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4.5.3'.wavAnother important leader in the early statehood movement was Governor Ernest Gruening. Born in 1887 in New York City, Gruening was a Harvard-trained doctor, but he practiced politics and journalism, not medicine. In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him territorial governor, and he continued to serve until 1953.
In Alaska, Gruening soon found himself at odds with the canned salmon, shipping, and mining industries over new taxes. He wanted them. They didn't. Describing revenues to the territory from Alaska's resources as "virtually negligible," he spent the next ten years fighting for change. "The wealth of Alaska was being drained off, and next to nothing was staying there for its needs," he wrote later.
Governor Ernest Gruening
Gruening complained that the old tax system benefited special interests and harmed the average Alaskan. He said the dividends from the huge Kennecott mine, which had been abandoned in 1938 after producing $200 million in copper, had enriched "many individuals who never saw Alaska and had no thought of ever coming here or doing anything for the Territory. . ." Although mining and fishing topped the list of industries, by 1947 more money poured into the treasury from alcohol taxes than anything else.Â
After completing 13 years as governor, Gruening wrote a book titled "The State of Alaska," which was published five years before statehood. He used the book as a way to publicize what he viewed as federal neglect of the territory and to advocate for statehood.
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