New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-06-26
ALASKAN RAILWAYS.
Success Of First One Has Stimulated
Projects for -Four Others.
! Editor Of The Tribune.

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: DR.. Rainor who was the army chaplain
at Sitka in 1869, used to say that he had been
marching westward for many years, from one
frontier post to another. that he had never
seen locomotive. Having finally reached Sit
ka 1t not likely that he ever would see one
Time has brought it's changes even in Alaska.
Thirty years later the miners who were climb
ing over the toilsome and dangerous White
Pass witnessed the arrival OF the first passen-
ger train connecting Skagway, on the sea, with
the White Horse Rapids, at the head of naviga
ton down the valley of the Yukon 1t was a
daring piece of engineering skill. rivalling that
which crossed the Sierra Nevada and that
which pierced the Cascade Range to reach the
Pacific The railway at once had a monopoly
of main thoroughfare of travel. and so could
charge high rates and make great profits
The success of this road has stimulated prof.
eots for at least four others that are now IN
various stages of organization. They all start
from harbors on the southern coast open all the
year round and run northward not parallel
but divergent lines. toward the valley of the
Yukon. One is to start from Valdez go up
through the Copper River country, and end at
Eagle City. on ne eastern boundary of the Ter
ritory. Another is TO begin at Resurrection Bay
and traversing the divide in the vicinity OF
Mount Mckinley. is to reach the Tanana and
from points on Cooks Inlet northwestward
toward Cape Nome and the Seward Peninsula
The companies undertaking these enterprises
seem confident that the forest. mining and agri-
cultural resources of these different regions VIII
warrant their construction and profitable opera
ton. But as Governor Brady tersey puts it:
There cannot be business for transportation
companies without people; the people will not
come until they own the land, and they can
hind
allow them" Congress. indeed. has been very
slow, not to say neglectful in regard to the ex-
tension of our national land laws to Alaska.
Yet it enacted q railroad law, four years ago,
granting rights of way. land for stations ana
terminals, and timber and stone for construc-
ton. Its readiness TO allow people to build rail-
ways there is in singular contrast to its I'M
willingness to allow people to live and own
farms there. However, a Congress commit
tee IS its way to Alaska, in accord
ance with President RooseveIt's suggestion. TO
examine and report upon affairs in the Terri
tory Doubtless the information its members
will bring back will be useful in enabling their
colleagues 10 Iegislate more wisely hereafter.
Will there ever be a connection by way Of
Behring Strait between the railway systems Of
| the Eastern and Western hemispheres?
Even so sanguine and energetic an explorer as
NJ de Windt doubts whether it is to come in our
Gay ana geneIaIlOl Engineering Sh4AI SoAl WIN
miracles nowadays but capital will not seek
channels that do not promise profit If any
such gigantic line is ever to come, it probably,
like other railway systems will only grow up
gradually by the aggregation Of the various
links of the long chain
It is a fact however and one not generally
known, that traveller can now step into car
at Forty-second-st., and be carried with ease,
safety and comparative comfort, by railway
and such steamboats, as navigate our rivers and
sounds
It will cost him time and money, but the route
exists and is in active operation during the
summer months, Transporting local freight ana
! passengers. Through freight there is none
! Through passengers are very few. comprising
chiefly government officers on duty, mission
aries, scientific explorers, and occasionally an
enterprisng tourist.
In The Tribune of last Sunday you had an ex-
celIent description of the reindeer system IN
Alaska. DR.. Sheldon Jackson. in bringing the
deer over from Siberia and arranging Tor their
douestication and breeding our soil, has per-
formed almost as benefcent a work as he dld
in establishing schools and churches throughout
j the Territory The reindeer herds Will PROVIDE
the inhabitants of the northern regions not only
with means of travel and communication OF in
telligence, but even with means OF subsistence
There were two great Transportation prop
lens TO be solved in Alaska one, IN the vast
snowy plains Of the north, has been solved py
the advent Of the reindeer. The other, in the
more genial climate of the still larger mining
and forest regions Of the south. Is now 10 De
solved by the advent Of the locomotive EFl-
IDENTIFY the time is approaching when the rail
way whistle may forever supersede the WoI
long howl on Oonalaska's shore"
FREDERICK W. SEWARD.
Montrose- on the Hudson, June .. 1905.