ALASKA 



143 



ALASKA 



Boundary Dispute. In 1825 Russia and Great 

 Britain by treaty fixed a boundary between 

 British and Russian territory in North Amer- 

 ica. For sixty years there was no quarreling 

 over the interpretation of the treaty, although 

 the Russian rights had meanwhile been trans- 

 ferred to the United States. For sixty years 

 the boundary, from Mount Saint Elias south- 

 ward, had been a line ten leagues, sixty miles, 

 inland from the coast. This line followed all 

 the windings of inlets and promontories. About 

 1885 Canadians began to assert that the 

 boundary was incorrect, and in 1888 the Cana- 

 dian government formally called the attention 

 of the United States to this difference of opin- 

 ion. The boundary, it was asserted, should be 

 ten leagues east, not of the actual winding 

 shore-line, but of a line drawn from headland 

 to headland. Such a line would place the heads 

 of many inlets in Canadian territory and would 

 leave the United States with but a few islands 

 and broken strips of mainland. 



The disputed territory was at once surveyed, 

 but a crisis did not come until 1896, when the 

 gold discoveries in the Klondike brought thou- 

 sands of prospectors and made a Pacific outlet 

 of greater importance to Canada. The Alaska 



Boundary clamed 

 by the United States 



Boundary claimed 



by Canada 



as fixed 



TIM-: BOUNDARY DISPUTE 

 Showing conflicting claims and flnal adjustment. 



boundary was one of the problems discussed by 

 the Joint H ml i Commission (see CANADA, sub- 

 head History), but the commission was unable 

 to arrive at conclusions. Finally, in 1903 a 

 special Alaska Boundary Tribunal was ap- 

 pointed to settle the meaning of the original 

 treaty between Russia and Great 1 



Great Britain's representatives were Baron 

 Alverstone, then Lord Chief Justice of England, 

 Sir Louis A. Jette and Hon. Allen B. Ayles- 

 worth, two distinguished Canadians. The 

 United States was represented by Henry Cabot 

 Lodge, Elihu Root and George Turner. The 

 decision of this tribunal favored the United 

 States, Baron Alverstone voting with the 

 American commissioners. About one-third of 

 the disputed section was given to Canada when 

 the boundary line was surveyed, this survey 

 being completed in 1914. 



Development of Coal Lands. The attempts 

 to open up the great coal fields of Alaska 

 aroused a bitter controversy which practically 

 prevented the development of this resource. In 

 1900 the public land laws, so far as they affect 

 coal-bearing areas, were extended to Alaska. 

 These laws, however, were ineffective, because 

 they applied only to surveyed land, whereas the 

 Alaska coal fields were unsurveyed. A supple- 

 mentary act of Congress in 1904 remedied this 

 defect by allowing individuals to make private 

 surveys as a basis for locating 160-acre claims. 

 Late in 1906 an executive order, issued by 

 President Roosevelt, withdrew all coal lands 

 from entry, but was amended by a later order 

 which exempted any claims located before 

 November 12, 1906. The reason for this 

 change of policy was the desire to eliminate 

 fraudulent claims. In the two and a half 

 years during which the Act of 1904 was in 

 force, practically all of the Bering River coal 

 field was divided into claims. These claims 

 were held either by individuals, or by agents 

 acting in the name of the claimants. 



One of these agents was Clarence Cunning- 

 ham, who represented thirty-three adjoining 

 claims, probably the most valuable in the lirld. 

 The Cunningham claims were all but patented 

 when rumors of fraud began to spread. V 

 of the claimants were business men who could 

 not be suspected of acting for corporation 

 claimants, but it was rumored that they were 

 pluming a combination of interests,, contrary 

 to law. Thr rh.-irges were first investigated in 

 1905, and in 1911 the Cunningham claims were 

 cancelled as fraudulent. In the intervening six 

 years the investigation had first lagged and 



thru l>rrn pu<hr,| /raloiisly. It led tO COn- 



<>rsy beta d pivrrninnit officials, 



and finally reqmn d the attention of President 

 Taft and Congress. The Secretary of the Inte- 

 hard Ballingcr, had been Commis- 

 sioner of the General Land Office in 1907 and 

 1908, and had been legal counsel for the Cun- 



