davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Kodiak mirror., 1946-09-07
FUNDS FOR ALASKA TOO OFTEN "A SOP

Delegate Bartlett has
 struggling in Washington Alaska's behalf for almost | years. His testimony on l point is as follows:
 My observation after sci
 ing here since January lq
 is that all too frequently wfl
 is given us in the way money is given us as a sop it were and not because \ are entitled to it or becau| it's expenditure would refld advancement of the natiOn| interest.
 Some might argue, in 4 have argued, that Alaska's da gation to Congress would be small to affect, by it's votes, national decision in any mat Alaska, these people point 1 would have only two votes of 98 or 100 in the Senate q one out of 436 or so In House. Yet anyone acquan with the life of our national g ernment, as distinguished 1T it's mere form, knows that V in Congress is the most declS force and the most convlncl argument an area can poss'
 That congressional respect Alaska's needs would mater ize automatically with stalen' is indicated by the exampie the present states. NeVS Wyoming, Delaware and mont have never had more y two votes apiece in the oel and one in the House; yet V interests have never sufferer Congress. So it would De Alaska, which would nave actly the same representS' immediately upon admlssiol
Kodiak mirror., 1946-09-07
SPECIAL STATEHOOD SECTION

siderable amount of money had accumulated in the treasury which on the basis of the law should have been allocated to Alaska for construction of for est highways. These allocations were not made, for the reason that the man in the Department of Agriculture who had the final voice in this matter had once made a trip to Alaska and dld not believe roads should be built there. That was that, and his decision was final despite the protests of Judge Dimond. That official would never have acted as he did had we voting members of Congress who could have taken the floor of the two houses not only to express an opinion about this high-handed procedure but to vote against the departments general appro- priation.
Kodiak mirror., 1946-09-07

when it comes to the practical application of { h is principle, Alaska is subject to some dis elimination just because 1t IS a territory and for no other req son whatever.
 5. Alaska's Commissioner ot Education recently has had to travel all the way to Washing ton, and return without assur- ances, to beg Congress to auth orize payment of tuition for Ma tive children attending territori- al schools, notwithstanding the fact that Oklahoma and other states have long admitted h. dians to their schools under a tuition contract with the federal government. Thus the states se- cure almost automatically an advantageous arrangement over which Alaska must engage in long range battle, which may or may not turn out favorably for the territory.
Kodiak mirror., 1946-09-07
ALASKANS DON'S SIT ON FISHING BOARD

20. On the International Fish cries Commission dealing with halibut caught off the coast of the two nations, but chiefly off the coast of Alaska, no Alaskan has ever been appointed, though there has been nice balancing of appointments from British Columbia and the State of Wash ington, whose fisheries are in volved to lesser extent.
Kodiak mirror., 1946-09-07
PUBLIC DOMAIN
 ACT EXCLUDED ALASKA

2. Late in the 1930's an appro- priation bill carried $200,000,- 900 for roads on the public do main. Despite all the efforts of the Alaska Delegate, the bene- fits of this appropriation were limited to the states. Judge Di- mond was able to have the ter ritorieS included in the bill in a s en a te amendment, but the amendment was lost in confer ence, and so once more Alaska was discriminated against by reason of it's territorial status. Had Alaska been a state it could not have been left out of the bill.
 3. Under the formula cover ing forest highway allotments, for the three-year postwar pe- riod, Alaska's share should be $2,213, 1928 per year. Alaska was arbitrarily cut in this act to $1,- 500,000 a year, and the differ ence distributed among several of the states. For no other req son than that it is defenseless, Alaska thus is being deprived of a total of $2, ,141, ,784. This is not an act of economy. The money, belonging to Alaska by every right, is being given to the states.
 4. With respect to appropria- tions for education of the In- dians and Eskimos of Alaska, as compared with the Indians of the States, Alaska is placed on a somewhat lower basis with re- spect to expenditures. Congress recognizes its obligation to treat the Natives of Alaska the same as the Natives of the states, but
Kodiak mirror., 1946-09-07
FREIGHT RATE MOVE ALMOST SUCCEEDED

IS. Last November certain highly placed member of the U. S. Maritime Commission at tempted to throw Alaska -over- board by trying to force War Shipping Administration ships back into private operation with a doubling of freight rates,with- out allowing a period for Stabili- zation after the war. This was prevented only by the most strenuous efforts on the part of the Attorney General of Alaska and the Alaska Development Board. If Alaska were state and had been a state through these years, it is highly unlikely the steamship companies would have gotten away with the exc crable service and high rates to which Alaskans have been sub ject.
 16. Failure of the Wage Sta utilization Board and the War Shipping Administration to ex- pedite authorization of the re- cent maritime wage settlement permitted a tieup of Alaska ports and resulted in the unloading of rotten cargo into the bay. Moth ing similar occurred in any port in the states.
 IT. A dmin tr a tive res l ervations of land made for war time purposes are still in effect in dozens of cases, including the withdrawal of all land along the Alaska Highway. If Alaska had the influence over the Interior Department which votes in Con- gress would confer, these reSer- vations would have been vacat- ed long since and reopened to settlement.
 18. Lacking influence in Wash ington, Alaska witnessed long delay in the location of region al office of the Veterans Admin istration in the territory, al though there were many press ing reasons why Alaska should be given such an office.
 19. Alaska's Governor was obliged to engage in a long struggle to obtain overseas credit toward discharge for Alaska boys who served in the Aleu- tians, though soldiers from the states obtained such credit au- tomatically.
Kodiak mirror., 1946-09-07
Such examples could be .. ed almost without end 'e'

Such examples could be s. ed almost without end. 'ee
 T h e Legislative Refou. Service of the Library of q ea gress reports that, aside V the Federal Highway Aid 0 ~ there are three other reo'. n appropriations measures Su' which Alaska has been V pletely excluded. These aro' " , Mineral Lands Leasing ' ceipts Act of February 25 ,o' the Flood Control Act of r'' 28, 1888. and the Act of Ann' 29, 1885, having to do witb cost of administering state s est lands. Delegate Bartlett n has before Congress a bilI| cure the mineral lands leasl act omission, and hopes for actment at the next session
 As Governor Ernest GruenI has said,
 It is fact, of course. tb| by superhuman effort fighting like the devil, we aj able to overcome some of ths1 discriminations, but it meal using all kinds of energi| and efforts which should I utilized in helping Alaska move forward, not fightil merely to hold our grou1 To my mind, the intangibl are all-important = the gra advantages that would aul matically accrue to Alasl when, as a state, it has t1 Senators and a Representa- with a vote.
 Discrimination against Ala is found first in what seemd be the eternal struggle to h| the territories included in Il money bills, and, second, certainly equally as import in receiving for the territoI just appropriations. Then th| are the determinations wl| are not confined to the langlI of the law but which are i'd discovered almost daily in application of the law, to a tain degree in Congress more notably in the execu| departments.
Kodiak mirror., 1946-09-07

spoke with misgivings about a s new governmental charter.
 Alas, the end is not yet. While the people of Alaska have an elective delegate in the House of Representatives to speak for them, and an elective legislature to pass laws for their local necessi- ties, these representatives and
Kodiak mirror., 1946-09-07
HOW ALASKA GOT ITS GOVERNMENT

LMOST half century of struggle by the people ot A crowned with success in 1912 when Congress pS act giving the territory legislature This is Aa Organic Act the basis of the present territorial govern Even in the hour of victory the then Delegate James '" ersham who had been prominent in the fight for home
Kodiak mirror., 1946-09-07

lamation projects in the State of Arizona because when Mon tana's turn comes they expect reciprocal generosity. And they get it. But when this process IS all completed and we come to the territories, then the mem bers of Congress become states men and announce vigorously: 'This spending must stop; we have got to start balancing the budget" Alaskans have seen this happen through the years. Whenever an economy wave IS on, it is the territories which get pinched the most. Through the years Alaska has been denied vast sums which, under the yardstick applied to the states, would have been hers. And these are appropriations desperately needed to build up the country.
 Numerous examples might be cited of the discriminations Alaska suffers for lack of voting representation in Congress.
 1. Probably the outstanding example is the Federal Highway Aid Act. This applies to all the states. Various calculations have been made of the sums Alaska would receive annually under this act. If only half the land area of the territory were used as a basis for calculation, Alas ka would have received some SIP, 2,000,000 to $14.000.0O0 an. nually from the federal govern ment for road purposes. To be conservative let us say the amount would have been $10,- OOO,000 year. Transfer of the Alaska Road Commission to the Interior Department took place about 1880. If the Federal Aid Highway Act had been effective since that time Alaska would have received a minimum of S16O, 100000. By comparison, we have received from the Interior Department during that period a total of $25,511,773. Of this amount, $2,198,805 came from the Alaska fund, which is really territorial tax money. So we have received one federal dol la for roads where under the Federal Highway Act, which ap- plies to all the states, we would have received more than six.
 Even admitting that Public Roads Administration construc- ton would not result in the same mileage of road, dollar for dollar, as that of the Alaska Road Commission, it is obvious that we would have been inf nitely better off with respect to roads than we now are If there is one point on which all of us probably agree, no matter what position we take with respect to statehood, it is that the develop ment of a pioneer country is in direct ratio to expansion of it's roads.
Kodiak mirror., 1946-09-07
PULP AND PAPER DEVELOPMENT HURT

10. Years have been allowed to elapse without amendment ot the act of Congress which gives the Secretary of Agriculture the final decision on stumpage rates in Southeast Alaska, nothwlth- standing the protestations of pulp and paper interests that they will not start operations Tn Alaska until an appeal to the courts from such decision is allowed, as it is elsewhere.
 Il. The case of the Anchorage bond issue is in point in this regard. In any of the states, the community which pays the bills has the right to determine how much money it should borrow. In Alaska, such a community must appeal all the way to Wash ington for special legislation from Congress, and endure seem ingly endless delays, before 1t can engage in a program of bet torment involving bond issue. Rejecting the earnest request ot Anchorage for permission to ls- sue bonds in the amount the community considers reasonable and necessary, Congress has just reduced the authorization by one-third, reportedly because an eastern congressman, who knew nothing about Anchorage or Alaska, felt the original amount too large. This is discrimina- ton against Alaska which is special and extremely recent, in fact contemporary.
 12. Two great areas set apart for more than generation as Mount Mckinley National Park and Glacier Bay National Monu- ment have remained l m o t w h holly undeveloped because Congress has repeatedly failed to pass appropriations requested for them. Nothing similar has happened in any state.
 There is another type of dis advantage which Alaska suffers because it is voteless in Con, gress. All of the above are dis criminations on the part of the Congress itself. There is also long list of discriminations prac- ticed against Alaska by the ex- ecutive bureaus and agencies ot the federal government. None of the following discriminations could conceivably be practiced against a state with two Sena- tors and one Representative yielding the leverage of a vote on all congressional matters, in cluding the power of life and death over most administrative agencies.
Kodiak mirror., 1946-09-07

powers are not constitutIsO, representative powers, out Ca congressional, and thererS I,' subject to change by Consttl 4 by later acts passed by ,,e Q body in conflict with tns ,s And thus without repeailiads
 even directly mentioning
 amending the organic lawII Alaska territory, Congress
Kodiak mirror., 1946-09-07
ADAMS ACT FUNDS;
 ALASKA'S SHARE CUT

V cultural development. A good example is the Adams Act, passed in 1906, and providing for support of agricultural ex- pertinent stations. For 30 years it was not extended to Alaska; then it was in 1886. But how? Instead of getting our share ac- cording to the formula specified in the act, which would have yielded $90,000 a year, Alaska received in the first year $500O; in the second year $7500, and there has been a progressive for mula by which in the next year, 1947, we will receive $37, 800, and then $45,O00 thereafter. In other words, Alaska is never going to get more than half, as long as it is territory.
 ?. In the late 193O's Delegate Dimond was finally successful in obtaining enactment of bill au- thorizing appropriations f o T Alaska under the Smith-Lever act having to do with the De partment of Agriculture. The authorization provided that the appropriations should be in creased each year until they reached certain figure and then should remain at that fig ure. But the Appropriations Committee of the House did not take the authorization act at it's face value. They have in creased the appropriations at a lower level than called for by the act. Last year the House re- ported the bill out with no in- crease whatever; in the Senate, Delegate Bartlett had the full amount restored, but in confer ence it was cut in two and the same thing occurred this year.
 This is because the chairman of the subcommittee handling this bill takes a very dim view of the possibilities of agriculture in Alaska. If Alaska had voting representation in Congre S S, which might possibly include membership on the Appropria- tions Committee of the House, and much more likely would in clude representation on the Alp propriations Committee of the Senate, there would be no doubt whatever that the intent of that authorization act would be lived up to.
 8. When the act creating the Reconstruction Finance Corpora ton was first passed it covered only the states. Later it was nee essary for Alaska's Delegate to institute special legislation to embrace the territories.
 g. The act providing for guar antee of bank deposits in like manner was limited to the states. Delegate Dimond did his best which, as Alaskans know, was great deal-to have the terri tories included and to that end appeared before the House Com mittee on Banking and Curren- cy and the Senate committee al so. He was assured that his views would have careful considera- ton, but when the bill was re- ported out and passed the terri tories were still on the outside. Later the act was amended and then it was only by offering an amendment on the floor of the House that the territories were brought in. The chairman o1 the committee was still not sym. pathetic, but he did not oppose the amendment, and so it was adopted. There was no sound reason to leave the territories
Kodiak mirror., 1946-09-07

out in the first place, and the only excuse was that they were territories and had no political standing.
Evening star., 1946-12-29
LAWYER Who Won Initial Test
UrqesC Coutionin Portal Pay Suits

must be paid for; and that unions
and individuals could sue for over
time pay as far back as October,
1888, when the Wage-Hour Act be-
came effective, provided that State
statutes Of limitations did not In
terfere.
Many of the suits which ask sums
like $22 100000 from Standard Oil
Co. Of Ohio and $4,000, 900 from
Chase Brass & Copper Co., ask
payment for time employees put in
changing their clothes and IN wash
ing.
Conferences Suggested.
Mr.. Lamb suggests "it should be
easy to settle many of the cases
around conference table"
He cited settlements of s4656 900
worked out by the Dow Chemical
Co. of Detroit and 100000 by the
Columbia Chemical Division Of the
Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. at Bar
berton, Ohio.
Mr.. Lamb suggested that unions
planning to file suits avoid spec
tacular company wide actions
against large firms with plants and
workers scattered over the country,
under the jurisdiction of several
courts. Several suits should be filed.
he said, since no one court would
be likely to attempt to make q
decision affecting workers outside
its jurisdiction.
He said he believed firms held
liable for large sums in such suits
could demand income tax rebates
for as far back as three years.
Evening star., 1946-12-29
Rubber Workers Advised
To Discuss Pay Claims

AKRON, Ohio, Dec. 28-{P.-
Members of the CIO United Rubber
Workers of America, about to nego-
tiate a 26-cents- pay in
crease demand with the Big Four
rubber companies, were advised yes
terday to discuss portal-to-portal
claims with management before
rushing into multi-million dollar
suits.
A special URWA bulletin, signed
by G. L. Patterson and Robert Shuff
attorneys at international headquar-
ters here, urged the members to
study claims carefully in the light
of the new wage demands and to
avoid wrecking many sound rela-
tionships" with management.
Wage agreements with the "Big
Four"-B. F. Goodrich Co., Good
year Tire g. Rubber Co., Firestone
Tire & Rubber Co. and United States
Rubber Co.-usually set the pace for
the rest of the industry.
So far only one portal-to-portal
suit has been filed in the tire indus
try, $1,400,000 claim of Local 101
in Detroit against United States
Rubber on behalf of 1000 employees
Evening star., 1946-12-29
BY the Assoeiofsd Press

TOLEDO, Ohio, Dec. 28.-The
lawyer who set in motion the series
Of employees overtime suits against
manufacturers. now ow-baled
into an enormous sum, advised
unions today to proceed cautiously.
Edward Lamb said the union
leaders and their attorneys should
not risk tough, restrictive action
from Congress by asking fabulous
and reckless" amounts in the portal
to-portal pay suits! n
The nationwide train of legal
actions, in which workers ask over
time pay covering all required time
they put in on their employers
premises, aggregate nearly $500, ,000,-
600 in Ohio alone, and more are
being filed almost daily.
Advice to Counsel.
Mr.. Lamb, who obtained from the
Supreme Court a decision that en-
ployers must pay for all substantial
time a worker spends at his site OF
work at an employers request, said
in an interview:
Attorneys filing these suits for
back pay shouldn't try to name the
sum they think is due the workers.
Such a suit itself il only an ac-
counting action, asking the court to
say how much But it is not neces-
sary and it is unwise to specify
these fabulous and reckless sums.
"They frighten industry and may
stir Congress to adopt restrictive
legislation in the coming session"
He described it as 1.-THE biggest
and most important decision the
Supreme Court ever made.
No. Need for Hysteria.
Yet, he remarked, the decision
did nothing more than define a
work week" He added:
"All industry and labor know
what the rules are now. People
need not be hysterical about it.
The ruling upheld the Toledo at
torney's contention in behalf OF
workers of the Mt. Clemens (Mich.)
Pottery Co.
Mr.. Lamb, who also is radio
station owner and newspaper pub
Usher, took the Mt. Clemens case
to the Federal Court in Detroit
June 16, 1941.
He said he discovered in the COM
pany records "a very strange de-
mand on workers request for
them to be on the job IA minutes
ahead Of official starting time with
no pay mentioned for that extra
time. He asked an accounting and
back wages, and the suit swung
back and forth through lower
courts before reaching the Supreme
Court.
Overtime Records to Be Kept.
The high court returned its de-
cision June 6, 1916. and reafflrmed
it October IA, then sent the case
back to the Detroit District Court
to determine how money was due
the workers.
. The Supreme Court held that
overtime records must be kept by
an employer, or the workers own
statements must be accepted; that
all substantial time spent on the
employers premises at his request
Evening star., 1946-12-29

his campaign that peaceful and
orderly strikes "are nothing more
than growing pains in the national
economic body" but that defiance
of the courts and a resort to force
goes beyond the right of free speech
and cannot be defended" He also
said that unions derive much Of
their power from the law and
must show an equivalent respcn-
sibility and respect toward the law"
Lodge, Republican of Massachu-
setts-Asked during the campaign
what is the best way to promote
harmony between labor and manage
ment, he said that a commission
should be set up to study and recon-
mend to Congress and the President
long range rules for labor-manage-
ment relations.
Flanders. Republican of Vermont
Urged Democrats and Republicans
to work together to maintain high
level of productive employment.
Robertson, Democrat of Virginia
Said principles in the laws enacted in
the last IA years for protection Of
labor are highly proper and the
essence of that protection should
be continued, but actual experience
has shown defects in these laws
which should be cured in the in
terest of the general welfare"
Evening star., 1946-12-29
Congress
Continued From First Psge.)

committee adjustments or consoli-
dations may be deemed necessary u
Mr.. Rankin pointed out that
adopting the rules of the old Con-
gress would merely put off the
abolition of some committees, with
out interfering with the rest of the
LaFollette- Monroney Act. The rest
Of the act includes the pay increase
and retirement plan for members
Of Congress.
From tomorrow morning until
Thursday night both ends of the
Capitol will hum with party con-
ferences, as the Republicans seek
to iron out their differences over
majority assignments, and the
Democrats adjust themselves in a
more peaceful atmosphere to the
minority role.
In the House, chief interest CEN
ters on the selection Of a Repub-
lican floor leader. Representative
Halleck Of Indiana, supported by
Gov. Dewey Of New York, still ap-
peared to be leading a field of four.
Opponents of Gov. Dewey are ex-
pected to rally behind Representa-
tive Brown Of Ohio, who has de-
clared himself available. Other