The Daily Alaska empire., 1951-09-28

removal has drawn whole barrage of protests.
 The highway closure would in- deed be big step backward ana major blow not only to the port or Valdez but to Interior Alaska points that have come to depend on truck CTS for year-around freight servlce. It was the truckers themselves who proved three years ago that the highway can be kept open dur ing the winter months, and without excessive expense.
 They bought some SlS6,0O0 worth of special snow-removal equipment and put up another $47,000 for fuel, labor and other expenses of operat- ing the equipment.
 The Territory of Alaska also con- tributed $20,000 from the motor fuel tax revenues to help with the eX- penses. This brought the total cost of operating the snow removal pro gram to $67,000 for the winter.
 If this figure is somewhere near the average annual cost of the program and if traffic stays at somewhere near it's present volume, the cost would amount to some where around a dollar for each ton of freight hauled over the highway during the winter months.
 The Alaska Road Commission has kept the highway open during the past couple of winters, but this year the Commission reports that it's appropriation is insufficient to handle the job next winter.
 To avert the winter shutdown this year the truckers may have to take over the project again. It would, of course, increase their overall costs and might force them to up their rates bit, but with the recent increase in Alaska Railroad freight tariffs, the truckers have somewhat of a cushion to work on. It may be, too, that the Alaska Road Commission, the Territory and perhaps even the military will each find it possible to ante up q portion of the funds required.
 The Haines Cutoff, meanwhile, has been receiving a good deal of attention as an alternative year. around route to Interior Alaska
 The Bureau of Public Roads, the Alaska Road Commission and a special committee of the Senate have all recommended that it be improved and maintained for winter service.
 The distance from Haines to Fairbanks by road is good deal greater than from Valdez to Fairbanks miles as against 37l but the Haines route is the short est from Puget Sound to Fairbanks
 It has the added advantage of eliminating some 700 miles of open ocean voyage for freighters or barges on each round trip to a highway terminal. And this is a stretch of ocean that is frequently stormy and where vessels would be very vulnerable to submarine at- tack in time of war.
 But the Haines route also has some disadvantages. The snow re- moval job appears to be bigger than on the Richardson Highway, or at least much more costly.
 The Alaska Road Commission has estimated that it would require a half a million dollars worth of equipment and cost an additional $275,000 each winter to keep the road open.
 The section of heavy snows is mostly in Canada, but at the pre- sent time Canada appears to have little interest in keeping the road open and if it is to be done at all it will probably have to be done entirely at the expense of the Uni ted States.
 In addition to this, a truck us- ing the Haines route will have to haul it's load to summit of 3,40C feet at Chilkat Pass, which is 6s miles from Haines. The summit at Thompson Pass, 25 miles out of Valdez, is only 2,700 feet above sea- level. The grades to the two sum mits are reported to. be approxi- mately the same.
 Senator Hugh Butler, as mem- Der of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, has taken a great deal of interest in both Haw- allan and Alaskan statehood. His opposition to the statehood bills considered by the committee has made a pretty fair showing in re- cent weeks.
 Back in 1949 Senator Butler re- ported dn Communist Penetra- ton of the Hawaiian Islands" Ir that report he named number o1 the leading Hawaiian communists Last year and again this year the Senator repeated his charges ir the minority reports on the Hawai- ian statehood bills.
 The Nebraska Senator was sneer- ed at by administration leaders. Ht was accused of fomenting witch hunts and of seeing dangers wher, none exieted