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Published Monday, Wednesday
and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125
P. O. Box 618
11.50 PER MONTH
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W. A. BOUCHER.EditorPublisher
EMILY BOUCHER.. Society Editor
Entered as second class matter
October 14, 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, unetc* the Ac
of March 3, 1879.
WEDNESDAY JAN. 3. 1945. ”
WHOA—GIDDAP—
WHOA!
Something is going to
happen to Alaska after
the war. But nobody
seems to agree on just
what’s going to happen.
In October, Governor
Gruening said in Seattle
that Alaska will gain a
million in population im
mediately after the war.
Soon after this the Unit
ed States Empoyment Ser
vice offices in Alaska and
in Seattle stated that too
many people were coming
to Alaska already and
there was unemployment
in Alaskan towns.
Recently numerous au
thors, writing on Alaska,
have hailed the Territory
as the promised land for
settlement for the veter
ans of this war.
Other writers have
painted beautiful pictures
of the “unlimited., oppor
tunities” for the expansion
of new industry to Alaska.
But at the same time the
Interior Department seems1
to be doing its best to dis-l
courage any development
of the Territory—first
through the reservation
hearings scare, now in the
form of a bill in Congress
that would put all tide
lands in Alaska under the
control of the Secretary of
the Interior. Under the
new tidelands bill, leases
to tidelands would be
granted or revoked by the
Secretary of the Interior,
depending upon his judg
ment. All land in Alaska,
of course, is of no good
without access to the land
across the tideland—
hence passage of this bill
would in effect give who
ever happened to be the
administrative officer of
the Interior Department
control of all lands in Alas
ka.
Every day, thousands of
letters from prospective
Alaskans pour into the of
fices of our Territorial and
Federal officials in Alaska,
to our Delegate from Alas
ka, to the Interior Depart
ment in Washington, D. C.
In the last year espec
ially there has been en
couragement of large
scale migration of return
ing servicemen and others
to Alaska.
But, according to a re
cent edition of the Wall
Street Journal, “soldiers
who flood the Interior De
partment with hopeful let
ters get this discouraging
advice:
“The undeveloped north
land can support only
2,000 more families in the
immediate post - war
years.”
The Interior Depart
ment explains further:
“It’s still too far from mar
kets for profitable farm
ing, mining and timber
cutting.”
So our million shrinks
to a few thousand.
All right. How is the In
terior Department going
to take care of the 2,000
families? Private enter
prise has been discourag
ed by the Departments
policy for the development
in Alaska. The truth is
that the Interior Depart
ment is going to ask Con
gress for almost four mil
lion dollars for 18 months’
work by an Alaska devel
opment advisory commis
sion.
Does this mean then
that Alaska is to be devel
oped by another Federal
bureau at the cost of $2,
000 per new Alaskan fam
ily?
I
It seems to us rather
contradictory to have, on
the one hand, commissions
studying ways and means
to develop Alaska’s re
sources, and the Interior
Department, on the other
hand, devising ways and
means to discourage capi
tal from venturing into
the development of the
same resources.
The Congressmen who
attended the recent Inter
ior Department hearings
in Alaska and Seattle
should have ample evi
dence of the “discourage
ment of capital” policy of
the Interior Department.
Will they, and their col
leagues, support an appro
priation of four million for
promoting the develop
ment of Alaska’s resour
ces while a cabinet officer
is discouraging capital
from expanding to the Ter
ritory?—(Juneau Empire)
FRONT-LINE
PRIZE ESSAY
A soldier in the line
finds it hard to think of
victory “as meaning any
thing but an end to fear, to
loneliness and death, and a
chance to go back to pick
up the strands of inter
rupted life.” This is the
testimony of Pvt. Isadore
Rubin of Brooklyn, who
has just won an essay
prize contended for by
men of the Fifth Army’s
front in Italy. But the sol
dier thinks of other things
too. He thinks of the world
he will have to live in
when he comes home, and
such enemies as “poverty,
insecurity, prejudice, dis
unity” that will still have
to be conquered. He be
lieves, in Private Rubin’s
words, that “if we can
sweep aside untold ob
stacles to smash the most
ruthlessly efficient ma
chines of destruction ever
devised, surely we possess
the vision and practical
genius to organize for
peace, security and a world
designed for living.”
For Private Rubin and
his comrades these words
can’t be merely words.
They are loaded with the
significance of hard ex- f
perience and! tested against
rights under enemy shell
ing, hostile sharpshooters
waiting for the advancing
platoon, grim fights for life
in ruined villages. What
Private Rubin says, during '
a brief pause in his mud
dy, uncomfortable, danger
ous existence, is what he
means. A soldier sees how
powerful his country is for
war. He must find it hard *
to believe it cannot be
equally powerful for peace.
He has a right to ask that
it should be.—(New York
Times).
T\ 7 *
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