The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1917-05-07
RAILROAD DRAWS
|. MANY TO ALASKA

Juneau, May Nearly 1000 men arc
working on the new government rail-
road being build by the Alaskan engi-
neering commission. under the direc-
| ton of Sec. of the Interior Franklin K
Lane in Alaska this year, 1000 more
1 than were employed last season.
A number of those whose applfca-
tions were received too late have gone
north, many of them intending to ap-
ply for homesteads.
The new railroad passes through an
| extensive agricultural country, and be-
tween 500 and 1000 homesteaders are
| now developing that region as it was
| never possible to develop it before the
| coming of the railroad.
There is still room for large num-
Der of homesteaders near the railroad,
| and the government encourages farm
ers from the states who wish to make
Alaska their home Recently the Alas
kan engineering commission contract
ed with the Matanuska farmers for 400
tons Of potatoes or more than $4,000
Drop Chase After Metals to Become
Real Farmers.
Many of the homesteaders in vari-
Gus parts of the territory are former
miners and prospectors who came pri-
marily for mining, but were SO inn
pressed with the farming and stock
raising possibilities that they ceased
their pursuit of the elusive pay streak,
and chose to follow the more depend
able plow.
Manager Christensen, of the land and
industrial department, says in his re-
port on the farm lands of the rail
SINCE the advent of the railroad
there has been an influx of several
thousand persons and there is now a
farmer u can an supply. % Matane
uska is in the heart of the Matanuska
valley, and will be distributing point
for the farmers. Nearly all OF these
"a, hat fx7A vaIH al a IN
to agriculture because they have al
ways been assured of a market and of
high prices for their products"
Not so many years. ago land was was,
cheap in the eastern states. Men still
living can recall the time when valu-
able tracts could have been had for
next to nothing. The big railroad sta
tion at st. Louis is built on land where
little boys q generation ago sailed
boats and chased minnows.
Price of Land Jumps as Population
Gains.
Pioneers pushed westward, the IN
dian was told to move on, his land was
settled and the price went up. AS pop
ulations increase, the price of real es-
tate increases, and land once cheap
grows dear.
Today Alaska farming lands as broad
in acreage as half a dozen eastern
states are open to the enterprislng
farmer, Just as the middle west was
open half a generation ago ago: nora h,+
the sturdiest could bear the hardships
of pioneer life. The history of the
whole westward movement from begin
ming to end shows that prerailroad set
Elements were few and far between. In
every case the railroad has come f1rst
and opened up the country:
That is what is happening now in
Alaska. In the past the fertile interior
has been hard to reach. It's the old,
old story of the American frontier.
First few hardy pioneers, then a rail-
road, then the inevitable stream OF
permanent settlers.
In Alaska the government railroad
line runs from Seward on the Gulf of
Alaska to Fairbanks on the Yukon, and
penetrates one of the richest regions
Minerals Of every kind await the
pick of the IHiner, fruitful loan re-
wards the plow with generous gifts Of
grain and produce; Trained agricml-
ment assist settlers with seed and in
formation.
And the people are coming to this
great new territory Just as as they came came
in the history of Alaska have so many
homesteads been established as during
the last two years. Never since the
days of the Klondike rush has the
Alaska burau of the Seattle Chamber
of Commerce answered so many Ques-
tions as it does today.
III 1857, William H. Seward insisted
Alaska. The price paid was $7,200,000.
People scoffed and rallied and jeered at
Stewards ice box.
Last year the territory exported
twice its purchase price in gold alone.
six times its purchase price in copper,
three times its purchase price in fish.
It's. total commerce for the year ap-
preached $120,000,000.
And still Alaska, is land of thrills.
1t has scarcely stepped across the
threshold of the vast prosperity that
will be hers. The. $50o.Oo0,000 it has
given these United States during the
course of the last half century will be
doubled many times before the century
lis closed.
winters Not So Cold as New York or
Alaska is no longer formidable will
derness. Thoughtful men and women
realize that though it is cold in winter
1t is warm in summer. Reports Of. ac-
tual weather conditions show that IL
was miIder at Seward this winter than
it was at New York or at Boston.
We cannot speak of Alaska as
whole any more than we can speak of
as misleading to speak of the Matanus-
ka valley and Point Barrow in the
same breath as 1T is to infer that
pomegranates will mature IN Vancou-
yer just because that island happens to
be circled by the same sea that laps
the beach at Coronado.
A map of Alaska superimposed on
chart Of the United States shows
spread Of territory IRON the
Pacific at Los Angeles, from Canada at
Lake Superior to the state of Sonora,
in Mexico.
Its 5s6,4OO square miles comprise. a
domain one-tifth as large as the Unit
climate and in resources.