The Cordova daily times., 1922-12-26

tHdI He uOeS not KHOW Wn1cn was IlrSt, the nen Tor the egg, but he does know that transporta- ton does not infallibly create traffic while traffic will infallibly create transportation, Therefore, the conclusion is inevitable that Alaska's problem is to create traffic. It isn t even necessary to think about transportation, much less worry and agonize about it. When a man takes good strong dose of carbolic acid he is wasting energy to worry about the result. The natural result will follow. Nature is still wonderful-and certain. Natural laws are entitled to more confidence than Washing ton or Olympia or Juneau laws, which after all are only statutes, and most of them like pie crust A law is not a law unless 1t carries with it an inevitable penalty. ,.
 That transportation is not an Alaskan prob lem is easily proven by past experience, and it is on past experiences that we base our. ex-. |pectations for the future. The discovery of gold in the Klondike, not in Alaska at all, but in Canada two hundred miles from the inter national boundary, was the event that snatched Alaska the unknown out of obscnrity and con |centrated upon 1t the eyes of the world. The Nome discovery year later magnified its prominence. Before those discoveries there was little transportation service to Alaska
 
 paratively no one wanted to go to Alaska. Ten times the service then in operation would not have caused any more people to go than did go. Then came the gold discoveries and the great gold excitement and stampede Ten thousand, twenty thousand, fifty thousand, an hundred thousand people wanted transporta- tion for themselves and their supplies to Wran- gell, to Dyea, to Skagway, to Chilkoot, to Valdez, to Nome. Did they get it? Only fool would say mo- Was it maintained as long as there was demand for 1t and business to support and justify it? Yes, positively. Dur ing the summer of 1900 there were about sev- enty vessels in the roadstead at Nome at one time, and about ten thousand people were landed at Nome during June of that year. Would the sailing of seventy vessels from Se- attle last June for Nome have caused ten thou sand people to go to Nome, or caused the ship ment of any more cargo? No, more positively. Would the sailing of seventy vessels from Se attle last June for Nome have caused the ship ment of one more ton of freight or caused just one more person to go to Nome than did go anyway Again, no. If ten thousand people had wanted to go from Seattle to Nome last June would that fact have caused the sailing from Seattle of seventy vessels, or whatever number would have been necessary to carry the ten thousand passengers? Yes, most posi- lively. q
 When two trains per week will handle all the business will the operation of six trains a week each way between Anchorage and Fair bankc instead of two cause the discovery. or development of any mineral prospects or the clearing of any land and raising of wheat? Can Fairbanks agricultural district ship any wheat before raising it? Gan the railroad by running empty trains induce or force settlers to go into the country and clear land and raise and ship wheat or can settlers by going into the country, clearing land and raising wheat and offering it for shipment induce or force the railroad to run trains to carry the wheat? Will running boats or trains cause the open ing of tie mines and the shipment of ore or will the opening up of mines and the shipment of ore for shipment cause the operation of boats and trains? These are not foolish ques tions, though they do seem childish, and should be unnecessary. They can be correctly an swered, however, by anyone whose head IS put on right and who has not an axe to grind.
 White is not black, no matter who says so. Two plus two makes four, always Water does not run up hill. Gold is where you find it, but you have to go and hunt for it, and the same ground will not yield annual crops Wheat might be raised in the Tanana Valley, but don't try any bananas or grape fruit If, how ever, you do try bananas and they fail don't think the failure is due to any Alaska trans