Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1911-05-05

ering thousands of feet into the air.
On the one side where the ground is
level it is composed of tidal marshes,
intersected every few hundred yards
by deep lagoons and tidal creeks. and
impossible by troops.
Now Orca Inlet is the tidewater
terminus of the Copper River and
North Western railroad-one of the
Morgan-Guggenhe properties. This
road is building now into the copper
territory. but spur only 80 miles
long has been surveyed into the Ka-
ITALIA coal fields, where, as the latest
report Of the Geographical Survey
shows. there are close upon 50,000.00O
tons of coal Of varying quality in sight
AS yet not an ounce Of this coal Is
permitted to be mined under the
much vaunted conservation laws, and
the railroad is run, and for that mat
ter the industries of Alaska get their
power from imported coal-much OF 1t
coming from the hated Japan and
even from China 1t must be rather
maddening to get fuel from mines hVe
thousand miles away when you could
take pick and shovel out back OF
the barn and get enough coal in day
to run the house a week. It must
add little to the cost of railrOadlng
to have to pay 81 or So a ton for
Japanese coal, when there is plenty
along the right of way that can be
mined for So a ton!
Chance for Foreign Foe.
Yet it was not of Alaska coal that
l was about to speak for the moment,
nor yet of the eccentricities and im-
becilities of the conservation laws
that make the hapless Alaskan send to
Japan or Australia for the fuel that is
bedded thick in his own yard What
is beginning to interest the Pacific
coast is the invitation which this
Orca Inlet offers to foreign foe seek
ing a foothold on our coast
California-and Hobson-have been
worrying sorely for many long months
lest the Japs seize Honolulu and make
it the base for a descent upon our
Pacific coast. Latterly, since Taft
began playing horse with Mexico,
dread has been expressed lest the en-
terprising little men of Nippon might
seize some Mexican port like Magda-
lena Bay and make it the arsenal from
which to dispatch their fleets against
placid Pasadena or thriving San Fran
cisco. Now of sudden the danger
point is shifted far to the north; to
Alaska, the part of which in our
scheme of national defense has hardly
yet been debated.
But it is debatable. Here is this in
let Of Orca Seventy-two feet of water
is shown On the government by hydro
graphic maps. In one respect it is an
American Port Arthur for it's narrow
entrance makes it impregnable to ma
val attack from the sea. But it is
ways because the towering mountains
and the tidal marshes that hem it in
make any attack from the landward
side utterly impracticable. If the
United States were entrenched there
no power could dislodge us. But we
are not entrenched. There is no fort,
no gun, no soldier, no ship of war for
town of Cordova
Suppose an enemy with a fleet on
the Pacific should determine to attack
the United States on its own coasts
We have always looked On Hawaii as
the first point of attack and have forti-
fed it heavily in anticipation of that
event But Hawaii has nothing to of
fer the captor except charming eli
mate, plenty of tropical fruit and a
foothold on land. Napoleon once said
that an army travels On it's belly. If
nobody has said that battleships travel
on their coal bunkers it is time to say
1t now. A japanese feet-for exam
ple-steaming across the Pacific to
our coast would be helpless for lack
Of coal on its arrival. Of course it
would bring a feet of GOLFERS from
which to refill it's bunkers, but that
auxiliary feet, being necessarily slow
and without means of self defense
would be a source of weakness, a flaw
in the perfect war machine.
ImpregnabIe to Attack.
But suppose, instead of bothering
with Hawaii the Asiatic foe, Chinese,
Japanese, Russian, what you will,
should sail direct for Orca inlet
Once inside it's unfortified entrance
two battleships could hold it against
the world. There could be no attack
by land. Ten days would suffice to
complete the railroad into the ex-
haustless coal fields The problem of
bringing coal across the 5000 miles of
OF tossing Pacific, each fleet of col
Hers needing battleship squadron for
defense, would be solved in an in
slant. Six hundred miles nearer San
francisco than is Honolulu within
easy striking distance, 1000 miles,
OF Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and 9TH
er Puget Sound points this land lock-
ed harbor, never blocked by ice, would
be the ideal base for offensive opera
tons against our coasts.
And as | have said before not