The Cordova daily times., 1922-09-28

much more for their freight from Seattle to the southern terminus on the railroad for hauling freight des- tined to some point in the Inter- for than they are for hauling freight destined only to the southern term mus of the railroad This comes about largely by the fact that the through routing arrangement pro- vides for the adoption of the same classification of the freight as is used by the railroads in the states. Under that classification one who ships in less than a carload lot must pay all the way from eighteen to fifty per cent more on con- modity than is exacted from one who ships in carload lots. Where the shipment is in carload lots steam ship companies, generally speaking, receive only about as much in freight on through routed goods as they receive under their own local tariff for freight destined only to the ocean terminus of the railroad, but where the freight is in less than carload lots the steamship companies received for carrying through routed goods up to forty or fifty percent more than they would receive were such goods destined only to the ocean terminus of the railroad. Il examined, while in Fairbanks and Nenana, a great many freight bills for a great many merchants and l failed to find one freight bill for a carload lot, although I understand that the Northern Commercial Con- pany shipped some merchandise in such quantities. Merchants in the , Interior do not ship in carload lots any more than the merchants in Ju- neau and probably not as much. On general merchandise the steamship companies on the coastwise trade do not on general merchandise draw distinction between shipments in carload lots and shipments in less than carload lots, and there is very faint reason why such distinction should be drawn on shipments which are through routed to the Interior If extra charge should be made on less than carload lots that extra should go to the railroad and not to the steamship companies. The ! lowest rate that I saw on any con- modity from Seattle to Nenana was | $57 per ton. $3 is added to each ton from Nenana to Fairbanks On some commodities as high as $168 was paid from Seattle to Nenana, and this was not on explosives or glass ware, but on hardware. In many in stances the freight on the ocean 1 haul, 1 find, is twice as high as the freight on the railroad on the
 route from Seattle to Fairbanks. In
 my opinion it is useless to talk about
 developing Alaska until this situa-
 tion is remedied.
 The weather in the Interior this
 summer has been nprecendentedly
 cold and rainy. I heard the same
 complaint all the way from White
 horse to Fairbanks. However, at
 Fairbanks the crops were simply
 magnificent. I never saw finer
 wheat or barley. But all crops, I
 was told, were approximately one
 month behind, due to the cold and
 rainy weather, and while I was at | Fairbanks a very severe frost came
 which completely killed the crops and it was thought ruined the grain for all use except for fodder. It
 seemed a great tragedy to me, be-
 cause it meant the complete loss tC a good many people of their entire seasons work, but they are a game
 bunch in there and there was nc wailing or gnashing of teeth. Every body looked cheerful in spite of the misfortune and simply expressed the
 hope of doing better next season
 The vegetables in the, Interior are beyond compare.
 The hunting season opened while
 was at Fairbanks and anybody could go little distance out oi
 town and get all the birds the law allowed in a very short time. They
 had a great supply of ducks, grouse spruce hens, pin tails and ptarmi- gans. The land birds were certainly most plentiful and so unafraid that you could almost knock them over with stick.