"As a matter of fact, big and legitimate capital is fighting shy of
Alaska. Conditions are such, thanks to red-tapeism and bad politics,
that capital, big and little, looks askance at Alaska and cannot be
interested. Think of it, Miss Standish! There are thirty-eight separate
bureaus at Washington operating on Alaska, five thousand miles away. Is
it a wonder the patient is sick? And is it a wonder that a man like John
Graham, dishonest and corrupt to the soul, has a fertile field to
work in?
"But we are progressing. We are slowly coming out from under the shadow
which has so long clouded Alaska's interests. There is now a growing
concentration of authority and responsibility. Both the Department of
the Interior and the Department of Agriculture now realize that Alaska
is a mighty empire in itself, and with their help we are bound to go
ahead in spite of all our handicaps. It is men like John Graham I fear.
Some day--"
Suddenly he caught himself. "There--I'm talking politics, and I should
entertain you with pleasanter and more interesting things," he
apologized. "Shall we go to the lower decks?"
"Or the open air," she suggested. "I am afraid this smoke is upsetting
me."
He could feel the change in her and did not attribute it entirely to the
thickness of the air. Rossland's inexplicable rudeness had disturbed her
more deeply than she had admitted, he believed.
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