The Cordova daily times., 1915-10-15
LANES DEVELOPMENT BOARD BILL.

COrdOVa tary of the Interior Franklin K Lanes Alaska Development Board bill Briefly the bill proposes to establish Board which will have its headquarters in Alaska and which will deal on the ground speak, with all questions and problems appeanng the Territory that under the control and direction of the many bureaus and departments in Wash
 gon For example the fisheries will be under the control o the proposed board will the timber the water powers the mnes the game, fs land roads and trails and other Federal activities directed from the National Capital
 Whether the bill will be passed by Congress quite an other matter It has influential support 1t likewise has m ens bitter OppOsitiOn For, the Washington bureau let go is constantly reaching out after more power rather than surrenderng it. Power is sad IS sweet the average human being although may well be doubted Ii all hunger and thirst after It. The average Ouleaucl IS in class hmsef he is typical of the two daughters o the horse eech crying gve, give but never letting go, of his free w that which he has attained The innate weak of government is eXemped in bureaucracy No nation is exempt it. and in it, by it, and through it, Is perpetu ated many of the political ills to which free people are heir It government by ndrecton; therefore bound to be nept nelucabe and inefficient And that Alaska has Sueled
 through bureaucracy known to all Aaskans; men in Washington know it, and Secretary Lane stands at the head of these How a Washington bureau, Washington department for that matter decide with the necessary lntel gence the problems that constantly arising in country removed four thousand miles from the national seat o govern men However, cannot abolish the departments, but we get along very we'll without their side ssueshe bureaus
 so far as Alaska concerned Given intelligent capable of such it would be reasonable to expect would serve on the proposed Development BOard the many vital questions affecting the development of Aaskas resources could be adudicaed when they arise. Strict examination and in vestgaton could be made of all questions requiring adjust mcnt angles of each could be carefully scrunzed teSt mony heard from conflicting interests if and substantial justice done. The bureaucratic view necessarily IS crlbbed cabined and confined What else could be expected? What the Washington bureaucat know about Alaska and it conditions? How many of them in fact? And yet they quite willing nay ready to decide matters vay al fecng the Territory oetmes without the exercise Of gram sense, say nothing of judgment Bureaucratic control and direction in Alaska not obnoxious 1t once was has been improvement in recent years But there is vet ample for improvement Adequate relief
 from incubus of bureaucracy however, cannot be expected so long and the redtape of which it at the inventor and wet nurse entirely eliminated.
 The Alaska Development Board bill, some similar meas- r prescribing closely the powers and mlt@ o the boa1 should furnish large of relief from the present urpaucatic ills and handcaps from which Alaska suffers
 The Russians used to have sayng-and, no doubt stll have-to the effect God is afar off and it is long way to St Petersburg" For many Alaska has had similar Washington being substituted for St. Petersburgor Petro- grad.-,Jmeau Empire