The Cordova daily times., 1917-01-17

| hihSo away lo Dc oueileu' ANOtuiu
 but the richest ore can stand thi
 transportation. How many thousand
 or millions of tons of ore would b
 produced were 1t permitted no one cal
 say. But in Montana, in Utah and il
 Arizona, where the conditions are no
 so favorable for cheap copper produc
 tion, the ores mined run into tn,
 millions of tons per year. Fine citiei
 and prosperous communities are bull and supported on the copper industr!
 alone. Butte, thriving city of 75,00(
 population, is an example of wha
 might be built at Cordova were oniy
 a little reasonable sense and justice used about it. As it stands. the gov. ernment will neither develop the field itself nor permit anybody else to do it.
 CRUEL INJUSTICE TO THE PEOPLE.
 The people of the towns of Cordova, Chitina, Mccarthy and Kennecott and other places are not only obliged to see the great resources about them remain undeveloped, the ores pro- duced in their district hauled away to be smelted and to build up compan. les in a distant state instead of their own, but they must bring even the coal they use for domestic purposes from foreign fields a thousand miles and more away instead of from the Alaska coal field right at their own doors.
 The people of Katalla, only ten miles from the Bering coal, are obliged to pay $20 per ton for coal for domestic use brought from British Columbia
 These communities, having a popu. lation of only two or three thousand pioneers, struggling to build up their towns against the natural hardships of the country. see their best efforts defeated by the obstruction and dis. of their own government.
 Heretofore pioneers have been help ed and not hindered They have been praised for their courage and appre- ciated for their enterprise in build. ing prosperous communities in our un- deyplODad tarritOriaS
 MALIGNANT POLITICS.
 The truth is, the Boring coal has long been the subject of political con. troversy. The most astonishing lies have been involved about 1t and re- tailed to the public for political pur- poses. The Ballinger-Pinchot quarrel ragged about 1t. The enemies of the Taft administration used it freely as a weapon of attack in the Cunningham l coal cases and the Controller bay in- cident. It's uses for such purposes ought to have passed. The time seems to have come when it should be put to it's natural uses. THE COPPER RIVER RAILROAD.
 The Copper River railroad Is an ex- cellent line extending 196 miles from COrdova inland. It would long ago have thrown out a branch to the Der ing coal, but was stopped. Now 1t can not It is owned by the KenneCott Copper Corporation, which owns the producing copper mine already re. ferred to. The shareholders of this company number six or seven thou sand. It is operated more as a mine road than a commercial line because it has not been permitted to extend to the coal. It has for the same req son been prevented from extending other branches into the copper field or further to the interior. It's growth is stopped. The rates are necessarily higher because 1t can not develop it's territory and so increase it's volume of business.
 SSNEhNmENl "NI SONOE"N'
 By the terms of the Alaska railroad law the president is fully authorized to condemn or purchase any existing line of railroad or any part thereof, or to compel any such line to make traffic connections with a government line.
 Therefore. in extending a line to the Boring coal the government may make use of the existing line as far as it goes. It may purchase or condemn the 3S miles of track, or if considered preferable, could condemn or pur- chase the whole of the existing line
 But it is not at ali necessary to do either. The law is ample to compel the existing line to make a traffic connection with any line the govern ment may build to the coal. upon req sonable terms and conditions, to be adjusted by the Interstate Commerce Commission, if necessary.
 ihS SoFSi hhhehL Coulut hs hh dlteI- native, secure running rights over the 38 miles of existing line and so handle the coal traffic independently. Such contracts for running rights are very common. The Union Pacific railroad for example, secured such rights on the Northern Pacific tracks from Portland to Seattle, and operates its