of her possibilities we must create a new piece of governmental machinery for the purpose. We should undertake the work in the spirit and after the method of a great corporation wishing to develop a large territory.

In my judgment, the way to deal with the problem of Alaskan resources is to establish a board of directors to have this work in charge. Into the hands of this board or commission I would give all the national assets in that territory, to be used primarily for her improvementher lands, fisheries, Indians, Eskimos, seals, forests, mines, waterways, railroads all that the nation owns, cares for, controls, or regulates. or regulates. Congress should determine in broad outline the policies which this board in a liberal discretion should elaborate and administer, much as is done as to the Philippines.

This board would, of course, have nothing whatsoever to do with the internal affairs of the organized Territory of Alaska, for it would exercise no powers save such as Congress granted over the property of the United States in Alaska.

THE BLACK BEAR IS CARED FOR BY ONE DEPARTMENT AND THE BROWN BEAR BY ANOTHER

There are several reasons which appeal to me as supporting this suggestion:

I. Such a board could advise Congress as to what should be done, without prejudice, out of a deep national interest and with first-hand knowledge of conditions.

2. Such a board would coördinate the present enterprises of the government in Alaska. As it is now, the control of lands is in one department, of forests in another, of roads in another, of fisheries

in a fourth, of railroads in still another. The care of black bear is in one department and brown bear in another.

3. There can be no satisfactory administration of land laws nor any other laws at a distance of 5,000 miles from the point of action. Much less is this possible where the two sections of the country are separated by an ocean, and the land calling for attention is closed to the world one-half of the year. The that sees eye the need should be near the voice that gives the order.

4. Alaska's opening and improvement should be treated as one problem. Each step in such an administration should be part of a plan, not an isolated act. We should have a unified and consecutive program, based on immediate knowledge governing this work. Each line of activity within the Territory should be correlated with all other activities. The opening of lands and the building of railroads or wagon roads, for instance, should be part of one scheme.

5. Alaska should be developed so far

as possible out of her own revenues and resources. She should have a Federal budget of her own. Her revenues and expenditures should be presented to Congress on a single sheet. The funds raised from her lands and fisheries, her furs, her forests, and her mines should be used for the construction of her roads, railroads, telegraph and telephone lines, or for any other purpose which would make her resources more quickly available to the world.

ALASKA IS ALREADY SELF-SUPPORTING

I believe it could be shown that Alaska is self-supporting today, or, what is more to the point, that by proper taxes and charges imposed upon those who are deriving large return from their enterprise in the Territory, such revenue could be derived as would support a large policy of expansion and improvement. In short, I would construct the administrative machinery that would most surely lead to a prompt and continuous development of Alaska as a part of the United States

upon a plane commensurate with her possibilities industrially, agriculturally, and socially.

The members of such a board appointed by the President would be selected presumably with reference to their fitness for the work to be done. Each one could be made the administrative and residentiary head of a department or division, so that there might be a commissioner of the Alaskan land office, another commissioner of highways, another, perhaps, commissioner of Indian affairs and fisheries, and so on. All would sit together, as in the commission form of municipal government, and would work for a common end, the upbuilding of Alaska as an integral and contributing part of the Union.

I apprehend the fear that with such a commission there would be danger of corruption or indifference creeping into its work. This, however, is incident to the bestowal of all authority. The commission would not go unchecked, of course, for it must report to the head of some department at Washington, and through that head to Congress, and would be always subject to investigation. Moreover, no method has yet been invented by which dishonesty or poor judgment can be guarded against in public or in private life. In the end the character and wisdom of the men appointed is the only insurance that can be given against conduct that is foolish or worse.

Alaska should not, in my judgment, be regarded as a mere storehouse of resources upon which the people of the States may draw. She has the potentialities of a State. And whatever policy may be adopted should look toward an Alaska of homes, of industries, and of an extended commerce.

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE AT ONCE

Strongly as I would urge this method. of management-for it offers a rare opportunity to exhibit the efficiency of a republic-I would not have Alaska wait for needed legislation until the merits of such a plan could be passed upon by Congress. Those things which appeal to me as of immediate necessity upon which independent action may be taken are (1)

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the construction of railroads in the Territory and (2) the opening of her coal lands.

I have already expressed to Congress my belief that it was wise for the government itself to undertake the construction and operation of a system of trunk-line railroads in Alaska. And I am led to this view irrespective of the possibility of private enterprise undertaking such work, although my belief is that no railroads would be privately constructed in Alaska for many years to come excepting as adjuncts to some private enterprise. Be that as it may, it would seem wise for the government to undertake this task upon grounds of state.

The rates and the service of such railroads should be fixed with reference to Alaskan development-not with regard to immediate returns. The charges fixed should be lower for years to come than would justify private investment.

I would build and operate these highways in the same spirit that the counties or the States build wagon roads—not for revenue, but for the general good. After all, a railroad is little more than an operated wagon road. In many countries they still call railroad cars “wagons." Our laws as to railroads are evolved from our old laws as to carriage by wagon. Our courts speak of railroads as property charged with a public interest and so justify the regulation of their rates. But no court would justify the imposition of rates made for the purpose for which Alaskan rates should be made the creation of a Commonwealth. If this is our task, it should be done whole-heartedly and with a consciousness that the dollar spent today on an Alaskan railroad will yield no more immediate return on the investment than the dollar spent on the Panama Canal.

WHY THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD BUILD THE ALASKAN RAILROADS

These, then, are the persuading reasons for the belief that the government should undertake to drive from the coast inland one or more lines of railroad: (1) The government already regards it as its duty to build wagon roads. Such roads when well built are almost as costly as