Still later, after the reports of the Revenue-Cutter Service and the recognizances of army officers and naval commanders, the United States Geological Survey sent men into Alaska to investigate its resources.  The Department of Agriculture tested its capacity for agriculture, the Bureau of Education established schools and introduced reindeer from Siberia, the Signal Service began to build telegraph lines and to inspect the country as to the availability of its rivers and harbors for navigation, and it became known by the Government that Alaska was richer in resources by far than had been supposed.  This knowledge was not common to the public, and emigration to that region was tardy.

The United States could hardly have done more for the furtherance of the development of the great rich district of Alaska, with its untold wealth in minerals and its great possibilities in agriculture, than it did by securing to the people of Alaska an opportunity to display their resources and products to the inspection of the millions who have visited the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.  The exhibits shown by them excited the utmost wonder and surprise in the minds of many witnessing them, who had been in ignorance of the resources of their country.  Thousands have been led to investigate and seek further information.  The effect of the Alaska exhibit will undoubtedly be far-reaching and permanent; nor can it be doubted that Congress will supplement this contribution to Alaska’s welfare in the near future by legislation which shall secure the one great need of Alaska—­inland transportation.

An appropriation of $50,000 for the Alaskan exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was made by act of Congress March 3, 1903, as follows: 

To enable the inhabitants of the district of Alaska to provide and maintain an appropriate and creditable exhibit of the products and resources of that district at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, in nineteen hundred and four, and to erect and maintain on the site of said exposition a suitable building to be used for the purposes of exhibiting the products and resources of said district, the sum of fifty thousand dollars, to be subject to the order of the Secretary of the Interior, who is hereby authorized to expend the same in such manner as in his judgment will best promote the objects for which said sum is appropriated in accordance with the rules and regulations to be prescribed by him.

After the passage of the act of Congress which made appropriation for the Alaska exhibit, providing that the sum appropriated should be expended by the Secretary of the Interior in such manner as in his judgment would promote the objects for which the sum was appropriated, in accordance with rules and regulations prescribed by him, one of his first acts was the appointment of Hon. Thomas Ryan, First Assistant Secretary of the Interior, chairman of the Alaska commission, to have immediate charge at the Department of the elaboration of the exhibit.  Later Governor John G. Brady was appointed executive commissioner, and entered upon the task of gathering together and forwarding to the exposition such collections of exhibits as would best represent and illustrate the products and resources of Alaska.