(See Cover)
When you took me young and trusting
From the growling Russian Bear,
Loud you swore before the nation
I should have the Eagle's care.
Never yet has wing of Eagle
Cast a shadow on my peaks
But I've watched the flight of buzzards,
And I've felt their busy beaks.
—Anonymous Alaskan, circa 1900
In the House dining room of the Capitol one day last week, a youthful dark-haired man was having lunch when he heard the roll-call bell. He jammed the last quarter of his tuna sandwich into his mouth, gulped his coffee and hurried up to a gallery overhanging the Democratic side of the aisle. There, Michael Anthony Stepovich, 39, Alaska's first native-born Governor, watched intently as one by one the Congressmen below called out their votes. A few minutes later, the House passed the Alaska statehood bill. Stepovich glanced at his wife, sitting a few seats away, and broke into a broad, gold-tipped smile.
Mike Stepovich, happy as a sourdough with a new-found nugget, turned to leave, stopped to sign autographs for well-wishers, then stepped outside to pose for pictures and some hugs-and-backslap horseplay with Alaska's Democratic Delegate E. L. ("Bob") Bartlett and with two engineers of the House victory: New York's Democrat Leo O'Brien and Pennsylvania's Republican John Saylor. It was Floor Manager O'Brien, counseled at every turn by Speaker Sam Rayburn, who had beaten back strong-willed opposition from Virginia's Democratic Howard Smith, chairman of the Rules Committee, and Minority Leader Joe Martin. "It's great, it's great," sighed the Governor. "I'm very happy for the people of Alaska."
The people of Alaska were happy for themselves, too. In the Moose Hall on Franklin Street in Juneau, American Bar Association President Charles Rhyne (TIME, May 5) had just finished his speech to the Alaska Bar Association when a newsman slipped in, gave the news of the House vote and sparked the audience to cheers. Throughout the territory, the cheers echoed, sometimes with a little reservation ("We've been this far before"); the Fairbanks News-Miner frontpaged a picture of a pair of hands with fingers crossed (for the bill needs Senate approval). In Fairbanks' Elks Club, scores of Alaskans tied on a wingding of a binge. At bars and soda fountains, drinks were on the house. Said a Unalakleet-born Eskimo named Oliver Amouak: "It's a good thing. I like to see it come on fine. I will enjoy my first vote for President."