e
alone cost a million and a half. Yet, with this road finished through the
coast mountains, they've had to suspend operation because they can't burn
their own coal. They've got to change their locomotives to oil burners.
And all this is just because the President delays to annul a temporary
restriction the previous executive neglected to remove. We have waited; we
have imported from British Columbia, from Japan; shipped in Pennsylvania,
laid down at Prince William Sound at fifteen dollars a ton, when our own
coal could be mined for two and a quarter and delivered here in Seattle
for five."

"It could, I grant that," said Tisdale mellowly, "but would it, Stuart?
Would it, if the Morganstein interests had exclusive control?"

Foster seemed not to have heard that question. He turned restlessly and
strode across the room. "The Government with just as much reason might
have conserved Alaska gold."

Tisdale laughed. "That would have been a good thing for Alaska," he
answered; "if a part, at least of her placer streams had been conserved.
Come, Foster, you know as well as I do that the regulations early
prospectors accepted as laws are not respected to-day. Every discovery is
followed by speculators who travel light, who do not expect to do even
first assessment work, but only to stay on the ground long enough to stake
as many claims as possible for themselves and their friends. When the real
prospector arrives, with his year's outfit, he finds hundreds of miles, a
whole valley staked, and his one chance is to buy or work under a lease.
Most of these speculators live in the towns, some of them down here in
Seattle, carrying on other business, and they never visit their claims.
They re-stake and re-stake year after year and follow on the heels of each
new strike, often by proxy. We have proof enough of all this to convince
the most lukewarm senator."

"You think then," said Foster quickly, "there is going to be a chance,
after all, for the bill for Home Rule?"

"No." Tisdale's voice lost its mellowness. "It is a mistake; it's asking
too much at the beginning. We need amended mining laws; we should work for
that at once, in the quickest concerted way. And, first of all, our
special delegates should push the necessity of a law giving a defined
length of shaft or tunnel for assessment work, as is enforced in the
Klondike, and ask for efficient inspectors to see that such laws as we
have are obeyed."

Foster moved to the wi