The daily morning Alaskan., 1901-05-22
CAPTAIN JOHN f.PRATT
The Groat Question Is Nearing and Adjustment and this Govern ment VIII Got All the Territory Which Justly Belongs To It Full Statement of Facts

Notwithstanding all which has been published on the boundary many peo. pie have not yet comprehensive Ia of the status of the dispute and few can be found who know that it is a, near an amieable adjustment as il ,S. and what is far better the adjustment is just to both of the contending parties. The trouble has been that the jrhlie has been informed from the diplomatic side of the controversy with all ol it' attendant jingoism. The people have had little knowledge of what has been accomplished on the purely scientific side.
 Capt. John r. Pratt, of the United States coast and geodctic survey IS the man who is best informed, for it iS he who has had charge of the surveys of the international boundary. and the following statement of the present stage of the matter will be interesting Co all:
 We may regard the boundary as practically settled. Of course. there iS yet some local dissatisfaction. Some fellows noses are out of joint ID there because when the line was established
 t didn't happen 10 fall where the peo- pie supposed it would, and SO some Americans found themselves and their claims in Canada and some Britishcf' were dsmayed to find that they ere on Uncle Sam's ground. This. how ever. was inevitable, and it is not tithe SO serious as it would have been if Canada could have had her way about it. By the way. none Of this boundary dispute came from England. It is rather the doings of the Dominion government
 But I was going to say when gold came to be discovered in Alaska. Cana da began to want one of the inlets for a port and this gave rise 10 'he recent dispute. The question was under the jurisdiction of the international joint high commission. But the American members of it were all eastern .nen and it is possible that the Panhandle might almost have been lost to us. had not the matter been given over "a special joint committee of English and American engineers who were empow' cred to establish the boundary. prcVis- ionally wherever the somewhat vague treaty of IS2s seemed to indicate" "
 When asked about this treaty the captain explained:
 "It was based upon the maps made by Capt. George Vancouver R. N. in I7os He sailed along the coast and described it as having q range of noun tains running parallel with the shore and about ten marine leagues inland. Then England and Russia. which own ed Alaska at that time, agreed that this watershed or parallel range should he the boundary. But in reality there IS no such range There are many irrePr- lar chains in there and some oi them are transverse to the coast.
 "In laying out the provisional bound ary we took prominent points oi the coast line and measured inland ten leagues. There has been no complete line run. IL is merely indicated by monuments in the valleys where there are settlemnts. We Americans con tended for the ten league boundary and got it almost everywhere. Thc line. IS practically where the old treaty puts 1t.
 "Will it stay thefe2 Well. every day makes it more probable that it will. lust think of all the thousands of Anne ican people settling on the frontier The longer the dispute remains quiet the more people will accumulate. until. when a treaty comes to be made. these people and their friends all over the United States could exert such pres sure upon congress that it woulc not dare give an inch of territory 70 Cans da. It is a similar case to the settl'ng of Oregon territory. and in this .ase. as in that, our advantage grows with the passage of time"
 Capt. Pratt is now in northern waters engaged in making coast surveys. He will remain during the summer. tc has spent many summers in an oiirial capacity on the Alaskan coast and has charted it from Juneau to Dutch liar bor.