The Daily Alaska empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1926-1964, 1950-05-01

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of her lands than were granted
other states upon admission?
! That was the question with which
witnesses were confronted at the
statehood hearings of three years
ago when they suggested that Alaska
ought to be granted more OF her
lands than one section in every nine.
The principal reason Alaska
should receive a much larger per-
centage of her total land area upon
admittance is that SO little has been
done, compared with what was done
in other territories, to make her
ready for statehood.
This is particularly true in the
matter of public land surveys. The
grants of land in the present state
hood bill, H.R. 33l, depend almost
entirely upon the completion OF rec
tangular or township surveys OF the
land.
AS has been previously noted, APP
proximately two and halt million
acres of Alaskan land have been
laid out in rectangular surveys. This
is about two-thirds Of one percent
Of the total land area and Is mic
roscopic when compared with the
percentage of surveyed land in other
US. territories when they were adj
mitted to statehood: Arizona, almost
80 percent surveyed; New Mexico, a
fraction under 10 percent; Okla
homa, 100 percent surveyed; Wyo-
ming, more than rs percent, and SC
forth. Not one single territory has
been admitted to statehood since
the Civil War with less than 20 per-
cent of it's lands already laid out IN
rectangular surveys by the Federal
government, and the average has
been around SO percent.
Work of Interior Dept.
The Interior Department makes
a great deal OF fuss and talk about
developing Alaska but it has done
next to nothing toward helping de-
velopment by getting the lands sur
veyed. The surveying OF Alaskan
land, under the present statehood
enabling act, would continue to be
a function of a branch OF the In
terror Department and the bill con-
tains no guarantee whatever that
| this bureau will make surveys more
rapidly in the future or even that
it will make any at all.
During the past few weeks ges-
lures have been made in Congress
to give Alaska more of her lands
and resources with statehood, but
gestures are about all they have
amounted to.
Senator Hugh Butler of Nebraska
proposed that Alaska be granted
eighteen sections of land in each
township instead of four. The same
proposal was made in the House OF
Representatives when the statehood
bill was under consideration there.
Eighteen sections would amount
| to fifty percent of the land in each
township, but whether the grants
are four sections or eighteen their
actual acquisition by the new state,
under this type of legislation. VIII
depend upon the completion OF
rectangular surveys.
The only way in which the pro-
posed state of Alaska can receive
portions of her lands Immediately
will be through enabling legislation
similar to Delegate Bartlett's H.R.
2O6. This legislation would grant all
of the land, surveyed or unsuryeyed,
to the new state. Excepted would be
certain specific areas, such as NC
Kinley National Park and the naval
oil reserve in the Arctic, which
would remain under the ownership
and control of the Federal govern
ment.
When that type of legislation is
enacted, and only then, can Alaska
throw off some of the letters OF bu-
reaucratic control and begin to de-
velop her own resources and build
a stable economy. The sad fact is
that there has been little industrial
development in Alaska during the
past couple of decades and the more
rosy the development plans pro-
pounded by the bureaucrats, both
Federal and homegrown, the less
actual development there is.
Examination Facts
Much has been made OF the fact
that development has followed
statehood in other sections OF our
country. It is fact that cannot be
denied but it is also fact that
requires some examination. The very
fact that the territories became
states leaves forever unanswered
the question whether development
would have taken place without
statehood. Much of the great de-
velopment in our western states
came before the professional plan
ners and developers appeared on
the scene and before the present
Federal tax structure pyramided it.
self upon the investor and the bust
nessman.