The Alaska daily empire., 1921-06-21

Under the heading WHY ALASKA IS LOSI COLLATION." the Literary Digest, in it's June sue, presents editorial opinion culed from ne pers from every section of the country in wh oh individual writer gives what to him seems to e of Alaskas loss of population during st decade. It is significant that virtually ev ritter quoted finds it case of land, vastly I potential resources being stifed by the oppress md of bureaucracy.
 The Literary Digest also includes in it's rev portion of editorial appearing several we 70 in The Empire relative to the fallacy of I otsm. The Digest said:
 Something is radically wrong when a country inviting Alaska loses a most a quarter of it's population in ten years' declares the Providence Journal, and it's opinion is seconded by practically every newspaper in Alaska and more in the United States proper. According to the Census Bureau, the white population of Alaska decreased 23.4 per cent. between 1910 to 1920. In 1910 there 36,400 white in the Territory; there only 27,S83. When it comes to agreeing upon the reason for this loss of almost 5000 inhabitants, however there is a wide divergence of opinion. Bureaucratic op- pression, declares Thomas B. Drayton in the Dearborn Independent; extreme
 
 teligencer; war conditions, which called from the Territory greater percentage of volunteers than from any State" thinks the Boston Globe; high cost of gold pro- duction while the value of gold remains stationary, believes another. But the dead hand of bureaucracy" as the Seattle Times refers to the long distance admins tration of Alaska by Washington depart ments, is given the reason for Alaskas decline by the majority of editorial writers. The country is being bureaued to death,'' maintains the Denver Rocky Mountain News; there thirty-eight separate and distinct bureaus at Washington operating on Alaska 5000 miles away" It is as i'm possible for this system to succeed" as- serts another writer, sas it would be for the British Parliament to run Canada or Aus tralia from London
 Conservation looked very well on paper, we are told, but in practice it has failed" si in the opinion of the Denver paper above quoted Ten years ago tumult was raised, with the result that Alaska was tied down in endless folds of red tape and over it was posted sign, Conservation notes the Cincinnati Times-Star, well Alaska has been conserved in a manner of speaking by conflicting and interlockng bureaus In the opinion of Chairman Curry of the House Committee on Territories, however, long distance control has failed"
 me present government of Alaska is little better than that against which the American Colonies rebelled in 1776," asserts the Portland Oregonian; it is a mockery It Is absentee government by an oligarchy. Whatever development the Territory can boast of has been made in spite of the Government rather than with it's help' Yet, we are told by the Seattle Post-Intelli- gencer in another editorial, Alaska is ask ing far less than was readily and unques- tionably granted to every other Territory Of the United States"
 The only way to make people worthy of self-government is to give them self-gov- ernment ayers Dr. Frank Crane in the New York Globe yet the Berkeley (Cal.) Times tells us that the white pioneers of the North have a lesser degree of home rule and less consideration than the Filipinos"
 The entire country is interested in Alaska, declares the Kansas City Star. President Harding plans to spend several weeks in the Territory studying it's needs. says dispatches, and Secretary of the Interior Fall, with several other Washington off cials, and half dozen governors of Western States also have arranged to visit Alaska this summer, much to the delight of it's resi- dents. Aside from the question of justice to the people in the Territory any move that would benefit conditions there would mean a call to many young men in the States" thinks The Star The Territory has pro duced natural wealth of different kinds to the 'diue or $l,VoV,OOO,OOO, yet Alaskans say the surface hardly has been scratchedp In one year Alaska yielded nearly 1000 per cent. upon it's purchase price-$7 2OO- 000--we are told by the Newark Evening News. There 64,00O, ,00O acres of land on which cattle sheep, goats. reindeer and horses can graze, and equal amount suit able for cultivation, notes the Detroit News while Governor Riggs. of Alaska reminds us that the Territory's climate is similar to that of Norway and Sweden tcountres which boast . combined population of s,0O0,O0O