USA > Alaska > Alaska and the Klondike > Part 13
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POLITICAL CONDITIONS
sition so far as our island possessions are concerned, with their alien populations, there is no such reason to resist the entrance of Alaska or parts of it into the Union when the time comes-as come it will, so far as population is con- cerned. The people of Alaska are not to be classed with the inhabitants of the islands. They are American citizens of the better type in many respects, while ignorant and un- American foreigners are scarce in that country.
But, as I have already suggested, the main difficulties in the way of territorial government for Alaska are not polit- ical, but physical. If the population were collected in one reasonably compact district and readily accessible, the demand could not be denied. Over against this the Alas- kans cite the history of territorial organisation beginning with the great ordinance of 1787, wherein the immense area northwest of the Ohio was guaranteed a representa- tive government when it should have a population of 5,000; or the territory of Oregon, which included Wash- ington, Idaho and parts of Wyoming and Montana, when it took six months to send a letter from the territorial capi- tal to Washington; or the case of Michigan, organised as a territory with a population of 4,000 scattered over what is now Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and part of the Dakotas; or the case of Dakota Territory organised with less than 4,000 inhabitants.
These facts are pertinent and they suggest, it seems to me, the proper and most satisfactory treatment of the Alaskan question by Congress. Southeast Alaska, with a white population of 15,000, should be made a territory
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by itself with its capital at Juneau; northwest Alaska, having a permanent white population of about 13,000, should constitute another territory with its capital at Nome, and the remainder of the district, the great central and comparatively inaccessible portion, should remain sub- stantially as it is till developments warrant a change.
The people of Alaska are practically united in the de- mand for a delegate in Congress .* They are entitled to a delegate and Congress has only hesitated on how he should be chosen. The same difficulties would attend the election of one delegate for the whole district that must be con- tended with in the choice of territorial officers, and if Con- gress denies territorial organisation of the district as a whole on those grounds, it would not be consistent to pro- vide for the election of a delegate. Appointment by the President of some resident of Alaska would be reasonably satisfactory, but better still if two territories be erected, as above suggested, would be the election of a delegate from each of the territories and the appoinment of a third from the remaining district.
This plan may be far in advance of what Congress may be ready to grant, but it is an arrangement well warranted by the conditions as they exist, and would promote the in- terests of the district more than the creation of one great unwieldy territory.
But as to the benefit to be gained by having a delegate
* Senator Nelson introduced a bill last winter (1904) in the Senate providing for the election of a delegate to Congress from Alaska, but it failed to pass. A similar bill passed the House.
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in Congress, there is no room for controversy. Alaska has suffered enough from the activities of self-appointed dele- gates and delegates representing political factions and special interests, and from the lack of an authorised repre- sentative to press her claims on the attention of Con- gress; she has everything to gain from the presence in Congress of an honest man capable of presenting the in- terests of the district clearly and convincingly before the committees of both houses.
XII
AGRICULTURAL POSSIBILITIES OF ALASKA
G JOVERNOR BRADY is one of the most highly respected and one of the most unpopular men in Alaska. John G. Brady went to Alaska as a mis- sionary to the Indians. He is a thoroughly upright and honourable man. Everybody admits that and yields the respect which high character is always sure to command.
But he is not progressive and hence his unpopularity, particularly among that element not deeply in sympathy with the moral standards with which he measures public and private conduct. There have been no scandals in the governor's office, and there will be none while he is its occupant, but there are those in Alaska, and they are not alone those who are out of sympathy with the gov- ernor on moral and religious grounds, who feel that a more aggressive and progressive policy than he has pur- sued would have been of advantage to the district. Among these are the ardent advocates of a territorial form of government, who intimate more or less clearly that if the governor would spend the money his position gives him and the leisure its freedom from burdensome duties affords in trying to impress upon the Government at Washington that it is its duty to give Alaska home rule, he would be none the less ornamental and a good deal more useful.
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One of the first things this suggested to me when I dis- covered this state of public sentiment was the unconscious tribute it implied to the grey-haired old governor. Cer- tainly, if he were not a pretty good type of man, he would never be expected by anybody to do a thing so unprofes- sional in a politician as to labour for the abolition of the office he holds at $5,000 a year for the sake of entering an expensive and uncertain campaign for one that might command less salary.
I am able, however, to discover other than selfish rea- sons why Governor Brady is not an active advocate of territorial government for Alaska. There are plenty of Alaskans who hold no fat federal offices who are opposed. They not only think that the district is too big and un- wieldy, considering the number of people it contains, the manner in which they are distributed and the difficulties of communication and transportation, to make it practicable to administer a territorial government at reasonable ex- pense-as I have indicated in a previous chapter-but they believe the institution of a territorial government would check development. It is significant that this apprehension is entertained quite generally among the most substantial business men of Alaska. Whether this is due in any degree to the fact that they are bearing less than their share of the burden of taxation under the present federal régime or not I shall not venture to assert; but there is no doubt that many of them are sincerely apprehensive lest capital, which Alaska needs as much as any country in the world, may be afraid to venture under the control of a territorial gov-
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ernment. No doubt capital, which is always timid, would be affected more or less by the inauguration of a new order of things in Alaska, but it is not to be expected that terri- torial authority would or could be used to disturb business and check development more effectively than the federal authority has been known to do on at least one occasion. The scandals which attended the exercise of federal authority at Nome at one time can hardly be matched by anything likely to result from the creation of a representa- tive home-rule government. On the contrary, I should look for an improvement in many respects when the federal courts are relieved of some of the administrative duties now imposed. I do not mean to imply that the judges are now abusing their authority, but many of the functions they exercise are not judicial.
As it is now the judges of the federal courts are not only the judicial but in a large measure the executive offi- cers of the district. They issue licenses for all purposes, issue franchises to business corporations, grant charters to incorporated towns, appoint United States commissioners who are the local justices of the peace, coroners and re- corders, and the officers of the courts collect the occupation tax which, outside of the incorporated towns, is the only tax. When the manufacturer, or merchant, or freighter, or fish-canner, or hotel-keeper, or any other kind of busi- ness man commences any undertaking he is required to make a statement of the amount of business he expects to do in a year, and must pay a tax graded according to the volume of his business. If at the end of the year he finds
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he has done more business than he expected to when he commenced, he is required to pay up to what he should have paid in the first instance. This would seem to be a very loose way of collecting taxes, but it works better on the whole than might be expected. In the incorporated towns, which have a form of government similar to that common in the States, and of which I believe there are only seven or eight, an additional property tax may be levied for munic- ipal purposes. Of the occupation tax collected by the fed- eral authorities in the towns the whole amount is turned over to the town treasurers, but the federal judge appor- tions the money between the city council and the school board according to their necessities .*
The report of the senatorial committee shows that Alaska has yielded in revenues to the general Govern- ment since the cession by Russia $10,000,000, which is $1,000,000 more than the entire expenditure in her behalf by the Government. That is to say, the people of Alaska have paid for all their local government and all the federal
* The Fifty-eighth Congress has provided that all the occupation taxes collected outside of the incorporated towns shall be paid into the treasury of the United States, there to be maintained as a separate " Alaska fund " and to be devoted to three distinct purposes. One-fourth of this fund, or so much as may be necessary, is to be expended on the estab- lishment and support of public schools for white children and children of mixed blood who lead a civilised life; five per cent. of this fund, or so much as may be necessary, is set apart for che care of the insane, and all the remainder is to be devoted to the construction and main- tenance of roads under the direction of a board of commissioners to be composed of three officers of the United States Army. Heretofore the expenses of the courts and the edu- cation of the Indian children have been provided for out of this occupation tax, which is a discrimination against the people of Alaska, as in all the organised territories of the United States the federal Government pays all these expenses. It is expected that after the deductions above mentioned have been made from the " Alaska fund " there will remain for road-building purposes about $70,000 annually.
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government they have had, and all the money expended on behalf of the natives, and $1,000,000 besides. When one contemplates these figures it is not difficult to understand why the Alaskan feels that he is not given a square deal, when the Government at Washington pockets a large sum in the way of excess revenues, derived through direct taxes levied upon him, and then declines to give him home rule on the plea that it would cost too much.
But I have been diverted into a further discussion of the political or governmental situation in Alaska, whereas I commenced this chapter with an entirely different purpose in mind. I first thought of Governor Brady in connection with his splendid garden around his residence in Sitka and its value as an object lesson in what are the agricultural possibilities of Alaska. " Can they raise anything but ice- bergs up in that cold country ? " is a question I have been requested to answer many times, and I presume it has arisen in the mind of some who have followed my story of the senatorial trip through Alaska. Of course Governor Brady's garden is not exactly a fair test of what can be done in this respect in Alaska, because it is not in Alaska proper, but on an island where the climate is much milder than it is in Minneapolis. The tem- perature rarely reaches zero at Sitka. On the 19th of August I saw in Governor Brady's garden several varieties of potatoes, all of which looked exceedingly thrifty and some of which had been producing fine-looking tubers, ripe enough for use, for several weeks; a large patch of splen- did raspberries, a little past their prime ; large red currants,
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Grown in Alaska
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ripe strawberries of superior quality and size; fine cab- bages, cauliflower, lettuce, radishes, turnips and other vegetables of that character; peas and beans and celery, and practically all the vegetables that thrive in our Minne- sota gardens and some that do not; while the flower garden was gorgeous in variety and richness of colour. Governor Brady takes great pride in his garden of about two acres, and doubtless could derive considerable revenue from it if he desired; but, as already stated, this would not signify much as to the possibilities of the interior of Alaska if it were not reinforced by personal observation and a great deal of concurring testimony with respect to the growth of food and forage plants beyond the coast range.
The importance of successful agriculture and stock- raising to the development of the mineral resources of the country is obvious. It was of importance, for instance, to learn on our way to Dawson that the raising of potatoes and cabbage, and turnips, and of oats, barley and rye for forage has become so profitable at Ft. Selkirk on the Yu- kon as to induce several farmers to engage there in that business for the Dawson market. At Eagle, where Ft. Egbert is situated, 100 miles northwest of Dawson, the commandant, as already stated, has a garden of four or five acres, where the soldiers raise potatoes, turnips, cab- bages, peas, lettuce, radishes and other vegetables for their own use. At Circle City, still farther north, was seen a field of oats which probably did not ripen but which would produce good forage. Similar examples were found at other points on the Yukon, but the best demonstration
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of possible agriculture was found at Holy Cross Mission on the Yukon, where the Jesuit fathers have the prize gar- den of interior Alaska.
But the people of Alaska do not look upon the Yukon valley, where there is undoubtedly a great deal of good soil, as prospectively the agricultural region of Alaska. That, by consent of many who have travelled extensively over the district, is to be found along the Tanana and in the Copper River valley. A dozen witnesses testified of their own observation that there is a fine body of agri- cultural land along the Tanana which, much to the regret of the whole party, we could not visit for lack of time and suitable means of transportation. One of the most satis- factory reports with regard to that section was obtained at Eagle from Lieutenant Mitchell of the United States signal service, who had travelled it thoroughly in survey- ing and constructing the Government telegraph line. The Tanana River rises north of Mt. St. Elias near the bound- ary between Canada and Alaska and flows north of west into the Yukon. Along this river there is said to be a fine valley averaging 30 miles in width and at least 200 miles long. It is partly timbered and partly open meadow land covered to considerable extent with a tall, blue stem grass. The climate in this valley is reported much milder than up on the Yukon and the summer season nearly a month longer. Not much has been done in experimentation there, but it is believed by those who know most about this coun- try that it will produce some of the food vegetables prof- itably and that, while they may not always ripen, oats,
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barley and rye will produce abundant forage crops for cattle. A thousand head of cattle were driven over the Dalton trail three years ago to Dawson, skirting this region on the east, and subsisting all the way on the native
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1
INCHES
Potatoes from Kadiak
grasses. They arrived in Dawson in good condition with a loss of only I per cent. The mail-carriers who cross the Tanana from Valdez to Eagle report that oats spilled where they have fed their pack horses spring up and head out the next season. I saw a bunch of this grain at Forty- Mile on the Yukon, which was three and a half feet high and headed, but the grains were light. The plant would make good forage, however.
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In view of the radical and repeated revision of opinion which has become necessary in recent years with regard to the agricultural possibilities of our Northwest in the States and in Canada, as the producing area has gradually forced its way northward through Minnesota, the Dakotas and Canada, I am not disposed to question the claims of those who contend that the time will come when the Tan- ana valley will be settled by farmers who will produce the meat, and dairy and poultry products, and a large share of the vegetables and small fruits consumed in the interior mining districts of Alaska. What this will mean as an aid to the mining development of Alaska can scarcely be overstated. It is not to be expected that Alaska will ever export any of these products, but if her ranchmen can supply the home market in these respects, it will be of the highest importance to this country.
In considering the agricultural possibilities of these northern latitudes where, of course, the season is short, proper allowance must be made for the amount of sun- shine the plant gets during the long summer days. In the Tanana and Yukon valleys, for instance, the sun shines from eighteen to twenty-two hours during June and July, and not infrequently the temperature rises to 90 degrees. The same facts of nature which explain rapid and won- derful plant growth in our own Northwest and in Canada are found in portions of Alaska. I have seen wheat as far advanced along the North Fork of the Saskatchewan on the 20th of June as it was in central Minnesota at the same time. There, with good soil, of which there is no
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lack, the long hours of sunshine each day bring forward the wheat plant with surprising rapidity, while the roots are so well fed with the moisture coming out of the grad- ually thawing ground that the danger from drought is almost entirely eliminated. Very similar conditions seem to exist in Alaska, where the ground is frozen to such a
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RUSSIA
RACE MORSE
BANNER
SIBERIAN
NAMFLEES BEAUTY
Varieties of Oats Grown at Sitka
depth that the thawing and moisture-producing process is going on all through the summer. The evidence is seen in the wild grasses, which grow annually to a height of three or four feet, and sometimes even higher. As for the soil, it resembles that of hilly countries in lower latitudes, light and sandy on the elevations, but heavier and richer
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in the valleys. In a natural state the ground is covered in large part with a thick matted growth of grass and vines and moss, so thick that it feels to the tread as if one were walking on a sponge. This matted vegetable growth is moist in summer from the surface thawing of the frozen ground, but when this thick covering is cut away and the sun is given a chance to reach the ground, the soil is thawed to a greater depth and the surface dries out.
Alaska has not been surveyed, and cannot be successfully on the township and section plan in vogue on our western prairies. The Government has established 320 acres as the size of a homestead claim, but in the course of time it will be necessary to adopt the system of land surveys to the topography of the country, surveying only the valleys which may be found adapted to agriculture with reference to the water-courses and the " lay of the land," and with- out regard to towns and ranges or conformity to estab- lished lines of latitude and longitude.
Professor George C. Georgeson, formerly special agent of the Department of Agriculture in Alaska, is regarded as something of an enthusiast. Perhaps he is. But he has studied the agricultural possibilities of the country more than anybody else, and is the best authority obtainable on this subject. He contends that it is a great mistake to underestimate the agricultural resources of Alaska; that " there are 100,000 square miles of territory in Alaska admirably adapted to agriculture. There could never be a greater misconception in regard to a geographical fact than the popular idea that Alaska is a snow-covered waste.
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As a matter of fact, one can travel from one end of the Yukon to the other in summer and never see snow except on the mountains. On the contrary, one will see a tangle of luxuriant vegetation, large forests, and such delicacies as wild raspberries, red currants, huckleberries, and cran- berries in profusion. In places the grass grows as high as a man's shoulders."
Dr. R. A. F. Penrose, of Philadelphia, a mining en- gineer, who has studied conditions in northern latitudes in Europe and Asia as well as in America, came to Daw- son while our party was there in July. In speaking of the resources of Alaska he said to the Dawson News:
" I notice the United States senatorial committee now in Dawson is gathering data as to the agricultural possi- bilities of Alaska. Some may think this a waste of time. I believe not. I have travelled across Siberia and have made careful study of its great undertakings in agricul- tural pursuits. In a latitude of 65 degrees north, one nearer the Pole than Dawson, the Russians raise barley, oats, and other cereals with great success. Barley is the most successful cereal. Vegetables of all kinds thrive, and are as fine as those raised in any other part of the world.
" The ground here thaws two or three feet below the surface in summer. In parts of Siberia where such success has been had in farming, the frost disappears to a depth no greater than nine inches.
" The people of Siberia learned what to grow there to best advantage by a process of selection reached by experiments extending through perhaps hundreds of years.
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The greatest argument in support of the agricultural suc- cess in Siberia is that the country supports a population of 12,000,000 people, twice as many as Canada. That is sufficient to show the land is by no means a waste. Of course it is twice as large as the United States, and the population is scattered. But several cities of 20,000 to 60,000 are maintained."
In condemning Alaska as an uninhabitable region we sometimes forget that a large part of the great empire of Russia lies in the same latitude. The province of Arch- angel, which lies farther north than the Tanana, or the greater part of the Yukon valley, has a population of 350,000. The city of Archangel has 20,000 people, and the province exports considerable quantities of grain, flax, fish, skins and tar. The climate is quite as severe as that of Alaska.
I do not care to be regarded as a believer in large agri- cultural possibilities for Alaska, but I am impressed with the probability that in the interior of that remote country, where food supplies from the States must always be ex- pensive, it will be practicable and profitable to produce meat and dairy and poultry and garden products in such quantity and at such prices as to solve the problem of development of large areas of gold-bearing gravel.
In the course of a public hearing at Nome, where the senatorial committee sat to hear the statement of miners and business men as to what Congress could do to forward the development of Alaska, Judge Dubose, an influential member of the Nome bar and attorney for one of the
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transportation companies, said that in the Nome district about 20,000 claims had been staked and recorded, and that only about 500 were being worked to any extent at all; and that represents a state of things general through- out Alaska, though probably not quite so much accentu- ated in other sections as on the Seward Peninsula. The trouble is that the mining laws operate adversely to the interests of the real miner. At Seattle and Juneau and Skagway and Eagle and Rampart and · Nome-every- where there was complaint of abuses of privilege made easy by the operation of laws that do not fit the case. Under the mining law in Alaska a prospector may fill his pockets with powers of attorney before he starts out, and when he thinks he has found something worth while he may not only stake in his own name, but in the names of all his friends who have made him their agent. These claims are recorded, and all the area covered by them is monopolised. There would be less objection to that if it were not for the fact that the requirements as to devel- opment work are so loose that the claimant may escape the necessity of doing anything for a year, and under cer- tain circumstances for two years. Then all that is really necessary is for the original claimant to change names on the claims and record again for another year or two years, as the case may be. Neither the original claimant nor his principals are obliged to do any development work so long as the list of names holds out, and the name of a claimant may, in course of time, be transferred from one piece of property to another till a dozen pieces or more
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