The Cordova daily times., 1922-09-28
Attorney General Finds Many Facts 0f Interest
 M Interior Of AIUsku

after a six weeks trip to the westward and Interior Alaska, Attorney e en- eral John Rustgard gave the follow ing interview to the Juneau Empire, which we reprint because of it's concise and varied observations:
 While the principal part of my business on the trip grew out of the fur-tax law, the people all along the route from Eagle to Anchorage and Seward were anxious to discuss the transportation situation, and took advantage of the oportunity to become as well acquainted with the problem as I was able to.
 On the Yukon river there would now be no steamers running below Dawson except for the fact that con- siderable quantities of ore from the Mayo district are transported down the river to St. Michaels How long that traffic will continue is uncer- tain. The mining companies are los- ing money on all the lead contents of the ore, as the cost of transportation per pound is greater than the price received for the lead which the ore yields. If Mayo is found to be a permanent camp, smelters will be erected ntar the mines and nothing but the silver will be shipped out. If the mineral deposit, however, should prove very xtensive and the ore deposits of a permanent charac- ter, it is probable that a railroad will be built into the district from some point in the British Territory. It seems, however, that as yet the ore bodies discovered, though very rich are only pockets and not continuous veins.
 By reason of the few boats on the Yukon the various old camps along the river have become isolated to the extent of hampering operations very materially. We owe it to these old pioneers who have blazed the trails and showed us the way to the wealth of the Territory to keep them SUD- piled with the necessary opportunity for transporting freight and passen- gers, and enable them to keep in constant touch with the rest of the Territory. Partly for this purpose and partly for the purpose of fur nishing business for the Alaska Rail- road it has been determined, so Col onel Mears informed me, to turn over two army transports at Fort Gibbon to the Engineering Commits sion to operate between Nenana and Dawson. These boats have now be- come useless to the army because the army posts at St. Michaels, Fort Gibbon and Fort Egbert have all been abandoned.
 I met numerous tourists along the way who were anxious to go down the river and out over the Govern ment Railroad, but lack of transpor- ation facilities on the river rendered. it impossible to accommodate them The managers of the White Pass Railroad have also shown a disin- clination to cooperate with the Alas ka Railroad in establishing through tourist routes on the river and the two railroads. l have no doubt that if the Alaska Railroad and the White Pass would cooperate, the Yukon river would in the immed- fate future become one of the most famous and most frequent tourist | routes in the world. Anyone who has never made the trip has no concep. tion of the enchanting character o1
 the scenery along the way, both or | the railroads and on the river.
 The freight rates to river points al the present time are now next tC
 prohibitive. The freight on grail
 and flour was, as I recall it, SIP pei
 ton to Circle City. The feeling al
 Fairbanks and along the Governmen
 Railroad about freight rates from
 Seattle to tse Interior is quite bitter ] On grain and hay, such articles as
 come in competition with farmers O.
 the Interior, the rates are some l what lower than they used to bt | ,I>1,, Ln l ar
 control of river transportation ant
 before the Government Railroad was l completed, but on most merchandise
 shipped to the Interior the freigh
 rates are now approximately as
 high and in very many instances
 much higher than they were before
 the completion of the railroad.
 By the, through routing agreemen