OCR Text |
Show THE CAPE NOME CRIME. From persons now returning from the frozen north, the sad and same story is told by all hardships, disease, disappointment and catastrophes in store for those who cannot get away from Nome. It is estimated that some 30.000 people peo-ple have been dumped on that barren coast during the past year. Perhaps it 'is not overestimateing to average each one as having $300 when they left for Nome. This in plain figures means $9,000,000, and without doubt if the true figures were known, (including the cost of machinery and goods going to waste on the beach), three times this sum would be nearer the amount of good money placed in the unscrupulous pockets of transportation companies and unprincipled boomers, who neither think nor care for those who will suffer and die in that desolate country this winter; nor for the suffering of hundreds hun-dreds of destitute wives and children left behind by the fathers who believed be-lieved the golden story when first told, and hurried to raise the money, by no matter what deprivations to their families, fam-ilies, to reach the new Eldorado. It is to be hoped that before another mad rush is made to the Arctic regions lately discovered that the Government will send an expedition of reliable men to pass upon the merits of the country and save a repetition, if possible, of the Nome crime, and by all means, it is to be hoped that the Government will see to it that enough transports are sent to Nome to bring away before winter the stranded miners who have been victimized by these dishonest transportation concerns. The importance that the mining industry in-dustry of the United States has reached certainly claims as much attention from the Government as any other branch, and it certainly would be of great good if a department could be set aside and the office of Secretary of Mining created. It is certainly next in importance if not as important as the office of Secretary of Agriculture. |