THE CORDOVA DAILY TIMES
Entered at the Fostoffice at Cordova
Alaska, as second-class matter
H. G. STEEL
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
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FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1920
WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH
ALASKA?
The new secretary of the interior
announces a determination to find out
what is the matter with Alaska. He
is to be heartily commended for that
determination. On the other hand if
the various bureaus in Washington are
to be whitewashed for their neglect
of the Territory, their blunders and
mismanagement of Territorial affairs,
with efforts to shift the blame exclu
sively to the steamship lines, which
might result in the disruption of the
present Seattle-Alaska service, no pos
sible good can result from the investi
gation. Quite to the contrary, any
juggling of the steamship situation
will prove a disastrous blow to both
Seattle and the Northern Territory.
To an onlooker, and judging by the
trend of events, the present agitation
seems to have been the natural result
of the government’s latest blunder in
appropriating $50,000,000 for a railroad
which is now approximately two-thirds
completed, as far as the laying of
track is concerned, but which has not
developed any traffic to date, although
thieo sections of the line have been
in operation, one from Seward, one
from Anchorage and one at Nenana.
The present investigation evidently
seeks some sort of justification for
this railroad so that a defense can
be made w-hen the expected storm of
criticism breaks during the coming
summer and fall.
The files of this publication during
the past few years have contained
many articles covering this project.
It is therefore quite unecessary to
deal with this subject at the present
time. In this series of articles, which
will appear from month to month, the
aim will be to answer this question
as to what is the matter with Alaska.
The railroad feature will be taken up
in due course of time.
In the year 177, the revered "Father
of his Country” acquired 20,000 acres
of land lying along the Ohio and
Kanawha rivers, which in that year
he divided up into small farms and
offered for sale. The advertisement
appears in the first number of a Bal
timore paper established in that year.
The legal procedure by which that
eminent statesman acquired the land
Is not known to the writer, nor is it
necessary to go into that phase of the
subject. Enough to say that this old
advertisement suggests that in the
early settlement of the colonies, pri
vate enterprise in the expansion of
the country and the development of
its wealth and resources were encour
aged. From the days of the settle
ment by migration to the West of the
Appalachian chain, even to the great
West by irrigation, the same spirit
of helpful encouragement was notice
able. The noble and self-sacrificing
pioneers were enabled to develop and
prosper on the forbidding frontier.
Not until Alaska was ready for and
entitled to similar assistance, did the
old order of things change. For more
than fifty years this wonderful terri
tory, rich in natural resources, has
been neglected, discriminated against
and unfairly treated by those in auth
ority at Washington.
Verily, Alaska is Uncle Sam’s ill
fed and ill-treated stepchild.
What has been accomplished to
date is almost wholly due to private
initiative and private capital. It is
true that the country has wonderful
natural resources but to properly de
velop these resources, persons with
capital are the only ones to success
fully carry on the work- In every
instance capital has Deen hindered or
embarrassed In its development and
notwithstanding the millions of words
of propaganda put forth, without cap
ital and without the daring of the
successful American business man or
expert, Alaska can never hope to wit
ness the intensive development which
the wealth of her natural resources
justify.
And who is to blame? No matter
what effort may be made to dodge
the issue or befog the atmosphere by
discussion; the fault lies directly
with those bureaus wno administer
Alaska affairs in Washington and
congress.
To send out as a member of an
investigating committee an assistant
postmaster general, whose bureau was
the one directly responsible for the
present inferior mail facilities, is one
of the very latest illustrations of
this unfair treatment. Going back
over the years that have flown, one
only has to recall the stifling and
crushing policies applied to Alaska by
Gifford Pinchot in his successful plan
of bottling up the territorial lands
which has successfully blocked all
progress and development in those
reserves for the past decade.
But one illustration will suffice to
prove the fallacy of the Pinchot theor
ies. The government railroad is built
in part directly through the great
Chugach forest reserve, larger in
area than the state of Kentucky and
one over which Pinchot shed many
sentimental tears in his magazine
and newspaper articles of ten years
ago. Yet practically all of the tim
ber used on this railroad, with the ex
ception of a limited amount for tem
porary work and for some of the ties,
was imported from the states and laid
down on the Chugach forest reserve
at an excessive cost. The timber on
the right-of-way was burned off with
nc attempt at salvage.
Bo that this publication cm not be
accused of making any false state
ment, let us quote from the Engineer
ing News Record, published in New
York. The article deals with the tim
ber bridge problems on the govern
men railways in Alaska and in this
article we find this quotation:
“Douglas fir is used exclusively,
except that Alaska spruce has been
employed ;o a limited extent for tern
| forary structures and a few small
i spans.”
Let it be here recorded that tne
timber burned off the right-of-way
north and south of Anchorage and
from the area since occupied by the
Anchorage townsite, could have been
utilized as a supply for a small wood
pulp plant located at Anchorage and
this small plant could have f urn shed
news print paper sufficient for the
government to run off the Congress
ional Record and all those highly in
ferior press agent sheets wThich for
the last four years have been going
into w'aste baskets in editorial sanc
tums throughout the continent.
Gifford Pinchot had that forest re
serve created because it contained, ac
cording to his purely idiotic computa
tion, billions of feet of vulnerable
merchantable lumber. Yet when the
government actually inaugurates a
construction era in that section, it
ruthlessly burns what the sainted
Pinchot declared w^as valuable tim
ber. Then to cap the climax, the
railroad construction costs w-ere visi
bly increased by hauling most of the
lumber needed from Seattle. In sev
eral cases cargoes of lumber were
hauled from the Columbia river.
(The Central Pacific w^as construc
ted with wood burning locomotives.)
These are but recent illustrations
showing the utter lack of sound judge
ment or good practical common sense
in the administration of Alaska af
fairs. In succeeding articles the
story of the natural resources of the
country in their relation to industrial
development and the indifference
shown to Alaska by the government
dating from the period of Seward’s
purchase more than half a century
ago, will be detailed for the benefit
of those who have but little concep
tion of the great value of the terri
tory and the real reason why its de
velopment has been repressed,
the most conservative estimate, Alas
ka has produced an even billon dol
lars worth of minerals, furs, fish and
other products of the sea, yet Seward
arranged to purchase the territory for
$7,200,000.
- - . •_
According to tne msiuiiun, —
Edmund S. Meany, a friend called
upon Secretary Seward while he was
lying ill and but a short time preced
es death. The friend asked him what
he considered the greatest act in his
political career, and Secretary Seward
is reported to have said, The pur
chase of Alaska, but it will probably
take more than half a century for
the people to find it out.”
And so at this time, more than fifty
years after the purchase, when Alaska
is producing $75,000-000 worth annual
ly in the facfe of half a century of in
difference and neglect, the authorities
at Washington are propounding the
query. “What is the matter with
Alaska?” Unfortunately it looks like
an effort to cover up some blunder.—
Railway and Marine News.
Your eyes fitted. Compound and
stigmatic lenses replaced. See Os
borne.
LEGAL ADVERTISEMENTS
SUMMONS
In the District Court of the Territory
of Alaska, Third Division.—Tami
Endo Nakamura, plaintiff, vs. Hideo
Nakamura, defendant. No. S-199.
The President of the United States of
America, greeting: To Hideo Naka
mura, the above named defendant.
You are hereby required to appear
in the District Court for the Territory
of Alaska, Third Division, within
thirty days after the completion of the
publication of this summons, to-wit,
within thirty days after the 2d day
of July, 1920, and answer the com
plaint of Tami Endo Nakamura, the
above named plaintiff, in the above
entitled cause, which cause is an ac
tion for divorce in one of the cases
prescribed by law wherein the plain
tiff prays for a decree dissolving the
bonds of matrimony between herself
and you, and for such other and fur
ther relief as to the court may seem
right and proper in the premises. And
you are hereby notified that if you
fail to appear and answer said com
plaint as herein required, the said
plaintiff will take judgment against
you for want thereof, and will apply
to the court for the relief demanded
in her complaint, as hereinbefore set
out.
The order for the publication of this
summons was duly made and entered
on the 19th day of May, 1920.
Witness the Honorable Fred M.
Brown, Judge of said Court, and the
seal thereof, this 19th day of May,
1920, in the year of our Independence
the one hundred and forty-fourth.
ARTHUR LANG,
Clerk District Court, Third Division,
Territory of Alaska.
By C. H. WILCOX, Deputy.
Edward F. Medley, Cordova, Alaska,
Attorney for the Plaintiff.
First publication May 21, 1920.
Last publication July 2, 1920.
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
In the United States Commissioner’s
Court for the Territory of Alaska,
Third Division, Cordova Precinct.—
In the matter of the Estate of W. E.
Townsend, deceased.
Public notice is hereby given that
on the 29th day of April, 1920, the un
dersigned, A. J. Adams, was duly ap
pointed and now is the lawful admin
istrator of the estate of the above
named W. E. Townsend, deceased; and
that all persons having claims against
said estate are required to present
them within six months from the date
of this notice to said administrator,
at his office in the said Cordova pre
cinct, Third judicial division, territory
of Alaska, that office being the place
for transacting the business of said
estate.
This notice is dated and the date of
its first publication is May 11, 1920.
A. J. ADAMS,
Administrator of the Estate of! W. E.
Townsend, Deceased.
First publication, May 11, 3 920.
Last publication, June 15, 1920.
j -
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Ostrander Bldg., Corvoda, Alaska
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SEATTLE, WASH.
J. A. Farnham and E. Taylor,
Proprietors
Headquarters for Alaskans. Ted
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S. S. Alaska
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Wm. J. Crooker, Owner and Master
REGULAR TRIPS TO KATALLA
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To Ail Parts of the Sound
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