The Cordova daily times., 1922-12-26
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1922
ALASKA'S TRANSPORTATION
 PROBLEM

The title of this articel is deliberatively de ceptive. There is no such problem. Alaska $ problem is not of transportation, but to ma terialize more business to be transported. That so many newspapers and so many peo- pie in private life, from prospector and labor CT to U. s. senators and cabinet officers, should become so inoculated with the mistaken idea that such problem exists merely proves the power of propaganda.
 No country, no state no territory IS en- titled to transportation facilities beyond it's reasonable necessities. Such transportation facilities Alaska has always had As the operation of transportation facilities is a business enterprise it is impossible to conceive that Alaska transportation, any more than transportation in any other part of the world will ever be conducted on scale of one whit less magnitude than the business of Alaska justifies and will support, or that it can never be maintained on scale more elaborate. It costs more money to own three pairs of shoes than one, but,you can wear only one pair at time If certain town receives two hundred tons of freight per week some people may think it is better to have the said freight delivered by four steamers rather than by one But is it? No'doubt one steamer per week could handle the business and it sure lv costs more to operate four steamers than one On railroad train day will certainly cost more than train week And to be fair it must be admitted that the increased cost of increased service must be reflected m rates Of course if we do not want to be far, and do not want true conditions to become known. but want to damn the railroad or steamship line and make it appear that thelr services are inadequate because they do not operate two trains or two boats per week when one will really amply take care of the business we get on dangerous ground. Some day some one in authority is going to come from Ms souri to look into Alaskan affairs who will insist upon being shown the Alaska business that has been destroyed by inadequate ser vice and exorbitant rates
 The writer did not come to this country until quite some time after the pilgrims land ed at Plymouth Rock and is not personally ia miliar with transportation conditions at that period, but even without that personal knowl- edge ventures the assertion that Alaska trans portaticn conditions today, fifty-five years after Alaska became possession of the United States, are vastly superior to the transporta- ton conditions in New England or between England and America, fifty-five years after the landing of the pilgrims
 It is unnecessary to draw the picture of the hardships, dangers and uncertainties of transportation in those days. We all know something of the early history of our country and the self-reliance of the people We also know that there was time in the history of the New York Central railroad when the population of the communities it served was small and the traffic of such small volume that it did not justify four track main line and thirty or forty main line passenger trains per day and other service in proportion, and that it did not perform any more service than was justified and supported by the business of the communities it served. We also know, whether we will admit it or not, that the com munitics and business in the district served by the New York Central came into existence ahead of the railroad and that increase in the