The Alaska daily empire., 1920-12-10
'TRANSPORTATION
 CR!PPLES NORTH. SAYS GOVERNOR.
Reviews Situation in Annual Report to Payne Says
 Is Greatest Problem.

| Unless the transportation problem 4 is solved the Territory will be badly , crippled declared Gov Thomas I Riggs, Jr., in his annual report for ! the fiscal year ending June 30, 1920, { just made public by Secretary of { the Interior John Barton Payne. In i this report Gov. Riggs says that he ] does not favor the consolidation of ] competing lines now entering Alaska Gs proposed by Secretary Payne. I In the chapter devoted to trans [ portation, Gov. Riggs says:
 The great outstanding problem of 2 Alaska is that of transportation. ] The public of coastal Alaska is serv- 4 ed by three regular passenger and ] freight steamship lines-two Ameri- i c2n and one Canadian representing about twenty five per cent of the 1 tonnage now operating in the Terri ] tory. The Yukon River system is served by one line of river steamers, of the White Pass and Yukon Route, ! presumably controlled by British cap l ital. The Kuskokwim River is serv- i cd by small combination freight i and passenger ship sailing from San i Francisco to Bethel, while the inhaDi- tnnts of the valley itself are de- 1 pendent uron one small American river steamer. There are a few semi common carriers operating locally with indifferent success.
 | GoDnor Divor Nprtbuac ern Railroad -yuns from Cordova to Kennecott, distance of 196 miles. and is primarily an ore-carrying road. but performs the functions of com- mon carrier The railroad of the White Pass and Yukon Route ex- tends from Skagway in Alaska to Wnitehorse in Yukon Territory, a dis tance of 110 miles, 23 of which are in Alaska. The Yakutat and Southern Railroad from Yakutat to Seetuch River carries little besides fish. Tho Government railroad from Seward to Fairbanks is still under construction and is described elsewhere in the re- port.
 Thes, then, in brief, practically GOV esr the common-carrier systems to and within Alaska.
 At time when the products and wages of the Territory commander higher prices than elsewhere in the United States and when bonanza gold paystreaks could bear almost any expense of mining, the cost of transportation was matter of secondary importance. Now, how ever, when the price of products. wages and mining bear the same re- lation to similar conditions elsewhere, he greatly increased costs of trans portation bear heavily upon industry. To overcome the high tariffs, tue large operators, particularly in the fishing industries, have put on their own ships. amounting to apDroXi- nateiy 75 per cent Of the total ton mage operating in Alaska, thereby cutting down the revenues of the regular lines, necessitating increased tariffs which must be publicly borne. Increased tariffs then force out some industry, necessitating further in crease on tariffs on the remaining
 onnagc to be moved. The Territory s faced with the probability of further increased tariff in the near
 uture No one can foretell where
 t is all going to end,
 To equalize the burden of trans oortaticn, the Territorial shipping board proposed through Federal leg rf-,fi of fDy m 1 lll ships in Alaska, and with the l funds So raised and with the power i of contract build up regular and i regional service on agreed upon equi able rates and schedules. It is not proposed to drive out the privately owned ships or foreign owned ships but to make them all share in build ing up a service to all parts of Al aska affected by water transporta- tion.
 An interdepartmental board ap- pointed by and at the request of the Secretary of the Interior has reported in favor of a consolidation of the American lines. I do not favor the recommendation as a monopoly would then exist and would remove ali present competition for business. The steamship companies, while ap- bearing to give serious consideration to the proposition. in reality are not making any great effort to comply with the recommendation.
 The bill introduced into the Senate of the United States at the instance of the Territorial shipping board has received a great deal of opposition from owners of private carriers and seemingly from the subsidized Cana dian line. The bill was drawn after ] an exhaustive investigation lasting : nine months. during which the most complete data ever attempted cover ing transportation to Alaska was compiled Hearings were conducted before the Senate Commerce Com mittee. and the plan advocated re ceived high commendation from sev- eral members of the committee