The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-08-31
BEAcH's NEW ALASKA STORY.

Tho Iron Trail An Aiaskon Romance. ny Rex
Beach. Iluetrnted Published by Harper d
Brothers. Now York
This Is a story most ut for tho times.
In II Is found the details and the sum
ming UP OF the governments treachery
! towards Alaska and those who would
open the coal the forests. and other re-
sources in that great feglon. The gov
ernment has not only blocked progress
In Alaska. holding 10 practically station
ary for the last fifteen years or more.
TO those who fled honestly and fairly
under the law upon coal and other pub
lie lands. The government accepted their
money, their preliminary payments, and
has hung up the entries ever since. and
Kept the money, AS one OF the charac-
ters In the story says: 'If you agreed
TO buy city lot from Il real estate
dealer and after you paid him his price
he refused TO give you q deed. you'd
a least expect your money back. wouldn I
you? Well, that's the case of Uncle
Sam and the Alaskan miners. He not
the money, and forces them TO pay more
every year" In the way Of assessments
to keep their claims alive. The speaker
rich men who. because Of their power,
arc regarded with. suspicion; but II they
did anything 30 dishonest as what our
government has done to It's own people
Besides that. there Is a fair suspicion
that tho hold-up on the coal lands Of
Alaska Is In the interest OF the coal syn
dieetes Of the East, and the goyernIment
just as any one suffers who has under
taken TO do anything In Alaska. Fraud
has been charged from tho first against
coal filings in Alaska, yet no fraud has
case or two OF fraud the land office says
that ninety-nine innocent men snail sur,
fer rather than one guilty man shall shall
pretense and the ordinary rule of the
criminal law Is exactly reversed In the
attempt to make good the cry OF fraud
There is something sinister back OF
t." says one of the characters. and he
proceeds to explain. Since all the
high grade coal of the Pacific coast must
come from the East who, them would
those very interests Every ton we burn
means a profit to the Eastern miner and
railroad man. Yes, and twenty per CENT
Of tho heat units of every ton hauled
that waste? Every two years 1t costs
our navy the price of a battleship to
bring coal to the Pacific fleet. while we
have plenty OF better fuel right mere
hundred miles nearer to the Philippines
than San Francisco, and twelve thou.
sa nd miles nearer than Its present
source II Alaskan coal beds were opened
up. we wouldn't have this yearly fight
for battleshlp appropriations. we'd make
ourselves a present OF hrst-class navy
for nothing. No, our claims were dls-
puted. and the dispute was thrown into
politics to keen us out OF competition
With our Eastern cousins. We Alaskans
sat in a game with high stakes. but after
the cards were dealt the rules we're
changed"
The story is OF a great, honest and
efficient man. Murray O'NeII. who un--
dertook to open the Alaskan country and
had as rivals a great trust disguised
under the name OF Heldlemann There
IS also a schemiug tough and tlaS<y op-
orator named Curtis Gordon who makes
It his business to thwart O,Nen in eV-
erv way possible incidentally swindlinS
every ono who trusted him. and robbing
The widow and the fatherless. The SIT
uatlon works out disastrously for the
fraud and hashy operator, and although
Murray O'Neil has tremendous diHlcul-
tics and many disappointments. all comes
out satisfa ctorily at the end
A love story running through the nooH
affects a girl whom Murray o'Neh res
cued from shpHreclS, almost at tne loss
OF his own life and Dan Appleton;
fine character. whom Curtis Gordon DIS
charged and who went into MURRAY
O'Neirs employ Appleton fen In love
with Natalie. whom O'Neil had rescued.
and AppIeton's sister fell in love with
O'Neil. and for q long time the TeSNlt
was in doubt. II Is beauttul, well tola
story OF the Alaskan s,tueton, Una
should be presented to every cltiEen OF
tbn United States; and we believe that
this work OF Rex seaoh's VIII go tar