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WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 1944.
NO TIME TO QUIT
In an able article appearing in the
Post-Intelligencer and reproduced in this
•week’s issue of The Alaska Weekly,
Doug Welch, who has made a consider
able study of the joint highway problems
of the Northwest and British Columbia,
tells some plain facts concerning the
British Columbian attitude about the
Alcan Highway.
Those facts verify the statements
made editorially in this publication when
it was first made known that the Army
had decided to spend $300,000,000 to
build a highway for servicing certain
Canadian airfields. ' ^
•< •/*' -
We said then, and now repeat the
statement, that the Alcan Highway was
valueless to the Puget Sound area, to
British Columbia and to Alaska, that it
offered scant tourist attraction, that it
made available no known sources of
mineral wealth and that when it revert
ed to Canadian trusteeship it was destin
ed to fall into disrepair and disuse unless
the government of the United States saw
fit to defray the expense of its mainte
nance.
So far as concerns the official attitude
of British Columbia we have no criti
cism to offer. There is absolutely no
justification from any practical peace
time standpoint for British Columbia to
pay out tax dollars for upkeep on a high
way which offers no development possi
bilities while numerous rich areas of the
Province only await transportation fac
ilities to open up tremendous resources.
It would be almost as slly as for the
State of Washington to undertake a.sim
ilar commitment.
If it can be demonstrated that the fu
ture security of the North American con
tinent requires this highway, or if the
development of Canada’s post-war air
business depends upon its maintenance,
then the Dominion government has a
I stake in the Alcan worth protecting with
; dollars.
All of which brings us back to our old
] contention that there is as yet no such
thing as an Alaska Highway. If, as ap
pears probable, the Alcan is not kept in
! fit condition as a commercial highway.
I the Prince George to Dawson Creek link,
now being built by British Columbia,
! will be of no advantage to this section of
the Pacific Northwest. It is being con
structed solely to make the rich Peace
River district a part of the commercial
empire of western British Columbia and
without any particular regard for the
fact that it connects with the Alcan at
Dawson Creek.
I Even should the Alcan be maintained
1 in condition making possible profitable
truck operation, the circuitous route fol
lowed will create insurmountable cost
obstacles to such operation.
There is much to be said in favor of
a railway up the Rocky Mountain Trench
to Fairbanks—hooking up at its south
ern terminus with the Pacific Great East
ern. Such a project is said to have been
scheduled up to the time that Attu and
Kiska were cleared of the Japs. As
Welch says, “The army today is fight
ing today’s war, not tomorrow’s,” and
once the Jap menace from the Aleutians
seemed removed the railroad project was
dropped.
It was due to no preparation on our
part that Alaska was not isolated from
continental United States and the world
in the weeks follovling Pearl Harbor
and up to the present writing we have
no possible guarantees that such a situa
tion may not again arise. Peace in the
North Pacific is still as much a mirage
as Chamberlain’s “peace in our time”
when he so optimistically left Munich.
This section must have direct connec
tion with Alaska if it is to hold its posi
tion of dominance in the market which
is destined to the most rapid growth of
any in America. We must have direct
connection as well for the sake of mili
tary security for both Alaska and the !
entire Puget Sound area. We should
have both the railroad and the “A”
route highway, the one for economical 1
freight transport and the other for mak- '
ing available the world’s finest tourist
house of natural wealth,
paradise and opening up a vast treasure
This is no time to stop agitating and
fighting for these obvious essentials to
rhe growth of Seattle and Alaska.—(The
Alaska Weekly).
LITERARY
GUIDEPOST
"WORK AND PLAY." (BOOKS
XXI AND XXII of - MEN OF
GOOD WILL") (Knopf; $3).
JULES ROMAINS’ "Men of
Good Will” is like a spilled keg
of molasses slowly spreading over
the face of France. It now has
run through twenty-two books,
published in this country as elev
en volumes, the latest in Jan
uary. Slowly it has r^metjrated
most corners of France and touch
ed .most French mentalities. It
also has gradually lost its force:
what should be a cumulative ef
fect and a gathering tensity is
now a thinning flood of good
words whose understanding re
quires the industry and patience
that would be needed, for exam
ple, to unify and point up the
contents of the Encyclopedia Brit-1
tannica.
Jerphanion is now running for
a seat in the Chamber of Depu
ties—if your memory goes back
that far, you may recall that
Jerphanion acted as secretary to
a titled gentleman who cam
paigned for the same honor, many
books in the past. The two books
published as “Work and Play”
have this candidature as a unify
ing thread, and the not always
happy relations of Jerphanion and
his wife for conflict. She thinks
the .countesses of this world are
forever luring the men of the
left .from their true course, and
she thinks her husband is a good
deal dazzled by his countess.'
But all around this tenuous
thread of story therC is’ a glut of
side matter that' not drily ‘swamps
the *.story but smothers the read
er. Mv < Romain ‘includes bvery
thing* ‘fMwri ' the- atrophying Lea
' * • . ..*? .' '
« . .t • iV'w . • •
gue of Nations to some strange
deaths in a French coun"ry house,
youthful fire and regret its loss,
Old campaigners discuss their
mistresses flutter in and out with
varying results, men philosophize
on the rewards of this life, and
in the audience head after head
drops to its supporting breast.
This need not have been. M.
Romain had and probably still
has a sustaining idea of import
ance. He wants to hold up the
mirror to all France, to repro
. duce t.he whole complex fabric
: of a singularly complex country.
' The French are a terrifying re
spectable people and very practi
cal. M. Romains’ method is there
ofre un-French. A pair of eyes
can’t see all of a great nation.
.»*» . I*....**.-.. Ij
Scorchy Smith....
r " -y-—
OKAY, SAMMY... ITS ALREADY BEEN
- ~~-RADIO THE REST POME, LOOTEMANT f
LISTEN, LOOTEMANT... I-1 KNOW WHAT OFTHE SQUADRON I-I SORTA FIGURED
KATHY MEANS TO YA .. BUT, 60SH, IF ANP TELL THEM YOU'D CHANGE YOUR
WE ALL PIP WHAT WE WANTED TO RIGHT TO PROCEED TO aaimd «ip ' *—"
NOW .. WHY THE WHOLE ARMY WOULD FIELD K AND
BE HOME ON FURLOUGH 'JK0M
Back at town m .. .the ripplep
TRANSPORT HAS COME TO A T.OR..
Crumbled
Oh, Diana!
_
NOW WHY) I GOT EVERYTHING^
CANT I SHt'5 GOT /
LOOK I ONLY IT GOT
LIKE MIXED UP IN
THKT?/ TK ASSEMBLY
MUM
•*
\
YOU SHOULD GLORIFY H *
YOURSELF, MISS KITTY — i®
A FACIAL- A WAVE- A K
/ / J TH7
^ WORKS
1
d
REMEMBER ,TOO. THAT
BEAUTY 15 IN THE MIND
THINK PLEASANT THOUGHTS
-CONCENTRATE
ON wwr
YOU
WANT/
t
Just Concentrating
>
Ever House A Elephant?
i 111————i— ■
AP Features
SAN MATEO, Calif.—San Ma
teo Junior College is surprised
but not displeased to find itself
the recipient of prehistoric ele
phant bones from the recently
discovered Millbrae pits, believed
more than 100,000 years old. Un
til the prehistoric windfall, the
college housed its museum com
fortably in one small classroom.
Today, with huge bones arriv
ing virtually every hour, the col
lege (normal enrollment 1000) is
afflicted with museum elephanti
asis of epidemic proportions. The
only cure, faculty members say,
is a post-war program for a full
sized museum building.
Workmen, slashing down a hill
to make room for a new housing
project in the Millbrae Highlands
ran their bulldozers over a white,
soapy-like substance, later identi
fied as an elephant (or mammoth)
tusk. Dr. F. M. Stanger of the col
lege history department, notified
of the discovery, immediately be
gan excavation. He is aided by F.
D. Klyver of the biology depart
ment. Tusks enough to account
"or four elephants have been
’ound.
The bog. at present 100 by 250
eet may prove to be much larger,
has been fenced off, a muddy ^
GRAVE DIGGER—Dr. F. M,
Stanger of San Mateo Junior
College carefully exhume* ele
oasis in the center of the boom
ing housing projects.
POSTMASTERS NAMED
IN TERRITORY
Crystal Snow Jenne, of Juneau,
phant bone believed 100,000
years old. Relic is protected
with plaster coat.
was confirmed for the nomination
as postmaster of that city today,
as was S. David Mazen renamed
to the postmastership of the
Nome office, according to a late
report received in Nome today.