The Cordova daily times., 1921-01-03

l iuo DCtll llit ldCh Ol u SlltllbT. The
 truth of the matter is that if any one
 of those men has a rich mine whose
 ore requires treatment it would be an easy matter for him to market the
 property for the purpose of securing
 enough capital to erect his own mill. i We could name probably twenty per
 sons who have made the claim that
 they have a valuable mine in that sec tton of Alaska, yet they have never
 explained why they did not go ahead
 with their own development, build their mill and other equipment with
 out all this publicity and irrelevant discussion.
 The truth of the matter is that at the present time no capital could be | secured for a shelter project calling
 ka until an unlimited supply of coal
 and coke is assured, the ore is assured for a twenty-four-hour run continu- ously for years to come, and all re-
 strictions are removed. That tells
 the whole story and leads us back to the very beginning of the argument | industrial development in Alaska, the creation of the forest reserves, the hampering influence of the bureaus make it absolutely impossible for shelter to successfully operate with in the territory.
 There are in the United States and Canada several large smelting con cerns. Each of these in the past ten years has had most exhaustive study and report made of the possibilities for the establishment of the industry
 in Alaska, with the result that the field has been temporarily abandoned. 1 Any smelter to be established follow
 ing a report such as the one Brooks is said to be now engaged upon,
 would have to be built by the United l States government. In other words, the government would have to go into
 the smelting business, go into the coking business, and establish allied
 industries just as it was forced into
 the undesirable position of opening 1 it's own coal mines at Matanuska
 when private enterprise refrained
 from Investigating in that field due to the fact that the leasing privi- | leges as outlined by the interior de- | partment lacked al distractions for 1 a conservative well balanced business man.
 l Again from a general metallurgical viewpoint such mines in Alaska pos
 sessing ample ore bodies and being | in position to efficiently handle 1 their ores, appear to be already either supplied with their own mills for the | treatment of such ores or they are satisfied to ship the ores out of the territory for treatment. Therefore, | any one shelter or metallurgical plant of any kind could not hope to receive an ore supply from any of the exist ing mines, firstly, on account of the existing arrangements as mentioned above and secondly, due to the very important fact that a shelter or mill in Prince William Sound could not possibly serve Boring Sea or South eastern Alaska, and as plant at either of those other sections could not serve any but their own locality In other words, the government would have to establish such plants at Nome Seward, Prince William Sound and ketchikan, if it expected to care for the different districts. Then it would be necessary to throw the country wide open for prospectors and others who would be induced or encouraged to go into the field to prospect for new supply ot ores. This procedure would be different from that adopted in the mineral districts of the United States during the last few years, when metallurgical plants have only been established in sections where an as- sured and permanent supply of ore has already been provided for
 In the hearing of the investigating committee of the interior department held in Seattle last summer, quite few mining men of Alaska gave their | testimony, all of which was to the effect that their mines had been a failure or rather their efforts to de-
 velop their mining property had
 been failure owing to the fact that
 there was no smelter in Alaska and
 transportation charges to the nearest
 smelter in the states were prohibitive.
 In rebuttal let it here be very plainly