The Washington herald., 1914-03-29

taken to San Francisco under e: .est
Judge Wickersham was sent to Nome
and instructed to clean up the situa-
ton" He did so vigorously. Then he
resigned from the bench to become the
Alaskan Delegate In Congress- Fair
banks. containing but three houses. built
in a clearing Of the wilderness. 800 miles
from civilization" to use his own des-
cription, was his home.
Next he grappled with the hercest and
most powerful monopoly Of all-the
Alaskan Syndicate, composed. as he still
maintains, Of the Guggenheims. mostly.
He found the three southern ga.e~ays of
Alaska-Valdez, Seward and Cordova-
IN possession Of the syndicate. I'M
mediately he began strenuously to ap-
peal for a nationalized railroad running
from one OF the three ports named north
ward into the Interior Of the Territory.
The road has been authorized and will
be built. Agricultural and mineral lands
win be given or sold to settlers. Alaska
viii NIL up with small competitors in
stead of big monopoiists. Before long
It win be a State. James Wickersham.
II Ia reasonable to predict. will be the
first Senator In Congress to be elected
by the new Commonwealth He Is fifty
six years old-a gray-eyed man, with
a short, thick mustache and a modern
looking man in well-fitting and high
priced clothes.
Were he to be met in Wall Street one
would think he belonged in a bank or q
brokers' ONCE. He could ride in a pri-
vate car and bis very appearance would
make people believe he was president Of
the road. He Is no Eskimo or Indian,
nor trapper with moccasins on his feet
and bundle Of furs on his back.
His Great sfx-hour speech.
Ethnology. or the study of the races
Of men. has been enriched by his writ
ings and investigations. He has a de-
cided talent for composition and oral
statement. and his six-hour speech In the
House Of Representatives on Alaska. Its
resources and Possibilities, brought him
wide fame as an orator and an author.
The words government ownership,
have no terror for me when a region as
great In area as the thirteen original
States OF the Union and Of Vermont,
Kentucky. Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana and
Illinois In addition, awaits development
and deliverance from monopoly" Judge
Wickersham said to me. The people
forget that the Cumberland road, reach
ing from the Potomac to the Ohio and
costing S,Oo0.0Oo. was built more than
a century ago and paid for with money
OUT OF lne pubic Treasury.
when We wanted railroads to the
Pacific coast immense tracts of the peo-
ple's land were given to the men who
had agreed to construct the roads. The
lands were the same as money put out
at interest. The government will pay for
the Alaskan road and keep its Alaskan
lands BY and by when the lands have
increased In value they can be sold TO
settlers. The Treasury in the end, there
fore. will have taken in more than was
paid out.
The ignorance Of the American people
concerning their Alaskan property is as
tonishing. 1t is a land. they think or
say. locked in ice or buried in snow. As
much could be said Of Norway, Sweden
and Finland, which are in the same
northern latitude as Alaska and where
Il, ,oo0, 900 men. women and children are
living in comfort right now.
Let me give you some elementary in
formation about a region which, so far.
has only mildly interested the United
States. Alaska is twelve times larger
in square miles than is New York. With
a realization of its size let US now pro-
ceed to consider something else. The
standing timber in Alaska is valued at
500. 10000 Alaska has more coal than
have Pennsylvania, Ohio and the two Vir-
ginias: more copper than Michigan. Mon
tana and Arizona: more gold than Cali