The daily progressive-miner., 1917-01-16

AO AAAC hCLSAAANdL AOAuAASl NAsaA NANbs Ketchikan, Alaska.
 Gentlemen:
 The accusation has been made and made repeatedly that the definition oi
 the Ketehikan Commercial Club is An
 organization composed Of Black in terests- That it was founded and l every meeting has been held and every I resolution has been passed for the sole l purpose of unloading a gold brick that
 the Black interests had inadyisedly ae-
 quired and had as adyisedly wished on others of our ambitious citizens. Be
 that as it may. a definition does not make a fact. nor is true public spirit ] always echoed by public approval On
 the fresh fish bill' question, there is room for an honest opinion on either i side However, it seems 10 me that l the Commercial Club is allowing to ! slip by them an opportunity to disproye any insinuation of centralized selfish ness when it stands by and allows to go to final conclusion without protest
 the bone dry bill" introduced by Del egate Wickersham and now pending
 before Congress. Personally l cannot lose sight Of the personal equation or the trail Of the serpent over it all. h.
 cidentally 1T is a case of the "cow with
 the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that caught the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built"
 In the first place our first legislature blundered when it exteneded suffrage to the women-It recalls the poets lines altered to suit the occasion-"Ill fares the land. to hastening ills prey, where (women predominate1 and men decay. Our second legislaturs blund- cred when il took up the liquor ques- ton; Congress had reserved exclusive jurisdiction over this matter. and the ToCe on the same was illegal in it's inception and it's result. The voters oiundered when they figured British Columbia being dry; the fact of the matter is that the bill voted on in British Columbia was not a dry" bill, i but, pure and simply, a war measure. ] designed to secure revenue to carry on the war. to force economy on her own people and to prey on the extray- agance Of outside people The bill. if passed. allows manufacture and sale without limit to Alaskans and those who in the past have spent their money in Alaska I say, If passed, because ] The indications are now that even this restrictive bill will not be passed in i British Columbia This means that the moral issue aimed at has not been advanced one iota, but simply that our ] welfare is destroyed to build up the ! welfare Of our neighbor.
 Do voters realize that all these pro- hibition measures now being adopted I in foreign countries are war expedi- ! ents.. T. is computed that should the . United States go to war. it would be necessary to take over all the distil. ! leries in the country, run them at their tuli capacity. and then manufacture i 364.090 gallons Of alcohol daily, to sup ply the alcohol necessary to manufact- ure ammunition required to prosecute the same.
 And lastly, our delegate is guilty of the greatest blunder of all when he attempts 10 ride on the crest of the dry" wave by fathering and pressing thru congress the said bone dry bill" And now comes in the personal equa- tion referred to It cannot be denied that the wet element-the liberal ele- ment-in Alaska nas been the main stay and prop Of Mir Wickersham thru out his whole public career. It is said ! hat his course has been actuated by | resentment against the liquor inter- ] ests in that the money donated by l them 10 help the wet campaingn was diverted by designing politicians into 1 the channel that supported Mir Sulzer There is no need to discuss the equity l Of this course. Consistency. thou art jewel We never can gauge the ac- tjons Of the American people, but I firmly believe this man has lost forever the regard of his friends and the res pect of his enemies. But all this is his own personal funeral The blun- der is in Congress passing on it in the first instance.
 And here arises the opportunity for the Commercial Club to yindicate it. self. Our legislature meets next March !
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