The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-04-01

named Stewards Icebox," and the Ma tions F'olly.' The purchase was looked upon much as it would be if Admiral Peary should offer to sell the govern ment section of ice of equal dimensions about the north pole.
 As to the actual amount we have al- ready received from Alaska, it is today considerably over $6O0,O0O0OO, and there is scarcely an industry in the country that has not produced many times it's original cost The minerals alone have netted something like 800 000,000 the wish over s2O0 000,000, and the furs and skins more than 10 times the amount we paid for the territory. We have received more than S50000,O00 out of the seal islands and something like $10,O00,G GOO from the furs of the sea otter We have received an equal amount from the furs of anil malls caught on the land, and the beavers and muskrats have altogether yielded about $20O0,0OO.
 As to the present income from the territory it annually amounts to over eight times it's original cost or in other words, the investment is now paying a1a- nuai dividends of something like 800 per cent. Tn 1915 the output of copper was just twice as much as the whole sum we paid for Alaska, and the gold mined that year was worth $2,000 0O0 more than the copper Last year we received from the fisheries three times as much as the pur-
 chase price, and the trade of the terri
 tory amounted to over $75, 0000O, or to
 more than 10 times what the whole coun- try cost.
 The Alaskans are proud of what has been accomplished, and they are going to celebrate their fiftieth anniversary by a worlds fair. This fair will be diff lelent from any ever held by any ma ton or in any country It will be com memorative of Alaskas fftieth birth day and will take it's place among the great celebrations of that kind. We held the next at Chicago in 1893, to commence rate the four hundredth anniversary Of the landing of Columbus, and the third at St. Louis, in honor of the Louisiana purchase. Each of these expositions was confined to a few hundred acres The show grounds of the Alaska exposition will be one-fifth as large as the whole United States, and a stroll through it will comprise travels covering a dis tapce longer than from Los Angeles to Manila The exposition is to be known as the "All Alaska and it will cover all of the larger towns and give gen
 eral view of the territory.
 The "All Alaska" is to be in the form Of excursions arranged by the Alaska bureau of the Seattle Chamber of Com
 
 eran "Sourdoughs" The towns are pre- pairing to hold celebra tions of from one to three days duration, dates that will not conflict and will allow of participa- 1 tion by the excursionists These celebra- | tions will be in a circuit so that instead of one show there will be a long chain | of wonders, each featuring it's own To- cality and furnishing the visitors an op- portunity of viewing the mammoth indus tries in actual operation
 The excursions will probably be two in number, and one will be twice as long as the other The first will take.30 days and the second about 60 days, the latter in cluding a tour of the Yukon, trip across
 Boring sea and visit to the Aleutian Is lands. It will be somewhat similar to the excursion of 1913 which covered dis tance of S594 miles, or more than the diameter of the earth at the equator IT at party included many prominent business men, a congressman or so a dozen newspaper correspondents and personal representative of President Will l son. The party of this year will be many | times as large. It is expected that it | will have a delegation from Congress and representatives of all the government de- | partments A personal representative of | the President is expected to be part | of it. and there will be representatives of business interests from all sections l Of the country. The first excursion is eX- | pected to leave Seattle about June 20 It will be the shorter of the two, and it's
 tour will practically be confined to south