The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-11-16
AN OPEN MEETING.

Tine Chamber of Commerce IS cali ing an open meeting for the pur' pose Of ascertaining the most urgent needs of this community and the hest means for obtaining the same 1 through the Alaska Legislature and | through Congress. Many things might be suggested which would i'm prove locally conditions if certain measures could be passed, but Nome fs so far away that any suggested improvement wifi appear to Con gressionaI so!ons in the nature oi cork. While q tan thousand dollar pump or a half million dollar post of;ea wouid De quite reasonable foI ehe toau of sau.dpnk when patron izad by the senator from that will age. they regard with suspicion any suggestion al all from Alaska.
 However apart from these thirgs the Industrial Worker will venture to say that the most urgent need for this community is the strict tax ation of uuimproved mining land and the renewal of the compulsory hundred dollars worth of work for each twenty acres of mining land so held
 The repeal of this section of the Roden mining law was a decidedly reactionary step, inspired by large holders of mining property which were unimproved, would remain un- improved and were held and are held for speculative purposes only.
 There is not a state in the union which does not recognize the great est of its evils has been the policy of land and resource grabbing which enabled the few to control the mos: vauable lands and resources with in those states.
 Alaska has been one of the sec. tions of America which has suffered most in this regard, and & 'efc Peninsula does not suffer least in all Alaska in this way Dy any means.
 One factor that is retardinp the the fact that the pol:>Y of spe Hu!a. tive holding and lana grabbing has tied up not one or two claims, but whole tracts of country. Men with fake ditch work tied up ground that they never did a stroke oi work upon, and which has been no more developed than section Of the desert of Sahara.
 There is lots of ground worth prospecting in Seward Peninsula. There is ample ground around Nome But it is all held intact by specula- tive owners and the man who dares to try to mine thereupon and to perform legitimate work in connec- tion herewith, hunts only a law suit
 The man who develops a country is the individual miner and pros pector He does actual work. He sinks a hole here or there and ascer tains whether or not there is pay, The tract holder, the association man, the man who has tied ur creeks and rivers with the aid O. elastic affidavits, retards all pro gressive development.
 There are thousands of acres around Nome Mining District which would pay to work. They will nos pay to work and to donate royal ty. Often the ten per cent or the twenty per cent or the twenty-five per cent asked by the owner is the very amount that would make the operation of the ground remunera- tive. Under such conditions these thousands of acres remain year after year untouched and unproduc- tive
 The Roden law in .that it com pelled such speculative holders to get off or mine was a boon to the country. But the influence of the dredging and other companies was too great to allow it be retained on the statute books and the reaction ary members of the legislature tumbled over one another in an ef- fort to repeal it.
 Hence it is the tract owners were enabled to hang on to their great hoIdinpe and they have distri fter