The Alaska citizen., 1917-03-12
TRANSFORMATION COST
 RETARD DEVELOPMENT

ton on hIs part.
 In the first place the Nm.- ga. tl Yukon Route Was not conztu,.e ,o supply the interior Alaska region It was constructed to sugply ,A Atlin-Whitehorse-Dawson interior O. tine Tuhuu TrtI.iuI, anu Btiiaen t.. lumbia IL was constructed anu ope. rated in 1900, at the lime O. ,ha great Dawson gold strike. and paid for itself over and o,er again tH. first few years of is activity When its stockholders put Il the.r G.ones they knew the conditions ant t. limitations. They knew it could moi supply its river route in the winter season. and since 1900 a stage AHr has connected Whitehurse ana D-1z. son, from the freezeup in the fall L. the breakup in the spring Durin- the winter season its boats are sI. ways pushed on the ways. Nh..e they lie idle until the water runs again the next season. But when the boats top running the expense of operation and maintenance stops too Not until 1913 did this route send it's boats below Dawson ol make any effort to supply the trade of interior Alaska. On March 2S. 1906. 1t entered into a contract with the Northern Commercial Co. and the N A. T X T. Co, for the con rrol of rates and it's share ot the rebate on the Alaskan down.rtyer trade. and agreed to keep out of that region as a competitor That combination barred il from the Al aska trade until its entry with its two small boats, the Alaska and the Yukon. in the summer ol 1912. Sc 1t is fair 10 say the White Pass & Yukon Route was neither organized nor operated as part of the Alaskan Transportation system until il bought control of its dominating competitor the Northern Navigation Co.,, in 1914
 Tt is not, therefore, m a position fairly to offer the argument that its rail division cost d large sum oI money on which it is entitled to fatl return, for it's rail division was n0e built to sGpply the Alaska trade, il may not fairly be heard to argue n favor Of returns on the Yukon NayI- gati0n Co. Ltd, investment, for that investment was not made to supply Alaska, but the Dawson interior. And the White Pass X Yukon Route supplied only those Canadian reg.ons from 1900 to 1913. and not Alaska. The company sold it's birthrighl Jo interior Alaskan trade by it's contract of March 28, 1906, with the x. C, Co. and the N. A T. X T. Co.,, and it was not until 1913 that it or ganized and operated the American Yukon Navigation Co m cOmpeti- tive effort to break into Alaska trade, and then in bad faith toward the people whom it seeks to do business with, it contracted with the Northern Commercial Co., to impose an unfair and criminal tax of $12 per ton on every other shipper in that region. and to give that illegal tax together with a SIP rebate on all it's freight to the Northern Com mercial Co.,
 "Of course, the Commission has no power to punish the White Pass < Yukon Ky. Co.,, Ltd, because it or it's subsidiaries break faith with its shippers, and violate the criminal law of the United States by impos- ing unjust or even criminal burdens on the people Of Alaska. The power of the commissions power is limited to establishing through routes and just and reasonable rates, but facts mentioned herein ought to justify the Commission in so arranging the burden of original construction as to put much of it on the Canadian re- gions which ought to bear it. The construction account of the Ameli- can-Yukon Navigation company is fairly to be considered when fixing Alaska rates, but not the whole of the accounts of the other joints Of the route"
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