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VOLUME XXVII. NUMBER 189. SEWARD, ALASKA, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1931.
PRICE TEN CENTS
ANNUAL SALE OF SUL
SKINS FROM ALASKA
HERDS NETS $202,642
WASHINGTON, Sept-, 15, (/P)~
The government’s annual sale at
St .Louis of sealskins from the pro
tected herds of Alaska brought
$282,642 at the auction sales just
dosed.
The prices were somewhat lower
than formerly. These receipts
brought the total from sales in the
past 20 years to $600,049,524. The
pelts of the young males taken
during the last hunting season
► were of a better grade than the fur
previously.
It is estimated that there are
now more than 1,000,000 seals
there and they include about
three-fourths of the world’s popu
lation of this expensive fur-bearing
^ species.
SCHAAF WINNER
BOSTON, Sept. 15. U?)—Ernie j
Schaaf, slugging Boston heavy- >
weight, registered his ninth con
secutive knockout here by flat
tening ponderous Roberto Roberts,
New York Italian, in the third
round of the 10-round feature
contest.
LONDON SLUMS TITTER
AT SIGHT OF GANDHI
X
LONDON, Sept. 15. (/P)—London’s
slums tittered at the first sight
of Mahatma Gandhi, scrawny .lit
tle man who is defying the Brit
ish Empire
Clad in a long white robe and
wearing his loin cloth and san
dals, the Mahatma drove to the
Kingsley Hall settlement imme
diately after his welcome meeting
on his arrival from Folkestone
where he had disembarked earlier
:m the week.
Hundreds of east-enders had
been standing in the chilling driz
zle for a long time that they
.might see him.
400 REPORTED DEAD
WASHINGTON, D. C., Sept. 15.
JP)—As the appalling story of the
hurricane at Belize, British Hon
duras, reached the outside world,
:he number of dead rose to 400.
One hundred and 50 bodies had
been recovered. Victims are still
in the wreckage; every house in
the city is damaged and communi
cation disrupted. The loss is es
timated at about $2,000,000.
PRISONED INUCERITED
IN BURNING JAIL DIES
WATSONVILLE, Calif., Sept., 14,
(/P)—A prisoner in the jail here lay
.smoking on his bed.* The bedding
caught fire and spread to the pri
son structure itself. The citizens
of Watsonville tried to put the fire 1
out and to get Langley, the prison
er, out of the burning building, but
in vain, for on one could be found
* with a key to his cell.
The result was that Langley was |
incarcerated in the jail and died j
^ soon after. A storm of protest was
raised in the city as a result of
this termed “outrage”.
SENATOR HOWELL AND HIS REPORT ON
THE ALASKA RAILROAD
The Gateway does not join in the extreme charges
of unintentional untruth that some newspapers and
many people in Alaska have hurled against Senator
Howell of Nebraska because of some of the inaccurate
statements contained in the official report he submitted
to the United States Senate in January, 1930, embody
ing the results of the investigations that were conducted
by his Senatorial Committee on the operations of the
Alaska Railroad, in Seward and other towns of the rail
road belt, during 12 days of August, 1929.
Instead, The Gateway is disposed to credit Senator
Howell with a zeal to force action by the responsible of
ficials in Washington which would place the Alaska
Railroad on a basis of financial self-support and of serv
ice to Alaska and the rest of the United States.
Senator HowelPs committee devoted 12 days to their
investigations along the Alaska Railroad. Naturally, an
investigation made in so short a time must be incom
plete, and can not be accurate in all of its findings and
statements.
The wisest men in America, actuated by the most
honorable motives, could do no better in so short a time
than to give superficial opinions, some of them based on
misconception of facts. That is undeniably the case
with Senator Howell’s report. It does contain some
statements about resources in the Alaska Railroad belt
which are so inaccurate, so far from the facts, that they
are regarded in Alaska with amazement, to express it
mildly.
For example, Senator Howell’s report says: “There
is little or no timber in this region that is suitable for
export, and markets are too far away to encourage the
production and the exportation of wood pulp. However,
it is claimed that not far to the northwest of Anchorage
there is a large tract of birch for which it is hoped a
market can be found for the manufacture of furniture.
It is proposed to raft this birch down to the vicinity
of Anchorage, but under such conditions, the railroad
at best would have only a 114-mile haul, and it is more
than likely that if a demand develops for this birch it
would ultimately be loaded on vessels in Cook Inlet, and
the railroad get no haul whatever.”
Unfortunately for Senator Howell’s report, and very
much to its discredit, a report was issued by the United
States Department of Agriculture in February, 1931,
known as Technical Bulletin No. 226, on “The Distribu
tion and the Mechanical Properties of Alaska W oods.
The author was L. J. Markwardt, Senior Engineer, For
est Products Laboratory, Branch of Research of the
Forest Service. It gives a most careful survey of the
timber resources in Central Alaska, all tributary to the
Alaska Railroad, as a result of 12 years of intensive in
vestigation, followed by shipping and sampling of logs
of all the different varieties of timber under scientific
laboratory tests.
That exhaustive and accurate report by the Agri
cultural Department states that the amount of spruce
and hemlock in the Chugach Forest Reserve surround
ing Seward is estimated at 6,260,000,000 board feet, suit
able for pulp. It states that the total of Interior for
ests all tributary to the Alaska Railroad, is not less
than 500,000,000 cords.” A cord, the report says, con
tains 650 board feet. That would make a stupendous
total of the forests in Central Alaska, outside the Chu
o-ach Forest Reserve, amounting to 325,000,000,000 board
feet. It is enough to produce 4,000 tons of pulp per day
indefinitely without depleting the supply.
The most valuable of those Interior forests, the cot
tonwoods and balsam poplars, are not mentioned at all
dv Senator Howell’s report, but they are mentioned fully
and in detail by Bulletin 226 of the Agricultural Report.
(Continued on Page Four) _
SILENT MONDAY
LONDON, Sept., 15, (A*)—Mahat
ma Gandhi, representative of tur
bulent India at the Round Table
Conference in London, squatted all
day in the royal palace. He did
not say anything all day. Monday
is his day of silence. He is expect
ed to have plenty to say today.
VISITED BY HURRICANE
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15. (/P)— j
A hurricane visited the Gulf of .
California and passed over West- j
ern Mexico. The loss of lives and J
some property damage was re
ported. Waves , swept over the
| sea walls designed to protect towns
built on the beaches and did much
! damage.
TEN COAL CARS
SEATTLE, Sept. 15. (£>) — Ten
| steel coal cars will arrive here late
this month for the Alaska Railroad
'and will be loaded aboard the SS
; Denali about October 1 for Sew
|ard. The capacity of the cars is
110,000 pounds.
GERMAN AIRMEN TAKEOFF
DESPITE BID WEATHER
LISBON, Sept-, 15, (^)—Willy
Body and Christian Johanssen,
German aviators, and Fernanda
Costa Viega, hopped off from Jun
cal De Sol, 30 miles from here at
9:30 Sunday and expected to be in
New York in 40 to 42 hours.
They were reported as being over
the Azores at 12:47 Eastern Stand
ard Time. They are making thej
flight in an all metal Junkers, i
formerly owned by Charles Levine1
and which was christened “Esa” j
before the start in honor of Rody’s:
bride.
The weather bureau attempted j
to dissuade them to forego the!
flight but the unfavorable condi-j
tions were unheeded.
They were seen Saturday by a ;
steamer near Bermuda and later;
the plane circled over the SS Penn-1
land, in latitude 45.55 North longi
tude, and 54.3939, five miles east of
Halifax.
i
PUNE OF ATLANTIC
FLIERS NOW OIIFROOF
NEW YORK, Sept. 15. (JP)—Fear
for the safety of three Atlantic'
fliers arose as the plane became
overdue. They took off with
enough fuel for 48 hours, the end
of that time being up at 4:30 a.
m., today, Eastern Standard Time.
The plane was last seen by the ;
SS Pennland, after having covered
2,600 of the 3,700-mile trip. Un
der favorable conditions the fliers
could have arrived at 2 a. m. to
day. Good weather was forecast
for the first part of the journey!
with overcast skies and electrical i
storms near America. They car
ried no radio.
LONDON Sept., 15, {^—Mahat
ma Gandhi presented to the Indian
Round Table conference his de
mand for a complete self-govern
ment for India and granting all i
other conditions enumerated in j
the Karachi mandate given to him j
by Nationalists to India.
Gandhi said that India is willing
to maintain a partner to the Brit- j
ish Empire but that the partner-!
ship must be such that it may bel
terminated at will by either party, j
The rest of the delegates sat in ]
silence. \
NATIONAL
Philadelphia 5-3, St. Louis 13-10.
Brooklyn at Pittsburgh; rain, j
No other games scheduled.
AMERICAN
St. Louis 3, Washington 6.
Detroit 1, New York 2.
Chicago 8, Boston 12.
Cleveland 6-7, Philadelphia 2-9. I
REAR ADMIRAL Am
DIES AT KINGSTON
KINGSTON, N. Y., Sept. 15. (JP)
—Rear Admiral Francis John Hig
ginson, 88 years of age, died here
Monday. Admiral Higginson was
born in Boston in 1843, a member
of a distinguished New England
family.
He began his Naval career at
the age of 14. Graduating from
Annapolis four years later, he was
assigned to the West Gulf Block
ading Squadron and immediately
plunged into the Civil War. He
was detailed to the Colorado, and
soon after joining the ship was
sent out on an expedition that
nearly resulted in his death.
At the outbreak of the Span
ish-American war, he had risen to
the rank of captain and had been
placed in command of the Massa
chusetts. When Santiago harbor
was blockaded, it was the duty
of Admiral Higginson’s vessel to
keep a searchlight turned upon
the harbor’s exit to prevent the
escape of the Spanish fleet.
His last command was the en
tire North Atlantic fleet. After
retirement in 1905 he lived in Ul
ster county-; New York, the native
state of his wife, Grace Glenwood
Haldane, whom he married in
1878.
ANOTHER ATTEMPT 8E
MADE FOR SUNKEN GOLD
JUNEAU, Sept., 15, (JP)—Another
attempt to raise the Islander,
wrecked here many years ago, is to
attempted when with the aid of a
huge barge the wrecked vessel will
be dragged from its present loca
tion in the deep water to shallow
water.
The Islander carried something
like a $1,000,000 of gold in its safe
when it went down- It is this gold
that the Wiley brothers are seeking
to recover.
Should they be successful in re
trieving the gold by the method of
moving vessels in deep water to
shallow water for further opera
tions they will attempt salvage
work on other vessels including the
Rio de Janeiro, which went down
with $5,000,000 and many other
ships. m
SUPPORT ROOSEVELT'S
UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF
NEW YORK, Sept., 14, (/P)—W.
K. Macy, republican state leader,
put his support behind Governor
Roosevelt’s plan for $20,000,000
state unemployment relief, practi
cally guaranteeing passage of leg
islation in New" York
The arrest of three or four attor
neys is promised and indications
are that a score of government
employees are involved in an alien
smuggling ring which has been op
erating for 10 years and has real
ized a profit of $20,000,000.
Nineteen persons have already
been arrested as members of the
gang.