The Daily Alaska empire., 1929-05-21
HURLEY RAISES
 QUESTION OVER
 COLE ELECTION
Declares Election of Audi tor and Commissioner
 of Education Illegal

In an open letter addressed to Walstein G. Sm h, Territorial Treasurer, Robert c. Hurley, we'll known local attorney at law, de- clares the election by the Legisla- ture of Cash Cole as Auditor and of L. w. Brewer as Commissioner of Education to have been illegal, and adds, cautions Mir Smith" &C., cordingly in his official actions in connection herewith.
 MT. Hurley contends that the Legislatures election of MT. Cole was an invasion of the executive power, and that MT. Cole was and is a Federal employee, Secretary of the Alaska Senate, and that the attempt to elect Commissioner of Education, which he terms Superin- tendent of Education, was likewise an usurpation of executive author ity.
 Office Held Illegally
 MT Hurley alleges, first, That the office of Auditor now occupied and administered by MT. Cash Cole, is so held, occupied and admins tered illegally for the following req sons.
 "1. That the said Cole was at the time of his alleged appoint ment and as far as I know is still a Federal employee and as such ineligible to hold a Territorial of flee created by the Legislature of Alaska. Section of what is commonly known as the Organic Act of Alaska provides for the election and terms of office of the various Senators and members of the House of Representatives. Sec ton provides for the organiza- ton of the -segislature, and among other things provioes for Cne eIeo- tion of a Secretary of the Senate, as provided in Section 1861 of the U. s. Revised Statutes. These pro- visions taken in conjunction with the provisions of Section 6 of the Organic Act indicate permanent Organization is effected at the com mencement of each session which holds good until the expiration Of two years, in order that the Legis- lature may be available for the transaction of business in case the Governor should see fit to call a special or extraordinary session. MT. Cole was the duly elected and qualified Secretary of the Senate of the Alaska Legislature, Ninth Session, and therefore was and is a Federal employee and ineligible to the office he is attempting to fill and administer.
 No Right To Elect
 I'll. There is nothing contained in the Constitution of the United States, the Organic Act of Alaska or any other Congressional enact mcnt which vests in the Legislature of the Territory of Alaska the right to fill an office created by it by the vote of it's members in whole or in part. It is an ele- mentary proposition that the duty and functions of the Legislature of Alaska, or any other Legislature for that matter, is to legislate, and that is all. It has no authority to usurp the right, prerogatives and duties of the executive or judicial branches of the Government, and when it does, as the Alaska Legis- lature did in it's last session by at tempting to fill the office of Audi tor by it's own vote, it is exceeding its field of power and intruding in an unconstitutional manner on other fields. It may create an of- flee but it cannot thereafter at tempt to fill that office-that being a duty devolving on the executive
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