Valdez daily prospector., 1917-02-15
DELEGATE INTRODUCES TWO
Senate Bill Finally Passed Contains Appropriation of s1OO,0 for the Establishment and Maintenance of Schools.
nally Passed Contains
Schools.

some time past, IL IS apparently not 1 known or at feast has not been given 1 prominence that no less than thre bills to make Alaska dry have been ! in Congress, including tn !, Senate bill, introduced by Senator Jones and which has been passed by both houses of Congress and is now awaiting the signature of the Presi- dent. i The first bill, House Bill No. 191S,, was introduced December 19. 1916, by Delegate Wickersham. In this bill' Section 35 was signed to take away from the Alaska Fund the license moneys now paid into that fund. and turn thAm over 10 the Territorial treasury, thus depriving the Insane fund, School fund and Road fund of the sums heretofore annually derived from this source. This measure was submitted ot the Secretary of War. and it is reported that he informed ithe Chairman of the House Commit tee on Territories that the passage of the bill with Section 35 included would undoubtedly hamper the work of constructing roads and trails in the Territory at least to the extent of the money usually received by the Road Commission from the Alaska fund, and might also have deterrent ef- feet upon Congress with relation to further appropriations for road work in the Territory. Particularly would this be true in the event the Territo- rial Legislature failed to make appro- Ipriations for this work from the funds turned into the treasury by the terms of this measure.
 The House. Committee evidently took a similar view of the situation, and the Bill was never reported out of Committee. On January 22, 1917, Delegate Wickersham introduced a second bill, House Bill No. 20,361, very similar in terms to his original measure, but with the o' jectionable paragraph 35 omitted.
  Washington, introduced in the Senate a bill practically identical with that introduced by Delegate Wickersham the day previous in the House. This bill, however, contained an additional section, Sec 30, providing for the maintenance of public schools in tha Territory. This section reads as fol- llows:
 "Sec. 30. That for the purpose of supplying any deficiency in the revenues of the Territory of Alaska
 by reason of the loss of moneys
 from licenses for the sale of intox'-
 eating liquors, there is hereby ap-
 propriated the sum of $100,0O0 to
 be expended solely for the estab- lishment and maintenance of public schools in Alaska. to be expended
 under the direction of the author ity now having the disposition of the Alaska Fund
 The Wickersham Bill No. 20,361 passed the House, and was sent to the Senate, but before being acted upon Iby that body the Jones Bill was taken lup and passed and in the course Of events went to the House, and was also passed by that body, thus cut ting off the Wickersham bill entirely,
 The Jones bill and the Wickersham Hill both contained provisions permit i ting the district judges to grant h7e 'censes for any period of time less. than one year upon a pro rater of the license t for onssyear. but not to. extend beyos6 she first. day of Janu- l The provisil s of the Jones bill re- !garding ths sn ropriation of $1oo.ooo1 for the est shment and mainte- nance of schod fin the Territory is, in the opinion of number of the mem- bers of the baA very vague as to how the sum shall beapplied. Apparently the sum so appropriated will not be available for the use of schools with in incorporated towns. as the moneys from the Alaska Fund were for use only for schools outside of incorpo- rated towns, and as the present ap- Irropriation is apparently to supple ment the school moneys derived from this fund it is believed it can be used only for the same purposes to which moneys heretofore derived from this fund have been applied. It is possi- ble that decision of the courts will be sought on this point, as without assistance from this fund, or through special appropriations from the Ter ritorial Treasury, the schools in prac- tically every incorporated town will have to be maintained on materially s...o..a nnoIc