Eskimos Reported
In Dire Distress
Eskimos living in the district
between the mouth of the Yukon
River and Hooper Bay, where a
t' dal wave last December des -
troyed the natives’ food supplies,
are desperately in need of sus
tenance, Pilot Art Woodley of
Fairbanks, said upon his return
to that town recently.
Woodley had flown over the
district with the Very Rev.
Francis Menager, superior of
Jesuit missions in Alaska.
The tidal wave carried ice
blocks twenty miles inland and
destroyed several native villages
and food supplies over a vast
territory.
Father Menager said several
hundred Eskimos in the region
were virtually without food, as
their winter’s supply of fish had
been spoiled or carried away.
Resources of the missionaries
have been depleted, Father Men
ager said, and no more help was
forthcoming from that source.
He said sickness was appear
ing among the natives and there
was danger of floods from melt
ing snow. The Eskimos in the
stricken area probably are the
most primitive people in North
America.
Reports said the National Red
Cross had refused a request for
$2,000 to aid the natives after
the Bureau of Indian Affairs in
Washington, D. C., had declared
accounts of suffering in the area
were exaggerated.
-x
Ten dollars per thousand is
the price being offered for seine
caught salmon and the canners
don’t care much whether they
buy any salmon from the sein
ers. Most of the companies plan
to operate their own traps.
* * *
They never learned to love who
never knew to weep.—Lord Ten
nyson, , j
Where is the Money Coming From?
Replying to the Fairbanks
Chamber of Commerce, which
submitted to him a petition ask
ing for the construction of a
road from the Steese highway
up Porcupine Creek, William II.
Hesse, territorial highway en
gineer, draws a rather gloomy
picture of the outlook for in
augurating construction of that
or any other new roads by the
territory.
The attention of the chamber
was directed to the fact that the
last legislature “appropriated
$2,433,897 which greatly exceeds
the revenues for any period even
when times were good and when
the industries, particularly those
that support the territory, were
flourishing.
It costs $70,000 a month out
side of any consideration of
roads to run the territory which
means that it will take $840,000
during the next year of the
biennium and that the road
funds will have to be used to
carry on the other activities of
the territory. I will admit that it
is mockery to appropriate money
lor roads and then use it for
everything but roads, but these
are the facts and hollering a
bout it isn’t going to help mat
ters any.
“I spend the most of my time,
answering petitions for roads
and trying to explain the diffi
culty of building or even main
taining roads without money. If
people would be kind enough to
tell us how or where to get the
money we would be only * too
pleased to put it on the roads,
but this phase of the question
does not interest them.
“The prospects are at this
time that we will not have a
dollar for roads this year, every
thing will depend upon the re
ceipts that are yet to come in.
I can even see where taxes may
not be paid, such things have
happened before in better times
than these. We have been, indi
vidually and collectively on a
spending spree and we have a
head ache coming whether we
like it or not. The safe and sensi
ble thing to do is to put on the
brakes and do it at once.
“Sooner or later people must
learn that it takes money to
spend money, and the only
means that has ever been dis
covered for raising it is by taxa
tion, and I question the wisdom
cf placing any greater tax bur
dens upon the industries that
now support the territory. Nor
can communities expect that the
territory, with its limited funds
that it has to spend for public
work, can restore prosperity.
“On account of the great re
duced funds for roads last year
practically no money went into
new construction, and in the
face of our vanishing surplus, I
doubt if we can undertake any
thing of the kind this year. We
are rapidly reaching a standstill
in our road building activities,
with increased mileage that has
to be maintained and with the
ever increasing demand for re
lated projects such as aviation
fields, hydoplane airports, har
bor improvements, the control of
flood waters, telephone lines and
shelter cabins. It might interest
you to know that it cost the
Alaska Road Commission $63G,
000 last year to maintain the
roads that we now have.
“We have a condition this
year where not only the terri
tory is going to be hampered
for the lack of road funds, but
the federal road building agen
cies are likewise being restricted
in their expenditures. The bu
reau of public roads which re
ceived about $934,000 last year
will receive but $350,000 this
year and the Alaska Road Com
mission which has received
$800,000 annually for the past
few years is recommended by