Evening star., 1925-07-29
WESTERN OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

y adopted on the floor of the Senate
Representative Johnson is held re.
sponsible in Tacoma for not horn
swoggling the public lands commit
tee OF the House into concurrent ac-
ton. Senator Jones, Republican of
Washington, who is also d candidate
for reelection next year, did not take
sides on the Dill bill, a circumstance
which causes displeasure in both Ia
coma and Seattle, It's priceless
tangle. While highly diverting to an
outsider, the rival cities take it very
seriously, and no one in them more
50 than Representative johnson and
Senator Jones.
x x
Scott c. Bone, veteran Journalist
and former Governor of Alaska, is
spending the Summer at his old home
in Seattle at the end of his four years
as viceroy OF our great territory TO
the north. Development of the port
of Seattle depends in large degree
upon the future of Alaska. to which
the city is the gateway. Mr.. Bone
shares unreservedly Seattles resent
ment that the Territory continues
TO be locked up" and its re
conservation. Bone is a conserya-
zionist. but asserts roundly that con
ServatiOn politics has proved a blight
TO Alaska. Coal fields, kept from eX-
ploitation, do not mean conservation,
he says, nor 10000 900 acres OF re
served forests, virtually untouched.
overgrown and in need OF harvestra
ton. UncultiVated agricultural land,
in Bones opinion, with acreage be
yond computation, unsurveyed and
unoccupied. does not bespeak conser-
vation. ITO make two blades of
grass grow where one grew before"
the former governor declares, 'and
TO utilize our God-given resources for
the benefit of mankind is the kind Of
conservation the country in general
and Alaska in particular need al this
junCture." Abandonment of false
conservation policy and development
of transportation are termed by Bone
Alaska's vital and overshadowing re
quirements.
x X
President Cooldge's popularity in
the West is causing thousands OF
motor tourists from that region TO
make their way to Plymouth, Vt. The
general automobile information agen-
cies throughout the Middle West re
port more specific inquiries how TO
reach that now famous little neck OF
the New England woods than any
other point on the whole Atlantic
Seaboard. To take care of the motor
rush to the locality where Calvin
Coolidge was born and took the oath
of office in the glow of a kerosene
lamp two years ago, the Vermont
Legislature recently appropriated S3o,-
GOO to improve the roads and bridges
leading to and from Plymouth.
y x x x
=
ter times in the agricultural West is
the payment OF back taxes, long due
from impoverished farmers. The 9th
er day in Montana a farmer motorea
TO the county seat in his new touring
car and planked down cash and
checks totaling $4,000 for delinquent
taxes extending back to the years
before the war, when the drought al
most delivered Montana a knockout
blow.
x
Some OF the most Illuminating in
formation an itinerant observer gath
ers on transcontinental expedition
is picked up in interviews with bar
berS. / struck a particularly en-
lightened knight of the razor at Port
land. Asked whether prohibition is
much discussed in Oregon. he replied
tersely: mo, it's disregarded." lie
proved a better informed native son
than the conductor OF a Northern
Pacific dining car. We were getting
our first glimpse of the mountains in
eastern Montana 1 asked him what
range they We're. II don't know" he
said, but I'll find out" He returned
in five minutes to report that they
were the Rocky Mountains.
x X X x
Secretary Wilbur dashed cold water
on fond Oregon hopes when he visited
Astoria and Portland a day or two
ago and withheld approval of the
project to make the mouth of the Co
Iumbia River, at Tongue Point,
naval base. Senators McNary and
Stanfield, supported by a delegation
of distinguished and persuasive Orego-
mans, had Mr.. Wilbur in tow. They
did their noblest to sell him the propo-
sition. But he left their hospitable
midst without committing himself be
yond saying that the project would be
considered some sunny day. The
Oregonians concede the wisdom of
maintaining major naval bases at
points like San Francisco and Pearl
Harbor, but if the United States bat
tie fleet is to remain stationed on the
coast Oregon feels that the mouth of
the Columbia should become one of q
whole series of secondary bases along
the coast for sustenance of the Navy
in time of emergency. Secretary VIII
burS lack of enthusiasm for Tongue
Point is charged to the Coolidge econ
omy program. Secretary Work re
cent refusal to smile upon the 0,000-
acre Baker irrigation project in east
ern Oregon is ascribed to the same
policy.
tCoDyright. 1881