The Ketchikan mining news., 1907-02-08
ular home government for Alaska vii

ular home government for Alaska will not down until it is finally so settled. s,-The Wrangell Sentinel says the claim that territorial government would be too expensive is "a coward $ plea." Yes, well there are luxuries as we'll as comforts that are sometimes found too expensive for those who would like to have them: but the anti territorialists have yet to show where in home rule. would be more expensive than the long distance government Alaskans now have. It is not a plea merely whim, like unto that of the hound who licks the hand of the mas ter who beats him.
 Delegate Waskeys bill providing for the removal of the $100 per mile tax on railroads in Alaska has been reported on favorably by the commit tee on the territories. In that con- nection Washington correspondent says that the removal of this tax will be an impeachment to any other pro- posed assistance to Alaska railroads from the government, Well, Alaska can afford to be thankful for even small favors. If congress will not assist in building railroads in Alaska we should be thankful to that body if it will refrain from taxing those built by private enternrise, al least until they begin to earn something for their owners,
 Another adventuresome chap pro- poses to reach the North pole by the yet to be discovered balloon route. He is Milwaukee man, whe probably wont be satisfied till he joins Andree, the man who tried the same route some years ago and never came back.
 And now that he has been re- elected Senator Mr. Joseph w. Bailey, of Texas, is accused of having employed the most corrupt and inn moral means to accomplish the result It isn't safe, however, to believe all you read in the partisan papers, espe- cially those of the yellow persuasion The mere fact of such charges being made against him will, however, be a shock to the gallery gods and goddesses to whom Joseph has heen wont to pose, first in the House and after wards in the Senate for the past dozen years or more,
 A Juneau paper, in the beginning of leading editorial very lucidly says ;-"The forecast of 1907, on the whole, is to be deplored on account of the approach of Mars to our earth the astronomical occurring once in every revolution, notably it's greatest occurrences are during the intersec- . tion of the earth between the sun and Mars, recurring every fifteen years this to planet, at this period, is said to be. in it's peregee of evil tendency" " Why, and if not why, wherefore? ---The Skagway Daily Alaskan ent- cred upon the tenth year of it's exist ence on the lst inst. It has always been wonder how it's publishers were able to furnish its readers so good a paper, but it's editor gives the expla- nation in it's own words 1.-The Daily Alaskan would not be alive to boast of this record if it had not received the generous support of Skagway men and women-Skagway men and women, the most enterprising, the truest. the < best IlB1pie N. g asisa or any other country 6ol less theml Likewise, if the Daily .skan had not striven to be square a.t the people, to give them as good q newspaper as its reve- nues would perfsft, to support truth and justice as iss,saw them, it would not be dancing 3n the graves of its former contemporaries today All of which is to 1he point--a record of the survival ot7the fittest'' not only but a just trilqte to a people whose faith in the future of their town is worthy of all praise and commenda- tion. .
 The report of the chief of bureau of statistics, department of commerce and labor, for the month of Novem- Der, 1906, shows the commerce be- tween the United States and its non- contiguous territories for that and-the preceding ten months to have been as follows:
 AdWdll. ....t+. pfO, OJo, zOf rofJo tlcQ. ......tf......... DO, |oo, o5o Philippine Islands. .15, 7S5, 323 Alaska, including gold. ... .42, SS4, 949 ...On the other hand the report of the Collector of Alaska, for the entire year 1906, places the total of domestic commerce between the States and Alaska at s49, 4D7. .227, while the for eign shipments t5 and from Alaska were $2, 053, l07-making a grand total of $51, 46o, 334, and showing that the commerce of Alaska leads that of the next highest non-contiguous possession by not far from ten millions.
 The first issue of the Ketchikan l Il