The Seward gateway., 1922-04-11
SPEECH 0F.:I. B. .QRAYE0N i. :. .. .. ..' AT ANCHORAGE APRIL 5
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have offered nothing as basis of dis cussion which regard as worthy of serious consideration. I shall speak to you briefly of what seems to be the all important issue of thIs campaign; an issue beside which all other issues sink to the inconsequential and trivial, ans the discussion of them becomes by comparison but idle chatter That one big. all-embracing Issue is the indus trial and political redemption of Alas. ka. On that, take it, we are all agreed. Our only fundamental differ ences are on the question of ways and means. For my part I have no conf dence in halfway measures; and I want every man and woman who is to cast vote in this contest to under stand just what propose and just how I intend to accomplish that object. If I am elected I shall ask the American Congress to grant virtual independence
 
 Congress to confer upon us the abso- lute right to control all of our own natural resources as fully and com pletely as the dark-skinned patriots of Porto Rico, and the Philippines con- trol their own affairs. In plain terms I want Alaska to be attached to the United States by the same indestruct- ible ties of common interest and com mon friendship which connect the Do- minion of Canada to England. Then if the American Congress refuses to destroy the ignominious badge of po- litical serfdom which destroys our self respect and disgraces the authority that enforces it; then I shall appeal to the heart and conscience of the American people for redress. And, mark my word, will make it nation al issue in the next Presidential cam paign. In Alaska we are suffering the same ills identically which seem to be inseparable from government of cap tive or dependent peoples by pro-con- sular agents, whether in modern, me- dieval or earlier times. So far as the ordinary or garden variety of citizen is concerned, so far as the average man figures in the matter the only no- ticeable difference between the govern ment of the average satrapy or pro consulate at any time in earlier au- thentic history say at any time be- tween Herodotus and Tacitus, and the government of Alaska by its bureau cratic autocracy, is in the detail of pretext. In former times the frank avowal, or at least the undisguised practice of exploitation was not cam ouflaged by pecksniffian pretenses of benevolent designs in the interest of the subject peoples.
 The government of Alaska is pure despotism, with all the ills inseparable from despotism, and ills infinitely worse than those to be found under an enlightened autocrat, such, say as the Fourteenth Louis of France. Not only is Alaskan government a pure despot- ism in every bad sense, but even were it decent despotism, it would be in- defensible in the realm of morals and good conscience, and could not be jus tified even from the viewpoint of ex- pediency.
 Imagine if you can Nathan Hale or Patrick Henry or a Charles Carol submitting tamely to be governed as you and l are governed; governed by a bunch of cheap clerks, five thousand miles away, who advise us officially that If we are in doubt as to which bu- reau to apply to, then to write to both
 Aside from the biting humiliation of being political serf, there are much more serious consequences resulting rom governmental absolutism. It not only debases us but it debases the agents appointed to run our business for us. The effect of autocracy upon the subject people always manifests it. self In lowering of the moral char acter as we'll as the physical stamina or the victims. Find any people, from the dim twilight beginnings of history down to the present day, who have been the victims of governmental ab- solutlsm and you will find a people whose moral fibre has routed to the core unless they were saved by the an tidote Of perpetual rebellion or by the Influence of intense religious mania. We have no rebellion in Alaska and we most certainly have no religious mania. For myself, am in Alaska 10 stay. refuse to run. Injustice shallI not force me into exile. But am not particularly interested in myself. My interest IS in nay little boys whose fu- ture lies in Alaska. I am instilling