The Daily Alaska empire., 1930-10-15

ceives from the public, and is not at all dependent on the develop ment of resources in the Copper River valley not owned by it's hold ing corporation.
 "The White Pass and Yukon Rail- road Is also very differently situ- ated from the government railroad. i The White Pass road at the time it was built, had an established tonnage awaiting the completion of the road, considerable mining de- velopment, and a population tribu- tary to the road sufficient to justi.. fly its construction.
 No Such Situation
 When the Alaska Railroad was built no such situation existed.
 "The mining population tributary to the Alaska road and the tonnage then available was so small that it was not a factor of any consid- erable importance. The chief rea- son given in Congress, as well as in the public press, to justify the building of the Alaska Railroad was the importance to the railroad of the tonnage of coal that would be developed in the Matanuska coal field. Not ton was ready at the time construction was started.
 Tn other words, the reason for the construction of the Alaska rail- road was not to furnish transpor- tation for a population and ton mage then ready and only waiting the completion of the road, but to develop what was considered to be the richest part of Alaska, in point of potential tonnage and opportun- ity. If Congress had not been satisfied that the construction of the road would be the means of the development of the rich and varied resources of the section of Alaska through which the road would pass, it would not have been authorized.
 Project for Development
 Tt was a development project, pure and simple, and, at the time, unaffected by any high ambitions to make a profit for the govern ment of the United States, through the operation of railroad.
 NO problem of adjusting the railroad rates to what the traffic would bear has ever confronted the Alaska railroad-no such. problem confronts it now-rather the ques- ton has been, and still is, what rates will assure development.
 Tn considering the question Of the annual deficit in the operation of the Alaska railroad the Senator ial Investigating Committee, na- turally, came face to face with the question of What is the matter with Alaska, for the two questions are identical.
 Suggestions are Offered "If you will permit this organi- zation, whose members have lived in Alaska for 25 years, and more, and who have helped Uncle Sam to discover the value of this nortn- ern territory, to suggest the trouble we will say that If you will release Alaska from bureaucratic restraint and permit capital free policy in investment, without government su- pervision, that Alaska will take care of its own problems, without calling on the federal government for aid.
 However, 1t is pertinent here to suggest that one of these prob lens which has always confronted Alaska, and still does, is the exces- sive transportation charge that IS added to the cost of everything that comes into the Territory and goes out of 1t.
 "The water haul to this part of Alaska is probably the most ex- pensive of any similar service which is performed anywhere in the world.
 Staple freight can be shipped from San Francisco or Seattle to China and back again for what 1t costs to ship the same freight to the terminus of the Alaska Railroad. Likewise, 1t can be shipped from these cities through the Panama Canal, across the Atlantic, to the ports of the Baltic Sea, paying the tolls along the way, for what IS charged for shipment to Alaska. If the government really wants to perform a service for Alaska, and incidentally for the Alaska Railroad, why not put on a shipping board vessel to serve the Alaska Railroad, and make the transpor- tation system-like that of the Kennecott corporation-a complete unit.
 "Soyne light is thrown on the