The Seward gateway., 1923-01-10
ALASkA'S TRANSFORMATION
 PROBLEM

lem. Alaska's problem is not of trans mess to be transported. That so many newspapers and so many people in private and public life from prospec- tor and laborer to U. s. Senators and cabinet officers. should become so in oculated with the mistaken idea that such a problem exists merely proves the power of propaganda.
 No country, no state, no territory, is entitled to transportation facilities beyond its reasonable necessities. Such transportation facilities Alaska always had As the operation Of trans portation facilities is business en- terprise it is impossible to conceive that Alaska transportation, any more than transportation in any other part of the world, will ever be conducted on a scale of one whit less magnitude than the business of Alaska justifies and will support, or that it can ever be maintained on a scale more elab- crate It costs more money to own thre pairs of shoes than one, but you can wear only one pair at time. If certain town receives two hundred tons of freight pc. week some people may think it is better to have the said freight delivered by four steamers rather than one. But is it? No doubt one steamer week could handle the business and it surely costs more to operate four steamers than one. On railroad a train a day will certainly cost more than train week. And to be fair it must be reflected in rates Of course if we do not want to be fair and do not want true conditions to become known, but want to damn the railorad or steamship line, and make it appear that their services are made Quate because they do not operate two trains of two boats per week when one will really take care of the busi- ness, we get on dangerous ground. Some day someone with authority is going to come from Missouri to look into Alaskan affairs who will insist up on being shown the Alaska business that has been destroyed by inadequate service and exhorbitant rates.
 The writer did not come to this country until quite some time after the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock and is not personally familiar with transportation conditions at that per iod, but even without that personal knowledge ventures the assertion that Alaska transportation conditions to- day, fifty-five years after Alaska be- came a possession of the United States, are vastly superior to the trans portation conditions in New England or between England and America, 55 years after the landing of the pilgrims
 It is unnecessary to draw the pic ture of the hardships, dangers. and uncertainties of transportation 1n those days. We all. know something ot the early history of our country. and the self reliance of the people. We al so know that there was a time in the history of the New York Central rail road when the population of the com uunities it served was small and the traffic of such a small volume that il did not justify a four-track main line and thirty or forty main line passen ger trains a day and other service 1T proportion and that it did not perform any more service than was justified and suppoted by the business of the communities it served. We also know whether we will admit it or not, tha the communities and business in th' district served by the New York Cen ual came into existence ahead of th' railroad and that increase in the pop ulation and business preceded any in crease in transportation facilities ant was the sole, and direct cause or th increase and betterment in transpor tation. The writer frankly admits tha he does not know which was first, th' hen or the egg, but he does know tha transportation does not infallibly ere ate traffic while traffic will infallibl! create transportation. Therefore, th conclusion is inevitable that Alaska} problem is to create traffic. It ism even necessary to think about trans portation, much less worry and agon ize about it. When man takes a goot strong dose of carbolic acid he i. wasting energy to worry about the re suit. The natural result will follow Nature is still wonderful-and certain Natural laws are entitled to more con