Colonialism at Home

...If destined for any point in Alaska, the identical service costs $3.80, or well over twice as much...

...Alaskans are making an all-out effort to validate it...

...Altogether these indefensibly inequitable practices by the "mother country" have added greatly to the high cost of living in Alaska...

...The task which confronts the three "Alaska-Tennessee Plan" emissaries, who have been at work since their election in October, 1956, is to convince the members of Congress of the justice and soundness of Alaska's cause...

...Alaskans can present a list of grievances beginning 91 years ago, and little abated to date, which they sum up in the contemporarily challenging word "colonialism...

...Having failed to secure statehood in the twelve years since they voted for it in a referendum provided by their 1945 territorial legislature, they adopted a vigorous course of action...

...Moreover, if admitted, Alaska would not remain a state small in population...

...The Organic Act of 1912, granted only after 45 years of flagrant neglect, was a vast improvement over its worthless predecessor but was notable chiefly for the things it forbade Alaskans to do...

...Their effect was to deny Alaskans the use of nearer and less costly Canadian ports and compel all shipments by way of Seattle...

...so doing they followed well-established, but not widely known, precedents made early in our nation's history...

...The areas around the Pacific eligible for them now include all those except Alaska and Western Canada (to which no maritime traffic goes from the States...

...Hence the canned salmon industry's opposition...

...Despite the protests of Alaska's voteless Delegate, James Wichersham, they were able to write continuing federal control of the fisheries into the new Act, although they lost out in their effort to prevent the Territory from taxing the industry's product, canned salmon...

...While four Administrations and eight Congresses came and went it was not possible in Alaska to acquire a square foot of land, stake a claim, transfer or deed property, get married, punish crime...

...For 45 years, Alaskans, through unceasing legislative memorials, by bills repeatedly introduced by their Delegates, and by popular referenda, have requested the abolition of fish-traps and the transfer of the fisheries to territorial management...

...Alaska Fights Back Colonialism at Home by ERNEST GRUENING NINETY-ONE years ago, on March 30, 1867, the United States acquired Alaska from Russia and pledged that "The inhabitants of the territory . . '. shall be admitted to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States...

...In 1924 he was publicity director in the Presidential campaign for the late Robert Marion LaFollette, Sr...

...But in the heart of the Act were inserted the words "excluding Alaska...

...Five—Non-contiguity...

...The fishing interests of the West Coast, endowed by the Treasury Department for the first 40 years of U. S. rule with a monopoly of the rich Pribilof Islands fur seal fishery, early began also to exploit the Pacific salmon, for many years the nation's most valuable fishery resources...

...The United States originally established no government in Alaska, which was merely made a customs district...

...During his first three years President Eisenhower found it necessary to declare Alaska's fishing villages disaster areas, wrought not by "Acts of God" but by acts of men...

...Public opinion supports statehood overwhelmingly...

...appointed governors...

...Alaskans attribute the depletion to the fish-trap, a structure anchored in the path of the salmon returning from the sea to spawn in the rivers and lakes, which catches large quantities of fish—too large for conservation...

...Released from its throttling restrictions, it is certain to become an American equivalent of Scandinavia...

...Other discriminations of similar origin afflict Alaska, including many in the field of highway aid...

...The national economy would be strengthened...

...He is the author of several books including "The Public Pays," "Mexico and Its Heritage," and "The State of Alaska," which contains a more comprehensive analysis of the problems and needs of that area than could be contained in this brief article...

...Had this view prevailed ours would still be a nation of 13 states...

...Statehood would automatically transfer the fisheries and be followed by abolition of the traps...

...Positive arguments for Alaskan statehood are numerous...

...While it is not possible to predict what position Alaska's future Senators might take on national issues, Alaskans feel that such opposition is carrying regional problems too far afield, and certainly does not justify blocking the promised and long overdue extension of the democratic process to other Americans...

...To this opposition is added the resistance of certain transportation interests...

...The victims are the Alaska fishermen and the inhabitants of the coastal communities long dependent on the salmon economy...

...Alaskans hope for relief through the American principle of government by consent of the governed...

...Three—Partisanship...

...The 1955 legislature passed an act providing for a constitutional convention to draw up a constitution for the State of Alaska, and appropriating $300,000 for that purpose...

...It provided that only a federal judiciary could dispense justice, at the same time making no provision for salaries to its lower court judges who to this day must subsist on the fees they can collect from the public— incomes insufficient for a livelihood for five-sixths of them...

...In the past forty years its legislative elections have been followed by the same result recorded party-wise in Congressional elections...

...Actually, however, Alaska would be a "swing" state...

...Actually Alaska has more population than two-thirds of the 35 states at the time of their admission...

...Their need for statehood, they believe, is at least as imperative as that which motivated their predecessors...

...Some Republicans oppose Alaska's admission because they feel it is likely to send Democrats to Congress...

...Virtually every important national organization—business, labor, patriotic, service, fraternal—has endorsed statehood for Alaska...

...Two—Alaska cannot afford statehood...

...Statehood would eliminate this grave injustice and is therefore not favored by those in the United States who have benefited from the thirty-eight year old status quo, which Alaska's voteless delegates have vainly sought to repeal session after session...

...It forbade the creation of counties...

...The financial burden placed on Alaska in maritime transportation has been greatly augmented by discrimination in railroad tariffs...

...They are man-made and made-in-the-U.S.A...

...During the past half century American railways have developed "import-export" tariffs for overseas freight, which are substantially lower than those on domestic shipments...

...Their evidence is far too extensive to treat adequately in this article, but a few examples may suffice...

...Tennessee began the practice in 1796, followed in chronological order by Michigan, Iowa, California, Minnesota, Oregon, and Kansas...

...Four—Some Southern Democrats oppose Alaska's admission on the ground that it would weaken the South's bloc in Senate votes on cloture...

...All that Alaskans—and the great majority of Americans who support the cause of Alaskan statehood—are asking is that the United States apply to Alaska the most basic of American principles, that of government by consent of the governed...

...The pack has dwindled from a high of 8,454,948 cases to 2,983,662 cases in 1957...

...In 1920 Congress passed "The Maritime Act of 1920...

...The desire of Alaskans for the full citizenship promised them is akin to that felt in the thirty-five states admitted to the Union since the original thirteen...

...Of all Pacific areas, foreign or domestic, Alaska alone is penalized...

...This means that any Alaskan consignment to or from Seattle, Alaska's port of entry and exit, to or from any point in the States, pays a higher rate than if destined for, or coming from, any other area in the Pacific—including Australia, Asia, South America...

...Alaska has far more resources and potential revenues than many states...

...Fifty-five delegates met for 75 days at the University of Alaska and drafted a document which political scientists declare to be at least the equal of any other state charter...

...In 1884 Congress passed an Organic Act which proved unworkable and was the object of unremitting protest by five successive PresidentiallyERNEST GRUENING, formerly governor of Alaska, has long dealt with the problems of American territorial possessions...

...Only at the turn of the century, in response to the outcries of some thousands of gold rushers—still voters in their home districts—Congress began to act...

...It maintained the management and regulation of the fisheries and wildlife under federal control...

...Some members of Congress voice opposition to admitting an area not touching the 48 states...

...One—The recurring argument, found in nearly all previous debates on other states' admission, is that it would be unfair to the more populous states to give Alaska's 225,000 people two Senators...

...Both party platforms pledge "immediate statehood...

...In this rapidly shrinking world, Alaska is nearer the national capital in travel time—the current measure of distance—than were many states at the time of their admission...

...To date that pledge has been honored in the breach...

...Throughout Alaska's history under the United States, this powerful absentee industry, through its lobbyists in Washington and Juneau, has gone far to control the political and economic life of the Territory...

...At the same time they approved an ordinance authorizing the election of two U. S. Senators and a Representative to go to Washington to knock at the door of Congress for admission...

...Alaska has been operating all the public services found in the states except those Congress has prohibited...

...Also, Alaska's long subjection to central government control is likely to make its Senators state's righters on many issues...

...The answer is that the issue should be above partisanship...

...This argument was also cited against other territories prior to admission and was always disproved by events...

...Materially and spiritually it would strengthen our position in the world to permit Alaska to fulfill its logical destiny...

...For example: Household appliances shipped from Iowa to the Orient pay on that part of the haul between the point of origin and Seattle, $1.58 per hundred pounds...

...Opposing any increase in Alaska's autonomy (and highly successful in that endeavor to date), resisting essential conservation measures while giving them public lip-service, it has managed to dominate in varying degree the successive regulatory agencies— in Treasury, Commerce, and Interior—regardless of whether the Administration was Republican or Democratic...

...The Act provided the interchangeable use of domestic and foreign carriers— foreign meaning principally Canadian—for transporting freight across the continent and over the oceans beyond...

...Alaskans since 1881 had been actively asking for a Delegate in Congress, such as other territories had had, to represent them...

...Whence, then, comes the opposition apart from the special interests mentioned above...

...Alaska has been an unfailing political barometer in electing Republicans and Democrats...

...The first session of the 85th Congress has held hearings and has reported similar Senate and House bills favorably...

...There is also the instantaneous communication of the radio telephone...

...The owners, who have retired their original investment many times, can get by with a small pack at higher prices...

...Alaska was thereby burdened with the highest maritime freight costs in the world...

...By then Alaskans were seeking the minimum of self-government afforded all other territories—a legislature—hut did not achieve it until 1912...

...It prohibited the territory from passing any basic land legislation, thus impeding settlement and forshadowing a continuing near-totality of public domain...

...Congress delayed this gift till 1906...

...The people of Alaska ratified it at an election in April, 1956...

...The shipping lobby is too powerful...

...The test will come in the first few months of 1958 when Congress reconvenes...

...For the following 45 years efforts to liberalize the Act have failed...

...New frontiers of opportunity would be opened...

...The last Gallup Poll taken in June 1957 shows a nine to one favorable vote...

...Our nation cannot afford to maintain colonialism at home while preaching against it abroad...

...That destiny is to become not merely a bulwark of defense for the hemisphere, but a shining example of what free men can accomplish in those high latitudes, long ignored by most Americans, in contrast to the adjacent Soviet police state...

...However, most of its Alaska legislation, based on lack of knowledge, was unsatisfactory...

...The fish-trap has been abolished in the other Pacific salmon areas— British Columbia, Washington, Oregon—where local control has managed to obviate depletion of the same resource...

...Budding Alaskan industries could not support the higher costs and were compelled to shut down, while others have been prevented from starting...

...What are the negative allegations, and what are the answers to them...