The Wrangell sentinel., 1944-03-03
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 SEN FINIBLL
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Back from the salmon front n Seattle and Washington during the major part of the winter, this week came Wrangells Fred Gunderson, Alaska Advisor to Fisheries Coord inator Harold L. Iekes and consult ant on the Alaska salmon program. He was back for only a few days this trip. as he and his brother, George. are taking their boat, the Alaskan. south for checkup before the Gunderson's seasonal operations at Johnson's Cove.
 Fisheries lineup for this season is similar to last, with few addi- ltonaI small lines permitted in some of the smaller places. In this dis trict Wrangell operation will be- confined to Farwest Alaska the. same as last year There will be a one-line operation at Union Bay, one line at Steamboat Bay and one. line at Craig. PAF and Dean Kay Tor will operate at Petersburg the same as last year and one small in-. dependent line is added to the Ket-' chikan setup. On the whole there is little change. Main reason, off course, is shortage of man power and transportation. What there is has to be spread over the industry Report is that some additional Out side labor has been granted for the Farwest-Alaska Brueger operation here. due to the acute shortage of local labor
 In connection with the labor set up, 12th Regional War Labor Board was meeting in Seattle with George Noble as Chairman this week to. take up the Alaska and northern Canada labor problem, mostly con- cerned with workers for government construction jobs. With the Army some 100000 men behind quota and Selective Service tightening up as a result thereof, availability of labor and wages is one of the No l head aches in the Alaska industrial book | Gov. Gruening was scheduled to goI down to the conference but de to puressure of duties in the Territory was unable 10 make it. He did, how eNer, give the conference some en- Tightening data on the Alaska situ- a.ion in a letter to Chairman Noble. i Said the Chief Executive:
 "I desire to stress the fact that Alaska conditions are entirely diff ferent from those in the states, and that these conditions in turn differ widely in different parts of Alaska | It should be constantly borne in mind by those dealing with our AL aska wage scale that the cost of living is substantially higher in Al aska than anywhere in the 48 states and that a fair wage policy should and must fully recognize that diff ferential
 Up to the minute figures on | hat those differentials are are not available. But we may assume that the differentials disclosed in an au- thoTitative survey made by the AL | aska Federation of Federal Elm ployees three years ago are still reasonably accurate. If anything, | the cost of living in Alaska as com 1 pared with the United States has risen since that survey was made, | due to the substantial freight and passenger rate increases established by the steamship companies immed- lately after the outbreak of the war
 However, that study showed that as compared with Washington, D. C., the cost of living was 35 per cent higher in Ketchikan, approx imately 50 per cent higher iu Ju- neau, 75 per cent higher in Cor dova, S8 per cetn higher in Anchor age, reaching a maximum of 116I per cent in Fairbanks.
 Wage rates established for Alas ka ought therefore to take these differentials into consideration and should vary with the region in All aslia where employment is offered Of sourse, if the conditions of em- plcyment include food and lodging, ma urally the cost to the employee is thereby diminished and this can be taken into consideration.
 { overnor suggested in his letter thst if it was found necessary to ha- another conference next year tha one be held in Alaska to deal wholly with Alaska problems. and