Los Angeles herald., 1908-06-21

FOrllanu exposition three years ago
taught the people great deal about
Alaska. The Alaska a-Yukon-Pacific ex-
position at Seattle. next summer will
teach them. much more. Meanwhile
Alaska is pushing forward In its de-
velopment without pausing to heed the
voice of pessimism.
Sixty years ago the North American
coast of the Pacific ocean whispered
not the slightest promise of it's present
day splendor. The Oregon country was
attracting settlers, now that American
ownership had been made certain and
the California territory was passing
from Mexican to American control.
Gold had just been found In California
and the great rush to the golden west
was beginning. The romantic story of
those sixty years which have produced
the great states of Oregon, California
and Washington is known to all Ameri-
cans.
But few remember that the forty
miners" sought for gold with pick and
Sitka, the capit ! of Russian America
and the metropolis OF the Pacific. Few
remember that the first steamships
which plowed the waters Of the greatest
of oceans were launched from Sitka
shipyards.. Few remember that Alas
kan-made clothing and Alaskan-cut
lumber were used by the San Francisco
pioneers.
The story of Oregon and California is
an unbroken tale of triumphs Alaska
Is triumphant now, but there Is tragedy
in It's past. To begin at the beginning.
the peninsula of Alaska was discovered
in 1928 by Vitus Bering, Danish navi-
gator in the service of the Russian
arak a h ID ~ I,1
sea and straits which separate America
from Asia, and claimed the country for
the Russian crown. A few years later
a band of Russian adventurers UNDER
took to settle the land. They so cruelty
maltreating the natives that a massacre
was provoked, which the Russians
frightfuily avenged. Thus the Russian
dominion In America was builded on a
foundation of cruelty.
The Russian government began to
pay serious attention to Alaska in the
early part of the nineteenth century
and set about making Sitka a CONNER
cial city. Shipyards and factories-we
built, a trans-Pacific commerce was
established and for years a thriving
trade was carried on. Ruthless de-
struction of fur-bearing animals, the
maltreatment of the natives. the grow
ing Importance of the cities on the
Pacific coast of the United States. the
waste of capital in developing useless
coal mines and the gathering of coal
for which there was no market-all
these things contributed to the decline
of the Russian trade. Finally the time
came when all the great Russian capi-
talists withdrew and Sitka degenerated
into a fishing village. It's very name
was almost forgotten. and the world
abandoned it to the fetters of ice which
the world imagined bound 1t.
Thus it happened that the country
believed Mr.. Seward had been cheated
when he bought Alaska from Russia.
1t was declared that the sale of the
district was only a trick which enabled
Mr.. Seward to give Russia H,200.000 in
return for assistance offered by Russia
to the Lincoln administration during
the Civil War. Statesmen declared that
1t would never return the purchase
price in contributing to the American
trade.
Forty-one years have passed. More
than the amount paid to Russia Is
yielded each year from Alaskan fish
cries. In the last decade Alaskan gold
mines have produced more than $780,
coo, 900 worth Of gold and the production
Is continuing. To this is now being
added the produce of coal mines and
oil fields. the Importance of which is
increasing rapidly
The present population of the terri
tory is about 10000, of which $4,000 are
white men and the rest natives. With
such sparse population and with
sucn a comparatively small develop
mani of natural resources the trade be-