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Show AN ALASKAN COPPER ROAD. i . - !' ' The San Francisco Chronicle understands that U. P. Morgan & Co., the Guggenheims, the Have-xceyers Have-xceyers and others whose names stand for millions lire behind the new railroad which will extend from iValdez, 400 miles into Alaska. For years immense copper deposits have been known to exist in Alaska, but as men have told of them, they have immediate-; immediate-; ly added: "But they are worthless because they can-I can-I .not be reached by any modern transportation facili- iies. It is the object of this proposed road to reach I them. The Chronicle reports a man high in finan-cial finan-cial circles as saying: "This will be the biggest thing that has hap-, hap-, pened to Alaska since its purchase by the United States.' It means' a greater development of rich mineral resources than has been seen in the Trans- yaal or in the world. The country has been care-m care-m jcully prospected and its resources in copper arc ' ; marvelous. There are other minerals, but copper is .what the world wants now." The Chronicle adds that "not only are the biggest financiers in America back of the new line, but two of the biggest mining experts, John Hays Hammond and Henry Bratno-jber Bratno-jber of Piedmont are also largely interested in it. Bratnober has been in the country that the road will 'traverse for seven or eight years." The road will traverse the rich Copper river country to the Yukon. The Chronicle intimates that a bill now before Con-" Con-" tgress asking subsidies for a road nearly on the same i route is probably what has stirred the big syndicate to proceed at once without any subsidy, i Alaska has 590,884 square miles or just about the area of California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Neva-da, Utah and Idaho combined, or more than equal to the. combined area of all the Atlantic and Gulf .States to Texas. It is an empire. Of its wealth 'there is no computation. All we know is that the more it is explored, the more promise it holds out to the prospector. Millions of its acres are covered with forests and the fisheries along its coast will in a few years make those off Newfoundland second rate. Russia did not know what she was parting with when. she sold the great estate and the Secretary Secre-tary of State, sanguine as he was, did not half or a quarter comprehend what an empire he was purchasing. pur-chasing. Of course when this proposed road is built, it will have to have branches, and other roads will be projected and by and by the land will be pretty well explored. And it all furnishes a new idea of what the experts think of copper and its probable future market. It is a notice that there is not enough in our country or in Mexico to keep up with the demand, de-mand, which seems to be insatiable. |