The Nenana news., 1923-01-20
ALASKA'S TRANSFORMATION
 PROBLEM
(Railway and Marine News.)

The title of this article is delib- erately deceptive. There Is no such problem. Alaska's problem is not of transportation. but to materia- lize more business to be transported That so many newspapers and so many people in private and public life, from prospector and iaborer 10 U. s. senators and cabinet officers, should become so incculated with the mistaken idea that such prob lem exists merely proves the power of propaganda.
 No country. no state. no transpor- tation facilities beyond its reason able necessities. Such transportation facilities Alaska has always had. As the opertion of transportation facilities is a business enterprise t is impossible to conceive that Alaska transportation, any more than trans portation, in any other part of the world, will ever be conducted on a scale of one whit less magnitude than the business of Alaska justi fies and will support, or that it can ever be maintained on & scale more elaborate. IL costs more money to own three pairs of shoes than one, but you can wear only one pair at a time. If a certain town receives two hundred tons of freight per week some people may think 1t is better to have the said freight de- livered by four steamers rather than by one. But Is it? No doubt one steamer per week could handle the business and 1t surely costs more to operate four steamers than one. On a railroad train 8 day will certainly cost more than train a week. And 10 be fair it must be admitted that the increased cost Of increased service must be reflected in rates. Of course if we do not want 10 be fair, and do not want true conditions 10 become known, but want 10 damn the railroad or steamship line and make 1t appear that their services are inadequate because they do not operate two trains or two per week when one will really amply take care of the business we get on dangerous ground Some day someone in authority is going to come from Missouri to look into Alaskan affairs who will insist upon being shown the flask a business that has been destroyed by inadequate service and exhori- bitant rates. ..~....-. T.. :.. .-"
 The writer did not come to this country until quite some time after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock and it is not personally fami- liar with transportation conditions al that period, but even without that personal knowledge ventures the assertion that Alaskan transpor- tation conditions today. fifty-five years after Alaska became poss- ession of the UnF1ed States, are vastly superior to the transportation conditions in New England or be- tween England and America. fifty five years after the landing of the Pilgrims.
 IL Is unnecessary to draw the picture of the hardships, dangers and uncertainties of transportation in those days. We all know someth- ing of the early history of our coun- try and the self-reliance of the people We know that there was time in the history of sse New York Central railroad when the popula- ton of the communities it served was small and the traffic of such a small volume that 1t did not jus tify a four-track main line and thirty or forty main line passen- ger trains per day and other ser vice in preparation. and that it did not perform any more service than was justified and supported by the business of the communities it serv- ed. We also know, whether we will admit it or not, that the communi- ties and business in the district served by the New York Central came into existence ahead of the