The Alaska daily empire., 1921-06-07
ADMINISTRATION <: FACING TROUBLE
 OVER TERRITORY
Jack Underwood Says Forces Back of 1910 Withdraw
 als Still at Work.

so much trOuDie Tn the Territory o1 Alaska are active again, declares Jack Underwood, in an article re. gently published in the Seattle Daily Times. Mir. Underwood declares that the indications are that these forces . have at least won one of the mem bers of President Harding's cabinet over to their view Of Alaskan af
 fairs.
 Mir. Underwood's s artlcle follows:
 President Harding may not realize it, but there are many indications that his administration is headed for trouble over the Alaska situation. the rock upon which the Taft ad ministration was wrecked and be- came a total loss
 To observers who have watched the retrogression of Alaska since the paralyzing hand of conservation was laid upon the Territory, it is ap- parent that the same forces that wrought the Ballinger-Pinchot con. troversy are still at work |,
 It is evident, too, that these forces have adopted the I. w w system of "boring in from. within" They are intrenching themselves in the gov ernment bureaus, and seemingly al ready have converted one of the members of the cabinet to their doc trines. l., sa
 It is not generally realized but it is nevertheless true, that consid- erable element of the population of the United States has been led to believe in the standardization of nat. ural resources as against individual exploitation and development of them. This is evidenced in the leas. ing measures recently enacted, which threw tremendous portion of the mineral resources of the nation and all of the water powers into the hands of government bureaus.
 This element firmly believes-and some of it's adherents wear the ha biliments of respectability-that the, natural resources are the heritage of all the people. This idea led to high grading in Nevada and other states. h is the doctrine of Lenine and Trotzky and if the reports from Russia are only half true, it's appli cation has not proved conspicuously successful in that country. Its ap- plication in Alaska has certainly par alyzed the territory, and some think, ing persons believe that if it is ex tended in the United States it ulti- mately will destroy the democratic form of government and substitute bureaucracy in it's place.
 9Aa Doctrinaires Serve Notice.
 Already notice has been served that these doctrinaires intend to put up battle for the preservation of their system of government in Alaska. The first intimation came in the form of a widely-published article calling the Curry development board bill the Alaska Grab Bill" It was written by notorious muckraker, who played a conspicuous part in advocat ing the withdrawal of Alaska's coal and other lands from entry.
 The second warning, which is like wise an indication that the conserva. tionists are boring from within" ar rived in the shape of letter from Secretary of Agriculture Wallace to MT. Curry. It was an official docu. ment called for by the House terri, tories committed. but copy of it was given to the press before it was. received by the committed.
 MT. Wallace objects to the enact ment of the Curry bill on the ground that the proposed board would give away all of the resources of the ter Eritory He assumes, apparently, that Washington, D. C., has monopoly on honest office holders, and that as soon as a man takes office in Alaska there is grave danger that he will be- come a thief and scoundrel.
 To quote from his letter:
 "If some person should apply to the board to purchase all the tim Der in Alaska at 10 cents thousand feet and if te board should reject the application. then the applicant would have the right to appeal to the secretary of the interior But. if instead of rejecting this application. the board should grant it, then 1t would seem that no appeal could be considered, even although 1t might be made by all the philosophical citi- zens of the Territory" To apply the same illustration to fMr. Wallace. there is nothing in 1 the present law to prevent him from iselIing all the timber in Alaska at l 10 cents thousand feet if he want ! ed to do so. For that matter, there lis nothing in the law to prevent the Shipping Board from disposipg of its entire fleet of ships at 10 cents fapiece, if the board felt inclined to
 make a deal to this effect. But that isn't any indication that either of these things will be done. Nor does l it necessarily follow that the men
 who go to Alaska as agents of the | government will necessarily barter away the nation's property for a I mess of pottage.
 e..xse. N.x~~>a f.xo 0uAer>l