The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-12-15
ALASKA And R. R s.
Trunk Line to Connect With a Rus
sian Line at Behring'S Not
All a Dream.
Business Interests in the Territory
Are Anxious for Delegate j.
in Congress.


>>>S
ing, Washington. . +c Ss&g%tl ts4 i q
Washington, Dec. 15.-Committees rep
resenting the business interests Of Alaska
will come before congress this winter
asking for a delegate from that territory
to the house of representatives It is be-,
l1eVed that nothing can be done towards
granting the request at the short session,
but that the matter will come up in a
year from now, at the opening of the
congress, the fifty eighth, which =, was
elected on the 4th inst. Whether the re-
quest will then be granted is an open
question, but it will be urged by strong
influences, including the full strength Of
the states of the Pacific coast, and will
have a respectful hearing. ~.
The question of a delegate will turn
upon the idea congress will then have
as to the permanency of the Alaskan
population. Before the discovery of gold
| the vast territory was practically unpop-
ulated' and even the gold mines have not
done anything to scatter the population
which they have attracted. 1t is largely
confined to the mining towns, and should
these mines be exhausted, it would
quickly come back to the states. The
| heaviest blow that had been struck the
delegate proposition came a, year ago
| when the report got into circulation that
| the mines had shown a falling off in out
put as compared with the years before.
This year the output is again to be large,
| and so the talk of a delegate will be re-
vived with nothing of the handicap it
has been carrying. Clearly, congress will
not care to provide delegate for a few
scattered fishing and fur settlements, made
| up for the most part of people not citi-
zens of this country, and yet that is ex-
actly what the delegate proposition would
amount to in the event of a sudden and
permanent decline in the production Of
gold. J."
The question is stated plainly, because
| friends of the delegate idea should know
the condition Of congressional sentiment
regarding that idea. = .- " .
l. Railway connection with the outside
world, supplemented by the telegraph, will
| do more to put Alaska on a permanent
footing than anything that can happen
and it is a significant fact that extensive
railway plans are being mapped out for
| the country on the east and on the west
| of her. In Manitoba this year several
| thousand miles of railway, all to lie south
west and west of Winnipeg have been pro-
jected. Next year the construction of it
will be commenced. Within five years 1T
is estimated that Canadian railway con-
| struction will have come practically to the
eastern doorway Of Alaska, with at least
one trunk line. The work Of extending
| this line through Alaska to the coast will
be comparatively simple problem, j.:'s
Recent conferences at Paris have de-
| veloped plan on the part of Europeans
to cooperate with Russia for the rapid
completion of the trans-Siberian railway
to the northeast and the central Pacific
coast The farthest north terminus at
| present spoken of is .Dalney, the city
which has sprung into existence at the
mandate of the car. WI Ting-fang, the
retiring Chinese minister. who is now en-
route home to become one Of the. Chinese
empires ministers Of commerce and tele-
he u N VIII takes the Of
the old railway commission of; the en-
pire, with increased responsibilities and
enlarged duties, is decidedly in favor of a
) rapid extension Of Asiatic trade with the
United States and has full and com
prehensive grasp of the transportation
problem, both water and rail, and clocks
with favor upon the plan to supplement
the water service by the building of a line
: of railway to Boring. strait, where it will
connect with a line to be built westward
> to that point. either by the United States
, or by Canadian capital. He goes home te
inform his government: that the Alaskan
= portion of that line of railway is already
. in sight, and will be an actually within
! half a dozen years. and to urge Chinese
corporation with Russia to the end thai
the Asiatic end Of the line may be pushed
on to completion on the west side of the
! strait within the same period. 49,.
! " Minister WI has very definite under.
SCdnQlIlS' OIL Tic pldltS VI JdIIIco D. I'LL
for the extension of American markets IL
: China, and is in sympathy with Mr.. Hill
3 At the same time. however. he makes the
point, that for large portion Of China
that portion remote from the seaboard,
line of railway would be Of immensely
more Importance than steamship facilities
He believes, in other words, that there Il
room in China for all the business which
: the new Hill steamship lines can talk
care of, and in addition for large ant
rapidly growing business by way of a lin
of railway connecting China with Berins
strait, loaded cars to be ferried across
the strait and delivered in bond to tn
proposed American line on the east shore
In the carrying out of this far-reachin,
plan lies the strongest hope for Alaskan
development and commercial permanency
and as it becomes more and more of
certainty, opposition to a delegate In con
gress will diminish and entirely disappear
At present there has been no announce
ment that the interests which are to ex
tend in a westerly direction the railwa
system of Manitoba have in mind an
il. Alaskan terminus; but it must be appar
emit to everybody who is familiar with tn
situation that if that extension is mad
substantially along the lines mapped ou
the step into and through Alaska wi
be logical and necessary. The CONNER
cial possibilities of the trans Siberian rail