The Cordova daily times., 1921-10-13


 interior, dealing with the future of Alaeka. A reprint lf this Interview has been received by the writer, who considers 1t worthy of somewhat ex- tended comment at this time. A care ful reading of the article, which occu- pies nearly three columns of space, shows that the cabinet official is sin cerely endeayOring to give out friend ly review of conditions in the terri tory with a somewhat glowing report of it's possibilities, but unfortunately the distinguished official falls into the popular error of listing the agricultural development of the territory, the um- Der and the reindeer as of the greatest possible importance
 Now the strangest thing about this interview is that everything the sec retary says about the reindeer and agriculture are true, but he omits the vital point, which is that the reindeer industry figured on an annual tonnage basis, would be limited and that q market has yet to be provided for the products of agriculture. these two sub jcCts having been treated in detail in previous installments. As to the timber, the secretary deals with the wood pulp industry, which has also been fully covered in the past. but he goes farther and says the lumber possibilities form another item of no mean proportiOn.' Quoting him: Some of the greatest fir and spruce forests of the world are to be found in Alaska and go per cent of these forests are still in their virgin state" If this is true, then he should explain why it is that millions of d%lars' worth of Puget sound timber are shipped from Seattle each year, and even the railroad, which the government built through the Chugach forest reserve. and other rough lumber. was shipped with the exception of some ties. piling all of it's bridge timbers and structural lumber from Seattle If Mr. Fall will turn to the department of commerce figures he will see that during the, last twenty years less than $25O. O.OOOl worth of lumber and wood products have been shipped out of Alaska. but more than $20,0O0 900 worth have been shipped in.
 In connection it may be here stated 1. that in this series of articles several month ago appeared a statement that during the war the Alaska spruce had been found suitable for cutting into air. l plane stock This paper received correction from I J. Underwood. , Washington, D. C.. in which he stated | that Alaska spruce had been found . absolutely unsuitable for such uses. . MT UnderwoOd's statement has caused . some indignation at Wrangell. and the editor of this paper has received many letters of protest. The author has written to several friends in the war de- partment to ascertain some facts re- lating to the value of Alaska spruce in relation to airplane, construction and lacking such information. it is here shown that during the five years ended June 30, 1921, the value of all wood and manufactures of. shipped from the territory of Alaska. was but $lS3,OO0, including the spruce in 19l7-1S and 19. At all times the ship ment of lumber to Alaska represents an important tonnage. notwithstand- ing the fact that there are excellent saw mills operating at WrangeI. Ju- neau and other places.
 Discussing the coal, Secretary Falls interview contains this interesting paragraph; The coal fields of the territory are vast in extent and form one of the great fuel reserves of this nation some of the coal equaling the famous POcahontas of the Virginia and West Virginia fields"
 IL would be interesting to know where Secretary Fall gets his knowl- edge as to the vast extent of the coal fields. unless it is that he intends to say that coal occurrences are common throughout the territory. The best geological information at hand brings out the fact that much money has been expended by different parties in trying to locate a permanent vein, but up to this time no coal mine has been discovered or operated in the territory where the vein has been continuous to such an extent as would justify its