THE NENANA DAILY NEWS
Application made April 1, 1918, at the postoffice at Nenana, Alaska,
for entry as second class mail matter, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
“WHERE RAIL AND RIVER MEET”
Published every afternoon except Sunday, by the Nenana Printing
Company, at First and B Streets, Nenana, Alaska.
R. C. Southworth............Editor and Manager
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cat;on of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in
this paper and also all the local news published herein.
TUMBLE-BUGGING
Our neighbor at Fairbanks, the
News-Miner, has seen fit to waste
two columns of more or less valuable
space in abuse of Mr. Frederick D.
Browne, engineer in charge of the
Alaskan Engineering Commission
at Nenana
The burden of it plaint is that
Mr. Browne has had the temerity
to suggest the possibility of pro
curing government aid for the es
tablishment of a smelter at Nenana.
Boiled down, the News-Miner’s at
tack comes to this: “Nenana has no
need for a smelter because it has
no ores to smelt, and even if it had
it would be cheaper to send the ores
Outside than to smelt them in
Alaska.”
That local jealousy could so blind
a newspaper writer to the effect of
such statements as the News-Miner;
article contains is one of the evi
dences of the perversity of human
judgment.
What Thompson says about Ne-,
nana, if true, would be doubly true
about any other Interior point in
Alaska. The article while directed
at Nenana is in reality directed at.
the very foundation of the future
of Alaska. It is an arraignment of
Alaska—not of Nenana. If there
is any foundation for the basic argu
ment of the News-Miner's attack
it must apply with greater force
to every other spot-in the territory.
Now if the News-Miner had said:
“a government owned and operated
smelter would be a good thing for
the territory- but the logical place
for it is Fairbanks, because here
we have the ores to smelt”, then
there wo | d have been some sense
in the screed. If Thompson, instead
of damning the whole project as im
possible, impracticable, unprofitable,
had said, “Look here, Fairbanks,
get busy and go after this smelter
thing for our own home town—
don’t let Nenana beat us to it.
Make up. you fellows of the Fair
banks Commercial club; go after
this good thing and get it before
Nenana wakes up,” then he wo d
have done his town and his people
ll iroott turn I
L»ut because the idea original 1!
with a practical man of good judg
ment and sound common sense- hap
pening to have his lot east with
Nenana, the News-Miner, hoping to
kill off the movement at its incep
tion, has no scruples in damning
the future of the whole of the in
terior of Alaska in order to deorhe
Nenana of a possible new resoun
Healthful rivalry and comneftior,
ne\cr hurt any community. If tc.o
towns, each seeking precedence over
the other, strive earnestly each for
its own improvement and oetter-j
ment, the inevitable result is and
must be that both will be benefit’.* d.
One is certain to best the oth-r in
the race. The one, that wins is that
whieh is strongest in point of g._c
graphical situation and hi the spirit
of its people. But if two towns
in their rivalry are misled to make
vicious attacks one upon i.; _• other,
each denying that the other has
any available resources, each ac
cusing the other of “Bull ng Them!
Along” with fake promises and lalse
pretenses, neither will succeed an 1 j
the whole community will suffer.
As we see it here in N'enjr?, I
Fairbanks has need for i.. -meitor.!
for cheap methods for the re iuctir-n j
of her ores and the recovery of the
undoubted values they contain.
If we can beat Fairbanks to it in
i
the installation of this greatly need
ed facility, both towns will be the
gainer by it. Nenana will get some
share of the very plentiful supply
of good things that Fairbanks has
and so we are going to i y to get
that smelter going here as soon as
possible.
YVe want to carry our coal up to
Fairbanks so as to reopen her quartz
mines that are closed for lack of
fuel and we want to haul our coal
cars back here loaded with gold,
silver and tungsten ores for our
smelter. \Yre want to do this for
Alaska’s sake first, second for Ne
nana’s sake, and third for Fairbanks’
sake.
If Fairbanks can beat us to it
and get the smelter located at Fair
banks, all right! It’s a clear field
and no favor. It will deprive the
government railroad of the short
haul on ore from Fairbanks to Ne
nana for our smelter if Fairbanks
wins the smelter; but we won't com
plain if only someone gets the
smelter somewhere, so that it will
serve the Fairbanks interest and the
interest of the whole of the Interior
of Alaska.
YVe can conceive of no Alaskan,
in his right mind, opposing the idea
of a government-aided smelter for
the Interior of Alaska or even in
timating that it would beUer be
located Outside as the News-Miner
does.
Such a government-owned and
operated smelter would be better
than a gold bonus for Fairbanks
mining interests. A government
owned smelter would not be run for
a profit, but solely in the interest
of the development of Alaskan re
sources.
Of course we can undestand why
an employe of the Smelter trust
would oppose a government smelter
just as the Radium trust opposed
land almost defeated* the reduction
works established by the Bureau
of Mines to recover radium front
Colorado’s carnotite ores.
But no one in Colorado having
the interest of his state at heart
ever opposed Secretary Lane’s pro
ject by which the cost of radium
was reduced.
If you want to know something
about that. Friend Thompson, go and
inquire at your local branch of the
Bureau of Mites and get the man
who installed that plant to tell you
all about it. He's right there in
hairbanks now. Go and call on him.
He can put you straight about
whether the government can or can
not go into the smelter business.
If Alaska has failed to develop
as it ought to have developed in the
last 20 years, it is because of the
short-sightedness of her leaders.
Time,, valuable time, has been
consumed in unseemly and scandal
ous quarrels, shocking the whole
nation with their dirtyness and
viciousness.
Outside, because two or three
vitriol-tongued orators of Alaska
have made a loud outcry of “Stop’
Thief!’’ and “Liar-” “Perjurer!”.
“Bribe Taker!”, the world has come
to believe us just what we have:
called one another.
Small minds absorbed in their own
petty tasks grasp small things:
quickly, but large things not at all. I
The vision is too limited to per
cieve and comprehend the larger i
view.
The tumble-bug rolling his ball!
along the dusty road imagines no!
doubt that the globe he is rolling i
is the earth and he the power that •
causes it to revolve.
. The tumble-bug, absorbed in his
petty task can not see the big
wagon rurribling down the highway.
Thtr another tumble-bug jealous of
the first’ hoists his hind legs up on
j the other side of the bull and begins
’O push in the opposite direction
jp»’d both exhaust their energy
I pushing one against the other
Now if both would only get or.
the same side of the ball and push
the ball would eventually land where
it would do one or the other and
perhaps both of them some good.'
But you couldn’t make the tum
, ble-bug believe that. No indeed.
! Each is afraid the other may get
I the ball for himself, and so while
. they are absorbed in their task of
.opposing one another the wagon,
! comes along and crushes the ball
I the bugs and all.
The News-Miner is giving us an
able imitation of the tumble bug.
Here in N'enana we started the
ball rolling- for a government smelt
er, a nice little ball to start rolling
no matter where it stops, if we can
only keep it from getting run over
and crushed.
A government owned and operated
smelter would be a big thing for
the Interior. The biggest thing,
ever, for the permanent develop
ment of the mining interests of
Alaska. And partieulary beneficial
to Fairbanks.
But Thompson, with the short
vision of the tumble bug, would
have us believe that—
“This is only a railroad town.
It will always be a railroad town.
It will never be any better than
its payroll. The railroad payroll
will be growing constantly smaller,”
and this is exactly what your News
Miner says and believes.
But Mr. Browne added: “If you
want a permanent and prosperous
town you must get other payrolls
beside the railroad’s. Why not go
out after a government owned and
operated smelter?”
And therein lies the sum of his
offending.
Thompson is frightened! or pre
.tends to be.
He screams with rage.
He sees neither above, around
or through that little ball we have
started rolling.
He cannot see ' that if the ball
continues to roll it will get bigger
and bigger and finally become a
reality of enormous importance.
\\ hat means could possibly be sug
gested that would be more certain
to revive Fairbanks’ moribund min
ing interests?
All Thompson can see, however,
is. that prosperity for Xenana means
adversity for Fairbanks.
X’othing could be further from
the truth.
O- man. man, man, dear! Can’t
you see that if a government-owned
smelter should come to the Interior
it would help Fairbanks, no matter
where it is located?
Nenana might not be the logical
nor the best place for it. It might
possibly be better located at Fair
banks. or at Gibbon, or at the mouth
°f Lignite, or over near the coast,
near Matanuska.
Xo matter where it was located,
if it was nearer than the nearest
trust smelter it would not fail to
benefit Fairbanks in great degree.
The nearer the better, provided it
is cheaper to haul coal than ore.
But of course, it isn’t because of
the empty back haul.
Of course Xenana wants that
smelter, and is going after it with
all the energy of which we are cap
able.
We are going to go after it in
a perfectly legitimate logical way.
We are going to set forth to
Congress the great need of a cheap
and economical method for recov-'
ering the values in Interior ores, not
only the gold ores of the Fairbanks
district, but the galena ores of the I
Rampart district, the tin ores of
the Hot Springs district, the tune
sten ores of th e Kantishna, th •1
copper and the molybdenite of the'
McKinley Park region- and all the;
other ores with which nature has
so plentifully endowed the Interior.
Then we are going to point out
the necessity for a big electric
power plant at the coal deposits
on Lignite creek to help develop
these big ore deposits, by taking
cheap power over to them on copper I
transmission lines, and we are go-1
ing to say to Congress:
“Gentlemen, you have invested
more money in ,a railroad into the
Interior of Alaska by over 100 tier
cent than all of the land north
of the Gulf of Mexico and west
: of the Mississippi cost you.
“Wh«n you paid old Napper
| Tandy $15-000,000 for the French
title to Louisiana, you made a
j mighty fine investment, but when
j you put $35,000,000 into this Alas
kan railroad you made a better one,
; if you will only do as you did with
your Louisiana purchase develop
the latent resources and possibili
; ties.
“You spent hundreds of millions
opening up the Mississippi river to;
navigation and on its levees and
jetties. You have spent’ literally
billions of dollars on public works
on your $15,000,000 purchase- to
hold it, to protect it, to make it
profitable.
Mow here is your §35,000,000
investment.
“You’ve got a railroad without
traffic.
“You must have traffic for it.
“You can’t fret that unless you
'develop feeders for your line. To
develop these there must be cheap
power.
“Power can be transmitted more
cheaply over a copper wire than on
rails through an unsettled moun
tainous district. Build transmission
lines from Lignite into the Kantish
na, the White river, the Gibbon,
the Rampart, the Hot Springs, the
Fairbanks and other districts and
burn the coal right there where it
comes out of the ground to create
that power.
“Do that and then build a smelter
at Xenana and you will have more
traffic than your rails can carry.
, "Fairbanks' mines will all be re
opened then. Fairbanks’ population
will grow by leaps and bounds. Her
people will need food to eat, clothes
to wear, automobiles to drive over
her splendid highways, steel for her
new skyscraper buildings, her high
schools and her colleges, her big
daily newspaper offices, and all the
hurrying, bustling, thriving, thous
ands that will line her magnificently ;
paved streets; all these your rail
road must haul. Her farmers will
need all kinds of farm machinery
and will be shipping their produce
to Xenana to feed the smelter em
ployes.
“Your railroad will be carrying
goods to Fairbanks and coal to Fair
banks and people to Fairbanks, anil
will be hauling the ore to be smelt
ed back to Nenana (instead of
empty cars). At Nenana these
gold and silver and tungsten ores
will be converted into money, for
the enrichment of Fairbanks people.
“And all Nenana asks for is the
smelter end the payroll of that
smelter.”
Now, neighbor Thompson, don't
you think it would be better for
both communities, if we stopped
this tumble-bug game of calling
hard names and got down to brass
tacks and pulled together for the
benefit of not only Fairbanks and
Nenana, but the whole of the In
terior of Alaska.
Nenana has no hard feelings
against Fairbanks.
Nearly all of us are Fairbanksans.
YVe are just as gloriously anxious
that Fairbanks shall grow to be
great as we are that Nenana shall
not perish when the construction
payroll is exhausted.
We need you. You need us. YVe
each need the other and both need
both.
Let's put our shoulders together
and fight faces forward—not against
one another, but with one another.
Let’s get our hind feet down off
that ball of ordure we’ve picked up
in the dirt of the road- take our
noses out of the dust and get our
eyes up to a sufficient height so that
we can see what the real needs
and advantages of the Interior of
Alaska are.
You, know, old boy, those honor
able gray hairs of yours should not
be trailing in the dirt. That noble
Roman head of yours ought to be
up in the clouds; your piercing eyes
fixed on the sunrise of prosperity.
You never ought to bend that
erect proud form of yours so low
that you can see nothing but what
the soles of your neighbor’s feet
pick up as they tramp along the
well-traveled horse trails.
That Lincoln-like visage of yours
’peaks too strongly of courage, of
optimism, of hope, and of faith to
be the mask of a mind so small as
that of a tumble-bug.
Do, for Heaven’s sake, quit tum
ble-bugging!
Skof House
CLEAN WARM ROOMS
Mrs Norman Campbell
" • ■■ ■
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