The Washington times., 1914-02-18
ALASKA RAILWAY ACT.


1t is just about four years since
the first proposal of a Government
railroad system for Alaska was Sc.
riously put forward. 1t was urged
by few extremely radical people
Such moderates as Roosevelt, Pin
chot, Lane, Fisher, and their like
were not yet ready to consider it.
while William H. Taft was Mortified
and the vast majority of Democrats
especially Southern Democrats, in
Congress could not contemplate such
startling project without shudder-
ing for our institutions.
Today the House is due to pass the
bill, already passed by the Senate,
and highly approved by President
and Cabinet, appropriating $4,000
600 to build the beginnings of Gov
ernment> railroad system in Alaska.
The beginnings. be it said once more.
The beginnings will mean, newt
ably, that in time the system must
be greatly extended and improved.
Almost nobody opposes this legis-
lation. Almost everybody favors it.
There will be a vastly bigger pro-
portion of opposition in Congress
than there is outside. The Senate S
vote was about three to one for the
measure. and only four votes against
it were those of Democrats.
1t is interesting to observe how
our view of Alaska has changed. In
1867 Mr.. Seward paid Russia s7.2OO,-
900 for it, and everybody realized
that he had been frightfully bunk
oed! Yet Delegate Wickersham de-
clares, and gives good statistics to
support it, that since then we have
taken s525,O0O, 900 of wealth out OF
Alaska, without doing much of any
thing for it, and without scratching
the surface of that huge domain.
Alaska is about twice as big in area
as the thirteen colonies when they
became the Union. Its vast agricul-
tural areas are in the latitude of
Sweden, Norway, and Finland. but
enjoy rather a milder climate,
Il has taken quite a while to
awaken to the value of Alaska, but
We need not be discouraged over
that. Thomas H. Benton, when he
was a Senator from the most West
erly State then admitted to the
Union, declared that our Western
boundary must be at the summit O:
the Rockies; We couldn't think of
reaching out to the Pacific. Daniel
Webster delivered philippe in op-
position to taking Oregon-that is,
the great Pacific and. mountain
Northwest as q whOle-into the
Union on any terms. He said it was
worse than worthless, and we could
not possibly develop or benefit by it,
in fact, if there had been Just a
rlodicum of appreciation of the value
OF the Northwest in the right time.
our Northern boundary would have
been "fifty-foar forty" instead Of
the forty-ninth parallel, and British
Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba
would now be mostly American. But
in those days there 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 cared
nucf whether VIC got the territory
cr not. The Southern leadership
was at the moment vastly more con-
cerncd, IN fact, to get land in the
other direction; Southwestern cx-
pansion, which meant expansion of
slave territory, was chiefly III favor.
So We forfeited the chance TO control
the great Northwest, and LEFT Erit-
ain, untouched, her Canadian empire.
But Alaska has been saved to the
NJ lion, and with the enlightened and
husinesslike policy now tardiIy ap-
piled to its management, it may yet
prove the one bright spot in the
story of our national management of
the public domain.
INDlGNITY, NOT CRIME?