The Cordova daily times., 1920-09-17
ALASKAN BIRCH TIMBER 0BE
 THROWN OPEN

With approval of Secretary of the Interior John Barton Payne of regu- 1ations to govern the sale for export of Alaskan birch timber another great resource of the territory has been unlocked for development
 The promulgation of the above regulations by the department of the interior ends the fight which started way back in 1914 and which has been waged continuously before congress since that time. The movement was begun by M. A. Ellis, a we'll known Alaskan mining man of the Cache creek district.
 Mr. Ellis interest in birch was created in an unusual way. It start ed with a wedding-his daughter
 ho desired to have a bedroom suite of birch That seemed reasonable enough, according to MT. Elise, whose only previous acquaintance with birch had been in the shape of firewOod and in the shape of furniture were enormously different. In the end he bought the desired suite but, he re- marked later that it pretty near broke him.
 SEES HIS OPPORTUNITY
 The high price of the furniture brought home to MT. Ellis the fact that there was not incOnsiderable quantity of birch wood in Alaska going to waste. He had knowledge of a number of stands of such timber near the country in which he had been operating and had heard of other big stands. In 1914, he secured and sent samples of Alaska birch to few man. ufacturers of furniture in the east. He was promptly advised by each of them that there would be a good mar ket for the timber. It was stated that the stands of similar timber in the states were practically exhausted.
 sNAG IS STRUCK
 MT. Ellis immediately began to make preparations to grasp the opportunity he had uncovered. Being on the pub lie domain he knew that he would have to get permisson from the feder- al authorities to cut the timber and immediately made application to do so Here he encountered his first diff ficulties He was Immediately in formed that he could cut birch for domestic consumption but he couldn't cut it and ship it out of the territory for any purpose. ExportatiOn of Al askan birch was "verboten."
 FIGHT IS BEGUN
 Halted temporarily but not discOur- aged Mr. Ellis started On a campaign to have the troublesome restrictions removed. When he had asked the general land office for permission to cut this timber for export, he was in formed that it could not be done until remedial legislation should be enacted by congress. In 1915, bill was intro duced for the removal of the restric- tions. It was killed. In each succeed ing congress a similar measure was introduced and met with a like fate until June 5, 1920 when a provision at tached to the agricultural appropria- tion bill succeeded in running the gauntlet. This provision rescinded the old restrictive regulations permitting the exportation of Alaskan birch.
 TRACTS ARE LOCATED
 The success of his efforts was reported in the Juneau Empire early this summer when MT. Ellis passed through Juneau enroute to the west for the purpose of locating his timber stands He has filed on a num- Der of stands located north of Wasilla. He intends cutting this timber. and shipping it to the states. It is expect ed that a mill will be erected and in full operation this fall. MT. Ellis is associated with friends in the states and the company has sufficient capi- tai to carry on large operations.
 Other tracts have been located by Chester M Murphy and F. M. Myers in the vicinity of Wasilla which will be exploited for exportation pur- poses. Each of these parties are now awaiting for receipt of the new regula- lions issued by Secretary John Barton Payne before ~roceeding with the de- yelopment of an Industry which it IS