The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-07-04
advertiser Correspondence, Copyright
by Frederic J. Haskin)


| Forty-one years ago the formal trans
fer of the district of Alaska from the
Car of Russia to the government Of
| the United States was completed Will
liam H. Seward, Secretary of State
for his country when he bargained and
paid $7,200,0 900 gold for Alaska. Nearl,
everybody else believed that Mr. Sew
ard had simply thrown away thai
much money, that Alaska was nothing
but a waste of ice and could never
amount to anything. Just before his
death Mr.. Seward declared that the
greatest accomplishment of his very
active public life was the annexation
of Alaska. Then he added "but it will
take the country a generation to find
out Alaska's value
The generation of Seward is a gener-
alton OF the past, and the country to-
day is beginning to realize that his
predictions are fulfilled. The Portland
Exposition three years ago taught the
people a great deal about Alaska. The
Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition at
Seattle next summer will teach them
much more. Meanwhile Alaska is push
ing forward in its development with
out pausing to heed the voice of pes
simism.
Sixty years ago the North American
coast of the Pacific Ocean whispered
not the slightest promise of its 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 Amer
leans
Miners sought for gold with pick and
shovel which came from the FORCES OF
Sitka, the capital of Russian America
and the metropolis of the Pacific. Few
remember that the first steamships
which plowed the waters of the great
est. of oceans We're launched from Sitka
made clothing and Alaskan-cut
lumber were used by the San Fran
cisco pioneers.
The story of Oregon and California
is an unbroken tale of triumphs. Alas
ka is triumphant now, but there is
tragedy in its past. To begin at the
beginning, the peninsula of Alaska was
discovered in 1928 by Vitus Boring, a
Danish navigator in the service of the
Russian government He gave his
name to the sea and straits which
separate America from Asia, and
claimed the country for the Russian
crown. A few years later band Of
Russian Adventures undertook to set
tie the land. They so cruelty maltreat-
ed the natives that massacre was
provoked, which the Russians fright
fully avenged. Thus the Russian
dominion in America was builded on a
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 COM
mercial city. Shipyards and factories
were built, a transpaciic commerce
was established and for years thirty
ing trade was carried on Ruthless
destruction of fur bearing animals, the
of the natives, the
growing Importance Of the cities on
the Pacific Coast of the United States.
the waste of capital in developing use
less coal mines, and the gathering of
coal for which there was no market
all these things contributed to the de-
cline of the Russian trade. Finally
the time came when all the great Rus
sian capitalists withdrew and Sitka de-
generated into a fishing village It's
very name was almost forgotten. and
the world abandoned it TO the letters
Of ice which the world imagined
bound it.
Thus it happened that the country
believed Mr.. seward had been cheated
when he bought Alaska from Russia.
It was declared that the sale of the
district was only a trick which enabled
Mr.. Seward to give Russia 1920, coo in
return for assistance offered by Rus
STA TO the Lincoln administration dur
ng the Civil War. Statesmen declared
that it would never return the pur-
chase price in contributing to the
American trade.
Forty-one years have passed More
han the amount paid to Russia is
yielded each year from Alaskan fish