The Cordova daily times., 1919-03-14

are WILLIE u IcpdII IiiClA oAAAy OA~A0SA by showing willingness to pay for the mail service on that route on basis in keeping with the unusual costs of operating steamship.
 No more remote or hazardous steamship route exists in the world than the one formerly covered by the steamship Dora, which for years piled back and forth between the Alaska mainland, the peninsula and the Aleu- tian islands, it being the only regular carrier between those remote settle ments and the outside world. But we all know what happened to the Dora She was losing money steadily and as there was no hope of getting just re- muneration for the mail contract, the service has been withdrawn, and the boat is tied up at Seattle, leaving those people without any communication with the outside worlT One cannot expect a steamship company to lose money on a route month by month and continue to operate. Had the post office department been willing to give fair rumeration for the mail service, that, in connection with revenue de- rived from passengers, freight and express, would have enabled the ves- sel to about break even and even without making any money, it would have been maintained in the service.
 Now some of the loudest complaints are coming from Anchorage. A snow slide during December completely blocked the United States railroad for some twenty-five miles between Sew ard and Anchorage and the Alaska engineering commission has put on dog sleds to cover the gap closed by the slides. Twenty-Five years ago the writer of this article was in charge of a railroad that was blocked by snow and other casualties for the entire month of January. To keep faith with it's patrons a driver with a team and sled was engaged and the mail, ex-
 
 press and urgent perishable freight and medicines transported over the hill without one cent charge to con- signee or the government. In addi- tion to the loss by the road being closed, damage to the road and dam- age to equipment, the daily expense of the sled was $29, or a little item of $500 cheerfully paid to keep faith with the public and to meet the require ments of the mail contract. We don't know what arrangements the govern ment has made with the dog team operators operating over the gap In Alaska, but we have the word of An chorage people that it takes many, many days for mail or small express packages to move from Seward to Anchorage, and the dog teams charge 15 cents per pound for handling pack ages.
 This is an illustration of the present trouble to the westward, but the blame for the whole situation is be- ing placed upon the steamships, simply because they sensibly refused to maintain the service at a loss. The people of Seward and Anchorage we'll remember when the two steamships gave them an ideal service, but even then they did nothing to encourage the operators to continue that service, which consisted of eight regular sail ings per month by two companies. Quite to the contrary, the leading merchants of Seward arranged for their own tramp steamship which handled their freight at secret rate, and at the same time they went to their competing merchants in seward and got them to join with them in making up the cargo at regular rate, yet they, with the bulk of the cargo, were bringing the same goods at a reduced rate, which resulted Tn the smaller merchants deliberately playing into the hands of their largest competitor.
 Anchorage, which is loudest in it's complaint of the mail service and is eager to shift the blame exclusively to the steamships, which deposited at their harbor in safety the 5000 or more persons who built the original town in the boom days. In place of looking upon the steamships as an important factor in the future of the town, it became antagonistic to the steamships and lost no opportunity of voicing the sentiment through the press of Achorage and in every public manner.
 The Alaska engineering commission did everything possible to disrupt the service, even to the extent of putting on the transport Crook, handling freight and passengers, and more re- gently chartering tramp steamers