The Daily Alaska empire., 1932-03-12
ANOTHER "UNIFICATIoN'' PLEA.


 Long before Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur entered on the scene as Secretary of Alaska there were those who agitated for ratification of Federal bureaus in Alaska. Centralized control" became on more than one occasion a sl1ibboleth. Then as now when Secretary Wilbur tells Congress that economies can be effected by putting the Territory into the hands of a single department with an all-embracing budget was urged that efficiency in administra- ton would be promoted and savings to the Fed eral Government assured.
 The distinguished Secretary of Interior informs Congress that Federal administration in Alaska is "comphcatedg None will dispute his dictum. But it is not different here from any other State or Territory in which the holdings of the Federal authority are as extensive as they here. The same system of Federal administration is in vogue here that is to be found all the country What ever compexity is to be found is due to the over whelming percentage of Federally held land and resources rather than to any peculiarity in the system itself to distinguish it from the national system.
 With possibly two exceptions every Federal agency in Alaska has it's counterpart in one or more States or Territories The exceptions are minor entities insofar expenditures are concern- ed Every governmental agency or bureau fune tioning in Alaska, except the two-the Alaska Road Commission and the Reindeer Administration-s but branch of the gigantic system of bureaus that has it's vital center in the nations capital.
 The Treasury Department is represented by the Customs Service, the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Coast Guard Service. The Department of Agriculture has many agents including the Forest Service Bureau of Public Roads, Weather Bureau, Agricultural Experiment Stations, Biological Survey and possibly others. From the Interior Department we get the Governors Office the Secretary of AL aska the Bureau of Public Survey, Alaska Rail- road, local and General Land Office agents, the Office of Indian Affairs Geological Survey. The War Department has the United States Signal Corps. the Alaska Road Commission United States District Engineer, and the Infantry post at Chi- koot Barracks. The Department of Commerce is represented by the Bureau of Fisheries Lighthouse Service, Coast and Geodetic Survey, Steamboat h. spection and Bureau of Mines. The Department of Labor gives the Immigration Service We have postoffices and the Railway Mail Service under the Post Office Department From the Department of Justices comes our Federal District and Commission CTS Courts United States Attorneys, Marshals and the Prohibition Enforcement Unit.
 Unfication of these heterogeneous units under one department might have tendency to curtail appropriations, but the very nature of the work of most of them would make inevitable confusion that could not but be disastrous to the Territory and destroy in very large their useful ness to the public. Depriving the Forest Service of its contact with its parent in Washington and the facilities afforded by other branches of the same bureau would make it highly ineffective And the same result would be felt by virtually every other Federal bureau mentioned. There is single possible exception There is sound for the existence of the Prohibition bureau here The work it does can easily be done by the MarshalS and their deputies since they, also, daily perform services identical with that imposed upon the Pro- hibition agents. Such a consolidation has been re- peaedly urged by the Governor of the Territory but without result.
 We hope that Congress win not take secretar, Wbur's comments seriously About the only sen- sibe policy for the Federal Government to pursue if it desires to reduce it's expenditures here. is tc liberalze its policies under which public resources in the Territory are locked up from the kind O development that made the winning of the Wes possible It can't cut costs and at the same timt continue its own grasp on most of the major re sources on and under the land surface and thost of the sea