The Daily Alaska empire., 1941-01-01

! COmDnlnR nllarlOuS COmeuy WILL stirring action, romance and mu- sic. My Little Chickadee" is said to afford it's celebrated stars the outstanding screen opportunities of their careers.
 Supporting Miss West and Fields are such well-known players as i Joseph Calleia, Dick Foran. Gene Austin with Candy and Coco, Anne Nagel. Donald Meek, Ruth Don- nelly. Margaret Hamilton n d George Moran.
 factor or through increased activity affecting a single commodity.
 It is true that the greatest ac- tual increase in the total value of the output was shown by the gold mines, but in percentages of in creased output these Jagged behind i the producers of such commodities as mercury, antimony. and tin. and there was an actual decrease in the output of lead, copper and lime rock
 Unit Prices Higher
 1 The unit prices for all the com mcdities from Alaska mines. except gold, tin, and limerock, averaged somewhat higher in 1940 than in 1939. For these three commodities the prices appear to have been ! identical during the two years. Ob- viously these increases were brought about in the world market by the demand for metals for use in the wars that are raging throughout so much of the Eastern Hemisphere and fer use in the defense meas ures being taken by many of the countries of the western world. Il has been assumed that all of the silver that is recovered from Alas ka ores qualities for purchase un- der the Governments special ar rangement for purchase of that metal from domestic sources, so that it's value has been computed at I'll cents an ounce rather than at about 40 cents which, was the price for sil- yer that did not thus qualify.
 Labor Conditions
 On the whole, labor conditions throughout the Territory were satis- factory and no noteworthy interrup- tions of production due to differ CTS occurred At times, however considerable difficulty was encoun- tered at some of the mines in main- taining full crews of experienced men because of the much higher pay being offered for many of the emergency undertakings that were i carried on at some of the air fields and military cantonmentS under Government pressure. The neces- sarily strong marked seasonal char acter of employment in most AL aska mines always presents a la bor problem that is difficult of so- lution, but this problem becomes more serious when there is an in- Aux of newcomers who may not fully appreciate the necessity of providing during the open season for their needs in the long closed season when opportunities for en- ployment are scarce.
 Government Aid
 The growing participation of the Government in fostering mining is apparent in the increasing num- Der of applications that are being made for loans from the Recon struction Finance Corporation. As such loans are, m a de only after searching investigation by the Gov srnment as to the merits of the projects, the mere filing of the nec- essary application papers insures careful planning in advance by the owner, constructive technical ad- vice and suggestions by the exam ming engineers, and continuing su- pervision to safeguard the carrying out of the enterprise In this way costly mistakes are eliminated and every reasonable care taken to assure the success of the undertak- Ing. This is having a salutary ef- feet not only on the specific project put also on educating the general public interested in mining to real ze that mining ventures are sus- ,eptible of sound engineering and business analysis rather than de- pendent on mere speculative sur- nlises.
 Gold
 The gold produced from Alaska hines in 1940 is estimated to have 'een worth $25 5.375,OO0, or nearly s2,l0o000 mere than in 1899. This ialue is greater than for any other year in the entire history of Alaska. In this comparison, however, it should be realized that in all the ears preceding 1884 the established )rice of gold was approximately S20.67 a fine ounce. whereas dur ing and after that year it has beer t35. On the basis of quantity, there
 ore, the amount Of gold produced n l940 has been exceeded in eacf of tho 10 vearc 1Q0S to IQJG ipol,,