The weekly Alaska citizen., 1919-03-10
SLOGAN STARTED BY CITIZEN
 WILL REACH FROM ALASKA TO
 MAINE; RYAN A GOOD BOOSTER

he completion of the government ailroad and connecting wagon roads to points of production. with ade. quate water lines on interior rivers and sufficient coastwise shirHing fa- cilities, the development of Alaska's mineral resources must be rapid and 
 Central power plants rightly To- cated for the distribution of electric power to the various mining camps would revolutionize mining methods and production costs. Electric cur rent may be transmitted to- distant and inaccessible regions where the cost of fuel transportation would be prohibitive. Mills for the reduction and concentration of ores operated will in turn reduce the cost of transportation to the railroad. It is even possible that systems of
 trolly line for the operation of electrically.driven trucks over noun tain roads may be found practicable and economical. Looking twenty years ahead none of these foreshad- owed possibilities will seem stranger or more wonderful than the develop ment of the twenty years just past.
 WONDERS OF REGENT YEARS.
 "Who (speaking twenty years ago as I am today of the next twenty years) predicted in metailurgy method of floating the mineral con- tent Of ores on soap bubbles so as to increase production and reduce
 costs. would have been regarded otherwise than dreamer? Who, predicting the aeroplane as the win ming factor in a world war; the sub. marine as an instrument that would nearly annihilate trans-oceanic com merce, the completion of the Panama Canal by the United States, govern ment ownership and operation of great systems of hrdro-electric gene ration distribution, the reclainling of vast areas of arid lands by irrigation who, I say. predicting these things twenty years ago, would have been classed other than a visionary?
 Perhaps the United States gov ernment may never construc. sys- tenn of wagon roads in Alaska; it may never erect immense electric power plants adjacent to its coal fields and distribute that power
 turnout the mining districts. It may never electrify its Alaskan rail road; it may never encourage and stimulate the search for gold and da does; 1t may never appropriate other mineral riches of Alaska by aiding prospectors, as Cana does; it may never appropriate money to assist in tine development of Alaskan resources; it may never establish a system of farm loans and state aid for agriculture, but If it does not 1t will be because Alas kans fail to impress upon the nation the importance and profitable eness of such policies.
 GREAT RESULTS BRoT ABOUT.
 "River and harbor Improvements, railroad land grants, liberal land laws, liberal forestry laws, generous mineral and homestead rights. prodi- gal expenditures for public works fos- tered, encouraged and made possible for a single generation of Americans to accomplish more in the develop ment of natural resources in the western states than was ever ac- before in the history of mankind in twenty generations. With the example of the prodiglous in- crease of national wealth due to these policies so that the United States is the richest of all nations, how can anyone believe that Alaska will be left, like Topsy, to just grow?'
 "Ihose who know anything at all about Alaska know that her coal. her oil, her precious and semi-pre- cious metal deposits are greater than those of any other known like area on the continent. Five we'll defined coal seams on Lignite creek in the Nenana field have . total thickness of more than 800 feet. One field in the Chulitna district is reputed to have one bed 200 feet thick. AS these coal deposits ex- ceed the largest elsewhere known. 30 do most of Alaska's other mineral deposits exceed those elsewhere known.
 Alaska could readily support a population of from twenty to thirty persons to the square mile. or more than 100000. She has fewer than