supervision. Let us once find the path and set out with firm and
confident tread upon it and we shall not wander from it or linger upon
it.

A duty faces us with regard to Alaska which seems to me very pressing
and very imperative; perhaps I should say a double duty, for it concerns
both the political and the material development of the Territory. The
people of Alaska should be given the full Territorial form of
government, and Alaska, as a storehouse, should be unlocked. One key to
it is a system of railways. These the Government should itself build and
administer, and the ports and terminals it should itself control in the
interest of all who wish to use them for the service and development of
the country and its people.

But the construction of railways is only the first step; is only
thrusting in the key to the storehouse and throwing back the lock and
opening the door. How the tempting resources of the country are to be
exploited is another matter, to which I shall take the liberty of from
time to time calling your attention, for it is a policy which must be
worked out by well-considered stages, not upon theory, but upon lines of
practical expediency. It is part of our general problem of conservation.
We have a freer hand in working out the problem in Alaska than in the
States of the Union; and yet the principle and object are the same,
wherever we touch it. We must use the resources of the country, not lock
them up. There need be no conflict or jealousy as between State and
Federal authorities, for there can be no essential difference of purpose
between them. The resources in question must be used, but not destroyed
or wasted; used, but not monopolized upon any narrow idea of individual
rights as against the abiding interests of communities. That a policy
can be worked out by conference and concession which will release these