The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1913-12-11

} The Useless Red Tape.
! The government seems to be agains,
aim instead OF for him, no matter
which way he turns. If ne is brave
enough to select a homestead it may
turn out to be on a forest reserve; II
not, he must wait until subofficial
leisurely discovers that there are NJ
rich mineral deposits concealed on
the premises and no coal mines; then
he must wait until another suboff1cial
leisurely assures himself that there
are no oil wells. Finally, when all
these gentlemen have assured them
selves that the Alaskan is settling up
on nothing except thin stratum OF
farming land perched upon a stratum
Of solid Ice and when all the prescrib-
ed regulations have been complied
with and the lawyer paid in full, the
homesteader Is likely to find that he
can not get any title because the plot
has not been surveyed and there is no
base line established by which he can
have It surveyed at his own expense.
Slow Job to Get Patent.
This Is no exaggeration. The home
steader who takes up claim in Alas
ka should be young man, for mid
dle-aged man Is likely to be in his
grave before the land office gives him
document that will make him feel
that he actually owns the land over
which he has toiled. And, to greater
or less degree, every other type Of
man in the territory finds the shoe
pinching him with equal severity.
How the cannery Man Is NeedIessIy
Oppressed.
| Suppose, for instance, that you own
cannery in southeast Alaska and
have built an expensive wharf. One
day you walk out on 1t and find that
the timbers which support it are rot
ting IN the water and the wharf has
list to starboard; unless you prop
IT up quickly, one Of those winds that
rush down from the mountain tops in
: winter at the rate Of rs miles an hour
may topple 1t over. Do you send men
out into the woods and cut timbers to
support 1t? You do not--not If you
are wise. Every tree within reach is
probably included in forest reserve
and Is as precious in the eyes of
Washington as if it were some rare
species yielding costly. ointment of
spikenard. You first make formal an
pl1cation to a subofficial Of the forest
service, who is probably somewhere
down the coast. If he is not Off on a
hunt for moose or mountain sheep. If
the forest mans digestion happens to
be good, there is possibility that the
application may not only be acted up.
on favorably but the desired permis-
sion may even arrive before the wharf
collapses. But suppose there is an
unbroken silence and you become 50
desperate that you go ahead and cut
down the necessary trees? Answer:
Fine or Imprisonment. or BOTH" un-
less you can square yourself in some
way with the majesty of the forest
service. (If any man thinks that this
is an exaggeration, let him inquire
along the southeastern coast, particu-
larly of the men who own wharves).
Railroad Building Checked.
Take the question of railroads.
which everybody knows are indspen-
sable to the development of a new
country. First bear in mind the fact
that since we took over Alaska in
1867 we have taken out of II a total
sum which may conservatively no
placed at $5O0,0OO.OO0, but for which
we paid only 100000. Yet the gov
eminent has not only refrained from
building railroads; 1t has also so
private capital that It
goes down into Brazil or off to the
Philippines to build railroads that
might better have been built from the
Alaskan coast to Yukon.
Aside from the White Pass g. Yukon
line (only 20 miles of which are in
American territory, there is not
railroad in Alaska that really goes
anywhere. The longest road u9e
miles) runs from Cordova to the Gug- /,
mines The next is the Nome
4 Seward Peninsula GOA miles), and
recall one Of its abandoned locomo.
ives rusting out its life because the s
road can not afford to pay a govern I
nent tax Of $1,000 mile. Third is the {
Alaska Northern. running 70 miles out |
II Seward; that is. the track does the I
not the trains. Then comes G
he Tanana Valley railroad at Fair n
banks. As miles long. struggling for F..
'ery existence. Besides these there e
ire three other railroads in Alaska G
the total length of all three being &c G
niles), but at least two Of these have k
'een suspended 4
5000 Miles by Water. $
Now you can get some idea Of what h
his means to the interior of Alaska o
y tracing the progress of the outfit
+ one of Leslie's representatives.
'hom found awaiting it at Fair is
anks this summer. The package m
'aveled 5275 miles from Seattle to ST. u
Hchaels by ocean steamer; then It II
'ent slowly up the Yukon river for te
'74 miles to Tanana; thence as in
lies up the Tanana river to Fair In
anks. Since IT left Seattle at the b
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