Seward daily gateway., 1931-09-15

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 SENATOR HOWELL AND HIS REPORT ON
 THE ALASKA RAILROAD
 tconinue
 Those forests of cottonwood and balsam poplar, which in greatest demand for packing crates and for tough wrapping paper at the highest prices paid for any kind of pulp and veneers not less than 1OO 900 along the Susitna River alone in addition to larger of the kinds of forests in the Mata nuska and the Talkeetna valleys The stands of those cottonwoods and poplars from 10000 60OO0 board feet per is the most valuable foreat of those kinds of trees in all the Territory of the United States
 Why Senator Howell omitted reference of any kind concerning them, when they we'll known to all Alas kans in the railroad bet and to all timber operators on the Pacific Coast-n Washington Oregon and Califor nia-is of the enigmas that have caused so much skepticism in the minds of people who have read his report.
 Senator Howell's report speaks of "some birch northwest of Anchorage The able and accurate report made by the Agricultural Department, Bulletin 226, states definitely that the amount of birch the head of Cook Inlet is all of 2OO0OOOO0O board feet Timber cruisers in Alaska and the Pacific States of Washington, Oregon and California know that there is twice much 1nore 4OO0O00O0O board feet of brch east of An. chorage, northeast of Anchorage north of Anchorage and also west of Seward the Kenai Peninsula making grand total of 6O0O0OOOOO board feet of the best qualities of birch-one of the most valuable of all hard woods They know too that enths of all that birch must be shipped the Alaska Railroad to Seward for transport to the Outside markets and that of 1t can be floated down any river to Cook Inlet.
 If Senator Howell and his Senatorial Committee had investigated thoroughly and learned all the facts about timber of different varieties and amounts Central Alaska tributary the Alaska Railroad and about the markets awaiting that timber they would know that this one resource alone is than enough when rightly developed to make the Alaska Railroad financially prof ltable in freight revenues alone.
 That does take into account the vast deposits of coal running literally into tlions of tons in the field of the Alaska Railroad nor the mineral resources of gold, copper slver lead, tin, and iron, the grazing and agricultural lands of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Den mark, Latvia, Scotland and other countries of north western Europe all put together.
 If Senator Howell and his committee will come to Alaska early summer and stay until late in the fall, investigating every hour of the day all long, and then follow with another investigation the next summer, and then third, summer and fourth summer: he would learn something now and valuable every month of all that time, and still not know fifth of all there is to know about the variety and extent and possibilities of the many kinds of resources in the great country of 100000 square miles which the Alaska Railroad serves. An investigation of that nature would produce results informative to his fellow Senators than is possible from investigation of few hours day for 12 days, conducted from car window.
 With all due respect to Senator Howell, with full credit to his honesty of purpose The Gateway believes that if he should make the kind of investigation here indicated extending four full summers of hard and intensive work he would not supplement his report with recommendation for increase of freight rates and passenger fares to exhorbitan and prohbive figure he did in his hasy and inaccurate report of January, 1930 with the effect of strangng and suppressing all Alaska Railroad but that he would then point the way boldly and truthfully to systematic plan of develop mente for the real opening of Alaska for extensive set Elements Alaska ltina n1n1-