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
WILL A. STEEL—Editor*, Manager* and Proprietor*—HUBBY O. STEEL
Office: Hotel Chitina Building.
Cordova Office: Daily Alaskan
Seattle Office: B5I Colman Building.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
One Month .♦ -50
Six Months . 2-00
One Year . 3.50
ADVERTISING RATES
Made known upon application. They will be found reasonable for the service
given. Official publication for legal advertisements pertaining to mineral lands
of the Copper River Cistrlct.___
CIIITIXA, ALASKA, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1913.
SHOULD TRY THE PRACTICAL
Many thinking Alaskans are of the opinion that the
government experimental farms in the north have served their
puprose as conducted at present and that the system should be
changed. The farms were established primarily for the
purpose as conducted at present and that the system should be
produce grain and vegetables and the varieties from which
best results could be obtained. The system has been in oper
ation for several years and has proven that almost every
variety of farm or garden produce which will mature in 90
days can be successfully grown in nearly all parts of the north.
The experience of the government, and private parties who
have attempted farming in Alaska, have shown that many
varieties reproduce here even better than in many parts of the
states. - - ■ ,;<• -f >*i’
In all parts of Alaska there are men who have been
working quietly with the purpose in view of showing the
department how Alaska’s agricultural possibilities may be
demonstrated in a practical manner and to insure the settle
ment of the territory with a clean, industrious and healthy
people. The present system of experimental farms, while
having been of great service in the past, if not changed will
serve to retard rather than assist the development of the
agricultural resources of the territory. The government farms
have demonstrated that the soil of the Alaskan valleys will
produce in abundance, everything required by the people of
the nortth. That service has been of inestimable value but the
gavernment farms are beginning to compete with the people
who are attempting to gain a livelihood through tilling the
soil. In Fairbanks during the past summer the farmers entered
a protest against the experimental station there selling its
extra produce. The farmers contended that the government
farming should be confined to experiments alone. They do
not believe it necessary for the government agents to plant
several acres of potatoes, which give returns of several hun
dreds of bushels per acre, to prove that any particular variety
of spud can be successfully grown.
The agricultural department having proven the theo
retical should now turn its attention to the practical side of
the matter. A number of practical farmers should be induced
to settle in the valleys here. It is to be feared that the
American agriculturist, who has been accustomed to modern
conveniences would find it difficult to accustom himself to the
isolation and unusual conditions which these pioneers in
Alaskan farming must necessarily face. Should the govern
ment fail to induce American families to come, it could bring
a number of families from Norway, Sweden and Finland and
place them in different sections of the territory and it believed
they would make farming and stockraising a success. These
immigrants would need assistance for a time. It might be two
or three years before they had reached a point where they
would be self-sustaining but it would not cost the government
any more to assist them than the experimental stations are
costing at present.
The agriculturists of these northern European countries
are accustomed to conditions similar to those prevailing in
Alaska. They are frugal, industrious, raise large families and
make splendid law-abiding citizens. A few of these families
placed to advantage where they would find a market for their
produce would soon be followed by many others. Norway,
Finland and Sweden, with practically the same area of tillable
soil as Alaska, supports nearly ten and one-half millions of
people in addition to exporting millions of dollars of produce
annually. The female members of the families in rural com
munities of the countries named, help the men in the fields and
herd the cattle and sheep in the hills during the summer while
the men are otherwise engaged. That would help them win
success.
We believe the scheme is worthy of consideration by the
agricultural department. The government farms should,
however, still be maintained. Experiments tried in the clean,
healthy soil of Alaska, with its 24 hours of daylight in summer,
will yield to the world many varieties of grain and produce as
yet unknown to man.
_ft—ft_ft_ " ~nT* 'TWTT -r—T
CANADIAN AUTHORITY CRITICIZES OUR WAY
The Dawson News thinks the American way of handling
mining stampedes and establishing new recording districts is
crude, as compared with Canada’s work in that line. It
suggests that there should be a change, and that one man
should be put at the head of the whdle matter
Commenting editorially upon the situation, the News says:
“The Chisana stampede has drawn attention to a number
of deficiencies of the Alaskan mining laws. The most promi
nent and regrettable defect is that respecting the records, or
more properly, the want of records, and absence of means of
speedily providing the new districts with necessary official
machinery and office equipment.
“While it is to be admitted the territorial government of
Alaska barely has been launched, and that the first legislature
adjourned only a little more than a half year ago, it is well
that all suggestions and friendly criticism be offered now in
order that the necessary corrections can be made at the earliest j
opportunity.
“It is true Alaska has gotten on for years with the sem
blance of mining regulations, and with no particularly defined
code, and with a very lame system of recording, but the time
has come for a more modern system, and the innovations
should be made as quickly as possible. It is a well known
fact that Recorder Morgan was appointed early last spring,
before he departed from Dawson, and when he left the Chisana
for the coast this fall had not been supplied with even ordinary
blank books to be found in any peanut stand. What few modest
books he took in last spring for recording the then known
limited number of copper claims of the district had to suffice
until exhausted, and then pocketbooks and scrap paper were
brought into play. The whole season passed, and the expected
new books arrived, it is understood, after Mr. Morgan left, and
when the snow had begun to fall this autumn.
“The Alaskan government, had it been prepared to deal
pi’operly with such matters, would have gotten a complete set
of records to the recorder as quickly as his commission was
delivered. While books and stationery were not delivered by
the government in this important matter, involving title,
people from as far distant points as New York and San
Francisco had rushed into the new diggings as early as July.
Several thousand got in before the snow fell. And yet the
government equipment came months afterward, while Juneau
and Valdez were only ten days distant.
“It is not to be said that any particular government
official in Alaska was to blame for the slow delivery of the
books, because the territory’s work in such matters does ont
seem well set out or defined. The duties do not seem plainly
imposed upon any one official. But it certainly does seem that
the law is to blame, and is seriously to be condemned. It
should not be too much of an undertaking for Alaska to so
systematize and centralize her recording scheme, so that there
be one responsible recording head for the whole territory,
whose duty it will be to see that records are properly supplied
every recorder immediately on appointment, and to rush
equipment to new camps as quickly as the average musher can
stampede there.”
WHAT THE BILL MEANS FOR CORDOVA
How will the passage of the Alaska railroad bill now
before the legislators at Washington affect Cordova? That is
the question most often asked when the matter is under
discussion. ^ i. i**
Congressman Houston, chairman of the committee on
territories, may be said to have practically outlined the policy
of the government. The committee is one of the most impor
tant and its chairman enjoys the confidence of the administra
tion. He predicted that when the railroad had been con
structed from the coast to Fairbanks branch lines would be
built by private capital which would open the mining and
farming districts tributary to the line and help furnish
tonnage. Other trunk lines leading into interior Alaska could
then be built with the same result. He clearly indicated that
the trunk line to Fairbanks would be the first to be constructed.
It is reasonable to believe that the report of the commission
appointed to investigate railroad routes to interior Alaska
will be followed as near as practical. They advised building
to Fairbanks from Chitina and making arrangements with
the C. R. & N. W. Railroad for handling the traffic over their
line if satisfactory arrangements could be made. With the
passage of the bill Cordova is assured of being the ocean
terminus of the first trunk line to be constructed to the interior
of Alaska. That is what the people who invested here when
the town started believed would eventually come. Cordova
has no reason to fear for the future so far as the government
railroads are concerned.
d he passage of the Alaska Railroad bill must soon be
followed by some definite plan providing for the opening of
the coal fields of the north. The Bering river coal fields are
tributary to Cordova and their output must find an outlet
through this port. That will cause a branch line to be con
structed to the coal fields, great coal bunkers to be built and
large fleets of vessels to anchor in our harbor. The Bering
river coal is high grade and coming together with the copper
from the mines of the interior will cause great reduction and
smelter works to spring up and cover the tide flats.
There is another feature which is of immediate interest to
the people of Alaska and especially to the residents of this
community. ith the passage of the bill empowering the
President to expend $40,000,000, or as much as is necessary, to
build railroads in Alaska, private capital, which has held back
will begin moving in advance of the government. Business
men, who realize the possibilities of the territory and have
been watching developments will seek to enter the field.
Capitalists, being assured of fair treatment at the hands of
government, will seek investments for the future. Big moneyed
men will become interested in the mines in the interior and
will acquire the properties or assist the locators who have been
struggling for years to develop their claims. Cordova, as the
coast terminus, will be headquarters for all these enterprises.
-o—o—o
PUT THEM IN JAIL
Those miscreants that have been destroying the monu
ments and other guides and conveniences for travelers on the
Chisana trail should be apprehended and they should be dealt
with in a manner commensurate with the enormity of their
crime. The marking of this trail involved a great deal of
painstaking and costly work, and it was done in the interest
of safety to human life. The vandals that have undone the
work are dangerous men to be at liberty. They should be
placed where mischievious practices would not jeapardize
human life.—Juneau Empire.
-o—o—o
The north of Ireland is under arms to resist home rule,
and the south of Ireland proposes to arm in support of the
proposed new government. The happy condition promises to
again presented such as were recorded by an Irish poet of a
former generation, when the people of Ireland were “fighting
like devils for conciliation, and hating each other for the love
of God.”
SCENES TO BE PRESENTED ■
IN SPECIAL COSTUME
_
The prevailing impression that the
entertainment to be given by the
Wamaluda Club of Cordova on
December 23, will be an ordinaty
concert is erroneous. Scenes have
been taken from several Japanese
operas and will be presented in cos
tume. The music arranged is spe
cially catchy. Rehearsals are being
held daily and those taking part
are all letter perfect in their parts.
The costumes arrived on the
Alameda.
-o—o—o
NOTICE
IN THE UNITED STATES COM
MISSIONER’S COURT, THIRD
JUDICIAL DIVISION, TERRI
TORY OF ALASKA. IN AND FOR
CHITINA PRECINCT.
In the Matter 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.
-o—o—o
NOTICE TO STOCKHOLDERS
The annual stockholders’ meeting
of the Bonanza Gold Mining Co.
will be held at Blackburn, Alaska,
at 12 m. December 29th, 1913.
F. A. IVERSON, Pres.
NOTICE OP FORFEITURE
To Alex. Nesbitt, his heirs, adminis
trator, assigns, successors or per
sonal representatives:
You are hereby notified that I
have expended in labor and im
provements for the year 1912, the
sum of One Hundred Dollars on each
of the following named claims, or in
total the sum of Sixteen Hundred
Dollars, the “Pacer,” “Mayflower,”
“Slocum,” “Red Jacket,” “Red
Jacket No. 2,” and “Independence.”
The “Hercules,” “Sandow,” and
“Sampson.” The “Rosey No. 1,”
and “Rosey No. 2.” The “Lucky
Strike;” “Fairview,” “Esperanza,”
“Webfoot,” and "Yankee,” all situ
ated in the Chitina Mining and
Recording District, Territory of
Alaska, and which have been duly
recorded in the office of the United
States commissioner, in and for the
Chitina Mining District, at Chitina,
Alaska.
The above amounts have been ex
nended in order to hold the said
claims under the provisions of the
law concerning annual labor upon
mining claims, being the amount re
quired to hold said above named
mining claims. And you are fur
ther notified that if, within ninety
(90) days after the last publication
of this notice you fail to contribute
your proportion of said expenditure,
which is one-sixth (1-6) of the
•whole, your interest in said claims
will become the property of the
undersigned, your co-owner.
james McConnell.
First publication Sept. 23, 1913.
Last publication Dec. 23, 1913.
0. ADRIAN NELSON
U. S. Mineral Surveyor
CHITINA - - - ALASKA
CHITINA: BAKERY
AND
Coffee House
HENRY GESSNER, Prop.
FRESH BREAD, CAKES AND
PIES ALWAYS ON HAND
Chitina GRILL
Good Eats for Particular People
Prompt Service. Popular Service.
Next to Chitina Hotel,
CHITINA : : : ALASKA.
Chitina j
Pharmacy j
DRUGS, <
STATIONERY, i
CANDIES, }
KODAK SUPPLIES j
CIGARS & TOBACCO \
If you cannot call, write j
us. MAIL orders our i
Specialty. 1
A. G. MOREY, Prop, j
GROCERIES, HARDWARE i
MEAT MARKET
We have a b!g line of Sec
ond-Hand Goods, and can «
save you money on your out- <
fit Bunk House, with free
Cook House, in connection.
CHITINA HEIGHTS
C. A. SIMONS * CO. :
Feed, Fuel
and
Lumber
HAY, brax, oats, chops,
ROLLED BARLEY
We can make prompt ship
ments to points on the rail
road. Our feed is the very
best quality.
0. A. Nelson & Co.
CCHITINA
hotel
Washington
ANNEX
SEATTLE
New, modern and fireproof.
AH ontside rooms
The most conveniently locates
hotel in the city.
Rooms and suites are particu>
larly large.
Very desirable for families or
parties traveling together.
RATES MODERATE ;
Auto-hus meets all boats and
trains. Write for booklet. !
. - J H. DAVIS. ProD