The Nome daily nugget., 1914-04-04
k however. that DetrOit's Marriage 1 icense Clerk has given a better opin- i"n.-N. Y. American.

territory as to coal and oil develop
 ment was probably due as much {,
 the exploiters as to the conservation
 ists, but had not the conservationist! con" to absurd extremes they could wears ago have overcome the exploit. CTS in Congress and could, by ioInins forces with the great majority who oc. c,pied middle ground. have procured CT a'tment of laws which would hay, combined conservation with develop. rnent and would have guarded aeains' H"nopoly. The exploiters who causot nigeonholInR of bills for leasing of coa and oil land must share the responsi. bility for the embargo but that fac, does not excuse the Pinchot conserva tionists for having proposed measures which gave the exploiters so good case that they were able to enlist SUD- port from opponents of exploitation. .
 In an interview published in the Albuquerque Journal Mir. Rodey mini. mixes the effects of the embargo by citing the small population of the Ca nadian Yukon since hydraulics and dredges took the place of primitive mining and since the bonanzas were worked out. He overlooks the fac, nat Canada collects a royalty on gold D. oduction and has restrictive laws akin to those which MT. Pinchot ia .
 "rs. No great coal and oil fields have been discovered in the Yukon terri 'ry as in Southwestern Alaska. The proximity to the coast of the coal and t.l in the latter section would under ordinary conditions have prompted de- Velopment and consideration of rail- roads years ago, but for the embargo and the restrictive lawS which actu- ally penalize railroad building. The
 '. cnation which has befallen the Ca nadian Yukon does not justify the as . sertion that like stagnation is natural ir a country abounding in the natural products for which there is a crying need in Alaska. It Is probably true. az he says that a through railroad from the coast to the Yukon will not pay for some years, but a reasonable law would have guarded against mo- ropoly and overcharges, yet would fave caused completion long ago of roads to the coal fields. accompanied bv rapid development of the whole territory.
 MT. Rodey asserts that far from being neglected. Alaska is "the petted child of the nation" which pays out for 1t $SOOO,0Oo a year, with no direct return. He reminds us that the half billion dollars of wealth which Alaska has produced is not revenue, but is the property of the producers. True, but the production of this wealth has enabled its owners to buy commodities or which internal revenue and cus- toms taxes are collected Had the government managed Alaska as a good business man would have man aged so magnificent an estate. 1t would have produced enough not only to pay for its own administration and devel- opment. but to add largely to the gen. eral revenue. It would also have had many thousand prosperous citizens, who are Nations best asset.
 The agricultural possibilities of Alaska are exaggerated, according to NIT. Rodey. There he is contradicted by experts of the Agricultural depart ent and by men who have seen what Is actually grown in the vast Tanana Valley. He says that in summer the country is all frozen except under the streams and only few feet thaws out annually, but in the same sentence he admits that it is a paradise of vegeta- tion. Then what matters 1t if the ground be frozen, when vegetation grows on 1t? Experience has proved that rich crops grow in the shallow, tfawed-out space above the frozen earth.
 MT. Rodey says:
 T do not believe mankind will ever permanently live in great numbers north of 5S degrees north latitude. an1 certainly not north of 60 degrees if he can help 1t. There isn't half million people on the face of the earth now living north of SO degrees even if you include the Esquimaux. You can take a map and draw & circle around the globe and verify this statement. Man doesn't have to live north of that. Transportation is too we'll developed now to necessitate it. He can go there and do his business in the short sum- mer time and come back in the fall es tho, sands are doing now with re-