The Alaska citizen., 1911-09-04

railroad sold twenty dollars acre. and if
it lay than fifteen miles from railroad
sold at ten dollars an acre. AS all the coal lands
in Alaska that time lay than thousand
miles any railroad. seemed fair that the
price of the land should be fixed the lowest
price that prevailed in the Western that is.
dollars the
Now. magazine writer's and that ought
know better. constantly speak of the Alaska coal
lands being worth billions of dollars. They work
out this vast valuation by trying to guess at how
much coal there may be under given acre. and
multiplying the number Of tons by the price that a
ton OF coal is worth in Pennsylvania or other great
coal markets. 1t results in showing valuation of
five thousand dollars the acre. This valuation
is grotesquely absurd. For instance, it is a com
mon thing TO pick up newspaper and read that
Jones. Smith and Brown, and long list of others
have been indicted for trying to buy coal lands in
Aaska-that the land contains many of
coal, say fifty million tons worth fifty a
ton S25.000.000 Now that is intended to make
the public think that the lands are enormously
valuable, and that the indictments important
efforts on the part of the government to the
vast riches of the people. But the lands are not
by any means worth any such sum, even if the
quantities of coal are really there
know of of coal land recently offered
for sale in New York, containing sixty thousand
OF
in Eastern Tennessee. with three railroads built
across it. with mines open upon it. with fine
crop Of hardwood timber the surface. all within
hauling distance of forty million people. and the
price at which it offered dollars an
acre. venture to say. though | do know of
a specific instance, that coal lands in this
can be bought at ten dollars from private
owners at this date. | do know. however of a coal
mine having been sold i'll this and within fifty
miles OF this City. within three years. with railroads
and bunkers built. at hundred dollars an acre:
and this is not wild land, but open coal mine
The report OF the United States Geological Sur
vey shows thai in every coal field in the United
States coal lands can be purchased at dollars
an acre from private owners. The presidents St
Paul speech quotes this, and it is undoubtedly
true.
Now, the coal lands in Alaska should be compar-
ed in value with the lowest priced lands in the
United States. because they are remote from mar
kets and have transportation. | venture to as
sert here that, instead of the coal lands being
worth billions of dollars, they are not worth ten
dollars an acre. II is only a fair price it is
high price. To say that the coal buried under
the frozen ground in Alaska is worth fifty cents
the ton it lies is ridiculous as it is to say
that the glaciers that hundreds of square
miles OF the surface, and contain untold billions
of tons of ice, is worth fifty a ton, because
ice delivered in New York is worth three dollars
a ton. You might we'll calculate an acre of
wheat land that would produce thirty bushels to
the acre and would continue to produce it under
careful cultivation for thousand years making
in the aggregate thirty thousand bushels of wheat
from one acre at 10 bushel profit and con-
clude. therefore, that the land is worth three
thousand dollars the acre. Now, these figures may
be absolutely true-in fact the land will produce
for two thousand years and more at the same an
nual proft-and yet you can buy that wheat land in
Eastern Washington for thirty dollars an acre
city lot that will rent for five thousand dollars
a year, and do it for thousand years to come
is not therefore worth five million dollars. 1t will
produce that much in thousand years without
doubt, but its present value is only about hundred
thousand dollars. When you read in the magazines
and the newspapers that somebody has been in
dicted for trying rob the government of mil
lion dollars worth of coal land in Alaska, just
bear in mind how their figures are worked out
Now, that the act of 1904 carefully drawn