The Daily Alaska empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1926-1964, 1939-08-30
Time MAGAZINE
DEV0TES PAGE
TO TERRITORY
SIafieY Report Findings
Detailed in Magazine
S mo Refugee Talk a.

Alaska rated a whole page in
Time this. week. The report OF
Undersecretary of the Interior Har-
ny Slattery is summarized by the
national publication and illustrated
by a map locating the Territory S
resources.
The Time account does not men
ton the refugee settlement pro-
posal which Secretary Ickes made
in releasing the Slattery report.
Under the heading Territories
and entitled "Defrosting,' the Time
article is as follows: ts
In 1867 Alaska was called Sew
ards Folly" and THE Ice-Box of
the North" because Secretary of
State william Henry Seward bought
the land from Russia for $4,000
&c per acre. and everyone knew
it was wasteland of ice and snow,
inhabited only by wolves and Es-
kimos.
Moral Obligation
Last week Under Secretary of the
interior Harry Slattery defrosted the
Ice-Box of the North In 81 packed
pages he reported to Secretary Har-
old L. Ickes that the planned de-
; velopment of Alaska lis, an inescap-
able moral obligation" of the u. S.,
that its 590,884 square miles are the
last frontier" that U. S. economy
and national defense demand its
large-scale settlement, preferably
by public-purpose corporations such
as the East India Company that
developed India for Great Britain,
the Plymouth Company that de-
veloped the Indian-infe wilds of
Massachusetts.
Although no hot-lipped trumpeter
like his boss, Under Secretary Stat
terry released a report full of tall
talk in Technicolor, pausing occas-
ionally to put the blast on antique
u. S. misconceptions of Alaska (see
map. He found:
Less than per cent of Alaska is
under ice and snow.
Some towns Juneau, Sitka) are
cooler in summer, warmer in win
ter than st. Louis, Chicago, New
York City Sweden and Finland
are in the same latitude as Alaska
IA Miles Cultivated
Alaska has $4,000 square miles
suitable for farming go per cent
of that only for grazing), yet in
1880 had only IA square miles in
cultivation.
Besides its known riches of gold,
silver and copper, Alaska has the
only U. s. tin deposits.
The Territory is a feminine para
disc; 228 males to each 100 females
GU. S. 1903 TO 1000, but SIG per cent
of the men are over 35, represent
ing the residue of sourdoughs who
never left the trail
Fresh milk costs Csc per quart,
bread usually Csc per loaf, gasoline
35c per gallon, imported timothy hay
$75 per ton, local hay $30-$40.
Old Alaskans have never seen a
wolf pack, do not know anyone
who has Counting a pack as more
than five, which is family0
Mosquitoes
Coastal mosquitoes are few, but
those in the interior bad. Oldtim-
ers swear you can't tell mosquitoes
in the interior from ducks, unless
you know lot about ducks.
In Southeastern Alaska within
five miles of tidewater enough tim
Der can be cut annually to supply
one-uuarter of u. S. newsprint
needs, in perpetuity, without dent
ing the forests.
! In 1888, the 10000 people in AL
aska bought $42,00O,OOO of U. S.
products-more than Czecho-Slo-
vakia, Denmark, Hungary, ireland,
Norway, Switzerland, Poland, Fin
land, Portugal or Spain, all coun-
tries with much greater population,
and only slightly less than Russia
and Brazil.
The air route from San Francisco
to Japan via the Aleutian Islands
is 1,700 miles shorter than the route
via Hawaii.
Temptation
Poorly defended, underpopulated
rich land such as Alaska is "a stand
ing temptation" to overpopulated,
resource-hungry militarized nations.