The Ketchikan miner., 1908-09-19

pIONlue DeFe Wndb tHcs icoNo eo Soo' This means merging the North with the South, and creating rapid inter- communication, common interests and advantages, and low cost of northern living and adding all outside advan- tapes to the charm ot the greater northern profits and the lure which makes all who have been North desirc to remain here despite the expediei call which to their regret now take them away.
 The basic detriment to those will ing to remain and invest IS the higt cost of occupation. To work placels, minerals and other resources of 10" grade as we'll as high is the conditior necessary to get a maximum develop ment, and to do it at maximum ex- pense calls for the low plane of costs. The low basis need not mean a level of miserable Oriental existence, but something near the cost elsewhere on this continent.
 In hopes to overcome the high rates of living the consumer first turns to
 the merchant for lower prices. The
 merchant, especially he of the interior Alaska Yukon, turns to the railway
 and steamship lines, saying that they
 set the.pace abetted by the isolated condition; so the merchant maintains
 th at he cannot under present condi- tions reduce charges and meet high freight rates. He further has to buy twelve months stock at one time, make but one turnover year, and thus invest several times the sum ne-
 cessary to do the same volume of busi-
 ness annually as done in countries
 where the base of supplies is access ible at all times and turn-overs made
 sev eral times yearly. The larger in- vestment bears more interest on stor- | ed stock and more insurance; and the longer seasons means more time to suffer deterioration on the long-held
 stock and inability to keep abreast of the general fluctuations in the world $ markets. Thus, if the consumer can not sustain the merchants charges he planes nature for being too poor Tor others for wanting too much, and
 quits the country. And there's the | rub.
 The mountains which contain much
 of the mineral wealth, and supply vast | power and timber and coal resources. also make the barriers which today | render interior Alaska Y ukon difficult 1 of access. The 5000 miles of inland | waterways of the domain are navi- gable from outside connections only four months year. These draw | backs are attributable to natural causes, arbitrary and to be surmounted | only by vast works. The solution
 must be railways gridironoing the
 country to all rich interior points, Based on riches of resource, trans
 portation and population are insepar- | ble needs in opening the country,
 The only exception regarding the
 neeu of population must be where a | government will build a rtal across
 region for military purposes or with
 out thought of the line being made to
 sustain itself at any period.
 Without population the volume Of | traffc in and out of the country will
 not be large enough for the roads to | ford to reduce their tariffs to the 1 level of the lowest cost of occupation. At least this is the excuse today for
 the few pioneer railways. Their
 tariffs have been sufficiently low for the miner to skim the high grade gold of the placer fields. If the tariffs were lower today. so that the individual operator cot d touch the lower grade placers, many more men would be
 working the auriferous gravel: and
 quartz of low grade, of which there l is abundance, would much sooner be- come productive. The answer of the
 railways, regardless of the--fact claim ed that they have made enormous
 profits, is that they have had iDsuffi-
 cient tonnage to warrant them operat- ing the year around with full trains, and at the same time they keep up
 full years service, and the road beds in good repair all the time, and no diminution of staff. Their demand before reduction of tariffs is more
 business. If present population and industreis cannot supply it, strong
 effort is needed to open every avail
 able resource, particularly quartz,
 which will sustain large population
 to supply exports and demand imports
 in large quantities at all times.
 Two methods of providing railways
 for Alaska Y ukon present themselves as means of supplying the extensive
 systems to provide vehicles of inex-
 pensive occupation. One is the con struction of lines from the seaboard. This would involve the development
 ot the region as detached domain,
 embracing all west of the one hundred
 and thirtysecond meridian, marked
 by the back bone of the Rockies Out CT world connections then would be hy