Valdez daily prospector., 1913-12-18
THURSDAY, DECEMBER IS, 1913.
THE ALASKAN RAILWAY.

The following editorial appeared in the New York Times of December first:
 Secretary of the Interior Lane paints a glowing picture of the pros poets of the Alaska railway for which congress is to be asked to appropri- ate $35,000,000. The secretary be lieves" that this is the method which will most surely open the resources of Alaska to the world. It would be interesting to know how many of the bonds of the road he would buy on the basis of his belief. The bonds must be sold, of course, and some body must buy them. Not being an issue for the purpose of government, they ought to be based on the pros poets of the property, rather than on the general credit of the people.
 If issued on that principle-as they will not be-the rate of interest would be that of other railways with similar prospects, and the letter of the secretary reads like any other prospectus for a construction bond. He has talked" with many whom he thinks we'll informed, and he is "con- vinced" that we should think of Alas ka "as land not only of mines and fisheries, but of towns, mills and fac tories, supporting millions of peo- ple." There will be millions of dol lars in it, as we'll as millions of peo- pie. Representative HoustOn's re- port reckons that the freight on coal for years supply of the Pacific fleet in case of war would be $19,200,000. He throws off half on account of the cheapening of freight by the Panama canal, and still the freight bill remains $9 ,6OO,OOO. Nearly the whole sum may be saved by the construction of the railroad provided for by this bill"
 As the cost is limited by law to $35 ,OOO, ,OOO, and as nine millions would pay the interest on, say, $225,O00,OOO, the work may as we'll begin at once. The country cannot afford to lose the opportunity.
 And yet we seem to remember that Secretary Lane is not such prophet as he ought to be to warrant the ex- penditure of $35 5,0OO,O0O on the faith of his rainbows. The desperate con- dition of the railways of the country and his misjudgment of future con- ditions as to which he had more direct responsibility than regarding this Alaskan construction project. He roundly berated the railway man agers as professional mourners," bad business men, and no patriots, be- the future from himself Why, he asked, should the railway managers paint only in black? Why, when their notes were coming due, should they declare that their credit was deteri- orating? Why should they pick out few bad months and draw deduc- tions from them? His way was to pick out few prosperous roads and argue from them regarding the oth- CTS. AS for myself, stand upon the prediction that there will be car shortage by next October" That next October there were 10000 idle cars. and shortly after there were 33O,OOO idle.
 Rainbows aside, the fact is that in 1900, the population of Alaska was 63,592, and in 1910 it was 64,366 It may freely be admitted that the rate of growth would have been greater if it had not been hindered by the policy which now makes it necessary for the rest of the country to take desperate risks and assume great bur- dens which private capital would have assumed, if allowed. After the gov ernment railway is built to the coal mines. the coal will be no more ac- cessible than before. It will still be unmined, and the cost of each and ev- cry ton will be bIrdened with the cost of ties and rails over which it must be transported before it can move warships.
 The same is true regarding the coal of Pennsylvania. It is worth cents in the earth. and t costs consumers dollars; therefore the trust must be busted" But will the overthrow of the trust cheapen coal? Wrl the building of the Alaskan railway cheap en freights to the navy? These are not government problems, and it