The Nome nugget., 1928-09-29

WA NovS eA0y 0CS AsVaAA SVs0sVcc' They cannot give themselves pow CT. When you say Home Rule you mean home rule by this elective legislature. and the legislature of Alaska can no more create homo rule by passing the Controller Bill or any other bill than man can pull himself up by his boot straps. The very fact that they have pow CT to pass the law proves that 1t has nothing to do with home rule.
 Now will tell you what 1t does have to do with. It does have something to do with the power the legislature already has. For instance. the legislature has the power to tax; it has the power to impose license taxes, and corpora tion taxes, and other taxes, and having that power it has the power to create the machinery to collect time. that is. up until within the last year or two, 1t was the duty. under the law as passed by the Alaska Legislature. of the Secre- tary of the Territory to collect the corporation taxes and they paid him $2000.00 a year for doing that work. which is ministerial work. clerical work, o6ice work. for which he was allowed a clerk or two. Now the Legislature put that duty on him and the Lesisla- ture could take that duty away from the Secretary and create the office of Auditor for instance. and say the auditor shall be elected by the people. and after that the same clerical work formerly performed by the Secretary would be perform ed by an officer called the auditor. and whether it was done by one or the other 1t would not have any, thing to do on this earth with home rule.
 Now the Secretary was not the only officer on whom duties were imposed. Duties were imposed up- on the judges, upon the governor, upon almost every officer in the Territory. The Controller Bill, miscalled the Home Rule Bill. pro- poses to take these duties-and I am telling you now that they are duties and not powers-proposes to take this work from the backs of the Federal oflicials and put it upon oficials selected by the Ter ritory of Alaska. either elected or appointed by the proposed Board of Control. The Controller Bill simply describes different method of getting this Territorial func- tions performed.
 There have been so many new duties created by the Legislatures from the time of your first legisla- ture in 1913 up to the present time that an opportunity was seen to create machinery which would have some power As the law stands today there IS no power in volved in the performance of these various duties because they are invested among various Federal officials who do their work inde- pendently of each other. Under the Controller Bill the power and duty to perform these various fun ctions is to be concentrated in the hands of three men, the Attorney General. the Treasurer, and the Comptroller, which is the new of flee. These three men are to be elected. The election will be con trolled by the district where the population is the largest. and want some of you gentlemen here who have been deluded into think ing this Controller Bill has some thing to do with Home Rule. when you go home tonight try and figure out where your Second Division of Alaska Is going to get any home rule out of measures passed out at the instigation of William Paul of the First Division.
 Now there is an underlying prin- cipal to the Controller Bill to which I have no objection. am not opposing or advocating the Controller Bill. In other words, fl Is not the principle of relieving Federal officials from these tasks