The Ketchikan miner., 1912-03-01
A WASHINGTON LETTER
 By J. J. Underwood.

1 ioFU g1HcIlOI 1UOkS NefN Ulutil worried and appears To have aged ten years in the last few months. It is thought that he sees himself riding to a certain fall. The former chief forester is sitting on the horns of a del lema. For some time he was most ardent advocate of LaFol- lette. Ten the Big Voice and inventor of the short and ugly word appeared in the offing, and PinchOt went back to his first love. Pinchot when cam paigning for LaFollette, did not know that Roosevelt was prob able candidate, and now since he has deserted LaFollette, the latters supporters are bitterly denounceing the deciple of re- forestation. and that bachelor l father of "Our children's child rem, for having used their prin cipal as a "come on' in a cOnfi- dence game.
 There does not appear to be any great rush for the job of vice president. A few of the southern democrats have start ed an embryo campaign for Gen era! Sherwood, the father of the old soldiers pension bill. The south is going to play a pretty strong part in the next democratic convention. Oscar Underwood and Champ Clark are both making a strong fight for the nomination. Clark's de feat of Senator Cores forces in Oklahoma, engineered by Con- gressman Scott Ferris, which resulted in Clark capturing most of the delegates, somewhat startled the other candidates. Ferris is a much stronger man than was generally supposed and it is not improbable that he will succeed Gore i'll the Senate
 Congressman Flood chairman of the committee on territories, has presented a bill which of- 1 fers a solution of a somewhat complicated situation pertain- ing to Alaska railroads. The bill provides for the appoint ment of a commission of three, to be composed of one officer of the Engineer Corps of the U s. Army, one competent rail- road engineer and one cOmpe- tent coal mine operator, all of we'll known ability, to be ap- pointed immediately upon the passage of the bill. The com mission is authorized to call | for assistance from every de- partment of the administration and to go to Alaska and collect all maps and get all possible in- formation pertaining to railroad routes, to the coal fields and 10 the interior, andtomake a re- commendatiOn to Congress by December 1st next. This will eliminate the pickering and quarreling that has been car ried on before the committee in regard to the various pro- posed routes. The bill will be reported out of the committee at the next meeting and placed on the calendar for passage. It probably will head off all other proposed railroad legislation. Mir. Flood takes the position that it would be foolish in the extreme for the government to appropriate large sum of mon ey to build a railroad in Alaska without definate and accurate information as to where the railroad would start and where 1 it would eud. He thinks the se- lection of @ proper route is most vital to the successful develop ment of the coal fields and he bases the argument on the fact that the cost of the transpor- tatiOn of coal will cut most important figure in the ability of the operators to market the fuel.
 Congressman Snlzer's sealbill which provides for the killing and marketing, by the govern ment, of surplus bachelor seals passed the house a few days ago after a somewhat bitter quarrel among the democratic members some of whom tried to force l I I [