Alaska As An Investment

" In Mr. Dawes' speech on the government ünances he brought out one fact wkich. will provo a cold-wator shower to those would-be wits who have so long and often girded at tlie Alaska purchase as a waste of public money and a perpetual expense. Mr. Dawes sbowed, trom the official documents, that Alask;i already pays into tho United States Treasury a net revenue over expenses of two hundred thousand dollars a year. Alaska, in fact, is proving a good investment looked at froni a purely 'financial view." - Detroit Post. As Alaska cost us $7,000,000 in gold, the yearly interest on wkich at seven per cent. is 1490,000, the humor of the above paragraph is quite refreshing. All the circuuistances of tho ridiculous Alaska purchase indícate that Seward was the dupe of a ring of sharpors. Immediately after the purehase was consummated the territory was given over to the exclusive control of the Alaska t ur Company for thirty years, at an aunual rental of $200,000, whioh sum is a mero bagatelle in comparison with tho valué of the seal fishing there - the ooast and main land having no other valué. As the United States has agreed to protectthis ooast against inoursious from outsiders the expensivo attention of our Pacific squadron is requiréd, and before the contract expires it inay involvo us in serious coniplication with othor powers ; but if not, the valué will depart from Alaska because tho seal will be gone. Alaska is a sealed coast in more senses than one. No trading is allowed with tho natives unless through the lessees or their agents, and strango vessels are iuterdicted from touching there. Two years ago a number of Alaskans made a a clandestine escape in a vessel to San Francisco, and represented that there was inuch wailing and distress in the Territory. All these newly-mado American zens wero brutally treated, hard worked, ill-clothed and ill-fod, the Alaska Fur Company leaving them nothing of the fruits of their labor that the said company cbuld export with profit. The rnattor was about to be investigated, when the men by some mysrerious inttuence were spirited avvay, and 110 escape of Alaskans has been heard of since. Probably this same mysterious influence is equal to the task of stifling any further attempt at invostigation, and in order to render the lease of the Territory most profitable the poor Alaskans will be made to diminish