NELSON ON ALASKA
Minnesota Senator's Speech
Delivered in April.
'Hie N* \vs ran spare space for
t ut tl:e merest outline of Senator
Ki.ute Nelson's speech last April
reguiding the Eagle-Valdez wagon
r->ad. In pint, the senator said:
I think it is proper for me to
make a brief statement in regard
to this wagon road.
In 1900 congress appropriated
$100,000 ... fur a military road
in Alaska. . . A military trail was
located, cut out, and to a considera
ble extent constructed from Vaidez,
at the head of Prince William
Sound, on the North Pacific Ocean,
northeasterly to Fort Egbert or
Eagle, on the Yukon river. .
in addition to the $100,000 ap
propriated directly for the road,
Some $75,000 more has been ex
pended in driblets taken from the
general apj ropiiations for army
transportation. So that in ail a
little over $175,000 has been ex
pended in surveying, locating, and
constructing this military trail. It
is only a pack trail, not a wagon
load. . . I rode over a poition
of this trail at each egd of it,f mid
it a verity, a rude but helpful trail,
very much deteriorated and out of
lepair. It is the only attempt at a
government road in Alaska. My
tirst visit to that country impressed
me with two facts: First, that it is
a region of immense and va t min
era! resources—gold, copper, tin,
iron, and co il— in far greater quan
tities than we are aware of or are
likely to imagine. It will prove
to be oiir great mineral reservoir
and reservation.
Another thing that impressed it
self upon my mind is the fact that
Alaska has lteen sadly neglected by
congress. It has been treated as a
sort of a no-man’s country. The
government existing there is of the
scantiest kind. In the incorporated
towns—eight of them in all they
have a limited municipal govern
merit. The people outside of the
incorporated towns are practically
without any government. The only
government they have is adminis
tered through and m the hands of
fhe district judges There is a dis
trict court caapuKel of three judges
in three divisions The district
judges appoint court commissioner*
The court commissioners have ad
ministrative districts assig rfhdthew.
and la these they are ex view
jtisocesol the peace, prolate jw g* v
coroners, notaries public, and re
colder» or registers ui deeds l hr
district judges and the court com
miMtonet* something like forty in
all constitute the administrative
tore* the government of Alaska
Me provision t» made for the
construction of roads, the estab
lishment of schools, or the care o
the destitute and insane. In short
the people are left to shift fur them
selves, and were the people not o
lour own kith and kin-—the tun
| pri duct of all that is best in Amer
ican institutions—c'na> s and law
lessuess would prevail
There is not a sin pie mi e o
wagon road in ali Aln.-ka. Whet
you go across the line, over ti.
Dawson, in the Yukon Tenilory
in Canada, you find an entirely
diffeient condition. '1 lie Canadian:
have expended in llie K.ondikt
country nearly a niiliiou dollars ii
building good wagon roads, wintct
roaiis, ami trails in that country.
They have something like 20c
miles of good, lust-class wagon
roads
They have over 400 miles of what
they call good ‘winter toads”—
that is roads that they run four and
six horse stages on in winter. This
winter road connects the White
Pass raiiroad during the winter,
when there is no navigation on the
Yukon river, with Dawson and the
Klondike country.
At piesent, except three or four
summer months, when the Yukon
can l>e reached by wav 1 f Dutch
Harbor and St. Michael, the only
way in which the great interior of
Alaska can be reached is bv going
trom Skagway over the White Pas?
railroa *—a liiitish ai d Canadian
institution 112 miles long, only
some 25 mi.es of it in Alaska —to
Whitehorse, at the head < f naviga
tion on the Yukon; and thence, in
summer, some 4,50 miles in s e liner;
or, in winter, by the Canadian
winter road stage route to which
I have already referred. From
Dawson access is ootuined t > all
the upper portions of the Yukon
country in Alaska. From Dawson
down to Eagle, one of t le termini
of the proposed wagon road and
the first important point on Amer
ican soil, the distance is a little over
too miles. Uetween Dawson and
Eagle is the mouth of the noted
Fortymile oteek, with its trading
station, within the limits of Can
ada Hut th.- great placer mining
country on many tributaries of
Fortymi'e creek is all within Amer
r an territory At present the Can
adian*. by means of this White
|*ass route which I have de.scrilied,
practically c* ntrol a large portion
indeed, 1 think. th* greater por
lion of the trade and comm tree r»l
the interior of Alaska, t >ur (*• -pie
in Alaska are to a very large e*
tent dependent o« the Canadians
for transportation facilities, with
all the draw tsicksof customs houses
and shipments in howl.
. . From Vabler to Eagle,
by wav <>t th* military trail or the
proposed wag Ml rot*4, a distance *>i
about yo mi.o, K is misch shorter
to th* eatent of nearly p<*» miles.
RECEF>TION SALOON
: S. E. HKKTKR
W. W. CROCKETT
f
WINES,
LIQUORS
j- AND GOOD
i CIGARS
St. Louis
SBC
‘BEERS
The Highest Priced but
the Best Quality.
BILLIARD
AND
POOL
ROOMS
1 -year-old Crow Whiskey—The Only Stock.
9
Something New— Try Our Apricot Coclttaii
than hy way of the White Pa-s
Canadian roate.
This ail-Ainericin rotue, too,
passes through the best portion—
the very heart of Aliska; t.trough
tiie great Copper River valley, rich
in gold and copper; througii the
upper Tanaua River val e}-, the
garden spot of Alaska, and aeross
all tiie vast mining region of the
many tributaries of Forty-mile
creek ami American Folk of Mis
sion creek. This road would open
up all this vast mineral and agri
cu.tural region to di v.lopment and
sett ement. \\ iihout such a road
the country will of necessity and
for want of transportation facilities
remain a wilderness
j We have spent in all £175,000
i tor tile mditarv trail, a.id gentle
men most bear in mind what a trail
is. It is just a cow path, where
you can go on horseback. That is
all. You can not go with a wagon
or any other \ehicle. We have
sjent >175,000 on that military
trail £100.000 appro) riated in a
lump sum in the army appropria
tion bill ot 1 t>oo and $75,'>00 taken
out in diiblets from the appropria
tions for army tra- s) ortutiou.
We have a telegraph line ex
tending from Kagie down to Valdez,
a part of the system that environs
all Alaska. We have along that
tel giaph line Vations for the tele
graph men, the men of the signal
corps, >wo or three at each station
every 25 or 30 miles. The sup
plies tor the men at these stations
and all the materials for construct
ing and repairing have to be taken
in oil dogsleds in the winter and on
orsebnck in summer.
it costs ns to carry the mails
Irom Valdez over to the Yukon
#to,o«o a rear It costs that to
have the tnail carrier) • ver there
one* in two weeks. If this r<>a<l is
coo struct** I better mail wrvk*
count I* obtained for fit,**>o|ier
v*ar
! ,>:n t: uiy •♦orrv ««r»v f..r ihe
|j«M.r (wpl* »»l \l.1-k4 Mm iMilh
mg tu-MCi aii h« <tn 1* in Ihi* Mil
It i* 4 M*r* Hill* h*tt*f lh.m noth
itty. It m not what Ikt >»(
Alaska are entitled to. The people
of Alaska have paid into the treas
ury of the United States since we
got that country nearly $1,000,000
more than we have paid out in all
directions lor the support of th it
government and over and above
what vve paid Russia in acquiring
that territory.
We have had a vast revenue from
our fur-seal fi.-herics, our salmon
fisheries, and from a system of
trade and occupation taxes un
known and not imposed in any
other of our territories. No part of
these burdensome taxes, except
within the few incorporated towns
within the last two years, have
inured to the people of Alaska, but
gone into the general fund of the
treasury of the United States fwr
the benefit of tiie entire country.
. A man can not run a
hotel or a store up i:i Alaska but
what he has to pay an occupation
tax, a license tax. He must apply
to the district court for a license to
open a country store or to run a
roadhouse, and pay a tax lor the
privilege.
I am making these obituary re
marks on this appropriation now
because I want todra.v the atten
tion of senators to this matter. I
want you to study this question
and look into it so that when the
survey is made we can do some
thing tangible ai.d substantial fi r
the people of Alaska, and not treat
them as w aits, outcasts and paupers.
S >UTII AFRICA PROTESTS.
In Johannesburg, South Africa.
!•'. I* Solomon, brother of the at
torney general, pr«tes,s strongly
against the importation of overpaid
officials front across the sea. who
have the power of imposing taxes
and spending milliotta, while hun
dreds of men who have passed their
lives in the country are debarred
from ,*ny voire in the vlmintstrt
tion of the constitution. Although
the country is not yet read* for
responsible government, sa\s Mr.
Sobunon. the lime has e<>me fur the
I ts paver* to lw represented by me t
whom they Have themselvj* elected.