The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1914-03-26
GOVERNMENT RAILROAD
N ALASKA A MISTAKE
LAWS PERMITTING DEVELOP.
MENT AND USE OF OUR RE-
SOURCES MOST NEEDED.

surprising 10 TeIdlo, rex DtdCIi, tIl'
writer, who knows Alaska as few do
trail. tundra. river and settlement
declares that "a government bull
railroad would be another mistake II
takes made In administering Alaska.
He IL. Of course, fiction writer
Times past flctionists have shown US
truth. Often they have been greatly
trusted because unfettered--"not tied
up" Mr., Beach was commercial be-
fore ne became literary. therefore his
vision should be practical and al
though the bill for the first railway
ever built by this government has
passed congress and gone to the presi-
dent. his observations may be still of
some pertinence:
What Alaska needs, as I see her
needs. Is not chiefly railroads. but
wagon roads. She also needs better
resources TO the hands Of the people.
Wagon Roads First.
IL ~ HOl lOI HE W say, ouly W
wonder. what the occasion for this
sudden favor OF great private interests
toward government railway building. I
think the government will be unwise to
60 into railway construction and OPP
Grafton at this stage. Wagon roads
are required first. in order to solidify
and settle the country. Alaska is n
huge. desolate, wilderness Of widely
separated camps. These camps are
mostly for placer mining. and placer
mining is gypsying-the miners move
on az soon as pay dirt does not yield
large immediate returns or rumor
comes Of strike elsewhere. How is a
railway to accommodate a rowing pop
ulation? Unless you make 1t portable?
Fairbanks, the chief central settlement
Is only a placer mining town and plac-
er mining for two years has been de-
clining.
Eyes, know it's been said that
Alaska was another New England and
needed merely a hardy, Industrious
people to make 1t blossom. Below the
Arctic circle the country Is rather like
Norway. In certain valleys agriculture
10 possible. There Is a remarkable
rainfall. and long, warm days in sum-
mer. and short grains and fine veget-
sbles grow we'll, but without wagon
roads how are you to transport the
products to the scattered and shifting
camps? Alaska Is not an agricultural
land per Sc. like the western states.
What will be the inducement to farm
Ing with no wagon roads for the trans
port Of produce to the consumer--and
no consumer? Here Is a great land
100 miles long and 500 wide and the
government has supplied only 1900
miles Of roads and 1900 miles Of trails.
While hundreds Of thousands of acres
OF fine arabic lands are still untitled
on the Pacific coast, why should emf
grants seek 10 farm In Alaska?
Only One Agricultural Possibility.
This doesn't mean that there
shouldn't be provided at once facilities
Of transportation. But why open a
railroad at loss no one can calculate
TO no population? Alaska, with but
10000 population, IL practically with
ou' elemental forms Of transportation
There fs one immediate agricultural
possibility that know. That is stock
raising. In the southern valleys any
stock will winter well. 1t Is produc-
tive hay country, Vast regions above
the tundra are covered with moss, and
that will support reindeer. They live
on moss. The only difficulty with
them is hoof disease. and that is be-
ing eradicated. The bar on reindeer
raising Is vance. AT present, however,
Alaska is locked up. We've got to
unlock It's resources and let the people
in before railways will be any publ,
help.
"Tte situation is different from what
I was when railroads were encourlg-
I'd to run across the west by giving
their builders cast tracts Of land on
either side OF the right Of way and The
government lent its credit to the Union
4 az NV bot iiSHt VI way "''iSu az
most automatically settled itself. Alas
ka is not like the west, and railways
will not make it so, any more than
they have made paradise OF Siberia.
What . Railroad Would Cost.
1T is called matter relatively in
significant for the government to
build q railway through Alaska. That
may be. but it would be more expen-
sive than most people dream. Unlike
the Panama canal, It could not for a
Icing time earn commensurate returns.
The x varn,nen: railway vi; carries an
appropriation Of $35,000,00O. Optimistic
estimates Of what different routes
would cost are:
Seward Fairbanks route :. SIS, 100000
Natanuska coal branch ... 100000
Copper River railroad ex-
tension to Fairbanks 49,. 39,500,O00
branches to agricultural valleys,
said to measure 100000 miles. nobody
has estimated, for ! don't think these
figures foretell the story.
Railroad building. is highly expen-
sive because Of the ranges Of noun