The Daily Alaska empire., 1950-01-24

could be patented. No specified amount of use or cultivation is required before permit is granted
 The entryman is simply expected to make part of his living from it in the short time before he is entitled to patent This is very loose requirement and especially for the one-year claimants. Any public land with the exception of military reserves and some other withdrawn areas, could be taken up. All of the valuable timber lands of South east Alaska would be open to such entry Most certainly we could expect a rush to Alaska that would exceed that of the Days of 98" by vet erans who would build log house on or near the land hunt and fish for months year and return
 to the States with deeds in their pockets to as much as square miles of Alaska land. This would be absentee ownership of land and far beyond the conception of anyone who has heretofore depored this type of ownership.
 Industrialists mining people, homesteaders, com- ing to Alaska in all sincerity would find they would be compelled to buy from outside owners. Even sum- recreationiss coming North to fish in our rivers and lakes could expect to find great stretches of the shorene of the best waters under the private owner ship of a few who had entered adjoining claims. The entire margins of many beautiful lakes and long strips of river bank would be forbidden ground to the public
 The results under such an act would be diametri- cally opposed to the kind of development Aaskans
  simply be locked up in large speculative holdings until such time somebody willing and able to meet the owners terms Here in section of the Terri tory we readily perceive that few could take up total of dozens of miles of shorene controlling many fishtrap sites and hundreds of millions of feet of timber in the adjoining upland
 Timber constitutes the brightest prospect for furth CT Alaska development in the near future but as soon as the fveyear period specified by the bill for re- taning ownership had expired, the men who patented timber under the Lemke Bill could pool their holdings and sell them to large sawmill and pulp companies on Puget Sound could be expected to hold the timber in reserve to supply the material for their Puget Sound plants after exhausting the timber they i own nearer home
 1 Our public officials, civic bodies and veterans groups do nothing of greater value for the Terri tory than work actively in opposition to this measure Should anyone unfamiliar with homestead regula- tions they pertain to Alaska and the rest of the United States think that opposition to the Lemke Bill is opposition C-Is homeseadng in Alaska this l information should be known
 Under present homestead regulations, anyone can take up 16O of land in Alaska. The same regu- latons in effect in the United States proper ef- fective in Alaska.
 There is probably no farmer in Alaska who actually farms as much 160 In the interior of Alaska, the farmers have under cultivation not more than an average of 50 farm, we are told In addition the government now lends money to clear land put up farm buildings to buy livestock and farm equpment-this before such time as the homesteads proved upon.
 Such government loans are long term and carry a low rate Of interest.
 So without the Lemke Bill, the homesteader in Alaska whether he is a G-I not, does all right Just he where n home stead land is available