Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1917-04-08
copyright, 1917, by Frank @. Carpenter)
HTNEAJT Alaska.

suppose that you ndu
received from it half billion dollars in
dividends and that your average receipts
for the past twenty years had been equal
to $50 per cent on your original outlay.
Moreover, suppose that, notwthstand-
ing all this, you had reliable information
that your property was steadily advanc-
ing in value, and that its dividends would
be larger and larger in the decades to
come.
Would you not want to know all about
the investment, and how your agents
were handling it?
Well, every one of us has an interest
in just such an investment. The prop
erty is known as Alaska, and it belongs
to the people of the United States. 1t
cost us a little more than 81 100000 just
half century ago and since then we have
received dividends which make total OF
5000 per cent. The amounts paid with
in the past twenty years have aggregated
more than a half billion dollars; or, on
the average more than $2,000,00O a
month for every one of the months of
those twenty years.
Talk about your war babies! They
are infant pygmies beside our giant baby
of the far north
And Alaska is only baby. Notwith
standing the big dividends already paid,
the investment is in its swaddling clothes
and is still sucking the bottle AS to its
mineral development, the property has
hardly been scratched. The gold mined
has been about $250,O0O,000 but the pros
pectors estimate that there is from half
billion to a billion dollars worth of placer
gold yet to be won, and that the lode or
quartz gold, which is known to lie in the
rocks, is far more than that which will be
washed from the streams. AS to the coal,
its value is said to run high into the bill
lions, and in addition, there is copper,
anthony, tin and other minerals, worta
money which is beyond the dreams of ma
tional avarice.
The same is true of the fisheries. The
waters of Alaska are like the streets OF
paradise. They are paved with gold and
every year we hook up gold bricks in the
shape of fish products worth more than
three times the amount we paid for the
territory. We have already received nine
times our original investment out of the
furs, and as to the farms, which are yet
to be developed, they will cover hundreds
of millions of acres and will yield divi-
dends equal to the richest lands of Fin
land, Sweden and Norway.
So much for the investment. Now for
the management and what it is doing
with our property There are many who
say that the development is backward,
and that there is no place upon earth
where the cost efficiency expert is more
needed. Others point with pride to the
results already obtained. | shall take up
these views in giving you the latest news
with regard to the property, and as to
how it is handled today.
In the first place, Alaska is territory.
1t is one-fifth as large as the United
States, and it has about 10000 inhabit-
ants About $4,000 of these are whites
and the remainder, for the most part, In
dams or Eskimos. The government,
which l may call the business manage
ment, consists of territorial and federal
officials. Primarily, almost all of the Of
ficials are of federal origin, and the terri
tory is practically governed from Wash
ington. The governor, or chief executive,
is appointed by the president of the Unit
ed States. His name is ]. +, A. Strong.
He was once newspaper man, and he is
an able executive. He has his residence
here at Juneau, which is the capital Of
the territory, and where sits also the ter
ritorial legislature. The governor may
veto any bill passed by the legislature,
but he must do it within three days after