The Nome daily nugget., 1914-06-02

fAIb6OuUS sAC PSVAS@s Sss~S~ ~~ ~~s~ United States in wagon roads. has thirty seven times as many miles ot road in proportion to its area as AL aslka. Connecticut the state with tn. best showing, has l.7sO times the mile age of Alaska and the. entire United States has over 500 times as great proportion. Of eighteen foreign coun- tries. Australia. the poorest. has 165 times as much, and Engand anc Wales, the greatest. have 1.s4o times as much.
 In a sparsely settled country. since individuals must travel relatively greater distances in the processes of commercial communication. the neces- sary mileage per capita must be very great. On this basis. taking the states west of the Mississippi Alaska has less roads per capita than any. Ne vada, the state whose conditions oi topography. population. age and in dustries are most similar to Alaska. has seven times the mileage of roads per capita.
 In the matter of expenditures. Ne vada Is the only state spending as small an amount per square mile for roads as Alaska while New Mexico with the next smaller expenditure spends nearly six times as much. or allows for about twelve times as much road work per square mile. if we con slider the costs of labor. etc. It should also be noted that over large areas of Nevada. New Mexico. etc.. wagon or even automobile travel can pass almost without, hindrance. while in Alaska wheeled transportation is. in almost every locality quite impossible until roads have been constructed.
 The above brief outline indicates the present situation in Alaska according ot Captain James Gortien Steese. in an articel in the January Review of Re- VleW6. ue EUAu NUhhtoOhOh s"S 'A' the present time undertaken work on 94 different routes. The maintenanc; of these s4 different roads requires an annual expenditure of s125.ooo. To conn plete the projects already undertaken wilt require $2.7SOOOO. Projects which will arise with the development dur ing the next ten years will requi- about $l.S00.O00. A total of $725o.- 900, distributed over the next ten years would provide Alaska with n complete system such as immediate needs justify. and probably sufficient to meet all reasonable demands until the territory is sufficiently developed to take over internal public works as a part of it's own government.
 Alaska has been slowly developing for sixteen years. Eight years ago the first steps in road construction were made. The first steps in railroad building were made even earlier. but so far all have been unsuccessful. chief Iy because the railroads could land freight at their freight platforms and had no road feeders to distribute their tonnage. No railroad can be success ful without roads as branches or feed CTS any more than a tree can grow by its trunk alone without branches and leaves.
 A railroad must have large tonnage and trunkline roads such as proposed for Alaska cannot hope to succeed except as they become arteries oi trade supplying large areas. Such areas must extend some distance from the railroad line and terminals and they can be made tributary thereto only by means of branches. Tn . highly developed country the larger of these branches mny be small rail- roads or even small systems, but the road and it's customers. the mine the farm and the factory. Is a wagon  or Q truck.
 Great natural riches can make a country productive even without the assistance of roads. as Alaska proved before 1906. Since that ime the cvi- dence of the value of the few exist ing roads has been demonstrated. and the necessity of completing the road systems has been made manifest. ..
 If left to Itself, Alaska will con- tinuc its slow rate of development and by building its own roads and creat' ing industries sufficient to warrant private enterprise. It will in half century become an empire in spite O all h:ndrance. By the construction q highways as the development Of th' country demands them, this perio'