The Nome nugget., 1932-10-15
TEXT OF DIM0ND'S
 ADDRESS
(Continued from Page Three)

NOW l come 10 the SpeCllC charges made against me, that Is, that am in the pay of the can neries. In the first place there is- n't a person here but will admit that a lawyer having a general practice has the right to accept fees from any source he can get them. My work as private at torney and my work as a legisla- tor is different thing. I was called to Seattle, Washington, by Judge Wickersham--oh the friends of Judge Wickersham don't mention his name, always mine, he can take his fees where he find them they take care they don't mention Wickersham's name because he has got their number. (Applause). l was called to Seattle, Washington 10 consider the question of cer- tain bill cannery interests wished to introduce in Congress; among the cannery interests were the Nakat, Sunny Point, and Deep Sea, represented by Mir. Frelee CD MT. Skinner and MT. Buschmann; it seems that these men had been in conference with cannery men, Jud- ge Wickersham and Bob Hickman When I came down there I was asked how much pay l anticipated; I was sure that Jud- ge Wickersham or myself would have to go back to Washington; I had a consultation with Bob and he told me that 1 ought to get at least five thousand for it, l thank ed him very much for the infor- nation and I made it six thousand Laughterl. l therefore think that l have answered the question pro pounded by the Democratic Com mittee
 to Washington to find out wheth- or not such bill could pass Con gress, one of the first things I done was to go to Dan Sutherland's office; he had seen the bill and We entered into discussion; Dan Sutherland at that time said I am utterly opposed to that kind of bill; I don't want any bill intro- duced in Congress that is going to legalize traps or give prefer ments-He answered my question. l then went to other members of Congress and asked them what was the chance of getting the passage of the bill leasing trap sites from year to year and they told me that they did not feel that bill could be gotten through Congress over the opposition of Dan Suth- erland. So it was about a week or ten days later I got long dist ance call from Seattle, Washing ton; Judge Wickersham was at one end talking at the rate of about fifty dollars per minute and over the telephone he demanded that I gee Mir. Sutherland and ask him to introduce the bill. From my end l said Wickersham, shall do no such thing as that because Dan is opposed to the bill; he will testify that I never used friend ship to benefit myself personally and I told Judge Wickersham would have nothing further to do with the bill and came home and I have done nothing since"
 Wickersham Influence
 Until MT. Paul made this speech we did not know the entire dis creditable story. I had heard ru- mors about it, but really did not believe them because I gave both Mr. Paul and Judge Wicker sham credit for a higher degree of intelligence than is shown in their action in this matter. But MT. Paul's speech makes 1t all plain Judge Wickersham was or iginally employed by these great canning corporations, not as law yer but as a lobbyist. He didn't sell his legal services; he sold his political influence. Judge Wicker sham had held office in Alaska for many, many years. He had been United States district judge and he had been delegate. He had many followers in Alaska. There were many people in Alaska who were so friendly toward him that they would be inclined to believe whatever he did was right. In oth- CT words, he had great and pow erful political influence, and I can assure you that MT. Paul also, at that time, had outstanding polit- ical influence. MT. Paul is the only man in Alaska who could then probably deliver as many as one thousand votes for any candidate for political office. It is not nec- essary to go into the details of this, and have not the time any, how to discuss it adequately The situation was not a healthy one, but it existed and had existed for some years. MT. Paul, until 1928, had delivered those votes to the Republican candidates almost with. out exception. In 1880 he delivered most of them to Judge Wickersham