Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-19

| transportation facilities will give Alaska
cheap native coal, and cheap coal will
make 1t possible to develop much low
grade ore which is now wasted because
1T is not possible to smelt it profitably.
For the Improvement of transportation
conditions the plan generally agreed
upon and finding favor with the admins
! tratlon forces. with Congress and with
the officers of the National Conservation
Association, provides for the construction
of a aforementioned railroad.
Secretary Fisher Of the Department of
| the Interior and Clifford Pinchot. on be-
half of the National Conservation Asso-
citation, have proposed government
owned railroad to run from the coast to
the coal fields and thence to the rich
agricultural valleys and stock ranges be-
yond With adequate transportation IA
cilities and system for the development
and conservation of the natural resources
Alaska will have a chance to- grow as
rapidly as any other country where con-
ditions are similar.
And in the provision for both the de-
velopment of resources and Improvement
of trans
Conditions as Bad as porta ton
Thirty-Four Years Ago. there ase'' Is IS ;
general demand for quick action, more in
sistent that at any time since November
%, 1873. ten years after the purchase
from Russia, when William Gouverneur
Morris, special agent of the Treasury De-
partment wrote his famous report out
lining the needs of the great northwest
country. An idea of how little has been
done for Alaska is gained in the reading
of that report, for the government agent
then outlined to John Sherman, Secretary
of the Treasury, a condition of affairs
which is almost as bad today, thirty
four years later.
In proposing improvement in the rail-
road facilities of the territory, the ad-
ministration forces and officers of the
National Conservation Association agree
on both a system of leasing the right to
mine the coal field and for a government
owned railroad. Practically all persons
interested in the welfare of Alaska also
agree that the territory must be given
some kind of limited self-government,
similar to the territorial government
which the continental United States had
before admission into the Union.
There is slight difference of opinion on
some OF the legislation proposed, as, for
instance, whether the new railroads shall
be operated as well as built by the gov
eminent There is much support for a
railroad. which will be leased for private
operation A1askans are favorable to
any plan which will provide fair freight
rates and encourage development.
While the immediate value of Alaskan
coal and gold far overshadows the pres
ent agricultural possibilities of the ter
ritory, the permanent prosperity of the
country depends largely on the develop
meht or farms and on a greater interest
IN the stock-raising industry. There are
now rich valleys where the climate per-
mits farming, and agricultural experts
estimate that the agricultural resources
alone will support popula alton of more
than 100000 people. The territory now
has only 5000 in all industries
Development of the rich mineral re-
sources, in line with a public policy to
enc rage
Rich Mineral Resources thoroug
Will Attract Settlers. viii " h nza,'on l.
thousands of settlers into Alaska each
year, and. with a contended popula ton liv
ing under some kind of self-government, it
is predicted that the country will attain
the place it deserves among the countries
governed by the United States
Alaska has a climate which surprises
the average person, especially if he halls
from the east or the south, who visits
the territory for the first time. Many
think of Uncle Sans northernmost pos
session as land OF perennial snow, with
glaciers on every hand and icebergs in all
the waters along the coast. The territory
does have cold weather all the wear
through. In the southern part of the
peninsula, on the coast, the climate COM
pares favorably with that of many parts
or the United States. Until the last few
years there has not been a full apprecia-
ton of the agricultural possibilities of the
land, but when the varied products of the
farms of this far northwest We're shown
at the Alaska Yukon exposition three
years age. the hundreds of thousands
Seattle visitors who had never been in