Awdfnratjtf Uatltj ®tm£0
AND COOK INLET PIONEER
VOL. 2. NO. 160. ANCHORAGE, ALASKA, TUESDAY, MAY 8, 1917. PRICE TEN CENTS
ANCHORAGE TO FAIRBANKS BY RAIL IN 1918
Petrograd Preparing for German Attacks by Way of Libau
ANCHORAGE AND FAIRBANKS TO HAVE
RAIL CONNECTION LATE IN YEAR 1918
IS HOPE OF CHAIRMAN OF COMMISSION
SEATTLE, May S.—“We hope to see Fairbanks and
Anchorage connected by rail sometime in the year 1018,”
said Chairman Edes, of the Alaskan Engineering commission.
The chairman stated, however, that the enormous advance in
the price of steel rails and the slow delivery of orders may pre
vent the commission from making the progress in track lay
ing that has been planned for this season. “We hope to lay
more track than last year, in any event,” said the chairman.
The chairman announced further that the commission had prae
ticallv decided to build a temporary structure over the Tanana
river at Nenana, instead of a steel bridge, because of the pres
ent high cost of steel and the difficulty of delivery.
Asked if the selective conscription bill as passed by the
congress would apply to men employed on the government
railway work, the chairman stated that lie is not sure whether
the bill would exclude the railway forces or not. lie was rather
inclined to think that they would not come under the pro
visions of the bill.
FRENCH FORCES TAKE 6,000 GERMAN
PRISONERS, CAPTURING STRONG POSITIONS
PARIS, May 8.—In Sunday and Monday’s fighting, the
French forces took 6,000 German prisoners and captured posi
tions the Ancre front, on the principal German defensive
• liue on the nprthevp side of the Ailette valley.
PETROGRAD EXPECTS GERMAN ATTACK
BY WAY OF LIBAU AND EFFORTS BEING
MADE TO GIVE BATTLE TO INVADERS
I’KTIiM HJRA I). May S. (ieneral Korniloff, commanding
the Russian troops in the IVtrograd division, has warned the
people of the city of an impending attack, by way of I,ibau, of
the (iernian forces. In orders issued today, he directs the di>
positon of the forces under his command to resist the attacks
and preparations are being made to give vigorous battle to
the prospective army of invasion, l'lie threatened (ierman at
tack has had the effect of bringing the various factions together
and a united front will face the enemy, it seemed to have need
ed .just such an anticipated attack to bring the political factions
together to resist a common enemy. The socialist and anar
chist parties are making a little noise, urging a separate peace,
but the people as a whole favor a continuance of the war.
TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND ENROLLED TO
FIGHT UNDER LEADERSHIP OF TEDDY
XKW YORK, May S. The New York Tribune today has
the following: Kdward S. (Jill, of Seattle, one of the Rac.ilic
coast leaders engaged in raising the Roosevelt army for serv
ice in Kurope, has enrolled more than two regiments ol infan
try in the state of Washington, dill says that IDO,000 men,
exclusive of officers, have enrolled under the Roosevelt banner,
all of whom are excellent men. v
TO BE GIVEN
t
WASHINGTON, April 19.—Shall
the greater part of the big naval
building program of the year be de
ferred in order to permit the ship
building resources of the country to
concentrate on building merchant car
riers ?
This is a question seriously before
the council of national defense. It
is understood that the allies have sug
gested something of the sort to this
government and that the French and
Knglish commissioners will urge tem
porary abandonment of our larger
naval program in the sessions here
next vvek; also there is reason to be
lieve that Gen. Goethals is of the same
mind.
When Lloyd George the other day
said that the war was to be won by
ships he was talking of merchant
ships, ships to carry supplies.
Kxpand mushroom-like as they will,
it already is apparent that the ship
yards of the country are not equal to
the task of constructing in the time
desired all the merchant ships needed.
It is not their fault so much as it is
the fault of the over demand for and
under supply of steel.
Wooden Ship Plans Hit.
Even the wooden shipbuilding pro
gram is up against the steel shortage.
The idea of equipping all those wooden
ships with the Diesel or the semi
Diesel type of engine has just about
been abandoned by the shipping board
because the board cannot get enough
engines. That means that steamers
will be built. But the problem of get
ting steel for boilers looms big. There
would be economy in making the
steamers oil bumeds but for the fact
that oil burners have to have steel
^ tanks for oil storage.
“THIS EARLY RETIREMENT IS JUST MY PLAN OF STRATEGY.”
—Rohoo in Now York World.
With ship-plate stel selling today
for 6 cents a pound and boiler steel at
18 cents, these facts are unpleasant to
face. The navy program if carried out
will make a tremendous ad prior de
mand for steel.
Delay Capital Ships.
There is no question of the fact that
destroyers, sbmarine chasers—these
latter of wood—and other small navy
craft must be built with the utmost
speed, but why, ask those who are ad
vocating the new idea, use up so much
steel in building battleships and battle
cruisers that cannot be completed un
der three or four years normally, and
also tie up so much shipbuilding labor
that can be used for national and allied
advantages so much better elsewhere.
They also argue that, paradoxical as
it may seem, now that we are at war
we have actually less need of capital
ships in the navy than we had when
we were at peace. That is, having al
lied ourselves with Englanad, France
considerable time anyhow, three out of
four of our potential naval enemies. In
and Japan, we have eliminated, for a
other words, the only large navy we
now have to fear is that of Germany,
aand France and England are well tak
: ing care of the capital craft of the
I German sea fighters.
Wilson May Decide.
While the matter so far has reached
the navy general board only in an in
formal way, it is safe to assume that
the above reasoning will not appeal to
the navy authorities. Nevertheless, as
the subject probably will go up to the
president for settlement very soon it
| may be that the navy authorities will
I
recede from any opposition to the plan,
particularly as it is one that may be
the subject of joint agreement in the
international war council.
Another important subject to be be
fore that war council is that of “the
war after the war.” The allies at the
conference of Paris, months before
America entered the war, came to a
trade agreement which in effect was to
stand together to shut Germany out of
world trade after peace is declared. It
may be that the allies will desire the
United States to become a party to
that agreement. President Wilson,
however, is known to be opposed to
the fundamental idea behind the agree
ment and there is small probability of
this country entering into it. Never
theless, the matter is to be debated in
the council certainly.
DEFINITELY DETERMINED BY WILSON
AND BAKER TO SEND AMERICAN ARMY
TO FRANCE, BUT DETAILS ARE LACKING
WASHINGTON. Mav s. It has been definitelv deteniiin
ed by President W ilson and Secretary of War Baker to send
American troops to the lighting front in France. The troops to
be >ent will l>e trained soldiers of the Tinted States army, or
at least part of them will be experienced lighting men. When
the troops will depart, how manv will go and all other infer
mation with respect to them is withheld, for obvious reasons.
Publication of their departure on vessels will be prohibited.
I’lie disposition of the American troops will riot be known until
they reach French soil. Secrecy over the matter is maintained
because of the fear of activ ities of enemv submarines.
REBELS IN ORIENTE PROVINCE IN CUBA
DESTROYING PROPERTIES OF AMERICANS
NKW N<)KK. May s. American and British refugees ar
riving today from Cuba bring reports that the Cuban negro
rebels in the province of Oriente, in Cuba, are burning and
pillaging homes and destroying the properties of Americans
and in some instances Americans who sought to defend their
homes have been killed.
SACRED UNION NOT TO BE DISSOI
UNTIL PEACE COMES TO. WORLD
' • '
KANSAS CITY, May K.- In a speech in Kansas City last
liiylit, M. liene \ iviani, the French commissioner, said that the
sacred union between the allies and the Fnited States could
not he dissolved until (unman imperialism has been destroyed
and peace throughout the world is assured.
CHIEF WILKIE PASSES ON.
\Y ASl 11 X< !T< )X, May S. W ilkie, former chief of the Fait
ed States secret service, died last niirht.
ROAD APPROPRIATION BILL
HAS NOT PASSED COM.RESS
Mr. John C. Murphy, of Matanuska,
has received the following letter from
Major I’. W. Davison, member of
the Alaska road commission, which
indicates that the appropriation of
$500,000 for road and trail building in
Alaska, has not passed the congress-:
Dear Sir.
I acknowledge herewith your letter
of April IT to Colonel Richardson in
which you refer to the memorial and
petition sent to the legislature in re
gard to road work in the Cache creek
district, also referring to Matanuska
bridge, etc.
I can add nothing to the letter of
Colonel Richardson dated Dec. 27
which he sent you in regard to this
matter. We have a number of letters
and petitions here from various peo
ple in regard to road from Talkeetna
or from Sunshine creek to Cache creek
and also a road from Talkeetna to
Sheep and Iron creeks, in fact we
have had more applications than we
can attend to. I would be very glad
indeed to write you that we would
take up all these projects, but it is
impossible to make any promises
whatsoever at the present time, and I
have so written the Chamber of Com
merce and all others who have writ
ten this office about the matter. I
have this day forwarded a letter to
Colonel Richardson at Washington,
giving him a statement of the funds
and telling him that unless the special
appropriation is passed by congress
we will not be in a position to do any
work whatever this season.
The subject of the roads in the An
chorage-Cache creek-Talkeetna etc,,
mining districts was scheduled to be
taken up the first thing this spring,
but owing to the fact that we have
not yet had any definite news about
our appropriation and to the fact that
on account of war conditions Colonel
Richardson has not been able to leave
Washington no definite action has
been taken and can not be taken until
we have information that our appro
priation has passed. I am sorry not
to be able to write you more favora
bly but we will not be able to give you
any better satisfaction until I receive
an answer to my letter to Colonel
Richardson We expect and want to
do some work in that section this year
and you may rest assured that if we
receive our appropriation something
will be done. Otherwise we can do
nothing.
P. W. DAVISON,
Major, Infantry.
FROMINENT MAN SEES
SUBMARINE IN THE BAY
(Valdez Miner)
A well-known mining man who has
a copper property across the bay
started out yesterday in a small boat
to row across to his property. He
was moving along slowly when chanc
ing to glance ahead he saw a dark ob
ject rise slowly to the surface of the
water. Visions of German subma
rines immediately flashed across his
mind and in a flash he had turned the
bow of his craft shoreward and drove
the dinghy through the water at a
speed which left boiling water in his
wake. This speed was not satisfying
and he put on a little more steam, but
the added power was too much for
the oars and one of the broke short
off. Casting aside the broken stump
he seized an extra oar and to make up
for lost time gave her the last notch.
This was a fatal move, for both oars
gave way under the strain, leaving
! him without means of propulsion,
i Nothing daunted he cast off his coat,
j took a header into the icy waters of
! the bay and struck manfully out for
! shore at a speed which would have
J defied any submarine ever built. A
few minutes later he climbed up on
the float at the dock somewhat out of
breath, but still in condition for a rec
ord sprint up town Glancing back at
the bay he again saw the object come
rising out of the deep. Somewhat
cooled off by his plunge he stopped to
have a look-see and lo, the submarine
periscope turned out to be nothin;
more dangerous than a hair seal in
seanji of herring.
ROADHOUSE ON TRAIL
DESTROYED BY FIRE
(Cordova Times.)
A wire from Salcha states that the
Overland roadhouse, on the Chitina
Fairbanks trail, fifty miles from
Fairbanks, is a total ruin as the result
of a fire which started yesterday
shortly after noon. Beyond stating
that the buildings and contents are a
total loss, the wire contained no de
tails of the conflagration, consequently
nothing is known here regarding how
it started.
The Overland roadhous has been
owned and operated by Mr. and Mrs.
Frank Burgess for a number of years.
It is a stage change station, one of
the stage bams of the Northern Com
mercial company being located there.
For that reason it was advantageous!!
I situated and enjoyed a wide patronage
in years gone by.