The Daily Alaska empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1926-1964, 1951-01-17
Sixth of a Series)

lHcic Will ne JWO OppOSllS
teams" in the coming Legislature
just as certainly as there are two
sides to every question and just as
there have been in every past Leg
stature, regardless of its polit-
cal components.
1t would simplify the reporting
adm understanding-of legislative
action if it were possible to label
one contesting group Democrat"
and the other Republican. But
the two factions have seldom foil
owed party lines in the Alaska
Legislature, just as party lines in
the United States Congress have be-
come virtually meaningless.
But since it is a convenience to
have names for groups that en-
gage in what at times appears to
be mortal combat, other labels have
been used. Some of them are ideo-
logical in character, such as lib
eral' and conservative" or pro
gressive" and ''reactionary"
nj Alaska the labels most used
in recent years have been "ad-
ministration' and anti-administra-
ton" or getting right down to
cases, "Gruening" and "anti-Guren-
ing" Since 1941 the Legislature, in
spite of the numerical superiority
of the Democratic Party-a super
iority that at times was almost ov-
erwhelming has divided sharply
on most of the major issues.
One group sought enactment of
the legislative program of Cover
nor Ernest Henry Gruening; the
other group either directly opposed
this program or attempted to modi-
fly it. They were the "fors' and the
"aginers," so far as the Gov
ernor was concerned
The two groups have not been en-
tirely cohesive, either, and that
sometimes adds to the confusion OF
the casual onlooker. In the Legisla-
ture you do not sign up with one
club for the duration, but are
privileged to bat for one side in
one inning and for the other side
in the next. In general, each group
has had firm and unyielding nue.
leus and there have been a number
of satellites who drifted back and
forth, particularly in the early
days of a session. Usually by mid
session the real middle of the
readers have been showed to one
slider the other, and more often
than rot they have wound up
with the "agin'ers.'
This does not mean that every
measure introduced in the Legis-
lature becomes a battle cause. In
the coming session, unless there is
radical change from past practice,
more than 200 bills, memorials and
resolutions will be introduced-and
if there are fewer. so much the
better for the legislators and the
Territory.
Probably rs percent of these mea-
sures will be non-controversial and
will be quickly disposed Of Some
of these will be important, but be-
cause they will not call up a furry
of speeches and war of legisla-
tive wits, most of them will get
no more than paragraph in the
daily chronicles and line or two
in the final summary.
1t is the other rs percent of the
bills that send the committees into
long and often laborious sessions,
bring forth fiery debate on the
floor, make the headlines in the
newspapers and increases the gate
at the spectators galleries before
they are either enacted or sent
to the wastebasket.
During the last Seevral sessions
of the Alaska Legislature the main
battle issues have been tax bills,
many of them proposed and sup
ported by Gov. Gruening.
In the l949 session what has
been termed a basic" tax struc-
ture of income, property and bust
ness license taxes was finally en-