Ideas From An Old Fashioned American To The New
By E. S. Hungerford
wnen a man is wrong in his
past opinions and comes to see
the error of his way, the best
thing he can do is to admit his
fault and strive to correct it.
This is the task I have before
me. It is not going to be an easy
task, but it must be done. I have
always opposed ihe southeastern
Alaska pulp sales as a dastardly
betrayal of Alaska and the con
fidence of the American people.
I have recently seen the light
and will do what I can, in this
letter, to rectify my past indis
cretion.
R. Y. Stuart, one of the men,
or rather the man most qualified
to know what it is all about is
making a valiant attempt, in an
article published in the “Seward
Gateway,” to justify the south
eastern Alaska pulp sales. His
article is well worth the reading
by any and all Alaskans. Not
only is it worth reading; it is
worth studying! He is very frank
in his statements. He is bidding
for support of the Forest Service,
from Alaskans, by objecting to
the idea of making an inviolable
brown bear paradise of Admiral
ty Island. He is saying one word
for bruin and twenty fbr the pulp
sales. It is an article such as I
have been hoping and praying
that some Forestry official would
write and publish. We were
treated to something similar
about five years ago from the
pen of B. F. Hintzelmann but I
have always been rather chary
of quoting Mr. Hintzelmann as
official. He not so highly enough
placed but that his statements
might be repudiated and dis
owned as unauthorized by his
superior officers. Now we have
it from the highest authority:
R. Y. Stuart, Chief Forester,
Washington, D. C. (salary $8,
000.00).
-x
I will admit that in the read
justment of my standards it is
going to be a struggle to come
to the point of view of the bu
reau heads who have been active
in obstructing the development
of Alaska. They must certainly
have shriveled up souls and an
absolute vacuum where their
sense of proportion should be.
But then, I am old fashioned! 1
have always been laboring under
the misconception that I have
been living under a government,
primarily interested in the wel
fare of people; rich and poor
alike. Not so! says Mr. Stuart.
The Forestry Department is an
instrument which has been ac
tive in the past and is active to
day in keeping Alaska’s timber
resources bottled up until such a
time as it is absolutely sate and
fool proof to have some one with
lots of dollars come and make
the harvest.
When we stop and look back
it certainly is a shame that all
of our country did not have the
benefit of the vision of the
Stuarts and the O’Malleys of to
day when the States were being
first settled and improved. Take
my own native State of Cali
fornia for instance. Just see
what a mess they have made of
things down there. Some five
million people have crowded
within the confines of its bord
ers, with no system or foresight.
Why I have actually seen roads
built in Califonia without cost
ing as much as it takes to make
the survey on one in Alaska. The
poor saps didn’t have any sense
of proportion at all. They built
cities wherever they could get a
crowd togather to sell them land.
Whenever a man had an idea, he
was at liberty to go right ahead
and try it out. Ideas were plentx
fill, some of them worked, more
did not, some made money,
ethers went broke. My dad got
married on the strength of his
prospects from forty acres of
spuds and then had to dump his
produce in the bay. Grandad
had two thousand acres of val
iey land and was land poor when
he died. Twenty years later dad
bought a quarter section of this
same land and paid one hundred
and fifty dollars an acre and
sold it a year later for two
hundred. Today it is worth two
thousand.
As a kid I went to school with
a bunch of red readed Irish
wildcats named O’Hara—ten or
twelve of them. Their dad was a
crazy mutt and a working fool
he had a bunch of sand land out
in the chaparrel country and a
six horse team of mustansrs not
much larger than jackrabbits.
The harness was mostly baling
v/ire. He used this outfit and a
light two horse wagon to cart
live oak wood into town to trade
for grub. Feeding his numerous
brood kept him pretty well oc
cupied but every spare moment
he had, he put in yanking the
greasebrush out of the sand.
The sand was so loose and clean
that a child could scoop out a
Law Offices of
William L. Paul
Admiralty - Mines - Civil
Ketchikan - - Alaska
Juneau Marble Works
A. F. KNIGHT, Prop.
MONUMENTAL WORK
CEMETERY FENCES, Etc.
Front St. - - Juneau, Alaska