Evening star., 1936-02-09

Water N the valley for crops Is
plentiful The Knik and Matanuska
Rivers, which fork around the valley;
Lake st George, formed by the NAM
moth Knik Glacier Gust IA miles from
Palmer, provide that. For drinking
and home consumption there are the
110 wells. almost one for every home.
These wells, drilled through successive
layers of sand, gravel glacial rock
mud and quicksand, range in depth
from IA to 290 feet, and each took from
two to three weeks to sink One, Incl
dentally, when sunk tc a depth of 100
feet, flowed salt water. This at the
distance Of $50 miles inland!
Tho colony cannot fall" Pierce de-
clareS. Everything about it points
away from that. From the beginning,
with the exception of short period
of mismaGagement of labor, the prof.
ect has ltln smooth course.
WITHIN three days after their
w arrival in Seward we had 70
large tents arranged in the form of a
city, set up for them. On June were
had the drawings for locations and
acreage for each family. Those who
drew 40-acre parcels had 80 of them
already cleared. Those who drew 30
acre plots had Is cleared. Those who
drew 120 acres had to be real pioneers
and clear off timber and undergrowth
themselves.
"By June 20 lumber and supplies had
arrived to begin the building of per-
manent homes. Some were log, some
made of lumber imported from home,
some of lumber purchased from Alas
kan Industries. Naturally, to begin
with we had some strikes. Alaskan
laborers demanded. and got, 5000 a
month. rof m and board: our transient
workers were paid only $30-$40 q
month. But that all was ironed out.
"We had brought wagons and horses
on the first trip up to move the colon
lists and supplies inland from Seward,
and from the temporary tents to their
new homes. A month after they drew
lots, a boatload of stock-chickens,
goats, horses, COWS, pigs-came up.
But they had as yet very little furni-
ture: no washing machines, for ex-
ample, and they were needed. So or
der blanks we're distributed along with
mail order catalogues, and, by a long,
term credit arrangement. every house.
holder went into a huddle and figured
out all the things he needed to furnish
his new home. Since every colonist
had to be a married man with chill
dren land that meant all the way from
two to fourteen in one case), the fud-
die included quite group, each with
a word of his own to put in about what
to order"
Each family started its life in the
colony with $4,000 credit with the
Government. The interest on this
amount he had to agree to pay in the
five years; the principal isn't due for
thirty, the term of the entire contract
each signed with the corporation.
Against this credit everything is fig
ured-what the colonist spends in the
construction of his house (costs here
varied around $1,000, what he buys by
way Of supplies and foodstuffs through
the commissary; what the colonist
earns by working himself building his
own house, for example-or by selling
his produce. In this short time, as an
instance of what is being done in this
earning line, Mrs. Lawrence Arndt re-
turned home with the transient work.
ers In November for visit. She had
done laundry up there in the colony
for families miles around. She had
made enough to pay of her entire
commissary bill, and had thousand
dollars besides.
"HIGH COSTS" continues Pierce.
"have been the one loudest and
most legitimate complaint on the part
Of the colonists. Freight rates are