The Nome daily nugget., 1913-01-10
TRUTH ABOUT
 MAIL SERVICE
HOW THE CONDITIONS ARE AND THE VARIOUS VIEWS OF
 PEOPLE.

lot of poppycock about the mail ser in other parts of Alaska may he compared to that little dangerous learning" which is so apt to lead peo- pie into absurd errors.
 A slide occurs on the railroad be- tween Cordova and Chitina. on an average about one boat per week comes to Cordova from Seattle with mail. A blockade on the road for two weeks and a fraction would therefore mean at the most that one outside mail had been delayed for that full period. provided the first train block aded had outside mail aboard. If a second mail came in the meantime il would be at most delayed between one and two weeks. Such slides do not occur often. but slide on railroad which is owned by wealthy people like the 'Guggenheims is too beautiful an opportunity to let slip.
 But the most glaring piece of non sense has been the suggestion that when a slide occurs on the road the mail should be sent over by Valdez. This would mean nothing less than the making of a new contract and those now having the contract would he compelled to take the chances while new outfit had the mail in charge. But. outside of the contract other ent occurs only very seldom. But take a slide which occurs and blocks the road for two mails and then sec what can be done. In the first place boats run to Crodova much more ire quently than to Valdez owing to the railroads presence. If the mail were to wait at Seattle for a Valdez bound boat it would probably have to wait much longer than the time to over come the difficulty created by the slide. The only other way would be to send a special boat with the mail from Cordova to Valdez which of course, is an absurdity. The train runs from Cordova to Chitina in part of a day. Chitina is very much near CT Fairbanks than Valdez Is and splendid roads and service obtains between the two places named first.
 The travel between Chtina and Fairbanks is infinitely greater than the traffic between Valdez and Fair banks so that the trail in the former case is always in a far better condi- ton and the service by that way would beat the service the other way even with slides on the railroad as q drawback.
 Valdez, naturally. wants that mail service. It is always notoriously in- clined to exaggerate every fault of the Cordova railroad. This railroad is Guggenheim property. therefore Val deg enlists in the light aN those who are opposed to capitalists.
 The Fairbanks Times is one news paper which willingly attacks the mail service. Indeed the principal policy of that paper is to attack the mail service at all times. Even during the summer months its attacks on the Northern Navigation Company takes up a lot of space. although at that time the mails come by the river routes.
 Of course everyone wants the best mail service possible and everything possible should be done to secure it. But because an accident occurs on the railroad and mail is delayed is no reason why uninformed or prejudiced views should be expressed broadcast to expose our ignorance on such sub jects.
 If, when a slide occurs. the regular contractors did not find some one ready to take a sub-contract to bring the mails over the Valdez route it would be necessary for them to estab- fish a new line of their own. This would mean a greater delay than that occasioned by the effort to clear the railroad. Anyhow this blockade of the road is exceptional and is probably removed by this time or the mail has been forwarded by other means asl the Nuggets telegram from Cordova indicated.