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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



like the road building organizations, might well be com- 

 bined. The range in Alaska's resources is enormous. 

 When work was to be done, it was logical and necessary 

 that the best equipped Federal agency should do it. A 

 majority of the Federal bureaus, like the Agricultural 

 Experiment 9tations, the Weather Bureau, and the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey, having purely or largely in- 

 vestigative functions, have little or no bearing upon the 

 administration of Alaskan affairs. 



The greatest evil is long range administration. There 

 is too much centralization of administrative authority 



practically every step in the entry, survey, and acquisi- 

 tion of public lands must be referred to Washington for 

 authoritative action. An entry cannot be officially al- 

 lowed, proof of compliance with the law accepted, sur- 

 vey of the land approved, or patent issued by the officers 

 of the General Land Office in Alaska although the whole 

 process may involve less than five acres of the public 

 domain. Every one of these steps requires separate and 

 distinct reference to the Commissioner of the General 

 Land Office and action by him. Many matters, indeed, 

 after having been submitted to Washington by the Re- 



MILES GLACIER, COPPER RIVER, ALASKA 



The massiveness of this river of ice, ages old, must be seen to be appreciated, for no photograph and no pen can convey an adequate 



description of it to the reader. 



in Washington, too many delays in getting things done. 

 And Alaska is subject to too many inflexible regulations 

 or cut and dried rules which are unnecessary or unadapted 

 to her conditions. 



To illustrate, the law may be cited which requires the 

 advertising of any National Forest timber worth over 

 $100 in advance of its sale, desirable enough under other 

 circumstances to promote competition. But in the hun- 

 dreds of little timber sales along the Alaskan coast there 

 is no opportunity for competition, the timber is invari- 

 ably bid in by the original applicant at the price put 

 upon it by the Forest officers, and the advertising re- 

 quirement is simply an irksome delay and an unneces- 

 sary piece of red tape. This law should be changed. 

 Again, under the highly centralized organization of the 

 General Land Office as required by the Federal law, 



ceiver of the Land Office in Alaska, are referred back to 

 another officer in the same town for examination and 

 report before final action can be taken. Is there any 

 fundamental reason why public lands in Alaska should 

 not be entered, surveyed, and patented under the authority 

 of. a representative of the General Land Office in the 

 or cut and dried rules which are unnecessary or unadapt- 

 ed to her conditions. 



Under long standing interpretations of various instruc- 

 tions and decisions dealing with the survey of homestead 

 entries, but recently modified, the presence of a single 

 salmon at spawning time in a stream fordable by a child 

 debarred the homesteader from including both banks in 

 his entry. More than one homesteader has given up a 

 well-improved claim in disgust when he found that this 

 requirement would limit the land which he might enter to 



