UNCLE SAM AND COLUMBIA
CONFER WITH ELDER SONS
Future of Alaska Discussed at Gathering of Nation’s
Official Family at Washington—Sons Outline
Plans for Development of America’s Last Fron
tier, Alaska, the Nation’s Treasure House—Re
sources of Territory Sufficient to Redeem Na
tion’s Financial Obligations.
(Written for The News by W. A. Ryan.)
SC EXE I.
4 Morning room at the White House ]
Columbia discovered in morning:
attire. Enter Uncle Sam from his j
apartment, yawning and stretch-;
ing his gaunt limbs.
Uncle Sam: “Good morning, Co-!
lumbia, my dear. You are looking;
unusually fine this morning. How ]
are our elder sons—are they all up j
—ready for breakfast?”
Columbia: “Yes, Sam. And with !
fine bracing appetites, faces all shin
ing from their morning’s bath. We
p- are to have hot cakes and maple
syrup for breakfast, you know.”
U. S.: “Fine1 Tell Woodrow that
the topic for discussion this morn
ing is ‘Alaska: What shall we do
with it?’ I want our elder sons to -
come prepared to give me their best
t constructive suggestions. . Alaska is;
a field that has lain fallow too long.
We have brought the East and the j
West and the South up by intensive j
cultivation to a high state of pro-.
ductiveness. We need to employ
some modern methods in the Far
a North. We must decide soon what
shall be the task for the next gen-1
eration. It should be broad, com-i
prehensive, wise and enduring. Tell
them I want their best thought
brought to bear on this subject. Go,
now. my dear, and tell them. I will
join you soon. 1
Columbia: “Yes, Sam; I have a!-]
Teady spoken to them as we agreed
I should last night. They are even j
now eagerly awaiting our coming. ]
T am glad that we are going into i
this subject now. The time seems
most propitious. Now that our boys
are back from the field of battle,!
we must give them Something Big i
to do. Something grand—something I
worthy of their mettle, something |
fitted to their broadened vision and ,
their hard-won and wider experience '
of life. They have accustomed
themselves to the winning fight—
they must have tasks commensurate
with their ideals as conquerors—let
them now undertake that nobler
conquest of nature and subdue the
wilderness as they have subdued
the hordes of Huns. Lesser tasks
would be to tame their spirits, to
soften their lives, to make them
over into Mollycoddles. Let us by
all means make Big Plans for the
Big Men they have become.”
U. S.: “Good for you, my own
Columbia. Well spoken, thou God
dess of our Nation, thou Guardian
Angel of our children! Spoken
like the true mother thou art and
ever were. Let us hope that we
may inspire lofty ambitions in them
and that our family council of to
day shall result in Big Plans and
Good plans for the welfare of all
our children.”
Columbia: “Very well, Samuel, I
will go and announce your coming.” '
[Exit Columbia.]
U. S. (soliloquizing! : “And may
* thy sheltering love be ever a pro
tecting shield, O Liberty, and the
pure purposes you have instilled in *
the hearts of our elder sons be:
manifest ever in their words, their:
acts and their deeds.
SCENE II.
Breakfast room at the White House.
The elder sons—Woodrow, Rob
ert, Carter, Newton Diehl, A.
Mitchell, Albert Sidney, Josephus,
Franklin Knight, David Franklin,
William Cox, and William Beau
chop—discover d seated in groups
and chatting gaily.
Enter Columbia. They all rise
and salute, standing at attention.
Woodrow: “Good morning. Moth
er Columbia.”
Other Sons: “Good morning,
^ Mother Columbia.”
Columbia: “Good morning, my
sons! Please be seated—your fath
er will be here in a moment.”
The boys take their places—enter
Uncle Sam.
Uncle Sam: “Good morning, sons!
Let us for a moment bow our heads
in silent thanksgiving to God. A
few moments of silence follow, then
Uncle Sam speaks: “Almighty and;
Omnipotent God. we thank Thee j
that Thou hast bestowed upon us i
the blessed privilege of once more j
restoring a troubled world to per-;
manent peace. We ask Thee that:
Thou shalt give us the wisdom j
rightly to plan and justly to do.:
according to Thy will, that which1
shall best serve Thee and Thy peo- j
pie. Guide us in our family council
this <lay. We ask it in Thy name.
Amen!"
Breakfast follows, and Uncle Sam
at its conclusion speaks:
“Woodrow, let us today discuss
what we shall do for Alaska, our j
great treasure house in the North, ]
that it may be unlocked and its j
riches brought forth and made to j
serve mankind. Have you boys i
been considering this matter, and
if you have, what ideas can you ad
vance to make practical the utiliza- j
tion of its splendid resources?” i
Woodrow: “Well, sir, we have j
given mueh thought to this matter, j
and we have come to the conclusion j
that by a proper utilization of Alas- J
ka’s great resources we may easily |
lift the great burden of debt we
have incurred through this war,
within next generation at least, and \
that, too, without unduly taxing the
people.
“We have in that great territory I
a property that, if wisely managed, j
should furnish employment for the
energies of the majority of our!
boys who have returned from thej
war. enrich them, and at the same
time, from the profits to be gained
therefrom, discharge our bonded
debt.
“One copper mine in Alaska paid
its owners $23,000,000 of profit
last year, besides which it fur
nished sufficient traffic to Alaska's
one operating railroad to enable it
to pay a sufficient dividend. This is
but one example of what Alaska’s
mineral deposits can do. The ex
ample could be multiplied. There
are many enormously profitable
mines in operation, but the unde
veloped resources of that region of
fer hundreds of like opportunities.
It is only a question of how best
to handle the situation to bring
about that speedy development
which will result in bringing them
immediately to the production stage.
Brother Franklin K., will you tell
ius of your plans?”
Franklin K.: “As you know, our
railroad has now reached the coal
fields on the Western slope. Pro
ductive mines are now in operation
there. This means cheap fuel for
the steamship lines operating on
, the Alaskan coast and cheap fuel
for industries along the coast and
on the Western slope. The coal
fields on the Nenana also have been
reached. There the world’s largest
compact body of lignite can be
made to produce more cheaply than
ielsewhere in the world. This lig
nite lies in immense bodies, so that
it can be mined and delivered at
the track-side by gravity. This lig
I nite must be treated so as to make
lit a commercially practicable fuel.
The process of treatment produces
many by-products the recovery of
which will pay the cost of mining
and treating the material so as to
make it useful as fuel. The gases
that are created by this treatment
may be accumulated in large tanks
: and utilized for various purposes.
1 “First for the generation of elec
tric power. This power can be
economically employed to operate
■ our railroad, which can be electri
jfied as the mountain divisions of
•one of our great transcontinental
railroads is. The surplus of power
j generated can be transmitted to the
sites of prospective mines as poten
'tially rich as any Alaska has de-j
veloped. With this cheap power
these mines should be immediately
opened. Wagon roads will have to
be built to accommodate the con
struction of power-transmission
lines. These wagon roads will then
be availaBle for the transportation
of machinery and materials to the
mines. Later on, branch lines of
railroad operated by the trolley sys
tem may be installed to haul out
the ores to the main line of the
railroad. Within a circle of 200
miles of the site of such a treat
ment plant and power station on
Lignite creek lies the greatest min
eral belt of the world. Within this
area are copper deposits greater
than any that have ever been
opened to the world, gold, tin, sil
ver-galena. antimony, tungsten, and
many other metalliferous ores. Two
hundred miles would embrace every
known producing gold-field in Alas
ka. Two hundred miles is easily
within the limit of profitable power
tran^nission. Today there is noj
market for such power, but were
the plant an accomplished fact, the
demand would be created, the mar
ket would come. As the electric
power developed in connection with
the Arizona and the Idaho reclama
tion projects is profitably consumed
by a market wholly the result of
the installation of such plants, so
would our power generated at Lig
nite be consumed. Dredges, drag
line scrapers and other mechanical
aids to mining the alluvial gold
could be operated at less than half
the present cost for power. This
would cause much of the low-grade
placer ground now lying undevel-;
oped to be profitably worked, j
Quartz mines of known richness J
now shut down and unproductive;
because of the prohibitive cost of ■
fuel would become immediately ac- j
tive. ]
“The by-products of the treat
ment of lignite include many of
the most valuable industrial in
gredients, dye-stuffs, chemicals, coal
tar derivatives hitherto a monopoly
of Germany would be included, as
well as the higher grades of fuel
oils and bases for explosives. The
surplus of electrical power might1
even be profitably employed in the
manufacture of fertilizer, which
would furnish tonnage for our rail
road line on the back-haul to the
coast and for our steamship lines
back to the States.
“As it is now our ships in the
Alaska trade must assess against
the inbound traffic all the round
trip expenses, because the return
voyage is empty. So in prospect
at present our railroad cars must
be hauled back to the coast empty,
unless we develop this return traf
fic. We plan to invest $50,000,000
or more in our railroad—we must
make that investment active and
profitable. To do so we must do as
the railroads have always done: aid
the industrial development of the
contiguous territory. We should
with wise prevision not wait until
our railroad is completed to con
sider these problems; we should
begin now to solve them.
I “Mineral discoveries made to the
i present time are a sufficient guar
1 anty of the future, but we should
i not rest content with these. We
! should encourage the prospector to
1 renewed efforts, to greater energy.
“What has discouraged the pros
: pector in Alaska is the inability to
, secure capital to develop his dis
coveries. Unless he is willing to
j give up practically the whole of his
j property, he finds no one willing to
I risk money in development work.
We must correct this. We should
l provide for the thorough scientific
examination of all new mineral dis
coveries, and when found to be of
\ such character as to justify devel
opment, we should either take over
the property and operate it for the
joint benefit of the discoverer and
l ourselves, or we should provide a
; means of encouraging private devel
opment by long time loans secured
by mortgage on the property, or
; perhaps subsidize capable prospec
' tors to discover and open new
: mines. Every mine opened will
make new revenue for our power.
fuel, and railroad.
“Such a policy would make a
j large demand for labor, furnish em
1 ployment to high-grade mechanics.
! and the population of Alaska would
| thereby be greatly increased.
“Such increase of population
I would at once open up a field for
. agricultural development upon a
! magnificent scale. Farm lands in
j Alaska are fertile beyond under
standing. Vegetables #f all sorts
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produced in the temperate zone
flourish there, though this is a sub
Arctic region. It is perhaps not
feasible to develop agriculture in
Alaska sufficiently to afford a sur
plus for our markets here. But
under a policy such as outlined the
local demand ought to exceed the
local supply. But of agriculture
perhaps Brother David had best tell
you of his plans. Only let me add
this: that Alaska's reindeer herd
which has been fostered upder my
care has by its enormous increase
demonstrated beyond doubt that
Alaska has the capacity to furnish
meat for millions. The wild sheep
and caribou that abound in count
less herds, much as the buffalo once
roamed our great plains, demon
strate that by proper adaptation,,
perhaps by domestication and by
cross-breeding, enormous additions
may be made to the world’s supply
of wool and leather.
“Caribou hide, when properly
tanned as the natives know how to
tan it, produces a softer, whiter
and more superior chamois than
that of the animal after which it
is named. Buckskin for the many
uses to which it is put could be
profitably manufactured for the
market from the hides of the rein
deer, caribou, and moose, of which
Alaska has, and always should have
under proper economic laws, an in
exhaustible supply.”
Columbia: “Father, from what
Franklin K. has said, 1 am inspired
(Continued on Page Seven)
Nenana Mining District
Has Promising Future
(Continued from Page Two)
get them to the diggings. Sup- i
plies for the Totatlanika basin, bet- i
ter known as the Eva creek dig- |
gings, are unloaded from the train I
at the Xenana Crossing (43-Mile).
A road built by the miners them
selves. following the course of
Walker creek, leads from the Cross
ing to the mines on Eva creek and
that neighborhood over the low
divide. The distance to the mines
from the Crossing is approximately
nine miles.
Supplies for the miners on the
Hoseanna or Lignite and Healy
creeks are hauled to the end of
steel, which is approximately one
mile below the mouth of Lignite
| creek, and from there taken on by
, dog teams. All hauling is done dur
i ing the winter season.
! Trains run out to the end of
i steel from N'enana three times a
;week; freight and passenger rates
: are very cheap compared to the al
most prohibitive cost of transporta
; tion when only dog teams wero
available; journeys that formerly
consumed from a day and a half t>
nearly five days can now be easily
accomplished in one day; a larger
quantity of materia! and supplies
can now be hauled and cached, to
be hauled away later as may be
found convenient, and thus a great
many prospectors have been en
couraged to take to the hills and
jhelp in discovering the minerals
| that are known to exist, and there
! by make Nenana one of the great
| est mining centers of Alaska.
Lignite and Healy Region.
Many prospectors are operating
in the basins of Lignite and Healy
creeks and their tributaries, and
although the exploratory work donp
so far has not been sufficiently
i extensive to disclose the actual con
dition and extent of the discov
eries made both in placer and
quartz, gold and other valuabU
minerals, reports indicate that en
leouraging prospects have been un
covered, resulting in increased ac
tivity in prospecting.
The easy access the miners and
prospectors in this district have to
the limitless coal beds, and the
eminent suitability of the coal for
the various uses in mining opera
tions, especially in thawing out the
ground, is bound to act as a po
. tent factor toward the rapid de
velopment of the mineral resources
of the region.
Region Beyond Lignite.
Several prospectors are actively
doing exploration work in the re
gion adjacent to the railroad and
extending from the Nenana canyon
to the Broad Pass summit, within
the boundaries of the Nenana min
ing district. The country in which
they are prospecting is known to
be mineralized, and although no
definite reports of discoveries being
made have reached Nenana as yet,
such reports are expected almost
any time. Supplies have from timp
, to time been shipped out by the
men, and determined efforts are
: being put forth by them to develop
the country and get tonnage for
the government railroad.