The daily Alaskan., 1915-02-12
THROUGH THE KUKoKWIM


 sources has long since ceased to be a debatabie question. The territory is known to possess nearly every thing that Is calculated to invite en- terprrse and to tempt cupidity. The point of greatest concern to those who would conserve Alaska's ma tLral wealth, says the Christian Science Monitor, has been how to develop It for the common good rather than for the benefit Of the exn.oiter. This problem now is largely in the hand3 Of the United States government and involves an- ether of equal importance. Private enterprise heretofore has pioneered American settlement and develop ment. Whether 1t has performed its task for the common interest or only to serve selfish ends is a matter aside from the fact that the task has been performed. The develop nent Of that part of the earth known as the United States of Am erica in the last hundred years has been marvellous. Thinking people feel. however, that there have been mistakes in the distribution of the wealth of the United states proper that should not be repeated in Al aska. The most serious fault found with people in the latter case is that they have apparently taken a course that tends to lock up rath- CT than to diffuse the wealth of the rarr'-ory. So jeaIous have they been Of the exploitsr that, it is Ecld against them, they have kept out of Alaska the honest toiler.
 A middle ground has been taken by American statesusanship. The federal government has been prac- tieaIy put in charge of the entire situation. It Is surveying the coun- try, prospecting through its hills and valleys, laying out railroad routes, discovering natural channels for the flow of commerce. l. is one thing 10 know that Alaska Is full of min eral wealth, for instance; another to be able to get the raw product out and to markets In reasonable tlms and at reasonable rates. Three great rivers empty from Alaska in- to Bering sea. One Of these, and the second in size in the great pen insula, Is the Kuskokwim, nine miles wide at Is mouth, with a delta of submerged flats extending for 100 miles out to sea. Just as the early explorers were puzzled to find Q naYigable channel in the delta of the Mississippi, 50 have an officer and his corps from the geodetic sur yey at Washington long been pug zled to find a naVigable channel of suitable width and depth through the immense accumulation of alluvi- um a! the mouth of the Kuskokwim Btu they have found It, and this is tautamount to saying that they have IoIhd a great natural canal 100 miles in length that connects with river running 500 miles inland, which opens up to development, and will some day open up to commerce, a valley covering many thousands O' square miles. In this valley, and along the river, 1t is well known, ava large areas Of mineral lands with promising prospects of mer- Gury-bearing cinnabar, gold-bearing quartz, placer grounds and coal veins, all of which are made access ible by the discovery of the Kuskok- win channel.
 l. seems worth while to repeat once more that the United States government Is in control of the sit ua.!Gn. Government ownership and operation of railroads already has been provided for Alaska. How is it going to be with the develop meut of the mines? Are they to be sold to private individuals or companies or syndicates, or leased or operated by the government for the benefit of its people? In the very nature Of things, Alaska's wealth cannot remain unde7eloped.