, September 3, 1923.
yday- -"L__-=======
Resident Harding on Alaska
• tour oYlock i»
v Kri^ 1 ' J 'i? Ilardingllarding made
* ' rn<H>u. 1 r '" . a group
1 , f„r!u;ii ;, i I. v ;1> ;|!l OCC!IS
... IT was the
f liiiu^ 11 ' s!?1 lt ’iappearance in
Lj fi rsl turn from Alaska.
i-ai* 1 '• 1 ' : ' 1 ,j ■ naii"' l "ii Alaska
‘ a .-rninc At. made
' ‘' (V Alaska and
• iniieli <'t the
W t Alaska.
jusjiiiaf ional. •P*
1,, - ' presidential ]»«**-
~-vjrg i! ; ' , through immense
-j!,,. i ’resident was
>f j,, niiiiisiasm. which
•ireil *' r \ " i, appeared oil
, _ a( iiiiin and saw
ftp ill ,ll ' ' ,j,ji-i v-tiand forty
vin» had been waiting
#sti'i ' ... ~.ji,me t<> the chief
: ' his message.
.htra 11 ' under try-
Hf «'>• ■ •(•i ~ ,i.; \ before at
firoiirJ' luaihia. had been a
, r, M ,|e..i had !»eeu re
... , otfiidal courtesy
tel , ~v , rvwliere -o well
i; b !k f ’ r ‘ t ,,«,l. The people of Villl
i»b,,n " • Me of lhe honor
* r * Vr 'l I vi'it es the Thief Kx
neighbor on the
rift '' ' ,~,i |jii;i a recepfion not
it :p ‘ ;:ii,| enthusiasm by
in the States. - He
lit?** , j addresses, and every
I & ;I '\ . | i;! ,| !).■< n occupied.
i, ( , hiini'-.l early in the
® • ( . punrned ahoiit ten
r. lie was not in first
• T ri.nilitiett. when he reach
flit* day there had
upon* his strength.
-i.iniittg while waiting to
'after having reviewed the
- tin.; of hattlesliios and do-1
r . !li; ukeil to hint. “I hope you
- v • ev iili'iil3 v you have
' fvaoeti iiefoiy you." His re
***-unt reassuring. It was the first
7t«i| rvi'r heard him admit that he
f w»t feeing well, lie was deeply
’ Vl , ,4 till' wonderful rereption
• VP( ] }, en > iiiwvever. and did not
hi Di ..if to show t hi' appreciation,
evident to those of U' who had
f ; : [j i, :* (hiring tjie preceding
Hiilsr in the delivery of this great
he wa- laboring under difficulties.
L Brtiwitli'tandiiig this, it was deliv
v ’th an s;:niest;ie» and n vigor
igt nf the oerasi- in and of the sub
«.utter. Tiiis speeeh o:i Alaska
| a down iii history as one of the
gfft of lVesiJrtit Harding s publ : c. I
While’ dealing esp-M-Ulllv
A Alaskan matters there will be j
uj in i; ,e;tain iutuiaiueiital priori-,
bdidi ajipi.* every wliere and which,,
j . i" r ' lent H miiug undoubt- i
j would havi aplieii in our govern- !
»tal dealings jyvitii nan: re. 1 resources ;
I
ThePr-'idem made tin trip to Alaska j
sv with hi' owl e\e> ih<> cotuliti »us j
fc. Fmm aiinost the day he took his :
rat the MH-aile.i Alaskan problem!
il boa dinned into !ii> ears. Efforts
iWc ai*Jr iu eatuijiit him t * this pol
ad that, but with that innate cau-
B fiirti'‘t(*r : stie of him lie had quiet
nitni. -nitii-Dtly deciding *hat if
eld be wi-e f* : r him to got first hand
**iedie beh'ii. yielding r . the impor-
E:r.**s >f th.Vp \\lif» were urging-wyo
tianry d.ai(|e> iu the eontiuef of Alas- 1
Ida.:- •
iwtb l;e! tiiteei! y.-.ns Aias'ua lias
ft a stormy jieirel at Wasiungton. |
■fitat>nt:..ii wus t'ocu>od upon it as |
* Agrium,; oft!„. b't great light j
?»wis».-v;pani of our natural re
w* atd !>airi<iii;ir!\ tii*» forests
ptnl r-Niiave>. In tiait particular
e'lusorvarmu forces won. but
r*’ w> wiiicii un>. not pleased
observation policies adopted
wss du|iss‘i| to i-i-eju-d rlic matter
nWi,. i i
--ij.il then can-.Miig on a sys
. 'isiliaign to f>r»a 1< them down.
W*m |trt|semi,. | naturally to
vu!’i..r.i!.ie point of attack.
a> ,;i|- invay■. Sta’eiiK-nts very
u car. !uily could be made
■ •mol tier was directed
fife-e llJ,l, Hi | i' : pnhlic affairs and j
ra,u " l I’tibiic pfopert ies in j
S L.y ,r - 1 . I* W;l ' teiterated inees-,
f,. !| iral resources of the!
up by iiuprac! ieal I
| Observation; tlmt bureau-
P ,„ r . Ibe young empire of
j, ' “itn.l and foot ; that its
' I '* ,l ' ,t itti'l would not be de
'"'''ping changes in the
i* , tv . ’■' *»r .through turn-
H'vrje.j '| '" UTr "' t*> some form of
l* va / ' : i Htlttunistrati-'Mi. with
i. I >(‘jiurtm«bts in
thands off.
in numerous and j
fcs :l tl„. -. '' i«.' which func- !
.|| t " "bli one department j
m * ,m _• n not her the min- 1
*ch :■ fisheries, and so on.
•d ’Mi];.,, , it " "f the other
to another's to.-s in a
ati; r' jtb'isdiction. The
fav-firp di ff .,!'.', ss '"n told of the
pi , : . h ireaus hav
affairs, and had
10 .aap aud'r:. y l ;’* ' tbirty-four
li "' "idy way to do
r ‘' a u,l> be. Congress to
utkrrv - "’■•*‘_'l"partnieut. with full
*it!,' t J t’ontrol.
Jr -■: ' * u^ at sai of President
P i . troubles of Alaska
tne;i-*,i. 1!l< ’’' , *‘ ; tstng frequency.
r *' angK '••••king t > bring
. yt'trHiK.,.,!* ‘C’l'ka > government
fi.r j . U4 ‘* of doing
s '{;,... s, ‘ nrged upon the
'■ '‘"tiw „f 'b'Tet'nt directions.
t y l r ' ;iv, il. r . red tape
ir [/‘b'H v "C" ;UH * circulated
j "'hir'j „p (i ,' * '"■ ' eiisus reports
Cr- bTh i<>s «
K ' r hr, „ 1 ' of the
PJ as coa-
H; the tei r j tu . T I,IT v <‘ry life
I.’- i’ii*ra| \ . ; ' ,!s being sucked
tfn ''Ntn-ti,,,. ~■ I .' !l '7' decliue
[,»" 41,; 'Urn a | a "‘" and copper in
til,, . " x ‘' ■:;>* • " -eneiiil failing
M ' ' :! "."*ar t-,‘i"? T “j! r . v, ar Were
as™ to
kitij y“ ::: “fftet evidence of
»&.. ;to he, ' 1 ’ policy
Sai J’ UMfl u r*on ThTe ' S '' ,n ? mau '
>t to. ~^ rp made f,„ Srounds fresh
m U “ V P ,II B changes
Alaska, and p«-
: ®° of tv d9ral
e a ■■ • and the loos-
(I*y HENRY C. WALLACE, Secretary of Agriculture)
cuing up of the alleged burdensome re
! strict ions upon the use of her resources.
It was this increasing clamor, which
led President Harding to go to Alaska
himself and study the situation on the
ground.
Before starting on this long western
trip the-President took the precaution
to have an analysis made of Alaska's
population, trade,and commerce, and to
quietly gather other information which
would be helpful to him in getting at the
truth. this basic statistical information,
together with personal contact with the
Alaskans at most of the principal set
tlements in the territory, and personal
observation of Alaskan conditions during
the three weeks-' travel, qualified him to
| speak with authority and made his Sejit
j tie speech the thoughtful and deliberate
I utterance of a statesman seeking to act
justly and wisely, both for Alaska and
j the nation of which she is a very import
<ant part.
The speech began with in beautiful
I word picture of the scenie wonders of
Alaska and a tribute to her tine citizen
ship. in which “is the assurance of Alas
ka s ultimate and adequate development,*’
and in this introduction his audience got
a hint of what was to * conye later on
when he said: "The processes of devel
opment and establishment of a permanent
ami ample civilization lie in the citizen
ship with homes in Alaska, not in invest
ors who are-seeking Alaskan wealth to
enrich homes elsewhere."
In answer to those who pointed to a
•supposed loss of l."» per cent, in popula
tion from 11)14) to I!>2<> as indicating a
process of strangulation, the President
J said. "Judgments adverse to Alaska* will
not be based on such adventitious condi
tions. save Jjy the unintelligent or by
those who would deliberately cry down
the country's availability as a land of
homes in the hope of getting it turned
over to wholesale exploitation of a scale
that would ruin it for all the future.
Against a program of ruinous exploita
tation we must stand firmly."
rite fact is that a study of the census
returns in 1010 and. 1020 lmd satisfied
the President that there was little to
the talk of a declining population; that
even if there had been a deefine of l-">
per cent., as was indicated on the sur
face. it was simply a decline in the float
ing male population which moves in and
out overnight according to the ebb and
flow of frontier industries. He found
that tlmre had in fact been a substantial
increase in those elements of the popula
tion which make for real development.
In there were .TOO white men for
each 100 white women; in 1020 this
proportion had changed to 2N2 men for
each 100 women. In 1010 the total fe
male white- population of Alaska was
; in 1020 it was 7.207. an increase
of 20 per cent. During the same period
there were 1(5.(512 dwellings iu the terri
tory;
were 17.*07 families; in 1020, 18.87)2.
In 1010 there were 70 towns, villages
and settlements; in 1020, IN4. In 1010
there were 120 teachers; in 1020, 247».
These statistics tell the story of<+he slow
bat substantial growth t in permanent
imputation. Large increases or decreas
es in floating male population in a new
country simply reveal a growth or de
cline of the exploitation of its resources.
During the period when placer mining!
was at its height there was a large male j
population /iu Alaska. As the placer
mines payed out, this population rapid
ly decreased. At Skagway we had a per
fect illustration of what has happened.
Skagway is the point at which the gold
seekers disembarked for the rush over
White Horse Pass. In 11»HI its popula
tion is given as .‘5.117; in 11)10, 872; in
1020. 404. It is said that during the
height of the stampede Skagway at times
had a floating population of to* or fift
teen thousand. We stopped tjiere for
two or three hours and saw the vacant
buildings, stores and Rouses. It is lo
cated on an inlet and there is apparent
ly little to support the town, with the
playing out of the mining industfj* near
about. As tin- boat was leaving the har
bor a group of ns were standing at the
back rail, when one of the observant
newspaper men dryly remarked. ‘AN ell,
1 suiqtose that town furnishes an illus
tration of how Federal red tape is strang
ling Alaska.” It was the beginning of
the revelation of the fairy-like character
of some of the stories which had been
continuously circulated, in NN ashiugton
for years past.
Nome, another town too far
to the north\ye<r to be reached by the
Presidential party, furnishes a similar
illustration. In 11)00 Nome is credited
with a population of 12,488: in 1010
with 2.000; and in 1020. with 852. There
was no Fairbanks in 1000; in 1910 there
-was a town with a population of 8.*>41;
in 1020 this population had decreased to
LITT. Fairbanks, liowewr. differs fron4
both Nome and Skagway in that indus
tries are being built up there. Farms
are increasing . and the indications are
that there will be a substantial growth
in population.
As to the population of Alaska Presi
dent Harding found that exactly the
same tiling has happened that lias Imp
elled in all the mining sections of the
Pnited States. He compared the so-call
ed loss of 15 per cent, in Alaska with a
loss of SO per cent, in one province iu
Canada and 00 per cent, in another; al
so with substantial losses in population
of several of the States, and said, Alas
ka is once more gaining iu everything
which testifies prosperity. In these lat
er days we have come to appraise popu
lation by its quality rather thaii its
quantity, and Alaska will loom big iu
any quality test.”
Referring to the falling off in gold
production he said that while Alaskan
production had decreased one-half since
1015, the decrease iu the United States
as a whole fell off by almost the same
percentage: that Australian gold produc
tion had decreased about oue-fourth. He
concluded, “We all know perfectly well
that this has been the result of the
world-wide economic conditions. Lold
is worth just about one-lmlf as much in
buying power as before the war. The
wonder is not that Alaska s gold Produc
tion has fallen off. but that it has fall
en relatively so. little.", remarks on
the copper industry were atoug the same
line.
Referring to Alaskau fisheries,, bei
most important industry. the President
said that if this industry should continue
as it has, without more general and ef
fective regulation, the fish would soon be
exhausted aad the industry /would disap
pear. He found almost unanimous agree
ment in Alaska that regulation “must
and slmll be enforced. * * More re
striction is necessary and urgent. The
! conservation must be effected. * * Cou
jservation of the indushtry is no blow at
i vested interests. * * If there is defi
j ance, it is better 'to destroy the defiant
• investor than to demolish a national re
j source which needs only guarding against
greed to remain a permanent asset of in
j calculable value.”
j Coining to the discussion of American
j forests and forest polices, around which
j Ims centered so much misrepresentatiton
land agitation. President Harding made a
frank confession. Ho said : "I must con
fess I journeyed to Alaska with the im
pression that our forest conservation was
too drastic, and that Alaska protests
would be heard on every side. Frankly,
I had a wrong impression. Alaska fav
ors no miserly hoarding, but her people.
Alaskan people, find ltftlc to grieve
about in tin* restrictive policies of the
Federal government. There is no unan
imity bf opinion, but the vast majority
is of one mind. The Alaskan people do
not wish their natural wealth sacrific
ed in a vain attempt to defeat the laws
of economics, which are, everlasting and
unchanging. I fear the chief opponents
of the forest policies have never seen
Alaska, and their concern, for speedy
Alaskan development is not inspired by
Alaskan interests.
"I have alluded to the threatened de
struction of the fisheries, due to admit
ted lack of regulation and protection. NVe
have begun on the safe plan with the for
ests. even though we have erred in ex
cessive restrictions. With the lesson of
forest destruction painfully learned, with
the nation-wide call for reforestation
throughout the states, which will require
generations and vast painstaking, it has
been sought to provide for the utiliza
tion of the Alaskan forests and at the
same time provide their perpetuation
through reproduction."
With these general statements a£ pre
liminary, President Harding entered inso
a detailed discussion of the policy adopt
ed by the Department of Agriculture for
the development and protection of Alas
ka forests, and in the most specific terms
justified and defended that policy. Speak
ing of the contrfu-t the Department is of
fering to those who wish to establish
pulp and paper mills in the territory, he
said. "I venture, with some knowledge of
conditions in various paper-making coun
tries, to state that no better contract, in
deed. none so good, can be secured in
any of them.”
To the objection that the contract of
fered by the Department of Agriculture
is not sufficiently liberal to encourage
the investment of capital, lie called at
tention to the fact that exactly this same
type of contract lias been in force for
many years, both in the States and in
Alaska, and has resulted iij the satisfac
tory development of timber utilization.
As a matter of fact, lie found over a doz
en sawmills operating successfully in
Alaska under this contract. He found
that the timber from the national for
ests was being largely used by the fish
ing and mining industries and by settlers
and prospects. He saw a large vessel at
the Juneau docks loading with lumber
cut from the national forests. He learn
ef! of the expanding export trade in high
grade Alaska lumber to the States and
to foreign countries. In fact, he became
not only persuaded that the policy of thhe
Department of Agriculture was sound and
helpful, but became an enthusiast in its
support, and gave it as his deliberate
judgment that intelligent and sincere
people eanot regard this lxdiey as in any
way hampering the development of the
timber industry. He referred to the pulp
mill already in operation and the other
contracts on the point of being closed,
and said. "NVe are, in short, on the eve
of an expansion which, if not rapid, will
be sound and permanent. Frankly, 1 do
not look for rapid-development in Alas
ka. It could only be bad at the cost of
sacrificing a few immediately available
resources and then abandoning, the rest.
That we do not desire and will not know
ingly permit.”
At once, and it is to be hoped for all
time. President Harding quashed the in
dictment that the natural resources of
Alaska are under lock and key. He found
that the withholding of e*>«l and oil de
posits from exploitation is all water that
has passed over the dam; that the pres
ent Federal laws for-developing these re
sources now give every reasonable oppor
tunity to capital and business foresight
to develop them as rapidly as the mar-'
kets of the territory and of the world
can use them. In the long and imposing
array of Alaskan resources the President
found not one which is not freely avail
able to men of energy and capital for
commercial use and development. “ Coal,
'said the President, is “being mined, sold
and used. It-is being mined satisfactor
ily and profitably under the terms of the
eomplained-against coal land leasing sys
tem.”
Petroleum and water power develop
ments are also going forward under the
Federal laws which are parts of the
general conservation program. As in
the case of Alaskan coal fields and the
Alaskan timber, the extent of commercial
development is in no wise limited by Fed
eral laws or restrictions, but governed
solely by the hard facts of geography and
trade.
Speaking of Alaskan agriculture, lie
said that our policy must depend largely
on the attitude adopted toward her other
resources; that if we are to turn Alaska
over to the exploiters, go on decimating
the fisheries, turn over the forests for like
exploitation and destruction ; "if. in short,
we arfe to loot Alaska as the possibility
of profit arises, now in one diiection, now
in another, then we shall never have a
state or states in Alaska; and if that
was to be the policy we need not'con
cern ourselves about agriculture. But if,
ou the other hand, our purpose is to
make a great, powerful, wealthy and per
manent community of Alaska, then we
should give especial attention to encour
aging a type of agriculture suited to cli
mate and circumstances."
He spoke of the need of a liberal .pol
icy toward the building of roads nud :
trails as
sary and to provide feeders for railroads
into which the Government had put more
than $56,000,000 and which it is operat
ing at a loss of about a million dollars a
year. . .
He compared the experience of the peo
ple of Alaska and hte problems they had
to meet with the experience of the early
f THIJ CONCORD TIHES
settlers on our great eastern coast and
with the problems connected with the
northwestern territory and later Cali
fornia and Oregon. He said. "The prob
leb of Alaska lias been dinned into our
ears a great deal at Washington. Some
how in Alaska one doesn't bear much of
it or feel acutely conscious of its exist
ence. In Alaska one gets the feeling that
the sturdy, vigorous and highly intelli
gent people of the territory, under the
leadership of our old friend. Manifest
Destiny, will solve the problem. . *
There has been much misunderstanding,
i no little misrepresentation, and some dis
position to hysteria at times about Alas
ka. It long since passed beyond the
wild west, mining camp stage, and is as
sober, settled and normal a community
ns will be found anywhere. * * I am
altogether an optimist on Alaska and its
future. I do not beneve Alaska can be
forced, or that it should be. There is no
need of Government managed. Federally
paid for, hot house development. There
must be no reckless sacrificing of re
sources which ought to be held perma
nent in order to turn them into imme
diate profits. There is no broad prob
lem of Alaska, despite the insistence on
its existence. Alaska is all right and is
doing well. It has more wealth and more
population, even now, than some of the
states when they were admitted into the
Union."
However much lie may have been im
pressed before coming to Alaska with the
need of a general reorganization of the
Federal activities there. President Hard
ing came away very definitely of the
opinion that such suggestions were not
well considered. On this point he said
with emphasis, “Where there is posibil
ity of betterment in the Federal machin
ery of administration. improvement
should and will be effected, but there ,is
no need for a sweeping reorganization.
The Federal government's processes have
not paralyzed, but rather have promoted
the right sort of Alaskan development.
The territory needs their continuance?^
President Harding did not find any
justification for the charges of muddling
or mismanagement of public business by
the Federal agencies in Alaska. Neither
did lie find that the Alaskans themselves
took any stock in such stories. He found
the various Departments of the Govern
ment doing exactly the same kind of
work in Alaska that they are doing in
forty-eight states. He found that the
representatives of these Departments, or
at least most of then, are performing
their work with a clear understapding of
conditions and needs in the territory, iyul
with an evident spirit of co-operation
and helpfulness. His speech on Alaska
is a vigorous presentation of definite
opinions, based ou accurate knowledge
and investigation at first hand, and it
ought to put iti) end once and for all to
the agitation which lias been, hurtful to
Alaska.
The fact is that those industries in
Alaska which have had the benefit of
conservation policies are the industries
which are developing which
the* Alaska of the future will be built,
while those industries which .have been
thrown open to exploitation are the van
ishing industries, the looting of which
has enriched not the people of Alaska
hut outside explointers who took their
money away with them.
—The conclusions reached by President
Harding are the conclusions reached by
every man who studies Alaska with an
open mind. They are the conclusions
reached by the Alaskans themselves. NY.
F. Thompson, the veteran editor at Fair
banks. expresses the same general
thought. but in more direct language,
when he says, "There never was a min
ing law. or,an agricultural law. or a tim
ber law in interior Alaska which ever
worked a hardship upon a miner or a
farmer-or a wood-cut ter, or one of which
any of them complained. All that talk
about Alaska being handicapped by bu
reau control is the rottenest kind of rot.
NVhere such control is working hardest
is where it is needed the most. Alaskans
who are Alaskans pray, ‘Bless God for
bureau control.' The ‘sick Alaska's prop
aganda emanates from those' who expect
to profit from it. It gives Alaskans a
slight nausea to hear the quack doctors
of the states declaring us sick and pre
scribing in the newspapers for our non
existent ills,"
As President Harding said, Alaska is
destined to become one of the bright
stars in the,union of states. The rapid
ity of her development will be governed
by economic conditions. Biic is now
growing, slowly but surely, in those di
rections which make for a sound, intel
ligent and enduring population.
MRS. VANDERBILT WILL PAY
$25,000 IN COUNTY TAXES
Income From Her Estate Will Pay the
Salaries of All County Officers and
Then Some.
Asheville. Aug. 28. —Salaries of the
three county commissioners; register of
deeds, country treasurer, sheriff and
County auditor can be paid and a mar
gin left from the taxes that will be paid i
to Buncombe county this year by Mrs.
Edith S. Vanderbilt, county tax books
disclose. Taxes, on the Vanderbilt prop- !
erty for 1028 will be $25,589.
Mrs. Vanderbilt pays taxes on prop
erty valued at $2,387,217. Biltmore
house, one of the finest private homes
in America, is on the tax books at a
value of $1,500,000. in which is included
50 acres of land surrounding the man
sion. In Biltmore ward is included
3,000 1-2 acres, ou which is located the
Biltmore farm and dairy. Other prop
erty is scattered over the county.
Personal property valuation is SIOO.-
802. The tax inventory includes 32
horses, valued at $4,020; 12 mules,
$1,380 ; 227 milk cattle, $1(5.180; and
(51 head of other cattle, $4,135; and
nine dogs, SOO.
The only assessment here against~Miss
Cornelia Venderbilt, heiress to the Van
derbilt millions, is ou 20 acres of land
valued for tax purposes at $60,00.
The Road to Success.
A dimple in the right place, half
inch long eyelashes, pair of glad
knees, a bit of devil in both eyes, and
a figure which lends itself well to
the severities of a one-piece bathing
suit, will a girl far along the
reel road to fame and fortune.—From
“The Glad Eyes of a ivoman,” by Jane
Doe.
Mark of Highest Genius-
The highest genius never flowers in
satire, fbut culminates in sympathy
with that which is best in human na
ture, and appeals to it.—^Chapin.
EOF
RIBUTION
EDISON MAI^HALL
*■
£> LITTLE. BROWN 8 COMPANy, 1<»23
rp=
BEGIN HERE TODAY
Ned Cornel, eon of wealthy God
frey Cornet, celebrates with his
Vfriend. Rodney Coburn, the return
'of the latter from Canada. Ned
leaves the Totem Club In a happy
frame of mind and drives homeward
in the drizzling rain.
Ned’s car goes into a perilous
skid, knocking down Besr Gilbert,
a shopgirl, on her way home. A po’-
liceman tells Cornet to report to
Judge Rnssnian in the morning and
advises Ned to settle for damage
done to a passing jitney.
Ned is allowed to continue on his
way when the girl is found to be
uninjured. He asks her to ride to
her home in his car. Ned returns
home to te]] his father of the acci
dent.
NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY
Godfrey hod fought upward from
utter poverty to the presidency and
ownership of one of the greatest fur
houses of his country, partly through
th® exercise of the principle of abso
lute business integrity, mostly
through the sheer dynamic force of
the man. His competitors knew him
as a fair but remorseless fighter; but
his fame carried fax beyond the con
fines of his resident city. Bearded
trappers, running their lines through
the desolate wastes of tne North,
were used to seeing him come ven
turing up their gray rivers in the
spring, fur-clad and wind-tanned —
finding his relaxation and keeping
fit by personally attending to the
buying of some of his furs. Thus It
was hard for a soft man to feel easy
in his presence.
Ned Comet was somewhat down
cast and sullen as he entered the
cheerfully lighted hallway of his
father’s house.
In the soft light it was immediate
ly evident that he was his father’s
son, yet there were certain marked
differtqices between them. tyarrior
blood had some way failed to come
down to Ned. For all his stalwart
body, he gave no particular image
of strength.
He took his place at the stately
table mo gravely and quietly that his
parent’s interest was at once wak
ened. His father smiled quietly at
him across the board.
“Well, Ned,” he asked at last.
“NVhat is it today?”
“Nothing very much. A very
close call, though, to real tragedy. I
might as well tell you about it. as
likely enough it'll be in the papers
tomorrow. I went into a bad skid at
Fourth and Madison, hit a jitney, and
before we got quite stopped managed
to knock a girl over on the pave
ment. Didn’t hurt her a particle.
But there’s a hundred dollars' dam
age to the jit—and a pretty severe
scare for your young son.”
As he tallied, his eves met those of
his father, almost as if he were afraid
to look away. The plder man made
little comment. He went on with
his dessert, and soon the talk veered
to other matters.
The older man finished his coffee,
slowly lighted a'long, sleek cigar,
and for a moment rested with elbows
on the table.
“Well, Ned, 1 suppose I might as
well get this off my chest,” he began
at last. “Now is as auspicious a
time as any. You say you got a
good scare today. I’m hoping that
it put you in a mood so that at least
you can give me a good hearing.”
The man spoke rather humbly.
The air was electric when he paused.
Ned leaned forward.
“You’ve been a very attentive
son.” Godfrey Cornet paused again.
“The trouble, I’m afraid, is that I
haven’t been a very attentive father;
I’ve attended to my business—and
little else—and now I’m paying the
piper.
“Please bear with me. It was only
a little accident, as you say. The
trouble of it is that Jt points the way
that things are going. It could very
easily have been a terrible accident
—a dead girl under your speeding
JURORS TO GET MORE PAY
IN MECKLENBURG COUNTY
Regular and Grand Jurors to Receive
$4 a Day and Talesmen to Receive
$2 to $4.
Charlotte Observer.
The pay of superior court jurors,
grand, regu’nr ad tales, was ordered in
creased in Mecklenburg county Thurs
day by the county commissioners, in ses
sion at the courthouse.
The regular and grand jurors will iu
the future .receive $4 per day for their
services instead of the former $3 a day
while talesmen will receive $2 for the,
first day and $4 for each additional - day
instead of $1.50 as heretofore.
This action by the commissioners was
taken through a popular demand that the
pay of jurors be increased. Two years
ago Chairman McLaughlin had County
Treasurer Stinson look up the law on
the matter and found that a $4 limit
was placed on the jurors’ pay. Grand
juries have recommended that the rise
be permitted-
Said Short Ton of Coal. Indicted.
Greensboro. Aug. 30. it. is
generally recognized that a ton of coal
weighs 2.000 pounds, it developed in
Magistrate O. W. Duke’s court this
morning that X. R- Lewis Ccal Com
pany. dealers on Lewis street, this city,
delivered a ton on August 2 that weigh
ed only 1.725 pounds.
Lewis, who was indicted by W. II
Young, standard keeper, was found
guilty of giving short weight in the
case, and he was fined 840 and taxed
with the cost. $2,675. after he admitted
the shortage in open court.
Mr. Young informed the court that
this was the second offense, in that he.
Mr. Young, had informed Mr. Lewis
that, should he be caught giving short
weight he would have him indicted-
After Lewis had been found guilty,
wheels, a charge of manslaughter In
stead of the good joke of being ar
rested for speeding, a term In the
penitentiary instead of a fine. Ned,
if you had killed the girl It would
have been fully right and Just for
you to spend a good many of the
best years of your life behind prison
walls. 1 ask myself whether or not
I would bring my influence to bear,
in that case, to keep you from going
there. I’rn ashumed to say that I
would.
“You may wonder about that. 1
would know, in my heart, that you
should go there. I can’t accuse you
without also accusing myself. There
fore I would try to keep you out of
prison. In doing , that, I would see
in myself further proof of my old
weakness —a weak desire to spare
you when the prison might rrgtke a
man of you. ”
Ned recoiled at the words, but his
father threw him a quick smile.
“Your mother and 1 have a lot to*
answer for. Both of us were busy,
I with my business, she with her
household cares and social duties,
and it was easier to give you what
you wanted than to refuse you
things for your own good. It was
THEIR EYES MET bjvER THE
easier to let you go soft than to pro
vide hardship for you. It was pleas
anter to give in than to hold out —
and we loved you too much to put
you through what we should have
put you through.
. “This thing we’ve talked over be
fore. I’ve never been firm. I've let
you grow to man’s years—29, 1 be
lieve—and still be a child in ex
perience The work you do around
my business could be done by a 17-
year-old boy. Ned, I want to make
a man of you.”
He paused again, and their eyes
met over the table. All too plainly
the elder Cornet saw that his appeal
had foiled to go home. His son was
smiling grimly, his eyes sardonic,
unmistakable contempt in the curl
of his lips.
Ned’s bitter smile had seemingly
passed to his own lips. “I suppose
there’s no use of going on,” he said.
“By all means go on, since you are
so warmed up to your subject,” Ned
answered coldly. “I wouldn’t like
to deprive you of the pleasure. You
had something on your mind: what
is it?”
“It’s simply this,” his father went
on. “Today I met Leo Schaffner at
lunch, and in oiir talk he gave me
what I consider a real business in
spiration. He tells me, in his various
jobbing houses, he has several thou
sand silk and velvet gowtis and
coats and wraps left on his hands in
the financial depression that imme
diately followed the war. He was
cussing his luck because he didn’t
know what to do with them. Os
course they were part of the surplus
that helped glut the markets when
he requested Mr. Young to come to his
yards and weigh every load of coal
Weighed at his yard, and he asked rhe
standard keeper not to stop his coal
wagons on the streets. However,
Magistrate Duke informed the defendant
that the standard keeper had a perfect
right to stop coal wagons any where,
any time he saw fit.
Doctor; “Ah, your cough is much bet
ter today.”
Patient: “Yes, I have practiced it all
night.”
To Members of Cotton. Growers
- Association
- ' v
We will be glad to handle without cost,
your shipments of cotton to this Association.
We pay you the day you ship.
../ • ' ... f .v - * i ;• !
*
•-•-- . * 0
The Concord National Bank
» $100,000.00 SURPLUS $100,000.00
PAGE FIVE
hard times made people stop buy
ing—stock that was manufactured
during the booming days of the war.
He told me that this finery was made
of the most beautiful silks and vel
velts, but all of a good three
seasons out of style. He offered me
the lot of two thousand for—l’m
ashamed to tell you how much.’*'
“Almost nothing!” his sos prompt
ed him.
“Yes. Almost nothing. And I
took him up.”
His son leaned back, keenly inter
ested for the first time. “Good Lord,
why? You can’t go into business
selling out-of-date women’s clothes?”
“Can’t, eh? Son. while he was
talking to me, it occurred to me all
at once that the least of those gowns,
the poorest one In the lot, was worth
at least a marten skin! Think of it!
A marten skin, from Northern Cana
da and Alaska, returned the trapper
around S6O in 1920. Now let me get
down to brass tacks.
“It’s true I don’t intend to sell any
of those hairy old white trappers any
women's silk gowns. But this was
what I was going to have you do:
first you were to hire a good auxili
ary sehooner —a strong, sturdy, sea
worthy two-masted craft such as is
used In northern trading, YoU*d fit
that craft out with a few sup
plies and fill the hold with a couple
of’ thousand of those gowns. You’d
need two or three men to run the
launch—l believe the usual crew is a
pilot, a first and second engineer, and
a cook—and you’d have to have a
seamstress to do fitting and make
minor alterations. Then you’d start
up for Bering Sea.
“You may not know it, but along
the coast of Alaska, and throughout
the islands of Bering Sea there are
hundreds of little, scattered tribes of
Indians, all of them trappers of UK
finest, high-priced furs. Nor do their
women dress in furs and skiqp.aUp
gether, either, .as . pdptilkr legend
would have you believe. Through
their hot, l*ng summer days they
wear dresses like American women,
and the fjayer and prettier the dress
es, the better they like ’em. To my
knowledge, no one has ever fed them
silk—simply because silk was too
high—but being, women, red or white,
they’d simply go crazy over it.
“The other factor in the combina
tion is that the Intrepid, due to the
unsettled fur market, failed to do
any extensive buying on her last an
ual trading trip tijrougli' the islands,
and as a result practically all the
Indians their full catch on
hand.' Intrepid is the only
ttmdcr'' tkrough the particular chain
of islands I have in mind—the Sko
pin group, north and east of the
Aleutian chain—and she’s not count
ing on going up again till spring.
Then she’ll reap a rich harvest—un
less you get there first.
“The Skopin Islands are charted —
any that are inhabited at ail—easy
to find, easy to get to with a sea
worthy launch. Every one of those
Indians you’ll find there will buy a
dress for bis squaw or his daughter
to show off in, during the summer,
and pay for it with a fine piece of
fur.
“This Is August. I’m already ar
ranging for a license. You’d have
to get going in a week. Hit as far
north as you want—the farther you
go the better you will do—and then
work south. Making a big chain
that cuts off the currents and the
tides, the Skopin group is surround
ed by an unbroken ice sheet in mid
winter, so yon have to count on
rounding the into
Pacific waters some time in Novem
ber. If you wait much longer you’re
apt not to get out before spring.
"That’s the whole story. The car
go of furs you should bring out
should be worth close to a hundred
thousand. Expenses won’t be fifteen
thousand Jn aIL It would mean
work; dealing with a bunch of crafty
redskins isn’t play for boys! Maybe
there’d be cold and rough weather,
for Bering Sea deserves no man’s
trust. But It would be the ttn<«*
sport in the world, an opportunity to
take Alaskan bear and tundra cari
bou—plenty of adventure and excite
ment and tremendous profits to boot.
It would be a man’s job, Ned—but
you’d get a kick out of it you never
got out of a booze party in your life.
And we split the profits 7&-26—the
lion’s share to you.”
(Continued fat Our Next Issue)
A tourist passing through a village*
found that his watch had stopped. See
ing a little boy standing outside the
general store, he went up to him and
said :
“Can you tell me the time, sonny?”
“Only 12 o’clock,” was the reply.
“Only 12,” said the tourist. 1 thought
it was more than that.”
“It’-s never any more in .these parte,
sir,” answerd the boy. “It" goes up to
12 o'clock and then commences again at
1.”