The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, January 5, 1937, Page 1

3 R . ¢ - < a3 THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” JUNEAU, ALASKA, TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1937. Mineral Production of Alaska in 1936 Shows b Big Increase Over 1935 The minerals produced from Alas-|ers about $1,400,000 more in 1936’ ka mines in 1936 had an estimated |than in 1935. value of $23,347,000, as compared| The large increase in the amount with $18312,000 in 1935, according|of lode-gold produced in 1936 as| to an advance statement of the|compared with 1935 is in part to be | Department of the Interior, prepar- | explained by the fact that in 1935 ed by Philip S. Smith, of the Alas-|the production from this source kan branch of the Geological Sur-|was unusually low, owing to a strike vey. This amount brings the valuethat seriously curtailed the opera- of the mineral output of Alaska tion of the largest gold mine in the since 1880 to practicially $722,000,- Territory for a period of at least 000. two months, whereds in 1936 inter- The cost of the Territory to the ruptions of this sort, except for the United States was approximately 1 general shipping strike toward the percent of the value of the total end of the year, were not serious. mineral output alone for the past As in the past the principal pro- 56 years. This Government pur- | ducers of lode-gold are the mines in chased Alaska from Russia for $7,-| Southeast Alaska, especially those 200,000 sixty-nine years ago. | near Juneau and in the Chichagof |1sland area. The second district, The figures for 1936 are prelim- i, yajye of lode-gold production, was inary estimates and are subject 10| the Wwillow Creek district, at the revision because advance informa-|peqq of Cook Inlet, near the south- tion before the end of the year is| western flanks of the Talkeetna necessarily based on incomplete moyntains. The Fairbanks district records. The final figures will ap-|continued to hold third place as a pear in the Geoloogical Surveys proqucer of lode-gold, but its out- annual report on the mineral re- n;t was somewhat lower than in sources of Alaska, now in prepara-|jg35 In addition to the mines of ton. | these principal areas there are a General Conditions | score of smaller gold-lode mines and | The increase in the value of the ,.ocpects scattered throughout the' output of minerals from Alaska in mperritory. Many of these mines are! 1933 reflected in a measure the gjready turning out considerable improvement in the general business gmounts of lodge-gold, and at oth- conditions of the whole country,|eps development work is being car- but many other causes contributed | rjeq on intensively ahd with such to swell or reduce the output of the good results that they are likely| individual commodities. The p"”sisoun to be numbered among the! at which most of thg metals other | proqucing mines. Properties of this | than gold were sold in 1936 appear|gort occur in the Nabesna district, ! to have been higher than in 1935.| e prince William Sound region, | However, these variations in prices ang in the Kuskokwim region. | affected the total value of the out-| F | put to only a minor degree, for gcldlmTlg;Gl:r:: d‘::‘;’“m:‘;e‘:::f:fiyg?: made up nearly 78 percent of the vorable climatic conditions that aid- total, and its price remained cON-{; yining in most of the Territory stant in the two years. Labor dif- p ot 4 and to the increased activity in min ficulties -flared up at -intervals and ing, as a result of which a number at several places throughout Lhemr 'new projects began operatons vear, causing at times complete Ces-| .,y many of the older properties 1ation “of .mining ‘ab certain prop- showed increased outputs. Although Lrties. The waterfront strike that[me output for 1936 sets a high rec- threatened w tie up all Pacifle|, o ;¢ oonievement, it is not regard-| Coast shipping to Alaska and else-| : as so unduly high that it can Wwhere at the end of September, and |,y pe maintained or bettered in the that actually went into effect late near future. The Yukon region,| in October, probably decreased pro- |including a 'doun or more produc- duction for the current year andj... mining districts and scores of hindered the-shipment of suppllesi small camps throughout its extent, &) equipsnsnt. neaded by, maqy. of| continued to lead in the output of! @1 propatises 10’,‘ S0 ‘Doming sea'lplacer gold, the value of which is son. The climatic conditions that| o, . icq at about $7,640,000. Sec- affect certain types-of mining, such as length of open season and abun- | |ong in the list was Seward Penin- {sula, nine principal districts, which dance of water from rainfall and; had an estmated output worth $2,- run-off, seem to have been UnUS- 490000, These regons were follow- ally favorable throughout most of o 3 the Territory. Many enterprizes ed by the Cook Inlet-Susitna, Kus. that had been started in preceding years were brought into production and by their success well justified the operators’ outlays. Many en- tirely new enterprises were put un- der way, and some of them were| completed during the year, but oth- ers will not begin to pay back on/ their costs for another year or more. These new enterprises were| not limited to any one type but in-| cluded large as well as small ven- tures, though most of them natur- ally pertained to gold rather than| to other metals. Gold The gold produced in Alaska in 1936 is estimated to have been worth $18,146,000, at the current price of $35 a fine ounce. This value exceeds that for the production of any other year subsequent to 1909 and has been exceeded by that of only 4 years during the whole per- iod that gold mining has been in progress in Alaska—namely, during the golden years of 1906 to 1909, in- clusive, when the average value of gold mined was about $20,273,000 a year. In this comparison, how- ever, it should be remembered that in all the preceding years except 1934 and 1935 the established price of gold was $20.67 an ounce, so that the new price is about 69 percent greater than the old prices. The total value of the gold produced in Alaska from the beginning of pro- ductive mining in 1880 to date is estimated as nearly $469,000,000. Gold in Alaska comes from two distinctly different types of depos- its—placers and lodes. In the plac- ers the gold is recovered from gravel or other unconsolidated deposits; in the lodes it occurs in the solid rock or vein matter. In 1936 the proportion of gold produced from deposits of these two types is esti- mated to have been about 61 to 39, or $11,093,000 from placers and about $7,053,000 from lodes. This propor- tion is essentially the same as that in 1935, though the total amount of gold from each source was much larger in 1936; thus the gold pro- duced from lodes was worth about $800,000 more and that from plac- kokwim, and Copper River regions, named in the relative order of their estimated placer production, and by Northeastern Alaska, South east Alaska, with small outputs. Of the gold won from placers more than 78 percent was recovered by dragline; the remainder was re- covered by hydraulic methods, by the use of mechanical scrapers, or by the more primitive and simpler methods of ground sluicing and shoveling the gold-bearing gravel into sluice boxes by hand. Forty dredges (20 in the Seward Penin- sula region, 18 in the Yukon re- glon, and 2 in the Kuskokwim re- gion) were active throughout more or less of the open season. BSeveral new dredges were in course of con- struction during the year but were not completed in time to run more than a few shifts, and material for other dredges was in course of de- livery so late in the season that the !erection will not be completed until 1937. Other dredging enterprises, such as that in the Ester area west of Fairbanks, were still in the pre- |paratory stages that must be fur- ther advanced before specific plans for a suitable dredge can be drawn, though the tests that have already been made have been carried well beyond the point of settling the commercial practicability of the en- terprise and assuring the construc- tion of such dredges as will be re- qured. Still other projects for the development of placer ground by means of dredges are under consid- eration at a number of other places in the Territory, and though most {of them have not yet advanced to the stage of definite commitment, several of them will doubtless soon reach the stage and help in main- taining or increasing the output of placer gold from Alaska. Silver No Alaska ores are mined solely for their silver content, but con- siderable silver is recovered each year as a by-product from ores and materials that are principally val- uable for some other metal. In 1936 about 468,000 ounces of silver is es- timated to have been produced from (Continued on Page Seven) President Miguel Mariano Gomez, and removed from office, the first Chief Executive of the Cuban Republic to be ousted by such and his pretty wife during a rece ARMY ENGINEER RECOMMENDS ALASKA WORK '$79,000 Proposed for Dry Pass— Juneau Small Boat Harbor Is Net Listed WASHINGTON, Jan. 5. — Maj. Gen. E. W. Markham, Chief of U. S. Army Engineers, said today his annual report to Congress would | recommend that a total of $15,683,- 1250 would be “profitably expended” on river, harbor and flood control projects in ‘Washington, Oregon and Alaska during the fiscal year of 1937-38. Of the total, $4,576,250 would go for regular rivers and harbors main- tenance and the remainder for new construction, including projects started. For Alaska he listed the following: Nome harbor—$35,000, of which $2,500 would be a local contribu- tion, for dredging and making the turning basin 250 feet wide, 400 feet long and and eight feet deep and for repairing jetties and revet- ments. Ketchikan harbor — $8,000 for maintenance, dredging and repairs to breakwater. Dry Pass—$79,000 to go for new work in completing the project, dredging a channel 60 feet wide and six feet deep at mean low water through five shoals waterway between El Capitan Passage and Shakan Strait. ‘Wrangell harbor — No additional expenditures. Stikine River—$600 for snag re- moval between mouth and Canad- ian border. ‘Wrangell Narrows — $25,000 for maintenance, dredging. Petersburg harbor—No recommen- dation. Sitka harbor — No recommenda- | tion. Cordova harbor—$180,000 for con- struction of breakwaters. Egigek River—$5,000 for removal of obstructing boulders and erec- tion of channel markers. Lowell Creek — $1,000 for flood control and dredging outfall. Salmon River—$1,000 for flood control and dike repairs. There is no recommendation in| the report for a small boat harbor in Juneau or elsewhere in the Ter- ritory. e o PROMOTED Norman Edwards, who has been in charge of CCC work for the For- est Service and had charge of constructing the ski trail and cabin, has been promoted to Superintend- ent of Maintenance and Construc- tion in the southern end of the Division and left today by plane for Ketchikan. - e - HOLBROOK IN KETCHIKAN Assistant Regional Forester Well- man Holbrook flew to Ketchikan yesterday with Pilot Alex Holden! of the Marine Alrways to inspect) Forest Service work in that area. He will be gone from a week to ten days. Cuban Presidént Im peached KIDNAPED BOY MAY BE FREED - INSHORT TIME Impression Prevails Definite Progress Being Made with Abductors TACOMA, Wash,, Jan. 5.—Sourc- €8s close to the Dr. W. W. Mattson family intimated strongly this fore- noon that definite progress townrdl winning the release of ten-year-old | Charles Mattson, kidnaped from his | home on the night of December 27, | is being made. These same sources also strongly] hinted they expect important de»‘, velopments very soon. { Whether payment of the ransom | for the child’s actual release has been made has not been disclosed. In guarded words from some cer- tain official sources the impression was gained that fears existed for| the boy's safety. Prevailing Optimism | Yesterday afternoon there was a} “|prevailing opinion that a satisfac-; tory contact had been made by Dr. Mattson with the kidnapers follow- | ing his plea that law enforcement | P""""“"""‘" Photo shown Gomes. [ 4pencies cease work on the case un- | nt visit to California. im his son’s safety is assured. R o R The boy's teacher, Mrs. Gus Ap- | pelman, wife of the man believed | ‘cuNFERENcE I to be a possible intermediary, sat in ' INSTRIKE ISSUE an automobile while her husband | i s . |Negotiating Committee of | was inside the Mattson home. ILA to Meet Shjr Own- of Cuba, has been impeached sent from his classes. Of course I miss him. I do not know when there will be a break in the case,”| said Mrs. Appelman when question- ed by the newsmen. UTMATUM, SENT SPAIN BY GERMANY | Sequestered Cago Must Be “I have had to nfark the boy ab-| ers — Broadcast SAN FRANCISCO, Cal, Jan. 5—| New peace discussions and a na-. tionwide broadcast are on the| schedule today in the Pacific Coast | | maritige strike. 1{ Today is the sixty-eighth day of | |the strike which shipping agencies | claim has cost the Pacific Coast, ‘Returned or Rebels alone nearly half a billion dollars in lost revenue and wages. Gets Seized ShlPS For the first time since the 5 strike started, a conference between | BERLIN, Jan. 5.—According to the German Truiser| | instructions, the negotiating committee of the International Longshoremen’s As- {sociation and the ship owners has | Konisberg has wirelessed a curt ul- timatum direct to the Spanish So-| g | 2 0 his after- cialist Government in Madrid| ;b‘e;:celled T oo ¥ | threatening to turn two seized Span- Al Rossi will broad- | 'Sh ships over to the Fascist insur- s i 'gents unless the Nazis get back se- cast at 7:30 o'clock tonight. - e COURT PROPOSED FOR SETTLEMENT LABOR DISPUTES Washington State Repre- sentatives Ready to Submit New Bill ‘WASHINGTON, Jan. 5—Terming strikes and lockouts a *‘serious re- | flection” on the nation’s intelli-| gence, Representative Martin Smith of Hoguiam, Washington, said he :questeded German cargo, taken| {from a German vessel, by 8 o'clock next Friday morning. BRITISHFLEET IS MASSED IN - SPANISHSEAS Insurgents Promise to Re- | spect Britain's Shipping | Rights—Eden on Job LONDON, Jan. 5—With a fleet of seventeen British warships mass- ed in the troubled waters about 'the eivil war torn Spanish Penin- will introduce a bill establishing a| court to settle labor disputes. sula, Forelgn Secreary Anthony . whi, iEden has cut short his holiday va- mmmmnt:‘:ivceauszmt\h:m gour;rh;; cation in order to return here to Labor Adjustment and Arbitration ‘ta'ke personal control of the situa- ' | tion, snd ding to my proposed bill,| gy Gommanger of the British will have power to determine con- 3 troversies between employers and a":”r‘;fi; ?}’;Bnfi" bz:th '(';‘;f; 'x employees relating to wages, hours, ma‘l’(e 54 ::e '.av,ans against working condition, employment and | sharp Fapreeen e the New Year’s Eve halting of the a.tfecnng_p_u'buc lnberest;" '!Engush merchantman Etrib, by io- .| Surgent trawlers, has wirelessed ° [that he had received “satisfactory” 1 STOCK QUOTATIONS | | promises that British shipping i ~#* | rights will henceforth be respected. —————— ERA CREWS ACTIVE | ) NEW YORK, Jan. 5. — Closing | quotation of Alaska Juneau mine stock today is 147%, American Can 118%, American Power and Light 12%, Anaconda 53%, Curtiss Wright 6%, General Motors 63, Internation- al Harvester 105%, Kennecott 62, New York Central 40%, Southern Pacific 44%, United States Steel 7%, United Corporation 67%, Cities Service 4%, Bremner bid 2%, Pound $491%, Calumet and Hecla 16% Commonwealth and Southern 3%. DOW, JONES AVERAGES The following are today’s Dow, Jones averages: industrials, 178.07, down 45; rails 53.63, up 48; utili- ties 34.96, up .26. A new Emergency Relief Admin- listration crew of 12 men has start- | |ed work in the Wrangell area under |the direction of District Ranger J. M. Wyckoff, it was announced by the U, S. Forest Service. Mon- ‘day it is expected another ERA crew will. be put at work in the Aux Village Recreational Area on the Glacier Highway. il R NG BACK ON JOB After returning from a vacation visit Outside, Bert Loomis, CCC foreman for the U. S. Forest Serv- ice, today took over his duties at the CCC camp at Tee Hawbor. A Pair of Queens Pictured immediately after their coronation, are the queens of the North and South who provided incentive for their respective teams in the Orange Bowl game at Miami, Florida. on New Year's Day. Miss Leontine McGregor, of Detroit (left), was Queen of the North; Miss Joan Taylor, of Miami, Queen of the South. The teams were Mississippi and Duquesne, and the latter won 13 to 12. Reorganization T0 SEARCH FOR YELLOW METAL IN ARETIC AREA Livingston Wernecke, Pilot Gropstis to Make Midwinter Flights OAKLAND, Cal., Jan. 5—Living- stone Wernecke, Consulting Geolo-{ gist of the Alaska Juneau and Gen- eral Manager of the Treadwell-Yu- kon Gold Mining Company at Mayo, and Pilot Charles Gropstis, today disclosed plans for a mid-winter flight inside the Arctic Circle in search of gold. P The two are engaged in final pre- parations for the flight at the Boe- ing School for Aeronautics here. They plan to start the flight from Prince George, British Columbia, the later part of this month. The northernmost base of opera- tions will be at Mayo. Wernecke and Gropstis said the plane in which they planned to make the flights formerly belonged to Wallace Beery, motion picture actor. MELLON OFFERS ART COLLECTION TOGOVERNMENT Pittsburgh Millionaire Con- templates Gift of Na- tional Gallery WASHINGTON, Jan. 5. — The White House said Saturday night that Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury during the Hoover Administration, has offered his nineteen million dollar art collec- tion to the United States Govern- ment. President Roosevelt will rec- ommend that Congress accept it. Correspondence between the President and the Pittsburgh mil- lionaire further disclosed that Mel- lon had also offered to build in the National Capital, at his own ex- pense, an eight or nine million dollar art gallery. The ge*lliery would be to Go Way F.D.R. Wishes, Says Price By BYRON PRICE Chief of Bureau, The Associated Press, Washington posals , for reorganization in the Federal Government have produced |more talk than action. Usually the results have been neg- ligible, and the maneuvering, such )as it was, superficial for the sake | of effect only. More likely than not this suited the politicians involved. Comes now the year 1937, with talk- of reorganization and economy again in the van. Mr. Roosevelt him- self has spoken with some directness on the subject. He said emphatically that his essential purpose was a sound business organization, and in- timated there would be no drastic chopping off of agencies. Economy was to be of secondary considera- tion. Nervous bureaucrats, members of Congress and others immediately pounced upon his comment for some inner significance. It seemed to co- incide neatly with the return of ‘Washington of many Senators and Representatives. What better ec- onomy texthook could they ask? THREE SURVEYS OVERLAP Again, Mr. Roosevelt is not a stranger to the wet finger test of public opinion. If necessary, he still can advance or retreat from his original position. Somethng of a paradox has come about though the reorganization discussions, for three committees which overlap to a certain extent in personnel and pur- poses are studying the huge govern- ment structure. The avowed pur- pose of each is to eliminate dupli- cation of activity. Senator Byrd heads the Senate committee and he is ar old-time campaigner for economy. As gov- ernor of Virginia he waded through more than 100 departments and ended up with 11 units, each respon- sible to him. If his action there can be taken as a criterion, his remedy would seem to be a mixing of con- solidation for the sake of better ad- ministration with outright reduction in personnel. How, then will he feel about in- timations from the White House that new Cabinet posts may be cre- ated, that the saving of money is incidental to effective administra- tion? The Senator has been at odds with the President before. BANKHEAD 1S NEW SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE Rayburn of Texas Chosen Floor Leader of Unpre- cedented Majority PARTY PLEDGED TO SUPPORT ROOSEVELT Garner WieKSenate Gav- el—President to Give Message Tomorrow WASHINGTON, Jan. 5— President Roosevelt will deliver his message to Congress at 11 am. tomorrow, Pacific Coast time, or 10 am. Juneau time. It will be broadcast. The budget message will be delivered prob- ably about 9 a.m., Pacific Coast time, Friday, or 8 a.m., Juneau time, WASHINGTON, Jan. 5.—The 75th Congress opened today amid the quickening tempo of national pros- perity and facing problems embrac- ing labor strife at home and war rumbles abroad. Sharp gavel raps by Vice-President Garner in the Senate and South Trimble, Chief Clerk, in the House, officially began the Congress at high noon. House organization activities be- gan shortly after Trimble announc- ed 417 members, & quorum, had an- swered roll call. Representative Robert L. Doughton of North Caro- lina, new chairman of the Demo- cratic caucus, nominated Willlam B. Bankhead as Speaker and the as formally elected amid shouts of the great Democratic - majority. Brief Session Speaker Bankhead was congrat- ulated by Snell and replied he would try “at all times to be just, fair and equitable.” He then ad- ministered the oath of office to all members of the and the body adjourned at 2:30 p.m. affer adopting a resolution of sorrow be- cause of the deaths of Senators and Representatives in recent months. Sam Rayburn of Texas, was chos- 100 per cent co-operation with the Roosevelt legislative program. The stocky, bald lawyer and cattleman, who will be 53 tomorrow, won the post by defeating John J. O’Con« nor of New York. The new Floor Leader said he expected little or no difficulty in shepherding the party's 332 members, commenting, “all our Democrats act just like Democrats. By that I mean prac- tically all will go along with the program.” May Run Five Months Rayburn said he expects about a five-month session of Congress. O'Connor retains the chairmanship of the Rules Committee and Rep- resentative Lea of California will succeed Rayburn as chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commit- tee. The Senate disposed of its tine in 50 minutes today, 1stering the oath of office to elected Senators and tending few other routine matters. e eee— Program for Week of New Congress WASHING‘I‘;.— Jan, 5~The following is the temtative pro- gram of the new Congress for and elect officials. Wednesday — Senate and LOGICAL TIME TO ACT Mr. Roosevelt obviously does mot want a breach to develop in the handling of reorganization. That might be why he said he intended to confer with Buchanan, chairman of the special House committee, and Byrd. Their ideas then could be disclosed privately to him. Now, if ever, would seem the log- used to house the famous Mellon collection and other art treasures. Osage, Indians apparently had a strong color preference. They were never known to scalp a red-] person, ical time to pursue simplification measures. The President holds such a whip hand over Congress that even some Republican members (R iV S (Continued on Page Seven) e O A R s