The weekly Alaska citizen., 1919-01-13

wealth.
 ALASKA CAN PAY THE
 NATIONS WAR DEBT"
 WE CAN PAY TWOFOID.
 One of the chief concerns of the Na- tion at the present is to take care of the re- turning soldiers. Many of them will find their positions filled by others, and many will not care to go back into the same line ot work at which they were employed before they entered the army. All in all it is prob- lem confronting the nation; thousands ot men turned back into civil life daily, facing peri ods of idleness unless some extraordinary measures are taken to provide them with means of earning their living. New indus tries which sprung up to take care of the Ma tions needs for war materials are dying a natural death, with the exception of the ship wards, and the demand for labor that arose from this source is coming to an end. There is bound to be a period of more or less re- trenchement, until the Nation gets adjusted again to conditions of peace And all this does not take care of the doughboy who fought for us as he should be cared for, upon his return.
 He should be given an opportunity to en- ter upon some field of endeavor that is con- genial and that pays him a living wage. He should be given opportunity to use the exec utive training that he may have obtained from his experience as an officer in the army, and he should be allowed to develop the ini- tiative that he gained thru his army training. Many of these lads entered the army of Uncle Sam, inexperienced and untutored, and have come out with a specialized knowledge of certain professions gained in intensive courses of training and actual experience. They are bound to want to continue along the same lines, and should have the chance.
 New country is where they would be giv- en the ideal opportunity to try out their ex- perience, their initiative, their specialized training, that they gained at such cost to themselves and the government. And to find new country, they naturally must turn to AL aska, the last frontier of the United States, the last great undeveloped territory in the Union. Alaska will give them opportunity. a chance to develop with the country, chance to grow and advance as far as their ability can take them. Alaska has unlimited pos abilities for this, and we must see that they are made known, that Uncle. Sam is well aware of the chance that he can give his boys -who fought so gallantly for him on the bat |tlefield-here in Alaska He must be made to see that at comparatively small expense, and that in the nature of loan, he will be able to care for his doughboys in the way in which they should be treated, in order to pay back in some measure the debt of gratitude that he owes them.
 This expense mentioned is merely the same sort of help that has been given other new parts of the country as they developed- the West, and the Southwest. It is merely the appropriation of sufficient sums to render the development of the territory less difficult for the settlers and less lengthy and long drawn out. It is merely loan-that will be repaid many times in the years to come out of the wealth of the country-to make the ter ritory more attractive, easier to live in, and easier to develop. When this help is given, vast mining plants will be opened up, and there will be demand for labor, both skilled and unskilled, that will give employment to thousands of returned soldiers. And more than this there will be demand for farmers to till the millions of acres of homestead lands, to make the country self-supporting and feed the mining population. This will give thousands of returned soldiers a chance to obtain farm land as fine as can be found any where in the Union; land that will raise bumper crops, that will feed millions of heads of cattle, sheep and hogs that will provide