The Daily Alaska empire., 1939-10-27

Horn into the Pacific Ocean.
 upon winter month employment will reduce the economic drain of sea- sonal unemployment and the impor- tation of seasonal labor from the West Coast. The development of year-around industries will create jobs in Alaska for auxiliary occupa- tions, themselves of a year-around nature. Carpenters, masons, elec- tricians. engineers, doctors, dentists, tailors, cobblers and barbers will be needed in an expanding economy. Trade within the Territory would be increased, and more money earned in Alaska would be spent in Alaska. The costs of road building and har- bor building would be less burden some if spread over greatly in- creased population, and the cost of transportation per ton-mile would decrease as greater use was made of transportation facilities. A larger tax-paying population would make possible greater territorial invest ment in public utilities, hospitals, schools, libraries, and other con- munity services which are vital to the people of Alaska. All these de- yelopments depend upon large-scale | t.s, ,,, ,r,.a 4i.,, olor,tafnlx o fi,1arcpd C l.. Andrews, the historian of Alaska, writes: Alaska has room for mil- lions-when they come she will be greater than all those Nations tre- ferring to Scandinavian countrieS).
 Defense Problem
 "The Federal Government is in- terested in promoting largc-scale immigration for reasons of national defense and national economy AL aska, 54 miles from Siberia and eco miles from Japan, presents diff cult problem of national defense be- cause it lacks population and facili- | ties for transportation, communlca- ton, housing, disqualification, stor- age and repair, all of which are es- sential to defense and dependent upon population. The War and Navy Departments have expressed a spec ial interest in the economic and commercial development of the Ter ritory as a whole The economic de- velopment of Alaska might provide a tremendous market for United States industry. In 1888 Alaska pur- chased $42,676,4 Al worth of United States products-about as much as three of the smaller European coun- tries, Norway, Switzerland and Por- tugal, put together. In addition to furnishing markets, Alaska could provide the United States with many products for which the United States is now almost entirely de- pendent upon imports from abroad, such as tin (999 percent imported) newsprint (773 percenD, herring (94.4 percenD, canned crab meat (944 percenD, and various types of fur, leather, paper and wood pro- ducts which are now imported from European and Asiatic sources.
 Agriculture Subsidiary
 Alaska contains, besides large areas of grazing land, 65,000 square miles of good agricultural land but because of transportation difficult ties and the lack of local markets for produce, agricultural develop ment must be subsidiary to indus l trial development. The best areas for immediate industrial develop ment are in southern and Southeast Alaska, where one-fourth of the newsprint consumed yearly by the United States could be produced on sustained yield basis, where in- dustries based on fish, fur miner als, wood and hydro-electric power can be developed, and where exten- sive recreational and hotel devel- opment is feasible.
 Existing sources of information reveal extensive opportunities for the establishment of such industries as mink farming, fur processing, hotel operation, herring production, canning of crabs and shrimp, pro- duction of newsprint and various manufactures based upon reindeer hide, wood and minerals. Such de- velopment should follow lines that will not interfere with well estab- lished enterprises, such as salmon canning and native crafts, but will Slnrllement existing employment