 Lathrop feared that Alaska statehood would entail taxes and regulations that would harm business, and the "Daily News-Miner" took a stance challenging pro-statehood Territorial Governor Ernest Gruening.On July 26, 1950, Lathrop was killed in an accident when he was struck by a railroad car in the yard of his Suntrana coal plant.The Fairbanks Empress Theater was the first concrete building constructed in Fairbanks.