The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-02-11
SOMETHING IN THE WIND
Mounted Police Ready to Move
at a Moments Notice.
LETHBRlDGE IS KICKING
The Dominion Government Is Preparing
to Mass All Its Available Forces in
Canadian Alaska-A Chance
for Montana Horses.

Great Falls, Feb. 1o.-A gentleman in
the city tonight from Lethbridge says
that all the mounted police at~that sta
ton are ready to move to the Yukon
country at half an hours notice and
that there is evidently something in the
wind. Reports from Fort Saskatche-
wan state that the soldiers and police
are being withdrawn from that point
in small squads until there is but a
small force left to do ordinary police
duty. In consequence the settlers IN
that section are kicking vigorously and
claiming that they have as much right
to protection from the government as
the klondike miners. Similar reports
are received from other parts of the
Northwest territory. 1t would seem
from this that the Canadian govern
ment is massing all of its available
forces in Canadian Alaska and pre-
pairing for some extraordinary coup de
main.
That the Canadian government pur-
poses to control not only the gold fields
themselves, but even the approaches to
Them is evidenced by the statements
contained in the Canadian papers. One
excerpt advocating the construction of
a railway by way Of Edmonton reads
as follows:
The construction of a railway be-
tween Glenora and Teslin lake, linking
the nay igabie waters of the Stlekeen
river will those of the Yukon system,
will not diminish in the slightest degree
the force of the reasons in favor of an
interior route. with all the improve
ments that can be made in it. The APP
proach by way of the Stickeen river, or
by Dyea and Chilcoot pass, or by any
other trail or channel opening from the
Pacific must remain a coast route. 1t
passes through a margin of territory
under the jurisdiction of the states,
which shut the gateway When it
pleases to ignore the treaty of ST.
Petersburg. We must have an interior
route for the accommodation of the
great body of traffic, one that will be
entirely Canadian, SO that we may, If
necessary, transport soldiers over it.
one that is open all the year round so
that famine will be rendered practical
~ impossible; one that will enable
Canada to get the greatest share of the
benefit of the development of the Yu-
kon Such route must start from the
settled fertile belt of our Northwest,
and a good point for it to be struck
from is Edmonton"
One of the chief and most direct in
terests which Montanans can have in
the use of the Edmonton route, whether
il be the Mackenzie river route or the
all land route, is that it will afford a
good market for the disposal of the i'm
menSe bands OF horses which are now
on the ranges of the state, and which
are practically valueless. Such horses
are now selling in Northern Montana
at prices ranging from So TO S. per
head, and the owners, with their taxes
staring them in the face, are glad to
get rid of them at those or any other
price At Edmonton the price of a pony
or cayuse has already reached from $15
to $40, and according to reports is
steadily advancing. and for a good
pack horse as much as $50 has been
paid. The Edmonton Bulletin states
that there is a market there at the
present time for 1000 ponies and more
as the season advances. The stock In
Southern Alberta has already been
drawn upon and this is the time for
the enterprising HORSEPOWER of Mon
tana to get into the market and get rid
of his surplus stock at prices which
seem staggering after the experience OF
the past three or four years.