Interesting Talk Given to Rotary Club on Land Once Designated as "Seward's Folly"
Members of the Shanghai Rotary Club, which held. its usual weekly tifin' re-union at the Metropole Hotel Jon Thursday, were entertained by a very Interesting and informative talk ngan Alaska given by Mr.
Smith, former previdentot the Ala Ketehcan Rotary club.
Introduced by Mr. William Vinson Lee, Chairman of the Programme Committee, the speaker of the: day said that the State of Alaska was originally sold in 1867 by Alexander of Russia to William H. Seward, US. Secretary of State for $7,200,000, "The purchase was designated at that time as "Seward's Folly", "Bul," said Mr. Smith, joy ihe U.S. has taken, appzoximate-$600,000,000 out of the country by way of Federal government revenue, besides almost $20,000,000 rade bal-
US. From 1867 until 1898 the coun-went along under a military form of government, maintaining the old Russian capital, but in this latter year gold was' discovered in the Yukon territory, with a natural sult that men rushed in from all points of the world—men of all kinds Jand with but little education, and, as you might say, over night they made millions of dollars. 'They over-developed the Yukon' so far as placer mining was concerned, and as the gold streams petered onl, they were forced into Alaska proper, discovering further rich fields, where the same thing recurred,. so' that the Alaskan miners were eventually forced into Nome, where the richest veins gold in Alaska were found.
"Since 1898 Alaska has produced, from placer mining, approximately four times the value of what the US, paid for the country. To-day placer miners cannot make a living, and, apart from a few mining companies, with large capital, who go for' dredging and other expensive Processes, there is very little mining.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.