The Wrangell sentinel., 1925-03-05
Tells Congress Alaska Has Only
 Scrubby Timber

OuuDUt 1MDcl | A few days ago the House of
 Representatives at Washington had lunder consideration Joint Resolu-
 tioR No. 50 authorizing the inn
 provement of the transportation
 system on the Seward Peninsula in l Alaska.
 | Hon. John E. Rankin, congress-
 man from Mississippi. took advan- tage of the occasion to deliver a
 rather lengthy address on"Alaska- AS I Saw It." AS an introduction to
 his speech. Mir. Rankin said
 Mir. Chairman. 1t seems to me
 that the time has come for the
 American Congress. in legisla- ting for the Territory of Alaska, 1 to begin to understand what they are legislating on. For that reason I avail myself of the op- portunity to tell the Congress of some things that I observed on 1 my trip to that great territory more than a year ago.
 MT. Rankin then proceeded to
 enlighten Congress by giving that distinguished body some first hand
 information. Regarding the timber resources of Alaska. he said
 | Some time ago we had before | the Committee on Territories a man who kept telling us of the
 marvellous timber supply of Alas ka. It had been cruised, he said which showed the amount to be about 10000, 100000 feet. I ask ed him, Will you please tell me what scale you use?" He said, ''We use the Scribner scale" I
 shall not go into the distinction between the standard scales. the Doyle and the Scribner. Every man who is informed on the sub- ject knows that when timber is measured by the Scribner rule it will not turn out according to the measurements, where the trees are as they are in Alaska From the cursory investigation that I made. believe there can not be more than 30.000, 100000 or 35,000,000, 900 feet of mer- chantable timber in Alaska. Be- sides, it is all soft. It is spruce. fir and hemlock, and nearly all low and scrubby. It is so soft that it can be used in this coun- try only for the manufacture of paper, and we have so much pa per material in this country all ready that it will be a long time before a great deal of this timber can be profitably shipped into the United states.
 That "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing is we'll illustrat- ed by the information" that "The Gentleman from Mississippi i'm parted to Congress after having visited Alaska at Government ex- pense and personally investigated conditions here
 Representative Rankin's inten- tions may be good but it is un- fortunate that a man who is no better informed should undertake to tell the Congress of the United States anything about the timber resources of Alaska It would be far better for Alaska if congressman with scant knowledge and errone- ous conceptions of the ti.uber re- sources of the Territory would dc their speechmaking on ;, bjects about which they have more defi- nite knowledge.
 Representative Rankin uas been for several years 6 member If the Committee on Territories. He has shown friendly attitude toward Alaska, and will no doubt regret his blundering remarks when they are called to his attention.
 MT. Rankin says the timber of Alaska "is nearly all low and scrubby. and so soft that 1t can be
 used in this country only for the manufacture of paper" and that eft | will be a long time before a great deal of this timber can be profit ably shipped into the United States" Now let Delegate Sutherland avail himself of the first opportu-
 nifty to tell Congress that during
 the past season the mills of South | eastern Alaska shipped approxi- mately three million feet of thick
 clear spruce, the greater portion of
 which went to the United Kingdom to be used for airplane construction.