The Cordova daily times. [volume] (Cordova, Alaska) 1914-1947, 1919-02-15
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY Is, 1919.
OPPORTUNITIES IN ALASKA"

Director of Publicity E. J. White
has been receiving a great many in
quiries, particularly from the east, as
the result of letter he recently wrote
to the Christian Science Monitor Of
Boston. The letter is entitled copper
tunities in Alaska" and the responses
to it indicate that there is great deal
of interest in this territory through
out the country.
AS result of the letter Mr.. White
has been requested to write an article
for a New York magazine, setting
forth more in detail the opportunities
for young men in Alaska. This he
will do at once.
Mr.. Whites letter which appeared
in the Christian Science Monitor is
as follows:
To the Editor of the Christian Science
Monitor:
Now that the war is over, and hun
dreds of thousands of young men are
being dismissed from military serv-
ice, young men who, being imbued
with the spirit of adventure, will not
be content to return to their former
prosaic lives, few words of what
Alaska has to offer them are not out
of place at this time
Alaska is Americas last frontier,
and the department with which the
writer is connected is already receiv-
ing many letters from soldiers and
sailors about to be discharged from
the service, and who are anxious to
acquire information about this coun-
try, with the view Of coming here to
make their future homes.
While Alaska has hundreds of mil
lions of acres available to settlers, the
proposition looking to community
settlements, which is now being
worked out by the Reclamation Serv-
i've of the Department of the Interior
of the United States, is not feasible to
this country, the same as it will be
in many of the states in which are
vast areas of swamp land which it is
proposed to reclaim for agricultural
purposes and for homes for returned
soldiers. The reason this system will
not succeed in Alaska is that, to make
a success of agriculture there must be
markets for the products, and the
population of Alaska is as yet too
small to constitute such market, and
the distance to cities along the Pacific
coast is so great that Alaska products
could not be shipped with success or
in competition with what those states
produce within their own confines.
Farming, therefore, in Alaska is not
an inducement to be held out to our
returned soldiers and sailors.
However, several thousand young
men can be provided for here by our
industries, which are COM
mining, fishing and lumber
ing, of which all but that of fishing
are steady, twelve months in the year,
and year in and year out. All of these
industries are and have been operat-
ing on short labor ever since the
United States entered the war. Also
all of these industries are now await
ing the return of those who left, as
well as the arrival of new men, In or
der that normal conditions may be re-
sumed and the volume of business In
creased at the earliest possible date.
It is conservative to state that 5000
young men can be furnished with re-
employment In Alaska
during the first four months of the
new year, but it is not desired that
they all come at once, or even In
punches Of several hundred. But by a |
few arriving with every steamer from
The south, they can be absorbed and
provided for by the country without
any congestion. Also. and as soon as
normal prices obtain, number OF
low-grade mining propositions which
cannot be operated on account Of the
high cost, both of material and labor,
VIII again become active. and at least
another 5000 men will be required.
Again, the opportunities In Alaska