The daily Nome industrial worker., 1915-12-20

ouCu d Slulplc SuDJoCL dS that, IL Is about time for them to admit that they have really got no power
 What Alaska has at the present time is a strictly limited form of local government, with all the more important branches removed from their control The wisdom of this may be manifest to some, but 1t is not right that the people should perpetually fool themselves into the belief that they are governing them selves. They are doing no such thing.
 If we turn to the Development Board suggestion of Secretary Lane and consider for one moment the the area of the activities of such an administrative board, we easily dis cover the real authority.
 Political power is a myth where with there does not go industrial control. The Territorial legislature has practically no such industrial control.
 The mines, lands, means of trans portation, fisheries-all these things upon which is based tho reason for the existence in this latitude of a population is taken from the legis- lature. The District Judge has in- fnitely more power than has the legislature in an administrative way, while it is quite cle2r that the real government is vested in depart ments at Washington whose fiat is still the directing force in the COT trol of the territory.
 The Industrial Worker is not say
 ing that the Territory would make any sort of a better fist of the gov erning job than do those Depart ments. No matter how severely one may criticize the Departments, it is possible to do much worse than they have done. There is no reason to believe with the influence SC great of various interests over the legislature, that better results would be obtained by giving it amp Ter powers. It might, but it is q Gt5@to2blo question.
 As for taking the Wickersham idea of statehood seriously, that is frankly not possible. It is imposs- ible even to think that Wickersham has any such notion, but inasmuch as he pulled off fairly effective joke in the form of the Home Ruie bill, and such fairly effective joke proved mighty effective politics, be will pull off another on the state hood question without being a b:t the worse He knows what he IS doing, even if it be more than any one else does.
 The question of the opening Iii, and development of any new terri tory is just question that adjusts stances of the country of which it E an adjunct Naturally the opening up is speeded or retarded by the material resources which it possesse.; for development, their accessibility, their ease of operation and other facts concerning them.
 They are but little affected by le- gislation, although it is possibly true that some delays resulted from the prevention of syndicates controlling in bulk the coal lands of the differ ent sections.
 Beyond a doubt the real need of the country at this time is cheaper transportation, but that IS as much marine as a land question, if not more so. In fact railroad built from tidewater to the Yukon will solve it not at all. The cheapest railroad built cannot give as cheap of river boats, but the demand for supplies is so slight in the interior that small firms must give way to monopolized control which inflicts ill the way of rates all the traffic will bear. The fact that development de- pends upon discovery and investiga- tion is seen completely in Juneau There the lowest grade rock in the world is being mined at profit. None of the mining companies there have been retarded by the lack of opening of the coal lands or the turning over of the resources to the Cunningham claimants in the Der