Since 1867 Alaska has produced roughly $1,000,000,000 in gold, silver and copper. Its salmon shipments have been worth as much as $42,000,000 in a single year. . Alaska cost precisely $7,200,000* ($12 per sq. mi.) when the U. S. Government bought it from Russia, since the Muscovites considered it not much better than a huge, bear-infested snowdrift. Last week, this colossal real-estate coup—engineered by Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State William Henry Seward—was somewhat inappropriately commemorated in Washington, D. C. Payment of the $7,200,000 was made by a check on the Treasury signed by Treasurer of the U. S. Francis...
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