New-York tribune., 1920-03-07
By Theodore M. Knappen


"AKING the figures at their
face value Alaska is grow
ing in area and decreasing
in population. Ten or fif-
teen years ago the aliases and geog-
raphies gave the area of Alaska as
around $4,000 square miles. 1t is
up to $4,000 now, and when all the
returns are in it may pass 100000.
At the same time the population is
dwindling.
Probably there were more people
of a sort-in Alaska when the
Russians parted with it than there
are now, though that could not be
said ten years ago, when mining
prosperity was at it's height. At any
rate, the white population has been
dwindling of recent years and there
probably are not more than half as
many natives as there were a hun
dred years ago. Governor Thomas
Riggs estimates that the white popu-
lation fell to 10000 in 1918, owing
to temporary wartime conditions,
and that it does not now exceed
$4,000. These and the $4,000 natives
Of the lieut., Athabascan, Eskimo
and Thlinket groups make up the
human fauna of a region about three
times as large as France. Having
ten square miles to himself, the aver
age Alaskan is not crowded--and
some of them think the present
density of population is about as
much as free man can stand and
be comfortable and sovereign.
Room for Many More
Others, like Governor Thomas
Riggs jr., believe that the present
population of Stewards Folly" land
can be multiplied many times with
out crowding. Governor Riggs, who
is now in Washington looking after
the interests of the Alaskan outpost
of American empire, seems to be in
some doubt as to whether the
national policy is to populate or
depopulate Alaska.
So far as the natives are con-
cerned, the general trend of policy,
Notwithstanding the desertion of
them during the influenza epidemic
last year, seems to be in favor of
encouraging their propagation; but
viewed from the angle of multipli-
cation of the whites, the national
policy, judged by results, appears to
be headed toward the extinction of
the white population.
AS Governor Riggs sees it, Alaska
is land of extensive and largely
untouched resources which is so COW
cred with governmental "verboten'
signs in some form or other, in the
interests of conservation, that it has
become virtually a vast geological,
meteorological and botanical wild
park instead of land of utilized
fields, forests and mines. 1t is a
monumental instance of successful
conservation with exceptions), but
just what the conservation is for
nobody seems to know, unless the
idea is to keep a chunk of wilderness
in store for the next generation.
Evils of Bureaucracy
At the same time the wilderness
territory presents one of the best all
around examples in the world of the
ineptitudes of bureaucracy, espe-
cially bureaucracy in action at
ranges of 1000 miles to 1000 miles.
The example is so eye-filling and
soul-satisfying that some waggish
statesmen profess to be of the opin-
ion that it is worth the money to
keep the Alaska bureaucracy -four
''hing in orde.. to have at all times
q terrible example to show the
:"Reds" what maddening condition
they would drive us all to if they
had half chance.
There is nothing personal about
these remarks. The gentlemen in
WASHINGTON md in Aloel,o ..,L,