vast interior or the far northern country embraces a domain as large as the average State. Often a sufferer must endure a trying journey for days to gain relief. Agents of the Red Cross, who made recent surveys and ministerd to the afflicted, found distress in many localities and an urgent need of additional hospitals and nurses. The steamer Boxer, of the Bureau of Education, which has just completed its second cruise to Point Barrow, carrying supplies to the schools and hospitals, is proving most serviceable, but its annual visit to remote ports does not reach or touch the needs of many regions. But for the missions on the Yukon and Kuskokwim and on Kodiak and the Aleutian Islands the situation would be all the more acute and distressing. In southeastern Alaska at intervals a contract dentist of the Bureau of Education visits Indian communities to render needed service and public-health officers attached to the Coast Guard Service likewise treat the sick and perform surgical operations. A Ketchikan physician on such a mission removed the tonsils of a score of native children in one day, assisted by a Government nurse.

Unlike the Indians, the Eskimos have shown no desire for the ballot or disposition to qualify for citizenship. They are docile and contented with their lot, but an apprehension is sometimes voiced that they, too, under designing leadership, may ultimately become a factor in Territorial politics.

NEEDS OF THE NATIVES

While the Government is doing much for the natives, both Indians and Eskimos, its work lacks coordination and should in greater measure be centralized in Alaska to promote efficiency. Under the existing system the education and care of the natives is directed largely from outside of Alaska, and long-range administration is never satisfactory. Cases of destitution among the whites are quickly relieved through Territorial agencies, but delay is the rule in similar cases among the natives. Often in an emergency the Territory extends aid, although literally the use of its.relief funds is confined to the white population.

The sending of dependent native children to institutions outside of the Territory for training at Government expense is of doubtful wisdom. Experience teaches that they fare better in the mission schools here, although, as a rule, these are inadequately equipped. The need of a large training school in Alaska for the native youth has long been manifest, and additional hospital facilities are most urgent. To promote the efficiency of the native schools closer supervision is necessary, with the directing head located in Alaska. The administration of the Territorial public school system for white children affords a model worthy of governmental emulation.

COAST TOWNS PROGRESSING

Although the population of the Territory as a whole has shown scant growth, if not an actual decrease, since the census of 1920, communities along the southeastern and southwestern coasts on the steamship routes are making notable progress. Development is marked at Ketchikan, which has had an exceptionally prosperous

year and, in substantial degree, this is true of Wrangell, Petersburg, Juneau, Sitka, Cordova, Seward and Kodiak. Thanks to improved transportation service-the best in the history of Alaska, with regular and frequent sailings-these communities have been brought into closer touch and their common interests conserved. Anchorage, at the head of Cook Inlet, the construction base of the Government railroad project, was temporarily affected in some measure by the completion of the work and the transfer from a construction to an operating basis, but it is the center of a country of promising mineral and agricultural resources and is readily readjusting itself to the changed situation. Fairbanks, the northern terminus of the railroad, has been stimulated by mining activities, with the access of new capital, and its future seems assured. All the towns named shared in the increasing tourist travel. Nome, in the far north, a closed port in the winter season, is profiting by renewed mining operations which are of benefit to the entire Seward Peninsula.

The vast stretch of country contiguous to the interior waterway. the Yukon, from Tanana to St. Michael, shows the least immediate promise. It is an unpeopled country, with abandoned mining camps bearing pathetic evidence of affluent days now gone, and steamers that once plied up and down the river beached at St. Michael and long out of commission. But for the boat service from Nenana to Holy Cross, provided by the Alaska Railroad, this Yukon country would be wholly cut off from settled Alaska and the outside world. Few prospectors are in the hills and periodical rumors of placer strikes in this remote region have failed of realization.

PUBLIC SERVICE

The government of Alaska, Federal and Territorial, gives employment to 3,227 persons, or approximately one-ninth of the white population. This includes all officials, the employees of the Alaska railroad, approximately 1,000 in number, and the rosters of the bureaus. Of the aggregate the Territorial government, conducted with the utmost simplicity and economy, numbers only 259. Over nine-tenths of those on the combined official pay rolls are bona-fide Alaskans, long identified with the Territory, and interested in its upbuilding.

Administration is necessarily expensive because of distances and the great area covered. Closer cooperation between the various bureaus charged with duties in the Territory is attained year after year and gradually the administration of affairs is being centralized in Alaska.

The ensuing pages present in detail a summary of conditions and activities for the fiscal year.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Respectfully submitted are recommendations as follows:

That the surplus revenue from the Pribilof Islands be covered annually into the Alaska fund as provided in a bill passed by the Senate in the first session of the Sixty-eighth Congress.

That the sum of $150.000 heretofore authorized for a capitol or administrative building at Juneau be made available in order to pro

vide safe and proper quarters for the transaction of Federal and Territorial business and protect official records and save the heavy rentals of scattered quarters, the old structure on Government ground now serving as governor's offices having been condemned as unfit for further repairs or occupancy.

That the Federal highway act be extended to Alaska with such modifications as to classification of roads in the Territory as to make the act workable therein.

That Congress enact a law granting to each Alaskan who served in the World War 160 acres of land in Alaska, which would not cover one-half of 1 per cent of the unoccupied public land subject to homestead entry, and that no requirement of settlement, cultivation, labor, or improvements be imposed on the grantee.

That annually hereafter all appropriations required for Alaska, regardless of the departments or agencies under which they are to be expended, be combined and consolidated in an Alaska budget, to be submitted to Congress through the Federal Bureau of the Budget, thus presenting Alaskan requirements under one heading and obviating the necessity of appropriations by piecemeal through various departmental budgets. It is believed that such procedure will be conducive to better understanding of the Territory's needs and simplify and facilitate the work of Congress and its committees.

That all law-enforcing agencies in Alaska be consolidated under the Department of Justice.

That continued adequate provision be made for the upkeep and operation of the Alaska Railroad which, in its initial stages, is demonstrating its benefit in opening up the interior, and for the carrying forward without interruption of the comprehensive plan of road and trail building in cooperation with the Territory.

COMMERCE OF ALASKA

During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1924, total shipments of merchandise to the United States amounted to $53,821,239, an increase over the preceding fiscal year of $836,964.

The value of gold and silver shipped during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1924, amounted to $6,183,241, or a decrease of $1,313,336, making a net total decrease in shipments of all products of $476,372. The increase in merchandise shipments is represented primarily in the canned salmon industry. Other minor industries such as frozen fish, shellfish, fish oil, furs, marble, etc., remained about the same as the preceding fiscal year.

The value of canned salmon shipped from the Territory during the past fiscal year, $31,173,975, is greater than all other products of Alaska put together, including gold and silver. The value of fish and fish products together, $36,852,075, constituted over 61 per cent of the shipments from the Territory.

Total imports into Alaska from the United States for the 11 months ended May 31, 1924, amounted to $28,125,128, an increase over the corresponding period ended May 31, 1923, of $4,034,565.

At the close of June 30, 1924, there were 1,292 vessels documented in Alaska, and 2,928 undocumented vessels under 5 tons. This represents an increase of 85 documented vessels and 286 undocu

mented vessels, over the preceding fiscal year. However, this does not give a real insight into the navigation business of the Territory, as practically all of the ships engaged in the coast wise trade between the United States and Alaska are documented at ports in the United States. This is true also of the sailing ships carrying cannery freight and crews to western and southwestern Alaska, as well as a greater portion of the large cannery tenders operating in Alaska. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1924, 2,855 documented ressels, aggregating 746.610 net tons entered at Alaska customhouses, and 2,665 such vessels aggregating 682,895 net tons cleared during the same period. This shows a net gain of 190 vessels aggregating 63,715 net tons in Alaskan waters at the close of the fiscal year over the beginning of the year.

Duties collected during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1924. amounted to $34,644.49, a gain over the preceding fiscal year of $3,636.59. This is partly accounted for by the duty on coal under the tariff act of September 21, 1922, there being no duty collected on coal from Canada from the beginning of the 1923 fiscal year to the date of the tariff act.

ALASKA RAILROAD

The Alaska Railroad was officially completed in July of 1923. On July 15 this event was commemorated by the driving of a golden spike by the late President Harding at North Nenana. The occasion was also made memorable by the presence of members of the President's Cabinet. The official visit of the President and Cabinet has unquestionably done more to direct attention to Alaska than any previous event.

By order of the Secretary of the Interior of August 15, 1923, the designation of the Alaskan Engineering Commission was changed to the Alaska Railroad. This change was due to the completion of the road and the entire line being placed upon an operating basis.

On October 1, 1923, a general manager was appointed to take charge of all activities of construction, maintenance, and operation. Operating revenues for the fiscal year were $907,173.88, as against $758,031.38 for the previous year, or an increase of $149,142.50. This increase, while not large, points to a more stable condition economically in the railroad belt.

Efforts have been made to cultivate and maintain a spirit of unity between the railroad and the various communities served. A specia! excursion was carried out by the Chambers of Commerce of Seward and Anchorage from Seward to Fairbanks upon the occasion of the "Midnight Sun Festival." Apart from the revenue accruing to the railroad on account of this excursion, there were noticeable results in improved relations between the three cities.

The uptown traffic office at Seattle was discontinued at a saving of $5,000 per annum, with the arrangement that the general purchasing agent of the railroad at Seattle was to handle traffic inquiries.

An intensive program of advertising was carried on with the result that bookings were effected for several large touring parties and many individual tours.

Satisfactory arrangements were made with the White Pass route permitting of excursions down the Yukon River to Nenana and thence to Seward via the Alaska Railroad. Consignments of silver ore from the Mayo district on the upper Yukon River were routed outside over the railroad.

Unusual rains, high tides, and winds did great damage at various points along the line south of Anchorage during the month of October. During this period sections of the line were washed out and numerous mud slides covered the track. Considerable damage to bridges occurred, and at mile 39 a 121-foot wooden truss span was washed away and carried several hundred feet downstream. This damage was repaired to an extent to resume through traffic.

The Placer River bridge at mile 54.1 (replacing temporary structure at this point lost by high water) was completed June 4, requiring 64 days to lay concrete piers and 46 working days to place false work, efect steel, and clear away false work.

Necessary maintenance work has been carried on resulting in minimum interruption in operation of trains. Maintenance work was made unusually heavy by the numerous snow slides which occurred in the spring of 1924. Excellent progress was made, how⚫ever, in the clearing away of snow slides and very little interruption to traffic resulted.

This year saw the inauguration of river boat service by the railroad from Nenana at mile 411 down the Tanana and Yukon River points at a much earlier date in the spring than any previous year, and an earlier delivery of commercial freight to points along the Yukon.

Heavy tourist travel.-As a result of greatly improved transportation service the tourist season of 1924 was the largest in history. The total number of passengers carried, from January 1 to August 31, by the three steamship companies operating in Territorial waters was 24,838, an increase of 4,749 compared with 1923. The Alaska Steamship Co. carried 13,054, the Pacific Steamship Co. carried 7,251, and the Canadian Steamship Co. 4,533. Twelve steamers were engaged in the service in southeastern and southwestern Alaska during the season. The Alaska Steamship Co., which launched the modern steamer Alaska in 1923, added another modern steamer, the Yukon, to its service and placed the Alameda on the inside-passage run. The company thus had a passengercarrying capacity of 520 passengers per month in each direction. Ample facilities were provided for people desiring to visit the in terior and the number crossing the gulf to the westward and making the trip over the railroad and highway was larger than ever before. At the height of the season all steamers were taxed to capacity and many prospective visitors were at that time unable to secure reservations. With the larger and better steamers and increased capacity now provided an increased volume of excursionists undoubtedly will be attracted to the Territory annually.

ALASKA ROAD COMMISSION

The Alaska Road Commission, constituted by the act of Congress approved January 7, 1905, and amended by an act of Congress approved May 14, 1906, is composed of three officers of the Army, re