Douglas Island news., 1913-06-18
What Dickeson Done"

The following very interesting article 4 is taken from Railway and Marine l News, and indicates that at times even railroad presidents may be sadly oil m their statements, whether from ignor- ance or design is quite another matter:
 Part {, being printed report of the. hearings on the construction of rail- roads in Alaska, before the committee on territories, U. s. Senate, is an inter- esting document, as it contains in full the statement of o. l.. Dickeson, who came to Alaska two years ago as presi- dent of the White Pass route. Seattle business men and Alaskans generally, who have read this report, are con. vulsed with laughter. There can be no question as to the yeracity of the report as it is a United States government document. Mir. Dickeson was invited to speak and was introduced by Dele- Z. gate Wickersham, and in the course of a long examination the youthfuland IT, repressible Skagway magnate made the following ludicroas and startling state ments:
 That the concern which he repre- sents has had much to do with the financing and operation of most of Alaskas railway mileage (20 miles of the White Pass route lies in Alaska, the bslance in Canadal
 That they financed the Panama Valley railway, of which Falcon Joslynis pres- ident being called down by Joslin, cor rected statement by showing that Close Bros. had financed the road but MT. Joslyn had since paid out everything to that firml.
 That they built the first 20 miles of the Copper River & Northwestern. (As a historian MT. Dickeson is not ac- curate The late M. J. Heney, whose memory every one reyeres, was the suc- cessfui contractor for the construction of the White Pass route, just as the late E. c. Hawkins was chief engineer of that road. Later Mir. Haney organ i ized the project of building up the Copper river from Cordova and called his project the Copper River railroad. He and his associates only completed trifle oyer two miles. At this time the Alaska syndicate was studying the route from Valdez, just as it later planned the route from katalla, but Mir. Heney and his associates were eventually bought out and the name ot the road was eventually changed to the Copper River & Northwestern railway, Mir. Heney becoming the contractor and successfully completing the line, there being no connection between the White Pass route and the Copper River & Northwestern.)
 That they have recently had under way the question of financing another railway to enter the Matanuska coal fields. (This is certainly startler and no one can explain what Dickeson means by this statement. It is beyond the imagination of alb
 That his company would certainly develop Alaska and as an illustration, that it had already spent recently in various investments in the way of building hotels and opening up copper mines, large sums of money which in volved spending more. (These sums were spent in Canada.)
 That personally he thinks all the trans nsportation at the present time in Alaska should be consolidated and un der one control and management in the history of the public. q am endeavor, ing to no small extent to bring that abont. We have extended our service 1000 miles this year. l have only been ,n Alaska two years and have been making progress since l have been here and have caused to be put on the ocean three freight boats between Seat TINCIU CCDDV AMI NhVIGATI0N rn