The Nome nugget., 1932-10-22

self. He favors the present rates on the Alaska Railroad, and l op- pose them, and if elcted, I shall try to see that they are at least put back where they were before the increase was made some two years ago.
 Another matter in connection with the operation of the railroad | shall try to have corrected if II am made Delegate, and Judge Wickersham has done nothing to correct it during his tenure of office. That is the rule now in eff feet upon the railroad which pre- vents the employment of new men over fifty years of age. It is bad enough to have such a rule in eff feet in private industry, but it is unthinkable that tne government itself should try to make it i'm possible for a man over fifty years of age to earn his living in any government employment. l am ad vised that the order for this re gulation came direct from Wash
 ngton and that local officials are not responsible for it, but I believe that d protest from the delegate, strongly worded. would have bro results, because the administration would ahve been afraid to chall
 enge Congressional action. Ant therein is involved another sat
 eature of the transfer of tn
 road work to the Interior Depart ment. for the old Alaska Roat Commission never had any age limit with respect to their employ ees. l have known men seventy years lf age working for tue Al aska Road Commission ant earn ing their wages too. Some of these old men with their trained and hardened bodies can do more work than some of the younger men But since the Interior Department has invoked this age limit rule on the railroad, l can see no req son why they will not put it in force on their road work also Judge Wickersham says that he is opposed to it too. But he has, mt done anything about it. and he doesn't even say that he is going to do anything about it.
 Absent from Capital
 m There is another matter in cons nection with my candidacy for this office in which, as matter of political and moral principle, I diff fer from Judge Wickersham. believe that the Delegate should stay in Washington and attend to his business as long as Congress is in session. The last session of Congress adjourned on July the 16th. Judge Wickersham had not been in Washington for more than month before that time In his Fairbanks speech in relation to this matter Judge Wickersham said the following:
 II have never been away from .hy point of duty but once. Just before Congress adjourned, I went over and talked to the Democratic leader MT. Rainey of Illinois, a gentlemen I have known for sev- eral years. I asked MT. Rainey if he knew when Congress would ad- iourn and he said. It is going to adjourn Saturday night. That was just few days off and he re peated that they were sure to adjourn in few days. said I want to go to Chicago and wan, to know when adjournment will take place. He said, We will ad- iourn in a few days They did not adjourn until two weeks af- ter that I went to Chicago. There was no bill pending for Alaska and nothing to come up for Alas ka which required my presence in Washington. anyway. There was mt thing I could have done if had stayed there
 Part of what he said in this connection we know to be untrue He says that Congress did not ad- journ until two weeks after that referring to the time of his alleg- ed conversation with MT. Rainey The truth and the fact is that Congress did not adjourn until 5 weeks after he says he held that conversation. He doesn't want you to know that he was absent from Washington for so long time. Then he further says that there was no bill pending for Alaska which required his presence in Washington anyway; that there wasn't anything he could have done if he had stayed there. I will ad- init that there wasn't anything he would have done if he had stayed there, but I know that there was one bill at least pending for Al aska and another bill coming up which vitally affected all Alaska. At tho time Judga Nickersbam m left Washington the road transfer act had not been passed and it was not passed until two weeks