The Cordova daily times., 1919-11-11
ALASKA THE DESERTED IS TITLE
 OF MAGAZINE ARTICLE WRITTEN
 BYFORMER ALASKA MISSIONARY

1 dom. Most of them have not re- turned, and many of them will not return, having found other fields of activity.
 Second-The decline in the value of gold. Prices paid for machinery, for wages and for food in Alaska gold camps are always high now they are prohibitive. And hundreds of claims which were worked profitably two years ego are abandoned at present, and the owners have either given them up entirely or are waiting for more favorable transportation and | lower prices before resuming opera tOns
 Third-Copper has also slumped. The Kennecott mine, which was rated as the richest copper mine in the world, and which produced over ESQ., 1000 worth of copper ore in one season, will scarcely yield one-third of that amount the present year. Many copper mines are not being worked now but are waiting for rise in the price of copper or decline in the wage scale.
 Fourth-There has been like fall ing off in the production of canned salmon and other fish in Alaska. The high prices of last year and the great contracts for supplying the United States armies with canned salmon led to feverish activities in that industry and the erection of many new canner- l ies. The production of this year will be scarcely two-thirds of last years yield
 Fifth-The great government rail- road, for which $35000,000 was ap- propriated four years ago, has been completed about two-thirds of it's way from the coast to the Interior. It has reached the rich Matanuska coal field and has been extended some 200 miles up the Susitna valley From the ln-
 
 mana the road has been extended southward as far the Nenana coal field. At the close of last years op- erations all of the $35 5,000,000 appro- priation had been expended except $2,000,000. The additional sum of $8,O00,000 was asked of congress this year to complete the road, but has thus far been refused, and work on the road is at a standstill, except on the southern section. The town of Nenana, which was booming a year ago, has lost three-fourths of it's citi- zens. Anchorage, the ocean terminus, has not lost so heavily, but is receding rather than progressing. The expect ed immigration of farmers to take up land in the Interior has not materi- alized. All of the cities and villages of the territory, except two or three on the coast, are depressed, and many of them depopulated.
 Of course, all who know the vast riches, the millions of fertile acres, 1 the splendid climates-in a word, the desirability of the territory as place of residence and business enterprise are sure that this depression is only temporary, and that there is bound to come, before long, heavier immigra- tion and a greater boom than ever; but the present is time of stress and Encouragement.
 From the foregoing considerations it is easy to deduce the state of mis- sionary activity in the territory this year. Our native missions have been but little affected by the depression ] of business in Alaska. If anything, they are in nose prosperous condi- tion than ever before, and the per sonnel of our missionary force. was never finer than now. There have been some changes, but all of our na- tive missions are now we'll supplied, 1 At Cordova, near the mouth of the Copper river, Rev. A. G. Shriver has been very active, and this town has been prosperous, and therefore the church has not decreased but has grown in numbers and influence. MT Shriver has ministered to number of the mining towns along the Cop per River railroad, and is now pre- pairing to build a new church at Cor dova.
 ~, rl;o WilIiomc a paprO maSSen-