The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1908-08-15
ALASKA TERRIToRY-SooN.


m HIS is the season of the year when
one hears much of Alaska. Many
people go and come on business
and pleasure. One attraction is the
beautiful and rugged scenery, unlike
that of any other portion of the con-
tinent, while another is the possibili-
ties for attaining share in it's great
wealth of resources of forest and mine
of sea and SOIL This year the return
ing boats are bringing greater stores
of wealth than ever, and the assay Of
fees and banks are busy with her
stocks Of gold. But it is not alone the
gold output of Alaska that will in the
near future make that vast territory
one of the most prosperous of the
American possessions, for there are
other resources of even greater value.
The extent of the copper deposits is
so great that, when developed, they
will by comparison dwarf those of
the Lake Superior Arizona and Mon
tana mines, and there are also in ap-
parently unlimited quantities coal, oil,
lead and other mineral products be-
meath the surface, with immense
tracts of fine timber above it,
Gold was the magnet which first
drew American settlers to the Pacific
Coast, and in the early days of the
discoveries in California it was, of
course the one great factor in all
lines of business. But the develop
ment of other resources in later years
was so great that gold soon ceased to
hold it's position of Importance, and
other resources came to the front
Exactly the same kind of change is
beginning to take place in Alaska, and
with it will come greater Alaska
trade than gold alone could ever pro-
duce.
Alaska is also commanding public at
tention because of her efforts to Sc
cure home rule by means of a terri
torial government. This is OF equal
Importance with the admission of Ari-
IONA and New Mexico to statehood,
and will demand attention from Con
gress at the sessions to be held after
election. Congressman William Sui
ger, of New York City, has introduced
a bill to create territorial form of
government for Alaska. He has had
business interests there for nearly
quarter of century, and makes an
nual trips to Alaska. This is what
he said III Congress in regard to her
possibilities:
"Mr. Speaker, Alaska is the worlds
wonderland. No words can adequate
ly describe it. 1t is the poor mans
and the rich mans and the sports
mans paradise. The time, in my
judgment, is at hand when this vast
territory will be developed by Ameri-
can genius, American capital, and
American enterprise, and take my
word for it there will be no more pros
porous section in all this progressive
land for American Drawn and Amer
lean brain. Alaska is the place for the
new settler-for the hustler-for the
man who wants to go ahead and get
on. Alaska wants her rights; she
wants home rule; she demands terri
torial government. Alaska wants this;
Alaska must have it-Alaska with her
patriotic population; Alaska with her
invigorating climate; Alaska with her
beautiful scenery, her magnificent dis
tances, her towering snow-capped
mountains, her majestic rivers, her
fertile fields, her great industries of
fish and furs and timber; Alaska with
her immense agricultural possibilities;
Alaska with her untold wealth in gold