The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-08-05
THE STATE OF ALASKA.

HE STATE OF ALASKA
There is a great deal in all we are
| nearing and reading nowadays about
Alaska and the Klondyke region that
mas familiar sound to those whose
memories go. back to the days of 40
or even to those days when civilization
was forcing settlement into our own
Northwest. There are the same lugu-
prlous stories of hostile climate, arid
SOILS, hardships, starvation and an I'M
| lnhabltable region that we heard VIII IN
the Argonauts opened the riches of Cal
1fornia to allure the seekers after gold.
ana which we heard ad nauseam when
homeseekers were crowding into the
free lands of the Northwest 1t is but
little over twenty years since Gen.
f1azen announced seriously to the coun-
try that the region covered by the Da-
kotas, now the wheat granary of the
land, was desert whose arid soil and
cll1nate could not sustain life in any
'hlng out the buffalos that roamed the
| plains and the Indians who subsisted
on their flesh. And yet men have gone
IN and occupied the land, adapting
themselves readily to the conditions of
climate and soil, and we are now be-
ing RECALLED with the statements that
the farmers there have paid Off with
IN the past four years, sixty or seventy
million dollars of mortgage debt besides
subsisting.
30 II was when the Canadian Pacific
opened the prairie regions of the North
west territory and invited settlement.
What doleful stories We then heard of
the lnclement winters and the terrible
SUFFERING endured by those unfortunate
enough to live there And We find re-
| peated there the same experience tnat
our NORTHWEST has given US. 1t will
probably be the same with the interior
regions of Alaska. Many will be de-
TERED from going there, but the lure
or gold will induce hundreds
| OF thousands to test their for
tunes there another year. For
that metal there is nothing men will
not risk and endure There will go on
the same process Of adaptati ton to en-,
VlFonment that has always distinguish
ed the race in all it's colonizing. 1t
will be gradually realized that life can
be sustained there on the products of
the country as it can elsewhere 1t is
probable that, 1t will be found as true
there as 1t is elsewhere, that nature
adapts herself to the climatic condi
tons in the production of grains and
vegetables; and, as the season of
growth shortens, stimulates growth to
rapidity commensurate to the length
OF the season. The winters will be
found not SO absolutely preclusiye of
work as is told; as returned
hlonoyke miner told our Fairmont
correspondent, any one who can work
out Of DOORS in the coolest weather of
Minnesota can do the same on the
Klondyke.' 1t will be found that grains
and vegetables can be raised in the
valleys, and modern commerce. will
soon find means of supplying cheaply
| any deficiency
Judging the future Of interior Alaska
by the experience of the past in the
development Of new regions, we can
confidently look forward to the time
when there will be a large population
living there, finding ample sustenance
in the soil and rivers, communities
grown into social order out of the tur-
moil Of the first greedy rush, and
again the white man demonstrating his
capacity to adapt himself to any con-
dftion nature may impose upon him.
And, in the immediate future we can
see a good reaction in the relief the
migration will afford to the congestad
condition of our cities, out of which
the greater portion of the tide will flow
Another will be in the sedative admin
istered to discomfort in the new ex-
element and in the additions made 10
the standard currency of the world.
Suffering and hardships will be under
gone by the pioneers, just as their kind
have always met and endured them.
but these are but the temporary Incl
dents of all such movements. We pre-
dict that a state is bound to grow IN
under the Arctic circle