The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-08-22
UNTOUCHED FORESTS AND MINERAL
DEPOSITS of ALASKA Give CHANCE
OFLIFETIME TO FORTUNE HUNTERS
Vast Tracts Of Virgin Soil for Agricultural Purposes
and the Potential Wealth of It's Fisheries Would
Soon Make MiEonaires of Adventurous

mas double the agricultural area OF
Scandinavia, and more than double |
Scandinayia's potential wealth in min |
erals and forests and fisheries It has |
made many millionaires in the past. |
Nobody needs doubt that it will make
many more in the future, but will it
be wealthy according to the best def
milton of a wealthy land? Will it be
a land Of happy, healthy people?
, Today, to a great extent, 1t is SO,
and yet even today in the few scat
tered communities that make up the
bulk of sAlaska's population, there is
present, and there seems to be grow
ing, that canker of selhshness that
has made such a miserable failure of
civilization in the older states. There
are the employers who think Of their
men as merely tools by enc use Of.
which they can increase their own
wealth, and there are men whose
minds are full Of bitterness against
their employers and still empty o.
love for other men. Among tl.e
pioneers who have been through the
great gold rushes Of Dawson, Fair
bonks and Nome there is often rare
feeling Of brotherhood, and the
stranger coming to live in Alaska
meets with a warm welcome that sur 2?
prises him. The children of Alaska
are about the healthiest, 11appiest and
best tempered I have ever seen
There seems to be almost no race or
class feeling among them. In them
lies the hope of Alaska, and as the
territory has just taken over control
of it's own educational system there
is great hope that these excellent.
children may be properly cared pr.
q nr1u r.. hnna f1av wi III
escape the influence of some Of their
best known elders-that their ideal
will be- public rather than private
service, and that instead of goving to
brother man only just as much JUS
tice as the. law makes them give they
will wantfto give more than justice
and more than a square deal when
ecer they can. A new slogan for "a
new country! It is too bad In. such a
place as this to see stale and meaning
less old political spites and prejudices
being copied from elsewhere.
1t does, seem a shame that those
who have positions OF influence should
not start Alaska on her career with
clean hands and pure heart SO that
the public service would be respected
instead OF sneered at. but Of course.
1T is the fault of Alaskans themselves
II these Things are &encouragedTanQ
in fairness it must be admitted that
they are not nearly so prevalent here
as they are in other places.
They might just as we'll be stamped
out entirely. If the men don't do It;
perhaps the women will-for the men.
were good natured enough to pass
5women's suffrage two years ago, and
in many parts Of the territory the
women's organizations are making 1t
their business, to see that things are
done properly. 1t Is pity that they
3confine themselves SO much to private
effort instead of using their political
power more directly, but they are do
ing great work. and If IN the future
Alaska is a better land than some
other lands, a land where more JUS
tice is done, where the wealth Of the
people is more in the peopl's hands,
and whre service is more honored.
than selfshness, then a great deal Of
the credit viii have to be given to
Alaska's women Of today. They not
/ only honor service. but they per-
form IT. ~