The Chitina leader., 1911-11-11
WANTS ALASKA TO ENRICH THE NATION.

Under the caption Ills Alaska to Lyef William E. Smythe the United Press representative who accompanied Secretary of Interior Fisher his recent trip Alaska contributes illustrated article to the Cleveland Press which he many truths but in yelled way advocates ownership and operation of the of this territory Here is the way he describes conditions:
 Most emphatically is Alaska fit country live in As matter of fact reduced to primitive conditions could get hood easier there than anywhere ee because of the abundance of fish and game
 At least 1OO0OOOO people living in Europe under agriculture and fisheries Doubtless the will be the in Alaska at some future time.
 It not be inferred that Alaska yet ready to ceive the monsar from it. It has the but they undeveoped It has the promise of agriculture but
 is yet experimental It has the potenalty of thriving towns dof two great cities but they remain to be awakened into life
 Remember Alaska is only about dozen years old as reality of the American frontier Before the sensational go6 discoveries the Yukon known only for it's seal and salmon and for two quartz gold mines
 Moreover the politics of the last two national admins traons have been distinctly dscouragng to development Time will show the wisdom and necessity of these policies but that they operated temporary drawback the develop ment of the country cannot be denied.
 Is Alaska fit for to live in? Or is 1t simply iceberg embroidered with gold nuggets!
 Alaska lies mostly north of degrees So does Denmark Norway Sweden, Finland and half of Russia
 All these countries of heavy rainfall, of long, cold winters of long days in and short dark days in the winter. So is Alaska
 The northern portion of all those except Den mark the midnight in summer and almost all in winter So aso does the most northery portion of Alaska.
  stupendous and hence of widely varying climatic tions but that there other considerations that throw much of it we'll within the north temperate
 Alaska stretches west much north There points Alaska that than half to the Orient from San Francisco
 Alaska also reaches an atenuated arm away down the coast cutting off great portions of British Columbia from the the country lies actually further north than you have probably imagined Finally the Japanese current laps the for 1000 miles and greatly modes the cold The heavy rainfall and long summers enhance the growth of vegetation.
 If six years ago the coal fields had handed the claimants, and if they had promptly sold them to the millionaire operators there would have been railroads coal bunkers sps meers and booming towns where such things not.
 There would have been hard-andfast monopoly of fuel supply and transportation and budding coal industry cruel to labor that too Buhere would have been development
 The point is that the country yet ready receive and sustain large influx of population but for fault o its
 The time coming when the call of Alaska will be heard throughout the country and the world and young gifted with pluck ambition stout heart and sturdy legs and the legs Many family of hard working farmers will there and acquire property of value and lay solid foundations of perity.
 But the time is not yet.
 The point should be driven hard in order that one shall be msed would be easy to get stampede to Alaska It would be infinitely cruel to do in advance conditions which remain to be created by wise arreachg public policies.
 Today Alaska neither the rich mans the poor mans the rich because the nation has closed the door land grabbing far it possible do under aws not the mans because this land of anc dimensions calls for the expenditure of capital to prepare the way for development.
 Whose opportunity then7
 The nations!
 The same power that cutting isthmus open this wilderness to the labor and the enterprise of thousands that shall yield them abundant reward and at the time enrich the nation itself.
 The Connecticut who can't enough better off than whole lot of who can't get enough to eat
 The Italian aeropane instead of soaring the Arabs and hnllets nnsshY thought