The Chitina Leader
CHITIXA. 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 Ju win—Editor*, Managers and Proprietor*—HAEST Q. STEEL
Office: Hotel Chitina Building. Cordova Office: Daily Alaskan
Seattle Office: 551 Colman Building.
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Siren. Official publication for legal advertisements pertaining to mineral lands
of the Copper River district.
CHITINA, ALASKA, SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1912,
ROOSEVELT S WATERLOO
Theodore Roosevelt, falsifier and defamer of Alaska, the
man who above all others is responsible for the direful condi
tions in this territory, has at last met his Waterloo in Chicago.
In keeping with his actions, utterances and grandstand
plays ever since his return from Africa, Roosevelt received his
defeat in the most unmanly manner, and if anything were lack
ing to show to the American people the true characteristics of
this man, the way he accepted the shattering of his cherished
hopes on the floor of the Chicago convention would be enough
to forever put an end to the insane adulation of the insurgent
band running amuck with the conservation banner carried at
the head of its procession.
In passing it might be wise to point out to Teddy that his
adherence to the fool theories of Gifford Pinchot has been a
prime factor in hastening his overthrow by the American peo
ple.
His choice of advisors at Chicago was sufficient unto it
self to defeat him. Here, there and everywhere Gifford Pin
chot, arch enemy of Alaska, suppressing for all time develop
ment of her coal resources for the benefit of those Eastern coal
companies in which his family is interested and which supply
the United States navy with all its fuel used on the Pacific
coast; Jimmie Garfield, “papa’s boy,” and the one who igno
miniously failed as secretary of the interior, rabid conserva
tionist where conservation is not needed and where it cannot
effect in any way the Eastern states; Dr. Lyman Abbott, the
long-whiskered, sanctimonious and verbose Polonius, making
himself ridiculous with his long-winded platitudes and positive
assertions that Theodore does not drink strong liquor. Then
there was Ben Lindsay, the professional juvenile judge of Den
ver, the little fuzzy-wuzzy of Colorado politics, who is forever
writing articles about himself in which he is pictured as the
great “lam” and “the one who done it.” Medill McCormick,
of the harvester trust, was a distinct leader in Teddy’s cam
paign. But why lengthen the list? It was long enough and so
badly selected that it might have carried to defeat even a more
popular candidate than Roosevelt.
Ever since Roosevelt came through Europe following his
hunt in Africa, he has been the laughing stock of true and pa
triotic Americans, and where but a few years before he had
held the esteem, love and respect of all, the feeling was quick
ly changed to the very opposite until today this man of former
greatness stands defeated most thoroughly by the Republican
party which once held him in highest reverence, and his record
of the last six months alone will forever be counted against him,
depicting him as a selfish egotist, defamer of American man
hood, shatterer of ideals and destroyed of party principles.
The Daily Alaskan takes considerable pride in the part it
has played in showing Roosevelt up in his true colors. Every
one of his false statements in the “Outlock” have been anal
yzed and answered, at the time copies being sent to all the
thinking editors in the Lnited States. For weeks preceding
the Chicago convention each delegate had been supplied with
Roosevelt’s full Alaskan record, as well as his relation to Pin
chot, Wiekersham and others. And during the entire conven
tion some effective work was quietly performed by Alaskans
in helping to defeat the one man above all others who has help
ed strangle this fair territory.
-oooo-—
THE ANTHRACITE INQUIRY
More can be hoped from the investigation just ordered by
the Interstate Commerce Commission into the anthracite situa
tion than from any proceeding yet attempted. This inquiry
begun by the commission on its own initiative is designed to
examine into the rates, practices, rules and regulations of the
railroads governing the transportation of anthracite, and par
ticularly into the connection between the carriers and the own
ership or production of the coal they earn*. The investigation
begun by the Department of Justice involves another question
—whether the Sherman law was violated in the recent advance
in price to the consumer, estimated at $25,000,000, following an
advance in wages of but $6,000,000 to the miners. The conten
tion in that case is that the advance was the result of an unlaw
ful combination among the corporations in restraint of trade.
In the Interstate Commerce Commission’s inquiry, besides be
ing probably easier to establish, there will be tiie advantage
that the commission has itself the power to prescribe the reme
dy and to order reasonable rates and the discontinuance of dis
criminatory practices.
The charge upon which the inquiry has been ordered is fa
miliar—that the coal-carrying roads controlling mines keep
down the price of coal at the mines and exact their profit by ex
cessive freight rates, thus crushing competition. The investi
gation, which will go into every phase of the situation, undei
the terms of the order, will be the most exhaustive yet under
taken in the anthracite field and can hardly fail of results.
-oooo
HAULING THE MOLLYCODDLES
Here for generations, perhaps since the day of the original
cave-dweller, mankind has been dodging drafts and thinking
sneezing a symptom of catching cold. And now comes a medi
cal writer who insists that there is no such thing as catching a
cold. When we thing we are catching it it has already caught
us. The sneeze is not a symptom, but an effect.
,All the world-plagues, Says Dr. Brady in the New York
Medical Journal, are wann-weatlier diseases. Pneumonia, for
instance, is a disease of people living in overheated houses. Co
ryza, or cold in the head, never develops out of doors. W et feet
are of no consequence unless they become uncomfortably cold,
and cold feet are a sign of defective circulation. Drafts should
be taken straight, he says, not diverted. Exposure to rain, hail
and snow is tonic—so long as it is comfortable.
But that is just where a lot of lay opinion will collide with
the doctor. A great many persons find drafts uncomfortable,
straight or crooked; still more experience positive discomfort
from wet feet, and if wet feet cause cold feet, and cold feet are a
sign of defective circulation, they will persist in thinking that
the best way to avoid defective circulation is to avoid wet and
consequently cold feet.
Theoretically the doctor may be right, but it will be well
to go at the matter with discretion. Present-day humanity, the
product of dodging drafts and wet feet for generations, may be
in no shape to attempt an instantaneous reversal of the habit*
of centuries. The next generation, brought up nearer to Dr.
Brady’s Spartan rules, may be better qualified to experiment
with his theories, but those of the present day will be wise to
approach a test of his ideas with circumspection.
-0000
MUCKRAKER DOWN AND OUT
It may appear unkind to hammer one who is down and out.
1 but the Daily Alaskan cannot refrain from pointing out that
our editorial fight against John E. Lathrop, correspondent, who
for several months got his stuff on Alaska published, is out of
the running. Xo more will his falsehoods be accepted, for he
has lost every paper he represented, or rather misprepresented.
He came to Alaska in company with Delegate Wickersham, and
at Juneau joined forces with Emery Valentine, then mayor of
that misguided city and the pliant tool of Wickersham. Valen
tine has it in for Shackleford and Governor Clark, and to wreak
his vengeance on them gave Lathrop the wrong steer, and one
1 which the green Eastern newspaper man swallowed, bait and
hook. At Cordova Lathrop fell in with the intrepid Jack Dal
ton. and for weeks stories of Dalton's heroism went the rounds
of the Eastern papers represented by Lathrop.
But, it will be recalled, the Daily Alaskan got busy and
printed the truth. Copies were sent to every newspaper rep re
sented by Lathrop, to the press clubs of the United States, and
all other parties or institutions interested. The glaring inac
curacies pointed out made these papers look foolish, and when
those high up took the Daily Alaskan’s utterances as proof of
a refutation of the Lathrop screeds and gave the same widei
circulation, there was nothing left for the publishers to do bul
to “fire’’ Lathrop, and he has been so disposed of. So Lathroj
joins Hampton’s Magazine, the Pacific Monthly and Gifford
Pincliot, the latter having been refused further consideration
at the hands of George Horace Lorimer. The good work wili
be kept up until the last of Alaska’s enemies bites the dust.
r\r\r\r\
IS THE PROBLEM SOLVED?
We hope it is true that Thomas A. Edison has discovered
the long looked for secret of “how to treat low grade ores.” We
cannot estimate the wealth it will add to our country, if the
millions and millions of tons of low grade ores awaiting such a
process can be made profitable, and the heretofore waste rock
be made an earning capacity.
The mining world is eagerly waiting for the invention of
this most valuable process to be announced, and what a wel
come it will receive in their hands. It will mean a great re
vival in the mining industry, and change enormous loss to pro
fit. But the Jones process is still under test. Should they both
prove solutions to the problem, the question of cheapness will
naturally be taken up. The Edison treatment of the ore is 60
cents per ton, and it saves 90 per cent of the assay values, which
it seems would be hard to excel.
-oooo
INCOME TAX PROGRESS
Minnesota is the thirty-third state to ratify the constitu
tional amendment affirming the right of Congress to levy an
income tax. Arizona a couple of months ago made the thirty
second. In the Minnesota legislature the House passed a reso
lution of ratification in the session of 1911, which was not acted
on in the Senate; but at an extra session called to pass reappor
tionment and direct primary laws the Senate last week con
curred in the House resolution by a vote of 49 to 5.
It now requires the ratification of three more legislatures
to make the ratification complete. Of the states that have not
yet acted, Louisiana, Florida, Utah, Wyoming, AVest A'irginia
and Pennsylvania are spoken of as likely to ratify the coming
winter. But some of these states are by no means certain of
the issue. The recent Louisiana Democratic convention in
structed the legislature to ratify, but the sugar planters of that
state are inimical to the measure because they think an income
tax would make it fixedly easier to reduce the duty on raw su
gar. In Pennsylvania and AVest A’irginia the legislative vote
for ratification is by no means secure.
-oooo
HOW TO BOOM ALASKA
Only one thing is needed now by Alaska to complete its
promise of growth into a great state, and this is full territorial
government, with a legislative assembly. The people up that
way say so, and they have a bill before Congress which thus
embodies their hopes and wishes.
Much has been said of Alaska’s rigorous climate as a bar
to large population. Even so, it has a charm whose alluring
force few can resist. As sang the poet:
‘‘There are hardships that nobody reckons;
There are valleys unpeopled and still;
There a land—oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back—and I will.”
Whether the poet himself ever went back is uncertain.
AVhether others who have been there usually go back is also
uncertain, for Alaska’s population has been practically at a
standstill for the past ten years, and people have not stopped
making a first visit there.
But all doubt on this score is to be changed for a better
certainty if the pending bill is enacted. Even the climate is
changing in anticipation. Three months ago they were wear
ing straw hats and linen dusters at Juneau when the rest of
thee United States was frozen up, and it is believed that the
Japanese current is swinging closer to the Alaskan shore.
This is presented as an added reason why the bill before
Congress should pass. But if, as is claimed, a legislative as
sembly alone would start Alaska straight on the way to a 10,
000,000 population, why oppose it? What are new gold mines
in drawing Americans there compared with a legislature and its
politics?—New York Sun.
-oooo
PANAMA EQUIPMENT IMPRACTICABLE
Secretary Fisher advocates the use of old Panama railroad
equipment for use in Alaska to be placed in sendee on the Alas
ka Northern. Here are some of the reasons why it is impracti
cable:
The Panama railroad is five feet in width. The Alaska
Northern is four feet eight and one-half inches in width. Either
the road must be widened or the equipment reduced in traction
gauge.
The Panama railroad has the greater portion of its equip
ment in cars and steam shovels for the handling of loose earth
in damp tropical sections. The construction equipment needed
for the Alaska Northern would be that required for steep
grades, side-hill work, rock cuts, tunnels through granite for
mation, etc.
The Panama railroad motive power has been built for level
grades. Those needed for the Alaska Northern must be for en
countering heavy grades anywhere from 1 to 3 per cent.
The Panama railroad passenger equipment has been built
for the hot canal zone. Dainty striped awnings cover the rear
platforms. The wood has been put together to meet climatic
conditions in the hot belt. They would not last a minute in the
cuts above Turnagain Arm. They are not built for the rigorous
climate of the North nor equipped for our winter weather.
These few suggestions may help to solve the difficulty for
those who are agitating the question.
Railroad engineers are broadly smiling over this latest at
tempt to find a solution for the Alaska controversy. If another
argument were needed it could be added that the engines will
have to be changed to oil burners or else burn Canadian coal or
Pinchot West Virginia coal.
-0000
EDITORIAL COMMENTS
Where. 0 where, were the Valentine soreheads at the Chi
cago convention? Echo answers where. Honestly, good folks
of Alaska, is it not time to read the handwriting on the wall
and climb into the band wagon? Wickersham, Roosevelt, Pin
chot and all the rest are down and out forever so what good
can be accomplished by hanging on to a forlorn hope? Even
the Juneau Dispatch is seeing the inevitable, so let us all get
in and boost, boost, boost. There is a good time coming, so why
not be in harmony and ready for its beneficial results.
The action of the Department of Justice in investigating
Judge Cushman and other members of the official family at
Valdez for the manner in which they protected Commissioner
Healy against the charges filed against this official will be ap
preciated by the residents of the Copper River Valley, who
have long since lost confidence in this “Kitchen Cabinet” and;
have tired of the persistent federal interference in the rights
of the people.
The Valdez Prospector goes after Secretary Fisher rough
shod, attempting to show that Fisher’s preference for the Alas
ka Northern is not in good taste owing to the fact that the of
ficial is or has been the attorney for the Canadian bondholders
of that road and the effort now is to unload the road on the
government. This proves the absolute necessity of having a
sensible commission, composed of engineers and others who
are capable of judging the merits of the routes, pass upon this
momentous question.
-0000---—
COMMENTS OF OUR EXCHANGES
Every vote for Wickersham is a vote of endorsement for
Roosevelt and Pinchot and what they stand for. Can Alaskans
afford to endorse the conservation policy of either of these tvo
men. as they applied the policy to Alaska.—Valdez Prospector.
Those thirty names of Xomeites sending out their proxies
to the Valdez Wickersham convention have us all going. We
have yet to meet ony one person who knows one-third of them,
and one man who has ever heard the names of half of them, and
all prominent business men of Xome, at that. What next?- —
Xome Xugget.
It’s about time that all of the unmarried belles of the male
persuasion of Seward get together and frame up to meet the
aggregation of school teachers that are billed to arrive in Sew
ard on the next Sampson. According to a confirmed rumor
there will be 138 on board making the round trip, and of course
when they get here we will have to give them a dance. Th°re
may be a chance for some of the boys to get off lucky and grab
a life partner.—Seward Gateway.
There was a time when drunkenness and other coarse prac
tices were tolerated at dances in Yukon, but that period ceased
when Gum Boot Kitty, Few Clothes Molly, Sweet Marie and
the Oregon Mare packed their belongings and left the territory
shortlv after the order came from Ottawa closing the dance
halls, since which time booze and the long, juicy waltz have not j
been running mates, and the would-be worshipper at the shrine
of Terpsichore who goes to a dance “soaked to the neck” and j
endeavors to force his attentions on the ladies present not only
disgraces himself, but humiliates the person who invited him.
—Whitehorse Star.
0. mm NELSON
U. S. Mineral Surveyor
CHITINA - - - ALASKA
Chitina
Pharmacy
Drugs
Stationery
Magazines
Candy
Fruit
Cigars
A. G. MOREY, Prop.
GROCERIES, HARDWARE
-- AND ■■
MEAT MARKET
IVe have a big 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
Cordes & Simons
PUBLIC LAND AND MINING
CASES.
—
If you are interested in any contest
or any matter before the Interior De
partment, write to Clark & Wright,
registered land lawyers, 902 F Street
N. W. (opposite Gen’l Land Office),
Washington, D. C. Free information
about contests and where to obtain
scrip, locatable upon public lands,
without residence or cultivation.
D. A. GRIFFIN,
DENTIST
All work guaranteed. Prices reason
able. In Tibbs’ Building.
Cbitina, Alaska.
feed, fuel
and
Lumber
HAY, BRA.V, 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.
CHITINA