WHAT WE MUST DO IN ALASKA

...On the one hand are the thirty-five thousand pioneers who are risking their lives and fortunes in the exploration and prospecting of its undiscovered resources...

...A management that would pursue such a policy would soon end in removal by the stockholders upon the ground of graft or incompetency...

...The people now clamor for their use and for the development which is essential to their use...

...Most important of all is control of the transportation facilities by the government...

...There is, however, one great difference...

...As to the agricultural development of the territory, this should be made, as far as possible, consistent with the government's title to the mineral and forestry resources, subject to homestead entry under the general land laws...

...of all the individually owned anthracite coal lands to railroads owning and operating the only lines over which the coal could be transported to market...

...Any one who examines these documents must see that the foundations are being laid in Wall Street for the upbuilding of a monopoly in Alaska equal to that which controls the great anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania...

...The situation of Alaska is exceptional...

...On the other hand are the millions of American people to whom this great storehouse of natural resources belongs...

...President, when we have before us the history of this anthracite struggle now consummated in the complete control of Pierpont Morgan against the whole American people, can we expect any different result, if we permit the Morgan-Guggenheims to get control of Alaska...

...Fortunately, private corporations own but a very small portion of the coal fields of Alaska...

...This is what the American people have learned to do when called upon to meet a great emergency, requiring direct government control in the public interest...

...A Board of Public Works MR...

...This same power was employed to defeat the struggle of labor, organized against oppression, to secure fair wages...

...Following this, and owing to the destruction of independent ownership by railroad monopoly, not only was the increase in wages thrown upon the consumers, but double and treble the amount of that increase has been paid ever since, and is now being paid by the American people in the price of coal...

...This bill has been carefully considered, and drawn upon the most effective lines of similar leasing systems of Prussia, New Zealand and other countries...

...It provides safeguards to protect the people, and security and profit for the leaseholders...

...The people east of the Rocky Mountains will gain by their development...

...Between them is the enormous power of the greatest concentration of capital that the world has ever known...

...It provides for the protection of labor in the contract for wages, in the prevention of accidents, and for the development of the mining industry in most effective methods...

...acquired and held by the railroad combination...

...It has organized its construction and engineering work so that the canal will be completed two years in advance of the estimated time...

...This Board of Public Works should then undertake, not merely to build a railroad from Controller Bay to the coal fields, but it should now acquire all of the railroads in Alaska, and settle at once the policy of governmental ownership...

...PRESIDENT, I have prepared and introduced in the Senate at this session and at every session for the last four years a bill (S-2860) providing for the leasing of all mineral rights to coal and other mineral mines for fuel, oil, gas, or asphalt upon or underlying the public lands of the United States...

...The wharves, docks, railroads and terminals in Alaska should at once be acquired by the government for the same business reasons that would move a private corporation to acquire them, if it owned the coal fields...

...The state of Pennsylvania sought to protect the owners of these coal lands by the adoption of a constitutional amendment prohibiting any railroad company from buying any lands except for carrying purposes and from owning or mining any coal or mineral lands...

...PRESIDENT, if a. private corporation now owned the coal fields of Alaska, what would be the first step undertaken by the management of such corporation in their development...

...The increased cost of living which has burdened the American people, has not so seriously affected them...

...Transportation is the basis of control...

...The tremendous power of freight discriminations first showed itself in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania forty years ago when it was employed ultimately to force the sale of 95 per cent...

...The Isthmian Canal Commission operates the postoffices, public schools, a police force, and a complete judiciary system...

...The example of Panama points the way...

...The bloody history of the Mollie McGuires was followed by bankruptcy of independent operators, the concentration of coal mines in the hands of the railroads, the final victory of labor in 1902, after the prolonged strike of five months, when the entire people of the country, as one man, demanded through the government a cessation of hostilities and a resumption of work...

...The substantial provisions of this measure should be adapted to the control of the nation's resources of Alaska...

...Here are great commissary departments and a subsistence department with manufacturing plants and cold storage...

...They are entitled to get the benefit of the reduction in the cost of living which will come from a utilization of Alaska's treasures...

...The whole Pacific Coast demands access to the enormous coal deposits...

...It would forever remove the irresistible temptation of discrimination, rebates, and corruption which have characterized the worst period of our railroad operation...

...Transportation is the Key THE KEY to the whole situation is the control of the means of transportation...

...Here we have the same work of pioneers and prospectors, the same investors and mining companies, securing foothold and endeavoring to reach the market, but unable to assume the risks of a contest with special interests, denied all hope of transportation and reasonable freight rates to reach markets...

...The tests which have been made show that samples of coal from veins as thick as thirty-three feet in the Controller Bay region have a higher heating value than coal secured by the Navy Department on the eastern tide water...

...WE ARE NOW required to decide which of these two methods the American people shall adopt in Alaska...

...Here is a department of sanitation which has rendered the Canal Zone one of the most healthful communities in the world...

...PRESIDENT, the problem then remaining is how to administer this great estate...

...American labor is employed at remunerative wages, eight hours a day, and thousands of alien laborers, nine hours a day...

...This being accomplished the government itself should own and operate at least one great coal mine, to supply its naval and military needs, and to sell the surplus at a reasonable profit, as a check against extortion by private corporations developing other mines...

...Even all the power conferred upon the Interstate Commerce Commission has not been able to regulate this extortion...

...But the American people are the owners of the resources of Alaska...

...It should similarly provide for the development of other public utilities, such as the telegraph and telephone...

...The same reasons which prevent Congress from undertaking supervision, apply practically with equal force to the President, the Interior Department, and the Interstate Commerce Commission...

...I submit, as Appendix I, documents furnished by the Honorable James Wickersham, Delegate from Alaska, showing how this struggle reaches every department of government from Alaska to Washington...

...They can themselves supply all necessary money at an interest charge of less than three per cent...

...These have been preserved up to the present time by withdrawing them from occupation and use...

...These coal roads discriminated in rates, refused cars to shippers and in countless ways harassed and oppressed individual owners, until they could no longer hold and operate their mines and were compelled to sell upon such terms as the railroads chose to offer...

...A Practical Plan is Offered MR...

...It should operate and develop the wharves, and docks, and steamship lines if necessary to deliver the products of Alaska to the Pacific Coast...

...If this much be granted, and it seems to me very clear that it must be, then we owe it to the people whom we represent to guard their interests as faithfully and manage their business as carefully as a corporation would, were the resources under private control and belonging to the corporation...

...The same situation, if unchecked in Alaska, will develop in a very few years to the point of monopoly control which it required thirty years to reach in Pennsylvania...

...The people of Alaska must be permitted to develop in the highest degree their own social and political conditions and individual enterprise...

...But a proper management of such a corporation would at once proceed to construct railroads to the coal fields, and if there were any existing lines, they would at once secure control of them through purchase...

...Rates for transportation and for other public utilities may properly be low, with the capital cost as small as the investment would be to the people...

...Even the Navy Department of the federal government is compelled to pay nine to twelve dollars for coal on the Pacific Coast which costs three to four dollars on the Atlantic Coast...

...The very suggestion shows the absurdity of it...

...In the consideration of this question, we ought to regard ourselves as having exactly the same relation to the owners, the people, in the management of these resources, as a Board of Directors would have to the stockholders, were the resources under private ownership...

...As exceptional conditions in Panama required the government of the United States to own and operate a railroad on the isthmus in order to protect its interests and the interests of shippers, so we hold that exceptional conditions in Alaska require that the federal government should construct, own and operate the railroads, docks, and steamship lines necessary to the opening of the Alaska coal fields and other natural resources...

...Panama Points the Way GONTRAST this helplessness of the American people in dealing with Alaska with what the same people are doing on the Isthmus of Panama...

...Government Should Operate Railroads THE GOVERNMENT should own and build these transportation facilities for the same reason that a private corporation, if owning the resources, would build and own them...

...Which Policy for Alaska...

...Sir, I believe that our future naval power on the Pacific Ocean depends upon the utilization of the coal of Alaska...

...Therefore, in the conservation and development of our natural resources in Alaska, the first step to be undertaken is the building of railroads by the government itself and acquiring of such as now exist through exercise of the right of eminent domain...

...Their ownership still rests in the people of the United States, and under our form of government the management and control is vested by the people in the Congress and President of the United States...

...Whatever evidence or lack of evidence there may be as to the present intentions and maneuvers of corporate power in Alaska, our experience with the same forces nearer home teaches us that monopoly under these conditions is inevitable...

...Up to the present time we have been going blindly along the road of the anthracite coal combination, but it is possible for us to accomplish permanently in Alaska all that is being accomplished temporarily in Panama...

...The Morgan-Guggenheims, accustomed to the highest profits on their investments, and demanding to a great extent immediate returns, must make exorbitant and oppressive charges...

...Our obligation to the Alaskans is to give to them and to all newcomers liberal and equal opportunities to make what their brains and character entitle them to...

...Pennsylvania's Lesson BY DOUBLING the transportation rates against those employers who were willing to reach an agreement with their employees, and favoring those who determined to crush the organization of labor, the railroad corporations in the anthracite fields learned the lesson of discrimination, by which ultimately they forced all independent mine owners out of existence...

...Would the management look to some other corporation to build railroads connecting such coal fields with the sea while having ample capital of its own to build such railroads...

...A population, as great as that of Alaska, has been brought together on the borders of the Torrid Zone, in a climate unspeakably dangerous, and a peaceful, healthful, and effective development of a great transportation route is carried for ward...

...The accounts and bookkeeping have been brought to the highest stage of perfection known to the greatest business enterprises of our country...

...Let Us Develop Her Resources MR...

...A Constructive Plan Needed SIR, THE CONTEST now on has reached the point where a constructive plan must be adopted that will solve this great problem, a problem more confusing and perplexing than any other confronting the American people...

...It then follows that our first duty to the owners of these magnificent coal fields and other deposits of mineral wealth is to provide for their proper development and, as in the case of a private corporation, so in the case of public ownership, the first step to be undertaken should be the creation of proper transportation facilities, whereby a market may be afforded for the resources...

...The title to the coal fields of Alaska should be forever retained by the government, subject to lease under proper regulation...

...It is the key to this vast territory of treasure...

...They should have the largest amount of home rule that can be given them, with its representative assemblies responsible to the people...

...But a subservient legislature nullified the constitutional provisions by passing laws to prevent forever any escheat" to the state of these lands unlawfully What the Republican Platform of Wisconsin Said: THE ATTEMPT of private monopoly to steal the Alaskan coal fields was defeated for the time being through the efforts of a few courageous officials * * * Failing to secure the coal fields through perjury and fraud, special interests will exploit them through a monopoly of transportation...

...The people of the United States do not demand an immediate return...

...The sensible and practical thing to do is to create a Board of Public Works for Alaska, to be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, similar to the Isthmian Canal Commission...

...What We Must Do In Alaska UNCLE SAM SHOULD OWN AND OPERATE RAILROADS, STEAMSHIPS AND A COAL MINE FROM SPEECH OF SENATOR R. M. LA FOLLETTE EVERY DAY makes it more evident that the American people are waging a losing fight in Alaska...

...Here is the greatest piece of construction work known to history...

...This power will lie in their control of the docks, wharves, mountain passes, and the limited outlet to the markets...

...Congress, of course, cannot deal with this subject in all of its details nor assume the management of the development of our resources in Alaska...