578 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



without waiting for the full flood, this 

 also makes a saving in time. 



NO DEMURRAGE PAID 



To further obviate the necessity for 

 paying demurrage, a 1,000-ton barge was 

 purchased in Seattle, to be delivered at 

 Ship Creek at the risk of the seller. Four 

 smaller scows were also purchased, and 

 upon the arrival of all this equipment the 

 large scow was placed in use as a float- 

 ing dock, enabling a ship to discharge its 

 cargo without delay, and the smaller 

 scows are used as lighters with which to 

 carry the cargo from the barge to the 

 wharves. With this system the govern- 

 ment has no demurrage or dockage 

 charges to pay. A cargo of nearly a mil- 

 lion feet of lumber was discharged in this 

 way in three days, with shifts of work- 

 men working day and night. 



In executive orders directing the con- 

 struction of the railroad, President Wil- 

 son, at the outset, urged upon the Com- 

 mission that provision should be made 

 for safeguarding the health and life of 

 employees and workmen on the road, and 

 for caring for the sick and injured. To 

 this end, a hospital, located in a log build- 

 ing, but well equipped, was one of the 

 first preparations made at Anchorage, 

 and here care has been given the small 

 number of employees disabled during the 

 season. 



There have been, however, none of the 

 conditions to contend with here that the 

 engineers had to fight at Panama. There 

 is little sickness in Alaska. Malaria and 

 other fevers are practically unknown, and 

 the uncontaminated water supply, equable 

 climate, and good air make epidemics 

 practically impossible. A few cases of 

 axe cuts and minor injuries have been 

 about the extent of cases requiring hos- 

 pital treatment. 



AN EMPTY jail 



In this connection, too, it might be said 

 that Alaska's good reputation as a coun- 

 try of law-abiding people has been main- 

 tained during the first season of the rail- 

 road construction and even in the open- 

 ing and boom days of Anchorage. The 

 fact that the sale of liquor is prohibited 

 in Anchorage, and that town lots there 



are sold with a prohibition clause at- 

 tached, and delivery of title deferred five 

 years, probably has had something to do 

 with this condition, while the isolation of 

 the country and the difficulty of escaping 

 detection and apprehension has also 

 doubtless had much to do with curbing 

 lawlessness. A jail was built and a mar- 

 shal appointed at the opening of the 

 Anchorage townsite to settlement, but the 

 jail has been empty most of the time and 

 the marshal has had practically nothing 

 to do (see page 574). 



Out of the appropriation of 1914 about 

 $500,000 was available for use this year 

 and was spent in making the first pay- 

 ment on the purchase of the Alaska 

 Northern Railroad. With the $2,000,000 

 appropriated for this year it was planned 

 at the beginning of the season to make a 

 final location of the entire route, to re- 

 habilitate partly the Alaska Northern, 

 and to construct as much of the new line 

 as possible. 



PANAMA EQUIPMENT 



Large quantities of construction sup- 

 plies and materials have been landed at 

 Anchorage, including a lot of steam- 

 shovels, derricks, bridge timbers, struc- 

 tural steel, locomotives, flat cars, wheels,, 

 boilers, drills, shop machinery, etc., from 

 the Panama Canal. The road-bed from 

 Anchorage to Matanuska Junction, 35 

 miles, has been practically completed and 

 made ready for track-laying, including 

 the construction of bridges and trestles. 

 Shipments of rails are now being re- 

 ceived, and it is anticipated that by the 

 first of January, 19 16, this division of the 

 line will be completed and ready for use. 



Steel rails have been purchased at $30 

 a ton, for the 70-pound size of which 

 the road will be built. A significant in- 

 cident illustrating the advantage enjoyed 

 by the government over private interests 

 in purchasing and in transportation is the 

 fact that, although the freight rate on 

 rails to Seattle, from the mill which re- 

 ceived the contract, is $9 a ton and the 

 government rate on the land-grant rail- 

 roads for the same service is $6.15 a ton, 

 one of the railroads voluntarily made a 

 special rate of $5 a ton for hauling these 

 rails. 



