Douglas Island news., 1919-01-31
HELP


 who went into the army appointed himScI a committee of one to paint the beauties o' Alaska to his fellow soldiers. He culogizeo its mountains and it's valley and it's coves and mlcts. it's wooded hills and itS flower spriukIcd plains He ravcd over the win ter sports and gushcd over it's summer pleasures. Uc called Alaska his Lady of fhr Shows" and the "Imd of Promise. lI, spoke of her gold and her fish and her ru, aud the lure of the Land of the Mld- uieht Sun. Whether he was from the coast or from the interior he sang the same siren song. only with variations and he IS >riI singing it. IT he happened to have come from the interior it was the mighty ,.arhcs of the Yukon md the Panama and rnc charm of Its crisp aud iuyigorating will for, aud its short but flow-bcdcckcd sum mrrs IT he was from thc coast. it was gas boat talk and the beauty of its bays and hidden ulcts and its wealth of fish and game.
 The boys, when they got started right, had ready listeners who hung spell bound ou their houcycd words. It was just the talk that sounded good to the soldier boys who had perhaps broken their home ties lor thc first time and had made up'thcn mind that m the future life would hold ad- ventures for them. Imagine such talk being :,tcucd to by young fellow who had been pcuucd in some city all his lirc bent ovcl a desk ora counter. His mind flashed witl pictures of himself flying over the snow lrhiud team of huSkicS, himself wrapped in fus and tasting of the real joys of ad venture for the first time Or. if his mmC va, more inclined for the water, he could >cc himself at the wheel of some fast little cruiser blowing through the beautiful wa trr> of the NorthIaud
 It was too much for any one man tC stand or to contemplate, SD down he sat and wrote letter to Alaska, uquiring for dat; auI advice. Now there were only about four million men in the U. S. army whcI peace came. but judging from the amount pI correspondence received, they all wrote at least once and some of them several times. or course. if there had been moro men under arms the publicity bureau would haze received more letters.
 So thc situation now rests Most all the United States army and many friends who are not in the army are laying plans to mi grutc to Alaska this spring. Of course, m answering thc letters some of the romance was rubbed off by the publicity bureau and attention was called to the fact that the need of Alaska was not SO much for dog } ">ucr~ and stccrsmcu for fast cruisers as ror men who could pilot with accuracy a Iu--hudlcd shovel, but the fact remain, tuut many men are coming North in tho spring.
 The only difficulty now will be to find iohs for those who are coming and to dis courage visionary youths from cmbarkms ror this country if they have mo clear idle; ar what they will be mp against when they arrive here.
 The chief work before those who hay, charge of the matter will be from now or to watch the labor conditions of the Terri tory and to see that there Is not am over supply ou hand. Am ovcr-supply of laboI is as bad as the shortage that has been ol tor tine past year Every person who comes to the Territory expecting big things nO iS disappointed is mo longer a friend of th Territory but will go back to the State saying hard things about the North Alas ka needs all her friends and will endcavo to keep them.
 j