AND COOK INLET PIONEER
VOL. 2. NO. 88.
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12,1917.
PRICE TEN CENTlS
GERMANY SEEKING TO AVOID HOSTILITIES
BltmSN CAPTURE 200 DIVERS, INCLUDING DEUTSCHLAND
DESPITE BREAK IN DIPLOMATIC
RELATIONS, IRONS ILL SEEK
PEACE WITH THE UNITED STATES
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12—Germany is understood here to
have addressed to the United States a communication which
suggests that the two governments discuss ways and means for
I'the purpose of preventing actual war between them. While the
information regarding the channel through which the commu
n.' tion was sent, is lacking, it is probable that it is being for
warded through the good offices of the Swiss government. Ger
many is understood to have made it clear that, although diplo
matic relations have been broken, she greatly desires that
peace be maintained between Germany and the United States.
Lending color to this report, is the fact that up to this time,
so far as known, since the German submarine campaign was
newly infl.ngnra.ted, no American lives have been lost, nor have
American vessels been destroyed, unless they carried contra
band of. war, which, subjects them*'to destruction, under thei
rules of international law.
UMI REFLECTED
WASHINGTON, Feb 12.—Delegate
Wickersham has received a wire fronr
Emery Valentine, of Juneau, tellinf
him of his re-election to the congress
Valentine, in his message, said thai
Governor Strong told him Saturday
that the delegate was re-elected anc
■that his certificate of election woulc
■lie issued in a few days.
Falcon joslin, of Fairbanks, is ir
i Washington, in an effort to get the
Alaskan Engineering Commission to
! buy his railway system in the Tanana
j valey.
Captain Franklin Johnston, of An
chorage, reached here yesterday, com
ing via New Orleans and New York.
I will confer tomorrow with Attor
ney-General Gregory on matters con
cerning Alaska.
CHAS. E. HERRON.
KATALIi FIELDS
SAN FRANCISCO, Cal., Feb. 1.—
The Katalla oil fields in Alaska pro
duce crude oil that is worth five
times as much as that from the Cali
fornia fields, according to Judge Rob;
ert Gray, of Katalla, who is here. The
crude oil from the-Alaska'fields has
a gravity of 47 and is easily refined
into distillate and gasoline. The pro
duction of the district this year will
average about $15,000 a month, two
t'nirds of the output being distillate
and one-third gasoline. The product
is sold almost entirely to Prince Wil
liam Sound consumers.
According to Judge Gray it is the
purpose of the new owners of the Ka
talla wells to sink several new shallow
wells on their claims in order to in
crease the production. The gasoline
output at present amounts to 44,00Q
gallons per month.
D. G. Allen came in over the trail
Yrom Seward yesterday afternoon and
is registered at the Hotel Anchorage.
Mr. Allen represents the Tru-BIu Bis
cuit company of Seattle and will re
main in the city several days, calling
on the Anchorage trade.
THE OUTING
BOSTON, Feb. 12.—Thomas Law
1 son, whose sensational charges in
| cited the congressional probe into the
alleged leak of the German peace
note, has returned from Washington,
and announces that he will go to his
ranch in Oregon to recuperate.
MAITLAND GOES TO STATES
ON IMPORTANT BUSINESS TRIP
ft ■ -_,_: m* •«'
Wm. Maitland, of the firm of Mc
Nally &' Maitland left with Vic Olson
for Seward this morning en route to
the outside on his annual trip. Mr.
Maitland will spend several weeks in
Seattle and the lumber cities of the
coast on business connected with his
firm prior to going to San Francisco.
He will be away from Anchorage
about two months and expects to re
turn on one of the early steamers in
April.
Business Manager George B. Pur
vis and committee have selected beau
tiful and costly prizes for the winners
of the St. Valentine masquerade and
costume da&ce at Labor Union hall
Wednesday night. The prizes are at
tractively shown in Brown & Haw
kin’s display windows.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12.—It is an
nounced here today that Secretary of
War Baker will resign his position to
save his respect. He asserts that
Secretary of the Treasury Mc
Adoo has assumed the dictatorship
of the cabinet, and that the relations
between them are not friendly. Mc
Adoo states that he requested Baker
to resign because the Pacific coast was
entitled to a place in the cabinet and
that he made the request with the ap
proval of the president.
NOTED BANDIT
PORI LAND. Feb. 12.—Chris F.v
ms, one of the most notorious bandits
'of the northwest, and who had just
been released from serving a long
sentence in the Oregon penitentiary
in connection with a train robbery,
died here yesterday. He had reached
an advanced age.
NEW YORK, Feb. 12.—A1 Hayman,
one of the foremost theatrical mana
gers in the United States, passed
away at his apartments in New York
last night, following a brief illness.
DECISION REVERSED
IN APPELLATE COURT
Friends of M. A. Ellis, prominent
Cache creek operator, were pleased to
receive the announcement recently
that he had won in the appellate
court in the suit brought by Attorney
J. L. Reed of Valdez on some old
labor liens.
Judge Brown rendered a decision
against Ellis which was reversed in
the higher court. This decision was
handed down 11 days ago, but Attor
neys Morford and Finnegan, repre
senting Ellis, .were not advised.
The cases involved a claim for labor
against placer claims which Ellis now
owns and operates. The miner did the
work for the previous owner of -the
ground and neglected to put in his
claim at the time, although Ellis
warned him to do so. Later when the
claims proved to be producers the
miner assigned his claim to Attorney
Reed, who endeavored to collect.
On losing in the lower court Ellis
commented bitterly on the way the
few producing operators in this dis
trict were harassed and declared he
would appeal although the proceeding
might cost more than the amount of
the judgment.—Seward Post.
E. Williams was released from the
Anchorage General hospital today af
ter being under the care of Dr. Bee
son for pneumonia for a couple of
weeks.
A CHANGE OF
VENUE GRANTED
EVERETT, Feb. 12.—Members of!
the Industrial Workers of the World,
arrested in connection with the riots
in Everett, in which several citzens
lost their lives and who are to be
tried on murder charges in the near
future, have been granted a change
of venue. The cases will be tried at
Seattle. Judge Ronald, appointed by
Governor Lister, to preside in these
cases' granted a change of venue, be
cause of the general opposition
against members of this organization
in this city.
PEACE BUREAU
TO BE CLOSED
THE HAGUE, Feb. 12.-^It is an
nounced that Henry Ford’s peace bu
reau, which has maintained headquar
ters in The Hague during the winter,
will be closed March 1, and the Amer
icans in charge will depart, en route
to the United States.
ON IN SEATTLE.
SEATTLE, Feb. 12.—A tong war
has started in Seattle. The first vic
tim was Harry Wong, aged 24 years,
the son of a wealthy pioneer Chinese
family, who was killed yesterday
morning by the tong gunmen.
BIG GOLD DREDGE
BREAKS ALL RECORDS
The spectacle of a ponderous gold
dredge, perfect dreadnaught of the
Arctic, churning incessantly in icy
waters and turning up daily and wash
ing perfectly thousands of cubic
yards of auriferous gravels may be
seen in the Klondyke valley, seven
miles from Dawson. The big machine
is the Canadian Klondyke company’s
mammoth dredge No. 2, the largest
in the world. The dredge has been
working without interruption since
repairs on her were completed and
she started up last fall. During the
last winter the big ship has been sub
mitted to the severest test respecting
temperature ever recorded in the his
tory of the world. During four days
the thermometer at the dredge regis
tered 56 to 66 degrees below zero,
Fahrenheit. During that period no
more time was lost than on ordinary
days. The remarkable performance
of No. 2 in this instance no doubt will
be a matter of great interest to the
dredge men the world over and will
be of great encouragement to others
who look on the north as a possible
field for exploitation.
W. R. Thomas, Chas. Dietzel and
Clarence Brennan left for the little
Susitna river this morning to start
work on another big piling contract
they have secured from the Alaskan
Engineering Commission.
NICHOLAS MURRAY BUM SAYS
HE HAS POSITIVE KNOWLEDGE OF
CAPTURE OF TEUTON SUBMARINE
PITTSBURG, Feb. 12.—Nicholas Murray Butler, former
president of Columbia university and prominent in political af
fairs of the United States, declared, in an interview today, that
the German submarine freighter Deutschland had been cap
tured by a British warship and was now interned in a British
port. “I have positive knowledge,” said Butler, “that the
freighter Deutschland is one of 85 German submarines now
interned in a British port. I know that the British have cap
tured no less than 200 German submarines.”
GREAT OUTSIDE
TAKES IIP WITH
ALASKAN SPORT
ST. PAUL, Minn., Feb. 1.—The
longest dog race in the world will be
held next week. This means that
teams of dogs will contest for suprem
acy over the longest race course in
the world, from Winnipeg to this city
over what is known as the Pembina
trail. The course is 476 miles long,
or 64 miles longer than that over
which the Alaska sweepstakes race is
run annually, the Nome-Candle course.
The race was suggested by Louis
W. Hill, the railroad magnate. It is
being held under the auspices of the
St. Paul Outdoor Carnival committee
and will be one of the features of the
big annual outdoor carnival. It is
also probable that it will be made an
event of the annual carnivals of fu
ture years.
Fourteen teams of dogs are already
entered for the race. They represent
chiefly Manitoba and Hudson bay
breeds. The drivers will include In
dians and Icelanders, although it is re
ported that several Alaskans will par
ticipate.
HERMAN GENTSCH RETURNS
FROM BUSINESS TRIP OUTSIDE
Herman L. Gentsch returned to the
city Saturday afternoon after a six
weeks’ trip to Seattle and Juneau,
Mr. Gentsch is. stopping at the Crpa*.
cent until he can obtain suitable quar
ters and reports a very pleasant trip.
In Juneau he was the guest of Attor
ney General George B. Grigsby, and
says that George will always have a
warm spot in his heart for*Anchorage
on account of the record vote this city
gave him at the November election.
Mr. Gentsch stopped off at Seward for
a few days and visited with friends
in that city. He reports that George
Cotter is getting along as well as
could be expected and would not suf
fer any further trouble from his re
cent experience other than being laid
up for several weeks. Mr. Gentsch
says that he will probably engage In
the auto-transfer business on a large
scale this spring and summer.
J. W. Laindon of Chickaioon, is reg
istered at the Hotel Anchorage.
BOOSTING i
FOR RAILROAD
TO IDITAROD
tlditarod Pioneer)
Iditai’od operators, who represent
heavy investments in the interior sec
tion of Alaska along the rivers flow
ing into the lower Yukon, are taking
an active interest in the proposed line
of the government’s system of rail
roads in Alaska, which will extend
from the Seward-Fairbanks line into
western Alaska.
New discoveries in the Iditarod and
Innoko districts assure the import
ance of this immense area lying north
of the mountains and west of Mt. Mc
Kinley.
Freight rates to the Iditarod at
present are $100 per ton.
Operators like J. E. Riley and oth
ers who have dredges or large hydrau
lic plants pay immense sums each
year to the transportation companies.
Ordinary ground cannot be worked
because it will not pay the expenses of
operating.
Tolstoi lay undiscovered for seven
years because the prospectors found
only 10-cent pans on bedrock and it
did not look like “pay” in the face of
the high cost of supplies.
From a practical mining standpoint
thousands of miles of creeks along
the rivers of this section have never
been scratched and the real mineral
worth of the country northwest of
Seward is' till unknown. *
Good pay in Ophir, Flat creek, Mar
shall city and other sections of the
district shows that it is a highly de
sirable place to prospect.
A railroad is needed to supply
cheaper fuel and cheaper supplies.
In a short time the line to Fair
banks wil) be complete and that camp
will be enjoying the advantages of
railroad transportation.
It is the contention of Iditaroders
that work could be started at an ear
ly date on the line to the lower Yu
kon and better results obtained and
more progress made than to wait un
til the Fairbanks line is completed.
The construction organisation of the
Alaskan Engineering Commission is
complete and will be brought to a high
state of efficiency during the coming
year.