The Theodore Roosevelt Centennial CD-ROM

the United States, operated by men who, as a class, are

steadfast, singleminded, and industrious, form the basis

of all the other achievements of the American people

and are more fruitful than all their other resources. The

men on those six million farms receive from the

protective tariff what they most need, and that is the

best of all possible markets. All other classes depend

upon the farmer, but the farmer in turn depends upon

the market they furnish him for his produce. . . .

American farmers have prospered because the growth

of their market has kept pace with the growth of their

farms. The additional market continually furnished for

agricultural products by domestic manufacturers has

been far in excess of the outlet to other lands. An export

trade in farm products is necessary to dispose of our

surplus; and the export trade of our farmers, both in

animal products and in plant products, has very largely

increased. Without the enlarged home market to keep

this surplus down, we should have to reduce production

or else feed the world at less than the cost of

production. (Letter accepting Republican nomination

for President, September 12, 1904.) Mem. Ed. XVIII,

522-523; Nat. Ed. XVI, 392-393.

construct, own, and operate the railways in Alaska. The

government should keep the fee of all the coalfields and

allow them to be operated by lessees with the

conditions in the lease that non-use shall operate as a

forfeit. Telegraph-lines should be operated as the

railways are. Moreover, it would be well in Alaska to

try a system of land taxation which will, so far as

possible, remove all the burdens from those who

actually use the land, whether for building or for

agricultural purposes, and will operate against any man

who holds the land for speculation, or derives an

income from it based, not on his own exertions, but on

the increase in value due to activities not his own.

There is very real need that this nation shall seriously

prepare itself for the task of remedying social injustice

and meeting social problems by well-considered

governmental effort; and the best preparation for such

wise action is to test by actual experiment under

favorable conditions the devices which we have reason

to believe will work well, but which it is difficult to

apply in old settled communities without preliminary

experiment. (Before Progressive National Convention,

Chicago, August 6, 1912.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 406; Nat.

Ed. XVII, 294.

ALASKA—FUTURE OF. Alaska has interests of vital

importance not merely to her but to the entire Union.

Alaska contains a territory which will within this

century support as large a population as the combined

Scandinavian countries of Europe; those countries from

which has sprung as wonderful a race as ever imprinted

its characteristics upon the history of civilization.

Exactly as the Scandinavian peoples have left their

mark upon the entire history of Europe, so we shall see

Alaska with its mines, its lumber, its fisheries, with its

possibilities in agriculture and stock-raising, with its

possibilities of commercial command, with the

tremendous development that is going on within it even

now, produce, as hard and vigorous a people as any

portion of North America. (At Seattle, Wash., May 23,

1903.) Presidential Addresses and State Papers II, 428-

ALASKA. Some form of local self-government should

be provided, as simple and inexpensive as possible; it is

impossible for the Congress to devote the necessary

time to all the little details of necessary Alaskan

legislation. Road-building and railway-building should

be encouraged. The governor of Alaska should be given

an ample appropriation wherewith to organize a force to

preserve the public peace. Whiskey-selling to the

natives should be made a felony. The coalland laws

should be changed so as to meet the peculiar needs of

the Territory. . . . There should be another judicial

division established. As early as possible lighthouses

and buoys should be established as aids to navigation.

(Seventh Annual Message, Washington, December 3,

1907.) Mem. Ed. XVII, 535-536; Nat. Ed. XV, 456.

____________. Alaska should be developed at once,

but in the interest of the actual settler. In Alaska the

government has an opportunity of starting in what is

almost a fresh field to work out various problems by

actual experiment. The government should at once

ALASKAN BOUNDARY DISPUTE. The treaty of

1825 between Russia and England was undoubtedly

intended to cut off England, which owned the

Hinterland, from access to the sea. The word lisi�re

used in the treaty means the strip of territory bordering

all the navigable water of that portion of the Alaskan

coast affected by the treaty, and this strip of territory is

American of course. Equally of course in interpreting

the treaty a prime consideration is

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