[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15215-15216]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                RECOGNIZING THE JUNEAU EMPIRE CENTENNIAL

 Ms. MURKOWSKI. On November 2, 1912, the Alaska Daily Empire 
published its first edition in Juneau. Over the next one hundred years 
it would bear the names Daily Alaska Empire, the Juneau Alaska Empire, 
the Southeast Alaska Empire and today, The Juneau Empire. I wish to pay 
tribute to The Juneau Empire on the occasion of its centennial 
anniversary.
  From the Gold Rush days and through much of the 20th Century, Juneau 
was quite a competitive newspaper town. The Empire was not Juneau's 
first newspaper. That distinction belongs to the Alaska Free Press, 
which was first published in 1887. But in rough and tumble Juneau, 
newspapers came and went. The Empire is

[[Page 15216]]

the only one of perhaps 18 newspapers that survived.
  In 1912, when the Empire was founded, there was but one daily 
newspaper in Juneau, the Daily Alaska Dispatch, which was Republican 
oriented and reflected the progressivism of Theodore Roosevelt's era.
  Franklin Alexander Strong was a Democrat at a time when his party in 
Alaska was conservative and business oriented. A newspaper man who had 
already established The Nome Nugget, Alaska's oldest newspaper in 1900, 
Strong had already relocated to Seattle when he was wooed back to 
Alaska. There were plans to make Strong Alaska's second Territorial 
Governor at the time. Fortunately, Strong left a printing press in 
Iditarod, AK, another Gold Rush town, and moved it to Juneau upon his 
return to launch the Empire as well as his political career.
  In spite of his political aspirations, Strong promised that the paper 
would be politically independent, ``reserving the right to comment or 
fairly criticize any political party that may be in control of the 
federal or territorial administrations.'' Strong had much to criticize.
  Strong's initial editorial read in part:

       Notwithstanding the many disabilities under which Alaska 
     has labored for years past, partly due to ignorance, 
     misinformation and misdirected zeal on the part of the 
     national school of ultra-conservationists, the growth and 
     development of this great commonwealth has been greatly 
     retarded, if not absolutely prohibited in important sections. 
     A change in policy by the federal administration we believe 
     to be indispensible to the end that the people of Alaska may 
     be permitted to enjoy the fruits of their labors, in 
     developing its great latent natural resources.

  This is a man who understood Alaska. Sadly, Strong was prescient 
about the challenges that Alaska would face dealing with the Federal 
Government in the coming years. His 1912 editorial could very easily 
appear in Alaska newspapers during this 21st century.
  Strong would achieve his dream of becoming Alaska's second 
Territorial Governor in 1913, a role he would hold until April 1918 
when it was discovered that Strong was not eligible to hold the job 
because he was a Canadian who had never obtained US citizenship. 
Another of the Empire's leaders, John Weir Troy, would serve as 
Alaska's Territorial Governor, serving as publisher after Strong from 
1914 until he became Governor in 1933. From 1933 to 1955 the Empire's 
publisher was one of the first women to run a newspaper in Alaska, 
Helen Troy Bender Monsen. She was followed by William Prescott Allen 
from 1955 to just after Statehood in 1960 and then by Donald W. 
Reynolds until 1969.
  The Empire's modern period began in 1969 when the Morris newspaper 
chain of Augusta, Georgia acquired and brought stability to the 
publication. This would be a godsend to Juneau in its fight to 
forestall repeated efforts to move Alaska's capital out of the 
Southeast city. The Empire would be a vehement opponent of the move.
  The Empire was unusual at its founding in that it was a non-partisan 
newspaper, not supposedly favoring either national political party. It 
made that point in its first edition when it said:

       It may well be here to emphasize that the Empire is not in 
     politics. Politics is a mere incidental to a legitimate 
     business industry. As a matter of fact, Alaska has been 
     suffering, and is still suffering from a glut of politics. 
     More work and less talk of partisan politics may accomplish 
     something tangible.

  The newspaper was unusual in other ways. While crime news was a 
fixture--the paper's first crime stories were focused on Robert Stroud, 
who became famous as the Birdman of Alcatraz after he shot and killed a 
bartender in Juneau to start his criminal record--became one of the 
first papers in the Nation to run an obituary of a dog on its front 
page. On March 31, 1942, the paper ran the obituary of Patsy Ann, a pit 
bull, who met every steamship to dock in downtown Juneau for more than 
a decade, often posing for pictures with visitors ``with an aloof . . . 
dignity that befitted her official position,'' as the town's official 
mascot, the dog being the only animal that the City Council itself paid 
for her dog license.
  The Empire over the years made its living covering ``hard'' news--
from the town's first industry, gold mining, to fisheries and 
government affairs, highlighted by World War I, World War II and the 
Cold War with Russia. But the paper also found time to cover visiting 
dignitaries to Alaska's Capital City, from President Warren Harding who 
arrived on July 10, 1923 to movie stars John Barrymore, Ingrid Bergman 
and Gary Grant and from comedians Bob Hope and Edgar Bergen, to a four-
legged movie star--Lassie.
  Over the years the Empire has been home to a number of writers who 
would go on to play significant roles in Alaska public policy issues. 
Larry Persily, who once served as the Empire's Managing Editor, today 
serves as Federal Coordinator for Alaska Natural Gas Transportation 
Projects. Kim Elton, who served as editor from March 1976 until June 
1978 would go on to represent Juneau in the Alaska Legislature and 
currently serves as Director of Alaska Affairs at the US Department of 
the Interior under Secretary Ken Salazar.
  On behalf of my Senate colleagues, I congratulate the staff of the 
Juneau Empire on the occasion of the newspaper's 100th birthday and 
wish the Juneau Empire many more years of service to the people of 
Alaska.

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