The Alaska daily empire., 1917-01-31
Annual Report of Road Commission of the
 North Presented
 in Good Form.
FOR ALL YEAR TRAFFIC
Recommendations Made and An Exhaustive Detailed Report
 Is Given.


 Is Given.
 The annual report of the Board o. Road Commissioners for Alaska was received in Juneau today The re. port is an exhaustive one covering in detail all Of the wori; in the north. The introductory statement says that the Board of Road Com mlssioucrs for Alaska is engaged in ! the construction of wagon roads. bridges. and trails, and of military land post" roads, bridges, trails, and trails in the Territory under the ji- ] rectiou of the Secretary of War and ! in conformity with an act of Con- gress approved January 27, 1905, and subsequent acts amendatory there ' to. The board was formally organ ized on May 15, 1905, and has been ! ia continuous existence since that date.
 The road and trail mileage con. structcd and maintained to date is ! in round numbers as follows: Wa gou roads. 92O miles; winter sled road. G29 miles,: trail 2.2lo miles. ! As stated ia 8 former report the wagon roads may be classified as good country highways Intended Go meet an allyearround traffic Of con siderable tonnage. The winter sled road is an inexpensive form of com s-ruction. intended to meet the re- | I0u,remcuts of winter travel only in certain portions of the winter. The trail differs from the winter sled road only in being narrower and with less attention given 10 grade and surface inequalities.
 There has been expended upon the work up to the close of the fiscal year 1916 a total of $3,39O122.72. or which $l.75O,OOO has been apprOpriat- ed by Congress in varying amounts beginning with the fiscal year Of 1907. and S1625122.72 derived from the Alaska fund. The average total cost of the wagon road has been ] S3,144 per mile: of winter sled road, S345 per mile; Of trail, $lOG per mile. The above figures embrace l location. construction. and malntcn. ance and all expenditures by the ! board
 The Congress at its last session made an appropriation of $50o00O, which is the largest that has been made for any single year: princi- pally for the further improvement of the Valdez-Fairb5nks military and post road. This, however, being for the fiscal year 1917, is not cmbrac- ed in the operations covered by the . present report.
 ! In respect to the Territorial tax for road and other purposes, or the . Alaska fund" the Legislature of the Territory Of Alaska at it's last ses- sion in a joint memorial prayed . Congress for authority 10 alter, mod. 'fy amend or repeal the laws reIat- Ing Co taxes on business and trades iu the Territory, and that the Leg islaturc be given authority over the ] Alaska fund" The Delegate from ! Alaska, after reciting the above named memorial as a preamble Co a . bin. Fl. R. 4GlS, introduced 9 proyis- ion that the Legislature be "em- powered end authorized to alter, amend, modify, or repeal the act Of l Congress which brought the board of road commissioners into eXis- tence, approved January 27, 1905.
 The memorial had relation mere .y to the control and distribution Of the tax fund, but the effect If the provision immediately following, in the first section of the bill above referred to, would be something quite different and is sufficiently manifest Co need no comment from our board .n the pages of this report The board quotes. however, the follow ing statement of the president of the board made public recently in this connection:
 NO member of tine road COmmis- sion. I may say here. and no per son in the War Department, was in any way whatsoever responsible for the passage of the original law ere ating the road commission, and no one in the War Department will, in my opinion, make an effort now to have the law continued if it is con sldered undesirable or objectionable ,o the people of Alaska, but so long as the responsibility is upon the de- oartment every effort will be made by the officers in charge of the work to get substantial results, and every thoughtful person acquainted with the present conditions in Alas ka and interested in proper deyel- opment of the Territory knows that some form Of Federal aid which means Federal direction, is neces. sary to get such results.
 The task of building roads through out this vast wilderness of Alaska to meet the rapidly growing demands and aid in systematic development of it's resources can not be adequate ly described by any less comprehen- siye term than colossal, and our board can not hope to make more than beginning during the official lifetime ot Its present members.
 As far back as 1908, in the annual