ALASKA ROAD COMMISSION
Charge that It Is “Dilatory, Costly and Inefficient”
Refuted by Cold Facts.
Skngway Alaskan, Aur. S.
One of the phases of the present cam-1
IKii^n that is attracting not a little at
tention is the unwarranted and unjust
attack of the so-called democratic con
vention held at Juneau last month on
the Alaska road commission, consisting
of Major Richardson, Captain Pillsburv
and Lieutenant Orchard, and having its
headquarters at Skagway. This body
of Juneau statesmen resolved that “We
condemn the present road commission
as costly, dilatory and wholly ineffi
cient.”
In the first place the road commission
had had little opportunity to lie costly
when that famous Juneau pronuncin
mento was given to an unsuspecting
world, and it certainly had not been
dilatory. The commission was organ
ized May 15, l'JOo. It was two weeks
later before it was given possession of
any funds, and then but $5,000 was
turned over to it. Two months later it
received $11,000, and in still another
two months it received $12,000 more,
making $25,000 all told to come into its
hands last year. This year it has re
ceived $;i0 000 from the license revenues
of the district and $150,000 from a sjie
cial military appropriation. This money
has just become available, the military !
appropriation not having been approved
by the president until June 20, less than
a month before the action of the Juneau
statesmen.
With the $28,000 it received last year
the road commission was compelled to
make a reconnoissance of the entire
district for the purpose of ascertaining
the road work required in the various 1
sections where development is going on.
The proposed roads were surveyed in
southeastern Alaska—one at Haines and
the other near Ketchikan—at a cost of
$021 and $025 respectively. These roads
were surveyed—not merely located—but
surveyed so that contractors could hid
n|Hm them intelligently in accordance
with the requirements ol the law. There
were not sufficient funds in the hands
of the commission to build them until
this year. The road at Ketchikan is
now being built and the Haines road will
lie completed before the end of Sep
temlier.
Iii addition to these surveys last year
tin* commission liuilt 'ado lineal feet of
bridging, d.OCfcJ (••ft of r<«'k blasting,
of grading and 12 miles of clearing
on the Valdez and Copper Center road.
It completed eight miles of road in the
Kairlmnks country, causing a reduction
of the freight rates between Fairbanks
and the creeks of that section of $100 a
ton—a larger sum than the rate obtain
ing la-tween Seattle and Kairlwnks. It
made a reconnoiasanec of the road la—
t si ceil Valdez and Fairbanks. a distance
ol several hundreds ol miles, and pre
wired plans for the e&|**nditore of ♦*••>,
JlU on it, and it completed an in-pevti<>n
of Uie Seward peninsula, •leeialeil il|*m
llie work needed there ami adopted
plans lor it.
Later in the winter the winter trails
in the vicinity of Nome were flagged SO
I lint they might he followed over the
treeless tundra upon * Inch many human
lives have been sacrificed because of the
difficulty of distinguishing it during or
immediately following a storm when
drifting snow had obliterated all signs of
life or travel and when the sun was in
distinguishable.
Those men of experience in Alaska—
those who know something of the district
beyond the limits of the town of Juneau
audits immediate environment—concede
that the commission did much work in
the few weeks and with the limited sum
of money it had at its command last
summer and fall. Men who have under
taken mining development in the Alas
kan interior and who have hail experi
ence in preparing for development work
agree that to make a reconnoisance of
the entire district of Alaska in four
months and to determine ujxin a com
prehensive course of procedure in road
building and to do it all with |28,000 is
a remarkable performance for three men.
As an illustration of how baseless is
the charge that the road commission is
■dilatory it might be mentioned that on
June 20 of the present year an appropri
ation of £15,000 became available for a
government survey between the Tanana
valley and Seward peninsula. On July
12, just three weeks afterward, the work
was under way. In the meantime,
Lieutenant Orchard hud made a trip to
Seattle, where he purchased horses for
the work and secured supplies, which
have been received at Fairbanks.
The cost of the roads that will have
lieen constructed as soon as the work
can be done at Haines and Ketchikan
will lie about 12,500 a mile, which is not
a high price in any timbered country
for good roads.
The work on the Valdez-Fairbanks
road is now well under way, as is that
in the Seward peninsula and that on the
Tanana creeks. On the first mentioned
roads two large bridges have lieen con
structed, besides many smaller ones.
A Millionaire and Didn’t Know It.
Here ip one more illustration of the
importance of prosectors }>osting them
selves regarding the different minerals:
A writer in the Mining World, sink
ing of the Similkameen country in Brit
ish Columbia, says it is remarkably rich
in the platinum metals. Slate creek,
which enters the Tulameen branch of
the Similkameen eight miles above
tiranite creek, the writer calls “particu
tarty interesting uruuse 01 uir ctiarac
teristie* of flit- platinum grain* fount).
The nugget* are usually black am) very
magnetic, <iue prolathly to tlie fact that
they are frequently eoutetl wit)i either
magnetite an<l ehroniite or with some
oxidation prut I net of pyrrhotite.”
Sam Callahan, of the Valley New*,
stake-1 the tir-t elaim on the Slate ereek
referred to in Mareh, iNstl, ami sluiced
there during the interval la-tween the
breakup ami high water that spring.
t'-.ur*e black «aml, resembling gun pow
■ Irr, ami »m-a>th, heavy magnetic “Mg
gets" tip to proltahly two pound* in
Wright clogged the rilttea so that the
gold went through the hoar*. If that
•tuff was platinum the pioneer of Plate
ereek was a millionaire and -Ini a’t know
il. The start was -lumped over a fall
a little further -h*wn the ereek.
8. K. HEETER.
HARRY BURRUS8.
HEETER & BURRUSS,
FREIGHTERS and PACKERS
Freighting and Packing to and from all Creeks.
Good Equipments and Service Unexcelled
OUTSIDE POLITICS
Democrats of Michigan and North
Dakota have recently endorsed Bryan.
Judge Parker has declared he will not
support Hearst and says New York
democrats will not nominate him for
governor.
The election commissioners of Mem
phis, Tenn., decided to open all the
(Milling booths of the city with prayer
for an honest election.
Bryan is to stump Massachusetts for
the democratic congressional nominees.
He may also make some speeches in
New York for the state ticket.
The New York state democratic con
vention will be held in Buffalo Sept. 25,
and W. R. Hearst will lie a candidate
for nomination for the governorship.
At a banquet to Senator Piles and
Congressman Humphrey at Seattle E.
C. Hughes said both men must l>e re
tained in congress if the State of Wash
ington wishes to hold its prestige.
Since Mr. Roosevelt’s reiteration of
the declaration that he will not accept a
renomination Vice President Fairbanks
is coming to the front as the next repub
lican candidate. He would not turn
down the nomination.
In response to the republican com
mittee’s apppeal to every member of
the party to contribute $1, the president
sent that amount, together with a letter
commending the (dan outlined by the
committee and congratulating it on hav
ing originated the scheme.
llotli parties are preparing to make
the presidential campaign on lean purses
and everything of a spectacular nature
will lie eliminated. The corporations
refuse to recognize the pass-t lie-lint
movement and will await the conven
tions before making contributions.
Bryan recently wrote a letter to Judge
Thompson, of Jacksonville, 111., asking
him to call on linger Sullivan to resign
ns the Illinois member of the national
committee. Bryan said in the letter that
Sullivan’s presence on the committee
“contradicts all we say on the party's
behalf.” Judge Tlmm|>son called on Sul
livan nnd made the request known, hut
Sullivan indignantly declined to obey
any request of Bryan and says he w ill
continue to act for the party.
Officers of the American federation of
latlsir have sent out thousands of circu
lars to lals>r unions all over the country
urging them to insist that John Mitchell,
president of the mine wrorkers, lie the
vtee presidential candidate on the tieket
with Bryan. Mitchell’* candidacy is
taking like wiUtlire among working men
an«l changes the political situation,
latlsir union* in more than a thousand
cities have declared they will pan* the
Bryan-.Mitchell rry just as fust a* they
raa ami will support only delegate* that
will ha pledged to the two men.
JOSEPH TWAN,
Near
Smith &
McHugh's
Barn
ADC vniloneof,hM«i*»pi«who
Ant I UU seldom write home?
They will know you ore all right if yon
send them the YUKON VALLEY NEWS.
Nail yoors or let ns send one weekly.
Tin* problems of the work! have to lie
nettle*! I>y the home. The eliureheg will
never do it. You old hypocritical dea
cons will pray one way und vote another.
Then you go twek to church and sin#
“I'm On My Journey Home.” You will
never get to heaven, and if you don’t
wind up in hell it in liccanne you liain't
g*'t retire enough to tind the way.—Sum
Jone*, the Evangelist.
While working on an irrigation ditch
near Thane, Wyo., workmen -truck a
cen#nt bed which it wan found never
nary to blast. In clearing away the dirt
after the explosion the men picked up
numictn of (fold, route being an large an
wltewl kernetn. It in estimated that one
blast brought forth gold to the amount
of IMM