The Wrangell sentinel., 1948-07-23
THROUGH THE SENTINEL PERISCOPE


 might call YIP (very important people) week in Alaska. It might we'll be the weather vane for ev- enst to come There was the No. Cabinet officer, John W Snyder Secretary of Treasury; Gordon Gray, Assistant Secretary of the Army; Rear Admiral Joseph E. Stika, Commandant of the 18th Coast Guard District in Seattle with Capt A. c. Richmond, control and planning chief for the co in Washington; Albert Day, Director of the U. s. Fish and WildIfe Ser vice, and many others in the res pective parties.
 Secretary Snyder rolled onto the Juneau runway Monday in his A. motor Coast Guard plane for a quick look-see at the Territory. A close personal friend of President Truman, the Secretary had an eye for Alaska statehood. along the lines outlined by the President some weeks ago in a special mes sage to the Congress. Statehood, he opined was what Alaska needed. He wasn't adverse to tying into a good, husky king salmon on light tackle and wondered if it would be as much of a thrill as the brown trout of the Ozarks or that IO9- inch sail fish he anagged off Ser nude. In private life, the Secretary is a St. Louis banker and has a particular pride in those Ozark trout. After a few hours in Juneau, a guest at the Governors house, the Cabinet officer boarded the Cutter Wachusett for trip to Gla- cier Bay before being picked up by his plane at GustaVus for a flight to Anchorage and Mckinley Park. He was due back in Washington at the end of the week. Accompanying the Secretary was no staff; rather a couple of old friends - Robert B. Lea, head man of Johbs-Man- vile. and G. E. Stewart, executive of the Comstock Corporation. In dustrialist Lea was going to try and catch those big Alaska rain bows he'd heard so much about; industrialist Stewart volunteered to eat them Both agreed to have seen everything when they saw the sluice box operation being carried on at the Alaska Juneau tailings pile this summer. When informed a recent cleanup totaled S20, ,000, they were scre of it. Just how of ten 9 asked Comstock's Stewart with a twinkle in his eye, ''does this cleanup business take placer
 Army's Assistant Secretary Gray was looking over the Alaska mili tary establishment He was accom- panied by General J. Lawton Col lins, Deputy Chief of Staff, General Robert A. Wheeler Chief of Army Engineers and several other top flight Army officers. Army was on the move in the north.
 Tying in was the visit of Coast Guards Admiral Stika and Capt. Richmond. They were looking over the possibility of re-establishing Coast Guard district in Alaska. now being strongly urged.
 Director Day was looking over the new FWS setup in Alaska since it was reorganized in May with Clarence Rhode as Regional Direc- tor.
 The high-handed action of the SOth Congress in passing Public Law 266 which transfers the agri- cultural experiment. stations from the University of Alaska to the II. s. Department of Agriculture along with any money appropriated by the Legislature" for that purpose has run into it's first stumbling block. Acting under the law, pr, w. V. Lambert, Research Admins trator for the Department of Agri- culture and the chap who has been pushing the deal to grab the Alas ka experiment stations, recently wrote the Territorial Auditor to pay the baalnce of money appro- priated by the Legislature for ex pertinent stations to Jack E. Maze, who has been appointed treasurer of the stations by the Department. Doubling that anybody in Wash ington has any authority to auth orize how Territorial funds shall be spent the Auditor took 1t up with the Attorney General who ruled it couldn't legally be done Said Attorney General Rivers.
 Legal advisors of the Dirksen group no doubt took the position that the oft cited plenary power which Congress exercises over Ter ritories was broad enough to up- hold such language. My personal