The Ketchikan mining news., 1907-03-01
OCTOPUS AFTER ALASKA.

OCTOPUS AFTER ALASKA. Under the above caption we find the following, purporting to be a Wash ington telegraphic dispatch to the Associated press going the rounds oi the Eastern papers:
 Advocates of autonomy for flask a
 intend to urge in support of theil appeal to congress the reason that only by self-government can that lorthernmost and fertile territory be saved from the clutches of trust, one of whose members-Simon Gug- genheim been elected United States senator from the state oi Colorado. Already the shelter trust of which Daniel, Murray. Isaac ana Simon Guggenheim are the moving | factors, is said to have placed its ,rasping hand on the fruitful soil oi Alaska in which lie buried millions in mineral. The trust is charged with menacing freedom of competi- tion. It has firm friend and supporter in the financial interests that center about .J. Pierpont Mor- gan. The prize of which this gigantic monopoly is seeking to obtain eXclu- ,ive possession is declared by geo. logical. experts to be the greatest un- developed copper field in the country md an area rich in coal and other peposits. That the largest shelter il North America will some day be located in this region is the statement of those familiar with conditions il | Alaska. Whether its owners are tt be absolute despots in the control oi this valuable tract or are to be com pelled to engage in business as the competitors of independent companie. is question about which the citizens of Alaska are dee ply concerned.
 The area coveted by the Guggen. helms and their partners in the shelter trust is the Copper Valley, running 300 miles north and soutl
 md POO east and west: the Chitina copper belt, which stretches fifty miles from east to west, with a breadth of ten to twenty miles: tho Catella coal fields, twenty miles square the petroleum belt. which skirts the coast from Catella westward to Yukatat for q distance of thirt, | miles and breadth of from five to ter miles, and the Matanuska deposit. II the Matanuska district is the only known occurrence on the Pacific coast of anthracite deposits, and the coal
 is declared to be as good as the pro- duct of the anthracite fields oi Pennsylvania.
 The attention of the Guggenheims was first attracted to this region b, reports made by officials of the United States geological survey as to the extent and richness of the copper ore. | The smelter-trust magnates, ever ready to look into matters that give promise of an opportunity for an ex- tension of its vast operations, sent its own experts to the scene, and theil reports were of such glowing char acter that the directors. of the com bination were not inclined to give credence to them. Other experts. men in whom the fullest reliance was placed, were ordered to the district, and they not only confirmed the most optimistic estimates of previous in- vestigators, but even went farther and were more emphatic in their dec larations as to the resources of the soil. Their reports indicated that nature was playing into the hands ot the Guggenheim family, for it was said that much of the semi-anthracite and bituminous coal deposits were admirably adapted for smelting pur- poses.
 With those conclusions in hand, the Guggenheims made their first move in the game of monopolization. Quietly they secured all the options possible from placer miners who had gone into the district when the stam- pede of 1898 came on. Some of the miners, pinched for money for the time, were glad to sell out, while others refused to dispose of their belongings. The reluctance of the latter class did not cause the Guggen- helms much concern, for experience had shown them how to proceed in such situation.
 The next step of the shelter trust was to find an outlet for their product when once their shelter was in opera tion. They also appreciated that the possession of millions of dollars worth of coal is of little real value so long as you have not the facilities for trans portating it to the market. Nor were the Guggenheims unmindful of the fact that if they controlled these facilities another reason would be furnished to the independent holders of the copper and coal lands why they should sell out to the trust, which