The Wrangell sentinel., 1923-01-25
All Alaska Dinner Is
 Big Event

SEATTLE, Jan. 22.-Editors and their wives and others totalling over four hundred were guests Saturday evening of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce at the much heralded Alaska Dinner" which was made up wholly of Alaska products, including bread made from Alaska grain, and salads built around red salmon. The banquet was the concluding func- tion of the meeting of the Washing ton State Editorial Association, which had been in session several days last week.
 The dinner began with clam nectar from Ccrdova ond ended with straw berries from Haines.. Raspberry pre- serves from Wrangell proved to be one of the most popular items on the menu.
 This was the first Alaska dinner ever served south of 53, with every thing on the tabele a product of tn, great north
 Governor Scott C. Bone of Alaska was the chief speaker of the evening and his addres was given close at tention..
 The governors address in part was as follows
 Alaska is the least understood. the most generally misunderstood, Of all the civilized countries of thc world. Ill the minds eye it is a frozen. icebound, glacial upheayal and formation, unfit for habitation save for Eskimos and polar bears. In actuality and fact it is the very antithesis of that mental picture. The feast here tonight. an Alaskan feast in toto, attest the truth. Alas ka is an inviting land in all it's as poets. Its summer climate all along the coast is virtually the same as that of the Puget Sound and the average winter temperature Is con- rarable to that of St. Louis and the Mississippi Valley. In the In terior the summers are warm, often as hot as in western Washington. and the winters are no more severe than in the Rocky mountain and northern states. Only in the Arctics is frigidity encountered and even within the Circle the mercury rises to the nineties in midsummer.
 "It should not be necessary to restate and reaffirm these facts, bu untruths as to Alaska have becon so firmly implanted in the public mind that iteration and reiteration become necessary to dispel fancy and suppiant 1t With fact
 Tt is common saying tha everything can be grown in Alaska except cotton. corn, beans and mel ons., This statement does not do the Territory full justice in except ing beans and melons Your Yaki ma and Wenatchee valleys have nothing to fear from Alaska in fruit growing, but berries of all varieties thrive amazingly and there is an abundance of soil near tidewater IS rich and fertile as that of your famed Puyallup valley. Mir. Paul. hamus may not yet view with alarm the prospect of Alaskan competition but the berry growing and berry canning industry of the Northland is certainly large in possibilities A country fair held in Juneau in September disclosed as fine prod ucts of garden and field as could be raised anywhere on earth. Native celery and lettuce are unrivalled in any cline. Wheat equal to the best Minnesota grade is grown in the Tanana Valley. There has been but one crop failure in twenty-five years of agricultural development in Alaska. What state in the Union can equal that record?
 "The eyes of the country are or Alaska. It is becoming better known and being recognized as a domain worthy of sane attention and con- structive, upbuilding policies.
 Alaska needs people. It needs cap ital. It needs a chance - the Ameri- can chance. Given that chance and it is being given that chance Alaska will come into it's own and add strength to the Republic"
 The affair was arranged by the