The Daily Alaska empire., 1938-08-22
SENATOR SEES BIC FUTURE FOR
 TOURIST TRADE
Agricultural Acres Capable of Supporting l2 Mil-
 lion, He Declares
SAYS TRANSFORMATION
 IS GREATEST NEED
Lauds Pan American Ex- pansion Declares
 Need for Highway

Alaska has the agricultural acre. age to support twelve million people and given proper transportation, ln- cluding the International Highway, it can be accomplished, according to U. s. Senator Robert R. Reynolds of North Carolina, ranking member of the Senate committees on Military Affairs and Territories and Island Possessions.
 Senator Reynolds arrived here Sunday by PA plane from Fair banks after trip over Alaska which took him as far north as Point Bar row and over the Westward and In terior regions and left early this morning with Col. Louis Johnson, Assistant Secretary of War, and his party, in the Army plane bound for Seattle where he is scheduled to speak Wednesday night.
 What Alaska needs far more than anything else is transporta- tion,'' said the Senator last night as he sat in the lobby of the Cas- tineau Hotel commenting on his AL aska visit. By that I mean all-kinds of transportation, roads, air lines, steamship lines. The present serv- ice is inadequate. If you had the International Highway with proper facilities in the Territory of Alas kas more than g million acres which are adaptable for agriculturN in Alaska, there is no reason why agriculture couldn't support 12 mil- lion people.
 Agriculture
 There is great opportunity up here for agricultural development, and the tourist business. Say, I've never seen anything like it any where, and I have visited over a good part of the world, the golden opportunity here is to build up the tourist business. You have every thing which appeals to the tourist scenery, mountains, glaciers, hunt ing, fishing, all lorts of recreation. Never saw anything like it.
 "The annual tourist business runs into millions. Bradstreet last year placed it at around five billion Think what it would mean to Alaska if two or three hundred thousand of those tourists came up here, each one spending at least $10 a day, many of them a great deal more, and all of them are good many days in the Territory. Every busi- ness in Alaska would get some of that money. Your business gener- ally would prosper, and they would force a lot more new business houses
 Transportation
 But you have to get better transportation. The International Highway is going to be big help I can see that opening up this coun- try and bringing millions of people in here. But your transportation fa- cilities around over the Territory where I've been are not adequate The rates in some places are out of sight. Something has to be done about it."
 AS ranking member of the Ter ritories committee the Senator said he was going to do everything he could in Congress to bring about the things which he thinks Alaska needs. AS ranking member of the Senate's Military Affairs commit tee, he expressed himself as vitally interested in the national defense program of Alaska The Territory is the least protected part of the United States. he declared, adding that the plans for naval and mili- tary bases in the north must be pushed, and took look into these requirements was one of the rea- sons for his inspection trip to AL aska this summer.
 Defense Program
 Pointing out that transportation fits into the defense program, Sena- tor Reynolds saw great possibilities in the International Highway as a military route in addition to its primary purpose of furthering com
 Continued on Page Three)