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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 1911)
aily uun orbgoioax. raarountni, orkqoh, Thursday, januart i, 101 u PAGE THREE ALASKA'S GREAT C0ALPR0BLEM. LOCAL NEED SAID TO BE ACUTE mam pages C. C. Hawkins, Engineer In Charge of tha Copper River and Nerthwastarn Railroad, Throwa Light Upon an Ab aurd Situation Paying $14 a Ton For Coal Whan It Can Bo Mlnad In tha Territory For 1.60. Because Aluskans cannot mine any of their own excellent coal by reason cf the conservation order of President Boosevolt they are being forced to ma I heavy drafts on the Umber re serve, according to E. C. Hawkins, engineer In charge of the new Copper River and Northwestern railroad, who bas Just reached New York to make bis annual report to the company. Mr. Hawkins is the engineer who built the remarkable White Pass and Yukon road, an achievement second only to the one he has now half finish ed for the Morgan-Guggenheim syndi cate. He has some most Interesting things to say about the conditions in the nortblatid that have recently been attracting public attention. 'The local need' for our own coal is acute." said Mr. Hawkins. "We feel it especially in our road construction, but every one vise feels It too. Peo ple must keep warm In Alaska, as elsewhere, and it needs much fuel to do it in winter. We pay $14 a ton for British Columbia soft coal to use on the railroad, and it certainly costs the mall consumer no less. Even this has been unobtainable at times, and we recently faced the necessity of Euttlng large force to work cutting mber for firewood to be used in keep ing our five caisson and pier pumps going and running the work engines. At that we found it at times almost Impossible to keep steam in our boil ers, though the safety of much con struction and even of lives depended on it With an almost inexhaustible tore of coal within a few miles of our tracks we should be getting it for flbout $1.50 a ton instead of $14. Cer tainty without adequate luC! upply the opening of Alaska with railroads is going to be very slow, tt cannot be otherwise. And transportation devel opment is the greatest need of that wonderfully rich territory. . The New Copper Roglon. "Nevertheless, the Copper IUver and Northwestern is being forced ahead as rapidly aa possible. By the 1st of next July It will have reached the mouth of the Cbltlna river, 138 miles inland. This means that the great Kotslna-Chitlna copper region proba bly the richest lu tbe-world. but so far almost unexplored will be easily ac cessible to miners and prospectors next summer, an event that Alaska is await ing eagerly. This, practically the open ing of a new region for ingress and egress, has hitherto been most diffi cult The development of this terri tory means a large and continuous pro duction of wealth for generations not in one spot but over a large area. "The road is now carried to the mouth of the Tlekel river, 102 miles from Cordova, our terminus at tidewa ter. In this stretch there Is only one break at Mile 40, where the line cross es the Copper river between the two active glaciers, Cbllds and Miles. "It has been necessary at this point to build a 1,000 foot bridge of un precedented strength and construction to resist the ice flows. Just above the bridge Is a lakcllke widening of the river into which the three mile front of Chllils glacier volleys great bergs all summer long. In winter this lake is frozen several feet deep. At the pres ent time we are running trains over the ice on temporary tracks, so that track will be continuous to the end of the line until the spring breakup. The three bridge piers have had a severe test this summer. The ice flow, aa can be imagined, is tremendous. The river is deep and swift and the force of the big bergs afloat on it nothing short of terrific. To resist this wo have sunk our piers forty to sixty feet to bed rock, building them of solid concrete, re-enforced by heavy steel rails set up right a foot apart in the concrete. The piers aro further protected by the heaviest kind of concrete and steel guards, also sunk to bedrock, and are set wbcro there are bars In the river that deflect the biggest of the berga. Tbcy are ninely feet through from end to end. Bridge Building In Alaska. "The steel superstructure of the brldgo we hope to have in place early next fall, by which time the line will be well on Its way eastward up the Chltlna to the copper mines. This is to be the flret branch of the road com pleted, and It should be open from the astern to the southern terminus about hha vonr from now. "Another branch beginning at Mile 88 of the main lino on the Copper riv er and running about forty-eight miles to the Bering river coal fields Is sur ?eyed, and a good deal of the roadbed la built. This branch could be built In a short time and the Alaskan coal mnde available for our Alaskan rond tnij the people of the territory without "Beyond the end of the present length of track at Tlekel tne une runs through Woods canyon ror iwemy miles. This gorge Is exceedingly wild, with " almost perpendicular skies for considerable stretches. This necessi tates almost continuous rock work, and this Is about the only kind of con struction wo aro able to continue on the road during the winter. From 600 to 1,500 men will be kept in the can yon all this winter, and as soon as nos- u SPECIAL EXTRAORDINARY OFFER All the News of the World and Some Contained in the Two Leading P apers for the Price of One OUR. SPECIAL OFFER C The Weekly Inter Ocean and Farmer with Daily East Oregonian by mail one year paid in advance, hew subscribers or renewals Jfegular price Weekly Inter Ocean and Farmer, one yr, $1.00 Kegular price Daily E. O. by mail, one year 5.00 ( (I $5.00 $6.00 OUR SPECIAL OFFER D The Weekly Inter Ocean and Farmer with Semi-Weekly East Oregonian oneUyr. paid in advance, new subscribers and renewals $1.50 liegular price Weekly Inter Ocean and Fanner one yr. Regular price S. W. East Oregonian, one ywr , $1.00 1.50 $2.50 J The Weekly Inter Ocean and Farmer Contains Each Week 21 columns of news. 14 columns of talks by a practical farmer on farm topics eco nomical machinery, planting, growing and storing of fruits and vegetables, breeding and marketing of live stock. 20 or more "Lost and Found Poems and Songs." 1 column of Health and Beauty Hints. Best short and continued 6tories Chess and Checkers Puzzles and Complications Dr. Boeder's Home Health Club Mis cellaneous Questions and Answers Poems of the Day A special Washington letter Taking cartoons and illustrations. 5 columns of live, entertaining editorials. 7 columns of live stock and market reports. Xo live stock pa per contains a better live stock market report than The Weekly Inter Ocean and Farmer. 40 questions and answers by readers on anything pertaining to the business of farming, gardening, raising of live stock and poultry, etc, etc. v 10 to 20 questions on veterinary subjects. . 7 columns of information on recipes, patterns, formulas, etc, furnished by readers. 14 to 21 columns of stories of public men; historical, geograph ical and other miscellany. 5 columns of specially reported sermons by leading American clergymen, and the Sunday school lesson. These features, together with a Special Magazine Department, Make up the Leading Farm, Home and Xews Paper of the Inland Empire. CUT OUT AND MAIL TODAY. EAST OREGONIAN PUB. CO., Pendleton, Ore. Enclosed find $. for which please send me your special offer to the following addrese. N ame Address.. PLEASE STATE IF A'EIF 07? RENEWAL. The East Oregonian as you know is the leading paper of the inland Empire and is the official paper of Umatilla County and city of Pendleton. No home can afford to be without it. This special arrangement with The Weekly Inter Ocean and Farmer is for a limited time only. Sub scribers to the Inter Ocean and Farmer are assured that no papers will be sent after subscription expiree unless their subscriptions are renewed by cash payments. .t. iu tue niim.fe xoiA nioro win ue added to the force. Beyond the mouth of the Chltina construction Is moder ately easy for the Alaskan const which presents more and worse obstacles to railroad construction thnn any pnrt of the world 1 know. - At the Chltlna, however, the Copper river must be bridged for the third time within a hundred miles." DESPONDENT MAN BLOWS OUT BRAINS "If I fall in this attempt, for God's sake give me chloroform and put me out of my misery." At 10 o'clock this morning, John Chrlstenson, aged B0 years, who for the post year has been employed as a Jnnltor at the Auspland Drug com pany at 110 North Sixth street, blew off the top of his head with a huge revolver, says the Journal. He com mitted the deed In tho basement of the store and when clerks rushed In to the basement they found the man lying In a pool of blood on the floor with a large bottlo of chloroform at his side, with the above note on a tag tied to the nock of tho bottlo, In one hand, and the smoking gun In the other. The man had been of a despondent frame of mind for. more than a year and had asked atlme and again that the clerks at the drug store where he had been employed In the last year give him poison. During the past week he had been very depressed over an illness and today he purchased the gun, with which he committed suicide. It' is believed that the man had about $2100, and In a will that was found In his room at 390 Gilsan street he left his money to be used by tho city to clean up the bawdy houses of rortland. The following Is the note: "I wish to give $1000 to the party that within one year from date can make the city government of Portland compel houses of 111 repute now being run as furnished rooms to have proper slKns verily they are hotbeds of dis ease." Unfurnished housekeeping rooms In East Oregonian building. Steam heat, gas range In kitchen, electric lights, hot and cold water and bath. Recently renovated. Enquire at E. O. office. 1 IParfeei Eteliff sry System j Blngt Biff'.! Bang!!! We all get lots of hard knocks in life, but a business education enables is to resist them successfully. The Pendleton business college supply the education. P. Hopklnson Smith's serial, "Ken nedy Square," inScrlbner's has prov en itself one of his most successful stories. It Is a wonderfully realistic picture of the ideals of the old South In the fifties. The best moving pictures and brightest pictures la Pendletoa at the Orphean, accounts for much of success in the merchandising of coal. The way we screen and store this much needed commodity of course helps out. Then, too, we endeavor to give courteous attention to every patron- -wheather he buys in a large or a small way and to investigate closely all com plaints, which fortunately are few. OREGON LUMBER. YARD Phone Main 8