The daily Alaskan., 1915-09-03

)e confused With me conAlllsSIOh 5 york. The forest fund is a fund ,aid into the treasury of the terri .ory by the United States and re- presents 25 per cent of the mon ,ys derived from the National for ests. The money is paid over by reason of an act of congress which provides that this money shall be by the legislature for the of schools and the | of roads and trails in l the county or counties where the money has been obtained. The pur- nose of this law is to partially the sections embraced within the forest reserves for the withdrawal of the lands and the restrictions imposed. No serious person questions the fact that 1t was the clear purpose of congress that this money should be spent at its source. Unfortunately, when the law was enacted, Alaska had no legislature at all and evidently was not taken into consideration. Again when Alaska was created In to a territory with a local leglsla- ture the method adopted was radically different from any pre- vious territorial creation by our government and the various diVi- sions Of Alaska were allowed to remain as divisions and were not designated as counties. In many other respects the Alaska enabling act restricted the activities of the people of Alaska beyond the limlta- tions of previous territorial crea- tions. Doubtless the non-contigu- ousness of Alaska had something
 to do with the case, and also the vast size of the territory and its conflicting interests and radically varied conditions, as well as gross popular ignorance as to the true
 facts about Alaska. However, be
 that as it may, I found during the early days of the last legislature that there was a disposition among some of the members to hide be-
 hind these technicalities, and not
 withstanding it was generally ac-
 knowIedged that the first division
 was morally entitled under the law
 and under the past and present
 conditions in Alaska, to the full amount of S52,OOO which this diV'-
 sion had paid into the fund, still finally, with three noted exceptions
 the members of the other divisions
 voted solidly to take this money
 and divide it among all four di-
 visions.
 The first day of the session l
 introduced Senate Bill Number
 One which provided for tho 0vnendi,
 or the fund on various projects in
 s. E. Alaska. A few days later a
 joint committee Of the senate and
 house was appointed to take this forest fund under consideration and make recommendations, We made t . best fight we knew how and
 this committee, one Saturday, gen erally agreed to report the bill
 back fayorably provided 25 per
 cent of the amount was set aside for a general school board which wo agreed to. Before Monday certain influences were set at work which defeated this agreement and prevented the just settlement of
 this question throughout the re- mainder of the session. The pres cut law on the subject was finally enacted by the legislature and a road supervisor appointed in each diViiion to expend the money. There is an ancient writing which starts by saying that all Gaul is divided in three parts, and permit me to say that, after having for years the bulk of the road appropriations from con gress and the tax funds, and after obtaining $35,OOO,OOC from congress for railroads, it was all gall" that divided our poor little forest fund iu'o four parts. The members from other divisions were very adverse to any suggestions that forest re- serves might be created in the other divisions so that they might have the opportunity to contribute Cn an equal basis to this forest fund. Some of the newspapers In th3 other divisions are now accus- inc the people of the First division of an attempt to create dissension in Alaska, but it is not the truth. The representatives from the First division have at no time asked for