The Cordova daily times., 1921-01-25
PRESENT AND FUTURE NEEDS
 OF ALASKA

In February issue of Sunset, the Pa cific Monthly, there appears an editor ial under the above caption, and while much truth is contained therein, we must take issue with that publication on it's statements in reference to the proposed Alaska Development Board. That this board should be composed of bona fide residents of Alaska there is no difference of opinion among the people of the territory In fact they are the only persons who are familiar with our needs and conditions, and consequently best qualified to admin ister the affairs of this north1and. The one objection to the conduct of affairs in Alaska comes from bureaucratic control at Washington. This has been the greatest stumbling block to the development of the country. In the states they did not call in outsiders to administer their affairs and Alaskans are just as capable, if not more so, of legislating for themselves, as any other part of Uncle Sam's domain. Here is how the Sunset sizes up the situation:
 Alaska has been the stepchild of the nation. It has given gold, copper, cod, halibut, seal and salmon with a lavish hand but until the construction of the Alaskan railroad it received nothing in return. Containing i'm mense deposits of high-grade coal. Alaska was yet compelled to import it's fuel from Washington and Aus tralia because the federal government, fearing a repetition of the process through which the nation lost its tim Der and mineral wealth, kept all of Alaska's publicly owned natural re- sources under lock and key for four teen years. This locking-up held back Alaska's development; it was bitterly and justly resented; it was Alaskans, yet it accomplished its purpose. Alas ka's resources are today unimpaired, unmonopolized and available for wise, foresighted development.
 Take the Pribiloff Island seal herd, for instance. Unregulated and un- supervised, this herd dwindled from two million head to barely a hundred thousand in thirty years. For five years 1t has been locked up; now it exceeded two hundred thousand and is still growing. Salmon, on the con- trary, administered loosely and what Alaskans would call literally, is threatening to join the buffalo and the passenger pigeon until early and drastic measures are taken to regu- late fisheries and to increase the num- Der of hatcheries.
 "The next congress will again have before 1t the Curry bill creating an Alaskan development board to have complete charge of Alaskan resources. Nobody in the far west wants to hold back Alaskan growth; everybody real iZes that the division of authority among twenty different bureaus of five or six governmental departments whose busy heads are five thousand miles from Alaska is not the proper system of administration, yet it is questionable whether that provision of the Curry bill limiting membership on the board to actual residents of Alaska is entirely wise and Justified.
 Local men are prone to forget the future and act only on present needs. The millions of acres of unproductive, barren stump land around the Great Lakes, in the south and in the far west are eloquent witnesses to the folly of blind local interest that sac rifices the wealth of the next genera ton for today's profit. Alaska must and should have resident board, but two of the five members should be selected from residents of the states proper that the future may be safe- guarded"