THE CORDOVA DAILY TIMES
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Entered at the Postoffice at Cordova,
Alaska, as second-class matter.
H. G. STEEL
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FRIDAY, MARCH 14, 1919
POSTOFFICE TO BLAME FOR THE
ALASKA MUDDLE
The people of Alaska are voicing
scathing complaints over the complete;
failure of the mail service. The con
dition is due wholly to the respon
sible officials of the United States
States postoffice department, who for
some years against every protest and
without regard to the demands of
public service or the generally ac
cepted definition of the words fair
play, have been juggling with the
Alaskan mail service on the indefens
ible plea of economy. The responsi
bility rests directly with the post
master general of the United States
and his assistants in Washington, D.
C., and try as they might to dodge
or evade the issue, they and they
alone are responsible fOF the present
chaotic condition of the mail servic
to and within Alaska, which is the
poorest excuse for such a service that
ever any frontier country has yet to
contend with.
One cannot blame the Alaskans for
feeling deeply aggrieved as this ser
vice is not only the cause of personal
disappointment and isolation, but it
has a most serious effect upon bank
ing and commercial pursuits gener
ally, and added to all the other govern
mental errors, neglect and abuses of
the past, the condition has proved to
be the final straw.
We do criticise them for their more
recent attitude in their effort to
blame the steamships exclusively for
the deplorable condition. Alaska can
only be served by steamships and
surely a sailing from Seattle every
seventeen and a half hours to Juneau
and Southeastern Alaska, and every
four and a half days to Prince Wil
liam Sound, as was the case several
years ago during the summer, was a
service far in advance of the actual
needs of the territory, but it should
1 VO roo‘1 llo/l that nnt nnoo flurinrr ilin
years 1912 to 1917, when that excel
lent service was being maintained by
four American steamship lines operat
ing out of Seattle, that those lines
either singly or collectively received
any noticeable commendation, yet
many a steamship in those lean years,
with a capacity of 250 passengers,
would leave Seattle with less than
fifty and its hold but partly filled
with cargo. The regular remunera
tion for the handling of the mail was
a most welcome addition to the gross
earnings of each ship but at no time
did such remuneration represent a
itair return for the service performed,
•considering the expense and danger
• of navigation in Alaska.
Then came the decision of the post
• office department that the cost for
transporting the mails to Alaska was
•excessive and the campaign to reduce
these costs was begun. Every one
Hjnows what happened to the Juneau
Steamship Company1 when its mail t
contract was taken from it and the
contract given to a gas boat at a
greatly reduced figure. The Juneau
Steamship Company wound up its af
fairs and went into voluntary liqui
dation, the steamship Georgia being
sold to British Columbia parties
simply because without the additional
mail contract, the limited freight, pas
senger and express revenues were
such that at best the company faced a
monthly deficit. The gas boat has
never given service or satisfaction
and not only have the people served on
that route been deprived of the mall
boat but through the stupidity of the
postofflce officials In Washington and
their breaking of the mall contract,
those people have also been deprived
of freight, passenger and express
service to the great detriment of their
business and tbe Industrial develop
ment of tbe whole section. There
never can and there probably never
will be any decent regular service on
tbe Georgia’s run until such time as
the postofflce officials in Washington
are willing to repair their silly blunder
by showing a willingness to pay for
the mail service on that route on a
basis in keeping with the unusual
costs of operating a steamship.
No more remote or hazardous
steamship route exists in the world
than the one formerly covered by the
steamship Dora, which for years plied
back and forth between the Alaska
mainland, the peninsula and the Aleu
tian islands, it being the only regular
carrier between those remote settle
ments and the outside world. But we
all know wha.t happened to the Dora.
She was losing money steadily and as
there was no hope of getting a just re
muneration for the mail contract, the
service has been withdrawn, and the
boat is tied up at Seattle, leaving those
people without, any communication
with the outside world''* One cannot
expect a steamship company to lose
money on a route month by month and
continue to operate. Had the post
office department been willing to give
a fair rumeratlon for the mail service,
that, in connection wi^i revenue de
rived from passengers, freight and
exnress. would hdve enabled the ves
sel to about break even and even
without making any money, it would
have been maintained in the service.
Now some of the loudest complaints
are coming from Anchorage. A snow
slide during December completely
blocked the United States railroad for
some twenty-five miles between Sew
ard and Anchorage and the Alaska
engineering commission has put on
dog sleds to cover the gap closed by
the slides. Twenty-five years ago the
v/riter of this article was in charge of
a railroad that was blocked by snow
and other casualties for the entire
month of January. To keep faith with
its patrons a driver with a team and
sled was engaged and the mail, ex
press and urgent perishable freight
and medicines transported over the
hill without one cent charge to con
signee or the government. In addi
tion to the loss by the road being
closed, damage to the road and dam
age to equipment, the daily expense
of the sled was $29, or a little item of
$600 cheerfully paid to keep faith with
the public and to meet the require
ments of the mail contract. We don’t
know what arrangements the govern
ment has made with the dog team
operators operating over the gap in
Alaska, but we have the word of An
chorage people that it takes many,
many days for mail or small express
packages to move from Seward to
Anchorage, and the dog teams charge
15 cents per pound for handling pack
ages.
This is an illustration of the present
trouble to the westward, but the
blame for the whole situation is be
ing placed upon the steamships,
simply because they sensibly refused
to maintain the service at a loss. The
people of Seward and Anchorage well
remember when the two steamships
gave them an ideal service, but even
then they did nothing to encourage
the operators to continue that service,
which consisted of eight regular sail
ings per month by two companies.
tr> the pnntrarv. the leading
merchants of Seward arranged for
their own tramp steamship which
handled their freight at a secret rate,
and at the safue time they went to
their competing merchants in Seward
and got them to join with them
in making up the cargo at a regular
rate, yet they, with the bulk of the
cargo, were bringing the samj goods
at a reduced rate, which resulted in
the smaller merchants deliberately
playing into the hands of their largest
competitor.
Anchorage, which is loudest In its
complaint of the mall service and is
eager to shift the blame exclusively
to the steamships, which deposited
at their harbor In safety the 6,000 or
more persons who built the original
town in the boom days. In place of
looking upon the steamships as an
important factor in the future of the
town, it became antagonistic to the
steamships and lost no opportunity
ct voicing the sentiment through the
press of Achorage and in every public
manner.
The Alaska engineering commission
did everything possible to disrupt the
service, even to the extent of putting
on the transport Crook, handling
freight and passengers, and more re
cently chartering tramp steamers
which do not have to file tariffs, there
by leaving such a small amount of
business to be divided among the
regular steamships operating that one
by one those steamships were with
drawn and there is little likelihood
of the private lines again making
Anchorage a port or call.
All the mail carried by the private
lines between Seward and Anchorage,
that long twenty-four-hour trip
around the Kenai peninsula, was in all
those years handled without one cent
of extra compensation. Anchorage,
now a depopulated village, is howling
at the steamships and yet in the hey
doy of its prosperity, with its 6,000
pewle, the steamships were handling
thf mail eight trips a month into and
out of that harbor without any pay.
and the excuse of the postoffice, de
partment was that the contract cov
ered handling the mail to Seward
only and the postoffice department
had no concern whether the steam
ships extended their route to Anchor
age or not, but as they did extend it
on that route, that the extra haul
would not be regarded as worthy of
additional compensation.
No one ever heard of the steam
ships being commended for the faith
ful performance of that mail service
without any pay, yet there was never
a time that any steamship left Anchor
age with a freight cargo for there is
nothing to> load southbound at Anchor
age, so the' movement"of the south
bound vessels from Anchorage to Sew
ard was exclusively for mail and pas
sengers, a great convenience.
The people of Alaska have had
had much to contend with and they
are justified in their loud complaints
at the present time, but when the peo
ple of Anchorage and Seward attempt
to place the blame for the mall con
dition on the private steamships, they
are wholly in the wrong!, for the fault
lies exclusively with the postoffice of
ficials in Washington, D. C., and until
those officials rescind their former
rulings and are willing to pay for the
service on a basis in keeping with the
peculiar conditions of Alaska, they
will never be able to get any steam
ship line to bid for the mall contract.
It is also time for the people of the
westward to look the facts calmly in
the face and ascertain if the sectional
strife and knocking has ever accomp
lished anything. When the Copper
River & Northwestern railroad must
of necessity be closed to travel each
spring as the changing seasons cause
a rise in the river which takes out
the bridge at C^ltlna, the correspond
ents and new^apera gleefully handle
the story and send exaggerated tele
grams to the Seattle papers. There
never will be a time when the river
at Chitlna will not take out a, pile
bridge at some time during the early
season. The management expects it
and is prepared tor it. For years, how
ever, it has been the chief source of
delight to the westward knockers.
Now, however, the shoe is on the
other foot, and most carefully sup
pressed is the fact that the United
States railroad was blocked with snow
during December and is still closed,
and it can’t be opened all winter. In
fact, the snowdrifts are so bad that it
may be well into the summer before
the line can again be opened.
But the news has been suppressed.
Why? Yet the blame for all the mail
delays is now being placed at the door
of! the steamships. It is true that they
have curtailed their sailings to the
westward, chiefly because there is no
business offering, but just as soon as
the people to the westward success
fully show that the postoffice depart
ment is at fault and demand that that
department rectify its error, and at
the same time Bhow that there is
business for the steamships, the com
panies will, no doubt, be glad to re
sume service and co-operate with the
people, as they have ever been willing
to do, on a friendly basis of business
relation.—Railway and Marine News.
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VICTORIA AGAIN PIONEER8
ROUTE TO THE ORIENT
The Alaska Steamship Company
entered the foreign trade when it dis
patched the steamship Victoria for
the Orient early last month. The
vessel had a full cargo both outward
and inward, and it may make addi
tional trips with other vessels of the
same fleet. If history repeats itself
the entry of the Victoria into this trade
may be regarded a being prophetic of
future activities, for the same vessel
was one of those inaugurating the Ca
nadian Pacific service out of Vancou
ver and the Northern Pacific service
out of Tacoma.
The Dally Times Job plant in'
veil equipped for all elaaae of com*
_. c
Palestine Too Precious a Conquest to
Revert to Any Single Nation
Bf DR. JOHN H. FINLEY
Our American Bed Cross mission numbered about seventy persons.
We gave medical aid to an average of about ten* thousand a month, and
there also were four or five thousand refugees to be looked after.
Palestine is unique among all countries. Neither Jew nor Gentile
nor Moslem has any exclusive title to it. Bather it belongs to all the
nations of the western world, and it is my hope that it will loom on the
horizon of all Americans as it does on mine. All Christendom must take
an interest in it. ,
Bedeemed by gallant British arms, it ought to be held in trust for all
civilization rather than intrusted to any single nation, race or creed. It
should be a home for the Jews if they wish to go there as well as for all
others, Christians and Moslems alike.
I believe it should be held in trusteeship when conditions there become
normal. I believe the people living in the country should decide thv form
their government is to take.
As for the Zionists, I am heartily ih sympathy with their desires as
outlined to me by Doctor Weizmann, leader of the Zionist movement, with
whom I talked in London. He told me that the Zionists favored self
determination of the form of the government by the people who live there.
In my opinion it is advisable to leave the administration of the coun
try to the British until preliminary reconstruction work is thoroughly
under way. The population of Palestine is approximately 600,000. About
100,000 of the inhabitants are Jews. With the introduction of modern
methods of agriculture and industry the land could support from three
to five million people.
I cannot pay too high tribute to the remarkable group of Britons who
are now administering affairs in the Holy Land. Every act of these men
bore the mark of fine understanding and respect for the native popula
tion and their traditions.
War Has Taught Japanese to Develop
Their Resources in All Directions
By ANDRE BELESSORT, Profeuor in Paru Lyra*
Japan is the only nation which has directly benefited by the present
conflict. Before the war Japan was poor, but the war has enriched her
far more than the victories of Port Arthur or of Mukden. Japan has
learned to depend on herself. She has kicked away all her former props,
with the result that the war has done more to develop her industries than
ten years of effort would have accomplished. Certain industries, such as
the textile industries, or those of chemical products, and the manufacture
of glassware and of European paper, have expanded tremendously in the
last four years.
Japan has created that which it lacked, whilst that which it already,
possessed is developing to an extent which the benefits of a world peace
would never have allowed it to hope for. In order to give an adequate idea
of this progress, it is only necessary to glance at the statistics, which prove
that the net profits of the tortile industries have increased by 5,330,000
yen since the beginning of the war, while the profits of the ehemieal indus
tries have increased by 1,133,500 yen. >
Once started in this direction Japan resolved to acquire complete
economic independence. This is proved by the fact that although before
the war Japan was behind Germany in the manufacture of artificial dyes
and many other chemical products, she has now taken these industries com
pletely in hand, and two companies have been formed with the approbation
and direct aid of the Japanese government, so as definitely to check any
attempt Germany may eventually make to resume her supremacy in these
directions.
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ARE YOU GOING OUT THIS FALL?
Visit San Francisco and Stop with
Mark C. Thompson
at his new hotel in the heart of the city between
Powell and Mason Streets.
The Dale- Tallac Hotel
140 ELLIS STREET
Special Rates and Headquarters for Alaskans.
Manhattan Hotel
R. W. FERRELL, Prop.
Electric Lighted. Hot Water. Turkish and Tub
Baths.
OPPOSITE CORDOVA GRILL, CORDOVA, ALASKA.
PHONE 99
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Tailor and Cleaner
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