The Cordova daily times., 1921-10-13

were transported by sleds across the | whole continent of Asia and part of l Europe and eventually adorned the women of Moscow or Petrograd whose
 social standing was denoted by her
 wealth of Alaskan furs That was ! period when the transportation of | furs were the only product yet they | were gotten to the markets in Mos
 COW and Petrograd. This continued up | to the time of American occupancy of | the territory. For twenty years there after San Francisco merchants sue | Cessfully developed the trade and the | furs went to that city with some ship
 ments of ice, fish and miscellaneous | products.
 Then came the two great gold dis
 coveries, one at Dawson in Canada,
 and the other on the beach at Nome,
 and while Alaska had no products to ship, the northbound movement of
 whiskey, beer. groceries. clothing and
 miscellaneous supplies meant a tre-
 mendous tonnage. and all this tonnage was moved to Alaska at from twice
 to three times the present merchan-
 disc rates
 Then came the extensive develop
 ment of the salmon canning industry.
 which was the first industry to pro
 duCe any tonnage outbound from Alas
 ka. We have never heard of their bel
 ing any lack of ships to handle the
 output of the Alaska Packers A3soria-
 tion of San Francisco, which is f
 leading salmon packing company opor. ating. It has a fleet of probably twcn. five or thirty vessels which each spring load up in San Francisco with groceries and supplies and move to the different canneries in Alaska. there waiting for the salmon to be canned, and in the fall returning toI San Francisco. Then the Chicago firm of Libby. McNei & Libby. also the Booth Fisheries Company operate their own fleets. moving to the can neries in the spring and back to Seat. tie in the fall. still another important company with it's own fleet is that of the PacifiC-American Fisheries which | makes its headquarters at Bellingham. | The small packers usually contract with the steamships operating, and as the southbound movement always | takes place at the same time in the fall season, it may often happen that all of the salmon canneries wish to | move their fish at the same moment. | but that is the only trouble ever ex- perienced in getting any Alaskan prod | ucts to market. The same is true of canteloupes from Rocky Ford wheat from the middle states, or putting strawberries into New York City
 Remember canned salmon is the only southbound tonnage Alaska has ever had, with the exception of cop per. The copper shipments began eleven years ago last March. each yes sel coming south from Cordova carry ing from 800 to 1,5OO tons of the ore. all of which is sent to the Tacoma Q ,n | has never been any serious delay in getting the copper down. That dis poses of the only two products of Alaska that are brought out. so how can Secretary Fall explain the state ment that another grave feature of the problem is that of getting Alaska's products to market. There is no prob lem at all, nor is there likely ever to be.
 He says the transportation charges are too high He has access to the rate sheet and mileage of the government owned and operated Panama Railroad Steamship line. Let him compare the mileage from New York to Colon, under the most favorable climatic and sailing conditions of the Atlantic and Caribbean with the rate to Skagway under the very serious climatic condl- ttons, Tack of aids to navigation. short season and other features of the northern steamships. If he wishes to be fair let him ascertain what steam ship operates from New York to the United States non-conuguous terri. tory of the Virgin Isles. Find out what the mileage is and compare the rates with those to Alaska. Or the same comparison could be worked out