The daily Alaskan., 1922-05-16
A. E. (. Report
 Is Questioned
tContinued from page 8

1 the discovery of another Klondike.
 Ii will be observed that the report very adoitly introduces as camou-
 fage, the words, Alaska will revive
 to an extent approaching more near 1 Iy normal conditions as they were
 before the war. In this event, etc"
 This merely makes the matter
 worse for the author or authors of
 the report.
 The two war years, 1917 and 1918,
 were the best years Alaska had, so I the war benefited the territory as
 a whole. It should not be consider
 ed in this comparison.
 Before prohibition would be much
 better. Does the author know the
 tonnage of beer, whiskey and wine 1 formerly moving into the YIhon? That's a heavy. ancient history tUn- tage. but included in the visionary |, divertable tonnage"
 Before the placer gold mines pet.
 cred out would be still better. Does
 the commission undertake to 'eplace
 the gold in those worked-Out gray
 els and induce ;he population 10 re
 turn. or can it get big industrialists
 to bring in costly dredges 10 work
 the available grOuaC:
 Before the whole valley Of the Yu- kon began to decline, or the days of early Fairbanks would be the su-
 preme comparison. Tor in one year then the valley produced good ton
 mage md passensH reveu;" Ut during .he last fo IT years th' grand
 total population every rlan woman and child trave!ing several lla.cs would not produce 5000 rhrough
 passengers.
 So that the facts may be accentu-
 a ed the |. s. collector of cpsloms for Alaska in his 1921 annual re- port shows on page $ that the aver
 age number of all local and through
 passengers passing East oc Vest al
 Eagle tnear the boundary between J Canada and Alaska on the Yukon riverD was I.O95 for the six years, ! 1916 to 1921, inclusive That's an official figure
 Its only bearing on the situation ; is to show the low average of iron : tier" travel on the river. The aver ! age includes through and local pas ; aeugers.
 i The grand total of passengers handled to and from Alaska last ] year was but S4,3GI. including all l the cannery workers up and back, ! the tourists, the railroad workers. ] the miners. and most of them went ] to some section far remote from ] Fairbanks.
 ] Then comes the laughable sugges- ] tiou in the report: Ut is probably ; safe to predict that in the very near ; future there will BE AVAILABLE ] for shipment over the railroad ap- ! proximately I5O.OOO tons of coal per ; year"
 ] Be Available" is the joker Of l course it's available. But why only I5O,OOO tons. in 1906 Clifford Pin ! chot placed it at billions of tons. : The road was fiuiLhed to the mines ] Aug. 25. 1917. Really finished and l a mine opened. Why has coal not been shipped during the past four ] seasons when the world was crying . for fuel
 THERE is no more possibility of the mines shipping this year than in 1906. or when the road was finish ,. ed in 1917, and the commission : knows it. ]. If an oil stock promoter of a pros pectus maker should put out such a : report he might be accused of trying [ 10 get money under false pretenses {: but here, if the press report is ac- l: curate, and there is no reason to l; doubt it, the commission, by an ut- : terly unworthy, unethical and uu- !: truthful report asks congress to pro !: vide for the first deficit on false : statement of facts and visionary as : sumption of futures.
 : Finally the commission. by its re- : port. admits that it hopes to build 1. up its revenue by the destruction Of a transportation system in existence for many years when all along the :. claim was made that the railroad : would open up new country. | The St. Michael and the Skagway routes, however, ars still operating !: and will continue to serve the upper ; and the lower river and its tribu- . ! +,-:or T-G,a ro;Ir,o5 ig tbr,, and #