The Alaska citizen., 1917-03-26

into existence a boy or a girl. with free. open mind and a healthy body And there is nothing on earth i grander than the father of that boy or girl. who sees to it that that off springs enjoys all the advantages Of education and all the blessings ] that the laws of God and man eN- tend 10 him, the wealth of the world i is in his care.
 1 From an innocent bystander's point of view it seems to me that we can i put our public schools on a cleaner. firmer, and A more stable fOunda- ton then the old, worn out, out grown, saloon, red light, head or 1 bachelor tax. if we try little. l as a bachelor, in my smallness Of vision say tax the business man." he in his smallness of vision says Tax bachelor men and women" l tax anything you can find to tax, but give us an equitable tax; we simply must keep our public schools ! going: we must educate our young | folks, it's the best and only worth while thing We can give them.
 The legislators which we sent to wisely as some of us hoped they would at first, but they did all they could; they are only human; don't blame them, they can pass laws, but l they cannot read your thoughts. They i are there merely to reflect your eX pressed wishes; they are waiting and anxious for your instructions, it is as much our duty to instruct them i as it was our duty to send them there to represent us.
 1 It is within the memory of us all when Alaska demanded that her sea product should be taxed to help pay 1 the expenses of government. The supreme court decided Alaska had a right to tax her Canneries. Michi- gan a short time ago put tax on it's iron ore; every ton that was mined was native to the soil; the court held the state had a right to tax such ore.
 There is $15,000,000 worth of cop per ore going out of Alaska every year which is as much native to i the soil as your boy or girl is, and all of them are good clean products ] of Alaska Why don't you tax it? The law of nature says it's yours; why don't you take it and run your | schools with it? Is there any req son why you should not? Is there any reason why you should instruct your legislators to beg one single crumb from the rich mans table?
 And God said.
 If you want this tax, go take it. I'm sickened of your need; I have filled this land with plenty, Have your brains all gone to seed?'
 The brains of this community have not all gone to seed. Why not tele- graph your legislators to work along ! these lines? Demand it; don't beg it; if you beg it you only cheapen this young manhood and womanhood | that most of us Alaskans are proud 1 of.
 The economic foundation of your school system at this time rests not on the sale of either whiskey or wo- manhood. Those things have no eco homie value. They are foreign to our soil; they have no place among men and mothers of men. It is up to you more than to any legislative body. You can make or break any law. You are the court of last ap- peal.
 | I am not going to apologize to the 1 editor for asking him to print this, 1 for I am the father of a native son of Alaska. and that fact is sufficient for me to watch with growing inter est the trend of things which could make the public school a thing to i be admired.
 We hear great lot about Potlatch now, and at this time why not Pot latch with our legislators? We hand them something they want, and they will be almost sure to hand us some thing we want. If they don't, the rest of the tribe can point the finger of shame at them. Very few good "Injuns" care to stand that
 I do not mean an export tax en- tirely upon copper ore, but on every i unit of value when it is mined ana put on the dump. It is more com pletely personal property then.
 I would like very much to hear some discussion on this subject to the end that we may mature some plan that we could agree upon
 We are soon to celebrate the pur- chase of Alaska from Russia. Rus sia has recently wakened up to the possibilities of the public schools to make better men and women. Let us, when that event transplres be able to say to the rugged breasted motherland, we are at least marking t;p,a. ua arc keeDiDp SteD. don't eX