Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1910 — Editorials [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Editorials

Opinions of Great Papers on Important Subjects,

AT.ARTTA LASKA has long desired a territorial status, A and last year the Yukon exposition seemed a good time to make a strong play for It w—a 11 11118 8 white population of 40,000, nearly the same as Nevada, and, though this Is blliall for a State. It has usually been considered enough to make a Territory. It has averaged an annual output of gold of $20,000,000 in the last five years. Since 1880 Its gold product has been over $140,000,000. It, Is proving to be a great copper country, and in 1906 9,000,000 pounds of copper were exported from Alaska. Recent surveys, still incomplete, show that Alaska has coal in abundance and of the finest quality. Surface indications of oil are reported. Marble has been found in various quarters. Tin, silver and a large number of miscellaneous metals are reported. All this indicates a very rich bat the gold exceeds them all. The gold-bearing areas of Alaska are so extensive as to make it not improbable that it will prove to be one of the richest gold-producing sections of the world. This indicate* a land of inexhaustible riches, but President Taft tells the Alaskans that a mining population is a wandering population not good material for local selT-government.—Philadel-phia Press. PASSING OF THE SLEIGH. - T IS little short of treason to carp at prog- ’ I ress. We shall hardly be able to do so if I I In its manifestations we balance what we J have gained against that which we have lost. Yet a feeling of regret can hardly be repressed at times when the things of life and love that once carried their thrills no longer possess interest for a new generation. It is not more than a quarter of a century ago when the sleighing season meant a series of road carnivals all over New England, and in Boston in particular. Its coming was awaited with eager interest and enthusiastically, almost rapturously, improved when it arrived. Every man who owned a horse also owned a sleigh of some description, and it was pretty sure of making its appearance at the earliest opportunity. The press went into descriptions of turnouts as minutely as it now reports the ladies’ gowns at a horse show. There are sleighs still, and there are conservative people who like to recall the old. festival days of the road by using them. On a pleasant Sunday there may be heard quite a jingling of the bells over the boule-

▼ards; but they seem comparatively lonesome and there Is more pathos than pleasure In listening to them. The output of these vehicles Is annually small. When the sleighing Is good the automobile can be run, and the two methods of transportation do not sympathise. Those who own the motors can put a little more value intothem by cutting out the cutter. 'They can still be seen • on the speedways at appointed tlmeß, but as a public pastime their day is nearly over.—Boston Transcript. THE TBEMULOtJS ISLANDERS. ÜBA revolutionless Is only a dream. Cuba capable of self-government in ah orderly I * manner, capable of considering political expedients without resort to rifle and machete, Is an idea for alturlsts only. The present administration has less than a year of unprotected conduct to Its credit The hopes that the adherents of the President and those of the Vice President could fuse have dwindled away. Since the American troops withdrew the politicians have drifted farther and farther apart. They are now at odds which can never, it is asserted in Havana, be overcome. It is only a matter of weeks befote rebels will be sulking through the canebreaks taking pot-shots at persons passing along the highways. It will be only a question of weeks before the Vice President slips from the capital city and in some disloyal town a new flag Is hoisted.— Toledo Blade. THE PANAMA CANAL IN WAR. HE strategic value of the Panama canal is T estimated to be equivalent to a fleet, of large battleships. This is the conclusion of Dr. Cornish, given before the Royal Geographical Society in London. Taking the cost of the canal at $500,000,000, which would only build forty first-class battleships nowadays, the United States will have a good bargain, and be able to cover a total coast line without any material increase in her vessels. The canal will double the sea efficiency of our fleet for half the sum of money that would otherwise be necessary to maintain communication between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. At the same time the merchant marine of the United States will some day be developed, and justify the people in maintaining a naval armament that will be fully equal to that of other na-tions.-—National Magazine.