The Alaska daily empire., 1917-12-27

tic Continent was not even a dream. The statement that the people or Alaska have borne more handic2ps than any other people who have pioneered new, undeveloped terri tory, at least on the North Ameri- can Continent, has been so often made that it has become trite. nevertheless it is true. If the best portions of the Far West had been reserved; if the pioneers had been forbidden to make use of those nat ural resources which they found at hand and penalized if they attempt ed to use them, is it reasonable to suppose that the Middle West and the Far West would have produced many great commonwealths within comparatively short time?
 Conservation. which is defined as the act of preserving, maintaining, supporting, or protecting, is no doubt sound in principle, but con servation as applied to Alaska, while it has preserved coal, oil, and timber, has largely estopped devel- opnent along these linest The coal lands of Alaska were reserved by Executive order in 1906 and the oil lands some years later, and there has been no general development is mined to-day only on a small scale and oil development is at a standstill The need of coal such as is found in Alaska, is apparent all over the Pacific Coast. Yet the production is limited and confined to but one section of the Territory. i The same is true of oil. There is no doubt that the coal areas of Alaska are capable of supplying sllf- 1 ficient quantities of coal for all do- nestle and industrial purposes of i the Pacific Coast regions were they developed commercially, and if the oil lands of the Territory could he properly developed, they would largely add to the supply of gaso- i line.
 | l At BONtIuOI SldltS tIdL Iuc Ct ritory possesses within it's borders a number of the finest water powers i to be found on the Pacific Coast only a few feet of which have ever been utilized in any way. There are billions of feet of timber suit able only for wood-pulp purposes, ] yet neither the pulp timber nor the ! unharnessed water power may be
 used because existing laws are
 either inadequate or are such as
 will not permit the investment oi l the necessary capital required for development and manufacturing
 purposes, All the possible electric energy that can be developed is i situated on lands belonging to the
 United States. The agitation oi some years ago, in favor of conser- ] vation of natural resources resulted
 in restrictions so severe that Alas ka's resources, such as coal, oil
 and water powers, were not only ! preserved but reserved and existing l laws are such that the utilization l Ol lHeSe SltcS TOT HyuIOeleclFiS plants is virtually impossible. Cap
 ital is scared away immediately up on learning that these water pow CTS can only be developed by ob- taining a permit, revocable at the pleasure of a Federal department or 1 bureau. The plain result is that capital looks askance when the sub ! ject of the development of these wa ter powers for industrial purposes is preached Determined efforts | have been made to induce Congress to pass law which would offer op- portunities for capital to develop
 water powers located on public lands under Federal control All though one bill passed the Senate and another passed the House. the legislation necessary is still to be enacted. The governor calls atten- tion to Senate Bill No. 2S12, ia- troduced at the recent special ses- sion of Congress by Senator Walsh, of Montana, the provisions. he states, are such as should encour- age development. safeguard capital, and at the same time adequately protect the public interest, and ex- press the hope that it will be speed 1 fly enacted into law.