The Alaska sourdough., 1911-12-26

along the right-of way of the railroad, because, as they said, they could make day wages walking the seventy-odd miles of it's length as against what they would have to pay to ride.
 "On the Copper River and North western Railroad-the Syndicate line the situation was found to be much the same. I am informed that last year the Golconda Hydraulic Mining compa- ny was obliged to pay in advance 5000 before the railnoad would move ear, containing twenty three tons cf mining machinery and supplies, dis tance of little more than hundred and thirty miles. After considerable pressure had been brought to bear upon the traffic manager at Cordova tie rail road finally refunded $235. In anoth- CT instance it is related that the freight rate for blasting powder over a run of a hundred and twentyseven miles was three cents a pound, or at the rate of $60 a ton, which brought the total transportation charge on powder from Seattle to the mine up to $100 ton. The rate on powder from Chicago to San Francisco is $46.
 restrict both business and income. Railroads in other new countries es- tablish rates that tend to develop the regions through which they run.t This is not true in Alaska
 "Such freight rates charged to the owners of mines not controlled by the Syndicate would be less significant if they stood alone. Unfortunately they do not. Another case in point is the use of violence by employees of the Syn dicate to carry their tracks not simply across the tracks of completing road, the Alaska Pacific Railway, at Mar tin $ Point, near Katalla, as the apolo- gists of the Syndicate allege, but at right angles through the middle ftheir terminal grounds, as the records of the land office disclose This was in 1907. The effect of such a crossing upon the practical value of terminal it is need less to describe It is asserted, and ob- servation on the ground appears to sustain the claim, that perfectly feasible route round the terminal was, and was know nto be, available. '
 The canneries of Alaska come in for an interesting sideswipe. What he says about the fact that the canneries spend not dollar in Alaska, will meet with a responsive chord in the hearts of most Alaskans, The cannery has no friends to speak of, and nobody has word to say in it's defense. Some idea of the influence of politics on MT. Pinchot may be disclosed by what he says about the hatcheries, and how the canneries usswear off r their taxes by merely ma king afidavits that they have released so many salmon fry. He does not say that the canneries are inspected by the fish agents of the government. He leaves the inference that the canneries of Alaska pretty generally get rid If their taxes that way. The fact of the matter is that the canneries have al- ways contended that the maintenance of the hatcheries cost more than they come to in remitted taxes. There are twentyzseven .canneries in Southeastern Alaska and there are only five hatch cries. Of these the Alaska Packers Association maintains one at Loring and one at Wrangell; the North Pacific Packing and Trading company at Kla- wack and the Northwestern Fisheries company one at Quadra and one at Het7 ty Lake.
 A prominent Alaskan who is not in- terested in either Alaska coal or Alas