WHAT IS WRONG WITH ALASKA 



BY W. B. GREELEY 



KOKESTER, U. S. FOREST SERVICE 



THE development of Alaska is again a mooted ques- 

 tion. It is one of many angles and, though much 

 discussed, will still bear illumination. The situa- 

 tion of Alaska should be thoroughly and sympathetically 

 understood by the people of the United States. The 

 development of the Territory is a public responsibility, 

 aside from reasons of general national interest, because 

 99 per cent of its area is public land and its resources 

 are largely administered by Federal agencies. The prob- 

 lem of Alaska is fundamentally the application of com- 

 mon sense and efficiency to public business. 



Alaska is pictured frequently as an empire whose 

 growth has been arrested and whose resources have been 

 put under lock and key by conservation theories. We 

 are told that this young country, bursting with natural 

 wealth, is beridden and shackled by the regulations of 

 thirty-odd Federal bureaus, by conflicting or overlapping 

 jurisdiction, by bureaucratic methods and delays, by long- 

 range administration and red tape. For Alaska is de- 



manded home rule, control of all her natural resources 

 or a local administration of public property and interests 

 which will replace the existing Federal agencies. Such 

 assertions, often repeated, have created a common im- 

 pression that Alaska is an intolerable muddle of Federal 

 mismanagement. This' conception of Alaskan affairs is 

 wide of the mark but still contains enough truth to 

 demand an unbiased and constructive inquiry. 



After 53 years of American ownership, Alaska con- 

 tains an estimated population of only 36,000 whites and 

 25,000 natives scattered over an area of 590,000 square 

 miles. Alaska is passing through a slump. She lost 

 ground during the war. Men left the Territory to enter 

 the military service or munition plants offering high 

 wages. The production of gold in Alaska dropped 

 nearly 45 per cent between 1916 and 1919, and the 

 labor employed in all forms of mining was cut in half. 

 The number of men employed in placer mining dropped 

 from 4,000 to 2,000 during the same period. Aside 



ALONG THE COPPER RIVER. ALASKA 



Heavy timber, rugged mountains, precipitous slopes, great glaciers, are all a part and parcel of the trip inland along the Copper River on 



which every turn brings to view a new scene which holds the eye. 



IS* 



