The weekly Alaska citizen., 1918-12-16
ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE PROSPECTORS

PROSPECTORS Now that the war is over the attention of those who have the interests of the terri tory at heart naturally turns to its develop nnent and its future. The American Mining congress, with its local chapter composed of a large portion of the prominent mining men of the interior, is an organization that is de- voting itself to the interests of mining men everywhere in the country with the idea of getting aid to the miners by means of i'm proved legislation thru congress, primarily The Alaska chapter, located at Fairbanks has been working over the problem of how best to aid the miner and help him to produce gold in spite of conditions that seem prohibitive As these men have studied the situation care fully, it has appeared to them that first things should come first and that to bring this about new country must be continually opened up to keep up the life and interest in mining re- sources of the interior There are large amounts of mining property now located that can be worked when the present exorbitant mining costs are lowered, but for the great part the crying need seems to be new loca- tions.
 But the prospector must have encourage ment and material aid, in order to success fully make new discoveries, and this should come from the government. The local chap ter of the Mining congress, thru its represen- tatives at Washington, are about to make an attempt to procure such help. They are now working on the drawing up of bill which will probably be placed before congress in the form in which it is drawn up, for it is in this way that the Mining congress works The men in the different localities where gov ernment aid is needed, compile statistics and investigate local conditions, reporting on them Ito the representative body at Washington which will in turn present the claims for help to congress. This is the best and practically the only way in which miners can work for the much needed government aid.
 The amount of money required by the plans formulated by the local Mining congress may seem small for the work which is at hand to be done, but careful study of the plan reveals the fact that 1t should become self supporting in time. This will be accomplished thru the small amounts that will be paid as a tax on the property which is located thru the government aid, thus forming an ever in- creasing fund for the carrying out of the work in the future. It is only fair that those who profit by the aid that the government gives them shoud contribute in the form of a small tax to the fund to give like aid to oth- CTS. If the government will put up the sum asked for, one hundred thousand dollars it is very good beginning that will be bound to bring remarkable results
 At first it may be that many prospectors who rush to secure this government aid will be refused and disappointed, in that they can not get the money they want, or that the tech nical man will not approve of the locality in which they want to do their prospecting In order that the most may be accomplished on the limited amount put up for this, the at tempt will probably be made at first to send out those who are best fitted for the work, and this will naturally fall to the judgment of the technical expert in charge It may be rather difficult matter for him to pick out those men best fitted and it might necessitate leaving some prospectors for future help. But these men should not feel hurt because they will undoubtedly get the next chance. It may be that some form of written examination will be resorted to as the test for fitness of the applicant.
 The question naturally arises, could the man who wishes to spend his own money still get the expert advice and government cooper ation, without asking for government money? He would be able to do so by borrowing a nominal sum from the government, repaying this later as would those who are entirely staked by the government. He should not