Valdez daily prospector., 1914-01-09
FRIDAY, JANUARY. g, 1914.
THE NATIONS UNDEVELoPED
 RESOURCES.

The report of Secreary of the Int >,' for Lane is worth anybody's reading and should be read in full by all bust ness men. It is easy reading, for 1t has little detail, and is written in :, spirit of constructive optimism. He attributes the deadlock in the deve.- Opment of the national resources to the fact that no substitute has been found for the system of exploitation of public resources for private bene- fit which the nation has resolved shall end. The secretary thinks that a beginning should be made by ceas- ing to regard all acres as alike and disposing of government land witb respect to it's suitable use. Farm lands should be sold to farmers, so that the nation should not be de- faauded by not getting homesteaders when it sold homesteads. Forests 5 should be sold to lumbermen who would develop them, rather than with hold them for a rise in prices due to scarcity. Grass lands should be sold to stock raisers, and riparian lands with a view to utility for irrigation or power, and so on.
 The secretary's suggestions regard ing Alaska are much more elaborate. He proposes a commission govern ment for the territory. That is to say he would have Alaska delivered to a Board of Directors who should administer all it's assets primarily for the development of the territory. Congress should indicate only the broad lines of policy, and the new Board of Directors should have no thing to do with territorial politics The duty of the board would be re- stricted to dealing with the property of the nations territory to an en- tirety. With separate budget, and on a coordinated scheme which should relate each undertaking to ev- cry other. Thus the states would be relieved of the burden of developing Alaska, and would profit by it's self development. The secretary knows no better way of developing railways for Alaska than the time-honored method of granting alternate sec tions to the builders, so that the in crease of value by the construction of the railway would be saved to the ungranted sections retained in gov ernment ownership. The secretary would allow private railways beside the public railways, subject to the governments right of purchase. Rates he would fix rather with regard to the development of the country than re gard to operation profits, and he would not apply the principle of the commodities clause so highly esteem ed by many reformers among our selves.
 The secretary would develop the coal lands in two ways. The mineral which is not suitable for transporta- tion he would convert into power and transmit it by electricity, and he would grant to operators leases long enough to repay them for their costs of devlopment, including building of railways in suitable cases. Time is of the essence of the contract in the case of Alaska, and what is done is doubled in value by expedition.
 The secretary Is of another opin- ion regarding the development of the coal lands in the states. No less than 56,000,000 acres of coal lands are included in 66,000,00O million ac- res of lands withdrawn from private development under the defective laws. The secreary thinks that it is not for the public interest that these lands should be opened rapidly or ruthlessly. Neither should the lands be held idle from fears of exhaustion. since science now knows how to convert rain and snow into heat and light in competition with coal, or in substitution for it. A royalty basis, with precaution against waste i,l mining. is his suggestion, with a fair compromise between the needs of the present and the rights of posterity. In the development of oil lands the secretary fears vest the present me thods are defective in mot sufficient ly rewarding the pioneer" and he proposes rewards for prospectors up on lands now withheld from develop ment, with royalty agreed upon be- forehand for discoveries.