The Cordova daily times., 1921-08-18

ficial records disproVed certain state ments credited to Senator Cum mins of Iowa. It was shown that She Iowa senator was being made ridiculous by some person who was giving him transformation, and it was suggested at the time that John E. Ballaine may have been at the bottom of the matter.
 Senator Cummins refused to see the light and disregards the hand ~riting on the wall, for he has made the great mistake of falling for the arguments of a certain small and disgruntled Alaskan lobby by introducing a bill granting to the president full authority to deal with the Alaskan problems in many ways, including authorization to the United States shipping board for the opera tion of steamships to Seward.
 ~ Seward, in 1915, was announced as the permanent terminus of the government railway and is the place selected in December 1914, for the establishment of a branch by the Hartman National Bank, John E. Ballaine was the owner of a large portion of the townsite)
 As this is the month of August there is the remotest possibility that this steamship line can get in opera tion during the present season. In fact it is not likely that the shipping board would care to go into the proposition simply because it would mean such a heavy monthly deficit, even for one boat. However, as Senator Cummins has again seen fit to accept utterly ridiculous state ments from those who are seeking to injure Alaska, unknown persons who are undoubtedly actuatad by some selfish motive, he cannot es' cwe the responsibility of being au
 thor of the suggestion and while there is slight possibility that the plan will ever be carried out. the few facts following are given so the practical can judge and the peo, pie of Iowa can be shown how their representative is willing to back such hair brained scheme.
 For the purpose of this illustra- tion we will take only one Of the ~idle 4,O0O.cargo-ton steel steamships belonging to the shipping board and place this in service for 365 days between some American port on the Pacific and Seward, Alaska. With out figuring on original costs, de- preciation or insurance the approxi- mate operating costs of this one steamship from any port would be S400.00O per annum. From Seattle it would be able to make eighteen found trips to Seward, from Portland fourteen round trips, and from San Francisco but ten round trips per annum, owing to the great difference in mileage between the different ports Therefore, to make a goodly showing on the up trips and the down trips with a full cargo in each direction. the cargo tonnage that would have to be handled per year to and from Seward, Alaska, would be 144,000 tons if the ship operated from Seattle; 112000 tons il the ship operated from Portland. and a from San Francisco.
 Do you grasp this, Senator Cum. mins? This Is some cargo to be moved to and from Seward. For the month of May we find that the whole of Alaska shipped out cop. per and bones, ivory and canned salmon and every other thing that the country produces to a total of less than coco tons. The city of Seward, during the mo0th of May, shipped out three tons of miscel, laneous fish and returned goods and &eceived less than 100 tons of gro ceries and supplies. This is simply awful when compared with the ca. pacity of the round trips on the above suggested ship to operate to Seward exclusively.
 For the eighteen suggested round
 trips we have a total capacity dur ing the year of 144,OOO tons. and
 based on last Mays showing we have. in a twelve-month period. a total of 144.O0O capacity tons of ship. ping to move about 1900 tons of freight. It Is true that possibly Sew ard has received during the last four years many hundreds of tons of