Seward daily gateway., 1927-02-07
SURRENDER TO BIG INTERESTS

 
 Taking for example the history of the Kennecott copper mines in support of argument in favor of giving the paper trust 45-year monopoly and coupling with it the Ocean Falls paper mills sort of there you have it accentuation the Cordova Times rises to express surprise to find here and there opposition the part of the press to the deal being consummaed by Forestry Bureau promoters in Southeastern Alaska The Times in pointing to modern city of 5000 inhab tants at Ocean Falls did inform it's readers tha this resut-the mill and city-s the outcome of promotion wherein pioneers of Western British Columbia had ac quired the timber which have been under develop ment for decade, and that these sold to those operating the mill In addition to the 5000 inhabitants working for days pay-several hundred hardy pioneer who invested the equivalent of five years earnings time in these areas drew down small potency for their holdings and the money is circu lating in the marts of trade of British Columbia.
 The Times utters sophistry when 1t points to the kennecott Copper company as an example of how big capital is required in Alaska. On the score of cessity for big capital .he Times get argument from us But the principle of how big capital shall acquire and control the natural resources of Alaska, ready to debate the matter to it's nth degree.
 The mining claims embraced in the Kennecott mines staked and sold by prospecors to the corporation the stakers receiving share in the proceedings Had conservation applied to metal mining did to timber and gaugng the time by that ranspirng since the gov enment deviated from it's natural function of proul gatng laws for the government of the daily conduct of the nations cltlzens and went into the promoting bus ness there would have been such thing the Kenne colt Copper company for the that there too
 
 tai and keeping their hands off private business for of the business astuteness boased by the head of the Kennecott Copper company have submitted their af fairs to political appointees instead of their trained experts.
 Would the Kennecott Copper company have expend cd some S30OOOOOO in railroad and development if the title to their mines had reposed in the government sub ject to disquietng by the whom of some bureaucrat stationed like spy at the elbow of the superintendent to say whether not he could extract the ore from the stope in Mo- drift before driving cross-cut into dke of granite to there would be some ore left for Pos ter1y? That is what is happening in the coal fields of Alaska and is good sie the Times offers on the timber question:
 The Times says it lis nonsense to say that the gov- ernmen is handing to the paper trust what right fully belongs to Aaskans Of course the timber does not belong to Alaskans the government took it away from them. That is where the Alaskans have com plant just would have been that of Ezra Meeker and his brave pioneers had the Oregon country been taken from the and system of satrapry been up for free democratic American government as conceived by the founders of the republic is given by the crowned heads of Europe to their subjects undeveoped lands given by the British crown to the American colo niss to encourage settlement and development of the wilderness But there were no paper trusts in those times
 The Times says development of Alaska has been held back long enough by internal discord and unfound- ed criticisms" In other worlds the Times believes in turning the other cheek. Fortunately the American coonlss were made of sterner stuf and were willing to fight for justice and right We venture the guess that majority of Alaskans would have been with Wash 1ngton, Jefferson and the rest had they been present