ALASKA THE DESERTED IS TITLE
OF MAGAZINE ARTICLE WRITTEN
BY FORMER ALASKA MISSIONARY
Under the caption of “Alaska the
Deserted,” mu- former townsman. Rev.
S. Hall Young, contributes a lengthy
article to the New Era Magazine, the
official medium of the Presbyterian
church, in which he joins with some
others of the clergy in painting Alaska
in its darkest colors, but admits that
the depression is only temporary and
the unlimited resources of the terri
tory are eventually to be developed
with the return of an era of pros
perity. He writes in part as follows:
It has been my fortune—good for
tune, I esteem it—to have been inti- ^
mately acquainted with the young
giantess, Alaska—for she has the
spirit of perpetual youth—for more
than forty-one years. She is generally
depicted, in the imagination of her
admirers, as a young woman of large
but symmetrical proportions, seated
upon the snowy peak of a sky-piercing
mountain, arrayed rather lightly for
the Arctic climate that is supposed to
environ her, attended on one hand
by a polar bear and on the other by
a giant moose; and holding in one
hand a miner’s pick and in the other
a reaper’s sickle; her head crowned
with a diadem composed of gold and
icicles. There is a look of benignity
and happiness upon her beautiful
counterance, and sha is altogethler
adorable.
Were I to depict Miss Alaska this
year I would present a forlorn and
fofsaken figure, with pick and sickle
cast away, gold crown fallen off her
head, weeping copious tears which
congeal into ice as they fall.
For Alaska is at present decidedly
“in the dumps.” When I went to
her shores in 1878 she was despised
and forsaken. There were 35,000
heathen natives on her shores and
less than 200 whites. I had the great
and undeserved good fortune of being
able to persuade the only American
young woman in the territory at that
time to marry me. There were only
two postoffiees—Sitka and Fort Wran
gell. And a little steamer came once
a month from Portland, Ore.—-there
was then no Seattle—to supply us
with our mail. Alaska had been
taken by the United States govern
ment, garrisoned by soldiers and vis
ited often by war vessels for ten
years; then given up as a bad invest
ment. There was not a gold mine,
coal mine, copper mine, marble
quarry or lumber mill in the terri
tory, and only one salmon cannery,
started that year.
1 need not recount here the steps
of surprising progress made by this
Northwestern possession o£ ours.
Alaska has amazed the world, and is
recognized as one of the richest prov
inces in natural resources to be found
anywhere on the globe. Its progress,
though it seemed very slow to us who
were toiling and moiling there, ap
peared surprisingly swift to Jhose who
knew Alaska as “Seward’s Folly,”
and now know it as “Uncle Sam's
Treasure House." The $7,000,000
paid for the territory was “money
thrown into the Pacific ocean”; now
we know that the territory has pro
duced, principally in the last twenty
two years, over $800,000,000 in differ
ent kinds of treasure.
But this year the wave of progress
seems to have receded. It is decid
edly low tide on the Alaska shore.
Two years ago its white population
was estimated at from 50,000 to 55,000.
The coming winter it is probable that
not more than 25,000 of the Caucasian
race will be found in the territory.
The value of exports will be dropped
to onedialf the amount reported for
the fiscal year ending June 30, 1918.
The production of gold, copper, tin,
lumber, farm products, and even
canned salmon, all show a depressing
decrease. Towns that were booming
two years ago are now almost desert
ed, and the activity of the gold pros
pector and the settler is slowed up
to what would have appeared to those
of us who know this immense wealth
and inevitable greatness of Alaska in
some of its heydays, an unbelievable
degree.
I shall briefly enumerate a few of
the reasons for this slump in Alas
kan values.
First-—The war, while it stimulated
production along certain lines, ulti
mately retarded the development of
the territory. A larger percentage of
Alaska’s young men went to the war
than those of any other 3tate or terri
tory. From mining camp, from lum
ber mill and fishery, these typical
young Americans rushed to take an
eager part in the war for world free
dom. Most of them have not re
turned, and many of them will not
return, having found other fields of
activity.
Second—The decline in the value
of gold. Prices paid .for machinery,
for wages and for food in Alaska gold
camps are always high; now they are
prohibitive. And hundreds of claims
which were worked profitably two
years rgo are abandoned at present,
and the owners have either given
them up entirely or are waiting for
more favorable transportation and
lower prices before resuming opera
tions.
Third—Copper has also slumped.
The Kennecott mine, which was rated
as the richest copper mine in the
world, and which produced over $.30,
000,000 worth of copper ore in one
season, will scarcely yield one-third
of that amount the present year.
Many copper mines are not being
worked now but are waiting for a
rise in the price of copper or a decline
in the wage scale.
Fourth—There has been a like fall
ing off in the production of canned
salmon and other fish In Alaska. The
high prices of last year and the great
contracts for supplying the United
States armies with canned salmon led
to feverish activities in that industry
and the erection of many new canner
ies. The production of this year will
be scarcely tw'o-thirds of last year’s
yield.
Fifth—The great government rail
road. for which $35,000,000 was ap
propriated four years ago, has been
completed about two-thirds of its way
from the coast to the Interior. It has
reached the rich Matanuska coal field
and has been extended some 200 miles
up the Susitna valley. From the In
terior terminus on the Tanana at Ne
nana the road has been extended
southward as far the Nenana coal
field. At the close of last year’s op
erations all of the $35,000,000 appro
priation had been expended except
$2,000,000. The additional sum of
$8,000,000 was asked of congress this
year to complete the road, but has
thus far been refused, and work on
the road is at a standstill, except on
the southern section. The town of
Nenana, which was booming a year
ago, has lost three-fourths of its citi
zens. Anchorage, the ocean terminus,
has not lost so heavily, but is receding
rather than progressing. The expect
ed immigration of farmers to take up
land in the Interior has not materi
alized. All of the cities and villages
of the territory, except two or three
on the coast, are depressed, and many
of them depopulated.
Of course, all who know the vast
riches, the millions of fertile acres,
the splendid climates—in a word, the
desirability of the territory as a place
of residence and business enterprise
—are sure that this depression is only
temporary, and that there is bound to
come, before long, a heavier immigra
tion and a greater boom than ever;
but the present is a time of stress
and discouragement.
From the foregoing considerations
it is easy to deduce the state of mis
sionary activity in the territory this
year. Our native missions have been
but little affected by the depression
of business in Alaska. If anything,
they are in a mose prosperous condi
tion than ever before, and the per
sonnel of our missionary force, was
never finer than now. There have
been some changes, but all of our na
tive missions are now well supplied.
* *
At Cordova, near the mouth of the
Copper river, Rev. A. G. Shriver has
been very active, and this town has
been prosperous, and therefore the
church has not decreased but has
grown in numbers and influence. Mr.
Shriver has ministered to a number
of the mining towns along the Cop
per River railroad, and is now pre
paring to build a new church at Cor
dova.
Charlie Williams, a negro messen
ger, who was arrested at Fairbanks
with .eleven bottles of liquor in his
possession, was found not guilty by a
jury. Williams’ plea was that he was
simply carrying on his business as a
messenger, and did not know the pack
age contained booze.
Join the Red Cross army. No age
limit. Everybody from one to one
hundred Is eligible.
We always have a supply of
pasteurized sweet milk and cream on
hand. Also buttermilk and Bulgarian
buttermilk. City Dairy. Phone 187.
_ __-___-____
ALASKA TRANSFER COMPANY
TRANSFER AND STORAGE
COAL AND WOOD
AUTO SERVICE
DAY OR NIGHT
Office, Northern Hotel Bldg. Phone 85
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Alaska
Steamship Company
Regular 8aHings Between 8eattle,
Ketchikan, Juneau, Cordova, Valdez,
Ellamar, Llscum, Latouche, 8eward
FROM SEATTLE— SA!L8 80UTH
*
Nov. 1 ..ALASKA.... ..Nov. 9
Nov. 9 .ALAMEDA. Nov. 17
Nov. 20 ..NORTHWESTERN ..Nov. 29
Steamer Alameda will make trip to Anchorage.
Frequent sailings of freighters carrying explosives.
This schedule subject to change without notice.
F. B. TRACY, Agent t
-—— -—
IU. ^PACIFIC STEAMSHIP COMPANY^ J
Alaska—Washington—California ALASKA ROUTE 1
8afety Courtesy 8ervtee Speed §
OFFICE EMPRESS BUILDING
WEST BOUND SOUTH BOUND
LEAVE CORDOVA LEAVE CORDOVA
Nov. 12.WATSON.Nov. 23
Three Sailings per Week from Seattle for San Francisco, Los An
geles and 8an Diego. For further Information call
Office phone 223. L. A. COUNTS, AGENT Res. Lathrop Apts.
t— . - - ' - ^ 4
i ;-1
Copper River and
I NorthwesternRy.
Trains leave Cordova for Chitina Monday and Thursday.
Trains leave Chitina for Kennecott Tuesday and Friday.
Trains leave Kennecott for Chitina Sunday and Thursday.
Trains leave Chitina for Cordova Tuesday and Friday.
'
Dining Car in Connection with all Regular
Passenger Trains between Cordova and Chitina.
Freight received and delivered at Cordova
Wharf from 9 a. m. to 5 p m., except Sundays.
'Pickets on sale at Second Street Depot office
one hour before departure of trains.
CALEB CORSER Superintendent
D. L. LEATON, Ticket Agent
THE NORTHERN CLUB
FRED HAEF, PROP.
POOL, CARDS, TOBACCO"
Soft Drinks of All Kinds
The Popular Corner
PHONE 47 CORDOVA, ALASKA
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I The Club |
i Pool and 1
Billiard Hall
A Clean, Cozy Place Where Good Fellows I
Congregate I »
TOBACCOS, CIGARS, CIGAR- |
ETTES AND SOFT DRINKS
Meet Your Friends at The Club |
1 TOM CLON1NGER, . , I
I manager. ?
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