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S I L K*l M THE RAW —After 32 days of eating mulberry
leaves every three hours, the silkworm starts spinning a cocoon
about his body. Bill Jarrell says 1,200 of these weigh a pound, is
trying to perfect a machine for silk-spinning.
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FINE AS S I L K—a handful of silk threads that he raised
and spun himself are reward for Bill Jarrell, who’s experimenting
with silk culture at the state prison farm in Atmore, Ala. He
hatches silkworm eggs in home-made incubator.
FEEDING PROBLE M_Cheese cloth placed over hatching
silkworm eggs, with mulberry leaves next to the cloth, nourish the
worms which hatch, then crawl through cloth and eat the leaves.
This is part of silk project at Atmore, Ala., prison.
WIEN ACTIVITIES
Oct. 24 — Pilot Long made a
trip to Bluff with freight and
Mort Sullivan and George Tuck
er. Tom Shaw, Jack Shaw, Paul
Maphis and Orville Tanner were
brought to Nome from Council
and Harry Cramer and David
Enaruk were taken from Council
to Lee’s Camp.
Pilot Sig Wien made a trip to
Beaver Creek with freight and
to Fox Bar returning with Glenn
and Lyman Madden, Joe Wallin,
Connie Hyder was also brought
in from Taylor.
Oct. 25 — Pilot Long made a
trip to Teller returning with
George Hellrich, John Fricke and
A. Thaulman.
Oct. 26 — Pilot Long made a
trip to Council with Minnie
Brookins and returning to Nome
with Ophir Glass and Angus
McCloud.
Pilot Siw Wien made a trip to
Council and Golovin and Solo
mon taking Andrew McCafferty
from Golovin to Lee’s Camp;
Ralph Smith, Solomon to Nome;
and Andrew Bango, Council to
Nome.
PAA Activities
The PAA mail plane scheduled
for today and last reported at
Nulato is still there, held on
the ground by a snow storm. The
mail will arrive as soon as the
weather permits.
MIROW ACTIVITIES
Pilot Moore left for Achorage
Friday with the following pas
sengers: Paul E. Wright, Ever
ette Jones, Wilson Scott, Grant
Nelson, John Topkok, W. Paroni,
Gordon Mathews, and Ted Wal
lace.
Pilot Sasseen arrived from
Fairbanks with Mr. and Mrs.
Schold.
The Lockheed is expected to
leave for Anchorage Tuesday
morning, weather permitting.
IS SUGGESTED
SILK SOURCE
There us d to be an organiza
tion friendly to China that cir
culated a little pamphlet in
which it was stat'd that “Every
pair of stockings y >u buy provid
es Japan with two rounds of am
munition." It also asked why the
United States give Japan $100,
000,000 a year for her silk when
we knew she was using the
money to destroy China and to
i prepare for an attack on the IJn.t
eri Slates. Rut despite the prophe
cies of this pessimistic little pub
lication, the omen of America
i continued to wear stockings
nrde from Japanese si k.
During the present emergency
women may be forced to wear
cotton stockings and stockings
made from strange synthetic sub
stances. But when the war is
over they will again demand silk
stockings. Rayon and nylon and
i other synthetis have undoubted-,
ly come to stay. But does any one :
believe a woman would prefer'
synthetic stockings to silk any
more than she would prefer arti
ficial pearls to real pearls?. It!
has not yet been proved if the
government will be satisfied with
synthetic materials for its para
chutes and powder bags. There
are many other things that will
call for 100 percent silk.
Persia a Solution
But where is the silk to come'
from? The manufacturers hope,
and many of them believe, that
before long the war will be over
and that the silk trade between
Japan and the United States will
be resumed. But who can say
when the war will be over, and
who can guess what the political
and commercial relations be- 1
tween America and Japan will
| be at the termination of the war?
It seems strange that during
the recent silk crisis no one has
suggested the possiple supstitu
tion of Persian, or we should say
Iranian, silk. Persian rugs and
I textiles have been known from
time immemorial. They are trea
sured in museums and coveted
by collectors. Silk experts claim
that Persian silk has a quality
superior to any other. With en
u;ui cigt'intrii l emu me dpfjiiuduun
! of modern methods, there is no
reason why the silk industry in
Persia should not eventually
reach high standard of that
of Japan. Even today Persian
silk is sent to Italy and France
(or was) and to a limited extent
to the United States. A modern
silk factory has recently been es
tablished in Persia whih produc
es silk for home consumption.
The mulberry tree, on which
the silkworm feeds & spins his co
coon, is indigenous to Persia. Per
sian labor is as cheap as, if not
cheaper than, Japanese. Women
and children alike are versed in
the handling of cocoons and the
reeling of the silk. This is no in
dustrial adventure to be started
from the ground up. It is an in
herited industry and is in the
Persian blood.
Substitute for Opium
It is no new idea that the silk
industry of Persia should be re
vived and developed on a big
scale. At the International Opium
Conference held in Geneva some
years ago an attempt was made
on the part of the United States1
to persuade the opium-producing
countries of the East to restrict I
their poppy cultivation. It was
felt that if the countries depend
ent on ther opium revenue could!
receive equal returns from other,
sources, the centuries-old opium
evil could at last be brought un-i
der control.
Persia was the first of the pro-1
ducing nations to respond to this!
suggestion and to approve the
sending of a commission of ex
perts under the auspices of the
League of Nations to study on
the spot the potentialities of Per
sian resources and to devise ways
and means whereby her poppy
cultivation could be restricted
and other sources of revenue sub j
stituted without upsetting her*
financial equilibrium.
Among other substitutes for
opium the commission was im
pressed with the possibility of de
veloping the Persian silk indus
try to a far greater degree. But
when the commission returned
to Geneva and presented its re
port it was received with little
interest by the governments
whose colonial possessions in the
Far East depend largely upon
Pill LOSOPH iCAL NOTE—Socrates, the philosopher who drank poison hemlock in 399
F.C., seems to be trading stare for stare with these Nazi soldiers in conquered Athens, Greece.
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THEY’VE COT ‘PULL ’—Dairy maids line up for the milking: contest at Watertown, N. Y.,
in Jefferson county which claims more dairy cows per acre than any other county in U.S.
opium revenue. The attempt of
•he United States to attack and
suppress the opium evil at its
source was thus abandoned and
(he .report of the commission to
day rests in some pigeonhole of
the deserted structure which
once housed the League of Na
tions.
Ruler Ambitious
A sorry chapter followed the
failure of the United States in
Geneva. Japan at once urged
Persia to increase her opium pro
duction and shipped it by the ton
to China in an attempt to further
weaken the resistance of that un
happy country. But with the
spread of that war into the Pac
ific, traffic in opium as in silk,
will be interrupted.
Persia has an ambitious and dy
namic ruler, eager to develop the
resources of his country to the
limit. He could not regret the
loss of the illicit and universally
condemned traffic in opium were
he offered in its plcae the im
mense silk market of the United j
States or even a fraction of that!
trade.
The development of the Per
sian silk market is worth serious
consideration by the manufactur
ers of America. It should be re
membered that a study of the
silk possibilities of Persia has al
ready been undertaken by a com
mission of experts and its prac
ticability assured. There remains
but to approach the Persian Gov
ernment and devise ways and
means by which the development
of this industry on as large a
scale as possible can at once be
started.
Persia is not at war. Her trade
route through the Persian Gulf
ad Indian Ocean to America by;
way of the Cape is still open. Un
doubtedly the smell of Persian
oil is as perfume to the nostrils
of Hitler, but to find a great Am
erican industry in his path
should prove a deterrent rather
than an incentive to his program
of adding still another tombstone
in his imperial graveyard.
PRETTY AS A PICTUR E—Its columns and (Itimc
bathed in sun, the almost-completed Thomas Jefferson ir., i> ,nial
on the tidal basin in Washington is framed by a part of the orna
mental stone work in a bridge over a nearby canal,
Irving McK. Reed I
MINERAL SURVEYOR, G. L. O.
Surveying lor Patent /
Office on Second Street, back of Polets I
AYill be in town until about October 15 _.