The Alaska prospector., 1908-08-06
ALASKA A COUNTRY
 0F RARE PROMISE
Valdez Resident Says it Will Attain First Place as Gold
 Producer this Year
From Paris Edition, New York Herald

From Paris Edition, New York Herald
 "Alaska in the coming country" So says Mir. Samuel Blum, of Valdez, who has been in Paris for few weeks. In the course of long and interest ing chat with the Herald correspond ent MT. Blum predicted a brilliant future for his country. He said:-
 '"rhis year Alaska will attain the first rank of the gold-producing States of America. New gold properties are found every year. Last year in the Susitna valley an enormously rich property was discovered, giving as high as $5 to the pan. Other pros- poets have been found still richer. In the matter of copper also Alaska is forging ahead, and at no distant date 1t will be the greatest copper-produc- ing State in America. A new syndi- cate, in which MT. J. P. Morgan and the Guggenheims are largely inter- ested, is building railway from the southwest coast of Alaska to what is undoubtedly the most wonderful cop per property in the world in so far as the value of the ore which is exposed on the surface is concerned. Experts who have been there estimate that, at the lowest calculation, there is $2O, ,O00, ,O0O worth of rich, high-grade copper ore, principally glance and 'bornite.' There are hundreds of other copper prospects, some of them excellent, which the railway will develop.
 "Alaska's trade with the rest of the United States last year amounted to $50, ,000,O And to think that the United States Government purchased the country in 1867 for $7,2OO, ,OOO! This trade is larger than that of the Philippines with the United States, which paid $20, ,OOO, ,0OO for the islands The prosperity of Alaska, not only in minerals, but in many other indus tries, is increasing by leaps and bounds. Take the fishing industry, for instance. Alaska produced last year B, ,OO0, ,0OO worth of fish, includ- ing the salmon exported to England and Japan. The population is still small-30, ,O00 to 35 ,00O inhabitants in a country containing sOO,OOO square miles. There is you see, plenty of room for immigration. Hardy peo- pie from Northern Europe, Scandina- via for example, whose climate is .,sx .Inx lo I,t x>c been very successful out there. They are lending valuable aid in develop ing the agricultural resources of the country. But we want more of them. There is Q good home for millions in Alaska. Three hundred and twenty acres of land can be acquired by any one for the asking, and very good living can be made at once from the natural resources of the country, by trapping, fishing, hunting or dairy making, There are five valleys all through Alaska where grass grows without cultivation to the height of mans head. A good deal of the land is capable of cultivation. Most of the provisions, such as vegetables and meat, are at present. sent into the country from the United States, so there is vast field open to the energy of healthy settlers from Europe.
 "Then there are wonderful deposits of coal, so ne of it of q very high grade. One field, within twenty miles of the southwest coast of AL aska, yields what is almost anthracite coal, and is said to be as good as the best Australian coal and hardly in- ferior to the best Welch coal, There Is no doubt that as soon as the gov ernment makes it possible to acquire these coal fields in large enough tracts to open them up they will be able to supply the whole of the better grade coal on the Pacific coast. The United States government has tested this and coal from other sections of Alaska for steamiag purposes for the United States warships, and found the quality excellent. All we need is transport facilities, and we shall get them in time. The government is already vigorously attacking the problem. The possibilities of the country are limitless."