Seward daily gateway., 1925-08-05

ed in memorandum to the Presi- dent that his impression of Alaska seemed to support the following con- clusions:
 '@The admins stration of government activities is 8 one-man job.
 Either the Department of the Inte- rior of the Department of Commerce should be charged with Alaska; au- thorized to appoint an additional as- sistant secretary to be governor of Alaska.
 "The governor should then con- struct his bureau on the same lines as those serving in the departments at Washington and select it's person. nel from government employees in the different departments now resi- dent in Alaska, each department to be reached thru one of them
 "All government service for Alaska should be done in Alaska that can be done there"
 The memorandum further stated that the Secretary contemplated rec ommending the transfer of the rein deer industry from the Bureau of Ed ucation of the native Alaskans-In- dians Eskimos-from the Bureau of Education to the territory, and the discOntinuance of the Bureau of Ed ucation as responsibility of the In- terior Department He expressed the opinion that the road work car ried on in the territory under appro- priations charged to the military bud- get might properly be placed under the operation of the Agricultural De- partment in connection with the road building-Bureau of Public Roads-in the national forests of AL aska," evidently having in mind the extension of the Federal Aid Act to Alaska.
 These and other tentative recom- mendations received consideration, no doubt, but President Harding in his speech, in which he extolled Alas ka and paid high tribute to it's citi- zenship, while barely touching upon the administrative system, gave un- qualified approval to existent poli- cies of conservation, which was hail. ed as vindication and indorsement of those opposing any change of au- thority or control
 Bureaucracy, therefore, seems firm ly intrenched until such time as Con- gress shall overhaul, coordinate, sim plify and systematize all departments of the Government, incidentally in- cluding Alaska
 In proclaiming American Forest Week this year, President Coolidge said: "Our forests ought to be put to work and kept at work. I do not minimize the obstacles that have to be met, nor the difficulty of chang ing old ideas and practices. We must all put our hands to this com mon task. It is not enough that the Federal state, and local govern ments take the lead. There must be change in our national attitude. Our indus stries, our landowners, our farmers, all our citizens must learn to treat our forests as crops, to be used, but also to be renewed. We must learn to tend our woodlands as carefully as we tend our farms"
 This applies directly to Alaska, where the forests have not been put to work and kept at work" Harves- tration is an essential factor in con- servation The Forest Service is quite alive to the fact, of course. But wood-pulp and paper projects have not eventuated and the wood land crops of the North are still un- cut and await market.
 Divided Jurisdiction.
 Of the three branches of the Gov ernment exercising large authority in Alaska-the Interior Department, with jurisdiction over mining, the mill lions of acres of unreserved land, an infnitesimal fraction of which only has been surveyed, the education and care of natives as wards of the na- tion, and the operation of the Alaska Railroad; Commerce, with control of the fisheries, the now paramount and most productive industry, and the coast and geodetic work; and Agrieul- ture, with authority over 20,000,00O acres of forest reserves, the building of roads therein and adjacent there to, the supervision of game and fur bearing animals, and the mainten- ance of agricultural experiment sta- tions-the Interior Department is the least dominant. Periodically under fire, it not only has been unable to extend its powers, but holds those 1t possesses with difficulty. Alaska 1.o. 1oooe haon itc cbinf tro11hIn and