Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1917-04-08
Ole Government Of Alaska


tory has no means of taking care OF its
needy poor. The marshals can deal only
with criminals or suspects, and if a man
dies of starvation, or by any other natural
causes, the marshal has no authority to
pay for the burial of the remains and the
interment must be borne by the NUM-
cipal authorities or by popular subscrip-
ton. In the past some of the marshals
have taken care of the remains of miners
found in the hills and sent expense bills
therefor in to the department of justice.
Such accounts have been re ected and the
officials have been that much out of
pocket. Today the only way that the
halt blind or lame, or those incapacitated
by old age or disease to support them
selves, can be cared for by the people is
to charge the sick or needy with some
crime and sentence them to jail. | have
heard of many such instances during my
stay in the territory.
The only exception is the Pioneers
Home at Sitka. This was established
about three years ago, and is supported
by the territorial legislature. 1t is
large wooden building of two stories 1t
has now sixty-two inmates, most of them
old gold miners or prospectors who have
had share i'll the development OF tile
territory
Another crying need of Alaska is /
better mail service during the white.
The larger towns claim that they should
have all the mail all the time the year
around. At present, during the winter,
large part Of the secondeclass mail is not
delivered at Fairbanks, and still larger
part is not delivered at Nome The citi-
zens Of both towns are complaining
bitterly, and the complaint seems to be
especially we'll founded as to the mails at
Fairbanks That town is four or five
hundred miles from the ports at Prince
William sound, which are open all the
wear around and at which the steamers
from Seattle call regularly several times
every week. Moreover, the Copper River
railroad runs from the port of Cordova
to the town of Chitina, which is high up
in the coast range of mountains, and there
are regular stages during the winter
which go two or three times a week from
Chitina and Valdez to Fairbanks. The
stages carry the mail, and, according to
letter from the Fairbanks Commercial
club, which lies before me, they could
carry all the mail if the government saw
fit to pay for the transportation.
The people complain that large part
OF their newspapers and magazines which
should arrive during the winter are held
over until spring, when they are deliver
ed in bulk. For instance, the postmaster
at Fairbanks received on one day in June
600 sacks of such mail, much of which
was dated as far back as September,
October and November of the previous
year. Think of getting all your copies Il
this newspaper published this winter in
one big package in the coming May!
Moreover, the people of Alaska say
that the long winter is their time for
reading, and they want their newspapers
and magazines delivered as they come
out. They point to the fact that i'll Daw-
son, smaller town than Fairbanks, situ-
ated Just as far inland, the Canadians get
all of their mail at all times, and that the
difficulty of transportation is greater than
at Fairbanks They might add also the
fact that the Yukon territory of Canada
is small potatoes and few in hill compa-
ed with Uncle Sans rich garden patch
of Alaska. This territory did an export
and import business last year which
amounted to very near one hundred mil
lion dollars in value, and its commerce
increased during that year to the amount
of more than twenty-five million dollars.
1t is one of the best business propositions
under Uncle Sans flag, and the govern