The daily morning Alaskan., 1900-02-13
KLOND|KE FURNISHES
 4 GOLDEN HORIZON
Skagway Discerns Interior
 Trade Advantages.
CITIZENS AWAKENING
Lively Interest in tho Proposition to Capture the Wholesale Business From Hero to Nome.

The suggestion of a late Dawson paper that Sagway ought to be the jobbing cen ter for the Klondike has struck respon- slve chord in the hearts of local merchants. and lt may be that an agitation of the matter will be made that will ultimately bring the proposition to q considerable re- allzation. The matter of getting students of the Yukon country to attend the Me Cabe college of Skagwav has been raised in this connection.
 President Keller. of the Chamber of Commerce, and others who take a lively interest in the welfare of Skagway, have looked upon the matter with a greal deal of interest. President Keller says: "Skag- way merchants have long been looking to the sound for the trade of the men going into the KOndike. They have been look ing the wrong way, Let them turn square ly sflout and look toward the KlOndlke, and they will be facing a field that is full of business. The Klondlke must be sup piled, and Skapway lies at the nearest point of touch on the seacoast. When Klondkers want anything they often want 1t just as soon as t is possible to get lt. f Skagway can supply the want, why should Klondlkers look to Seattle or other southern points,
 "There are many things Skagway can already supply. Let the merchants urge this tact upon the people of Dawson. Let them not stop there but "mush on" and urge their advantages upon Atlln and the smaller towns of the Yukon basin. In fact, Sksgway merchants want to cease advertising their advantages in Seattle and other parts of the south, and advertise be- fore the people of the interior, which is our own field"
 Frank Bishoprick, of the wholesale pro- vision firm of Bishoprlek & ShOemake says: "Skagwavans should get in and make a determined. united pull for the Dawson trade. There are certain goods to be had in thIs citv that Dawsonites need not go to Seattle for; and, further, Seattle is no friend to Skagwav when it comes to looking for wholesale business. Seattle wholesale merchants will sell to people bound north at retail prices"
 Phil Abraham:, the real estate agent, says: "The long and ready arm of Seattle has too long been reaching over the head of Skagwav and taking unto the Sound metropolis the trade of the Klondike, In the meantime the Lynn canal town has been satisfied with a few jobs of small shippers. S<agwayans. if they want in- teror trade and would have it, should or ganize or pull strongly together to in some way arrange to have stocks here that can be relied upon by the lnterio: people. They should then protect the retailers.
 Seattle wholesalers have not only got the cream of the interior trade, but have at the same time cut the throat of Skag- way retailers, and of the retailers of their own town, by selling to consumers at re- tail prizes. This practice Is stigma on the so.eall:d wholesale houses of Seattle. They are to be denounced in the rountest way. They make the claim that they have to sell to the consumer, for the reason that the Seattle retailers have not the stocks on which to draw and the stability to hold the trade for their town. Portland. slow old Portland, has wholesale houses that will not stoop to such practices, and so has every center worthy the name of jobbIng town. Portland's houses might be looked to for a greater business in this region if she were not so slow.
 "Skagwav, while deslrous of interior trade. cannot expect heavy outside capital to come here. lt is not because this is not a good field, or because the trade of the Klondike is anything at which one could sheer, but because the people Of the states do not take kindly to new northern land while there are other fields for them to enter. Northern capital must be looked to for the opening of heavy wholesale estab- lishments here. Such men as B. "A. Beh- rends. the Juneau capitalist, who recently came to Skagway. are of the type who will prove our best friends ani most pro- gressive merchants. Mr. Behrends, for instance, knows nothing but Alaska as far as trade is concerned, and his heart is here. Where one's heart Is there will his treas ure be also."
 w. L. Metcalf, manager of the Skag- way house of B. N. Behrends, says: There is much trade in the Yukon that should come direct to Skagwav merchants or, in other words, trade that they should bring to themselves. Since the klondlke has been anything number of small trad CTS have been coming to the coast and buy Ing supplies and taking them to the inter for on their own venture. Skagway mer- chants. bv reaching out, should become the beneficiaries of this trade. hev could have had 1t some time past and can now get 1t. Why not turn share of the Klondlke's gold into the tills of Skagwav houses direct "
 Frank E. Burns, of the Alaska Steam ship Company, says: "Theie are certain conditions that should enable Skagwav merchants to lay goods down in Dawson, or to sell to those from Dawson, at rate that would make 1t a decided advantage for the Dawsonites to trade here. Skag- way merchants who are aware of existing conditions in relation to the Klondike sni Skagwav and the states, should appreciate this fact and reach for Dawson's busi'