The Ketchikan miner., 1915-08-26
Charles A. sulzer
sulzer, Alaska,

Inclosed is copy of letter l have just received from Colonel Rich ardson regarding roads and trails in Alaska. Also statement from myself regarding the same subject.
 I think these matters are of gen. era. interest to the public, and would be glad, therefore, if you could spare the necessary space to pdblish same
 in your paper.
 With best wishes,
 Respectfully yours,
 CHAS. X. SULZEI.. Board of Road Commissioners For Alaska
 Valdez, Alaska,
 Aug. 10th, 1915. Hon. Chas. A. Sluzer,
 | Sulzer, Alaska.
 I Dear Senator Sulzer:-
 I have your letter of July 29th, con corning the Forest Reserve fund and | the road situation in the First Divis- ion and was very glad indeed to have I it. I already had in mind to write I you at the first convenient opportu- nity setting forth the reasons for my telegram from Nome and the necessity for some modification in our plans unless the question of the distribution of the Forest Fund should 1 soon be settled In the first place
 let me say that my telegram from I Nome was sent simply as a statement of fact and not intended in any sense as conveying a threat or i'm posing a condition. I would not like my attitude misunderstood on this | point. You will recall that at our conference in Ketchikan about the sth of May stated that had always assumed, without attempting to ana 1 lyse the law in the matter, that the Forest Reserve fund would, when it should become available, be expend- | ed in s. E. >Alaska-and that our Board had taken this fact into con | sideration in making allotments fo, two or more years past; believing that your section of the Territory, being more favored in certain respects, es pecially freight rates, than remote parts of the Interior, would suffer less by the delay. When, however, the Legislature allotted the Forest Fund in equal parts to the four div isions our Board proceeded to make allotments of funds at its disposal, giving what we thought proper con | sideration to the Legislative action. These allotments by the Road Con- mission cover all the most important projects demanding attention in s. E. Alaska, except the Ketchikan road, which was to be taken care of by the Forest Reserve fund. In other | divisions this fund was to take care of certain specified projects: local roads at Fairbanks, the road around Cape Nome destroyed by storm and four or five projects in the third division. When the expenditure of the Forest Fund was enjoined some 1 of the projects to be taken care of I by that fund became an obligation upon our Board and it was thouht best to postpone taking up new pro- | jects in s. E. Alaska for the time | being. One or two of them may now have to be postponed until next sea son. Our Board has always consider ed the different judicial divisions as mere arbitrary of the Territory for the convenience of the Department of Justice and not as having any direct
 influence upon the application of a general tax fund applied by law to the construction of roads and trails It has been necessary however, at times to give heed to sentiment a. mong the residents of different div isions as to the merits of their re- | spective localities and sometimes to use the sentiment as an argument a. gainst the demands that could not be met, without unfairness to other sec tions of the Territory. Petitions for aid in road work come from all parts of Alaska. far beyond the ability of the Board to meet and sometimes pro- tests are made against alleged in | justice in allotments. Answering a recent protest of the kind from the citizens of Ruby, stated for their information that the 4th division was | getting it's full share of road money although contributing very little to the tax fund, and that our Board did not distribute its tax fund according to the districts or judicial divisions where collected. but endeavored to allot it equltably and according to the needs of different districts as far as the fund would go. I called attention in the same letter to the