Alaskan Boundary Verdict

ALASKAN BOUNDARY VERDICT.

The Alaska Boundary Commission has rendered its decision after long and laborious study of the question and according to the reports received practically sustains the United States position in every particular, certainly in all but one, and probably that would have been conceded without any arbitration. This is as people generally in this country expected the arbitration would terminate and is undoubtedly a correct decision. Nobody ever would have raised any question over the boundary probably, but for the discovery of gold in Alaska. When the yellow metal was found in quantities which set pople wild, then Canadians began to hunt up dusty old records to see if they could not find some obscure wording of some treaty or some forgotten claim on which to hinge a dispute. Then Canada having found what she was searching for tried to induce England to support her silly position. Possibly she has learned a lesson. It is apparent that no fair-minded tribunal that could be organized for arbitration of the issue would decide in favor of Canada's claim and as for England going to war with the United States to uphold the Canadian contention, no ministry that would advocate such a step could live twenty-four hours. The question will now remain unsettled.

The committee appointed by the board of supervisors to consider the question of the need of a detention hospital and the advisability of submitting the question to the people is a strong one and the report which these supervisors will formulate will be looked for with interest. It is probably as strong a committee as could have been found and their judgment relative to this important matter will carry weight.