The Cordova daily times., 1921-07-22
WHAT'S THE MATTER
 WITH ALASKA?
Id Ellsworth Sumner in Railway and Marine News

to say that MT. Heckman bungled the job. Instead of representing the fish, ing interests exclusively as a diplo-
 matic lobbyist, he wandered into for. eign fields and made a strong effort
 to increase the tax on mining Evi- dently Heckman does not know that the mining industry, as whole. is very popular in the territory, and is not comparable with the fishing, either in conditions of legal owner ship rights or operation. When a company or a person acquires mine by actual purchase or United Statts patent, according to the mineral laws of the United States. that ground be- comes the property Of the corporation or the individual and if 1t is as deep as from here to China, the ore con tained in that vast cubical space is the property of the company or the indi- vidual Buildings, machinery and equipment above ground and in the mine can be taxed, but it is not pos sible to tax the ore which Is extracted from that mine. If the law should permit the taxation of each ton or pound of ore or metal extracted or mined, as the case might be, it would also premit the taxation of every spool of cotton produced in a cotton factory or every can of condensed milk from n condensery, every bushel of wheat grown on each acre, or every apple picked from an orchard, and so on ad lib.
 Now Heckmans proposal was evi- dantly made to draw off attention from the fishing and canning interests, an dwas, briefly that an excessive tav should be placed upon the mines. Tho question was thrashed out both in aud out of the legislative halls, l and one suggestion was that a certain t0v should be placed on each ton of oro mined. graded according to valu- ariou. and so on, still later Mr. UocEman led in an effort to have tho , tax on the net profits of mining com panics doubled. but he failed complete ly 10 put this over, largely on account of the fact that the mines are already l paving 1 per cent of their net profits as a tax.
 Had he left the mines alone and at tended strictly to his fishing interests, he would probably have succeeded but the legislature not only refused to mjustly increase the taxes of mining companies. but they did increase the tax on fish traps and canned salmon. Upon his return to Ketchikan he gave
 out several iujudicious interviews and hundereds of copies of the paper have been distributed all over the Ger ritOry. with the result that those who know the real inside are having a quite laugh at the expense Cc Heck man. Morrssey, etc. Hal Mir. Heck man remained away from Juneau and had refrained from showing his great | friendship for the fishing interests, it | is quite likely that those interests
 would have been better served.
 | Like ali men in ;ne heat Of anger,
 one of the Ketchilian Chronicle man
 wrote an editorial accusing the senate
 of selling out to the mi1iny companies
 fer six bottles Of whiSEcY Ketchikan
 overlooks that fact that it's city holds
 the Alaskan record for bootlegging
 and it is said that from nearby Prince Rupert, Canada, arrive large consign-
 ments of liquor each week, which it is
 alleged, are probably distributed all
 over the territory, thereby largely en-
 hancing business at the flourishing | town. Ketchikan with this bootleg
 ging record is hardly the place to put
 out any publicity pertaining to the il | legal use of whiskey.
 | It all leads up to the opening state
 ment in this article, that Alaska's 1 troubles come from it's officious and self.appointed friends. The Ketchi-
 kan Chronicle. with it's tirades is
 merely adding to the humor of the
 day.