The Nome nugget., 1932-10-08

sioners to be appointed by the
 Secretary of War. There were
 amendments to 1t from year to
 year. Army officers were appoin-
 ted and sent Up here by the Sec
 retary of War to supervise and
 have charge of our roads. under
 this law. have copy of the
 act and want to read 1t to you.
 It Is as follows: "Be 1t enacted by
 the Senate and House of Repre- sentatives of the United States Of
 America in Congress assem blsd: 1 That from and after ths passage
 of this act the duties authorized
 and authority conferred by law
 upon the board of road commis- jsioners in the Territory of Alaska. I, and upon the Secretary of War, as provided for in the act of Jan luary 27, 1905, as amended by the act of May l4, 1906, and acts sup plemental thereto. and amenda- tory thereof are hereby transfer
 red to the Department of the In ,terior, and shall hereafter be ad ministered by the Secretary of the Interior. or under his direc- l1OL, py ouSh oIhSCit oI oihS'4 ot as may be designated by him" Now, you can see 1t doesn't change the law at all It simply changes the administration from the War Department to the Inter for Department, and gives the In- terior Department the authority and power to appoint the officers. Now, the matter arose this way. We had had great deal of trou-
 ble in Congress due to certain
 factions desiring to abolish two thousand army officers who were engaged In a civil capacity, and
 place them in regular army work. It created a great deal of animos- |tty in Congress and the Army
 both. They wanted to get rid of a lot of these army officers that were out on civil duty, such as the Board of Alaska Road Com missioners. and were determined to get rid of them, and they per suaded the President that 1t ought to be done, and I myself was In favor of it. The President then wrote a letter to Senator Howell asking Senator Howell to prepare bill to carry out that transfer from the War Department to the
 Interior Department of the Alaska Road Commission. Here is a copy letters of the Secretary of War
 and the Secretary of the Interior
 all agreeing. Well, saw the sit uation. Here was the President of the United States, the Secre- tary of War and the Secretary of the Interior agreeing that that should be done and in view of the situation It had to he done. The bill was prepared not by Senator Howell, but in the office 1 of the Secretary of War who want
 ed it to be done and , copy was sent to MT. Taylor. q Democratic
 representative from Colorado and he was asked to introduce that
 bill in the House and he did so. It passed in the House and was passed in the Senate, and was ap-
 proved by the two Secretaries in terested and approved by the
 President Of the United States,
 and I was not going to fight that
 crowd of people with the power
 they had behind them and didn't
 do 1t. I did not oppose that bill
 for another reason. had had
 some trouble with some of these
 army officers several years ago.
 They had said things about me
 and I expect was mean enough Ito say mean things about them
 and I will admit there was not
 great deal of good feeling between
 the army officers and myself, and
 felt that I had q chance to get even for the old troubles, so l
 didn't oppose that bill.
 I did not introduce that bill
 but I was in favor of making the
 exchange. Nv, wp have the
 same laws that We had before,
 The only change is in transterrlng
 the administrative power from the 1 War Department to the Interior
 Department. It was put under
 Governor Parks instead of Colonel
 Elliott, and I certainly think that
 Governor Parks knows as much
 about road huiI4ioa and road
 work as any ger1ara0ly army
 officers, and if he doean't Ike Fay
 Tor does. Instead If five army
 officers coming up hora every two
 or three years lNl going out
 again, we have Ike Taylor, per-
 sonally, at the head Of it and five
 other practical road builders un-
 der him. And they don't have to
 prepare two hundred blue prints
 for a culvert before they built it either. We will get better re-