Alaska asks barely two million dollars for all purposes except railroad building , and in revenues or various ltmdr, in see . stint. in cable receiptr and land oilice lea Alzska will return a part of the a propriation into the treasury. surey the entire Fzr Western congressional delgfiation will lend its support not only to t etc appropriations but to $£mtzry Lane’s proporal (or the creation ol a resident Alaskan commission which shell control all brancher ol the territorial ad ministration instead of having this con. trol scattered among a more ol bureau chiels in Washington, D. c.
The Land-Grant Lobby
ONCE upon a time S. A. D. Puter wrote a book in which he placed a royal crown upon his head. The crown was made of infamy and the kingdom was that of the Oregon land-fraud ring, the exposure of which sent a United States senator, a millionaire and a number of professional land-sharks to the penitentiary. Today S. A. D. Puter, self-styled land-fraud king, is lobbying with a brazen face in the halls of Congress on behalf of schemers who would divert the unearned timber increment on two million acres into their own pockets.
Congressman W. W. Wilson—of Chicago—has introduced a bill giving those who have filed claims on the Oregon railroad grant lands—See "Skinning the Land Grant Bear" in the February Sunset—a preferential right to select and buy 160 acres of the land at $2.50 an acre, the claimants to have one year in which to exercise their option. About 16,000 claims have been filed, ninety-nine per cent of them by speculators and professional public-land jugglers who hoped to obtain for $400 a quarter section of land covered with timber worth from $1000 to $10,000. For years designing, shrewd swindlers have used this difference between cost and value as a bait with which to fleece the innocent and unwary out of "location fees" from fifty dollars upward, even though they knew that the title to the land was in dispute. Several swindlers have been convicted and more have been indicted for this fraud. Now Puter, his record notwithstanding, has the unspeakable gall to appear openly before Congressional committees and smoothly, expensively expound the claim of persons who have no more right to a gift from the nation than they have to the iron cross.
Fortunately the Oregon Journal is waging a relentless fight against Puter and his ilk. The Portland newspaper is endeavoring valiantly to keep the vast timber domain out of the multitude of itching palms reaching for it, and its efforts will be successful unless an overdose of preparedness gives Puter and his cohorts a chance to get away with the loot. But there is a string to this loot. The railroad has been confirmed in all its possessory rights subject to the conditions of the grant by the Supreme court, and the railroad need not sell a single acre to the 16,000 claimants unless it chooses to do so.
In the meantime it is pertinent to ask why a Representative from Chicago should father a bill apparently drawn to put money in the pockets of a Puter.
Dredging Political Shoals
CONGRESS is preparing to lift another large slice of cash out of the public treasury by means of a River and Harbors bill. Though the Rivers and Harbors committee virtuously rolls its eyes heavenward and
declares smmrously that there is not a penny or gralr in the bill, the approprra,
trons being. confincd to “Unsung proi. ects." this oly attitude is me ly a pore. “:xi ' ' ' are the
t designed
to stimulate Tins navigation by creating
a channel which is to he lilled with water
lrom arterian wel , he Bram—1r the Black
Warrior. all the innumerable injects
“hit the improvement ol navigation”
which llnvz can scan: of millions, which
have been lollowed by a continuous de—
clil'le in wire! unflic and which will con-
A Ride for Less than a Jitney
In Spokane a new style of motor bus locally known as a "cheese host" is selling 100 tickets for $3.50. In Oakland, Cal., jitney buses have been barred by ordinance from down-town streets. They are evading the ordinance by demanding no fare, displaying tin cans for voluntary offerings. In Portland the jitneys raised their rates when snow put the trolley system out of commission and the enraged populace is demanding drastic legislation. In San Francisco the jitneys are to he barred from Market Street
tinue to be “existing roiects" for lirty
years to coins. are in t is virtuous bill.
The Far West can lilt its voice against
the Rivers and Harbors gralt with a clear
conscience. it has never had its feet in
the trough. The lower Columbia i tht
west'r most im ortant navigable river.
yet the port ol Scullnd had to pay out
more than a million or its own money to
lreep the channel navigable while the
lederal government proposed to drill are
tesian wells to loot canal boats in central
Torus, Monterey be in Calilornia
nestled a breakwater. CVongress was will
ing to build it provided the tity of Mo...
terty lmuld pay saoo.ooo ton-aid the
cost and build a direct railroad into the
broad valley to the east. At the some
time congress dumped millions unto...
dltlunal‘lzv, even against the advice ol the
Anny ngincers. into obscure Eastern
and southern eretltt which tarntd no
trains whatsoever. 0n the Sacramento
and San Jnlquin rivers. both carrying a
heary trtlhc in their lower reaches, the
state, the reclamation dIsu’lCls and the
{dual government hate been sharin the
expenseson the Mississillpl and the hid
the lodtral government generously paid
the entire bill ml: or its mm pocket There are ten good harbors on the Paciht Coast and every one of them i. legin. mately entitled on the basis or attua trains to all the ltderal appropnationt it has received.
Remember the rivers and harbors
art, the pension paddin arid the pub ic-building rteal irbanlt e eclts, automo biles. gasoline. incomes low and high are roueeaed by the (nation screw treat {all Remember that a large part of your [IX money goes via the {dual treasury into the campaign iunds oi' needy Congress. men to dredge political shoals, and me member also that your indilrerente is largely responsible (or the enormous per. eeritage oi waste in rederal, state, county and municipal expenditures.
Pulling the Columbis’l Teeth SHIFI'ING ridge of and ti: in
a semi£lxcle seven or e' t miles wide (mm the bottom the sea where the Columbia river emp.
ties into the Pacific. The channel across
this dangerous barrier—its crest eteeeds
a mile in width—was twenty—two leer
deep in ratio. And it shifted. it never
staid out. To lir the channel and deepen it. the government thiri years ago rtarttd the construction o a jetty {aux miles lon from the south shore of the mouth. he etty cost three million. more or less. t war to tonhns the co lumbia’s current, direct its lull lorce against one part ol the bar. push the sand away and treate a dee er, more per. manentehannel. it did eepen the chan. nel to more than thirty feet—lor a whilt
Then a rhoaling process began. Tht
depth decreased, went baclt to twenty
tour leet. Ir was derided to prolong the south jetty three miles farther out, prat. trcally to the center or the bars It was
one. A d many doubters said it was
a waste aEmnn , that the bar could not
be conquered. o malts sure, the govern.
ment contracted and trided the outllon orths migh iver sti l lurther h boild.
' a teen ty horn the non banlt.
snl the doubters croalted in chorus.
The north lett is not in hnishtd. yet
the survey com ttod in anuary showed the eristsnceo achanoe thirt .hio test ties at mean low water and mo hun- dre feet wide, The en 'neerr eitpect a (or -loot channel by fafi‘.
I your city had been served by a nar- row.gauge railroad ltequsntly bloclted by slides. and ir this narrow. auge had or last been replaced by a broa .gauge, lour. traclt system, perhapr you might realise what a permanent lorry—loot channel means to Porrloud.
The Rilhl to Work
RIMITIVE man employed him-
self, He had the right to work
too, sit or twelve hours at hunt—
ing witlwu athmg anyont'sltane.
But his naget were unannan no pay
in venison or bear might or might not be
forthmlmingt [1’ luclt went with the
worlt. he a rlutlt was against him, he worked and lun‘cda
If modern man works, ht is sure to eat.
The reward of labor has beoome certain.
But the opportunity to worlr, the elusive
job. has beeome uncertain. Yer man
