Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1911-08-29
GIVE ALASKA A FREE HAND.

All signs point to Alaska affairs as bound
to constitute a very live issue in the regular
session Of the SiXty-second congress. 1t has been
process much that of pulling teeth to get the
federal Lawmakers to pay the slightest attention
to our farthest-nOrth possession during the forty
odd years that have elapsed since our purchase
of it from Russia. And if now it has required
IA series of sharp personal controversies in two
government departments and lot of "scan
dals both actual and imaginary-to arouse
senators and representatives to something like
an adequate sense of their duty, all this recent
muddle and muddling over Alaska and he. af-
fairs may perhaps be worth the shame Of it,
1t would be something wholly unnatural up
to the phenomenal il Senator La Toilette OF Wis
consin did not recognize in Alaska matters an
opportunity for the the early projecting of some
OF his notions to government ownership, con-
troll and operation. Some remarks by hiiu dur
ing the last session of the senate tOuahinC on
the Controller Bay controversy plainly forecast
the introduction of bill by him next winter
for the government control Of all flqskt rail
roads and coal-mining operations IT, world
ate federal board Of public works FOR tGiS
purpose, to which would be ACCORDED powt rs
similar to those now lodged III the sthmian
Canal commission. Some such course is neces-
sary," he contends in order to prevent in Alas
la "A repetition of the monopoly that has gained
control Of the anthracite coal fields of Penn
sylvania. AS the key to the whole situation is
the control Of the means of transportation, the
United States government should acquire such
control at the cost of constructing a rail
road from the coal fields to the borders of Con
troller Bay. Note the forty years struggle
against monopoly in the Pennsylvania coal fields
ending in the five months labor strike of 1902 /!
4 Al
on the lsthmus OF Panama. Congress must de-
eide which of the two systems to adopt in Alas
ka. Up to now the country has been plunging
bndly along toward a duplication of the an
thracte coal monopoly. If private corporation
owns the coal deposits, it will build railroads to
develop them. Why should not the United States
government do this itself? 1t would avoid the
temptation to discrimination rebates and cor
ruption which would result from private owner
ship of the transportation facilities
What earthly connection, it may in fairness
be asked, did the coal strike of 1902 have with
the private ownership of the PENNSYLVANIA coal
fields through half a century or more? That
strike was purely and simply controversy over
wages and conditions of employment and it
might have occurred even though the federal
government had years ago forbidden by law pri-
vate ownership of those coal lands and the
private construction and ownership of transpor-
tatlon lines. But under such prohibition could
there have been anything like the present devel-
opment OF our eastern coal fields and the superb
systems OF railroad that have grown up with
1T? Never! Private initiative, private enter
prise, private foresight and individual skill and
ability are what have built up this country
Had it all been left to the government we would
still be plodding along in the narrow paths of
hundred years ago. The Panama canal offers
no basis Of comparison at all. That enterprise
was entirely too big for handling by private
capital. 1t had to be taken in hand by the gov
eminent, or the canal would never, have been
built. Alaska however, is begging for deyelop
ment by private capital And private capital is
fairly begging to 90 in there under proper laws
and do the work. To entrust that york to the
government would be only to clog thu wheels of
Alaskan development.
We have treated that rich possession most
shamefully Let lis not add insult to injury by
insisting now that only the federal government
is fit to conduct her business