The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1922-07-27
TRUTH ABOUT ALASKA
BUREAUCRACY VICTIM
RICH IN RESOURCES DORMANT
THROUGH CONTINUED
MlSRULE.

(Scott C.. Bone governor of Alaska
and formerly editor of the Seattle
Post -Intelligencer. describes condi-
tions in Alaska and possibilities Of the
territory under liberal and progress
i've government in the last issue OF
the Elks Magazine Governor Bones
article is here reprinted in part)
Uncle Sam paid Russia s72OOOO0
for Alaska. Think of it! only $1,000,
900 for this vast domain in the north
land whose dimensions are almost
one-hfth the size of the United
States Daily transactions Of that
magnitude in governmental and bust
ness life are today so common as to
attract only passing attention. But
the half century and more since that
historical purchase has found Alaska
in outer darkness. so to speak, and
figuring in the national equation only
in mistaken fancy as a country of
glaciers and icebergs and polar bears.
Yet in mineral wealth alone it has
produced five hundred millions, and
in its fisheries an even greater
amount What a return on the orig
inal investment These figures in
volve no hyperbole of statement. They
are well within the facts Alaska has
done all this with but little aid from
the federal government. II has over
come almost insurmountable obsta-
Giles. 1t has gone ahead under heavy
handicaps, slowly spasmOdically la
boriously It's reverses have been
many but with indomitable energy it
has recovered and made progress
Never has the pioneer spirit of man
been so strikingly exhibited as in
Alaska.
Alaska. since a possession Of the
United states. has had divers forms
of government, some passably good,
but most of them manifestly indffer-
ent, inadequate and unsuited to the
cOuntry's needs. In the end Alaska
has come to be dominated officially in
large measure, by a bureaucracy at
Washington Thirty eight bureaus,
many of them overlapping, have had
a hand in the government of Alaska.
What is the result? The one newt
able result of divided and conflicting
authority An impossible situation
developed 1t MANNED if it did not
kill, the pioneer spirit and robbed the
territory of that individual initiative
which is essential to the growth and
development of any community, new
or old. large or small.
The resources of Alaska have not
been overestimated. Richness is here
mineral richness, oil richness, agri-
cultural richness fisheries furs and
forests Of colossal importance. These
have been in evidence for years. and
scientific Investigations bear out
abundantly the most roseate dreams
of early settlers II is estimated and
the estimate is conservative, that one
hundred thousand square miles of
land in Alaska are susceptible of ag-
ncutural development. Wheat is
grown in the Tanana valley. and flour |
is today manufactured at Fairbanks |
Home grown vegetables of finest var
ety are to be had even within the |
Arctic circle and grow in abundance
along the coast The vast forests and
exceptional water power offer splen-
lid opportunities for the development
If the wood pulp and paper industry
which is already under way in the
lorthland and which means so mucn |,
y the newspapers of the United
states.