The Daily Alaska empire., 1932-02-18
OUR ROAD COOPERATION.

Recently the House Agricultural Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations tied up all or the existing Forest Highway Funds in Alaska and llm- tied expenditures from the 19S2-39 allotment to s950ooo Before taking that step it advised by one of it's members, Robert c. Simmons Nebraska Republican that he had spent seven weeks "prowl- ing around Alaska last year and had found out that the Territory had never paid nckle toward the construction and maintenance of it's roads Every cent he said has come from Federal appropria- tions
 Previous unexpended balances in the Forest High way Funds authorized for Alaska amounted to $8S4- O00 The regular apportionment from the Con- gressonal appropriation for the fiscal year 1932-33 would have been about S9600oo The total of all authorized funds therefore would have amounted to sl794o0o MT smmonss intervention cost AL aska consequently, the difference between that total and the $S50O0O or $1,444000.
 If the Nebraska solon concerned about es- tablishing reputation for economy for himself, he need not have gone about it in expensive manner to the Territory By giving the Committee a max rative of his Alaska proving" he could have en- frightened, entertained and amused it, and con- vnced it unshakably of his personal thrift which indeed has all of the earmarks of having the ancestry of an Edinburgh Hebrew.
 It would have been diyerting at least if he had informed thousands of miles as he prowlsd in search of real facts about Alaska He ought to have told it how he and his family traveled to. in and from Alaska almost exclusively on Government and oper- ated boats and motor vehicles without the payment of one nickle of transportation charges. The ex- ception in the voyage from Bellingham, Wash. to King Cove on the Alaska Peninsula, which made on cannery company's steamer and that also probably without being charged the nominal meal and berth rate
 That is, we admit not in issue. But it is an interesting sidelight this new authority on AL aska. Most of his seven weeks prowling" was done from the cabin of some Government boat, or on the hurricane deck of motor car, also Government owned and operated on roads hundreds of miles distant from the that he sharply criticised. Not than one-ssventh of his Alaska stay was spent in Southeast Alaska and sx-sevenths of that time was spent In fishing trips and sightseeing, rather than in a genuine study of roads and the of funds with which they being built
 His declaration that the Territory does not CO., operate in road construction and maintenance is utterly untrue We do not charge that he deliber- ately falsfed But the effect was the same because he undertook to speak with authority based upon a personal investigation.
 Official figures give him the lie Since road building begun in Alaska, Federal appropriations have been made available in the of $17830,- 7426l, up to June 30 1s31 To the same date Territorial funds aggregatng s5,747.s59Ol have been expended by the Federal agencies that ex- pended the Federal money. and in cooperation with them IT. other words. for every s3 of public money granted by Congress to Alaska to be expended by Federal road construction agencies in Alaska the Territory has put up sl to the same bodies for the same purpose.
 Congress has fixed a general policy for Federal cooperation for highway construction in the Unitee States, excepting Alaska from it. although it in- cluded the Territory in the Forest Highway sections of the law. For States having less than five per cent unappropriated domain the States ol some subdivision of them and the National Govern ment share costs equal basis. But in tht public land States the Federal percentage raised by one-haf of the percentage of the public domain unapproprated and unreserved where such domain l more than five per cent Thus a State with 70 pel cent of it's land in the public domain would get al additional 35 per cent to supplement the origina 50 per cent.
 If this same rule were applied to AlaSka's roads the Federal Government would pay ss per cent O road construction and maintenance costs, since 9 per cent of the Territory is unappropriated public domain. Thus instead of the current ratio of s of Territorial money to S3 of Federal Alaska would have to furnish only sl for each sloo made available by Congress.
 This is not contended for by Alaska. However Congress ought to deal fairly with the Terri tory than done by the Committee to whcf MT Simmons made his exposure
 
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