And so, sir, with many, if not all, of the Territories when they were first organized. The facts and the figures conclusively prove that Alaska is more entitled now to Territorial government than any of the Territories organized in the years gone by west of the Mississippi River. Why should we deprive the citizens of Alaska of Territorial government? Is there a man here that can give any answer, except the logical answer that Alaska should become a Territory with all the rights of a Territory? Mr. Chairman, the 'statement of the receipts and expenditures for Alaska for the year 1907, as issued by the Treasury Department, is somewhat misleading. The statement shows that Alaska received from the General Government the sum of $1,583,609, and that the Treasury received from Alaska only $511,692. The expenses of the courts are shown to be $481,911.58, but no accounting is made for the amount of money taken in by courts in fees. The expenses of the military telegraph and cable lines are charged against Alaska to the extent of $209,011.55, but no credit is given the Territory for the amount which has been paid to the Government for sending private messages over the line. A statement made by General Allen, Chief of the Signal Corps Service, shows that since the establishment of the Alaska telegraph system the Department has expended in all for construction and maintenance $369,000, and has received during that same period for private messages sent over the line, and exclusive of Government business, which is transacted "D. H.," $607,600, all of which has been paid into the Public Treasury, leaving a profit of $238,000 to the Government after the cost of construction has been fully paid. General Allen made this statement in a request that an additional $200,000 be appropriated for the purpose of extending the telegraph lines. Another item which is charged against Alaska is the expense of revenue vessels, $132,481. As these ships are in Alaskan waters for only about four months in the year, and even then are only of service for junketing expeditions, this amount should be cut down threefourths. Another item which attracts some attention is $51,472.21, charged to "salaries, etc., office of governor." This includes the salaries of judges, United States, marshals and clerks of the courts, but, notwithstanding this, the "expense of the United States courts" item is entered up with a charge against it of $481,911.58. These items, if properly accredited, would make a great difference in the showing of Alaska for the year just past. The statement of the Treasury Department for the fiscal years 1868 to 1907, inclusive, shows that the Government has taken from Alaska more than has been expended in the Territory. The actual amount. received, according to this statement, was $10,181,774.73, while the amount paid out was $10,303,437.80. This statement, however, makes no estimate of the assets in Alaska owned by the Government. For instance, the sum of $935,458 has been expended, according to the statement, in the construction of telegraph and cable lines. The telegraph system is worth to-day every dollar the Government has paid for it, and if it were turned over to a private corporation to-morrow it would pay handsome dividends on the amount invested. It has paid the Government about 34 per cent profit over and above the cost of construction, and if the Government messages had been charged for the profits would be at least twice as great. The Govern ment has other valuable assets in Alaska, among which may be included buildings to the value of $136,000, military roads and trails worth $100,000, fog and light signal stations worth over $150,000, reindeer worth about $50,000, military posts worth from $50,000 to $75,000, to say nothing of a couple of revenue steamers, the value of the Alaska boundary survey, the Indian schools, the money expended in the protection of the fishing industry, the timber inclosed in forest reservations, and the coal lands which have been withdrawn from entry. Mr. Chairman, I request an impartial comparison on the merits of these two bills, now before your committee, for Territorial government for Alaska. The first of these bills introduced by Mr. Cale is a bill that I have previously introduced in several Congresses, and have pressed for years before this committee, but it has never, I regret to say, been reported. I had the promise during the last session of Congress that before its adjournment this bill of mine would be reported and get a place on the Calendar. I have no vanity in this matter. I am trying to get results. I want no credit, no glory, but I do want to see the Alaskans get home rule, and what I would like to have this committee do, and do speedily, is to give the people of Alaska a law for Territorial government, like Congress has given every other Territory ever created in these United States. I am a friend of Mr. Cale, the Delegate from Alaska; he is the duly elected representative of the people of Alaska, and he is doing the very best he can to get them their rights. I want to help Mr. Cale in every way in my power. I promised the people in Alaska last summer to do this, and I am going to keep my word. I bespeak for him a courteous hearing in this matter by your committee. I feel confident that he will take substantially the same position in the matter that I have taken. I trust the committee will give heed to all that he says. He is the duly elected Delegate of the people and is here for the purpose of voicing their sentiments and demanding their rights. He is doing the very best he can under adverse circumstances to accomplish his purpose, and I know, and you know, all that he has to contend with, and it seems to me that the members of the committee should do all that they can to help him, and nothing will help him so much as to report and pass this measure for Territorial gov ernment. I want to say And now, Mr. Chairman, a few words in conclusion. again, what I have so frequently said before, that no man can visit Alaska without being deeply impressed. Alaska is a wonderful country. No words can adequately describe it. It is the poor man's, and the rich man's, and the sportsman's paradise. Alaska is the world's wonderland. The time, in my judgment, is at hand when this vast territory will be developed by American genius, American capital, and American enterprise, and take my word for it, there will be no more prosperous section in all this progressive land for American brawn and American brain. Alaska is the place for the new settlerfor the hustler-for the man who wants to go ahead and get on. Alaska wants her rights; she wants home rule; she demands Territorial government. Alaska wants this; Alaska must have it-Alaska with her population of nearly 100,000 people; Alaska with her splendid and invigorating climate; Alaska with her beautiful scenery, her magnificent distances, her towering snow-capped mountains, her ma jestic rivers, her fertile fields, her great industries of fish and furs and timber and agricultural possibilities; Alaska with her immense wealth in gold and copper and silver and lead and iron and coal-mineral wealth beyond the dreams of the most imaginative person in the world; Alaska with her brave and loyal and God-fearing and patriotic American citizens; Alaska with her churches and schools, her splendid institutions, her towns and villages; Alaska under the blue dome of the Union sky and in the shadow of the midnight sun; Alaska with her incomparable glaciers, with her great harbors and innumerable lakes and countless cascades; Alaska, in the name of all these and more, I ask why you should not have the right of home rule, of local self-government, and all the rights of the Territories? COMMITTEE ON THE TERRITORIES, The committee met at 10.30 a. m., Hon. Edward L. Hamilton, chairman, presiding, for the purpose of hearing gentlemen on the question of bills relating to Alaska. The CHAIRMAN. We will first hear Mr. Cale, Delegate from Alaska, in reference to bill No. 16756. STATEMENT OF HON. THOMAS CALE, DELEGATE FROM ALASKA. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, in relation to bill 16756 I have a few words to say in reference to the fixing of the license. I regret very much that at the time this bill was being drafted, and before it was introduced, I was not consulted in the matter, for the reason that many things which you have discussed here and which have taken up a good deal of time before the committee I think would have been found to be unnecessary, and it seems to me that the proper procedure would be to consult the Delegate representing the Territory or District in matters of such importance, before the bill was drafted and introduced. However, we have the bill and we must take it as it is. The bill has some objectionable features in it and it will meet with strenuous opposition in the Territory of Alaska, particularly that part of the bill which fixes the license to saloon keepers-raising the license from $1,000 to $1,500 on saloons outside of municipalities and in communities where the population is less than 1,000 within a radius of two miles. The license should be left at $500 and not raised to $1,000. The road-house license of $250, I believe, is fair and just. The wholesale license has been reduced from $2,000 to $1,000, and while I myself favor a license of $500, making it the same as it is in all parts of the United States, knowing the feeling of many members of the committee in relation to that matter, I would consent to the wholesale license being $1,000. Those are the only objectionable features I notice in the bill. You will find that if $1.000 is the license for the saloons outside of the municipalities, it will principally do away with the saloons in the outside country and on the creeks. I think it means that there will be a great deal of illicit selling of liquor which it will be impossible to control. I believe it would meet with the approval of the people and would raise as much revenue at $1,000, but I think that when everything is considered in connection with it, that it ought to be amended so as to leave it as it is now, $500, instead of raising it to $1,000. I believe that is all I have to say in reference to that bill. The CHAIRMAN. You desire to speak on the Territorial bill? Mr. CALE. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. There are two Territorial bills. Mr. CALE. Yes, sir; the first one is 17649. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I know your committee is a very busy one, and you expect those who appear before you to be as brief as possible. I assure you I will take up as little of your time as possible, and will proceed, without flights of oratory or word painting, to discuss the bill before you in the plain and simple language of a common workingman. You will pardon me if I preface my remarks by referring to my experience in Alaska, so that you may be better able to judge as to what weight should be given to what Ï say. I went into the Territory in 1897 and remained there for ten years continuously. As you are aware, the greater portion of the people of the Territory are miners and prospectors, like myself. These men, many of them, were my associates and companions, and we have camped and slept together. I have also mingled with the professional and so-called business men. I have attended their meetings and social gatherings and participated in their discussions on the question of Territorial self-government and am familiar with their views on that subject. The first question for you gentlemen to dispose of is, Are the people of Alaska asking for Territorial government? I do not believe this committee needs any further proof of that fact than the first time the people had an opportunity to express themselves on that question they did so by electing by an overwhelming majority the candidates nominated by the convention which in its platform declared in unmistakable language for a Territorial government. Also, before the people had a right to express themselves through the ballot box, they expressed themselves through boards of trade, chambers of commerce, miners' meetings, fraternal organizations, and by gatherings of people, wherever they could assemble, by passing resolutions and memorials in favor of Territorial government. The Republican convention, held in Juneau in November to elect delegates to the national convention, declared in the strongest language for home rule. The President, in his message, did likewise. These statements can not nor will not be denied. So, if this committee is satisfied of this fact, the next question is, Are the people capable of determining what is for their best interests, and are they intelligent enough to discharge the duties and obligations that selfgovernment imposes? I can not believe there is a Member on this committee who will dispute for one moment that the people of Alaska are as intelligent, ambitious, honest, patriotic, self-respecting, and moral as any community that the Stars and Stripes ever floated over. Neither do I believe that this committee will say that the people of Alaska, who are almost to a man either born in the various States of the Union or are naturalized citizens of the United States, are not as intelligent, capable, and deserving as are the people of our insular possessions. If there be such a Member, I have no time nor patience to waste with him, and I most respectfully suggest to his constituents that they ask for his immediate resignation and make room for a person who is more thoroughly imbued with American principles and has greater confidence in the virtues and capabilities of his own race. It is true, however, that there is a very small element of people who spend part of their time in Alaska and call themselves Alaskans, who are opposed to Territorial government. And were it not for the fact that some of these people have and are using their influence wherever they can get a hearing to defeat the people in their efforts for Territorial government, and have insulted and misrepresented their intelligence and character by publicly declaring that the substantial business interests of the Territory are in favor of the present conditions, and those who favored local government were saloon men and their class, insinuating that the wealthy and respectable were opposed to a Territorial legislature, and the ignorant and vicious only were clamoring for it. гер I would not bring them into prominence by referring to them here. They are not Alaskans in the true sense of the word. They are Alaskans for revenue only. They are foreign corporations, their resentatives, and those who are depending upon them. They have no interest in the Territory further than to exploit it for their own selfish benefits, and to use it as a field where they can come periodically and fill their coffers with the wealth that is extracted by the labor, industry, and perseverance of those who blazed the trails and opened up the country and made it possible for this insignificant but self-important element to be in the Territory at all. Then they hie themselves to the States where they and their families can enjoy the comforts and blessings that flow from a self-governed community, which they so strenuously deny to those of us who are striving to make Alaska a land of homes, of families, with schools, churches, and institutions of learning and refinement, where we and our families can enjoy all the comforts that are due to those who endured the hardships and privations that had to be endured in order to open up that great north land. It is indeed with surprise and regrets that I find the governor of our Territory sharing the views of this small and unpopular element. Surprised, because I can not understand how or why an American of his intelligence and experience in life, who has been so generously treated and honored by his countrymen, would use that intelligence and ability to deprive or withold from them those inalienable rights which are declared in the Declaration of Independence, and guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. With regrets, because he and I can not work in harmony with each other to secure for the people a Territorial legislature for which the people of all callings and professions have so unanimously declared, and for which they are so anxiously waiting and praying. But this opposition is to be expected. liberty and freedom has always had to Mankind in its struggle for contend with this element. |