The Daily Alaska empire., 1932-10-17
SCHOOL GROWTH NORMAL, KELLER DECl ARES HERE
C o n ditions Very Good, Says Commissioner Re
 turning from Long Trip

| ts oE -i-F Completing a six-week school in spection that carried him to wide. ly separated parts in the First Fourth and Third Divisions. w K Keller, Commissioner of Education arrived here t3hs morning from Cordova. He was atc6mpaIiied by Mrs. Keller who joined him last week at Cordova. os au , School conditions are very Food in every community that I visited and there is apparently desire on the part of. school boards and the public generally to cooperate with the Territory in carrying on the nediicattof1Ai work as econcmi- cally as possible, z. Mir. a1e11er said
 Enrolment Growth Normal "The school enrolment every. where, except at Anchorage, shows a nonnal growth in all depart fnents,' MT Keller added. Al Anchorage there was "a slight de- crease, due to a fallng off ot grade school enrolment, but tht High School shows a fine 7 in. tcrease." efe 8ea 8sslH
 The work in the schools in pro. lgressing satisfactorily. The teach. ling staff Is efficient and coanpe. ltent. Local problems have gener. ally been worked out agreeabl, to all concerned. There is nt treason why the current school yea fshould not be the most successful in our history, and I Ibelieve it vii \ be, z he declared.
 jasx4 Make Long Trip Isa MT Keller visited Haines ans Skagway shortly after leaving her, on September 4, last. He then pro ceeded via Whftehorse and Daw son to Eagle, Circle, Ft. Yukon I Tararla, Nenana, Fairbanks, Chat |anfka, Alaska Railroad points tt Seward, and Prince William Sound I He did not make the Cook Inle and Kenai Peninsula points, due tt | difficulties in transportation, noi |Valdez, except as the steamer 1sstopped there for limited time At Curry, where the Territoria school was closed last Spring dut to lack of enrolment, he supervised the packing of supplies and ma ter1als to be transferred to new ly opened school in Prince William sound at PePake Island. t Mining on Upgrade
 Mining in the interior is dis tinctly on the upgrade, MT. Keller said. The production of the Forty Mile district will be larger than for many years. Renewed opera tions in the Circle region where re- rorted with larger output than last year. In the Fairbanks district the large scale operations of the Fairbanks Exploration Company and those of a number of smaller concerns and individual operators showed excellent results.
 At Willow Creek, the Dunkie mine lat the Lucky Shot is employing some l25 men and the output is reported to be approximately $30,- 600 per month. st { sKcnnecctt Closes Down
 !, The Kennecott copper mine, op- erating on reduced scale for the past two years. closed down today leaving only caretakers employed Mr. Keller said. The low price of copper is saAd to have forced suspension of the work. aal The Copper River & Northwest ern Railroad, which has just re- sumed operations. will close down on November I, by which time 1t is expected that, all of the freight for interior points will have been moved to its destinations.
 Did No Campaigning
 MT. Keller said he declined to make any campaign speeches on the trip, which was a routine school inspection. He addressed the Anchorage Women's Club on AL aska schools at its request, and that was the only speech made on the entire trip
 He said he had made no cam paign plans for this Division. He lprobably will go to Wrafigell late this week or carly next week to consult with Farm Island school authorities over some difficulties the community there mas been having over its school work.