The Cordova daily times., 1923-04-07
PIONEERS FAVOR FULL FORM OF
 LOCAL GOVT.

l at Nenana last week, the following resolution was unanimously adopted:
 Whereas the Grand President in his annual address to the Grand Ig- loo, converting at Nenana this 29th day of March, 1923, requested that an invitation of welcome be ex- tended to our Chief Executive, Presi- dent Warren G. Harding and such of his Cabinet officers as may visit our Territory the coming Summer and
 Wheras: It is of common knowl- edge that one or more committees of both the Senate and House of Representative are planning to visit Alaska for the purpose of gaining first-hand information from the peo- | pie of Alaska to aid them in the consideration of such legislation as Alaska needs to solve her problems; and
 Whereas: The Grand Igloo, Pio- 1eSlo u AldShd, are III dlluudl COl- vention assembled at Nenana, Alaska, this 29th day of March, 1923, we deem it right and proper and in fact the duty of this Grand Igloo, Pio- neers of Alaska, to render such as sistance as lies within it's power by presenting to the Executive and Leg islative branches of our Government, either by resolution or memorial, such knowledge and facts as seem to them germain to the question, and Whereas: The Grand Igloo, Pio- neers of Alaska, are a representative body of citizens of Alaska, repre- senting thirty subordinate Igloos scattered throughout Alaska, from Portland Canal on the international boundary line to Wiseman in the Arctic, comprising a membership of between five and six thousand men and women who came to Alaska prior to the year 1901 Cor else they would not be eligible to membership under our laws) and who are the people who are very largely responsible through their heroic and untiring ef- 1 forts for the change from a wilder ness to our present stage of progress and development; who have endured the hardships, blazed the trails, faced the blizzards, the snow and | ice and all the rigors of this north ern cline of the interior of Alaska ever self-reliant, ever hopeful of bet ter things to come, ever confident of building for themselves and their nation and succeeding generations a great commonwealth It is mem bership drawn originally from nearly every state in the Union-Americar citizenship at it's best, men and wo- men who are producing more pel capita from the natural resources O. Alaska even though handicapped as they have been by lack of transpor tation and other disadvantages usua in opening up wild and untamet country-as witness the fact that tht people of Alaska have shipped tt the States in the last four years products of the value of more thar ,O00,0O0 It means an expor
 
 the Territory, male and female, young and old, white and native. It means $1O,OOO per capita for each white person and $30O0O for every votf least in the Territory. This recorc challenges the world for an equa production by an equal number O. people. And is further evidence O. Alaska's future greatness and the character and unbounded courage and resourcefulness of the present inhabitants of this Territory.
 Now, with such showing as this what is the matter with Alaska; What is the complaint of Alaskans' Why has she for several years de- creased in population? Why are hel many industries languishing? Why are people discontented and dis couraged? The answer is simple. Nc people who have been born and have grown up under Democratic ol representative form of government can ever be satisfied or happy nc matter what their environment un less they are granted the same rights and powers that all other American citizens have enjoyed.
 Alaska is the first American ter ritory organized under the jurisdic tion of the United States of America in which these rights and privileges have been abridged by the Organic Act.
 In Alaska we lack the powers O. self government that has been grant ed to every political subdivision ol territory carved out of that vast do.