186 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Russia for the whole territory. How 

 rich its waters are we know, because they 

 have been proved ; but how rich its lands 

 are in gold and copper, coal and oil, iron 

 and zinc, no one knows. The prospector 

 has gone far enough, however, to tell us 

 that no other section of our land today 

 makes so rich a mineral promise. 



And in agriculture the government it- 

 self has demonstrated that it will produce 

 in abundance all that can be raised in the 

 Scandinavian countries, the hardy cereals 

 and vegetables, the meats and the berries 

 off which nine million people live in Nor- 

 way, Sweden, and Finland. It has been 

 estimated that there are 50 million acres 

 of this land that will make homes for a 

 people as sturdy as those of New Eng- 

 land. Whether this is so or not, it would 

 appear that Alaska can be made self- 

 sustaining agriculturally. 



This vast and unsurpassed asset lies 

 almost undeveloped. A territory one- 

 fifth the size of the United States con- 

 tains less than a thousand miles of any- 

 thing that can be called a wagon road. 

 It has a few inconsiderable stretches of 

 railroad which terminate, with one ex- 

 ception, either in the wilderness or at a 

 private industry. Only the richest of its 

 mines can be worked, and one of its re- 

 sources of greatest immediate value to 

 the people, its coal lands, lies unworked. 



The one constructive thing done by this 

 government on behalf of Alaska in nearly 

 half a century was the importation of 

 reindeer for the benefit of the Eskimo 

 on the border of the Arctic Ocean. For 

 the white man w T e have done nothing — so 

 little, in fact, that to mention what we 

 have done is matter for chagrin and hu- 

 miliation. J have thought that perhaps 

 the scandals that have developed in 

 Alaska have been in some part the result 

 of a feeling that it was a No Man's Eand, 

 where the primal instincts and powers 

 were the only law. 



SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA HAS A MORE 

 EQUABLE CLIMATE THAN 

 WASHINGTON, D. C. 



This unfortunate condition cannot be 

 explained on the ground of the inhospi- 

 tality of the Alaskan climate. A careful 

 study of isothermal lines shows that some 



of southeastern Alaska has a climate 

 more temperate and more equable than 

 that of Washington, D. C, while much 

 of the greater portion to the north has a 

 kindlier climate than Stockholm or St. 

 Petersburg. Moreover, our people are 

 not stayed in their quest for homes or 

 wealth by the rigors of a long winter. 

 The spirit and purpose which brought 

 them from Europe to Virginia and to 

 Massachusetts take them today to Mon- 

 tana and Saskatchewan. The United 

 States lately opened to entry a tract of 

 land in Montana for which there were 

 46,000 applicants for registration, and 

 only 7,000 of these could be given an op- 

 portunity to homestead. There is more 

 railroad building 500 miles north of the 

 Canadian border than there is for the 

 same distance south of it. 



Why has not this land been developed ? 

 The frank answer is that we did not real- 

 ize until within a few years that it was 

 worth developing. As soon as we dis- 

 covered its value as a national asset we 

 became alarmed and drew back, af- 

 frighted at the thought that we might 

 lose it, or at least that it would become the 

 property of those who would exploit it 

 without respect to the public interest. 

 Since then we have been waiting to make 

 up our minds as to what wisely could be 

 done. We have hesitated and halted out 

 of the very keenness of our appreciation 

 of what Alaska might become. 



It has rather been in compliment to 

 Alaska than in derogation of her value 

 that we have done so little for her in late 

 years. It was a new land, to be opened 

 under new conditions. The mistakes 

 made there and here we did not wish to 

 repeat. But now, after a long pause, it 

 would seem to be the sense of the people 

 that we shall proceed at once and in a 

 large way to deal with the problem of 

 Alaskan development. 



PROPOSED ADMINISTRATIVE BOARD 



We have withdrawn Alaska from the 

 too aggressive and self-serving exploiter. 

 What have we to substitute as a safer 

 servant of public interest? To this ques- 

 tion I have given much thought, and my 

 conclusion is that if we are to bring 

 Alaska into the early and full realization 



