The Chitina leader., 1912-10-29
4 TRUE FRIEND 0F ALASKA

reaucratS, and race of cringing, fawning slaves, dependent for the own glorification, but to those of us less fortunate, who must make provi- sion for old age and those dependent on us, it is a much more serious matter.
 When the high priest of conserva tion, the prince of shadow dancers, recently visited Alaska to gloat over his handiwork of empty houses, de- serted villages, dying towns, arrested development, bankrupt pioneers, ani the blasted hopes of sturdy, seif- reliant American citizens, it is striking comment on the law-abiding character of our people that he came back at all.
 It is time to ask ourselves the question:: Has the policy pursued by the government of the United States in the development of our Western territory been a mistake? I, for one, emphatically deny that it has. Within two generations a vast wilderness has been subdued and populated by the freest and most in- telligent people on the face of the earth, among whom the things that make life worth living are more wide ly distributed than among any other of the sons of men. There may have been some incidental errors, but in the main the policy has been sound, statesmanlike, and honest. Besides these errors the creation of vast for est reserves was such an act of mon- umental folly that they pale into in- significance by comparison.
 We have in this world examples of people who carry into practice the theories of the doctrinaire conserva. tionists.
 In equatorial Africa live one hum dred and sixty million graduate Ethio- plan conservationists. Their re- sources are the same as when inn perial Carthage was ground to dust under the iron heel of the Roman Re- public Their resources are as un impaired as when Caesar rode at the head of conquering legions. They haven't a schoolhouse, a church, or printing press. Their mountains have not been denuded by pulp plants. Thier trees have not been ruthlessly slaughtered to be manu- factured into baby-grand pianos. A tomtom made of the skin of monkey stretched over the ribs of defunct giraffe furnishes all the music neces- sary to soothe the savage breast. The boa-constrictors still chase the baboons through the bushes that the smoke of smelters has not been al- lowed to kill
 These people live in one grand for est reserve, the guardians of which are not horde of tax-eating officials, but industrious denizens of the jun gle, who are self-reliant enough to pick up every morning club and kill a snake for breakfast.
 Their contributions to civilization and progress have been those twin blessings, slavery and cannibalism. But they are conserving their re- sources.
 We as practical men know that the mere possession of undeveloped re- sources does not make a nation rich or its people prosperous, that only those nations that use the resources placed within their reach by bene- ficent Providence progress and con- tribute to the well-being of humanity.
 This lock-up, tie-up, bottle-up com munistic policy has gone far enough.
 This nation has been made great and prosperous by the initiative and enterprise of the individual.
 The tremendous risk to health, limb, life, and capital incidental to the development of country like Alaska make it the least promising field for communistic experiments.
 We are all Americans; all one peo- pie. The laws under which the states have progressed, judging them by their fruits, are good laws and wise laws. We emphatically protest against Alaska's being turned into an experimental station for dreamers theorists, and faddists that live thou sands of miles away.
 Alaska demands the same right of