The Daily Alaska empire., 1938-07-16

played such a prominent role in tn Territory's early development ant its later expansion than has tht Post Office Department.
 Since becoming Postmaster Gen eral I have constantly been award of the necessity for improved ano expanded mail services in the Ter
 itory. and I am happy to state that great strides have been made in this direction during the past few years.
 Juneau Air Mail
 "One of the most significant de- velopments in the history of the AL i askan mail service was reached | about two months ago when the city of Juneau, the Territorial Cap ital was linked by air mail service with Fairbanks. the principal com mercial and industrial city of the middle northern section The inau- guration of this service over a route of about six hundred miles from the coast to the interior, was the first air mail contract service of this type to be placed in opera ton in Alaska. This route proceeds north from Juneau, through Chil- koot Pass, via Whitehorse, Yukor Territory. to Fairbanks.
 Modern passenger, express anc mail planes cover the distance ir about four hours, as compared with the previous steamer and train ser vice, via Seward, which required about five days This new service will, it is believed, provide a tre- mendous impetus to the develop ment of the interior of Alaska. From Fairbanks we have in operation stal route air mail service to Nome and 10 Bethel Each of these air mai star routes is approximately six hundred miles. and there are num- erous other shorter air mail stal routes radiating from importan' Noints in the Territory. These air plane services are providing quicl transportation to heretofore remote and almost inaccessible points
 AS I think of these modern ia cilities I am reminded of the pros pecting days of 1898 when hundreds of adventurous gold seekers per ished in desperate but futile att tempts to battle their way over tho lofty mountains through winter blizzards and in sub-zero tempera- lures.
 Star Routes
 While the Juneau WhitehorSe- Fairbanks air mail route is the first contract air mail route to be estab- lished in Alaska, there has, for sev- eral years, been in operation net work of air mail star routes, which superseded the old dog sleds. Until recent years the dog sleds were the principal means of transportation in many sections of Alaska, but witi- the advent of the air mail service the dog sled is gradually disappear ing. However, there are stil a num- Der of dog team routes operating il he more remote areas of extreme northern Alaska. Airplane mail ser vice is now afforded over routes aggregating three thousand, six hundred and eighty-five miles Dur ng the last fiscal year about one hundred and fifty thousand miles were flown in these services, and he total mail poundage carried over hese routes was upwards of a quar- ter of million pounds.
 That the Post Office Department is doing it's utmost to improve and expand the mail services in Alaska is evidenced by the fact that during the last fiscal year approximately eight hundred thousand dollars was expended for the maintenance Of the postal services in the Territory
 Receipts Increasing
 Tt is interesting to note that the gross postal receipts in the Territory have been stearily increasing. Last