ways, docks and wharves, etc., the plats of surveys prepared by the General Land Office to be approved by the Chairman of the Commission and the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

The regulations provided further for the appointment of a superintendent to direct the auction of unreserved lots. He was authorized "to make all appraisements of lots and at any time to reappraise any lot which in his judgment is not appraised at the proper amount, or to fix a minimum price for any lot below which it may not be sold, and he may reject any and all bids for any lot and at any time suspend, adjourn, or postpone the sale of any lot or lots to such time and place as he may deem proper."

9947

The manager of the commission's Land and Industrial Department was subsequently named the Superintendent. The regulations prescribed that one-third of the purchase price of any lot was to be paid at the time of sale and the balance in annual installments extending over a period of five years, with no taxes or interest on deferred payments; all payments to be made to the General Land Office.48 There were certain restrictions placed on the lots, prohibiting their use for the sale of liquor, gambling, or immoral purposes. Penalty for non-compliance with these restrictions was the forfeiture of the lot.

In order to exercise proper control over the towns in such matters as sale of liquor, sanitation, and fire protection, so as to prevent interference with the expeditious execution of the railroad project, the General Land Office decided to sell the lots in a way which would keep the title to the property in the United States Government until the necessity was over. Payments were, therefore, extended over a period of five years. Consequently, inasmuch as the title to the

47 House Committee on Territories, Hearings, supra, p. 88.

48 On Oct. 25, 1918, the President promulgated Executive Order No. 2982 providing for an extension of one year for deferred payments due August, 1918, and thereafter, in order to meet unusual conditions due to the war.

land in some of the townsites was thus vested in the United States Goverment and since the power to tax property, title to which is vested in the Government, does not reside in a municipal organization, it was not practicable to turn the management of the townsites over to the citizens of the respective communities. Accordingly when the first railroad townsite was established at Anchorage in 1915, a townsite manager was appointed by the commission, and under authority of the President's regulations of June 19, 1915, land was cleared, streets improved, and arrangements made for water supply and fire protection, the cost of which was to be assessed by special levy on the property in the town. As it developed later water and electricity were sold at reasonable rates, and a certain amount of the cost of installation of the water plant was assessed against the property in the town. The electricity was supplied by a plant located in the railroad yards. The various street and sidewalk improvements made in the town were assessed against the property; also the sewers. An efficient fire protection was provided, the maintenance of which was charged against the property owners.49 In order to retain married employees, facilities for educating their children had to be provided. On December 28, 1916, the Secretary of the Interior issued an order, upon recommendation of the Alaskan Engineering Commission, authorizing the commission to expend "from appropriations made for the construction and operation of railroads in Alaska, such sums as may be necessary in the judgment of the commission for the maintenance of school facilities for children of its officers and employees, in unincorporated towns on the line of the Government railroad, until sufficient funds are available for school purposes in those towns through contributions from Territorial funds or other sources." 50

In order to meet inquiries and to be able to disseminate

49 House Committee on Territories, Hearings, supra, p. 174.

50 Ibid., p. 89. By act of March 3, 1917, and April 23, 1917, Congress legislated for Alaskan schools, providing for incorporation of school districts.

general information, the Land and Industrial Department gathered descriptive and statistical data on the population, agricultural output, the mineral development, and economic progress of the territory tributary to the railroad. Weather stations were established in coöperation with the Weather Bureau to obtain meteorological records. This information, together with news of construction progress, was distributed in the form of press bulletins to all newspapers in the Alaskan and Yukon Territory and to the Associated Press in Seattle. On November 14, 1916, publication of the Alaskan Railroad Record was begun, to give to employees and the general public current information as to the progress and operation of the railroad and other items of interest. In 1919 the subscription list had 1125 names, including 935 official, 160 free public, and thirty paid. The editor was the manager of the Land and Industrial Department, and half of his time ($1200) was chargeable to the editing of the paper. The total cost of the paper per year, including editing, printing, and stenographic work, was $2950. Publication was discontinued by order of the Secretary of the Interior on July 1, 1920. The Land and Industrial Department also prepared a general summary of the development of the territory for the annual report of the commission.

Period of War-Time Retardation of Construction. Shortly after the entrance of the United States into the World War many obstacles naturally presented themselves. First of all there were two resignations from the commission itself, Col. Mears leaving on Jan. 31, 1918, and Mr. Riggs leaving in May, 1918, upon his appointment to the governorship of Alaska. No reorganization of the commission was effected, however, at this time because of the general uncertainty of war conditions, but engineers-in-charge were placed at Nenana and Anchorage, respectively.

A second difficulty was the loss of a large portion of the working force, which amounted to fifty per cent, some of the men leaving for military service and some emigrating to the states to profit from high wages. The third problem was

the constant increase in the general price level. Freight charges, for example, mounted to 40 per cent above the 1917 cost although arrangements had been made with the Shipping Board to handle all freight consigned to the commission on commercial steamers.5 51

In spite of all these difficulties considerable progress was made. By the end of 1918 there had been constructed 229.8 miles of standard-gauge railroad, thirty miles of sidings, spurs, and yard tracks and 9.5 miles of main line narrow-gauge tracks, while fifty-three miles of line had been graded and thirty miles more cleared.

In the fall of 1917, the Tanana Valley Railroad was purchased for $300,000, an average of $6818 per mile. The condition of this road at the time of purchase has been described. It was a narrow-gauge line, 44.4 miles in length, including 5.13 miles of branch line from Happy Station, 7.3 miles from Fairbanks to the town of Chena, which at certain stages of the river was the head of navigation for the larger steamers. The main line extended northeasterly from Happy Station for a distance of 31.91 miles to Chatanika, thus tapping the several small towns in the gold mining district.52 The original cost to the owners was $867,000, and their investment had originally been a profitable one; but as against $115,902.77 in 1919, the net earnings in 1914 were only $22,319.69, and three years later, at the time of purchase, the operating revenue was barely sufficient to meet operating expense. This decline in earnings was due to the cessation of gold mining in the district following the high costs of labor and materials, scarcity of fuel, and a relatively low purchasing power of gold during the war period.

There were three objects in the purchase of this road. First of all, without this purchase it would have been imperative

51 The transport Crook had to be returned to the War Department which was in need of all available tonnage.

52 The branch line from Happy Station to Chena has since been abandoned and the rails torn up.

to provide a right of way into Fairbanks for the government line by arranging a joint right of way occupancy over a distance of seven miles of the Tanana Valley Railroad. By this purchase, it was only necessary to convert 7.3 miles of the road from its intersection with the government railroad to Fairbanks into standard gauge by laying a third rail. The remainder of the road could be operated as a narrow-gauge line. Secondly, since the purchase price included the shops, station buildings, yards, etc., at Fairbanks, adequate terminal facilities were there provided until such a time as a significant growth of Fairbanks as a distributing center materialized; finally it was thought that this road would become a valuable feeder to the main line, for although the bonanzas had undoubtedly been worked out and a fruitful source of tonnage thus eliminated, there were great areas of low grade ground remaining that would yield a good profit under conditions of adequate transportation facilities and lower fuel cost due to the possibility of utilization of the products of The Nenana coal fields.

Post-War Period of Reorganization. With the end of the war and the gradual return of much of the working force, full resumption of operations would have been possible but for lack of funds. The commission reported 2200 men on the pay roll at the close of the fiscal year 1919, and it was stated that the force could not be increased until additional appropriations were forthcoming. For the original authorization of $35,000,000 provided for in the act of March 12, 1914, was almost exhausted by the middle of 1919 mainly because the work had been done on a raising market for labor and materials. Congress was asked for an additional authorization of $17,000,000, which sum the commission believed would be required to complete the work by December 31, 1922.

The House Committee on Territories, to which the bill authorizing the appropriation was referred, held hearings at which a careful inquiry was made into the work that had