Douglas Island news., 1915-02-10
What Alaska Needs


 The Washington Post says: The effort to provide a better government for Alaska, SO that it's inhabitants will not be forever tu bjected to the caprice of bureau chiefs 4,OOO miles distant, naturally meets with immediate oppo sition from the bureaucrats. What will become of them and their red tape if Alaska is to be taken out of their clutches? Hawaii is self.govern- iug, Porto Rico is practically SO, the canal zone is virtually a military reser- vation and the Philippines are governed in the Philippines. Alaska is the last resort of the Washington bureau chief. Take that territory from him and the last stronghold of the circumlocution office will fail.
 Secretary Lane proposes to establish a governing board in Alaska 10 look after the minor affairs of the territory and to handle it's business generally, subject to congress and the secretary of the interior. Under this plan an ap- plicant for a fifty foot lot for the pur- pose of raising chickens would have his application passed upon and decided in Alaska instead of being compelled to hand it down to his grandchildren while the government at Washington was deliberating upon it.
 But this method of governing Alaska in Alaska meets the determined oppo- sition of the American Forestry Asso- citation, which prefers to keep Alaska as a breeding ground for fads in for estry. At a meeting of the association in Philadelphia recently it was assert. ed by distinguished forest experts that the proposal to place affairs in Alaska in the hands of a government board was inimical to the forest service; that the public lands would be "whittled down" and gradually pass into private hands, and such magnificent forests as the Chugach and Tougass reserves would finally disappear. It was added that there was no complaint against the present management of the forest reserves in Alaska.
 The facts are that neither Chugach nor Tongass contains as much forest as waste land. The land. if it is worth anything, ought to be in private hands -in the hands of American citizens en. gagged in building homes and develop ing the country. At least l5,OO0,OOO acres in these reservations are not for ested. Yet they are administered from Washington as "forests," and there is a great show of scientific management, forest cultivation, etc, all of it calling for appropriations from the treasury without benedttiug the nation or the people of Alaska. The sole benefit of the present arrangement goes to the employees of the forest service.
 While congress is considering con- servation matters it could we'll afford to dig into the Alaskan situation and obtain first hand information from Alaskans. Ninety nine per cent of them favor Secretary Lane's plan. They are American citizens, building up the nations interests in far away aud not too inviting corner of the national do. main. If they want part of the public lands they ought to be able to get it, with due regard to the public interest. A governing board on the ground, clothed with power to dispose of minor business and directly under the eye of the secretary of the interior would be infinitely more effective in governing Alaska than the bureaucratic system that pursues the theory that every per- son in Alaska is a thief trying to ewindle the United States.