Seward daily gateway., 1923-08-04
BALLA|NE TELLS IF
 ALASKA CENTRAL AM
 GOVT. RAILROAI
HISTORY FROM BEGINNING B ORIGINATOR OF ROUTE AND
 BUILDER ALASKA CENTRAL

Next to the movies, the princiI source of amusement for residents every town along the Alaska railro since President Harding's party l, Seward has been in reading wierd discoveries telegraphed out two or three of the thirty COrrespi dents who were with the Preside Papers have been drifting in by cry boat, from every state in the ion, some of them with Alaskan ries displayed under red linked he lines that cover the first page splash over into adjoining townshi
 One correspondent in particular out to a. string of newspapers amazing discovery that the tri, Guggenheims had unloaded the A ka Northern railroad of peril grades" upon our sleepy Uncle at 'an eXorbitant price," as the section of the present Seward-F banks trunk line of 467 miles. T had done this, he related, after fir ing out John E. Ballaine, the orig tor and builder Of the Alaska Cent later the Alaska Northern, and maliciously retained for tnemse their more profitable Copper Rive Northwestern railroad" with the sequence that a feud had existed since between BalIaine and the genheims.
 According to annual official rep issued by the Copper River & Nc western Railroad, it's use and l ness is confined to hauling amount of copper ore from the si Kennecott mine. That and not more. The mine and the railroad under the same owership.
 The earnings of the Copper Riy Northwestern, shown by it's an official report, are but a small tion of the cost of maintenance operation.
 So far as anybody knows, the genheims never owned a dol worth of interest in the Alaska tral-Alaska Northern, never froze E. Ballaine or anybody else out and had no part in selling it tc government, directly or indirectl
 To Alaskans generally, and t, practical railroad men who have over the Alaska railroad, the ous grades" of 2,2 per cent, for a miles, and purchase price or $16,OOO per mile property that originally cost $41z to build, or upwards of S6O,O0C mile, look like a bargain co snap.
 In order to present the true of the Alaska railroad and ot predecessor, the Alaska Central ka Northern, including the auth ton, location and building of the pleted Government owned line Seward to Fairbanks, The Ga requested John E. Ballaine to p1 a statement that would cover e, utlVely the whole period from ginning to the present day. MI lame Is a resident of Seattle. b1 been in Seward for the summer was the originator and builder Alaska Central, the founder of s, took leading part in gettin, Alaska Railroad Act through gress' and has been credit Woodrow Wilson with presentn data and the arguments whic nm as president to locate the railroad over the Stewards route.
 MT. Ballaine's statements, m; request of The Gateway, is the US kind ever written and pub It is of timely interest and value, as follows:
 Statement by John E. BaIIs
 After returning from the war in the Philipp spent all of 1900 and 1901 In Ing routes for a railroad fro southern coast of Alaska to mana valley. There was wide -aton then for an all-Alaskar 10 the Klondike. Instead, h dea that the logical thing VIC an all-Alaskan route throua Alaska territory based on a 'f resources to support a per population and provide pro permanent traffic. The Klond oeared to me to be a temporar
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