The Nome nugget., 1932-10-08

ue of Alasts. and I had taken it to Mr. McDufne. Democratic chair man of the great com mittee, and I showed him that the popula- ton of Alaska had increased in- stead of decreased. That the population had increased 7.7 per cent since the last census and l said. "here arc the figures that have just received. showing the amount of money that the gov ernment of the United States has spent in Alaska, how much Alas ,ka has paid back into the treas ury of the United States and want to show them to you" He said that he didn't know much about Alaska and that he never had been interested in Alaska. said. "Mr. McDuff1e, we paid only s7,2o0.ooO.oo for Alaska and we have sent out from Alaska four hundred million dollars in gold" Well. he said, he didn't know that. He said, "I knew you had dug some gold but didn't know it was anything like that" Then I went on to tell him that two hundred million dollars worth of copper and other minerals have come out of Alaska since 1867. and one billion, six hundred mill
 ion dollars worth of fish. We
 have sent out enormous quantities of furs. We have purchased from the merchants in the United Sta tes and imported in Alaska nine hundred million dollars worth of merchandise of all kinds, includ- ing machinery, etc. and I said, "We have sent out of Alaska in the way of this great production, in the way of gold, silver. copper
 fur and fish. more than two and one-half billion dollars, and what has the United States paid out Of its Treasury On behalf of Alaska" !" We'll, I showed him. I have here letter from the assistant secre- tary of the treasury giving the exact figures from 1867 to tho 31st day of December. last. and the )amount shows two hundred mill lion dollars and some few dollars over that On the other side are the receipts of the United States from the people of Alaska. We have paid into it more than fifty million dollars, leaving balance against us of one hundred and fifty million dollars. But when you take into consideration the four hundred million dollars in gold, the two hundred million dol lars worth of copper, the one bill ion six hundred million dollars worth of fish, one hundred and
 seventeen million dollars in fur and add to that the taxes paid by Alaska into the treasury and then substract the two hundred million dollars paid out by the treasury for Alaska - Now, told MT. Mcnnffe all that and he
 said. "My God, Wickersham, l had no idea of that. That is all news to me" But he still oppos- ed our having an appropriation of s65O,OO00O which the budgH' had allowed for Alaska. We had a considerable fight about it. went to Or. Taylor, a democratic congressman from Colorado. and I showed him these figures myself. MT. Taylor was a member of the committee on appropriatlons' AT ter talking to MT. Taylor and showing him these figures, MT. Taylor said he was so impressed that he would support the meas ure on the floor. And Taylor got on the floor and made strong speech in favor of obtaining the appropriation, and do you know that after the vote was taken we
 had just beat them six votes; four hundred and thirty-five mem bers in the house of representa- tives and we only beat them six votes and if we hadn't beaten them by those six votes you would not have any appropriation for Iyour roads. trails and bridges
 And in the face of d record of this kind there are those who still say that I didn't do anything in that matter at all. But there are some. too, who would get shay ings and a little coal oil and set your house on fire, and that's the liar that is telling that story.
 Now, they say that I wasn't there to defend the Alaska Road
 Commission when the question Of the transfer from the War De- partment to the Department of the Interior came up. Well, it's the same story. I was there. I was before the committee there and I heard every word that was said before the committee, and I was in the House, but I didn't say anything. Why? Because it didn't seem to me to be a very