SHIPPIIG
O. B. Kent, Attorney and Examiner,
Writes Delegate Sulzer That Hear
ing on Alaska Rates Will be Heard
in Near Future.
The following letters, dealing with
the proposed Alaska rate hearings are
self-explanatory:
Washington, D. C., April 20.
The Anchorage Times,
Anchorage, Alaska.
Gentlemen—Inclosed is a copy of a
letter just received by me from the
shipping board, and I earnestly urge
you to give as wide publicity as pos
sible to this matter, to the end that
Alaska shippers may be fully advised,
and that they may prepare and pre
sent all facts in regard to the hard
ships suffered by unreasonable trans
portation rates.
Thanking you for your asistance
in this matter and hoping you will
call upon me whenever I can be of
any assistance to you or any Alas
kans. Sincerely yours,
CHAS. A. SULZER.
U. S. Shipping Board,
Washington, April 19.
Hon. Charles A. Sulzer, Delegate
from Alaska, House of Representa
tives, Washington, D. C.
My dear Mr. Sulzer—Referring to
my letter of January 19, 1918, supple
menting our recent conversation with
Senator Poindexter, and confirming
our telephone conversation of yester
day, in the matter of Alaska rates:
The board has directed that full
hearings be held at Seattle, Juneau,
Seward and Anchorage, between May
10 and May 30, 1918. Special hear
ngs, in addition to the foregoing, will
he held, if desired, at other ports en
li'ute to or from Anchorage, provided
such hearings may not involve a de
tention at any port beyond the time
required for loading and discharging
cargo.
The exact dates of hearings cannot
be determined at this time, but sea
sonable notice thereof will be publish
ed from Seattle.
If, after hearing, it shall be found
that any of the rates approved by the
board and made effective on the ICth
ultimo are unjust or unreasonable, re
ductions accordingly will be made, and
reparation in proper cases will be
awarded upon the basis of the result
of this arrangement, the interests of
shippers will be conserved exactly as
:f the advances in question had been
suspended until after hearing.
In view of the public importance of
these hearings, it is desired that all
interested shall be represented, and
your co-operation to that end will be
appreciated. Very truly vour.-.,
O. B. KENT,
Attorney-Examiner.
ANOTHER PARSON WHO
WOULD LIKE TO FIGHT
ANI) SHOULDER GUN
CAMP LEWIS, May 11. — When
war was declared the Rev. Milton
Charles Lutz, pastor of the First
United Brethren Church at Walla
Wala, resigned his pastorate and vol
unteered for sendee as chaplain. He
1 "as assigned to Camp Lewis with the
Three Hundred and Sixteenth En
gineers with a rank of first lieutenant.
“But sometimes I wish I had laid
aside the cloth instead of entering the
army as a chaplain, and had should
ered a gun along with the boys in the
ranks so that 1 might land a real blow
against the kaiser,” Chaplain Lutz
told the Association Press correspond
ent.
TORNADO PARTLY
WRECKS TOWN
DAVENPORT, 0., May 10.—More
than a score of persons were injured,
i one probably fatally, when a terrific
lomado partly wrecked the town of
Eklridge, near here, last night. The
tornado tore a pathway thi'ough the
town, leaving wreck and ruin in its
wake.
4>
j Mining Operators in the Cache Creek
District Are Preparing for a Busy
Season and Expect Big Gold Yield.
James Murray Takes Lease.
! CACHE CREEK, April 24.—(Spe
cial Correspondence)—Mr. and Mrs.
Charles Harris and their son arrived
in camp and will remain here for the
summer. Mr. Harris put sixty men
to work on the 13th of the month re
pairing the big dredge and expects to
have it in readiness and operating by
' May 20.
Mrs. Anna Rub, who owns the Anna
Rub mine on Dollar creek is busy get
ting her plant in order preparatory to
beginning operations as soon as the
frost is out of the ground. She ex
pects to be at work about May 25.
Jim Murray, who has taken a lay on
the Carlson property on Peters creek
1 arrived today with is outfit. He will
work three men prospecting through
the season.
Casper Seiling, superintendent of
the Anna Rub mine left today for Tal
i keetna in order to secure additional
ballots for the primary election. Only
nine of them were sent to this district.
Frank Irvine landed the last load of
the A. M. Ellis outfit at the home
camp on Thunder creek on the twen
tieth of the month. Snow is falling.
We have about six feet of it now with
no signs of a break.
Charles A. Anderson arrived from
Talkeetna today. Mr. Anderson will
act as general foreman at the Anna
Rub mine this season. Refore coming
here Mr. Anderson was postmaster at
Talkeetna and resigned in order to
take the foremanship of the mine.
LAST STATK JOINS COMPULSORY
EDUCATION MOVEMENT.
The last state to join the compul
sory education procession is Missis
sippi, the United States bureau of
education announces. The movement
for compulsory education, which wom
en have led during the past 10 years,
is now especially important, according
to the bureau.
Mississipii completes the chain of
states that have passed compulsory
school attendance laws. Practically
no foreign countries are without sucfy
laws except Turkey, Russia, and
Spain. Mr. R. Hood, legislative refer
ence clerk in the bureau of education,
^ says:
“The cause of compulsory school at
tendance is surely and continually ad
vancing. Beginning with its adoption
by Massachusetts in 1852, it has
spread from coast to coast and from
the Great Lake to the Gulf. In the
: south, where opposition has been most
stubborn, it has at last made its way
I into every state.”
OUR JOE MILLER CONTEST.
Jim Marqua claims that the oldest
j joke was the one on him when he put
up at a one-horse hotel in a little West
Virginia town. When he was shown
to his room he told the colored porter
that he wanted to be called early in
i the morning. The porter swelled up
with importance and said: “I reckon
| yo’ ain’t familiar with these modern
: hotel inventions. When yo’ wants to
be called early in the mawnin’ all yo’
has to do is to push this here button
on the wall at the head of the bed.
That rings a bell downstairs and we
comes up and call yo’.”
BOARD FAILS TO
REACH DECISION
WASHINGTON, D. C., May 10.—
The war labor board adjourned last
night, without reaching a decision in
the complaint of the Commercial Tele
, graphers’ Union that the Western
Union and the Postal Telegraph com
panies are discharging employees be
cause they belong to unions. An effort
will be made to have the decision
ready for announcement in tomor
row’s papers.
Rich Mining District Lies Within Fifty
.Miles of the Transportation Line as
it Passes Through the Broad Pass
Country.
The Broad Pass country is gen
eral and the Valdez creek mining dis
trict in particular will be tremendous
ly benefited by the construction of the
government railroad from Anchorage
to the Pass, according to the firm be
lief of C. W. Norton, mining man who
arrived in Anchorage Monday from
his placer holdings on Lucky Gulch, a
tributary of Valdez creek.
The most important agent in retard
ing the development of the Valdez
creek mining country is the existence
of inadequate transportation facilities,
said Mr. Norton in speaking of the
mining conditions generally of the
Broad Pass country. Supplies and
provisions have been brought into the
Valdez creek district at an average
cost of twenty-five cents per pound
and are transported over the winter
trail from Copper Center via Gulkana
and McLaren rivers to the mouth of
Valdez creek. The construction of the
government railroad, continued Mr.
Norton, through to the Broad Pass j
will reduce the transportation charges j
to at least five cents per pound and
will enable many of the small operat- j
ors to begin active development work i
on their claims. The distance between
the Pass and the mouth of Valdez
creek is about fifty miles as against
one hundred and seventy over the trail
from Gulkana.
liie vciiuuz tit'frv piatfi mines tuiii" j
pany, the biggest operator in the dis
trict is located on Valdez creek, about ‘
a half a mile above its mouth. Two j
| f-ummers ago the company employed a j
| force of fifty-five men throughout the i
( season and last summer employed
! about thirty. While the plans of the
company are not known as yet for this!
summer’s work it is expected that sub-1
! stantial work will be done on its prop
; ci ties. Previous to the company’s ac- j
(juisiton of the ground in 1913 over a!
hundred thousand dollars had been j
taken out by individuals. During the!
five years the company has taken out
one hundrad and thirty thousand dol
lars. With additional equipment and
lower cost of getting supplies on the
ground the output of the mine will be
more than doubled said Mr. Norton.
The holdings of Mr. Norton are lo
cated on Lucky Gulch, a pup of Valdez
creek, and were first located by Mr.
Norton in 1913. However, the pay
streak was only located last year and
he expects to take out during the
course of the present mining season
about five thousand dollars. This
; amount of gold will be taken out by
Mr. Norton and two laborers.
He will leave tonight for Seattle on
the steamer Alaska and expects to be
in that city about ten days. He will
return to his porperty and commence
mining about June 15. In returning
to his ground Mr. Norton will go in
via the Chitna-Fairbanks trail, leaving
it at Meyers road house and going
cross country to the mouth of Valdez
creek.
THINKS MANY BOATS
MIGHT BE SAVED
FROM SUBMARINES
LONDON, May 10.—J. W. Isher
wood, naval architect, told a Daily Ex
press representative recently that “50
per cent of the merchant ships sunk
by U-boats could have been saved
had they been built with bulkheads in
the proportion of about one for every
forty feet of their length. “It is quite
an easy matter,” he said, “to build a
ship which cannot be sunk by one tor
pedo and, as a rule, that is sufficient
to sink the ships of the mercantile ma
rine today. I maintain that if the
Glenart Castle had been fitted with
ten instead of six water-tight com
partments she would have remained
afloat. The same applies to practical
ly all ships that have gone down as a
result of one torpedo.”
FOR SHE! OF
Superintendent Jones of U. S. Geo
detic Survey Says Gateway to the
Northern Territory Should Be
Charted.
The urgent need of early provision
by congress for adequate survey of
the gateways to Alaska is convincing
ly set forth in a special publication
just issued by Supt. E. Lester Jones,
of the United States coast and geo
iletic survey, department of commerce.
The many losses, not only of ships
and their cargoes, but of lives dur
ing recent years, several of them di
rectly traceable to inaccurate, incom
plete or entire lack of survey of the
waters ubout the coast, are detailed
and the publication contains many
maps and illustrations which impress
the facts contained in the text.
Alaska’s magnificent contribution
in precious and base metals, coal and
fur and other products is briefly
ilwelt upon as an introductory.
From the records of the United
States steamboat inspection service
and other sources there is compiled a
list of vessels totally lost in Alaskan
waters during the twenty years from
1898 to 1917. “This table is not com
plete and does not include the vessels
that have been damaged, but not to
tally lost, although the monetary loss
in such cases, due to the cost of ne
cessary repairs and the value of time
lost, is known to be great,” says the
writer, and continues: “This table
includes 224 vessels, with a total ton
nage of 87,243, a value of $10,659,950,
and a loss of 280 lives.
“The causes of these disasters given
in the table are as follows: Total
number lost, 224; lost by strandings,
156; foundered, 33; burned, 13; crush
ed by ice, 3; unknown, 19.
“Known strandings caused the loss
r>f 156 vessels, or about 70 per cent of
the recorded loss, and as Alaska is
practically unsurveyed, most of these
losses must be classed as unavoidable
and could undoubtedly have been
largely prevented by accurate sur
veys.”
Development Is Retarded.
The number of vessels lost in Alas
kan waters within the past fifty years
is estimated at aproximatelv 425, with
a loss of 500 lives. Three were gov
ernment vessels valued at more than
a million dollars each.
As an instance of how the lack of
surveys retards development, there is
cited the case of the discovery in 1910
of deposits of excellent marble in
Davidson’s inlet and the organization
of a company to quarry the rock and
ship it to Seattle. '‘However,” the
publication states, “as the approaches
to the quarry were incompletely sur
veyed, the steamship companies refus
ed to send their vessels there and thus
denied transportation, the marble com
pany was helpless.
“Finally one of the steamship com
panies sent one of its pilots to the lo
cality to report on the feasibility of
sending in vessels in advance of com
plete surveys. The examination by
this pilot revealed so many uncharted
dangers in the appi’oaches that the
company demanded a prohibitive price
for permitting its vessels to enter.
Relief After Three Years.
“Not until three years later was
the coast and geodetic survey in a po
sition to give assistance, and while the
results of this survey confirmed the
dangers previously reported by the
pilot, there was developed a practical
channel through them, with the result
that large quantities of marble are
now being shipped annually to Seat
tle.
“The task of surveying the coastal
waters of Alaska is a large one. It is
estimated, however, that three able
seagoing surveying vessels can com
plete the first survey of the exposed
coast, except on the Arctic ocean, in
forty years, including the soundings
along the entire coast out to the 1,000
fathom curve. But the public would
by no means have to wait forty years
to derive some benefit from these
surveys. The work would be follow
ed immediately by the opening of lo
calities to commerce which are now
unsurveyed. The most important
work would be undertaken first and
within a year after the vessels were
made available the public would begin
to reap the benefit in the form of
greater security to lives and prop
erty.”
Cost is Estimated.
The cost of doing this work is es
timated at $1,550,000 for three large
vessels, eight launches for two wire
drag parties and tour small vessels
for inside waters, and the annual cost
of properly prosecuting the work with
the equipment named is $440,000.
In conclusion, Supt. Jones writes
that “it is safe to predict, and with
proper emphasis, that Alaska will
reach oift in the near future looking
to development along all lines and
through every possible channel. Her
next ten years will most likely place
her war in advance of what the past
fifty years have produced, and all as
sistance should be forthcoming from
the mother country, upon whom the
responsibility rests. We should be
well prepared in every branch of the
home government to facilitate the
commercial government and compe
tition that will surely follow the close
of the war.
“Let it be hoped that the day is at
hand when it will no longer be neces
sary to discover uncharted pinnacle
rocks by the loss of some vessel, and
that the custom of commemorating
the loss by naming the hidden rock
after the unfortunate craft will be im
possible in the future.”
SEATTLE, May 1.—(Special cor
| respondence) — George A. Cotter,
I formerly of Anchorage and lately su
| perintendent of the Traders’ Oil com
| pany of Coalingo, Cal., has heard his
country’s call, after successfully pas
sing an examination, and will enter
a U. S. electrical engineer corps. Al
though Cotter is minus four toes on
the left foot, due to getting badly
frozen on the Anchorage-Seward trail
in the winter of 11)17, he passed ar.
; A-l examination for this branch of
I the service, because of his technical
knowledge. He was mustered into
the service at Angel island, California
| and is now ordered to report at Van
1 eouver barracks, Washington, where
he will train for a slnrt time, prepar
! htory to going “over there.”
Gustave Seiffrrt. of the St. Loui:
i Mining and Trading company, oi
Hope, Alaska, ha-, just returned from
San Francisco, and £a;ls for the north
May 8. Mr. Seiffert will not operate
extensively this season, owing to in
creased cost of material and supplies.
Mrs. T. C. No/es and daughter, now
located at Ketchikan, have been visit
ing in Seattle for the past two weeks.
Hamilton Graff, of Seward, is in
the city. He has joined the colors,
but has not been assigned. He is mak
ing an effort to get into the aviation
corps.
Capt. O. W. Carlson, now’ owner of
a valuable fox island in Bering sea,
is in the city on his way north.
Montie Blair, who for a number of
years was foreman of the famous Hot
Air bench claim at Nome, Alaska, and
a mining operator of ability, was kil
led April 27 at Casper, Wyoming,
where he was drilling for oil in the
Big Muddy oil district. The bailing
cable broke and crushed Montie, the
body being badly disfigured.
The gas schooner Bender Brothers
will sail May 2 for the new strike at
Good News bay and Bethel, on the
Kuskokwim, carrying freight and
many passengers, including many old
time Alaskans. On her next sailing
,.om this port she has as her destina
tion Herschel island.
E. L. Bedell, w?ho has spent the win
ter in Pittsburg, New’ York, Washing
ton and Kansas City, will sail for An
chorage May 8, on the Northwestern.
J. E. O’Reilly is visiting in Seattle,
a guest of the Savoy hotel while here.
Subscribe for Alaska’s Leading
Daily—The Anchorage Times.
NOTED REO
mnpp sainns/
Will Arrive on Steamer Alameda to
Aid Local Campaign Committee in
Drive for Funds for Nation’s Relief
Work.
Sidney Anderson, manager in
charge of the coming Red Cross drive
in Anchorage and vicinity, yesterday
received a message from Thomas
Davies, who is in charge of the drive
in the Twelfth district, in which Alas
ka is included, in part as follows:
“Glad of your selection. Hope you
will increase your quota. We are
making canvass here of companies and
corporations tributary to your chap
ter. National committee is sending A.
M. Powers, a noted Red Cross worker,
on the steamer Alameda, which will
arrive at Anchorage about May 24. He
will bring films and stereoptican slides
and will explain use to which Red
Cross funds are applied in war-strick
en countries.”
Grand Old Party Men of Juneau Or
ganize First Division and Prepare
for Vigorous Campaign in the
Fall.
JUNEAU, May 11.—There was a
big meeting of republicans of the
E'irst division in Juneau last night,
called for the purpose of preparing
for the delegate election and for the
election of republican candidates to
j the territorial legislature. Harmony
prevailed throughout the meeting. It
was decided, without opposition, to go
down the line for Hon. James Wick
ersliam, republican nominee for dele
gate to congress. 4 A call was issued
for a divisional convention to fill va
cancies on the republican legislative
ticket.
A permanent organization was ef
fected, and meetings will be held from
time to time, throughout the cam
paign.
ENEMY AGENTS
BUY U.S. NOTES
LONDON, May 10.—The Central
News Agency is authority for the
statement that enemy agents are pur
chasing large quantities of United
States notes for shipment to Austria
Hungary, to be employed in buying
grain products in Ukrania and Russia.
The peasants, it is asserted, will ac
cept only American notes in payment
for their products, hence the scheme
to pi’ovide them.
U.S. TROOPS TO
PARADE IN LONDON
LONDON, May 10.—Londoners will
have an opportunity of welcoming
United States soldiers, recently arriv
ed here, on their way to the French
front. Saturday, a detachment of the
Americans will parade the streets and
pass in review before the king at
Buckingham palace.
OUCH!
The tender-hearted Dolly Dream
Said: “Have a heart, I beg!
Oh, Mother please don’t whip that
cream,
And please don’t beat that egg!”
Ai d mother, dear, it hurts me so,
It makes my sad heart ache,
To see you mash that potato,
And pound that blameless steak.”
Lizards are raised in Trinidad to
prey upon insects that attack and
seriously injure growing sugar cane.