The Daily Alaska empire., 1929-02-28
AIaska's Need for Roads.
Engineering ana Mining Journal,


 Once again the matter of an appropriation for road building Alaska is to the fore Again Major Malcolm Elliott, President of the Territorial Road Commission, is asking Congress for $2'oO0OOO for the purpose Again, the Bureau of the Budget, IL may safely be supposed, will arbitrarily pare this figure to shadow of it's former self, following GUS tomary policy of making a more or less horizontal cut in all appropriations, with only rare exceptions As at Donnybrook Fair the rule was: If you see head, hit it." so in the Bureau the order of the day appears to me If you pass on an pppropria- tion cut it."
 Evidently the heads of Government departments are objects of suspicion in the Bureau. There it ap- pears to be taken for granted that they will delib- eratey ask for than they really need in order that cut will still leave them provided with what they want The Bureaus evident resolve to cut every appropriation ruthlessly permits the Director Gen. eral of the Budget to assign anyone to the task the employee being required to know only which way is down in making a revision. As Senator Oddie recently pointed out, when attacking the Budget Bureaus system at the convention of the American Mining Congress, it is insult to the intelligence of the American people to permit the carefully pre- pared estimates of Government engineers and ex- perts to be revised downward thus contemptuousy by clerks and underlngS who have no knowledge of the matters they are required to pass upon. Two million dollars for building roads in AL askas halfmillion square miles of territory seems Ia modest sum to- ask, when the labor involved in building single mile road is taken into account
 
 with loaves and few small fishes. Assuredly the construction of any unusual mileage with so small would be equally miraculous. The need for roads in that great region is discussed in the Comment and Criticism pages of this issue by MT Carl w. Whitman, of Chsana, in the North Wran- gel Mountain district of the Territory. As min ing man of many years experience in Alaska, where he now maintains residence MT Whitman is well qualified to discuss the country's needs for roads particularly for branch roads that will link the mining districts in the hills and outlying with the main highways already built Without such feeder roads the latter lose much of their effective ness in opening sections.
 Alaska needs capital to develop industries and support population Colonel w. P. Richardson declared in the Atlantic Monthly of January 1928 The cry that the Government is trying to give the Territory away is longer popular Indeed, as Colonel Richardson declared, the Government could do no better than to give it away by granting lb- eral concessions to citizens who willing to go there and by encouraging them in every way. De- veopmen is contingent upon the provision of trans portation facilities Without these the Territory will remain another China. Home rule proposed by Colonel Richardson the major remedy for the country's backward state. This he advocated with the idea that it would enable the Territory more quickly to satisfy it's urgent needs, eminent among which that of more and better roads