The Alaska Daily Empire

ONE BUSY MAN
(Fairbanks News-Miner)

That Governor over at Juneau is one busy man since he began to receive communications from Washington regarding war matters. Just about every other day he congests the telegraph wires with long instructions to our war bureau here, and on the alternate days he countermands or qualifies them to an alarming idea, showing that he has just about as much real knowledge of what is to come to us of the Interior in the way of war or conscription as he has of Jefferson Democracy.

Some time since the Governor made the surface discovery that the Government would pay the fare of such Fairbanksans as wished to renounce their conscription chances and volunteer for immediate service. Our boys jumped at this chance; sold their steel traps, little outfits of provisions they had laid by for the winter, their automobile or anything they had and wouldn't need while away (if ever afterwards) and prepared to go to fight. The intelligence was wired the Governor; whereupon he wired back that maybe the Government wouldn't pay ALL the fare, and that we should look to ourselves to make up the "overs."

Having done this and wired progress to the Governor. He then wired back that he had been only fooling; that the Government wouldn't pay a cent of the cost of transportation for our volunteers—whereat our volunteers considered themselves stung, and let it go at that; those who didn't let it go at that are to be given a benefit ball tomorrow night to raise money to help them to the training camps of the Outside. This volunteering was indicated to abolish the prospects of conscription here, and to take its place—this morning the Governor sends the Defense Board another long telegram indicating that conscription is just about to jump us and that we must do nothing but keep busy with it until we hear from Strong again. What do you know about that?

This camp and its people have no desire to avoid conscription, but to the contrary. Our boys are ready whenever the Government is ready for them, and before. The only annoyance in the whole matter is that they are at the beck and call of a man who doesn't know what he can do or how to do it or when it must be done, and by his ignorance keeps our boys and the camp busy on useless work all the time. So long as our Governor could "just flop along" at his phoney little governing job, he bothered us none, for nobody in Alaska paid any particular attention to what he did or said, but since he was dignified through his official position by connection with war matters, he is becoming more of a pest than ever.

It's too bad!