Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 270, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1915 — ENGINEER’S WORK IN ALASKA [ARTICLE]

ENGINEER’S WORK IN ALASKA

Record of Achievements In Which All Americans May Well Take a Special Pride. The recent decision of congress to devote $40,000,000 toward railroad building in Alaska calls attention to the many daring feats which the engineer has already to his credit in this wonderful land. Here, amid the terrors of an Arctic climate, he has thrown the iron road over steep mountain passes, across gaping ravines and over swiftly moving rivers, work which has only been accomplished after a stern battle against ice and snow, bitter cold and cruel winds. , ' Before enumerating what the railroad engineer has done away up under the Arctic circle here, it is interesting to note that when the United States paid Russia $7,200,000 for Alaska almost everybody agreed it was one of the worst real estate transactions ever consummated. Then came the discovery of. gold, the famous rush to the Klondike, and icebound Alaska was found to be in every sense of the word a veritable gold'mine. Since its purchase from Russia something like $420,000,000 worth of products, represented mostly in minerals and fur, have been taken out of the country certainly not a bad return on the money invested. What is badly needed, however, for the successful development of this interesting land is better transportation facilities. In its whole 600,000 square miles of area there are today only some 400-odd miles of railroads, all of which have been built by private enterprise. Now that coal and oil are known to exist, in addition to gold, silver and copper, and the summer, though short, permits of the cultivation of grain and vegetables, thus enabling the land to support a large population, the government intends to open up the country by at once laying down a number of railroads.