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reorganization, stabilization, and economy of operation of the railroad. (Report on Alaska Railroad, 'Then 1923-Now 1926.') But no considerable or permanent increase in traffic has occurred. The Secretary of the Interior states that 'the general manager, located at the railroad's headquarters in Anchorage, Alaska, has supreme authority over the railroad's affairs,' and that 'the railroad is being managed in the same manner as privately owned railroads in the States.' A privately owned railroad usually has a board of directors and an executive committee who outline a policy for the road and are responsible for its expenditures. It would seem that such a body might very properly be organized to do this in the case of the Alaska railroad, leaving to the general manager the work of carrying out the general policy and superintending operations.

It would become one of the duties of this board to organize a definite plan of colonization with an office centrally located and agents in different parts of the country. This office or agency should collect and condense all available information concerning Alaska, verify its accuracy, and distribute it in communities where it might be expected to bear fruit. Areas contiguous to the railroad should receive most attention, of course, and especially the Tanana Valley and the region around Fairbanks. It is beyond dispute that the road can never succeed financially or fulfill the purpose for which it was authorized until this valley and the country surrounding and tributary to the interior terminal are populated by a permanent citizenry many times greater than is the case at the present time. The population of this region has declined since the beginning of the railroad construction.

Every inducement should be offered

to intending settlers in the way of free railroad transportation of persons, household effects, implements, and animals; some sort of bonus, even, might be given to get them started. The cost of clearing land is high in most cases, as is also the expense of transporting products to market. The cost of transportation will improve with the extension of roads, while the growing towns of the coast engaged in fishing, mining, and other industries will furnish increasing market demands. The United States Land Office at Anchorage has this to say on the subject:

We do not advise settlers entering upon these lands with the idea of getting their living entirely from the soil while improving their property. Unless the settler has sufficient money to carry him over that period, he must work elsewhere to provide these necessities, not obtainable on the farm. Alaska can absorb the number of settlers each year consistent with the developing of other industries in the vicinity of agricultural districts. With the expan

sion of these industries market facilities will be increased and the farmer properly supported. This advice is not given for the purpose of discouraging settlement, but to inform the prospective settler correctly as to the present situation.

The last of these sentences should be the guide to all information sent out concerning the Territory.

The present homestead laws appear to be liberal enough, but they should be further liberalized, if it is found advisable, not following necessarily the experiences of the past in other and more favored sections, but seeking what will bring the best results in Alaska.

It would be well if the present United States immigration laws could be amended to permit a larger percentage of immigrants from the Scandinavian countries to move directly to

Alaska, and if an agent could be sent to Scandinavia to superintend the business. Immigrants from those countries make excellent citizens and are familiar with the climatic conditions that prevail in Alaska.

With the formation of a board of directors of the railroad and a definite policy agreed upon, Congress might be asked to authorize an issue of bonds upon the railroad in an amount, say, of $30,000,000 to run for thirty years, interest guaranteed by the Government; but only so much of the authorized total to be issued each year, and upon the approval of the President, as might be necessary to carry out the policy of the board of directors and to meet any deficiency in operating expenses. This would obviate the necessity of going before Congress each year for appropriations and would permit sufficient time to determine the value and future usefulness of the road.

It might not become necessary to issue bonds to the total amount authorized, and the traffic of the road might be developed in the meanwhile to a point where its earnings would pay the bond interest. If this could not be accomplished by the end of the appointed period, with the Government then involved to the extent of more than $100,000,000, it might be in order to consider the saving of further expense by disposing of the road for whatever it might bring.

For the present it is essential to save the railroad to Alaska, now that we have it, and to provide for the accomplishment of the purpose for which it was constructed. The proposal to establish a different coast terminal from Seward, bringing the road out at Portage Bay, has been discussed since construction of the road was first begun. The suggestion will probably bring forth expressions of opposition,

but no harm can come from the determination of the matter finally on its merits, all the factors involved being faithfully considered.

VI

From the earliest discoveries in this far province of the North through the period of our own possession, the stories of fur, of giant moose, great Kodiak bear, vast herds of caribou, the beautiful inland waterway of southeast Alaska, the fur seal, the salmon, the glaciers, towering Mount McKinley, the broad Yukon, the rich discoveries of placer gold deep under the frost, have gripped the public mind with a romantic interest which is not readily displaced by talk of material development. This sentiment is of substantial value and may be utilized for the benefit of Alaska, and for the pleasure and happiness of great numbers of people.

Let Alaska be offered to the traveling, touring, scenery-loving public. Let the expenditures already made in Alaska, or further required, for the maintenance of the railroad and for the extension of roads and trails be accepted as contributing to this end, just as expenditures are accepted in the States for improvement of parks and highways. Let the plan of Yellowstone Park be followed in a large way without applying its restrictions to the whole Territory. Alaska will then truly become a possession of the American people. It may be used to preserve and protect big game and the countless forms of wild animal and bird life. As the Alaska Bureau states, "The last stand of the big game in the dominion of the United States is in Alaska.’ Practically every variety of fur-bearing animal and wild fowl known to the North American continent, all still in great numbers, is to be found there, as

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'NOBODY respects the Christian religion more than I do,' Lord Melbourne declared on one occasion, 'but really, when it comes to intruding it into private life... If one substitutes 'public' for 'private' in Melbourne's sentence, one gets an excellent definition of what in Ireland to-day is regarded as the perfection of good political manners.

This attitude, I admit, is not unnatural in a country where, in certain areas at least, an attempt to discuss the religious problem, however honest the intentions of the controversialists may be, is more likely than not to end in police charges in back streets and a multitude of broken heads. In Belfast -where, by the way, even football teams are labeled Orange or Green I have lively recollections of a strike in which Protestants and Catholics fought side by side, and in order to preserve their cohesion invented the slogan, 'To hell with the man that names religion!' Their idea of religion was aptly described by an Orangeman who, in giving evidence in favor of a prisoner,

protested that his friend could not have marched at the head of a mob cursing the Pope, as he was 'never a religious man.'

It must not be thought that in everyday life Irishmen of different denominations sit glowering darkly at one another. The convention which bars as bad form in mixed company any allusion to existing divisions enables Protestants and Catholics to rub shoulders without friction. An agreement to differ is of course infinitely better than no agreement at all, but it has its drawbacks in that an attempt to investigate the causes and consequences of the differences between the creeds, even if undertaken in a spirit of scientific detachment, is certain to offend one side or the other, and not improbably will be resented by both. Yet I am convinced that the agreement is at once the most important and the most intriguing factor in Irish life, if for no other reason than that the new political entities which have been created in Ireland were delimited roughly in accordance with sectarian further expenditure, perhaps, as possible. He was not in a position of control in the beginning and therefore could not be held entirely responsible for the initial excesses.

More detailed comment or criticism can now serve no useful purpose. We have the road, and it is unthinkable that it should be abandoned, but how to make it pay and at least approach fulfillment of the purposes for which its construction was authorized constitutes the real problem of Alaska. The road is costing the Government, if we may consider the interest on the money invested, approximately $4,000,000 a year to maintain and operate.

Popular assertion has run hand in hand with its appropriate slogan, 'Develop Alaska.' Assertion and slogan both were born and have been nourished in the city of Seattle. We heard no such clamor from without in connection with Texas, California, or territories of the Middle West. Why so much about Alaska? A little analysis may suggest that 'Develop Seattle' is the true inwardness and meaning of the phrase.

Alaska is considered by Seattle as her own particular protégé and she wants the Territory developed. Money spent by the general Government toward this development or in large construction work there adds to the prosperity of Seattle. There is no crime in this, if the expenditures are made with judgment and in a way to bring substantial results.

The present Secretary of the Interior, who inherited the problem of the railroad from his predecessors, naturally desires the road to accomplish the purpose for which it was authorized and built. Doubtless he is exerting his best efforts to that end, as indicated by a comparison in a recent report of the conditions existing three years ago with those at the present time. He was,

nevertheless, constrained to say that the road had not 'accomplished this purpose; that the expected rush of settlers along the right of way had not occurred, nor had the claim been made good that, with adequate transportation facilities, new mines in the interior would be opened and flourish, resulting in heavy shipments of ore, etc.' This mild, perfectly fair, and accurate statement provoked, however, a vigorous protest from the Northwest in the form of an open letter to the Secretary, charging him with not being fair, together with several editorials of like

tenor.

A possible justification for the prompt defense of the railroad may, however, exist. It is conceivable that Congress might decide to curtail or even suspend appropriations - a most unfortunate decision though it would be at this stage of the development of Alaska. But the best way, in my judgment, to avert such a catastrophe to the railroad would be to lay the cards on the table, accept the facts as they exist, admit the errors of judgment where such have been made, and put the further fight upon unimpeachable grounds. Upon no other basis can success be attained in the end.

The Alaska Bureau of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce is active in gathering statistics and information concerning the Territory and distributing it throughout the United States. Most of the information so distributed is accurate and dependable and presented in a form to make the best argument in favor of the Territory. All this, of course, is entirely right and proper. But many persons, even of eminent ability, who devote their energies to the gathering of detailed facts and statistics are unable to draw sound conclusions therefrom. Comparative temperatures in different parts of the country, for example, do not in themselves always furnish a safe index of agricultural production or even comfort of living; and a comparison with other regions somewhat similarly situated may be misleading. The Scandinavian countries, for example, lying within practically the same parallels of latitude, - such as Norway, Sweden, and Finland, - have a combined population of more than 12,000,000 people, but this population has grown and these countries' resources have been developed, under pressure of necessity, through centuries, beginning far back in primitive history.

There is also sufficient difference in climatic conditions, although the difference in recorded temperatures is not great, materially to affect agricultural production and timber growth. The 'North Cape Stream,' a branch of the Gulf Stream, flows entirely around the Scandinavian peninsula, past North Cape, down to the Murman Coast, and then turns northeastward and is lost in the Arctic basin. No ice ever forms at North Cape, whereas Point Barrow, Alaska, in the same latitude, is closed by ice ten months of the year. Portions of this Scandinavian peninsula are mountainous, but there is no continuous range of high mountains along the western coast of Europe to shut off the tempering influence of the Gulf Stream, which extends with diminishing effect far to the interior. The result is an absence of the deep snowfall found along parts of the coast of Alaska, and a somewhat milder and more moist climate in the interior. These differences, slight as they may appear, make for rather better agricultural conditions and produce splendid forests of pine and fir, instead of 'woodland, which properly describes the growth throughout most of the interior of Alaska.

The Alaska Bureau will be alert to

defend the Territory against unfavorable comparisons, but facts in the end prove wholesome fare. It may be said that the 'Japan Current' does flow through the Bering Sea and that the ice found there in winter north of the Pribilof Islands is merely down on a visit from the Arctic Ocean. Anyhow, the ice is there.

III

Alaska, after all, is not in need of defense. Her people are not concerned with the question whether the purchase was the best bargain ever made by the United States, or the worst. They know that her resources are ample and varied and they are concerned in the effort to help develop these resources and to make homes and a living for their families.

The natural resources of Alaska are listed by the Alaska Bureau in the following order: fisheries, minerals, timber, furs, agriculture, reindeer, water power, scenery. I should change the order somewhat if it is intended to represent, which is possibly not the case, the ultimate relative value of these resources, and place scenery first. This is the one imperishable asset of Alaska in the ordinary human estimate of duration, although it is not capable of being measured at the present time in terms of money value. With this beauty of scenery is found a climate wonderfully invigorating and healthful, rigorous at times, yet free from most of the diseases common to warmer, and especially tropical, regions. Many persons prefer a climate of this character. Transportation by sea is good, considering that the country is new, and tonnage and passenger charges along the coast are reasonable. The land transportation facilities are being steadily bettered with improvement and extension of roads and trails. Communication by cable, telegraph, and

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