The Cordova daily times., 1920-07-15
WHAT'S THE AFTER
 WITH ALASKA?

The following is the second of a series of articles, dealing with the Northland, which is being published in the Railway and Marine News and written by Edmund Ellsworth Sum- ner:
 The chief trouble with Alaska has always been the lack of understanding at Washington. Investigating com mittees, one after the other, have made their reports upon affairs in the territory, but for partisan purposes none of these reports have stated the facts but have sought to shift the blame for certain conditions which may have been complained of at the time and which they have instigated the investigation of the moment Carpet baggers have for nearly half a century been merrily vending their way Northward. In some cases these men were not only professional office seekers but they proved to be dis  Beach's famous story, "The Spoilers" is founded upon fact and those facts are we'll remembered by the Alaskans of today as the incidents which took place at Nome less than twenty years ago.
 AS to the blight of conservation, future history alone will show the great extent and irretrievable damage caused by that move. There was not one sincere and honorable thought back of that bureaucratic action, the whole plan being evolved by coal oper- ators of the Atlantic who feared the opening and intensive development of A1aska's coalfields when they had the contract for supplying large amount of coal to Pacific localities.
 Parenthetically it might here be mentioned in view of the very recent and patriotic outbursts over the neces- sity for developing the American mer- chant marine, that for all those years prior to the war Atlantic coal opera tors shipped their coal to ports and stations in the Pacific in foreign bot toms, yet, according to the statement >so frequently made by government Of ficials Alaska had enough coal to SUD- ply all those stations, as well as the steam and domestic coal for Pacific coast cities and there were many American ships available in the coast wise trade.
 = Another thing that has been invar- iab1y suppressed in the reports of the investigators has been the incontro' vertible and basic fact that owing to conditions too numerous to here men tion, Alaska can only be developed by capital, and capital has been and is still being hampered and embarrassed in every possible manner. The cry of the time is for efficiency, elimina- tion of waste and various economies. Had Alaska been allowed to work out it's own industrial development, it would today be able to exert a great influence on these various questions. Had the plans of ten years ago been worked out there would have been a great coa1ing station at Dutch Harbor, a great smelter at some convenient location on Prince William sound, and In iv,
 Take for illustration the coa1ing station at Dutch Harbor. All steam ships plying between the Orient and the Pacific Coast of North America would be required to take but half the required amount of coal from either port, depending upon Dutch Harbor to refill the bunkers on a voyage in either direction. It is easy to see that this would have given increased car go space in both directions.
 Take the sme1ter as another illus tration. Today, brought down from ore, a certain percentage of which is copper The slag or refuse finds it's way into the dumps at the Tacoma smelter but that wastage had to be hauled by steamer or barge from the North, and the millions of pounds of slag thus brought down is ascertain ed by the varying percentage of cop per contents in the different ship ments during the last decade.
 The shelter would have used a large quantity of coal and coke and this would have meant coking plant, which in turn would have led to other industries in the same region. The value or extent of the oil has not been determined but if there is any truth in the statement as to the great