The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1915-09-30

Az ,hAtSN oNoSNo Ahh "
ed Alaska for half a century, this ne
glect Of the rights of the citizens of
that great region is emphasized by
the fact that only a few townships in
Alaska nave been surveyed.
While the development Of Alaska
along new lines has been near and
dear to the hearts Of congressman,
yet the amount invested in the great
fishing industry of this rich possession
declined nearly a million and a quar-
ter dollars in the year ending with
1912. In the 1914 report of the Secre-
tary of Agriculture emphasis is laid
on the fact that this great industry
demands the protecting care of the
federal government. 1t has been and
still is the victim of neglect, waste and
spoilation, and these conditions are
principally attributable to the in
suficiency of funds to employ the ne
cessary personal funds to enforce laws
and regulations for the protection of
the fisheries and for their proper SD
pervision and extension"
The army, navy and interior depart
ment, and special agents Of the gov
eminent have demonstrated beyond
the shadow of a doubt that the Alas
kan coal fields have an enormous ex-
tent, and that the quality Of the coal is
excellent. Yet, at the very outset of
the European war the people of Alaska
were uncomfortablly reminded that
their principal dependence for coal
was upon British Columbia, and in
view of the manner in which the ma
tive coal Of the region has been tied
up by the Washington government, the
Alaskans had reason for the genuine
alarm with which they petitioned to
the national government to supply
their immediate needs.
In this analysis of the subject, under
the title of Red Tape in the Govern
ment of Alaska" Secretary Lane says:
1T has taken as long as three years
for a patent to be issued to undecided
land claims in Alaska, after final certi-
fcates was issued, merely because of
the lengthy procedure involved in Sc
curing the proper filling out of papers.
In filing a homestead notice, the home
steader in Alaska on unsurveyed land
must stake his claim, and in his notice
with reference to government monu-
ments, trees, rivers, or other perma-
mem landmarks. The notice is filed
with the recorder of the district; the
homestead must then go or apply to
the surveyor general, whose office is
at Juneau. for a survey. If there is
not a contest or protest, the surveyor
general appoints a surveyor to make a
| survey of the homestead claim. This
survey is made at the cost of the
homesteader." A long process of pro-
ceedings follows, and there are cases
II ~ uCpdl "hClV tlC
homesteader has paid as much as 500
for his survey-a duty plainly shirked
by the government itself.
AS illustrating the division of au-
thority that crops up in all affairs in
connection with Alaska, Secretary
Lane cites the case of the black and
brown bears.
IAN amusing, and, to some extent,
troublesome conflict of authority has
been occasioned," he said, "by the law
making the brown bear'a game ami
NAL, under the control of the depart
ment of agriculture while the black
bear is recognized by law as a fur
bearing animal under the jurisdiction
of the department of commerce. The
question has more than once come up
for judicial consideration, whether
every brown bear is a game animal,
even if its parents are black. The
law is ambiguous, but was intended
to afford protection to the great brown
bear or Kadiac bear, and did not take
cognizance that in a litter Of black
bears one cub may be black and IN
other brown. In other words, a brown
bear is not necessarily the brown
bear"
Mr.. Lane declares that while this
patchwork system of administration
machinery has answered well enough
while the government policy has been
merely to keep the door shut and dis
courage development, it will not an
swer in the future.
A great boon is promised our patient
ward, which has been exploited, plum
dered. pillaged, and it is very probable
that such a commission form as has
been proposed will be able to intelli-
gently discharge the obligations i'm
posed upon it. With congress itself
so far away, it may prove wonderfully
efficient, inasmuch as, after all, indie
pendent of the new government rail-
road its officers will he called mon IN