The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1918-01-31
LONG DISTANCE GOV
EMINENT IN ALASKA

Row hfu Iapt ItfSuiItiuhs ic'iu'
Criminals 10 Make Their Escape
Hell Holes in River Towns Rec
Light Joints Permitted to Run 0pei
in Most OF Towns 10 Rob Drunkei
Inmates.
Rex Beach once said that Alask;
was governed by men who had S2,
clean shirt and a friend in Washing
ton.
He would have stated a less funny
but more literal truth if he had sale
/ Alaska was misgoycrned BY long dis
tance.
A deputy U. s. marshal stated to me
that in the Canadian Northwest Ter
ritory not a murdered had escaped
punishment since the time Dawson
settled down, and then he followed
with the statement that not a murder
err was ever executed in Alaska.
And to my why" he continued:
LET killer once get into the brush
in this territory and he is as good as
safe. Ii it would cost $40 to get him
| would have to await advice from
! Washington, and by that time he
would be where it would cost ten
times that amount
But they can't escape" ! argued.
''There are only two ways out Of the
interior, up or down the river, and it
would seem to be an easy matter to
stop a fugitive"
Easy enough on the Columbia, but
this is the Yukon" he replied.
Then instead of explaining and CIV
ing me a real good story Of how JUS
tice is farce in Alaska, and the dead
inside reasons for it, he corked up,
side-stepped and asked me if was up
on the population statistics Of the
Canadian Northwest and Alaska. And
when | confessed | was little rusty
on these matters he told me that
Canada had over 5000 900 people and
Alaska had about 10000, and half of
these were natives; that Canada had
been getting about 100000 people
year from the States and that Alaska
had been losing what she had as fast
as the boats could carry them out.
And when | crowded him for reasons
he hedged and told me to find them
myself, but he had an opinion that
government had something to do with
it.
The Northwest mounted police have
had a lot to do with it. While mar
shall in Alaska is writing a letter to
the department at Washington asking
permission to use few dollars to get
a criminal, the Canadian mounted
police has run the man down and put
handouts on him.
This police organization has been
wonder and power for good in the
Klondike country, but Ike the Texas
Rangers, they live now largely in
memory, for there is little need for
them around the once famous gold |
camps and a red coat is seldom seen
now.
Like the Texas Rangers, these men
were picked for the work; they were
sorted out Of thousands because Of
their courage and fearlessness, and .
when they once went after man they
returned with him--or they didn't re-
turn They stopped the lawlessness
and crime in the Klondike and made
the territory safe for anyone to trav-
ell in anywhere.
In the Dawson rush days, and in
the later stampedes along the river
from White Horse to Forty Mile, the
Yukon was black with boats and it
was easy picking for members of the
'Soapy" Smith gang, or others Of the
same profession, to mix in with the
prospectors, get in their boats, and at
night kill and rob them.
So the mounted police hit on the
effective plan Of painting number on
zach boat that went down the river,
.aking the number Of occupants and a
description of them and this they tele-
ohoned to the mounted police at the
next river town, who listed each boat
md if a number did not show up or il
{ showed up short Of men, then the
police went after the case, and they
lever let up until they got their man.
There are some rather hard stories
old on this organization in the early
lays, and some of them may be true.
In old trapper in Alaska told me he
lad an ex-mounted police for a
bunky" one winter and that when
wo men are shut in by the snow for
months they will tell each other al
most every detail Of their life, just to
.eop talking and pass away the hours.
lie said this ex-policeman told him T
low certain members of the force used
0 stand in with hold-up gangs on the Q
Ass out from Skagway and at river y