But for the people of alaska, one persistent vision was to become americans, a vision thwarted for 92 years by powerful commercial interests that ruled the territory from a distance and a federal government that seemed at best indifferent. In 1955, alaskans took a major step toward selfgovernment when they wrote the constitution they hoped would help make the territory a state. This is the story of that constitution and how alaskans won the right to govern themselves. In retrospect, i think we did as good a job as could have been done, and i think that the constitution has fully stood the test of time. It was designed to be adaptable to the future, to be a lasting document like the u. S. Constitution. Well, it was a big gamble, except it was a gamble we had to take because we wouldnt get another opportunity. They came here because they were trying to create, literally, a new world based upon lets do it right this time. That was heard more times at the convention. We dont care how you did it outside. Thats another thing. Kim owen was a professor at the State University of louisiana, and he became the consultant for the committee on style and drafting. I can hear him in his southern brogue the language must sing, and he helped to make the language sing. The clarity and the simplicity and the directness that you see expressed in the original constitution came largely from the work of George Sundborg and kim owen. I think, not just because i was a member of it or because im one of the last five members of the constitution, that it was a good document. I think that historians and i think people in the political arena have always said, since we got out of the convention in 1956, that it was a model convention, that it was a model structure. Narrator in 1867, secretary of state William Henry seward negotiated the purchase of alaska from imperial russia, but few americans understood why. Described as sewards folly and utterly worthless by opponents in congress and across the country, alaska was unknown and unwanted by all but a few. But seward had a vision for america as a great sea power in the pacific. He understood alaska was strategically located just off the great circle route, the shortest distance to asia. Ultimately, sewards notion was sort of the preeminent example of manifest destiny. Now, the words manifest destiny have come into great disdain perhaps in recent years, but all it meant at the time was that the ultimate destiny, the manifest or obvious destiny of the United States, would be to be a continental nation from sea to sea. Narrator for the first 20 years after the purchase, the few americans who came north found a primitive region with virtually no economy and even less civil government and law. But the next act in alaskas history was far more dramatic. On july 14, 1897, the ss excelsior arrived in san francisco. On board was more than 750,000 of raw gold from a New Discovery in the klondike region. What would follow was the last great mineral stampede in north america. You have one alaska before the gold rush. You have a brandnew alaska after the gold rush, and then after the gold rush, alaska is populated with nonnatives for the first time, and its characterized, at least through 1920, by lots and lots of american investment. Narrator the influx of prospectors with the great klondike stampede led to smaller mineral discoveries in the alaska territory, including a frenzied gold strike on a remote beach in northwest alaska called nome. The nome gold rush included many of the original characters from the klondike stampede, but one of the new faces was alexander mackenzie, who, through political connections, installed a crooked federal judge in the nome district named arthur noyes. Alexander mackenzie has to be the biggest crook who ever came to alaska. He masterminded this scheme largely to loot the mines of nome. The noyesmackenzie scandal was resolved by a man named judge James Wickersham, and James Wickersham actually is the first great political leader of alaska who would articulate the need for statehood. Narrator some of the most powerful investors of the territorial period were j. P. Morgan and the guggenheim brothers. Their operations included huge copper mines, a railroad to bring the copper ore to tidewater, and shipping companies to carry the ore south. The integrated monopoly became known as the alaska syndicate, and by the early 20th century, it accounted for the majority of alaskas economy. Alaskans needed the jobs the investors brought, but many resented outside control over their lives. One of wickershams great foes for much of his career were the guggenheims. Now, early on, its a little bit confusing because he appears like he initially wanted to work for them after he actually left his judgeship. And maybe its actually because they sort of spurned him that it was really alaska divided into two camps. It was the wickersham, or the wick camp, and the gug camp, and wickersham definitely threw himself in the antigug camp. Narrator in 1906, the u. S. Congress created the office of alaska delegate, a purely advisory position with no vote. Three years later, in 1908, wickersham ran successfully for delegate against the handpicked choice of the guggenheims. Wickersham has a long record of accomplishment in his time as delegate. One of the most important was the passage of the second organic act in 1912, which created the alaska Territorial Legislature. This was really the first time that alaskans really had a substantial say in controlling their own affairs. The legislature did have power to levy taxes, which was a power, by the way, that the salmon canning industry vigorously fought. Narrator throughout the territorial era, the powerful salmon canning Companies Made every effort to block taxation. Wickersham wrote that they resent the suggestion that the people of alaska have any right or interest in the salmon of the fisheries, and they resent it when it is suggested that they pay some little portion of the tax for the building of roads or the development of the country. In 1916, wickersham introduced in the u. S. Congress a bill to make alaska a state, a bill that he knew had no chance of passing. Hard to tell how serious he was about that. Is the United StatesCongress Going to create a state where you have 30,00 citizens, most of whom are probably not permanent residents . Transiency was one of the issues that congress always considered when it was looking at statehood. The canneries come up every may. At the end of the season, theyd take the pack and go back, and the money was actually generated in seattle and san francisco. And of course, the salmon industry doesnt want taxation in alaska. They dont want more stable government. They dont want statehood because thats going to mean regulation. Thats going to mean taxation. So thats a big piece of the story. Narrator the dominance of absentee commercial interests in alaska would continue unchecked until 1939, when a very new territorial governor came north to assume his duties. Ernest gruening was a new deal democrat from new york city. Originally a graduate of harvard medical school, some said gruening had been awarded the job in alaska after offending his boss, secretary of the interior harold ickes. Gruening, like wickersham, had a voracious intellect and enormous ambition and lots of energy, all at the same time that he had a medical degree. He was dr. Ernest gruening. But all you have to know about gruening is, of course, the title that he gave to his autobiography, many battles. Thats how he saw his life, was many battles. Maybe the better title wouldve been many, many battles, because he battled wherever he was of what he thought was injustice. There was a certain intellectual arrogance about him which didnt go down too well. He was dealing with pretty ordinary people. I come from a bluecollar background myself, and theres always a suspicion. He had the best interests of the people at heart. He was a great advocate of equality for the natives, which is not a popular thing to be in alaskastill isnt and things like that. He had a lot of new deal ideals which were not palatable to a lot of people. Narrator almost immediately, territorial governor gruening could see alaskas main problem. Gruening wrote that alaska was in the grip of absentee interests and that the wealth of alaska was being drained off, and next to nothing was staying there for its needs. It was only with the arrival of Ernest Gruening as governor in 1939 that the Governors Office really became a substantial power center in alaska for the first time, because gruening is the man who essentially expanded the office, largely with the force of his will and the fact that he was going to make something of this job. Narrator some alaskans disagreed with gruenings message on principle and others because they simply disliked him personally. Partisan politics werent that keen when i first came here. It was either you were progruening or antigruening. Personalities were the big feature. He was visionary. He was not a politician. He didnt softsoap people and stroke them. He called the shots the way he saw them, and it wasnt always done with grace. Narrator in the swirl of controversy surrounding Ernest Gruenings governorship of the alaska territory, perhaps the single event least expected but most consequential began on december 7, 1941, with the japanese attack on pearl harbor. Seven months later, Imperial Japanese aircraft carriers launched a dive bomber attack against the naval base at dutch harbor in the aleutian islands. A couple of days later, japanese marines landed on attu and kiska islands. No single event had as much effect on the territory of alaska as the Second World War. The value of alaskas unique geography was suddenly and dramatically clear to the government of the United States. World war ii would revolutionize the demography of alaska in the same way that the klondike gold rush did, except multiplied 100 times. I mean, the war brought so many new people and different kinds of people than ever before. Now, not just soldiers. Obviously there was a vast increase in the military troop strength, but the war would bring a huge increase in what would be the nucleus of the urban population of alaska. Narrator the territories roughly 75,000 people were overwhelmed by the 300,000 military and construction personnel who poured in. In the spring of 1943, americanled forces retook attu and kiska islands in a brief but bitter struggle that concluded the only campaign of the war on north american soil. By wars end, alaskas population had grown by 1 3 to 100,000. And many of the thousands the war brought north liked what they had seen. Alaskas burgeoning population also created new demands on the territory for schools, roads, and police. Governor gruening knew the territory needed more money to solve the problem. Alaskas Territorial Legislature had resisted every effort to establish a modernized tax structure. Even worse, the 1947 legislature left alaska with an enormous budget deficit that threatened the territorys solvency. Gruening was incensed and campaigned successfully against many incumbents so that in 1948, alaskans elected a largely new Territorial Legislature. This is the sort of thing that he was up against. He said, weve got to demonstrate to the citizens of the rest of the United States that we know how to run a business, a business of government. Narrator perhaps most importantly, the 1949 legislature responded to a proposal from governor gruening to create the alaska Statehood Committee, a Citizens Group that would be charged with undertaking a Public Campaign for statehood. Foremost on the new Statehood Committee was bob bartlett of fairbanks. Bartlett had been elected to the office of territorial delegate to congress in 1944 and would go on to lead alaskas fight for statehood in washington d. C. In the 1950s, america was engaged in a new war, a cold war with the soviet union. And with only 55 miles separating the territory from siberia, the u. S. Government recognized alaskas strategic importance. A long list of defense Construction Projects meant that federal spending would continue to dominate the territorys economy. Alaskans were optimistic in the flush of a booming economy, but in many ways, little had changed in the federal governments approach to governing the territory. The Eisenhower Administration seemed indifferent to the Statehood Movement, and at the same time, dissatisfaction with the territorys administration and judicial system was reaching the boiling point. In 1954, it became very clear that congress again hadnt acted on an alaska statehood bill and that something more needed to be done. Narrator territorial representative tom stewart was a young former assistant attorney general. I decided that there wasnt really anybody in alaska who knew much about how to set up, structure, and operate a Constitutional Convention. So i made a sixweeklong trip across the country. I went to the university of washington; i went to the university of chicago; i went to yale, which was my school. And then i went to new jersey, and i went to princeton university, and new jersey had had a convention, a very successful convention in 1946 and 47. They had rewritten their constitution, and in trenton, i had an introduction to a woman named marie katzenbach. Marie katzenbach was a Vice President of the new jersey convention. She said, hold your convention at the State University. I said, we dont have a State University; we have something called the Alaska Agricultural College and school of mines. She said, well, hold it there instead of in the capitol because the capitol has entrenched lobbying interests, and they will be lobbying for their pet projects. And you go to the university, youll have a library facility, and its a much better scene. Narrator before the end of the 1955 territorial legislative session, stewart had drafted a final version of a bill proposing a Constitutional Convention that would take place at the university of alaska in fairbanks. The bill included an innovative method for electing the delegates that would sidestep the original gold rushera rules that divided alaska into four enormous and awkward districts for elections. I was determined, as well as other committee members, that we needed to have broad representation at the convention. So we had to conjure up some scheme to create special election districts from which the delegates would be elected. And what we ultimately ended up withand this was a controversial proposition, but we got it through the legislaturewe would create election districts that were defined by the recording districts. So we created these special election districts, and we ended up with by far the most representative governmental assembly that had ever convened. Our primary purpose is to move toward statehood by proving we could write a good constitution. Narrator the Constitutional Convention bill was originally designated house bill number one to emphasize the number one priority legislators placed on statehood. The final version of the Constitutional Convention bill passed the legislature in march of 1955. Alaskans had set out on a course they hoped would make them a state. The winter of 1955 was a cold one even by fairbanks standards, and temperatures plummeted as the delegates trickled in from around the territory. For many statehood foes, alaskas Constitutional Convention was just an exercise in political theater. Unauthorized by the u. S. Congress and below the radar of mainstream media, most stayed at home and ignored it. The fact is that the media didnt show up because nobody thought we were serious. They thought we were just a group of people going through an exercise. Not many people took the work that seriously, which is proven by the fact that there were essentially no lobbyists. There was virtually no one from the salmon canning industry, no one from the incipient oil industry at that time. They didnt show up because it really didnt have the overriding concern that, you know, they sort of wondered, is anything ever going to come of this . Narrator on the opening day, congressional delegate bob bartlett made the keynote address to the convention. He laid out the major challenges. Alaskans desire statehood because they are americans, and americans dont like to live forever as colonists. Narrator bartlett said that the story of alaskas Natural Resources had too often been one of exploitation with very little of the wealth extracted making it into the hands of the territory or citizens. Former territorial governor Ernest Gruening spoke on the second day. As usual, he pulled no punches. It was one of gruenings most impassioned speeches. He said, we meet to validate the most basic of american principles, the principles of government by consent of the governed, because alaska is no less a colony, and taxation without representation is no less tyranny in 1955 than it was in 1775. They knew Ernest Gruening to be this accomplished, spellbinding speaker, but bob bartletti think everybody was just knocked out by what he said about the resources. Bob bartlett really framed the key question for the convention with his keynote address and his discussion of Natural Resources because Natural Resources are at the heart of the alaskan economic an