The Alaskan., 1930-03-21

willing to pav tribute to the great achievements for the Territory accomplished by Judge Wicker sham when he delegate to Congress He has a record along that line that is unassailabe. And possibly no one has paid him greater honor than did Attorney General John Rustgard in his la nous speech at Anchorage more than two years ago.
 While it is true that MT. Rustgard has re- canted from most of his expressed views so earn esty delivered Anchorage it is also true that he has given no public expression of change ln the estimate he then held of the worth and accomp- hshments of the man who is today the opponent of Mir Rustgard for the Republican nomination for Delegate to Congress.
 . The fact that Judge Wickershams friends when they knew that Dan Sutherland would not again be candidate for office, insisted that the Judge should enter the political arena which he has done with all his old time vigor, should not of itself be any reason why Mir Rustgard should change his estimate of the worth of Alaska s leading citizen. And there is no reason to believe that he has done so.
 And so it is interesting to know just what John Rustgard really thinks of James Wicker sham. Part of the many favorable expressions in that famous Anchorage speech are contained in the following paragraphs
 What is there about this Wickersham that strikes such terror into his opponents?
 Here is with newspaper to boost him. There is private predatory interests back of him. He has been out of politics for eight years. There is office holder in the Territory indebted to him for appointment. He has no private means with which to purchase political support Yet, they tell us they cannot prevent his election should he offer himself for elect i've office. What an enconium to pronounce on any individual
 "If we knew nothing else about the man would not be justified in believing that he is possess ed of those elements which make some people great in the eyes of historians? Men, as ships, measured by the waves which follow them One is tempted to believe that those who so bit terly denOunce him the spiritual descend ants of the traducers of Washington and Lincoln and Roosevelt. I could wish for greater as- surance of the real. worth than that which our bipartizans have thus so freely given Judge Wick ersham.
 Whether we like the man or not, We must admit that he is the above all who raised the banner of autonomy for Alaska. He carried it defiantly thru the storm of many campaigns, and before he withdrew from public life planted it firmly at the Capital of the Nation where it has been ably defended by his successor. It was not until the Legislature had permitted strangers to pilfer what he secured for that his voice rung out over the Territory calling the people to arms to protect their inheritance.
 II think I am in position to say that he has no aspirations to hold public office again. But if ever thru mishap or deceit, the honor of the Ter ritOry should be threatened it's aspirations mis- interpreted by any man sent to represent us at the Capital, this veteran fighter will again grab the old banner and hold it towards the stars and I know enough of the temper of the people of this Territory to assure you, that when he does they will back him with greater majority than ever before sent him any other man to Wash ington
 "The types of mind that deprecate democratic such men to office are not American except in name. They possess none of the spirit of the men and women of the past whom we love to honor today. Had they lived during the days of the Civil War they would have been COpperheads had they lived during the Rebellion, they would have been Tories had they lived during the days of the Stuarts of England they wOold have been i'm formers at the Court would have been hang men reveling in the execution of the champions of liberty. Every age and every country has that type of characters to contend with, and we in share of them. It is the type that makes eternal vigilance the price of liberty.
 This mans enemies, though few, are viru-