The Chitina Leader
CHITIXA, ALASKA.
Entered as second-class matter, November 3 2, 1910, at the postofl'ice at
Chitina, Alaska, under the Act of Congress of .March 3, 1379.
ONLY NEWSPAPER IN CHITINA
Published every Saturday by
■nri-r-T. a. STEEL—Editors, Managers and Proprietors—HARRY O. STEEL
Office: Hotel Chitina Building. Cordova Office: Daily Alaskan
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CHITINA, ALASKA, TUESDAY, JANUARY 'JO, 10U
One Month
Six Months
One Year ..
GOVERNMENT TO BUILD RAILROADS
As the Alaska railroad bill is now before both the Senate
and House, with every prospect of its passing both branches
of the government within a reasonably short time and almost
certainly before the end of the present session, the following
extract from the report of the House committee on territories
will prove of interest to our readers:
It appears that the only way to obtain railroads for the
development of Alaska is for the government to take the
matter in hand and furnish aid to do the building, or that
the government shall itself construct the roads. If there were
reasonable hope that private enterprise would build railroads
for the development of Alaska, such development as would
open that country up to settlement and population with
American citizens, there would exist no reason for favoring
the passage of the present bill; but there is no foundation for
such a hope, and this vast countiy, rich in so many varied
resources, will remain undeveloped unless the government,
takes the matter in hand.
The real purpose and aid to be desired in the development i
of Alaska is the opening up of that country for settlement and
furnishing homes to American citizens, to gain a foothold |
and supply means of maintenance for a hardy race of j
patriotic citizens. The conditions there are such as will be
most favorable to propagating and developing a race of white
people and the best blood of the world will thrive and find a
natural home in Alaska. It will be strictly a white man’s
country, and all its conditions are such as would foster and
build up pure and noble blooded Americans. Like the coun
tries of Northern Europe—Norway, Sweden, Finland, and
Denmark—it would be a fine place to raise human beings, and
it has many more natural*resources than those countries. We
think it an established fact that farming possibilities are very
great in Alaska and that they will maintain an immense
population. In addition to this, there are stores of mineral
wealth which no country has in amount equal to Alaska.
The building of a railroad in Alaska from the Southern
coast into the interior, where the great agricultural regions
are located, is an immense undertaking. It is the work of tje
pioneer with a great many additional difficulties on account of
the extreme cold and the difficulty in establishing a beginning
or getting a foothold for settlers. If this enterprise, sur
rounded with so much difficulty to the pioneer or private
capital, were taken in hand by the government and a road
was built into this great interior valley, then that would
furnish such means to settlers for getting a foothold and
establishing homes that they could maintain themselves, and
subsequent developments would become easy because of the
rich possibilities that lie within that territory. With a
beginning of this kind, such as would furnish transportation
and traffic for the people, the settlers could then go forward
in the development of the great resources of this country,
rich in so many ways. It is only in the first stages that help
is needed most. When American citizens, with their natural
courage, thrift, and enterprise, get a foothold they will do the
rest, and continued government help will not be needed. The
building of the railroad contemplated in this act does not
imply an embarkation by the government in a continued
policy of railroad building or railroad ownership, but is
merely the extension of a helping hand to those who at
11resent are in great difficulty, and to furnish means to those
who will follow after them of working out their own destiny.
The first railroad in a new country has always been aided or
built by governments. When the country west of the
Missouri was unpopulated its first railroad was built by
government aid.
o—o—o
GOVERNOR MAKES GOOD RECOMMENDATIONS
In his annual report Governor Strong declares that the
government should not only build railroads in Alaska but also
points out the need of more trails in the territory. He contends1
that if it will expend $10,000,000 in the construction of Wagbri
roads and trails during a period of ten years the natural
wealth of Alaska will increase more than $100,000,000.
4 4 From an economic and industrial standpoint it may also
nearly levdfj^ section of Alaska,: It is a well known fdct that
in Alaska are iihmense deposits of metalliferous ores of various
kinds which can only be worked profitably if coal anti coke
are obtainable at reasonable prices. The cost of both these
products is now so great that development of many of these
ore bodies is out of the question. Given a cheap fuel supply,
smelters would be built and the ore treated at home with coal
mined and coke manufactured within Alaska; mining would
be stimulated vastly and trade and commerce would be greatly
extended; prosperous industrial communities would be created
and the population of the territory would increase rapidly.”
The report is decidedly constructive, and among other
things suggests that the Chugach forest reserve should be
abandoned; that too much land has been appropriated by the
forestry department in the Aleutian Islands, where there is no
timber; that immediate steps be taken to conserve the fishing
resources of the territory; that the land laws be so amended
that those who have already used their homestead rights in
the United States may be extended the privilege of doing so
a second time in Alaska; that, since the reindeer industry of
Alaska is becoming a factor in the food problems of the
United States, white men be given the privilege of engaging in
reindeer breeding on the same basis as Lapps, Eskimos and
missionaries; that the money derived from the sale of hunting
licenses be turned into an Alaska game law fund, where it
rightly belongs instead of into the United States treasury; that
a board of education for Alaska be created, that the tolls on
the telegraph system owned by the government be reduced, and
that Congress appropriate money for the construction of light
houses and other aids to navigation along the coast of Alaska,
and devise some method whereby Indians may acquire title to
land upon which they have settled. Notwithstanding the dis
advantages which the report points out, the people of Alaska,
it says, are generally hopeful and optimistic.
“A comprehensive system of railroads,” the report says,
‘is a thing indispensable for the development-of the country’,
because its prosperity and further development depend upon
the solution of the problem of transportation. This system
should not Only include one or more trunk lines, from some
point or points on the coast, to the great interior country, but
it should also embrace branch lines to the coalfields and othoi
mining sections wherever practicable.
Dealing with the necessary aids to navigation Governor
Strong says: “An immediate survey of all uncharted waters
of the Alaska Coast should be made, and there should be
resurveys in a number of places. The general importance of
such aids in these northern waters cannot be questioned. The
commerce of the territory is large and is steadily increasing,
especially in the southeastern section, and installation of lights
and buoys is to be regarded as a matter of great economic as
well as human importance. Accidents to shipping are of annual
occurrence, notwithstanding the steady increase in the number
of lights and buiys in the past several years. In the fiscal
year ended June JO, 1913, there were established in these
waters fifteen new lights; five lights were converted from oil
to acetylene-gas burners; two beacons were established; nine
buoys provided in new locations, and four float lights were
installed in Wrangell Straits.”
After pointing out tliat the Alaska coal is needed for
industrial development and domestic use, the report says:
“With practically unlimited quantities of the best quality of
bituminous, semi-bituminous and anthracite coal within the
territory, for many years its people have been compelled to
import nearly all the coal needed for domestic fuel and for
industrial purposes from foreign countries, largely from
British Columbia, and not infrequently from Japan and
Australia. During the past summer the not altogether
edifying spectacle of a foreign ship discharging foreign coal
for the use of the United States government was witnessed at
Unalaska. However, this is not an unfamiliar sight in
Alaska..”
-o—o—o
ALASKA TRADE EXPANDING
Particular siguific&uce attaches to the announcement that
the Alaska Steamship Company has found is necessary in
order to cope with growing business, to put in commission
three large freighters. *
Usually, the winter season is the dull period of Northern
business. Some of the major ports are closed. Navigation
on the rivers is suspended. In a great many instances men of
affairs leave the territory and come to the state for the
season because of the general slackness that prevails.
That the steamship company should find it necessary to
put in commission three more freight carriers indicates an
expansion of Seattle’s business that is decidedly important
both to this city and to the great-country to the north.
This activity is merely an earnest, of what is in store if
Congress passes the bill appropriating millions for. the con
struction of a federal railroad in Alaska. ,
In fact, if this action be taken by Congress, the year 1.914 |
will mark the turning point in the territory’s history. The j
future will be a-continued upward climb.
It is not at all improbable that business men having:
interests in the north are taking chances on. favorable action
by Congress and are'preparing for the development they can
see in the future. * . j
It is certain that the millions that the government will:
pour into the country will be a small portion of the capital.
that will hasten there as soon as development is assured.
Honey already realizes the opportunities for investment that
exist in the northern region.
Given a reasonable appreciation of the need for action by
Congress and action on its part during the present session, and
the year 1914 will be a memorable one in the history of
Alaska and the entire Pacific Coast.—Ex.
n_n
It lias. been -said that the United States never made a
better investment than when is bought Alaska from Russia.
The purchase price was $7,200,000 and it is estimated that
$20,000,000 has been spent on it since Alaska became a part of
the United States. The investment was a good one {mm a <xn»,
^icial poipt of yiew^ fdr Alas&a ha* wptraurd of
$450,000,000 sih'ce' trie purchase. Its coal lands ore of greater
proportions than those of Pennsylvania, and its production
of copper is equal to the per capita production of Montana. In
tlie last fourteen years the production of copper amounts to
more than $14,000,000. These facts alone, when brought to
the attention of our law makers, should be sufficient proof
that Alaska is more than self-supporting—many times, and
with the aid of railroads to bring out the resources of the
country would mean increased business for the industry and
commerce of the United States.
The New York Herald replies to the criticism of the
Caraboa song for making “hobo” rhyme with “Aguinaldo”
by asserting “that the song was written when Aguinaldo’s
men were killing every American they could.” If that has
any bearing on the question of the rhyme, ciould not
Herald add that the Filipinos did not begin killing Americans
until the Americans began killing them.
BANKER SUMMERS WILL
AGAIN HE INDICTED
The treasury department has sent
two agents to appear before the
| United States grand jury at Juneau
to demand a re-indictment of Hank
er Summers charging him with ir
regular banking. Summers was
tried and convicted at Ketchikan,
hut the case "as reversed by the
court of appeals on a technicality.
-u—o—o
DEMOCRATS KEEP
DOORKEEPERS STANDING
WASHINGTON, Jan. 19.—Door
keepers in Congress must stand up
hereafter. They used to have nice
soft cushioned chairs, but Dmocratic
\ economy or something else hit the
place, and now the doorkeepers
don’t have things as soft as they
used to.
NOTICE FOR PUBLICATION
, Serial 01010
UNITED STATES LAND OFFICE,
Juneau, Alaska, July 12. 1913.
Notice is hereby given that Ocha
Potter of Houghton, Michigan, as
signee of Barnard Needham, Calvin
Deputron and Elijah T. Fudge,
beneficiaries under Section 2306
Revised Statutes of the United
States, granting additional lands to
soldiers and sailors who served in
the War of the Rebellion, has made
application to make entry of the
lands in U. S. Survey No. 595, situ
ated about fifteen miles above the
mouth of McCarthy creek, a tribu
tary of the Kennicott river, in the
Chitina recording precinct, Juneau
Land District, Territory of Alaska,
and more particularly described in
the fields notes and plat of said sur
vey as follows:
Beginning at Cor. No. 1, a green
stone 16x8x6 ins. set 11 in. in
ground, marked S: 595 Cor. 1 on
side facing claim, from which Cor.
U. S. L. At. No. 595 bears S. 2.Jo
ehs. dist., said U. S. L. M. is a stone
30x20x8 ins. 15 ins. in the ground
marked with a cross on top and U.
S. L. M. 595 on side. There are
no natural objects or permanent
monuments other than the one just
established available. Thence from
Cor. No. 1 S. 10 chs. to Cor. No. 2,
thence W. 5 chs. to Cor. No. ,3
crossing McCarthy Creek at 0.50
chs., thence N. 10 chs. to Cor. No.
4, thence E. 5 chs to Cor. No. 1,
the place of beginning, crossing
McCarthy creek at 3.30 chs. con
taining five acres.
Any and all persons claiming ad
versely any portion of the above
described tracts are required to file
with the Kegister and Receiver of
the U. S. Land Office at Juneau,
Alaska, tneir adverse claim thereto
under oath during the period of
publication and posting of this
notice, or within thirty days there
after, or they will be barred by the
provisions of the statute in such
case made and provided.
OCHA POTTER.
If, is herebv ordered that the
foregoing notice be published for
the statutory period in the Chitina
Leader, a newspaper printed and
published at Chitina, Alaska.
C. B. WALKER.
Register.
First publication, Jan. 21. 1914.
Last publication, March 25, 1914.
IN THE UNITED STATES COM
MISSIONER'S COURT, THIRD
JUDICIAL DIVISION, TERRI
TORY OF ALASKA, IN AND FOR
CHITINA PRECINCT.
In the Alatter of the Guardianship of
Nels Oscar Sail, a mentally in
competent person, and his estate.
It is ordered that Friday, January
30th, 1914, at 10 a. m., be appointed
for the hearing of the application of
Charles G. Sail, for letters of guar
dianship of the person of Nels Oscar
Sail, who is alleged to be mentally
incompetent, and of his estate situ
ated in Chitina Precinct, Third Judi
cial Division, Territory of Alaska,
and it is further ordered that the
time and place of. said hearing be
published in the Chitina Leader, a
paper of general circulation in said
precinct and territory, for four con
secutive weeks.
(Seal) PAUL d’HEIRRY,
U. S. Commissioner and Ex-Officio
Probate Judge, Third Judicial
Division, Territory of Alaska in
and for Chitina Precinct.
Date of first publication, Decem
ber 23, 1913
Date of last publication, January
13, 1914.
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