The Nome daily nugget., 1914-04-15

Ff-scSsHE
 nn& forward. 1t was urged by . few extremely radical people. Such mod crates as Roosevelt, Pinchot. Lane Fisher. and their like were not yet rs ady to consider it. while William H. Taft was horrined. and the vast ma
 iority of democrats. especially south
 ern democrats, in congress could not contemplate such a startling project without shuddering for our institu- ticns.
 To-day the house is due to pass the bill. already passed by the senate and highly approved by president and cab ir.et, appropriating s4o.ooo.ooo to build the beginning of a government rail- rrad system in Alaska. The begin ninRs will mean. inevitably. that in time the system must be greatly ex- tended and improved.
 Almost nobody opposes this lesis- .ation. Almost everybody favors 1t. There will be a vastly bigger propor- ton of opposition 'n ccrpress tanH there is outside. Ire renate's v3'" was about three so one for the meat u.e, and only fou" vot's against It were those of democrats
 'It is interesting to observe how our view of Alaska has changed. In 1887 MT. Seward paid Russia s7.2oo.ooo for ii. and everybody realized that he had teen frightfully bun<oed! Yet Dele gate wickersham declares. and gives good statistics to support 1t that since then we have taken S62 100000 oi wealth out of Alaska without doine much of anything for it and without scratching the surface of that large domain. Alaska is about twice as b,r fin area as the thirteen colonies when they became the union. Its vast agricultural areas are In the iati- tvde of Sweden, Norway and Finland. tut enjoy rather a miider climate!
 "It has taken quite a while to| awaken to the value of Alaska. but wa reed r.at bc discouraged over that ::,on,as H. Eenton. when he was a serator from most westerly state then admitted to the union. declared th:t our western boundary must be at the summit of the Rockies: we couldn t think of reaching out to the Pacinc paniel Webster delivered . philippic in opposition to taking Oregon-that is the great Pacinc and mountain northwest as Q whole-into the union on any terms. He said 1t was worse than worthless. and we could not pos sibIy develop or benefit by 1t!
 "In fact. if there had been just modicum of appreciation of the value of the northwest in the right time. our northern boundary would have been fifty -four forty instead of the 18th parallel and British Columbia. AL berta and Manitoba would now be mostly American. But in those days tfere was too little appreciation either Of the value of the territory or of the pledge of 'ffty-four forty or fight under which the democrats carried one presidential election. Nobody car cd much whether we got the territory or not. The southern leadership was [: the moment vastly more concerned in fact. to get land in the other direc- ton; southwestern expansion. which meant expansion of slave territory. was chiefly in favor. So We forfeited the chance to control the great north- west and left Britain untouched her Canadian empire.
 But Alaska has been saved to ti' nation. and with the enlightened and businesslike policy now taridly applied t. it's management. it may yet prove the one bright spot in the story of our notional management of the public do- N~