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.
Published every Saturday by
WILL A. STEEL—Editors, Managers and Proprietors—Harry G. STEEL
Office: Hote IChitina Building. Cordova Office: Dally Alaskar
ADVERTISING RATES
Made known upon application. They will be found reasonable for the
service given.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
One Month. $ ,5t
Six Months. 2,0<
One Year.
CHITINA, ALASKA, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1911.
A LIMIT TO THE NAVY.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of the annual repor
of Secretary Meyer is his declaration that “a total of fort}
battleships, with a proportional number of other fighting ana
auxiliary vessels, is the leist that will place our country on
a safe basis in its relation with other world powers.” While
at least two other powers have more ambitious building plans
it is believed, he says, “if we maintain an efficient fleet of the
size mentioned we will be safe from attack and that our coun
try will be able to work out its destiny in peace and without
hindrance.” ' "‘**16 W®!)*
This, it is believed, is the first definite official pronounce
ment of how many battleships would be considered enough for
this country to have. Such an announcement is welcome for
its acknowledgment that there is a limitation to the program
of the naval expansionists. The criticism directed at them
has been against the entrance of this nation into the ruinous
and seemingly endless competition that is threatening to bank
rupt Europe. Americans want an efficient navy, sufficiently
large to serve our needs, but strenuous objection has been
made to going beyond that. Mr. Meyer’s declaration is a
recognition of his opinion and may make it easier for his
department to secure appropriations.
At present we have 37 battleships, but four of these are
too antiquated to be classed as effective, including the once
famous Oregon, the Indiana and the Massachusetts. Eight
others will be obsolete by 1920. The policy of replacing our
old battleships at the rate of two each year will give us even
tually a total of 40, of which half would be less than 10 years
old and half less than 20 available for the second line, the life
of a battleship being placed at 20 years.
The armored cruiser is to be replaced by the battleship
a vessel with a battleship’s size and battery, but with
able to equal a cruiser’s speed. These have been adopted by
England, Germany and Japan and have been favored by some
authorities as more effective than the dreadnaughts. Ten of
these, it is estimated, would be required to supplement a
40-battleship navy.
-0000
A SUMMER OVERLAND MAIL.
The last letters to arrive in Fairbanks from New York
City took sixteen days for the trip. That is so much bettei
than the summer record that it passes for rapid transit. Yet
it will be possible within two years, after the improvement
of the overland trail, to clip three or four days from this
record, and do it in the summer time. It is in the summer time
when the camp is at its active stage, and business is moving
most briskly, that rapid communication with the states is
desirable and necessary; and the labors of the business men
of the interior should be directed toward securing a short
summer route rather than a shorter winter route.
To judge from the letters received by the Fairbanks Com
mercial Club in response to letters sent by the club, the pro
posal to improve the Fairbanks-Chitina trail into an automo
bile road will find generous co-operation. Even if the large
general fund asked for by Alaskans is not granted the united
request of all Alaska will have the result of increasing the
annual road appropriation to a figure that will permit the im
provement of the Fairbanks trail into a good mail road- But
there is no reason why part of the mail, the first-class con
signment, should not come over the trail next summer just as
it is. It seems highly likely that the same influences which
now are pledging their support to the road proposals might
easily be used to pursuade the postoffice department to route
the letter mails overland next summer.—Fairbanks Times.
-\JKj\jyj
NON-PARTISAN ACTIVITY.
From the amount of political activity demonstrated this
afternoon it would almost seem as though a President of the
United States were being elected. And yet there is no
politics in the issue, as two delegates are being elected to
attend a non-partisan convention at Valdez. Action will be
taken there declaring the third judicial division to be favor
aable to certain legislation that it is desired Congress should
pass. It is expected that the men elected today will attend
the convention and make strong declarations for what Cor
dova stands for. It doesn’t make much difference who the
men are so long as they will intelligently represent the wishes
of this community. Two of the men being voted for are out
of the city and are not cognizant of the honor that is trying to
be thrust upon them.
-oooo
ALMOST MAKING JACK A HERO.
Oh, see who’s here! On the front page of the Sataurday
Evening Post, under the caption, “One of the Ryan Claims on
the Shore of Controller Bay,” we have four men knee-deep
in oats, barley or some similar agricultural product, and Mr.
Jack Dalton’s picture leads all the rest. In Mr. Pinchot’s ac
companying article Mr. Dalton is given quite a nice notice.
This is in reference to Jack’s suit against the company for
running their tracks over his mineral location, so that they
could reach deep water, at Cordova. The paper says: “In this
attempt it would have succeeded except for the determined
position taken by Jack Dolton, one of the owners, a noted
pioneer and a man widely respected throughout Alaska.”
Through the Pinchot-Lathrop press bureau Jack has heard
so much about his heroic efforts to stand off the encroaching
(?) company and of his successful fights in the courts that
very soon he will begin to believe that he is really
In the meantime the people of Cordova are amused at the per
verted accounts of the little controversy that frequently ap
pear in outside papers. When a wandering correspondent hap
pens around and he meets a friend of Jack’s he is immediately
told how the constructing company tried to “conserve” Jack’s
“copper” claim in their effort to bui,ld a railroad to their dock.
And yet the court hasn’t said that Jack really has a mineral
claim, but the railroad is doing business from the dock and
running its trains across the mineral location.
-oooo
MORE EXAGGERATIONS AND MISREPRESENTATION.
Gifford Pinchot, falsifier and defamer of Alaska, has seen
fit to revamp the oft repeated story of the Keystone Canyon
shooting, and, as in line with the rest of his article, deliberately
prevaricated about it. In his story Pinchot makes it appear
as if it was an exciting and wholesale murder, not explaining
to the Saturday Evening Post’s million and three-quarters cir
culation that the man died more from inattention and careless
surgical and medical attention rather than from the original
seriousness of the wound. This old Keystone Canyon fight,
which, of course, has always been greatly deplored, was one
of the sad results of feuds between laborers employed by riva!
corpoorations and which had its duplication in many of the
railroad rights-of-way wars in the different states, notably the
fight between the Santa Fe and Denver & Rio Grande for pos
session of the Royal Gorge, and the remarkable scrap between
the W. A. Clark and Harriman forces for possession of tun
nels and grades in Nevada, when the men of the Clark road
were imprisoned in a tunnel and kept there for days. In fact,
you could pick up a dozen illustrationns of railroad labo' s
getting in mix-ups of more or less seriousness, and the one in
Keystone Canyon was but another of those unfortunate eir
curastances with a tragic ending. But those who know how
the man was treated by his own friends cannot help but bf
unused at Pinchot’s story of the case. He quoted Dr. F. Al.
Boyle, mayor of Valdez, on other questions. Why did he not
vsk that eminent practitioner for an expert medical diagnosis
>f the case in point.
-oooo
ALASKA’S MONOPOLY OF PUGET SOUND COAL!
One of the most important items in Gifford Pinchot’s no
torious article in the Sataurday Evening Post of December 16
is the following:
“( heap cooal for domestic fuel is imperative. Immediate
steps should be taken to break the monopoly of PUGET
SOUND COAL now enjoyed by the syndicate steamship line
and to open the local coal of Alaska at once to development
for domestic use.”
Now, every Alaskan knows, Gifford Pinchot knows, and
the Sataurday Evening Post people should know, that Puget
Sound does not ship many pounds of coal to Alaska. Here
we have the exponent of conservation in Alaska, the man re
sponsible for all its dire results—the man who was hung in
effigy at Katalla—putting out to the million and three quar
ters circulation of this weekly paper a statement like that!
The Cordova coal party was a spontaneous demonstration of
the citizens of this place to draw attention to the one great
pertinent fact, that Alaska had only Canadian cqaot—and hero
this wicked perverter of facts, this commander in chief of
the destroying insurgent band, gives out the stsatement that
the United States territory is suppyling Alaska coal. Can
anyone imagine a more deliberate, more wicked perversion of
the facts ? So the Saturday Evening Post may know the facts,
here is the truth:
The coal sent to Alaska is mined from the northern end of
Vancouver island under the flag of the Dominion of Canada.
It is shipped to Alaska ports and a duty is paid on every ton
of it. No monopoly is held by the “Syndicate’s stseamship
line,” as stated bv Pinchot, but the Canadian Pacific railway,
the Northland Steamship company, the Alaska Barge < om
pany, the Humboldt Steamship company, the Alaska Coast
company, the Pacific Steamship company, and the Ala.-ka
Steamship company (the last one being the one designated
by Pinchot as the Syndicate line), handle the product.
There never has been, and it will be impossible to create,
any monopoly of the coal business in the hands of this one
company. The company itself burns oil imported from Cali
fornia on most of its steamers, and the Copper Diver & North
western railway has changed all of its engines to oil burners.
The machine shops of this company at Cordova now use oil to
generate power and light. The Cordova Power company, i hat
furnishes light and power to the people of Cordova, has also
changed its boilers so as to use oil instead of coal.
But these important facts, with the stsatement that a ma
jority of the great transportation companies operating to and
from, and in, Alaska, are compelled to burn oil. was suppressed
by Pinchot in his article. In this one statement the Saturday
Evening Post and Gifford Pinchot prove themselves jointly
to be the perpetrators of one of the most deliberate literary
contortions of fact yet recorded.
-oooo
IT IS NOT CHARITY.
In these blessed days of much giving to those who are able
only to receive and never to give aught but gratitude, there is
a tendency to over-burden all the giving with the word “Char
ity” Strictly speaking, such ministration is not charity at
all in the sense that the recipients are merely beneficiaries of
good offices of good hearts which give freely of what they can
well spare. In the broader and better sense of the word, to
be charitable means to have a kindly feeling for those with
whom we disagree and who possibly may have been very dis
agreeable in their disagreement.
Giving to the poor, they who are so impoverished through
ignorance or misfortune, illness or accident, should never be
called charity. Such giving is merely that which decent so
ciety owes to itself. It has been asserted that poverty in large
measure is one of the crimes of a crudely organized civiliza
tion. That aside, the vocabulary of civilization is sufficiently
opulent to afford a softer word, one which would grate less
harshly on refined ears, than the word charity; and especially
at this season when celebration of the birth of One who gave
all, even His life, and asked nothing, is supposed to create a
halo around every home. Half the joy of giving is clouded
when the giving is called by the cold name of charity. Let it
be termed a pleasing and joyous act, which is a solemn philan
thropic duty owed by one element of society to another.
-oooo
AUTOMOBILES TO BURN. ’ *
Are you not greatly amazed when you read of the number
of sales places that appear to do a thriving business in supply
ing automobiles, and when you read of the great factories
that are turning them out day and night.
“Isn’t there any bottom to the demand?” you ask. “Won’t
they strike it pretty soon?”
Apparently not. Just listen to the facts given to a New
York chamber of commerce in a recent speech:
“There are in American cities and towns 18,900,000 fami
lies, of whom 4,208,000 have incomes in excess of $1,200 a year.
All are eligible as auto owners,” he tells us.
“There are in use today 455,000 cars, leaving the comfort
able margin of 3,753,000 town families yet to be supplied.
“Then there are 1,349,000 farmers making $1,200 and more
a year who can also buy cars, raising the total to 5,102,000. As
we produce new cars at the rate of 250,000 a year, there’s an
18-yoar job in sight for our factories.
“ThtWisn’t all—not by a jugful. We’re exporting 15,000
■ark a year; we’ve got a lot of bachelor men and girls not listed
*Ts “families,” and there’s a weary world of possibilities in
the line of commercial motor vehicles. Then think how fast
they wear out! *
“May remind you somewhat of Col- Sellers’ estimate of the
market for his eye-salve, but the fact remains that the auto
mobile business is booming, just the same.”
-oooo
THE MOUNTAIN LABORS.
For two days preceding the meeting of the republican na
tional committee to select a time and place for the national
convention, Washington was filled with reports of a great re
vival of Rooseveltism, of underground maneuvering, of open
conflict, of cross purposes and complications and complexities
af all sorts. But when the committee actually met, these ex
ploitations were seen to be another case of the mountain labor
ing and bringing forth a mouse. Controversy and rivalry van
ished like morning mist before the sun and the original pro
gram went through without a hitch or even a protest.
As heretofore announced, Chicago is to be the place and
June 18 the date of the next republican national convention.
The only effect of all this clamor and confusion has been by
contrast to confirm the belief that Mr- Taft will be the nominee.
The program adopted by the committee has been approved by
his advisers and accepted apparently by all. The primary
question has been settled by a decision that, where states have
enacted legislation for a presidential primary, selection may
of course be made under that law, but, where there has been
no legislation that would throw the protection of the law
around such a primary, selections will be made as heretofore.
The prophets of dissension have been disappointed, and in
fact, despite their direful predictions. Mr. Taft emerges the
stronger for their having been dissipated.
——-oooo--—
THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY.
Says Pinchot in the Saturday Evening Post: “Let me re
peat the statement: it is not the withdrawal of the coal lands
that has retarded the development of Alaska, for every valid
•oal claim was excepted from the withdrawal. What is hold
ing Alaska back more than all other causes is the excessive
rates for transportation.”
This to a genuine Alaskan is one of the most deliberate fab
rications that Pinchot has told in his lengthy article. For the
benefit of the Saturday Evening Post and others let it be
stated that a greater part of the gold from Alaska comes from
the interior and in time past the high cost of transportation
has been largely caused by the remote location of the gold
camps. It is perfectly true that freight has been delivered into
the interior of Alaska as high as a dollar a pound. In fact,
bacon and eggs have been taken over the trail by dog team in
certain cases where the freight rate has been equal to one hun
dred times the original cost of the product. Therefore, Mr.
Piuchot’s statement is morally true as to dog teams, but he
places the statement as an introduction to a roast on the Cop
per River & Northwestern Railway, which has very low rates
compared to. similar roads in a similar pioneer country. Most
important of all, and let the Saturday Evening Post mark
this well, the Copper River & Northwestern was only com
pleted in 1911. It penetrates a region where there are no in
habitants except those who have followed the building of the
road. It is a 196-mile line from Cordova to Kennecott, prac
tically engaged only in handling its own freight and that of
a few mining companies that formerly hauled over the trail
trom \ aldez at a cost of from 10 to 15 cents per pound. Take
it in conjunction with all other operating railroads in Alaska
and the total is less than 500 miles. And yet this wicked hypo
crite, this conservationist who is ever working for his own per
sonal gains, has the effrontery to tell the people of the United
States that all of the transportation lines in Alaska are the
elements that are holding it back, when Alaska consists of
oyer 600,000 square miles and all the railroads combined con
sist of less than 500 miles in length. A pin point on the map
of Alaska would represent the comparative relation of the rail
road lines to the area.
In addition to the railroad lines there are river lines oper
ating up and down the Yukon, but to reach many of the great
interior camps walking, dog teams or horses are necessary part
of the way.
Has Pinchot enough decency left to tell in succeeding issues
the truth of the important item? Honestly, Mr. Lorimer, you
have been imposed upon by the greatest charlatan that this
generation of political fakers has produced. Stop and think,
Mr Lorimer; compare an area of 600,000 miles with less than
500 lineal miles in railroads. Stop and consider, Mr. Lorimer,
that the Copper River & Northwestern has only been com
pleted eight months, while Alaska has been suffering under
the black pall of Pinchotism for many years. Outside of its
own material and the copper from the Bonanza mine the Cop
per River & Northwestern, during the first seven months of
its operation, June-December, 1911, has practically handled
very little other tonnage.
Do you know, Mr. Loriiner, that every opportunity was
given Mr. Pinchot while here to get at the' facts, and he was
heard to state that lie did not want to get any facts from Cor
dova parties or the Copper River & Northwestern Bailwav. In
his address before the Seattle Commercial Club Mr. Pinchot
said:
"Me secured the points of view of the men who wanted to
tell us the facts and of the men who didn’t, but we relied mainly
on what we saw, and we saw a great deal.”
“But we relied mainly on what we saw” about covers the
attitude of this prejudiced investigator, who, cradled in luxury,
living in affluence, soft-handed and soft-muscled, presumes to
discredit honest Alaskans and puts forth views to the people
of the l nited States that are either misleading or absolutely
false.
For thirty years, Mr. Loriiner, the Treadwell mine has been
in operation on Douglas Island, Alaska. It is easy for you to
ascertain who the stockholders are. Have one of your assist
ants ask anybody connected with this property, whoch ante
dates the Pinchot press bureau by some twenty years, if th.ev
have ever had any complaint about the freight'rates on the
steamships. As this is owned almost exclusively in England
and the company does not ship on the boats of the company
which ilr. Pinchot assails, and whose rates are exactly the
same as the other companies, you can get a fair idea of trans
portation results during all of these years.
In brief, Mr Pinchot’s remarks have been juggled and
what he should have said was that transportation in Alaska
on modern lines is what is most needed, but the Alaska North
ern Railway has been closed down and is almost bankrupt
on account of Pinchot’s conservation, while the Copper River
& Northwestern has stopped all construction and will not build
any more railroad for the same reasons. The Alaska Northern
operates a gasoline car and the Copper Biver & Northwestern
burns California oil—each railroad traversing some of the
world’s greatest coal measures.
Of all the paragraphs in this remarkabel story of Pinchot’s
this juggled statement is the worst. The lack of development
in these parts of Alaska can be traced absolutely to the with
drawal of the coal lands and the application of Gifford Pin
chot’s policies. He is the crime of the century.
--oooo
WHICH TYPE OF LEGISLATOR?
A very able exchange in a somewhat unable editorial article
declares that ‘‘there will never be a business party in politics,
since business men are not necessarily in agreement concerning
vital political issues.” Does it follow as a corrollary that un
business men who do agree on unvital issues are to direct na
tional, state and municipal governments?
In recent years the trend of affairs, especially in municipal
administration, has been toward urgence of the real and honor
able business man as the directing force and the relegation of
the man who makes of public policies a business for private
gain to the domain where his talents may be employed for the
legitimate and honorable in trade, manufacture, commerce an^l
professional life.
It is possible that these shall be maintained in place and
power for the reason that business men of acknowledged integ
rity and ability do not agree in all things, the unbusiness men 1
agreeing on only one thing, that if they do not hang together 1
they may hang separately?
If business men, being introduced by the voice of the people
into the manaagement of political affairs, which, after all, are c
but business affairs, disagree, the natural and potential as- f
sumption is that they will finally reach an agreement, even if a
We Carry a Full Line of j
General Merchandise j
Including
GROCERIES
HARDWARE
DOG HARNESS
HORSE HARNESS
FURNISHING GOODS
BLANKETS
FUR CAPS
SHOES AND RUBBER PACS
Also
HAY AND GRAIN
CHITINA CASH STORE
E. H. GILLMAN, Manager.
;; Forwarding Agen t, S. BLUM & CO.
;► CORDOVA’S BIG STORE
« ►
! Only First-Class Hotel in Chitina Prices Iteasonable
*
*
»
*
>
>
Hotel Chitina
* J. PALMER and T, CLOM.NGER,
J Proprietors.
The Only First Class Hotel in Chitina
» _
; Heated Room, Bath, Ladies Parior
Bar with all Standard Liquors and Cigars
• •
1) First-Class Dining Room in Connection
' •
• •
■ ■ Chitina Alaska
• • «
WHEN COMING TO CORDOVA REMEMBER
Cordova Steam Laundry
THE ONLY REAL LAUNDRY IN TOWN
Let us wash and dean your canvass covers, blankets, clothes,
overalls, etc.
If you are in a hurry we can do your work in an hour's time if
necessary.
Leave your work at any hotel, rooming house or barber shop
and it "ill receive prompt attention.
'PHONE 57 F. A. JONES, Manager Second Street
❖❖❖❖❖❖ ❖❖ ❖❖ ❖❖❖❖❖ ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ ❖❖ ❖❖❖❖❖
t ALASKA STEAMSHIP COMPANY
^ Fast and commodious steamers sailing between ^
^ Cordova and Seattle.
^ Sails from Seattle— Sails from Cordova— ^
^ Dec. 18.NORTHWESTERN. Dec. 27 4
^ Dec. 24.ALAMEDA.fan. i <
♦ Jan. 1 .NORTHWESTERN.fan. S
❖ Jan. 8.ALAMEDA. Jan. TO
^ This company reserves the right to change schedulo of steam
ers without notice. ^
<A> Tickets on sale at up-town office Alaska Steamship Bldg. ^
^ Baggage or freight will not be received ut dock later than one ^
A, hour before sailing time. ^
^ R. J. BARRY, THOMAS TALLENT, <
^ General Agent. Ticket Agent. ^
❖❖❖❖ ❖❖❖ ❖❖❖❖❖ ❖❖❖❖❖❖
ALASKA COAST CO.
“The Inside Route”
To Juneau and Puget Sound Ports and Southwestern Alaska.
Steamer Ilertlia leaves Seattle December iiOth.
Steamers connecting at Seattle with the Alasl.a-I’acinc Steam,
ship Company’s steamers sailing from Seattle Monday and Thurs
day of each week for California points. Through service. Lowr
rates. j
Right reserved to change steamers and sailing dates without
notice. ALASKA TRANSFER CO., Local Agents . -
D F. WATSON, General Agent.
it be in some sense n compromise, which will make for better
coonditions. They are professors of business and not profes
sors of politics. They have the benefit of the community, the
municipality, the state, the nation, at heart instead of the “or
ganization,” which makes only for the benefit of its leaders
and not for the commonweal only as obscure activity for the
commonweal maintains the virtue of leadership.
Give the people a fair show in choice between the exercise
of administration by the professional business man and the pro
fessional politician and there can be no doubt that the profes
sional business man will “win in a walk.”
-oooo
But what assurance has Dr. Wiley that the ban on the i&„.
portation of absinthe will abolish the “absinthe cocktail!”
Has he discovered an yabsinthe in it?
-—oooo
E\’en Chicagoans are wonderirg at their good or bad luck
n getting so many national conventions, ignoring the fact that
t is the Windy City.
— -oooo
After that Hyde juror instance we suppose Ave shall now
lave to put up with examination of talesmen by insanity ex
ierts to the further obstruction of the wheels of justice.
— --oooo-—
There are many anxious visits to the postoffice today to re
vive a coveted letter or registered package from relatives anil
riends at a distance. And here’s that no one was disappointed
nd that everybody may have a merry Christmas.