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3fi THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
diverted either by enforced or voluntary switching
arrangements to smelters established in the coal
fields themselves or at Controller Bay, but these
smelters would not possibly be as available for
the copper ores of Prince William Sound as would
smelters at Cordova. For the reasons which I
have thus indicated. I am unable to see how a rail
road at Controller Bay would be of any particular
advantage to the Alaska syndicate and if a real
competitive railroad should be built, it would
serve as a check upon the Copper River road. If.
on the other hand.
A GOVERNMENT RAILROAD
is desirable now or in tbe future, there is ample
opportunity for it. If the Ryan railroad should be
built, and the government desired its acquisition,
the opportunity for the government to build a
competitive road should be effective in preventing
an exorbitant price.
However, under the conditions which exist, in­
cluding the character of the Bering coal fields,
the present state, and the immediate future of the
coal market, and the fact that the Copper River
Railroad is already in the field, 1 see no reason
why the government sliould at this time take upon
itself the unnecessary financial risks of supplying
transportation. If railroad rates and service can
ever be effectively regulated, this can be clone in
the case of a railroad carrying but a single com­
modity between fixed points, as would be the ease
with the Ryan railroad, or carrying but few commodities
and those chiefly in bulk, as is now tbe
case with the Copper River Railroad, and is likely
to be the case with it for many years to come.
While I am an optimist as to the future of Alaska,
I see no reason why the Alaska syndicate should
not be permitted to continue the enormously ex­
pensive experiment to which its present investment
has already committed it and which that investment
prevents it from abandoning. The es­
sential thing is that we shall adopt proper coal
laws under which monopoly will be impossible and
that we shall preserve ample opportunities for
whatever action by the government the future may
require. The immediately important thing is that
the Bering coal field should be open to wise development
so that it may supply local needs and afford
ample opportunity for supplying any market for
this particular coal which may now exist or which
it may be possible to create on the Pacific coast.
My visit to Alaska has led me to take a far
greater interest in the future of
THE MATANTJSKE COAL FIELD,
which is larger in extent, having an area of 74
square miles or 47,360 acres, better in coal, better
in physical condition, and freer from the compli­
cations of private claims than is true at Bering
River. Against these advantages must he set off
its greater distance from tbe sea, hut this very
distance connects it more intimately with the real
problem of Alaskan development—that of adequate
transportation Irom tide water to the Yukon.
What Alaska needs more than all else is a trunk
line railroad from the ocean to the great interior
valleys of the Yukon and the Tanana. opening up
the eountry so that its future development may
really be possible. To-day, as I have said, Alaska
is a country of large probabilities, minerally and
agriculturally. Mineral resources of great variety
and extent are indicated by such surface explora­
tion as is possible. The real value of these min­
eral indications, however, cannot be effectively
determined while the cost of transporting even the
simplest of mining machinery into the interior is
practically prohibitive and can be justified only as
a gigantic gamble by men of sufficient means to
pocket their losses. The vast interior valleys are
covered with luxuriant grasses and can be made to
raise cattle and sheep and even grain if proper
seed and proper methods are experimentally developed
by scientific agriculture. But agricultural
development cannot go forward where the local
markets are small and scattered and exportation
is impossible.
The Matanuska coal field lies north of Prince
William Sound and from 150 to 200 miles from
Seward, on Resurrection Bay. It is known to contain
extensive beds of coal of the same or slightly
superior quality to that of Bering River, and in
better physical condition both as to the coal itself
and as to the obstacles to profitable mining. Tbe
country is not so broken, faults and pinching are
less in evidence, and the crushing process appears
to have gone on to a much less extent. A far less
percentage of the field has been entered by private
claimants, and most of these appear.to be clearly
illegal on account of dummy entries and other violations
of the law. for which indictments are now
pending. A railroad to develop this field and to
open up the great interior valleys has been started
from Seward, which has by far the best harbor
and the best town site in Alaska which T saw or of
which I have been able to obtain auy knowledge.
THE TOWN OI SEWARD
lies at the head of Resurrection Bay, which is a
magnificent and extensive harbor, landlocked and
free from ice, and already selected by the govern­
ment as a naval coaling station, and where smelter
operations may be one of the future industries.
The only criticism of the harbor of which I have
heard is that the water is so deep that docks and
fixed moorings will be necessary for perfect safety,
but as this is also true of the harbor of Seattle,
which has been regarded as one of the most magnificent
in the world, it seems to be a fault which
closely approaches a virtue. The railroad from
Seward—the so-called Alaskan Central or Alaskan
Northern- at present extends only seventy odd