Home Rule for Alaska Plea of Press
(Reprinted from The Seattle Spirit)
Indication of the growing appre
ciation of the press of the nation of
Alaska’s problems and the necessity
■for giving the Territory home rule
is seen in the compilation of edi
torial comment on Alaska as pub
lished in the Literary Digest in its
issue of August 21. In papers as
■widely separated as Knoxville and
New York are statements that Alas
ka holds the solution of some of
Uncle Sam’s troubles, namely, coal,
fuel oil and paper pulp, and the
editors quoted give unanimous ap
proval of the Territory’s claim that
it be freed from the burden of fed
eral bureau control.
The Digest’s article in part says:
“Alaska needs less ‘governmental
regulation’ from Washington and
Uncle Sam needs more coal, wood
pulp, fuel oil, and other essential
material supplies from Alaska. These
seem to be the outstanding fact%
emphasized by the recent visit of
Secretary of the Interior Payne and
Secretary of the Navy paniels to
our Northern Territory. The secre
taries, reports J. J. Underwood in
the Seattle Times, found that by
establishing a coaling base midway
between the Orient and the United
States on the Aleutian peninsula,
the Shipping board vessels plying be
tween Seattle and the Orient could
save a thousand tons of cargo-car
rying capacity on each voyage, or |
enough to enable each ship to pay
for itself through increased earning
capacity within a period of ten years.;
This would also make !t unnecessary
to ship coal from Virginia and Penn
sylvania to the Pacific fleet. Fur
thermore, says this paper, ooth sec
retaries are very much concerned
over the threatened shortage of fuel
oil, for the Shipping board operates
many oil-burners, and in recent
years it has been the policy to build
oil-burning naval vessels because of
their increased steaming radius,
speed, and fighting capacity, and
these are not easily changed to coal
burners. Alaska’s oil resources, we
•are told, are just beginning to be
exploited.
“That Alaska needs more home
rule for the prompt and efficient de
velopment of her vast natural re
sources is the contention of many
of our papers in widely separated
i parts of the Union. ‘Washington
should give the Alaskan territorial'
government wider discretion, for
Washington can not know Alaska's
needs,’ argues the Syracuse Post
Standard; and Secretary Payne is
quoted in the New York Times as
saying: ‘What Alaska needs is more
men and women to settle the coun
try and less governmental regula
tions^ More specifically the Colum
bus (Ohiol Dispatch tells us that—
“ ‘Alaska is getting sick and tired
of being interfered with in her de
velopment by the people of this
country, who know nothing about
j conditions up there. There are many
' real men in Alaska—men who have
j gone there to make their homes,
: men who have developed themselves
| along with the development that has
! taken place in the country, men who
' are capable of saying what ought to
! be done and what ought not to be
done.
“ ‘The Alaskans ask only that the
Government create a board of devel
j opment, the members of which shall
be Alaskans, and leave to this board
the working out fit the destiny of
the Territory. It is a simple re
quest and one that ought to be
granted as soon as Congress again
I is in session.'
“ ‘Mails to and from Alaska are
now handled as freight,’ declares the
Seattle Times, a consistent champion
of Alaska. In other ways, we are
told, the people of the Territory, six
thousand miles from Washington,
are poorly represented. True, points
out The Times, they are represented
, in Congress by a delegate, but he
does not have a vote. The chief
hindrance to good government in
Alaska and the development of the
Territory, declares this paper, is ‘the i
burden of federal bureaucracy.’
“ ‘Alaska needs a heSir.g hand
now,’ declares the Knoxville Sen
tinel, but it would seem, in running
through a catalog of Alaska’s re
sources, that the Territory m >y have
to rescue Uncle Sam from the plight
in which he finds himself, particular
ly with regard to coal for the Pa
cific fleet, paper for the nation, cil
for naval and merchant ships, and
waterpower for manufacturing pa
per. As we read in the Boston Her
ald :
j “ ‘No area within the jurisdiction
NENANA’S BEST APPOINTED HOTEL
Cooney Hotel and Annex
HOT AND COLD WATER AND BATHS
ROOMS SINGLE OR EN SUITE
COMFORT AND SERVICE UNEXCELLED
DOG BARNS
(
SXSXKSS«0fcX%XSX3060e<3000g%SSS3«XSXKXXXXXKSSSSSXXSXXSXX
Trappers Traders
SHIP TO
GEORGE R. GOSHAW, INC.
Dealer in Raw Furs
SEATTLE NEW YORK
Alaska Building , 127 W. 27th Street
A WORD TO YOU
At our Seattle office we have opened a buying department for
the benefit of the Alaska trade.
We solicit the accounts of individuals, firms and corporations
desiring closer connections for buying and selling. The service
rendered is direct; we, at every step, exercise close supervision
over all transactions, thus assuring accurate and prompt atten
tion.
We are READY, WILLING and ABLE to buy right, to ship
right, to insure right—to attend to all matters as your personal
agent. Your enquiries and wants will receive our immediate and
most courteous attention.
WRITE US—there is no obligation. We are just the business
connection that the Alaska Trade has been looking for in the
buying of mining, cannery and fishing supplies, dry goods, gro
ceries, cigars and tobacco, drugs, rubber goods, furniture, house
hold sundries, electrical goods, gas engines—in fact, anything that,
grows or is manufactured.
We are also willing and anxious to develop a market for all
Alaskan products. Get in touch with us, giving full particulars,
and your goods will be sold right.
of the United States has been so
grotesquely misunderstood as Alas
ka. The resources of Alaska have
been known for many years, of
course; but they have been mainly
recapitulated in the arid pages of
government publications, which are
read by very few.
“ ‘It is expected that the needs
of the Pacific fleet in the matter of
coal will presently be supplied from
this source. The fisheries of Alas
ka, moreover, have hardly been
touched, although they are known
to be of great value. All in all, it
is a country of wonderful possibili
ties: the wonder is that we have
been so long in realizing any of
them.’
“As the Boston Herald says, most
of the information we have of Alas
ka comes from ‘the arid pages of
government publications.’ For in
stance, we are told that the federal
income tax of Alaska usually
amounts to more than fifteen mill
ions; the Territory proudly claims
the only volcano and the highest
mountain (Mt. McKinley) in North
America; from reports that there
art not enough passenger steamers
to carry the people who want to
visit the country this summer we
gather that it is becoming a summer
playground; the same ground that is
covered with snow in winter has
grown wheat that took first prize ac
Minneapolis; Alaska contains the
only placer tin mines on the con
tinent; the marble from the Terri
tory for which Uncle Sam paid less
than two cents an acre rivals that
of Vermont, and is used to adorn
Western office-buildings and hotel
lobbies; and the value of Alaska’s
products since the Territory was ac
quired by the United States is al
most a billion dollars. The newest
industry, and also one of the most
profitable, is that of reindeer rais
ing, which has made the majority
of the Eskimos economically inde
pendent; the gain in this industry,
we are told, has been more than
1,200 percent. Dr. Nelson, chief of
the biological survey, is now in Alas
ka studying reindeer propagation.
The navy, for the first time in his
tory, is now mining its own coal in
Alaska; and, finally, a transpacific
cable and land line between the
United States and the Orient, via
the Aleutian peninsula, is to be con
sidered during the next session of
Congress.’
“ ‘Capital and enterprise are need
ed to usher in the day of supreme
accomplishment in Alaska,’ declares
Governor Cox’s paper, the Dayton
News; but the Rochester Times-Un
ioa says:
“‘Young men can't do it alone;
the pioneer wives and mothers in
this country did as much, if not
more, to build it up than the men.
Virile young men—and women—
might do well to consider Alaska.’ ”
ADVERTISED LETTERS.
To the Public: The following let
ters in the Xenana postoffice, un
called for, month ending August 31,
1920. Mention letter being adver
tised when you call for same.
R. S. McDonald, Postmaster.
Alen, George.
Contralto, Antonio.
Carlson, Fred.
Larson, E. W.
Liangovas, Jas.
Martin, M. J.
HAGAN GOES OUTSIDE;
ANDERS TAKES PLACE
Deputy Marshal James Hagan,
lord high suppressor of crime in
Xenana, left Fairbanks for the
States yesterday morning aboard a
Karstens auto stage. He was ac
companied by Deputy Marshal Jack
Woods, of Fairbanks, the two of
ficers having in charge Captain
Charles Morgan, wanted at Wash
ington on a charge of desertion and
other offenses, and James H. Page,
I an insane patient, who is being es
corted to Morningside asylum.
During the absence of Deputy
Marshal Hagan from Xenana, his
place will be filled by Deputy Mar
shal Anders, of Hot Springs, who
-has the distinction of being both
capable and popular in his official
capacity.
WEEKLY REPORT
i
IN ROAD FORCE
i
The weekly force report of the
Alaskan Engineering commission for
| the period ended September 4 shows
| a total of 591 regular employes on
j the payrolls in this division, which
I is 13 less than were employed dur-'
i ing the previous week. The report
{also shows a total of 360 station-'
I men at work during the period un
; der review, a decrease of 11 for the
' week. The stationmen laborers num
bered 49. a decrease of one. The
payroll expenditures for the week
aggregated $24,645.
The force report for the corre
sponding period a year ago showed
a total of 634 payroll employes at
work in this division.
The distribution of labor last week
was as follows:
Wagon road south, 333. 38
Contractors and engineers, 344.. 12
Contractors and engineers, 350.. 8
Contractors and engineers. 356.. It?
Healy, 350 . 43
Secs. 7-1 south, 358-411. 53
I
Total Xenana South.173
, Xenana—
General . 38
Electric . 11
Corral . 4
Store . 24 :
Material yard . 20
Construction . 46!
(Hospital . 12
tTownsite . 2
I !
j Total Xenana . 157 ,
j Terminal, 412 . 12
j Secs. 1-6 North, 412-460. 45 !
j Extra gang, 429 . 65 i
j Sawmill, 429 . 21 j
j Steam-shovel, 451 . 55,
| Total Xenana North .198 j
j Happy to Fairbanks, 460-467. 34 j
! Chatanika branch . 29 j
Total . 63 ;
i
Division Total .591 !
THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP |
May have what you are looking for. !
SECOND-HAND GOODS BOUGHT j
AND SOLD.
! NORTH OF NENANA HOUSE. !
It KltltltltltltltltititltltKItlt «t
•t at
at MARINE BULLETIN. *t
at at
at atatatatatatatatatatatatatatatat «
Kotlik. down Holy Cross, 10:15
a. m., 10th.
Louise, up Nulato, 7:30 p. m.,
10th.
Tern up Tolovana, 6 p. m., 10th.
Reliance, at Gibbon, tied up.
Seattle No. 3, up Kotlik. 4:20
a. m. 8th.
Herman, up St. Michael, 11 a. m.,
7th.
Alaska, up Rampart, 8 p. m., 10th.'
Yukon down Fort Yukon, 5 a. m. :
Davis, up Kotlik, 4:30 a. m., 6th. :
Jacobs, at Gibbon.
Pelican, down Nulato, 7th last
report.
Flying Cloud, at Chena.
Washburn, down Gibbon, 9 a. m.
GOVERNMENT FINISHES
IN SHIPYARD HEARING,
_
SEATTLE, Sept. 11.—The Gov-'
ernment has concluded its case
against the seven indicted officers of
the Grays Harbor Motorship cor
poration, and it is expected that the
defense will begin the introduction
of testimony on Tuesday.
The officers are charged with con
spiracy to defraud the Government
in connection with the construction
of ships during the war.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
Regular service will be held in
the building near the telegraph of
fice Sunday at 7:00 p. m. Subject,
“Substance.”
Services Wednesday evening at 3
o’clock.
COLISEUM
SUNDAY NIGHT
Pathe News—Pictorial
THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR EYES
JESSE L. LASKY PRESENTS
THE SCREENS GREATEST CHARACTER ACTOR
Theodore Roberts
-IN
“The American Consul”
BY PAUL WEST.
PRODUCED BY THE JESSE L. LASKY FEATURE PLAY CO.
MUSIC—VIOLIN AND PIANO.
General Admission 50c. Reserved Seats 75c.
SOLDIERS AND CHILDREN, 25c
NO WAR TAX
SHOW STARTS AT 8:30 O’CLOCK.
MONDAY NIGHT
Pathe News
DEPICTING INTERESTING HAPPENINGS THROUGHOUT
THE WORLD.
DANIEL FROHMAN PRESENTS
Pauline Frederick
IN AN UNUSUALLY POWERFUL DRAMA
By William H. Clifford.
A PARAMOUNT PICTURE.
PRODUCED BY THE FAMOUS PLAYERS FILM CO.
MUSIC —VIOLIN AND PIANO |
General Admission 50 cents Reserved Seats 75c
SOLDIERS AND CHILDREN 25c.
NO WAR TAX. 1
SHOW STARTS AT EIGHT O’CLOCK.
—
PUYALLUP NEAR BEER
ESTABLISHMENT BURNS
PUYALLUP, Wash., Sept. 11.—
Property in this city valued at $400,
000 was destroyed by tire yesterday.
A near beer manufacturing com
pany was the heaviest sufferer, the
remainder of the loss being shared
by several other concerns, including
a lumber mill and yard and four
residences.
R RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR K
R R
R TEMPERATURE R
*t As reported by the government R
R observation station, Nenana R
R R
R Friday, September 10. R
R Maximum .61 above R
R Minimum .36 above R
R Saturday, September 11. R
R Maximum .60 above R
R Minimum .34 above R
R
R
R
HEALY RIVER
ROADHOUSE
END OF STEEL
First-class Meals
BEDS
Cigars aod Tobacco
S. T. Hinckley
Ambrose Van
WATCHES
JEWELRY
Watch Repairing
DESIGNING AND NATIVE
JEWELRY A SPECIALTY
WM. TAYLOR
wn»smii»ninimiiim«um»sH»ntat
If Comfort, Economy and the
Environments of Homo
Appeal to You,
STOP AT THE
MONTANA
SPECIAL RATES BY WEEK
OR MONTH.
...mf
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
I Persons having accounts
against the estate af Sam
Derietich, deceased, are re
quested to present them im
mediately at the office of
the United States commis
sioner, at Nenana, Alaska.