Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-08-11


Jerest In their claims; and, in any
event, our entire past Industrial his
tory gives us warrant for saying that,
II the Ryan road is built as planned,
| It will be but a matter Of time, and
probably a very, very short time, be-
| fore Ryan's road and the Guggen-
helm interest are merged into one.
1.-The state Of affairs brought to
light during the administration Of
Mr.. Ballinger showed conclusively,
| and for the first time, that we had
| to guard against monopoly in con-
nection with the development of
| Alaska, or, to speak more properly,
| the exploitation of Alaska by a great
syndicate for the sole benefit of that
syndicate. When the eliminations at
Eyak and Valdez Arm were made,
not a revelation as regards the Gug
genheim syndicate, or any other syn
dictate, had been brought to my at
tention, or, as far as l knew, or
know, to the attention of any man
| in a responsible position around me,
and the public was wholly unaware
| of the existence of any such state of
things as the Ballinger investigation
showed to exist.
whether Mr.. Garfield or any one
else had been told that the Guggen-
helms were engaged in a syndicate
to act in Alaska, I know not, for 1
never was informed, but, in any
event, It was of no possible conse-
quence, because at that time nothing
had developed to show that they had
become an exploiting syndicate tend
ing to establish a monopoly in min
ing and transportstion-asid from
the fact that it had never been sug-
gested, as it has since been proved,
that they were expecting to be the
beneflciaries of what has since been
declared to be a fraudulent trans
action. The difference between elm
ination in one case and in the other
seems to me to be sufficiently OBJ
vious.
THE enminations at Byak and
Valdez Arm have no more bearing
upon the elimination OF the Con-
troller bay tract than have the pre-
vious Examinations IN the Rocky
mountain states. In the Rocky
mountain states 1 eliminated tract
after tract of forest reservation to
ture. or the establishment of town
sites, and l refused to make what
on the surface were similar elimina-
tons when l became convinced that
they were really asked for the pur-
pose Of monopoliZing the water
power.
In the newspaper dispatch to
which l have referred it is limited
that 1 acted as I did because
thought the law, then and still in
force, sufficiently protected the pub
lie interest. Perhaps this is meant /
to be ironical. It is certain that the /
law did not sufficiently protect the |
public interest. II Is for that reason |
that, as president, I repeatedly urg-
ed that the laws pertaining TO Alaska |
be amended; as 1 still urge that they /
be amended.
In the eastern states we have |
suffered from the fact that the own
ership of the coal and the ownership /.
of the railways have been permitted |
to fall into the same hands. What |
havoc such a combination can work |
was shown when, during the anthra-
cite strike, the people Of a large sec
ton of the country were threatened |
with a winter coal famine which |
would have caused disasters as great |
as those of the civil war. The eff
fort TO remedy this state of affairs
by government action, after it had
been permitted to arise because Of
government iuaCLiOn, was necessarily !
fraught with hardship and suffering
for many innocent holders of secur-
tiles. 1t is, TO my mind, the duty of |
the United States government to pre-
vent similar condition arising in
Alaska. I do not believe in the pol
Icy of state-owned railways as a gen
eral thing, but I am quite willing to
see the Panama railroad owned and
run by the government, as it &C
tually is; and in the same way, If
difficulty occurs in connection with
what has been done in Controller
bay, / feel that 1t would be & good
thing for the United States to build
and operate the short line OF railway
with its terminals3 which would
connect the bay with the coal fields.
Then, with the coal fields given over
to private developers on a leasehold
system as simple as possible, and on
such terms as to guarantee an ample
profit to those engaged in the work
of development, the trouble in con-
nection with the Alaskan coal fields
would vanish. ! have said already
that the resources of Alaska must be
developed. I advocate with all my
heart the conditions of development
being made such as to give ample
return to those willing to undertake
the work, and, as there is an ele-
ment of hazard in the work, would
prefer to see the government err, If
at all, on the side of iberality in
making these conditions. bill in
principle such as, or at least on the
general lines OF that introduced by
Mr.. Robinson of Arkansas ought 10 I
become law
Be sure and take a bottle Of Cham