CONTENTS. Page. The Alaskan gold fields and the opportunities they offer for capital and labor, by Sam. C. Dunham, of the Department of Labor.... Digest of recent reports of State bureaus of labor statistics: 297-425 Iowa..... 426, 427 Massachusetts 427, 428 Annual report on the cooperative savings and loan associations of New York 429, 430 Annual report on the building and loan associations of Ohio...... 431-433 Eleventh annual report of the State board of arbitration and conciliation of 433 Tenth annual report of the board of mediation and arbitration of New York 434 435-441 Decisions of courts affecting labor..... 442-492 Laws of various States relating to labor enacted since January 1, 1896. 493-507 508 THE ALASKAN GOLD FIELDS AND THE OPPORTUNITIES THEY OFFER FOR CAPITAL AND LABOR. BY SAM. C. DUNHAM. [Recognizing the desire for trustworthy information relating to the opportunities for remunerative employment of American labor and capital in the gold regions in the Yukon Valley and adjoining territory, Mr. Samuel C. Dunham, of this Department, was directed to proceed to Alaska and to the locality of the gold regions for the purpose of making an official investigation. The Department was in receipt of so many inquiries relative to wages, cost of living, and other matters relating to the mining industry in Alaska that it was deemed advisable to make the investigation. Instructions were given Mr. Dunham July 29, 1897, and he left Washington on the 31st. Mr. Dunham was selected because of his experience of twelve years or more in gold and silver mining districts, his familiarity with mining processes and the habits of miners fitting him thoroughly for the proposed inquiry. In addition to his knowledge of mining matters, he is an expert stenographer, which qualification has enabled him to take down statements for his report when made to him, thus avoiding the necessity of depending upon memory for transcription. Mr. Dunham's report is herewith given to the public. It brings matters up to January 8, 1898. In transmitting his report Mr. Dunham informs the Department of the great difficulties that he had to overcome in securing information. These difficulties arose in many ways, chiefly in the verification of statements, and from the habits of miners to exaggerate their accounts of output and conditions. Only personal observations could secure the real facts. Mr. Dunham acknowledges his indebtedness for courtesies and assistance extended by Hon. Joseph W. Ivey, collector of customs for the district of Alaska, Sitka; C. Constantine, inspector Northwest mounted police, Dawson, Northwest Territory; Capt. J. E. Hansen, assistant superintendent of the Alaska Commercial Company, Dawson; Capt. John J. Healey, manager of the North American Transportation and Trading Company, Dawson; Hon. John E. Crane, United States commissioner, Circle City, Alaska; Mr. Charles Smith, deputy collector of customs, Circle City; Mr. Howard Turner, agent Alaska Commercial Company, Circle City; Mr. George E. King, agent North American Transportation and Trading Company, Circle City; Mr. W. A. Beddoe, editor of the Alaska Miner, Juneau; Mr. F. D. Nowell, of the Berners Bay Mining Company, Juneau, and the Alaska Chamber of Commerce, Juneau. Special thanks are also due Ernest O. Crewe, M. D., of Chicago, Ill., who at the time of Mr. Dunham's investigations was at Circle City, for the preparation of that portion of his report relating to the climatic conditions and agricultural resources of Alaska, and to Capt. P. II. Ray, U. S. A. For the accompanying general map acknowledgment is hereby rendered to Mr. J. B. Tyrrell, of Washington, D. C.C. D. W.] INTRODUCTION. On July 15, 1897, the steamer Excelsior entered her dock at San Francisco with a party of miners returning home from the Yukon River. The dispatches which went to the country through the press that evening and the following morning announced that a large amount of gold dust, variously stated at from $500,000 to $750,000, had been brought down on the Excelsior, and gave the details of the discovery and partial development the previous fall and winter of rich placer gold diggings on tributaries of the Klondike, a small river flowing into the Yukon. from the eastward at a point in Northwest Territory not far from the boundary line between American and British territory. The news created some excitement among the miners of the West, but attracted no great attention in the East On July 17 the steamer Portland landed at Seattle with some sixty Miners from the Klondike and bringing gold dust to the value of $800,000. This news was so skillfully handled by enterprising newspapers hat within a week thousands of men, many of whom had never taken hold of pick or shovel with serious intentions in their lives, were making preparations to go to the new gold fields, and by August 1 the mos dramatic, if not the most extensive, exodus since that of 1849 was well under way. Men who had participated in the great exodus of nearly half a century ago, in reading the accounts, felt their nerves tingle as they recalled the golden days of the fifties, and many of these oioneers outfitted their sons and nephews and bade them Godspeed to the new Eldorado; while a million artisans and laborers, who during the long industrial depression had toiled for a bare subsistence or had not toiled at all, looked longingly toward the North. The contagion spread to all classes-laborers, clerks, merchants, |