Seward daily gateway., 1925-08-08
ALASKA SCENICS EXCELL FAMOUS
 MOUNT RAINIER
NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER FROM LODI COMPARES ALASKAN
 PRICES WITH STATES
More Farmers Are Needed
Alaskan Towns Too Small for Daily Papers Says Owner of Small
 California Town Weekly

From a tourist standpoint, Alaska seems to need more practical farmers, for cannot see any reason why vege- tables and berries to the value of five million dollars should be shipped into your country when all of this could be shipped into your country, when all of this could just as we'll be produced here," stated F. F. Roper, manager of the Lodi Sentinel, a weekly newspaper of Lodi, California, prior to his depart ure from Seward the first of the week for the South.
 With my own eyes I saw merchants in Alaska opening up box after box of vegetables and berries which can be grown in your back yards. All the land required for individual agricultu- ral purposes can be obtained from the government with little effort, and as have seen demonstrated at the vari- ous portions of your big country, which have visited on this tour, all it takes on the part of the individual is just little work
 Compares Prices for Food
 T have paid particular attention to the prices charged for meals turnout the Territory and the result is find that Alaskan prices charged in all the restaurants I have entered compare very favorably with those in the States. I fact, I can go so far as to state that Alaskan prices for food served in cafes are lower than what one would have to pay Outside, and the quantity per portion exceeds by far that served in the States. AS an example right here in Seward I paid 75 cents for dinner which I would have been charged not less than $130 for in my own town of Lodi. This meal consisted in itemizing the vari- ous items at Outside prices. Steak, 75 cents; soup, 10 cents; salad, 15 cents; two cups of coffee 20c, and dessert, AV CSulS, tOld1 S1.0U.
 Calls It Mountain Road "The Richardson trail was not as good as we had expected, and as an- other gentleman said, who made the trip at the same time our party went over it, the name of highway should not be used, for your neitors expect to find a good road and are therefore disappointed somewhat However we travelled in comfort at speed not to exceed Is miles an hour This is very slow travelling. Down in California we would call your Richardson road good mountain trail. The accomno- dations at the roadhouse were all one could expect and the novelty of the various situations we occasionally found really appealed to us. The scenery was wonderful and far out classes that of Mt. Rainier in the state of Washington.
 Publishes a Tri-WeekIy Paper
 MT. Roper expressed himself as as- founded at the daily papers which are published in practically all Alaskan towns. His paper is the pioneer pub lication of the town of Lodi, with a population of about 2500, and the pa- per has been established for 50 years. He stated that his circulation exceeds by far the population of tn etown, and his advertising runs to about 65 per cent of the space in the paper. He said his plant is now making money, since he threw out his job plant and confined himself to the newspaper business. Mr. Roper was surprised to see the quality of the Alaskan daily papers and naturally wondered how they were able to exist. He was en- frightened. Seward he said, appeared to him to be much too small town to support a daily paper, and he said he believed that daily could not be made to pay until the population of the city reached over 20O0.
 MT. Roper said he anticipated his partner, MT. Moore and family, would make the Golden Belt tour next year.