Fife KUSKO TIMES
X Grant, Publisher, Sol*
Owner and Editor.
/ Jtriishpd Every Faturday.
$! Ter Month
Advertising Rates.
Reading matter, per line, .per
issue ..26
bcgail advertisements,' per line,
issue . 20
Transient displav. ner itch, per
issue minimum charge. $1).60
Entered as second-class matter Au
gust; 29th, 1923, at the jxistoffice at
Tokotna. ■Masks, under, the Act of
March 3, 1879.
Takotna. Alaska, May T, 192(>.
ALASKA, VS.VIEYVEIV BY SEC
RETARY OK INTERIOR WORK
1 Fly ho Hon. Hubert. Work,, Secretary
of interior, in National Spectator.)
Alaska, our last frontier, is a Ter
ritory with its. resources and national
wealth undeveloped.
Without the inspiration of self-gov
ernment and freedom, essential to
natural expansion, the country is now
being retarded by unnecessary activ
ity of Government bureaus, whose of
ficials have been made hesitant by
limited local authority and confused
by iur distant direction. Lacking in
dependence. in administration, the
white population of Alaska has not
developed independence f initiative in
developing their adopted country.
Produei.on of its mines, forests, and
even of the fisheries, wavers and re
cedes.
1 his is a plain sketch of Alaska,
nearly, sixty years after its acquire
ment by the United States, despite
popular interest storie.i written from
time to time. In fact, it is reasonable
to assume that the almost, consuming'
interest the different departments of
government have taken in the affairs
of the Territory, which have led1, to
the establishment and maintenance
there of a great number of Fe<ieral
agencies which might now be cor
related, has been responsible in no
small measure to AMMEt’s .delayed de
velopment.
Most of the Government's activities
in Alaska should be covered by one
department and placed under one Sec
retary of the President's Cabinet. The
situation calls for prompt sympa
thetic study by Gong-ass. Alaska’s
resources and possibilit:. s; the method
of government and its. effect; the atti
tude the Federal. Government should
assume, whether governmental con
trol should be constructive in type or
continue to cultivate dependency, or
be removed »ntirely should he
weighed and determined. At least the
proposal to merge all activities in one
department should have immediate
consideration.
Expenditures for- the Federal ad
ministration in Alaska amounted last
year to approximately f 10,000,000,
and was apportioned among nine of |
the ten executive departments of the [
Government... There, were, approxi
Larson & Guskey
I i
FREIGHTERS
Operating Gasboat ‘Seawolf II.’
Between McGrath and Takotna
J
Connecting Carrier of Alaska Rivers Navi
gation Company
matcly 3,300 Government employes,
which means that more than one
tenth of Alaska's white population is
in the Government employ in one ca
pacity or another. The functions per
formed consist of every conceivable
phase of governmental supervision
and, jurisdiction.
The biggest single development in
Alaska, is the Alaska Railroad, -built
and operated, by the Government aiyl
costing approximately ! $60,000,000.
The line, completed for operating
purposes in 1923, extends from Sew
; ard, on the Gulf of Alaska, ta Fair
! banks, on the Tanana river, a tribu
tary of the Yukon.' It nehetrates into
the very heart of the Territory for
about 500 miles.
It soon became apparent that the
road—the first built and operated by
the Government—was not ^profitable
enterprise. It was evident that -it
faced a heavy operating, deficit-which
must be made up by the. Government.
Last winter a complete survey of the
physical condition of the road and the
commercial possibility sof the terri
tory contributory to. it was.made by
an expert in railroad construction and
operation. The result of the survey
showed that, compared with the-.pri
vatel yowmed railroads in the States,
the Alaska line in. many places was
but a temporary structure, built on
freezing, and thawing:-soil and*.ever
shifting, rapid streams* It also:show»
ed that freight and passenger traffic
was limited and some years . would
elapse before the road would be a
financial success.
Construction: was1" authorized by
Congress in 1914. and - the work. laid
out by the Alaskan Engineering Com
mission, .now known as the Alaska
Railroad Commission, wasbegun in
1915 and continued eight, yeans. When
proposed the contention was;, that
with adequateo transportation facili
ties mines in the interior of Alaska
would he.opened andvflourish. ■ In 1915
these minerals were valued at $32,
790,600. In 1924 they!had decreased
to $17,457,000.
Production of coal in Alaska in
competition with the Stites has- not.
been feasible, and neitherrhas the pro- j
duction of other minerals proved suf- !
ficientlj; profitable t< -attract capital,!
.with the exception of (raid, although !
the Government has provided the j
means of shipping |herre out.
With a deficit in 1924 of $1,739,274, j
the policy of the railroad.was changed )
and business principles adopted. The \
practice of operating passenger
trains only wasi.abandoned and mixed
trains .were substituted,. requiring the
hauling of freight cars where it was
possible to manintain the schedule.
Dining and sleeping cars also were
discontinued,.and.freight.trains were
operated only when sufficient, tonnage
was available to justify the cost of
operation.
Nevertheless the drain on the fed
eral treasury continued, and.,talk of j
scrapping the road was revived., and j
has recently been heard agpin in Con
gress. Whether the railroad should
ever have been built is now beside the
question. The Governraentleas it, and.
to abandon it, despite the heavy loss
which can be traced largely to main*
tenance-of-way expenses, due to the 1
hurried and temporary manner of
construction, would amount to a re
version of the American policy of pro
press.
To correct this situation t.he tem
porary structures should be replaced
with permanent construction. In that
connection a six-year program,- cover
ing the expenditure of approximately
$11,878,000, has been proposed, which
includes reconstruction of the “road
bed in many places, substituting steel
bridges for wooden trestles, construc
tion of a tunnel and other replace
ments necessary to put the physical
condition of the line on a basis which
will reduce its yearly maintenance
costs to the minimum.
Conversion of the right of way of
the railroad to a truck highway asd
| abandonment of the line from An
chorage to Seward entirely, or the use
of that division only in summer,
largely for tourists, also have been
suggested. There is little local com
mercial use for the railroad between
A nchorage and Seward, as both are
seaports, and .it might.be maintained
between these two ports only in sum
mer, as proposed:
r it ESS SQUIBS.
Current history, writes. down rMus-^
solini as so far Italy’s best one-man i
triumvirate.—Boston Herald.
Jack Dempsey insists that he wants j
to fight, but we have a feeling-that !
he’d subfit to arbitration.—Portland!
Oregonian.
Washington politiciuss seem to
thoughts of al>out everything to help'
the farmer except to leave him alone. |
—Dayton News.',, .
Speaking of the great powers, there f
are the United States, Eiigland, j
France, Japan> and Mussolini’.—Wes- j
ton (Ore.) Leader.
A sordid money-grabber is anybody
who grabs more money than you can |
grab.—Newcastle find.) Courier.
The invention most needed by
churches now is a collection plate that
Max Simel
The Pioneer Trader ,
Furs Bought and
Sold
Miners’, Prospectors’
and Trappers’
Supplies
Steamer Service On the Inoka<
River. .
Ask tho People of Ophir at>out u«.
STATION
Fairview. Innoko River
j
(
I
i
i
PIONEER
SHOP
Machine, Black* -
smith and
j Sheet Metal Work
AU Kidds Of Repairs r
I
j Stoves Built
j and Repaired
i__
! Robt. E. Lowrie
Tokotna, Alaska
can be passed by radio.—Boston Her
atd.
The country is as wet as ever,; say
the wets, while the drys say it is dry;
and, strange to say, neither airier is en
tirely sa titled.—Columbus Dispatch.
A French broadcast lecturer Tecent
ly began a talk in English by fraying,
“Good night, ladies and gentlemen."
If only soma of the others would do
this!—Punch.
A woman recenty told a magistrate
that her son had tried to run away
from home to be a telegaph messtn
ge. That ought to stop his running
—Punch.
There is evidently- some - mistake
about this report that footprints made
by an animal twenty-five million
years ago have been discovered in
Colorado. America..wasn't* even dis
covered then.—Punch.
The music critics pretty generally
agree that Marion Talley’s talent,
though-- promising, was greatly ex
aggerated in the‘ballyrlfoo attending
Tokotna
PooLHall
Avoid the Rush! .
Toilet Articles
Cigarette Holders v,
Cigar Holders
Pocket Combs
) Sanitary Tooth Brushes
Extracts—Lemony Banana
and; Strawberry Flavors
Imperial Cigarettes
at cost price
Jack Mutchler
Proprietor .
her first performance. This, it seems, .
was not so much' an opera as a per
formance of “K. C. at.the Bat.”—The -
New Yorker.
When the first’organized govern
ment was founded is not-known. All
that can be said with certainty is that
the following day a cry went up for
tax relief.—Detroit News.
No, romance is not dead. A New.
York girl is reported by a friend as
so much in love with her fiance that
she has given up smoking, drinking
and swearing for. him.—Tacoma Led
ger.
; Du Rand’s »
! Cafe: and j
| Hotel !
I \ ?
Hat City
i
B. & E4 Store
McGrath, Alaska
Groceriesv
Hardware
Miners* Supplies
of All Kinds
Ladies'* FuritudKngs
Fut* Bought and Sold
MocSse Skid Mitt* and Boots
Kids: Island Wakluka
Rabeosh, 'or 81ed’ Lashing
Voigt’s Dog Harness, tke Tory
Best
FRESH GARDEN SEEDS
A, R.. Eldridge
t
mm
FREIGHTING j
General Transportation j
How About Wood Hauling? ” j
Joe Ferris - - Tikotna !
*