The Cordova daily times., 1919-05-19
SOLDIERS DO NOT FALL FOR
 WICK'S BLUFF
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 the United States; any chancellor, judge or justice of court of record of any state; any mayor of any town or city; any notary public.
 In practice such subpoenas are usu- ally issued by and the dispositions taken before notaries public.
 Wiek's Equivocal Position
 On or about May MT. Wickersham applied to Isaac Hamburger, who is a notary public, requesting him to is- sue subpoenas for number of men in the signal corps of the United States army at Valdez, and some oth- CTS. MT. Wickersham assured Mr. Hamburger that contest had been duly and regularly instituted and that all of the necessary steps had been taken. Upon such assurance, and be- lieving that the entire proceeding was legal and proper MT. Hamburger iis- sued the subpoenas requiring the at tendance of the witnesses named by Mir. Wickersham. These witnesses all appeared at the appointed time at 10 a. m. on May IA, 1919. The witnesses, however, upon advice that no contest was or could be really pending, and that none of the steps required by statute had been compiled with, re- fused to be sworn or to testify and no proof was offered or attempted to be offered that the requisite steps for maintaining a contest had been taken as required by law.
 No Contest Pending
 There can be no question that there is no contest now pending for the of flee of delegate from Alaska to the house of representatives under the election held November 5, 1918. The contest proceeding is purely statutory In the absence of the provisions of the statute above mentioned no con test whatever could be had except un- der such rules and restrictions as con gross might specially provide. Each house of congress, by the constitu- tion, is made the sole judge of the qualifications of its members, and the house could seat one man and unseat another for any reason, or no reason, if it should see fit. But when it comes to the matter of issuing subpoenas to take dispositions each and every one of the steps prescribed by law must have been substantially compiled with before jurisdiction is acqDt3d, or the witnesses are compelled tpz pear. In this case none of thosRBfEps had been taken. No notice of contest had been served upon Mir. Sulzer, and no notice was given of the time and place of taking the dispositions, or names of the witnesses to be exam ined, nor could any such notice be | given. It probably will be argued that since MT. SulZer was dead, and that it was therefore impossible to give notice, none was required; but such ! is not the case. MT. Sulzer's death rendered it impossible for anyone to | contest his seat until congress should | assemble and give permission there for, and prescribe the procedure. 1 As soon as the subpoenas were is. sued to the signal corps men the Miner wired to Juneau to find out if any con- test had really been started. D. B.
 Chase, the secretary for George B Grigsby, made full investigation and found that no contest had been made or could be made under the circum stances. The attempt, therefore, to get dispositions at Valdez was abso lutely null and void, and the subpoenas issued were without right, and no one was under any obligation thereby tc appear or testify.
 The attempt of Mir. Wickersham tt force the soldiers to appear before { judicial executive and tell how they voted appears to have been a deliber ate and conceived fraud, without legal ity and shady in it's methods, in tha
 MT. Wickersham stated to the notar, that he already had filed his contest
 knowing as lawyer that such contes
 could not be filed until successor t,
 MT. Sulzer had been elected, and know
 ing also that such subpoenas wer illegal until the proper steps had beel
 taken toward filing the contest.
 The soldiers and citizens of Valde l are naturally very indignant over tn - attempt to defraud them of their priv