The daily Alaskan., 1911-12-04
AMERICAN MINING CONGRESS
 DISCUSSES ALASKAN PROBLEM


 after so purchase the lands d twenty
 dollars an Rc0s lt is a significant fact eco. that no mines are operated
 in British Columbia under the leas-
 ing system. ALI are operating upon
 srSnted lands. There is a law for
 leasing the coal lands in the Yukon
 Territory. The only attempts ever
 made Co operate under that law re
 suited in failures. There is not a sin
 sle coal nine operated in the Yukon Territory upon . lease from the gov ernment In a sjnlsr manner the
 laws of Australia Snd New Zealand
 provide for private ownership al the
 option Of the lessee. It is reported that much coal Is mined there under
 the leasing system, but that is be cause the operators do not find it ne cessary to exercise the option given them to purchase the lSnd. They are given that option, however, and are thus afforded the security ot private ownership whenever they see fit to exercise the privilege. No such system has been proposed for Alaska. None
 lf the leasing bills introduced in Con gress pe-mt the lessee ever to ac-
 raire title to the land, The Robinson bill now pending before Congress even provides for only . portion of the royalty upon cod mines in Alaska to Ac expended in the territory, and the balance is to be t1-nd into the treas- my Of the United States, II Is a rank injustice oo compel the residents os Alaska to psy 6 royalty into the treasury of the United states upon the coal they consume Why not similar royslcy iron the consumers of cual elsewheCe2 The consumers Of Pennsylvania cosl would object to paving such a royalty b the Federal Government, and the consumers Of Alaskan coal are entitled to urge the same objections.
 Poor old Alaska has surely had quite enough ot the leasing sys- tenn It wss leased by Russia from 1-Ss to 1867 to the Russian-Ame-ican Company. That company was the ab- soluta lord and master, and its lease hold sovereignty absolutely prevented development Fo-tunately nobody was lu-ed there under false preteuses. On ly those went there that did so for the Russian American Company. A leas ing system was not inflicted uron honest. trusting pioneers as is now r7onosed by the American government Fortunately for the United States. Alaska vss not colouized or settled hv tho Russians. Their leasing sys- tenn prevented it Otherwise the Rus sian people would have SO well de vsIoncd Alaska by 1887 that the Unit cd states could not have bought E Tor two cents an acre, with it's won aerful fisheries and fur-seal erd Of five million thrtwu into the bargain. The first thing we did, however, was to lease that seal herd to com pa-y that in forty years made a uet profit os five million seven hundred and thITty-eight thousand dollars and depleted the sssl Co about seventy five thousand. In the mean time the United states Government spent more. money in patroIiing the seal islands than a obtained from royalties on the lease. and Alaska got absolutely noth- iur. not s cent in tsration. not a Hgh house. nos a school house. not so much aS & flag pole. Now, Che unit e3 states government has gone into tho sealing business Ftsels. and has already begun Co make a p0ofit, But this kind os tsTk may lead us to sd- vocate uhe Ngsldlng Of railroads fin Al- aska and the operation Of coal mines there by the government
 CConttnued in our nS1t issueA