The Ketchikan mining news., 1907-02-22

Gne leglSldtufe WouIu, do III oohci territories, be provided by congress. Of course there would be other ex- penses which the territory would have to pay. There would necessarily have to be some territorial officials, to be appointed by the governor, "by and with the advice and consent" of the territorial council (senate) and to whom salaries would have to be paid. Gan the young gentleman of the Record Miner tell his readers how many such officials would be necessary, and in addition to their salaries what other expenses there would be sufficient to make taxation burden some? Would it necessarily amount to as much, or even half as much, annually, as comparatively few are now paying for being governed from Washington? Until he elects to give his readers an estimate in that regard supported by something in the way of facts and figures, a modest stiffness and humility would be more to his credit.
 It does not seem possible that the young gentleman can everr have even casually. inquired into the history of the territories heretofore organized by act of congress otherwise he would have hesitated long before putting in cold print statements so utterly at variance with that which history records, and which displays either a most lamentable degree of ignorance or else still more lamentable disre- gard for the truth on his part. The truth is that, with two exceptions, not one of the territories had at the time of their organization, a fraction of the developed resources of which Alaska truthfully boasts today; not one of them population as large and intelligent, nor had any one of them with the two exceptions noted, as ad- eouate means of communication and travel. Not one of them had single mile of rail or telegraph line, and some were even without wagon roads. All were practically without devel- oped resources. and in two of them, at least there were not half dozen owners of real estate. The Dakotas when organized as territory had a population of less than 1000 people the whole of it's great expanse was a treeless, trackless prairie waste, with out permanent homes, without known resources of any kind, and that there were no individual titles to lands may be inferred from the fact that no sur. veys had been made, and that it was not till ten years later that the first Hand office was established in the yer ritory. Except that furnished by the ever shifting Missouri river, there were no means of travel and commun ication, and the territorial capital was more remote from the northern anC western boundaries of the territory than is Juneau from the remote sec. tions of Alaska, both as to time ant distance.
 The young gentleman can find sim. liar cases in the history of almost every territory at the time of its or ganization-Michigan, with capital al Detroit, and it's territory embracing all the present states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, botE the Dakotas, and part of Nebraska and Montana, Wisconsin, covering all the territory named except Michi- gan, with her first capital at Burlington, Iowa, Oregon, without railroads, telegraph and six months section of country half as large ot Alaska, its two parts separated by a practically impossible range of noun tains- Washington: but then he will find all the objections he raises against territorial government in Alaska to have prevailed in larger degree in all the new territories, with the exception of Oklahoma and Hawaii only.
 The young gentleman must find some more plausible argument than physical impracticability, and alleged burdensome taxation, before he can hope to succeed in convincing the people that Alaskans are not in all re- poets prepard to take upon themselves the duties and responsibilities of self government.
 KoTTS ANrn <,NAdNET,NrUy