The Nome daily nugget., 1915-02-19

local office has labored under the dis advantage of a lack of funds, the allow ance granted this branch of the de- partment barely sufficing to maintain in fair condition the roads already con structed, Even at that. much good has been accomplished in the maintainance of the roads most travelled and in the permanent stalking of mail trails.
 The faults observable in this district can hardly be charged to the local office but lie rather at the door of the overlords of the department for failing to secure a fund of sufficient size to enable the work of the Road Commits sion to be carried on in thorough and comprehensive manner. Year after year the work of opening up and mark ing the trails of this section has contin> ned 10 languish in spite of the protests of the public and the ever growing necessity of transportation to the re- moter districts Each succeeding year witnesses the producing areas of the interior compelled to finger in their development for no other reason than that there are no open highways for the rapid and economical transportation of supplies Travellers facing the be- vildering blast of winter are compelled to grope their way through binding storms as best they may and trust to blind Providence that they may find the way 10 their destinations. And yet withal the Board of Road commis- sioners continue to ask for the same iallowance year after year regardless of 1 the necessities and with the long de- ] termined knowledge that the sum is not sufficient by half at least With full l and comprehensive knowledge of the Itonditions the Commission has contin- ued 10 ask with monotonous persistence ] for an appropriation of sl25.O00 and ! the same sum. according 10 the state ment of Delegate Wickersham, is in- cluded in the War Department esti- mates as transmitted to the Committee of Appropriations by the Secretary of the Treasury together with the total of the estimates of appropriations re- duired for the year ending June 90 1916.
 LsI Se h.aG Ga5 an the estimates made by other depart ments of which the Alaska Road Com mission is one. II is the contention of the Delegate that regardless of the assertions to the contrary, the Commis- sion is, and has always received the appropriation asked for and the present bill which asks for an appropriation of $50 900 Is introduced for the two fold purpose of securing much needed funds for the proper prosecution of the neces- sary Improvements and al the same tune destroying the contention that the government will not grant d suff1ciency of funds 10 enable the department to carry on the work in sufficient and thorough manner. Regardless of the contentious, il is apparent that some thing is wrong somewhere The fact that the Appropriation Committee has 1 in no way restricted the demands of the Road Commission is apparent when lit is remembered that the Committee has always granted exactly what was asked for by the Road Commission in the estimates transmitted by them to the War Department. Who is directly responsible for this state of affairs can only be conjectued but il is clear that l the department at least in so far as | Seward Peninsula is concerned is guilty 1 of either gross discrimination or of a considerable laXity in the management of it's affairs as indicated by the con- stant application for the same sum when that sum has been determined as far from sufficient for the desired purpose. The need for the extension of roads and trails is imperative through lout the whole territory and especially