The Wrangell sentinel., 1943-12-03
.s .s .s % E < .s s, .- S- q. ALASKA AND THE NATION
 by ANTHONY J. BIM0ND Alaska's Delegate To Congress . sss sgs s&s ss s9s ss e sfs s2s e sls
By Mail

by malt
 WASHINGTON - There appears to be a fair chance that the law pro- Yiding for voting by persons of mil itary service. wherever tthey may be will be largely amended. and that a provision will be put in to per nit voting by citizens of the Ter ritory who are in military service, no matter in what area they may be serving. Hearings have been had during the past week on the pro- posed amendatory bill before the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections, the chairman of which is Senator Green of Rhode Island. appeared before tthe Committee re- gently in company with Delegate Harrington of Hawaii, and We both urged upon the Committee the fair ness and justness of our proposal that the citizens of Alaska and Ha- Waii should be given the same op- pOrtunities to vote while they are in military service as is sought to be accorded to the citizens of the States who are in the same service.
 One of the members, Senator Mur- dock of Utah, at the conclusion of my testimony expressed complete approval. A bill to accomplish the same thing was introduced by me in the House some time ago. It is H. R. 3361, but the House probably will not take any action before the Senate dispOses of the legislation on the subject now pending in that body.
 It seems probable that the entire matter could be taken care of so far as Alaska is concerned by an act of the Territorial Legislature. But the Legislature has never made any pro- vision for such cases and there seems to be no sound reason at this time for requiring the Legislature to be brought into special session for such a purpose when the whole matter can be readily and easily dis posed of by the Congress in legislat- ing for the nation as a whole.
 Of course, Congress is not auth orized to make any provision for the election of state officers and there fore, must confine its legislation to the election of Senators and Repre- sentatives and presidential electors. But in the case of Territories, Con- gress has all the power of a Terri torial legislature and, therefore, there is no reason why Congress should not pass for the Territories an absentee soldiers voting law while it is legislating for the na- tion as a whole, within the limits mentioned above
 If Congress declines to act for the Territories then it will be neces- sary to consider the adyisability of asking for a special session of the Legislature so that the Alaskans in service may not be deprived of their right to vote by reason of that ser vice.
 War Contacts
 The contest between the War De- partment and the Comptroller Gen. erals office with respect to the ter imitation and settlement of war con- tracts, while it has faded out with the headlines, is far from being set tied. The Comptroller General in- sists that his office must pass upon all such nominations and settle ments, which means, probably that many of the settlements will be so much delayed as to be ruinOus to those involved The War Depart . ment desires to expedite such ter and settlements so that the contractors will know just how much they have and can engage in other lines of manufacture either now or at the termination of the war. The War Department insists that it has authority now under one of the War Powers Acts but wishes that authority amplified, while the General says that the does not exist. The Comp troller General appeared before the House Military Affairs Committee and cited a number of specific er- TOTS made by the War Department