The weekly Alaska citizen., 1919-04-07

the people who are not familiar with AlaSka and its possibilities, some concrete notion of the future that is waiting just around the corner for the country. People Outside have been brot very close to the war and all it en- tails; more, as a rule, than have the people of the territory. The war debt is to them very real and present thing, for they realize that the war has cost tremendously, i'll human lives and in money. It has cost ill opportun- ity, too. for many who did not lose their lives have lost their jobs, and the future to them is apt to look blank indeed.
 They gave up their work and answered the cali ot their country. When they return ed they did not find their old jobs waiting for them, and even if they did, oftentimes they have found that they have no inclination to return to them. The upheaval of the war has affected them too, SO that they have diff ferent outlook OH life, and are ready for big ger and better things. They want opportunity to make more of themselves than perhaps they expected to before, and SO are seeking broad CT fields.
 And where do they naturally turn in such case? They are likely to seek new country, country where the development is all before it, where they can get in on the ground floor" And when they learn that Alaska is all of this, that the possibilities of this country are such that the people living here say i'll all earnestness that Alaska can pay the Nations war debt they will think u,at is the country for me-"
 Already, there is one case of the sort 8 discharged soldier, who took his courage itl hand and journeyed to the northland. And thc1~ is 10 doubt but that there will be many i1crc of the same kind. Every Alaskan who has been in the service has been a self-con- stituted press agent for the land of the Mid Light sun. ard we would venture to bet that many and wonderful are the tales that they have told of it.
 And this opportunity that Alaska holds out to the returning soldier is one oi the ways ill which she can pay the Nations debt to the soldier who fought for America, and everyone will concede that the Nation does owe an incalcuable debt to him. Alaska of fers him a chance to strike out for himself and make good. It offers him chance to possess his own home, his farm in country that is already proven to be of great agri- cultural possibilities. It offers him chance to start in business for himself, in new country, with the future all before it. Alaska is anxious to help pay this debt, perhaps from a selfish viewpoint, too, for there is no class of settler that she would prefer to the dis charged soldier.
 But the huge monetary debt of the Ma tion, how about that, might be asked! Does Alaska presume to think that she can pay that? Isn't that an idle boast uttered in a spirit of bravado? But think back to the times of the Civil War. What part of the country paid that war debt? Was it the East, already settled and established? No, it was the West, the country of great possibili ties, the land of promise, the great land of the 1uture It was the West, as it developed, that yielded the riches that paid the debt left by the war of the rebellion.
 And it will be likewise in the case of this war debt. It will be the new country, the land that is yet to be developed that will pay the debt. There is only this difference. AL aska has possibilities that were undreamed of at the time of the development of the West. The West was country of magnificent re- sources, but hot to be compared with the po- tc1ltial wealth of Alaska. The West had great farming iand but Alaska has thousands of square miles of the best sort of farm land, a!l open for homestead entry. The West had silver, gold, copper and oil, but all together, they do not begin to compare with what is known to be in Alaska. The West has fish cries, but those of Alaska lead the country even now, and are capable of greatly in creased development.
 It is the logical thing for Alaska to pay the Nations war debt thru its development. The revenues that will come to the coffers of Uncle Sam thru developing the resources of Alaska will easily wipe out the cost of the war in comparatively short time without the stress and strain that would otherwise be caused by it. But in order to bring this about