Of the last century. That is the difference between him and the late Gov. A. p Swineford the late Judge A. K De- laney, and the others who fighting for Ter ritorial form ot government when Judge Wickersham was writnf letters derogatory of the sentimental ists who urging Territorial government for the Territory. That is the difference between him and Senator Sulzer, whose great speech to a Non-Par tisan convention in 1903 will go down in the his tory Of Alaska as classic in connection with the struggle of northern pioneers for the application of American principles Of government their adopted land.
 Alaska has wasted years in tinkering The time is at hand to place the keeping of our legis- ative matters in the hands of a man who will give thought to the foundation Of the commonwealth that ge are striving to erect
 The class of a man we need is one grounded in American principles he. who. speaking youth n 1903 from a platform in the unpretendous from fer town that Juneau in that day, a res ,ution asking for the rights provided for American .tizens under a traditional American Territorial orm Of government said:
 "Our welfare our character our nber-
 
 laws and our government There many forms of government, and forefGthers
 established on this hemisphere a form of
 government that has been tested by cen
 tury and quarter of time and has not been
 found wanting. but has proved to be boon
 not only to the descendants of those who in-
 sttuted t but to all mankind
 "As has been said well, 1t is a gov ernment of. by and for the peope-not Of
 any special interests. but of the people It
 was founded upon the eternal principle of ' equal rights to all. of special privilege to none.
 "It guarantees 4lr. Chairman. life. lib-
 erty and pursuit of happiness It plant
 ed and has grown rich, powerful. and happy D under the God-given doctrine that govern derives its just power from the 7 sent Of the governed. Are then. fellow " delegates asking too much when we claim our ,I birtnright-when petition for that which has made this nation what it is today3- ~ that which has added each bright star to the Union, and has made the American people the most enlightened the most prosperous, the m most free and happy people on the face of the earth today? S
 "We asking nothing new. my friends; Si