546 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



What Mr. 

 Schiff 

 Found in 

 Alaska 



Jacob H. Schiff, who recently returned 

 from an extended trip through Alaska 

 says the coal used there now comes from 

 British Columbia and sells at $12 a ton. 

 If Alaska coal could be mined it could 

 be sold in the markets at from $1.35 to 

 $3 per ton. Coal mining in the territory is waiting for 

 the establishment by the Government of a policy for the 

 development of the industry. An official bulletin by the 

 Geological Survey of the Government says there has been 

 no development in Alsaka during the past year, in fact 

 there has been actual retrogression in some places. The 

 bulletin adds: "The long delay in the issuance of patents 

 to coal lands and the popular clamor against all Alaskan 

 coal claimants has discouraged claimants and investors, 

 and it should be Hoped that it may soon be possible to 

 devise some reasonable or satisfactory means of exploiting 

 Alaska's wealth of coal." This statement coming from a 

 Government source shows greater irritation than Mr. 

 Schiff. It declares that the present laws are a handicap, 

 that though laws "intended to enable the individual to 

 obtain title to coal lands have been on the statute books 

 for the last decade, hot a single acre of land has yet gone 

 to patent," and that "it is not surprising that progress has 

 been checked in the coal fields and that many who would 

 undertake their development have become discouraged." 

 The bulletin insists particularly upon the need of railroads 

 to promote all kinds of industries. The suggestion by 

 Mr. Schiff that as a preliminary to opening up the territory 

 which now repels both capital and immigrants, it would 

 be a good plan to arrange for a United States commission 

 to control its development, is sensible. But will it be 

 adopted? And is the coal and other good things of 

 Alaska to be kept buried in the ground for the benefit of 

 generations yet unborn, or will they be released for the 

 people who now live and need them? 



When the Board of Army Engineers was 

 Newell Can- appointed to look into the reclamation 



not Be projects and report to President Taft 



Shaken it was given out that they would not be 



Loose. accompanied by any other officer of the 



Government. Especially was it under- 

 stood that F. H. Newell, director of the Reclamation Serv- 

 ice would not be permitted to go along and inject his 

 peculiar political methods into the work of the army 

 board. This was a sad blow to Newell, who saw his con- 

 trol of the work slipping from his grasp and he at once 

 began to pull the wires to enable him to hold on. That 

 he succeeded is not to be wondered at by anybody who 

 is conversant with his methods. He left Washington very 

 quietly, it being given out by his subordinates that he was 

 simply going on a trip of inspection on his own account, 

 but he turned up at Salt Lake with the army engineers 

 and is now touring the country with them. His success 

 in pulling the wires in his favor is noted in a dispatch 

 from Washington which states that "the change in the 

 department's original attitude, which by many was at- 

 tributed to the strained relations existing between the 

 office of the Secretary and the Reclamation Service, was 

 due to pressure from other and powerful quarters." The 

 presence of Mr. Newell is not in the least necessary for 

 the guidance of the army board. The members of the 

 board should be left entirely to their own investigation 

 and their judgment from the conditions as they see them. 

 It is not our intention to intimate that Newell will have 



any improper influence with the army board, because its 

 members are. men of experience and good judgment and 

 will, no doubt, report the facts as they find them; but 

 that Newell will, by every means in his power, attempt to 

 sway their judgment by his activities and specious reason- 

 ing and information is not to be doubted by any one who 

 knows him. 



Timely 



Consul William E. Alger, of Mazatlan, 

 Mexico, has done the farmers of this 

 Warning to country a timely service in an official 



American warning which he has recently sent out, 



Farmers urging them not to be lured by promises 



of comfortable homes and fortunes in 

 tropical lands to give up their citizenship here without 

 the most careful investigation. Mr. Alger says that men 

 who are not accustomed to the labor, the climate and 

 language of Mexico would be hopelessly lost when facing 

 the new and strange conditions in Sinaloa. Colonization 

 companies are sending out the most alluring promises to 

 American farmers urging them to sell their farms and 

 take up small tracts of 100 to 200 acres in that country, 

 assuring them that th'ey will soon become prosperous and 

 happy. 



Mr. Alger says American farmers will be wise if they 

 first make sure by personal observation that all the prom- 

 ises of climate, che'ap labor, plenty of rainfall and good 

 markets with ample and cheap transportation may actu- 

 ally be fulfilled. They should fully understand that for 

 the first few years they must rough it and roughly at 

 that; that there are no schools, no society, that a knowl- 

 edge of the language must be had, that capital is re- 

 quired and that hardships must be endured. No man who 

 does not possess youth, great courage and ample capital 

 can hope to succeed in that country. 



It is not asserted that opportunities do not exist in 

 that country, but before a man in the United States sells 

 his farm and gives up his home and friends to go down 

 there to make a new home for his family he should first 

 look into, the situation personally. And, too, he must be-, 

 lieve only what he actually sees and not what he hears, 

 because there are many people there who have learned the 

 rueful facts and being anxious to unload on somebody 

 else who is ignorant of them, will not hestitate to distort 

 the conditions. Why will our American farmers persist 

 in leaving the land of the greatest freedom and oppor- 

 tunity in the world to seek doubtful fortune in a strange 

 country? By such men the warning sent by Mr. Alger 

 ought to be seriously considered. 



Judging from the intemperate expres- 

 sions of some newspapers and public 

 Conservation speakers in Congress and out, one not 

 and the familiar with the subject might think 



Other-Kind tnat conservation is an entirely new 



movement and one that had its origin 

 in the minds of that class of men who have been exploiting 

 it for the sole benefit of themselves and their friends. 

 Mr. Pinchot claims that his father was the first man to 

 promote the idea of conservation and that he left it as 

 a blessed heritage to his son, who now sets himself up 

 as the only inspired authority on the subject. The plain 

 truth is that conservation in the science of government 

 is centuries old. In our own country Major Powell began 

 stirring up the conservation and irrigation question in 



