The Alaska daily empire., 1921-06-07

tory. These theorists are respon sible for all the scandals which havei arisen and are the cause of the con stant investigations of freight rates and other conditions carried on by the government. That MT Wallace already has been converted to this idea is made apparent in another part of his letter, which says:
 "The majority of the people who joined the stampede across White Horse Pass were from the States. Naturally they spent great deal of money in Alaska as they came in and went out,s and while the boom continued that part of Alaska, as well as Seattle, flourished" There was no occasion to drag Seattle into this statement, except to confirm what has been whis pered around into the ears of con gressmen that Seattle is a party to the plot to loot ithe Territory.
 Doctrines Firmly lntrenched..
 This form of propaganda is being fosterer by interests fnimical to Be- attle, and. which hope sooner or later to induce the government to establish. "a line. of publicly-owned ships to run frpSs Portland and San Francisco to Alaska. thereby ruining the business of the shipping interests that have borne the cost of pioneer ing the trade.
 But that is only sidelight on the situation. The startling fact is that the believers in the doctrines that wrecked the Taft administration, that drove Edwin Denby, the present Sec retary of the Navy, from the House of Congress, have become firmly en trenched in the Department of Agri culture and have converted MT. Wal. lace to their belief.
 The whole of the present trouble hinges around the Forest Service, which controls the Alaskan timber and most of the shore lands. There is shortage of paper in the United States. The Alaskan timber is the solution of the problem. The forest Service wants to sell this Alaskan timber, but to sell it in way that it will control not only the timber but the plants that are installed to operate it as well. Millions go to Canada. It is impossible to obtain a lease to this timber on fixed basis for long period of years. and in the meantime millions of dollars that should have gone to Alaska has been invested in Canada.
 l The Forest Service, to be sure. offers a lease that sounds fair and plausible enough until it is analysed by a business man or engineer. Then | 1t is found to be little more than a permit to cut timber for five years. | The Forest Service officials say that tthey have fixed a plan by which a supply of timber can be obtained for Ia period of 45 years. This is half ftrue, for the lease calls for revi- sion of prices every five years on a tconstantly ascending scale. There is no clause by which the price can be revised downward, nor does the pur- ! chaser or lessee have the slightest voice in fixing the price of raw ma, terial for his plant after the first five years have elapsed. He can take what the forestry agents offer him or allow his plant to remain idle, or be junked.
 I Strange ts 1t may seem to some people in the Forest Service, business men have no more faith that the Forest Service will give them fair deal than MT. Wallace has in the members of the board that will be
 sent to Alaska If the Curry Bill
 should be enacted into law. and the I Forest Service might just as well | make up it's mind first as last to the fact that no sane business man is ! going to invest large sums in the erection of pulp mills in Alaska
 under present conditions.
 Boiled down. the situation is this: