Valdez daily prospector., 1913-03-22
SATl RnAN, MARCH 22. 1913.
OUR BACKWARD MOVEMENT.

In striking contrast With the liberal policy of the Canadian government toward he North west territories is the miserly treatment which has been receiN- ed by Alaska from the recent Taft administration. The Dominion government has put forth every effort to attract settlers to the frontier country. Tracts of land' have been supplied on the most liberal terms: homes and farm ing implements have been fur nished: mineral resources have been left open for location and development wherever found, and those going into the new coun- try have been encouraged other wise in every way possible. The result has been the emigration of thousands of Americans from the United States; the attraction of many millions of dollars from London for investment, and the development of the country be- yond the widest dreams of the Dominion government.
 Alaska is a country of greater natural opportunity. There are thousands upon thousands of fer tile acres in the valleys through out the territory which are lying dormant because of the refusal of Republicans at Washington to encourage development; there are billions of tons of high grade coal in Alaska. the mining of which would give employment to thou sands of men and save Alaskans thousands of dollars annually were it not for the fact that Pres ident Taft and his cOnserVatlnn- ist advisors have denied the peo- pie the right to develop the lodges which they discovered; capital re- fuses to consider investment in the territory because of the un- certainty of conditions. and in stead of a steady growth of pop ulation such as is taking place in in the Northwest territories, the number of people in Alaska is ar- tually declining.
 In his annual report to the Secretary of Interior Governor Clark calls attention tn the back ward movement which has been in progress in Alaska, particu- larly during the past two years, and explains why there has been rptrogression instead of advance ment in the North.
 In his review of general con- ditions obtaining in Alaska dur ing the past year. the governor says:
 'Whilr there was probably a small increase in the number of residents who may be regarded as attached to the soil or engag- ed in industries of permanent character, there was, without doubt, a considerable decrease in the population of Alaska as a whole. The gain in white pOpu- |ation (no including mixed Rus sian between the census years 1900 and 1910 was only 5,854. Gr 19 per cent. The native popu- iation has probably remained nearly stationary as to number since 1910, when the total num- ber of people in he territory, both white, native and mixed. was 6i,- 356. The moderate decline in white population which has been experienced in the last two years is due in part to diminished ac- tivity in placer mining in the in terior valleys. but in at least an equal measure. probably, to in- adequate land laws, to the re- markable public calumnies about Alaska which, spread broadcast through the medium of the press, have kept capital without it's bOr- ders, and to the failure of con gress to lend necessary means of encouragement tO the develop ment of virgin region. One who is fully acquainted with this dis dressing condition of neglect readily appreciates the feeling of many of our people who. as the years pass, speak with little self