940 ALASKA 



of the commission's discretion in regard to jurisdiction, but the District of Columbia 

 Court of Appeals held that a writ would lie and the Supreme Court affirmed this view. 



Congress passed a new civil government bill for the Territory, approved August 24, 

 1912, which creates a Territorial legislature. This is to consist of a senate of 8, 2 elected 

 for four years from each of the four judicial divisions, and a lower house of 16 representa- 

 tives, 4 from each judicial division, elected for two years. Legislators receive $15 for 

 each day's attendance and 15 cents a mile for mileage. The governor may veto bills 

 within three days if the legislature continues in session; otherwise, a bill becomes a law 

 without the governor's approval. His veto may be overridden by a two-thirds vote of 

 each house. The first biennial legislative election (for the session opening March 3, 1913) 

 was held on November 5, 1912; after 1914 the Congressional delegate will be chosen at 

 the same election. Sessions are limited to 60 days; special sessions, called by the 

 governor, to 15 days. 



In September the Cunningham claims, including 5,250 acres of coal lands, were 

 cancelled by Secretary of the Interior Fisher. They had been disallowed on June 26, 

 191 1. In 1910, 12,800 acres of public land on Controller Bay had been withdrawn from 

 the Chugach Forest Reserve for disposition under the land laws. An application for 

 320 acres filed immediately afterwards was supposed to be made by an agent of the 

 Alaska (" Morgan-Guggenheim ") Syndicate, and the charge was made that President 

 Taft on the recommendation of his brother C. P. Taft had issued a secret order which 

 gave to this syndicate the only harbour near the coal fields of the Bering River district. 

 Mr. Gifford Pinchot attacked the President and Secretary Ballinger (Fisher's predecessor), 

 who said that the lands had been opened to entry upon a recommendation from the 

 Forestry Bureau when Mr. Pinchot was its head. President Taft sent a message to 

 Congress dealing with the matter on July 26, 1911; and it seems certain that the claim 

 (for railway rights on Controller Bay) in question, of Richard S. Ryan, within the limits 

 of the forest reserve, was in no way connected with the Alaska Syndicate, which had 

 another and better claim on the bay, not in the reserve. The Controller Bay terminal 

 commands the Bering River coal field (15 m. distant), which is probably smaller but 

 certainly more accessible than the Matanuska field; but the Bay is a poor harbour, 

 readily filling with ice and swept by high winds. 



The Alaska question is a complex one, which may well be compared in some respects 

 with that in the Philippines. The late Prof. R. S. Tarr, in an article on " The Alaskan 

 Problem " (North American Review, January 1912), called Alaska the " victim of stupid 

 land laws, awakened public conscience, the clamor of the unreasoning mob, and politics." 

 The Congressional policy of limiting land grants (as in the Philippines) prevents grants 

 of sufficient size -to warrant the investment of enough capital for adequate development; 

 and the political and social opposition of syndicates and trusts make a change in this 

 policy nearly impossible. Some leasing system for coal lands may offer a solution; but 

 the lease is unlikely to tempt the investment of large sums of capital. The construction 

 of railways is another unsolved problem. Government ownership is urged by two 

 authorities so diverse as Secretary Fisher and Mr. Pinchot, who differ radically as to 

 routes. Professor Tarr suggested that the wonderful scenery of Alaska might become 

 a valuable asset of railways. 



In August 1912 James Wickersham (b. 1857), Progressive Republican, was re- 

 elected delegate to Congress by a large plurality. The governor since October 1909 

 (term ends 1913) has been Walter Eli Clark (b. 1869), who had been a miner at Nome 

 in 1900. 



On June 6, 1912, Katmai volcano burst into one of the most violent eruptions of 

 modern times. (See G. C. Martin in Nat. Geog. Mag., Feb. 1913.) 



Bibliography. Alfred H. Brooks and others, Mineral Resources of Alaska (Washington, 

 1912), Bulletin 520 of the U.S. Geological Survey. It contains a chapter by Brooks, pp. 

 44-88, on "Railway Routes from the Pacific Seaboard to Fairbanks." The annual report 

 of the governor and census bulletins have been criticised by the Territorial delegate, James 

 Wickersham in the Hearing referred to above and in his speech in Congressional Record, 

 April 24, 1912. For description see E. Higginson, Alaska, the Great Country (1912). 



