The weekly Alaska citizen., 1918-12-16
WHY THE RAILROAD?

railroad and have thot longingly of the cheap food, and the quick safe journey to the coast Cheap fuel has occupied the thots of many All considered what the railroad would bring to the interior while few there were who thot of the real reason behind the whole project.
 With the vast commercial development of the United States there came call and insistent demand for the development of all the natural resources of the country. Expert geologists reported indications of tremendous undeveloped mineral resources in the interior of Alaska Matanuska coal was factor also, but 1t was not necessary to build a railroad to the interior to reach it. The Ignite coal of Nenana was no attraction whatever, be- cause of its very poor quality, fact that is showing Up more and more and, incidentally has caused needless Encouragement among those who have the "coal buzz"
 It appeared to some that the establish ment of river port at Nenana was the aim and that ores would be shipped there by boats Some still cling to that notion, and, thinking that what is merely necessary construction camp is the one hope of the future, they rush blindly to Nenana with the idea of making few cents when the time comes. The tonnage that few river boats could bring to a rail road at Nenana, for less than one-half of the year, at high freight rate, would not pay the running costs of the former Tanana Val ley railroad let alone big railroad line like that now being constructed by the government Congress has never been noted for its philan- throphy, and it is safe bet that it never thot to be so kind as to furnish the people of the interior with an easy living during the long winter months by building this great railroad
 What those far-seeing men wanted was development of the mineral resources BIG DEVELOPMENT AND BIG TONNAGE! Otherwise the railroad would be useless, and an unnecessary expense. It will take tre- mendous tonnage to make that railroad pay and it will be secured, not at Nenana or even lat Fairbanks, but from the mines. The rail road will go to the mines and the distributing points nearest to the mines. A congressman thinking of the project would have visions of heavy train loads of valuable mineral, nov ing in quick succession out to the coast from interior distributing and shipping points such as Richardson, Fairbanks, Brooks and even from Bettles and Nome thru Nenana juno tion. And on the return trip they would see these same trains carrying heavy loads of supplies to these same points. Along with the mining machinery, would be farming ma chinery that as far as possible the country might be self-supporting and consequently able to send out more minerals. That is the real reason for the government railroad into the interior of Alaska. That is the why of the railroad
 SPECIAL Smoking cars' and smoking compartments" on the rapid transit system of the Boston elevated railway have been dis continued, it was announced recently. While the public trustees of the system have ordered the elimination of special facilities for smok- CTS temporarily" in response to an emer- gency requested by the health authorities, it is unofficially admitted that they may never be restored Facilities of this character are not provided on the rapid transit system in New York nor in other large cities of the United States. This action of the trustees of the elevated follows upon the recent recommenda- tion of the Massachusetts Public Service commission that the Smokers" be abolished entirely from the trains operating upon the overhead railway and thru the Cambridge| subway.
 THE Paris Symphony Orchestra, it is an nounced, is to give fifty concerts in leading American cities, beginning October last. Perhaps there are music lovers in the United States to whom music is the same whether it is produced by an enemy or friend, but it is fair to presume that the great majority feel otherwise about it. It has not been possible for Americans generally, during the last year or so, to extract real satisfaction from sym phony orchestra concert while keeping one suspicious eye on the leader and another on the bass viol player, and at the same time wondering whether the clarinetist and the first cornetist were not exchanging signals while pretending to be rapt in the ecstacies of n@cx>A