The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-11-14

country has led to their use and
maintenance for that purpose and to
the construction of additional lines for
the publi.> good. What we can afford
to do for the Philippines we can afford
to do for Alaska.
And all this applies not only to the
Valdez-Eagle road, but to the situation
in the Seward peninsula, in the Circle
City district, the Rampant district and
wherever the development of the
country halts for that stimulus which
only adequate means of transportation
can give.
Notice should be taken in this con-
nection of another projected railroad
SHOWN on the accompanying map and
laid out from a new town called
Seward on the east side of the Kenai
peninsula, across to the Tanana, to
Rampant on the Yukon. Twenty-Five
miles of this road are understood to
have been built and ironed, but the
proposed route Is not regarded by
Alaskans as favorably as the Valdez
Eagle proposition. It has the merit,
however, of having actually COM
menced work.
NV HEN we arrived at Valdez we
w had been thirty days out of the
reach of the rest of the world
by wire and We're even willing to
pay As cents word for moth
iliS lGSS ttldll elel NOTd IlGSSdSSS W
hear from the land of the liv-
ing. Valdez received and banquet
ed the senatorial party and talked
transportation facilities for two days.
The committee was prepared by it's
own experience and previous observa-
ton and advice to recognize the force
of the argument so strongly presented
here and I look for strong recon-
mendations in their report in favor Of
effective aids to transportation in
Alaska by the general government. No
doubt the people of Alaska would be
willing not only to see the surplus
of the Alaskan revenues converted
into a road fund, but to contribute
even more in the form of a poll tax if
necessary. Judge Wickersha1n. of the
central district, believes that such a
tax would not be seriously objected to
with full assurance that the money
would be wisely expended.
yUnquestionably transportation Is
the key to Alaska's fabulous wealth.
Without it little progress can be
made; with it supplies will be cheap
ened, machinery may be taken in and
| the cost of production so reduced that
tens of thousands of acres Of gravel
not now workable at a profit, will be-
gin to pour a golden stream into the
channels of trade and commerce. 1t
! is a. business proposition, but it is
big one and one in which the govern
ment, from the nature of the case,
must at least make the beginning.
The climate of Valdez is very nildi
the harbor is open all winter, but
there is very heavy rain and snowfall
here, the latter piling up in the middle
of winter to six or seven feet after
it is settled. Valdez is connected by
government telegraph by way of Eagle
with Dawson, from which a Canadian
live FL Ash I,4
Pacific. Prince William sound pene-
trates into the mainland farther than
any other inlet open all the year ON
the south shore and for that reason is
a favorable point from which to init
ate any kind Of transportation system
into the interior. It is $50 miles from
Skagway to Eagle by the White Pass
route and only 400 miles from Valdez
by the proposed route.
! j. S. McLair.