The Chitina Leader
CHITINA, ALASKA.
Entered as second-class matter, November 12, 1910, at the postoffice at
Chitina, Alaska, under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879.
ONLY NEWSPAPER IN CHITINA
Published every Saturday by
WXUC. A. BTSEli—Editors, Managers and Proprietors—EABBY Q. STEEL
Office: Hotel Chitina Building. Cordova Office: Daily Alaskan
Seattle Office: 661 Colman Building.
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given. Official publication for legal advertisements pertaining to mineral landt
of the Copper River Clstrict.
CHITINA, ALASKA, TUESDAY, JULY 22,1913.
BROKEN DREAMS
In his final message to the people of the United States
before plunging into the waste places of the hyperboreans,
Viljalmar Stefansson, the explorer, becomes solemnly facetious;
he assures the American people he is not going north to look
for Atlantis; that he will not “search for fifty gallons of brandy
abandoned by an Arctic expedition” sixty years ago, and that
he does not expect to find in the north “humjming birds or
cocoanut trees.”
Without these assurances from Mr. Stefansson, the
imagination of the American people would have felt no
restraint; we might have thought that he was going to look for
Charlie Ross, or the missing link; or that he would seek the
truth in Cook’s case, or answer the old riddle of who hit Billy
Patterson; or we might have imagined the valiant explorer
discovering that all the mysteries we have been piling around
the North Pole owe their existence to the deep ignorance ot
the American people, or that after all, a snark is not a boojum,
but a jubjub bird. i
Mr. Stefansson was too kindly considerate of the American
people to permit them) to persist in these and other possible
errors. But we are more than half sorry that he broke in on
us with the cold, prosaic statement that he is going north with
his collection of scientists in search of a million square miles
of plain, ordinary dirt; it was rude, unforgivably rude, for Mr.
Stefansson to strip his voyage of all its romantic coloring. Why
couldn’t he have left something to our imaginations? Why
shouldn’t we Gulliverize this voyage and even Quixoticize
its more striking incidents? We are more than sorry; we are
sore over the dispelling of that search for the brandy, for, in
our imagination, we would have found it and made it the cradle
of our dreams, dreams more vivid and more lasting than the
opium eater’s and more extravagant than the plawing phan
tasmagorics of cubists and futurists.
Mr. Stefansson has disappointed us, he has broken our
dreams; but for all of that we shall not overlook the kindly
intent of his scolding of the American people on the eve of his
departure for the Arctic region.
AMENDING A NEW SLOGAN
The slogan “See America First” is comparatively new. It
is only within the past few years that intelligent men in all
sections of the republic have earnestly sought to divert the
tourist travel from Europe to our own land and its neighbors.
Yet there already is reason to amend this catchy cry. It
should be made: “See America and Alaska First.” Moreover,
the addition is likely to prove advantageous to those who are
campaigning under the original banner.
Financiers interested in the territoiy have built one hotel
at Lake Atlin and contemplate the construction of a series of
summer hotels, designed to accommodate tourists desirous of
visiting the Northland.
It is sincerely to be hoped that the project will prove
successful. Certainly, with Alaska as one of the show spots in
an itinerary of the American possessions, a stronger argument
would be opened to all interested transportation and “booster”’
agencies.
No section of the country is more in the public’s eye. How
ever, the average man or woman would hesitate to undergo the
fatigue and privation of a journey to the North.
Given comfortable hotels, special transportation facilities
by land and sea and opportunity to view the natural wonders
of the territory with a minimum of discomfort and these same
people would regard the prospect of such a trip with more
favor.—Seattle Times.
-o—o—o
THE BILL OF PARTICULARS
i?
The Mulhall exposure will make politics of the last four
years transparent. Men will understand the fight made on
Cannon and his organization and the contest undertaken to rid
the republican party of its bad management.
The effort was to put an end to congressional practices
such as Mulhall describes in detail and to eliminate such influ
ences as that of the National Manufacturers’ Association from
lawmaking and law enforcement.
The men the progessives hammered were the men Mulhall
had on his lists, the men who were willing to have quiet little
talks with him, who were more than willing to have him bring
a satchel full of money into their districts, who yelled for it
when they didn’t get it, who expected to receive orders from
their subsidizers, and who were expected to obey them when
given.
These men, attacked, replied in the manner of their kind,
damned the rascals who would destroy the institutions of the
country, wept with emotion when they spoke of the viciousness
of these assaults on free institutions, and were as full of
platitudes and hypocrisy as a melon is of seeds.
Mulhall’s story is the bill of particulars against these men.
It says what they did. It gives some congressional biographies
with facts. The offenders were not all republicans. Politics of
this sort does not draw party lines, but the men in power then
were republicans, and men like Mulhall and men who employ
men like Mulhall deal with men in power.
The fight of last year took them out of power. Mulhall
makes the necessity of that fight transparent.
-o—o—o
A Kansas judge lately discharged a jury of farmers in
order that they might attend to their crops. He said the cases
could wait and the crops couldn’t. Indeed, waiting is one of
the most notable things that lawsuits do.
DELEGATE’S FORCEFUL STATEMENTS
Before the Committee on Territories of the United States
Senate, Hon. James Wickersham, delegate to congress from
Alaska, made the following statements:
In Alaska is the place for the naval base of supplies, not
away out in Hawaii, 1,100 miles away from the direct line to the
Orient. In Alaska is coal in abundance. Here are the finest
harbors in the world—Cordova, Valdez and Seward, and other
harbors which are always open and never closed by ice. You
can build a railroad from any of them to naval coal. The
proposition of the bill now before congress is to leave it entirely
to the president to determine where the road shall be built from.
He can open up these coal mines, bring out the naval coal, erect
your naval base there, and with the great interior coal fields
to support it, no nation on earth coudl drive your fleet out or
take away its coal and supplies.
There is a feature in this bill pledging the public lands oi
Alaska for the return of the $35,611,000 necessary for thi
building of this railroad to the United States treasury, so that
the burden is laid upon the public lands in Alaska and not upon
the United States.
--—n—o—o
THE MULHALL STORY
President Wilson, when he made his statement as to “the
insidious lobby,” certainly started a great movement for the
purifying of our politics. We are to have at least one tariff bill
untainted by the lobby influence. One cannot visit Washington
these days without being profoundly impressed by the mar
velous change—and for the better—in the political atmosphere.
The Mulhall revelations, of the truth of which in a broad way
there can be little doubt, will still further improve-conditions.
The indictment against the system must stand. As to charges'
of a specific nature against individuals it will be well to wait,
before making up one’s minds, till they have been investigated
by the committee.
-o—o—o
MILLIONS IN AMERICAN MINES
Stability is the distinguishing mark of the mining business
in America. The demonstration is afforded by The Mining
and Engineering World, which has just completed statistics
showing that the mines have finished a profitable half-year.
Contributing shareholders in 137 companies are due to
receive $50,608,310 for the first six months of 1913; and nine
seeurities-holding corporations have earned $12,149,354—so
that the total dividends in the industry are $02,758,070.
When the fact be considered that the 137 companies, since
incorporation, have distributed an aggregate of $840,530,099,
,nd the nine seeurities-holding corporations have added
$160,705,701—a grand total of 14(5 companies and more than
a thousand millions of dividends—it is demonstrable that
dividend payments from mining enterprises in this country are
not spasmodic and irregular.
In most cases dividend payments are made at stated
intervals, either monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually.
Expert mining men have reached the point where they are able
to figure on their output, just as are experts in other lines ol
business.
A point of interest to mining men is the character of the
enterprises that now are making substantial returns on the
investment. The Mining and Engineering World distinguishes
them as (1) copper producers, and (2)' gold-silver-lead-zinc
iroducers.
Thirty-three copper producers contributed the greatest
amount to the half-year total, or $22,207,263. These companies,
■once incorporation, have disbursed dividends totalling
$402,070,275, or $138,873,124 in excess of their outstanding
capital.
Five metallurgical companies distributed $8,012,350 during
the half-year period and $136,703,421 since incorporation.
Of the $22,267,263 contributed by the copper producers in
1913 all but $988,740 was produced in the United States.
There are ninety-nine companies in the gold-silver-lead-zino
class. They produced $19,340,977 during the half-year; and of
that total the United States had $9,828,194, Canada $0,444,064,
ind Mexico $3,068,719.
The United States companies have total dividends of
$208,507,717, Canadian $47,167,995, and Mexican, $51,481,391.
The figures demonstrate anew that mining is a good
business, as well as almost an exact science.
THE POPULOUS ARCTIC
The Arctic is to he a distinctly populous part of the world
for the next two years. Thus far, it is known that at least four
important expeditions are going to be inside the “circle” and
it is probable that others will make the same trip.
Amundsen intends to make a scientific journey around the
northern rim of the continent, to, supplement his previous
discoveries of the Northwest Passage and the magnetic pole.
Stefansson has already left with his party, to inquire
further into the life of the strange “blonde Eskimo,” to explore
the unknown land on the “top o’ the earth,” and generally to
increase scientific knowledge concerning this little-known
section. < >-s ,<& s
Donald B. MacMillan will head a party leaving from New
York in search of Crocker Land, the supposed unknown conti
nent in the Arctic Circle and to make explorations in the
interior of Greenland.
John Borden, the millionaire sportsman of Chicago, will
conduct a scientific and hunting expedition in his private yacht
and intends to spend at least four months in the North.
However, it is probable that these parties will not cross
each other’s trails many times. The extent of territory is so
enormous that forty expeditions might be working in the Arctic
without interfering one with the other.
-o—o—o
In view of the fact that President Wilson is pledged to the
people of the United States to bring about a reduction in the
tariff schedules, it would be strange indeed wrere he not to
endeavor to fulfill his promise. The democratic members ofj
congress are aware of the obligation, which is as binding upon,
them as it is upon the president, and Senator Townsend or any
other republican member wfill have a difficult time of it
convincing the people that the president is overstepping his
authority when he reminds the democrats of their platform
pledges.
-O—0—o-——
Porfirio Diaz is said to be on his way to Mexico. In that
case it may not be necessary to hold an election in October.
MR. GRAVES AND THE CHUGACH RESERVE
A news dispatch states that Chief Forester Graves is ^
coming to Alaska to study the Chugach forest reserve. For
what purpose the chief forester is to study that notorious
reserve we do not know. Probably he wishes to discover the
waste places, and if so he will have no difficulty in segregating
the timbered sections from the timberless desert. Never having ,
seen the reserve, except on a map, he may conclude that the
best place for it is in the public domain, from which it should
never have been severed. The folly of the forest reservation
policies that obtain in Alaska is recognized by eveyone in the
country save and except the bureau of forestry, Gifford Pinchot '
and the conservationists of the far Eastern states.
It is also to be hoped that Chief Forester Graves will extend
his itinerary to some of the other forest reserves, including the
latest—the Aleutian islands—and then tell us, if he can, why
on earth it was deemed advisable to add to the reservation
acreage? The bureau of forestry is a propounder of difficult
conundrums.
In the meantime we shall await with considerable interest
the conclusions reached by Mr. Graves after he has personally
inspected Chugach—Juneau Empire.
/ -o—o—o
RAILWAYS IN ALASKA.
f ' -
In a letter recently made public, Falcon Joslin, chairman
of the Alaska committee of the American Mining congress,
makes an almost unanswerable argument in support of the bill
designed to bring about the construction of 1,000 miles of
railroad in Alaska. The only defect in his argument in his
statement that—
“In the present state of public opinion you must see that
it would be quite impossible to induce congress to grant aid of
any kind to any corporation to build railroads in Alaska. Rail
road building by private enterprise has stopped. There remains
absolutely no other way to secure the building of railroads in
Alaska except for the government to do it itself.”
If this statement be true, it is a reflection upon the courage
of congress. The United States government brought about the
construction of two transcontinental railroads by acts of
congress parsed in 1864. These lines aggregated not more than
■3,000 miles The construction of these roads brought population,
and branches and other lines followed in natural order until at
present there are more than 50,000 miles of railroad in the
territory through which the two original trunk lines were built.
All the subsequent mileage was built without any kind of
federal aid.
It is true, however, as Mr. Joslin says, that if private
capital will not undertake the construction of railroads into
uninhabited country, there are only two other ways by which
construction can be brought about—subsidies of land grants
o the private corporation or government construction.
Liberal eons will have to be made if private corporations
ire to be induced to build railroads in Alaska, but there is no
utcry against giving enough land to private corporations to
build the roads. The “present state of public opinion,” referred
o by Mr. Joslin, consists merely of the private opinion of Mr.
Pinchot. The rest of the country realizes that it would be better
to develop Alaska on extremely liberal terms rather than to
permit that great region to go undeveloped for all time.
Whatever is to be done, should be done now. If congress
s afraid to follow its own precedents and do for Alaska what
was done for the West when the transcontinental lines were
milt, then let it do what is being done at this very time for the
Philippines, and auhorize the government to build such line
or lines as will best develop the territory. Anything is better
than the do-nothing policy.
--o—o—o
GAMBLING IS DOOMED
Gambling is doomed. Gambling with cards and wheels and
lice was long ago relegated to the limbo of the disreputable;
gambling in lottery’ tickets is indictable; gambling at race
tracks persists in such a feeble way at a few outlying resorts
that a recent attempt to revive it in Maryland shook the state
with scandal.
It is only a matter of time, only a matter of the vigor of
public opinion, when gambling in stocks and the necessaries of
life will likewise be doomed. For, after all, the evils of the
gambling house and the lottery’ and the race track affected only
i small fraction of the population; but gambling in stocks and
gambling in foods and other necessaries in the land, draw their
unlawful tribute from every man, woman and child. And in
time these enterprises, too, already disreputable in the public
eye, will be condemned and swept away.—Philadelphia Nordi
American.
-0-/-0—o-—
l ive white women who married Japanese have been sent
from Los Angeles to the insane asylum within the last year.
Evidently they were tit subjects for restraint before they’
•ommitted the rash act, since the intention to marry outside of
one’s own root race is prima facie evidence of mental unbalance.
Tt implies sexual perversion, one of the surest signs of abnorm
ality’. Probably it is a mistake to argue that these women
became insane because of difference in temperament, hereditary
instinct and tradition. All these things may’ be factors in the
force that finally unseated the reason, but the chief of all
causes was the radical infraction of a natural law.
-o—o—o- ;
Inventor Edison says there will be no poverty’ one hundred ]
years from now. Very few of us expect to feel the pinch of J
poverty one hundred y’ears from now.
-o—o—o- |
That ragtime composer who has made the confession that J
he “can’t write a note of music” must have been astonished at ]
the prompt, fervid, and universal acquiescence that greeted his j
acknowledgment. ;
-o—o—o- ;
It is ungrateful for the democratic papers of New York to ;
join in the abuse of “Boss” Barnes of the republican machine. ;
He has been one of the best assets the New York democrats ;
have had. ;
-o—o—o-«*» ;
A Tacoma minister say’s it is impossible for a man to be !
a Christian with an income of $1 a day. Still, a man of that ;
earning capacity can rarelv bo proved to be leading a double
life. ' *
-0—0—o
You may have your doubts as to the sublimity of Mr.
Bryan’s statesmanship, but you can’t deny that he is an
amiable and well meaning man.
Chitina GRILL
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