The weekly Alaska citizen., 1919-12-15

 istic of all judicial officers ill both state and federal courts Only few rabid partl- sans have ever questioned his qualifica- tions for the job and none have doubted his uprightness. The fight against his confirmation was made from political spite and for political ends. It is expected, and certainly it is the wish of the big majority of people in this division, that the senate confirm the Presidents nomination oil Judge Bunnell at the earliest possible time
 FAIR PROMISES
 The speech of Governor Sproule as de- livered before the republican national com mittee in Washington Wednesday Is be- ieved to have struck the keynote of the campaign that will be carried on by the G. 0. P. in the national elections of next year. The Pennsylvania chief executive delivered the speech but it is the result of months of careful planning by Chairman Hays of the committee and other prominent leaders of the republican organization. The governor, it must be admitted, made good job out of the material that was handed him but he had so little to work on that he made a very poor showing for the party.
 His criticism of the democratic admin istration was less severe than was to have been expected from such a meeting held for formally beginning the campaign of an op- position party. There is in fact little or no real criticism in the entire speech. It Is true that he condemns the administration both for that which it has done and for what it did do-a very natural thing for a republican spell-binder to do-and like wise he made whole lot of promises re- garding the things that the republicans would do if the voters would only put republican President in the White House at the next election. That also is what al- most any republican would promise.
 The road of progress, however, has more stations along it that the one sign marked "promise" Promise is but the start of a path at which lies fulfillment. Promise is the easiest thing that humans do. Fulfillment is that which is most sell dom accomplished The history of the re- publican party in the past twenty years is filled with promises relating to every sub ject touching upon national life and affairs and most of them are broken promises From tariff to currency and back again it worked its weary way by means of promises during the two decades and when Woodrow Wilson took his seat for the first time, not one of them had been fulfilled and the tariff promise had been broken time and again.
 The end of the Sixty-Fifth congress was likewise the end of the democratic re- gime in congress. It also marked the end of legislation of progressive character. This contention is justified by review of actual achievements of the democratic party. Since March 4, 1913, when democratic ad- ministration took charge of the affairs of the government, the movement has been steadily forward. A mere catalog of the constructive measures and reform which are now part of our statutory structure indicates the great distance which America has travelled under democratic leadership. The fact that it remained for democratic congress to enact these measures indicates how completely the republican leadership had failed the country. The establishment of the income tax as permanent part of