The Wrangell sentinel., 1955-09-16
THROUGH THE SENTINEL PERISCOPE
Statehood Committee Wins

aCAIcUOOU VOmAAttSN '~>~S
 strong state-at-any-cost dele- gation will be on hand at the con stitutional Convention in Fairbanks in November it appears rom the results of Tuesdays election. The Alaska Statehood Committee mas won a neat victory.
 In the voting at large over the Territory statehood-now advocates have won most of the seven seats' may wind up with all of them' Former Attorney General haiph Rivers of Fairbanks is well ahead in the at-large voting, followed Dy Mildred Hermann of Juneau, sec retary of the Statehood committee former Senator Steve McCutcheon of Anchorage, George Sundborg' Juneau publisher, former Collector of Customs Katherine Nordale ol Juneau and R. Roland Armstrong of Juneau, prominent Alaskan churchman.
 All are Statehood-or-else advo- cates. For the seventh seat i'll the at-large voting former Senator Ed Coffey of Anchorage and Attorney Howard Stabler of Juneau appear to be making race of it. Neither can be identified as a starry-eyed statehood apostle.
 In the divisional and district voting the trend favors the staunch statehood-now candidates. They will apparently have a voting ma jority at Fairbanks. Westward and Interior Alaska are the strong statehood-now areas as the Tues day voting revealed.
 In the conservative First Divis- ion, Senator James Nolan of Wran- gell again revealed his great vote getting ability by leading the field as usual. Jim was up there several hundred votes ahead of the other candidates, and apparently destln- ed to buy himself parka, some long-johns and head for the frozen north. It is being suggested to the Senator that he get Jim Lovetts s dog team and ".mush" in to the statehood strike over the Stikine, Telegraph and Dease Lake route, thus blazing the trail of the pro- posed Stikine River road which should have a line or two in that constitution.
 Other First Division leaders are Rep. Dora Sweeney, Douglas Gray B. D. Stewart, R. E. Robertson and Skip MacKinnon, all of Jun eau; Rep. Burke Riley of Haines, and former Rep. Frank Peratro- yich of Klawock. Frank Johnson of Kek and Andrew Hope are also still in the running until the final tally. Outlying districts can make some difference in the standings, but Nolan, Sweeney and Riley, all members of the last Legislature, are assured of election.
 Wrangcll-Petersburg District
 In the Wrangel.-Petersburg dis trict, Erling Strand of Petersburg has won election over his fellow townsman Eldor Lee. The latter carried Wrangell and Stikine pre- cincts by a few votes but in their home town Strand defeated Lee 15O to 94. Rake precinct was still to be heard from in this district.
 Voting generally over the South east was especially light. indicat- ing that the First Division is not particularly sold on a constitu- tional convention without the san etion of Congress and for ballyhoo purposes only Hawaii did the same thing in 1949 in an effort to fur ther it's statehood campaign and it is still beating on the door the same as Alaska. Many eligible vot- CTS in this area feel, and a good many voice the view, that the Fair banks convention is a waste of some $350,000 of the taxpayers money as another one probably will have to be held when Congress authorizes statehood and sets up the machinery.
 Committee Here Oct. 2
 Of Sunday morning, October 2, a subcommittee of the House In- terior and Insular Affairs commit tee will come winging into Wran- gell for a stay of a few hours, ac- cording to word from Secretary of Alaska Waino Hendrickson The eommittee, headed by Rep. Leo w