Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1922-03-16

Boston and, at social gathering, was
pointed out as hailing from Alaska.
Does he speak Engiish?" asked Miss
Highbrow, adjusting her glasses and
inspecting him interestedly.
Vilhdamur Stefansson, college
bred, is an illuminating discussion of
"Tne North That Never Was" gives
approval to the idea of a Cambridge
preacher that the country needs a
National University Of Polite I'm
learning. Stefansson himself would
fit into the ALASKAN chair of the in
stitution. Or, equally so, DR.. Alfred
Brooks, the eminent geologist, or
Major J. c. Gotwals, practical road
builder, who has mushed the Terri
tory and knows it from A. to z.
So profound a statesman as Daniel
Webster, who visioned Americas fu-
ture greatness, could see nothing
worthy of consideration west of the
Rocky Mountains. Therefore, we may
be patient with Twentieth Century
denseness that still ignorantly visu-
alizes Alaska as country of ice and
shaw, its mountains and hills laden
with precious metals and its glacial
scenery unsurpassed, but really fitted
for habitation only by polar bears.
Those Misconceptions.
Something more potential with the
masses than National University of
Polite Unlearning is required to cor
rect and dispel these ridiculous popu-
lar misconceptions about Alaska and
force upon the public mind fair and
accurate knowledge of this great
Northland.
| Alaska is not monumental iceberg
or glacier. 1t is not snowbound and
in the grip of bitter, biting elements
1t Is not cut off from the world. It's
ports, save those in the region of the
Arctic Circle, are open the year
around. It's temperature in the in
terror, in mid-winter, is no more Sc
we're than in the Northern and far
Western States. It's climate on the
coast is generally mild and equable
with much rainfall, but comparable to
the climate of Portland and Seattle
Billiards such as rage in Mime
sofa, the Dakotas and Montana and
occasionally in New York and the
East, are sometimes experienced in
the northernmost part of the Terri
tory, but are uncommon, if not UNI
known, to coastal Alaska and Alaska
as whole.
Millions of people live happily and
thrive in Norway and Sweden and in
sections of our own country under
climatic conditions no more favor
able, if not more severe, than the
general climatic conditions of Alaska.
Alaskas' summers are ideally
pleasant and delightful on the coast
and gloriously bright and beautiful,
and often hot, in the interior. Tenn
perature ranging from 80 to 80 de-
grees is frequently encountered in the
Arctic Circle. Throughout the Terri
tory flowers and berries grow in pro-
fusion. Long days and warm sun
shine give sturdy growth to plant
life. Fairbanks is a veritable floral
bower in June, July and August. The
midnight sun on the Yukon is worth
travelling thousands of miles to see.
especially when it Eliminates Mt.
Mckinley, the towering peak of the
American continent.
Has Farming Lands.
Alaska possesses 100000 square
miles of agricultural lands and today
numbers hundreds of occupied home
steads under successful cultivation.
Farm products of the estimated value
OF S250,0O0 were grown and sold in
the Tanana Valley alone the past sea-
son. Year after year there is in
creasing cultivation.
How are these and kindred truths
about Alaska to be firmly planted in
the popular mind and the untruths
and the half truths forever eradi
Gated?
How is the real Alaska to be re-
moved from the realm of fancy and
established upon fixed foundation
of fact?
BY opening Alaska to settlement;
by inviting capital and people to
come in and making it easy for them
to gain foothold; by unlocking its
resources and freeing the Territory
from red tape rule; by unreserving
millions of acres of lands senselessly
reserved; by silencing and shunting
aside the Missionaries and theorists
who succeeded in bottling UP Alaska
and whose ideas have been extern
slvely tried and clearly found want
ing; by proceeding with the develop
ment of Alaska as a big business
by disinissing the fool
ISL, demagogical fear that any So
called predatory interest ever can or
ever will gobble up so huge a land
as Alaska or a material section there
OF; and finally, by tardily realizing