The Alaska daily empire., 1920-09-23
FORMER ALASKAN URGES DIVISION.

Rurt M. Mcconnell at one time the "Young eratot" in the Nome mining district, writing ln w York Times, urges the division of Alaska at lkon River, the erection of the State of Alaska territory south of that waterway and the orga ton of the Territory of North Alaska in the coun yond.
 MT Mcconnell bases his remedy for Alaska 5 the contention that Alaska needs self-goVernm' ore than any other one thing. He says:
 The question then arises-What the United States do for Alaska in return? Surely the Territory has some needs which, :n it's isolated position, it Aas been unable force fully to bring to the attention of Uncle sam Interested as he is in the welfare Of small nations Alaska has dozens of needs, the most urgent of which is government or Alaska hy the people of Alaska, instead Of by bureau chiefs at Washington, most of whom have never visited the Territory know little of conditions and are not vitally interested in either its future progress present welfare
 Alaska is an asset; valuable one, not liability It is an empire that pays several hundred per cent. a year on its cost, which was little over seven millions. That part lying below the Yukon, with justice to the people of Alaska and profit to the United States, could well become the State of Alaska, while the northern portion could become the Territory of North Alaska, with the seat ct Government at Nome As things are, Alaska is the most unfairly governed land on earth; it has the worst mail service. and only about a tenth of it's coast has been charted, as against about seven-tenths of the Philippines As direct result of this sore of neglect the Princess Sophia last year struck an uncharted reef and sank with $50 persons on board.
 The urgent needs for home government ia Alaska is further shown in considering the appalling results of the latest scourge of in- nuenZa Whole villages of Eskimos perished, just as they perished twenty years ago from the scourge Of measles. Children froze or starved-or were killed and eaten by the fierce half-starved native dogs, The bureau which has charge of Eskimo affairs, and which is directed from Washington found itself powerless through lack of funds, and the Governor might have been rendered pow erless to deal with the situation had he not considered ii grave emergency and therefore drawn on government funds that otherwise would not have been available
 Bills for relief were introduced in Wash ington. but failed to pass the House, al though at the same time Congress was con sidogng the appropriation of millions for the des. ate of Europe and million dollars for hsating influenza in the United States. The upshot of the situation was that the Governor of Alaska persuaded the Lessla- ture of Alaska to appropriate from it's lean treasury seventy thousand dollars for the re- lief of the Eskimos although they are just as much wards of the Federal Government as the Indians are. Twenty thousand dollars of this amount was spent in burying natives who had succumbed before assistance became available
 The people of Alaska. despite govern mental neglect of past years, responded as nobly to the call of duty during the World War as did the people of any other State or Territory In three loan drives Alaska headed all the States in oversubscrptions, and in it's support of the Red Cross the Ter ritory was at the top of the list It has proved its loyalty to the nation time and time again: why is il not entitled to gov ern itself? Lack of population? The whl'e population Of Alaska is approximately 40uOH' and many Territories with less population were created States in tEc past century, among which might be named Colorado Illinois Indiana. Michigan and half dozen others. Inability 70 function through lack of funds? Let me say right here that Alaska's income tax last year amounted to more than S15.000,O00. The cable system paid half million in profits; seal and fox skins returned almost million dollars to the Treasury; the forests paid about $5o,000 above expenses, and approximately that amount was realized last year from the sale of public lands, etc.
 The forests Of Alaska should be returned to the public domain and made free to set tlornent and industry. Until that is done to