The daily Alaskan., 1921-05-03
Listed Among Big Problems to Be Solved Will Be Opening
 of Alaska Resources.
ONDITIONs DEPLORABLE
Alaska Now Suffers from Long, Range Government and Bu- rcau COntrOl-ISill Provides for Resident Commission With Au- thOrity.
tllOrity.

Washington, D. C., April H. Listed among the big problems to be solved by the Harding administra- tiOn and this congress, is legislation for the opening up of the territory of Alaska for settlement and devel- opment. It will come up in the form of q bill to be introduced by Repre- sentative Curry of California, chair man of the house committee on ter ritories.
 Last session, to call the attention of congress- and the country to the importance of legislation for the re- lief of Alaska's present depopulated condition, Chairman Curry intro duCCd a bill. IL was necessarily in- complete and was introduced for the purpose of obtaining views of people interested in the welfare of the ter ritOry. NIr. Curry has not been dis appointed in the matter of receiving suggestions as to what should be done for the, territory, for if he
 were to print all the literature sent to him, he could fill a public library. Mr. Curry has gone over this great amount of literature with great care, and is confident his new bill will solve Alaska's problems. He eX- poets to be ready to submit it to the full committee within two or three
 weeks, after which a short hearing will he held and the bill reported out
 to the house so that it can be put on the calendar for early passage. There is not much doubt that action will be taken by both houses on the new bill at this session.
 President Harding and Secretary of the Interior Fall have expressed themselves as favoTing construc- tive legislative program for Alaska
 Both of them have looked into the question and are fairly well ac- Quainted with the deplorable condi- tions under which Alaska is being governed.
 It is being insisted by the advo- cates of the Curry bill that as the result of the misgovernment of AL aska by this country. the territory is being depopulated. Attention is called 10 the fact that the popula- ton of Alaska. counting natives as 1 well as whites, has. dwindled from 64.%56 in 1910, to 52,1OO in 1919. Since then. there has been further decrease in the permanent population of Alaska until now 1t is believed that the census will show not more than 45,OOO.
 To show what should be the con- dition in Alaska with the proper government, attention is being called to the population Of Norway, Swe- den. Denmark and Finland. These countries of Europe do not have as favorable climate as Alaska, and are smaller in area, but sustain a population of over 11,O0O,O0O. The European countries with poorer soil and less mineral resources depend largely upon agriculture, while with the proper encouragement the min ing and manufacturing of Alaska could be developed so that even a larger population could be sustained in the territory.
 Agricultural experiments Il ave been conducted in Alaska which have demonstrated that a better quality of wheat can be produced in Alaska than in any state in the union. Its garden products, the az riculmral department experts declare are superior to those of any part of the Pacific coast For instance, strawberries larger than a mans fist have been produced in Alaska. It is claimed that the largest straw berries in the world can be produced in Alaska, and other berries and fruits are in proportion.
 Alaska. it is claimed, is suffering more from multiplicity of bureau control than from any other source. At present it's affairs are under nine departments and 34 bureaus. It has been stated that the white bears are under one bureau, the brown bears under another and the black bears still another.
 Whether this is a figure of spech it is known that settlers who have attempted to obtain homesteads in Alaska, have never been able to un- ravel the bureau red tape at Wash ington. Often, when men have talk en up 16O acres of agricultural land and started to develop 1t, they have