The Chitina leader. [volume] (Chitina, Alaska) 1910-1928, 1912-07-23

to lease the coal lands was a bone of
contention; and the proposal to build
a government railroad was opposed
by many. Very recently there has
been a distinct precipitation of pub
lie sentiment in the territory favor
able to any plan upon which the au-
thorities at Washington may agree.
With the majority now the desire is
not to dispute as to just how the fuel
and transportation questions should
be settled but that those questions
be settled somehow and quickly.
A program of legislation to relieve
the present disheartening condition
in Alaska has been pretty thorough
ly worked out by the administration.
/ refer first to certain minor meas
ures of proposed legislation. 1t is
a singular fact, not at all creditable
to the nation. that nearly forty-five
years after the occupation of Alas
ka by the United States, there are
wanting for the government of this
territory several elementary provi-
sions of law which are found in every
other part of the civilized world.
There is no means of establishing a
quarantine in Alaska, except by the
means of somewhat strained con-
structions of the laws governing the
marine hospital service and no ade-
quate means of preventing the spread
of contagious diseases; there is no
law providing for the supervision and
control of banks and banking, al
though there are many banks in the
territory; there is no provision for
the registration of births, marriages
and deaths, although the absence of
such records often causes grave in
Justice and human suffering; there
is no public means of relieving indi-
gent persons. 1t is part of the pro-
gram of the present national admin
istration to fulfil these wants, and it
is hoped that the Congress at Wash
ington will pass the necessary meas
ures, which have been urgently rec
commended. Through the lack of
such ordinary and usual provisions
of law as these the development of
the territory is discouraged to a con-
siderable extent, although the great
est obstacles to progress are due, of
course, to the failure to provide GER
tain more important measures of leg
islation.
The larger measures-those per-
tanning to the coal lands and to
transportation-are now, as they
have been for too long-the subject
of much difference of opinion. 1t is
not necessary to decide which OF
these subjects is the more important:
both are vital. The coal is worthless
without railroads to transport it; the
railroads would be far less profitable
without the coal for tonnage as we'll
as for engine fuel. II one must
choose, the transportation question is
probably the more vital of the two;
but nobody doubts that the settle
ment of either will lead speedily to
the settlement of the other.
President Taft has endorsed the
proposal of Secretary Fisher that at
least one trunk line of railroad, tap
ping one of the principal coal fields
and connecting one of the naviga-
BILE rivers with tidewater. be built by
the federal government. Within a
few months after ne took charge Of
the Interior Department Mr.. Fisher
visited the coast of Alaska and one
of the principal coal fields as well as
the upper navigable waters of the
great Yukon river, and there recelV-
ed visual testimony as to the impor-
lance of both transportation and the
fuel problems. His conclusions to
recommend that the United States
should construct one arterial line OF
railroad in Alaska was not reached
without very deliberate and pains
taking study of the subject, and not
without consideration of the fact that
many persons doubtless are consti-
tutionally opposed to government
ownership of transportation lines.
The conditions in Alaska he regards
as peculiar; and, moreover, he perth
nently cites the fact that the govern
ment owns ands operates the Pana-
ma Railroad and will own and oper-
ate the Panama Canal. AS to the in
strumentality by which the proposed
government railroad in Alaska shall
be operated the administration has
1xx-uoa.al M ontpi0n Tho nnnc-