The Alaska citizen., 1917-09-03

of April-thereabouts-last
 Q You're familiar with the pur chase of the armory. are you? A. Yes. as president Of the orga. Il .zation l am in general way; didn't conduct the negotiations my self.
 c Well. who first suggested or in the first place. why did you want ;o purchase the armory?
 A We'll. We had held a meeting or two in the Auditorium, which was donated for that purpose, but there was considerable expense at tached to il, and We saw or thought We saw a need for public hall, not only for the purposes Of the Loyal League but for kindred organi, zations, as the women were contem- plating organizing the Woman s League and the Band had assisted us in the meetings already held. and they wanted a place to practice. And in talking of the possibility or organizing military company, II was the consensus of opinion Of the executive they ought to have hall 10 drill in, that was an absolute ne cessitv. So We bent our efforts at first towards securing a hall. We tried to get some of the warehouses tt first, investigated the possibility of getting them and getting their use free. but there are various ob- stacles in the way. although they were freely rendered by the owners. And finally they decided to purchase some building, and l think com mittee was appointed to investigate what buildings were available and to report to the executive what was done, and the only available building was Gordon's rink.
 o. Do you remember who was on that committee?
 A. think it was left to MT. Cole man and Mr. Wood and Mir. Thomp- son: MT. Coleman was president of the finance committee and l think that committee was entrusted with the undertaking.
 O. We'll, now then. after you con cldered the purchase of the rink, did you inquire any into the pur- chase price?
 A. Yes, thls committee had SC cured from Mir Gordon l think a written proposition stating what he would sell for and under what con ditions, and when they secured that then the Loyal League committee executive undertook to make serious effort to raise the money, and at the last meeting of the executive when this committee finally reported, think somebody on the committee suggested that the governor had gly- en some territorial moneys for pur- poses of defense. and that the Loyal League might secure portion ol that money for the purpose ol pur- chasing a hall, so We wired to the governor asking about the possibili- ty of getting any money for that purpose and he answered in the wire saving he couldn't authorize the pur- chase or subscribe to the purchase, but that he would pay a reasonabl rental. And when that telegram ar rived l myself initiated proposl- tion of floating a list to be submit ted 10 various citizens who thought probably they could afford to do, nate a hall for that purpose or do nate something towards the purchase of the hall, and with that temporary list MT. Thompson was furnished and he was asked to interview these various people whose names l put down and he went around day or so and reported he could get pos sibly thirty.five hundred dollars or four thousand dollars almost imme- dlately. So we had an executive meeting shortly afterwards and We decided the money should be raised in that way, and we should leave the money with Mir. Wood and he should make final arrangements with MT. Gordon and see that the prop erty and title was clear and so forth, and so the money was handed in to MT. Wood by these people who subscribed I think the greater part, and some of it possibly to Mir Thomp- son.
 0. The list of subscribers was pub lished as they subscribed, was il not?
 A. l think so.
 o. And after the armory was pur- chased, what was the plan of it's