The Alaska daily empire., 1921-08-12

Here is an instance: The trail over Rainy pass is AZ miles long. There is roadhouse at each end. Every death, the trail signs being buried in snow, travellers simply having to trust to God that they will get through. Recently some of these pioneers who annually face the death that turks along this 42-mile strip of snow-covered wilderness evolved a scheme to minimize the danger, and i this was to connect the two road ! houses at the ends of the trail by telephone. The equipment was at hand, but it belonged to the war de- partment and that department re- ported it did not have the men avail able to build it and there the matter stands now. With this telephone line it was planned to signal the other end of the trail every time a. party of travellers took the trail, the result being that when the men failed to show up on time rescue par ties would be sent out and in this way many valuable lives saved.
 To centraIize Authority Instance after instance of this un happy conflict of authority which has | cost Alaska so dearly could be cited and in every case the matter is one that could be settled quickly and to the best interests of all concerned if authority in the Territory was centralized under B single responsible head as 1t is going to be at no very distant date. Take the postal serv- ice up there as another illustration There are places where 1t costs $8 a pound to deliver the mail. I re- call an instance where a monthly mail delivery is costing the govern ment S50,0O0 a year. Why not take this $50,00O and pay it out under the contract to some steamship com pany and thus make it possible not only to deliver mail but also freight and passengers to these isolated com munities? In this way we would solve one of the most troublesome of all Alaskan problems. namely, that of transportation and supply, and it would not cost a cent more than we are now paying to deliver mail only.
 For Fishermen
 Again, we must do something for the little fishermen. The large fish-J ing companies have their own vessels and they get their output to market while the little fellow, whose catch is worth millions, has to trust te the lucky visit of an independent buyer, and the instances in which a sea son passes without the buyer show ing up are many, the result being the total loss of the catch of hundreds of small fishermen with the attendant loss of millions to American com merce. This situation must be and will be remedied.
 Transportation is another prob lem of the first magnitude that must be solved if Alaska is to enjoy the prosperity she is entitled to. The government railroad which pene- trd.es the heart of the peninsula from Seward on the Pacific to Fair banks in the interior-a distance Of 467 miles-is, with the exception of 74-mile stretch between Hurricane Gulch and Healy, now completed and this road maintained an uninter rupted service during the last two winters, which is an achievement worthy of note when the severity ef Alaskan winters is considered.
 Marketing Products
 Another grave feature of the prob lem is that of getting Alaska's prod ucts to market. There are markets for all she produces, but those mar kets are to a great extent inaccessi- ble under existing conditions. Trans portation charges are too high-in fact, they are prohibitive in many instances-and this must be worked out to the advantage of the Terri tory. Then. again. there are certain shipping regulations that must be altered, so far as Alaska is con cerned, if Alaska is to market her products-those of the big corpora tions as well as the little fellows. This can and will be done.
 There are other grave problems. and they are all receiving the atten, tion of the department and also of the President However, after all is said, there is just one way to de- velop Alaska, and that is to vest ab- solute authority in single head. and that supreme authority must be the President himself Such a bill. which will vest this authority in President Harding, is now being considered by the proper officials and. hope. will shortly be introduced in Congress- When this is accomplished, as l am sure it will be before. very long. the rehabilitation of Alaska will begin in earnest" 3 ~
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