The Daily Alaska empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1926-1964, 1950-04-28
ALASKA STATEHOOD
The Long Fight For Home Rule -
By BOB DeARMOND
BY BOB DeARMOND

Home Rule" has been the battle
cry of Alaskans for more than so
years now and it is battle that is
continued in the present attempt
to secure fair and adequate state
hood legislation The great majority
of the skirmishes in that long battle
have been with one or another OF
the arms of bureaucratic govern
ment. Alaska has gained some
ground during the half century
first Delegate in Congress, then
an organized Territorial form OF
local government; now, perhaps, the
first step along the road to state
hood.
But each time ground has been
gained in one direction, more has
been lost to the powerful bureaus
which tenaciously cling to control
of Alaska's resources. In the pre-
sent move toward statehood the
Federal bureaus have rejected the
kind of statehood Alaskans want, as
| expressed in the bill introduced by
| their own elected Delegate i'll Con-
gress, and are attempting to inn
pose the kind of statehood they
want for the people OF Alaska. The
Department of the Interior has
] almost completely rewritten Dele
gate Bartlett's bill for statehood
making it an instrument to further
its own hold on Alaskan lands and
resources.
The Department of the Interior
according to the United States Gov
eminent Manual, was created in
l849 and was charged with the re-
sponsibility for advancing the do
mestic interests of the people OF
|, the United States
! Alaska is presumably part OF
the United States, but great many
/ Alaskans, especially among the old
timers, will boot at the notion that
the Interior Department has ever
done anything to advance thei.
particular domestic interests.
Scratching Out Livelihood
1t is not proposed to list here the
individual grievances Alaskans hole
| against the various Federal bu-
reaus because to do SO would fill the
columns OF this newspaper from
now until Christmas. Many OF these
Alaskans came here 20 or 80 or 81
years ago and have remained TX
scratch out livelihood, anc
scratching out livelihood in Alaska
is not always easy despite the many
fine things that can be said about
the present and potential resource;
of the country. Nature erected here
| a great number of substantial bar
riers to the attainment of the ends
desired by man; and nature, in thi'
respect, has been greatly aided anc
abbetted by the Department OF thu
Interior and other bureaus.
The history of Alaska under
United States rule could be largely
written in the history of the re-
| servationS that have been created
here-seal and game and fisherie:
reservations, land and coal and OF
reservations, military reservations
Indian reservations, forest reserva-
tons, and a host of others.
The Department of the Interior
it is true, is not responsible for al
of these reservations and perhap:
not for a majority OF them. But il
is responsible, and in most instances
directly responsible, for the reser-
vations most obnoxious to Alaskans
Protect the people"
The Interior Department defends
its actions by asserting that it must
save and protect the natural re-
sources of the country for the
people"
| just who these people" are is
never quite clear, but it is appar.
ent, in many instances, who are not
the people"
They are not, for example, the
homesteaders and would-be farmers
or ranchers who want title to a few
hundred acres of land upon which
to make a home and living. The
department has not been notori-
ously generous in assisting these in
dividuals in gaining their desires
and in some instances has grossly
Disseminated against them.
Nor are the prospectors and
miners who aspire to develop coal
mine and live off its proceeds num-
bered among the Interior Depart
ment's people" The coal resources,
along with Others. were bottled up
! at time when they might have