The Alaska daily empire., 1916-02-02
DREAD TOLL OF ALASKA WATERS
 IS TOLD ABOUT

Strong condemnation of the govern ment's policy toward Alaska. which is held to have been one of repression rather than assistance" is contained in an article on marine disasters of the Alaska Route" appearing in the January issue of the Washington His. torical Society Quarterly. just issued from the presses of the University of Washington. The article Is from the pen of Mir. c. L. Andrews, who for 20 years was In the customs ser vice in Alaska; and 1t contains the fullest account ever made of the null ti-millions and the many lives lost for want of proper aids to navigation of the 1000 mile long channel running north from Seattle to Skagway.
 "The government has not done, and is not now doing, what 1t should do toward the upbuilding of the Terri tory of Alaska Mir. Andrews writes. Its policy has heretofore been that Of repression, rather than assistance. If instead of building forts and main talnlng military establishments in the country at an immense cost only to be abandoned there had been light houses and coast protection afforded, the advancement of the land would have been secure and property amounting to millions of dollars would ! have bppn saved"
 Enormous Insurance Rates
 Mir. Andrews takes cognizance of the efforts of the prhsent and of past administrations to aid navigation, and remarks that the long delayed drag survey is at last locating the sunken rocks that heretofore cost ship to find. in almost every instance"
 Because of the lack of aids to the mariners" he says. "the marine in- surance to Alaska is greater than to almost any part of the world. The rate from Seattle to Skagway is as much as the rate from Seattle to LIy- erpool, via the Panama canal, in times of peace. The government tax on canned salmon is less than l per cent. while the marine insurance on this same salmon from Bristol Bay to Se- attle is 8 per cent.
 With Adequate aids to navigation along the coast the rate need not be greater than to other parts of the civ llzed world. The buoys and lights, the fog signals and the wireless tele- graph are fast putting aside the ma -ine dangers of Alaskan waters. Some of them are badly needed, have been long delayed. and are warmly wei comed when they arrive. Thirty-fIve veare elapsed before the first light house was built and nearly half a century has passed and not light on Bristol Bay. e place from which .here is 100000 cases Of salmon sent out each year."
 Tells Stories of Wrecks
 The writer says the government has waited for private enterprise to develop the Territory. while 1t reaped he benefit before 1t made an invest ment
 In addition to pointing out the Ter. ritory's claim for further attention Mir. Andrews tells a dramatic story ,f many of the famous and terrible disasters of the channel, supplement- ing his article with a detailed list of all discoverable wrecks in Alaska waters, partly supplied by the Pacific Fisherman and partly the result of a summer spent in Investigating the records at Juneau in 1915 The loss of life. which he supplies as sully qs possible. was not published in ear Her lists of history.
 Mir. Andrews is working in the Ban ,roft Library at Berkeley, calif, at The present time. on book which he Intends publishing. He is nephew If the pioneer. Clarence B. Bagley 1f Seattle.
 It is understood on the campus of he University of Washington that Mir Andrews article in the Historial Quarterly will be used to press the campaign for further aids to the de- yelopment of the north country.
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