The Nome nugget., 1942-09-02
American Metropolitan Papers
 Favor Northwest Highway Supply Line to Alaska

Recent issues of several of the largest and most n- hUential New York papers have gone on record enl- phatcaIy in support of the Dimond Bill now before Congress- for appropriation of $25 00000 to build highway to Alaska from the Pacific Northwest along the "A route Among them are the Post, the Times and p. M. The New York Herad-Tribune supported the measure with the following forceful editorial
 Neither the attack on Dutch Hacoor nor the occupa ton Of the WesternGost of the AIeutian Islands by the Japanese has driven home to the American people the importance Of Alaska in the war against Japan
 Hardly any attention las been paid to a 5u lntro- duced into Congress by the delegate from Alaska to be built along the route approved by the Canadian and American commissions which studied and survey ed the possibilities.
 The reason for ta5 Indifference is not that the n- land route now being built 5 considered to be ade- quate The average person has no idea that such work is in progress.
 Tie real trouble is taa. the American people are amazingly ignorant Of Alaska and of Northwest Can ada and have little idea f the geography of the region
 Th.5 s why the testimony oI such men as Anthony J D.mond, the deesst- to Congress fromst 4, a and MT. Donald Macdonald, who for 20 years has been fighting for an international highway to Alaska. de- serve special consideration. These men know whereof they speak
 What their argument boils od0u b $ that. apart from the difficulties of construction 0I the route now being built to connect various airports on the way to Alaska through supply road is necessary in order to make possible the transportation 10 Alaska of the n- ereasng amounts of war materials and men that are needed there
 They insist that the route agreed upon by the Can adan and American commissions is the most advan- tageous and should be built soon as possible. The two routes converge at Whitehorse but south of that point the route approved by the Alaska International Highway Commission runs down one of the interior valleys t0 Prince George, in British Columbia, where the road being built far inland
 Among the advantages of the route approved by the commission Is that it gives access to the coastal sp of Alaska south of the main body of Alaska pro- per Another advantage is that the rainfall and snow fall conditions along this route favorable, there being only short strip where heavy snoWfas cccur
 In the Dmond proposal there are two main consd- eratons-quesonS of fact and questions of strategy.
 The questions of fact concern such items as the na- of the terrain the amount and distribution of pre- cpitatjon in the form of rain fog and snow and the accessibility of the route to all parts of Alaska.
 The questions of strategy center about the extent to which that territory will have to be used in the
 Il is the contention of those who have studied the international route that the questions of fact can be answered faVorably to the project
 To lay students of strategy it would seem that AL aska's importance is more likely to increase than to decrease With the possibility that the water route to Alaska may be exposed to raids there much to be said in behalf of additional link to the internal highway.
 Certainly Mr Dimond's propsoa should not be ig- nored the ground that the route approved by the International Highway Commission considered when the decision to follow another route connecting the airports was made. Conditions have changed since that decision was made.
 Alaska unquestonaby needs a supply line