The Chitina leader., 1912-12-31
FACTS THAT ENLIGHTEN.

nc Mining journal, puDllSned at Seat
tie, has scathing article in the cur
rent number of the Journal on sub
ject that is of vital concern to Alas
kans. He clearly and forcefully
sets forth deplorable facts in the fol-
lowing words:
Alaska's development has been
held back fully ten years by "Pin-
chotism.'
What is "Pinchotism" Western
people, and especially Alaskans,
know the meaning of it to their sor-
row, but some Of our eastern readers
will need definition.
Politically it is subdivision of
despotism called bureaucracy. Gift
ford Pinchot, a rich aristucrat. stud
led forestry in Germany and bureau
cracy in Russia, thea returned to the
United States and got d clerkship in
the Agricultural Department because
he was rich and loud play ping
pong" with Roosevelt. And as Sec
rotary of Agriculture and the Secre-
tary of the Interior were only figure
heads, Pinchot, with the cooperation
of Roosevelt, proceeded to Russian
ize" all the natural resources of the
western states and Alaska, /. e., sus-
pended the land and mineral laws,
and issue DEGREES from the thronein-
stead. They placed the public land
and great deal of private land, in
reserves, and proceeded to govern
them by despotic bueau in Wash
ington. This despot spent about
$4,000 of the peoples money an
nually to advertise and educate east
ern people to look with favor on this
powerful bureau. This despot posed
as the friend of the people, just as
demagogues always do, and made a
scapegoat of the Guggenheims be-
cause they spent money freely in de-
veloping some of Alaska's res ources
in legitimate way.
These despots, Roosevelt and Pin
chot, suspended the coal land law in
Alaska in 1906, which they had no
right to do, but before this suspen-
sion over eleven hundred citizens had
filed on coal claims in Alaska under
the law as it had always been inter-
preted. These citizens (prospe tors
discovered coal, located their claims,
developed and surveyed them and
paid the government for these claims
at the rate of $40 per acre and got
the government receipt, with promise
time not single acre of CO II land in
Alaska has been patented, and the
government refuses to return this
money, which runs into millions, to
hese poor prospectors. Many of
these claimants had spent all their
money and several years time and
work on these claims, and they have
perfect right to them. Instead of
getting their claims or their money
back, they are prosecuted. There is
no court of appeals for land cases.
The Interior Department is both pros
ecutor and Judge; makes its own laws
and always wins it's cases.
The present Secretary of the Inter-
ior is curious person. He was ap-
pointed because of his Pinchotism
and he Is under the domination of
the Pinchot idea. In the Cunning
ham coal claim case he decided that
mo man could get patent to a coal
claim until he has made a mine of
it, and no man could make a mine of
it until he gets patent to the
claim!
Alaskans are not allowed to mine
any coal for their own use nor for the
market. They are not allowed to
cut a stick of wood from the forest
without first getting a permit and
paying the price and going through a
great deal of red tape. Railroads
cannot and will not be built without
coal, only a few of the richest mines
can be developed without transporta-
ton.
Hence, the reader can see how
Alaska has been kept back in it's de-
velopment by Pinchotism. This is
the beautiful doctrine of "conserva-
ton" which we call "Pinchotism."
There is bright day dawning for
Alaska and the west, because Wood
row Wilson says that he will observe