Arizona republican., 1910-11-28
GREAT NEED
 OF ALASKA Opening of Coa|iIe|ds of
 Territory
SUSPENSION OF INDUSTRY
While the Interests of Pos terity Are Being Looked After Alaska Imported More Than Half Million Tons of Coal Last Year.

Washington, Nov. 27.-Expressing it
 as his opinion that the want of cheap
 fuel and the delay in opening the Alas
 ka coal fields are the strongest fac
 tors in the present problem of territor- ial progress. Walter F.. CIar!- of Alaska
 in his annual report to the secretary of the interior made public today. declares
 that the ill-advised policy of forbid
 ding all development of the large coal
 resources of Alaska, or of placing such
 restrictions upon development as to
 make the embarkation Of private capi-
 tai impossible. is to be deprecated. while
 the policy of conservation by proper use
 is to be encouraged.
 This coal" he says. ''is needed for
 the industries of the territory and for
 the physical comfort of our people, and
 on no account should it be held from
 those uses"
 The present impossibility of mining
 coal, either under title or lease, he ex- plains, is in a measure responsible for
 the suspension Of one of the principal railroads. This has caused a general feeling of Encouragement over the bus
 mess situation in those parts of Alaska where development and settlement ought be going on most rapidly
 Governor Clark says that it appeared in public discussions of the subject that the opposition to opening the Alaska coal fields springs chiefly from two sources-thOse persons who fear monopoly and those who would have this coal held as a reserve supply for the future" He further says that while the present coal land law is not a good one, it certainly lends no hope to mo- nopolists, but rather is calculated to discourage the authorization of capital"
 In declaring his hope fo- the adop- ton of the leasing system to develop these lands, Governor Clark says: Tt will be found quite feasible. according | to the best authorities, to devise suita- | ble terms for leases, protecting both the | public and the operators and insuring | intelligent conservation"
 The governor says that the view of | the extremist that all the Alaskan coal | should be kept as a reserve supply has | nothing to commend it. A conservative estimate, he says, made by Alfred H. Brooks of the, geological survey. shows l that at the present rate of consumption the marketable Alaska coal would last five or six thousand years. At the end ' of that period" he continues. "posterity may be using solar energy or some oth- er means other than coal for light, heat md power"
 Little progress has been made in rail- 'oad building in the northwest territory turing the past year. it is asserted. The officers Of the Alaska Northern railway. which will tap the Mantanuska coll fields, declare that the principal factor n preventing a continuation of con- truction is the unsettled state of the oal land question and the inability of my citizen to obtain title or lease to hose lands.
 Governor Clark recommends govern nent aid for the railroads in the form f guarantee of interest on their onds. He declares that the opening f new wagon roads and trails. with | he accompanying lower freight rates n supplies, has enabled mining to be arried on in districts which either ould not have been opened at all or iould have offered only a precarious I pportunity to the miner.
 The governor recommends that under 8 he present conditions of fuel supply in c laska and until the territory reaches a ] lore advanced stage of development | ne government should make no charge I n the cutting of firewood.
 It is also recommended that large O ortions. if not all, of the Chugach na- I onal forest be restored to the public t Omain, as many thousand acres of this c are almost treeless, and the h Dnditions are such as to render any b easures for the conservation of water a bsurdly unnecessary. Agricultural p Dportunities in the territory. declares b le governor, are no longer in doubt f Certain changes in the mining laws u 'e recommended. These are said to scourage speculation among non- res- tl ent claimants who give power of at u rney to some person in the territory Ii Signal corps men who have charge of D Ie telegraph system in Alaska are e by the governor. They en- il Ire great hardships in the mainte- Ii ince of some of the lines and are ito h commended for their brave efforts il hich result in keeping the lines open r, ith remarkably few interruptions" o
 replaced in a few years unless rge improvement in wireless com takes place"
 The visit of Attorney General Wick tt sham and Secretary of Commerce and Ri ,bor Nagle to Alaska in July and Au- pi