The Wrangell sentinel., 1945-10-12
THROUGH THE SENTINEL PERISCOPE

Alaska statehood was given a setback recently when the House Appropriations S ub committee, which visited Alaska past summer, in it's report released in Washing ton expressed serious dou b | S whether the Territory is ready for statehood. The subcommittee was headed by Rep. Jed Johnson of Oklahoma and included Mike Kir~ wan of Ohio, Ben Jensen of Iowa, Henry Dworshak of Idaho n John Rooney of New York
 In it's report to the House, the committee said:
 Although the committee feels that eventually the claims of the Territory must be given serious consideration, it appears that up to the present time, the Territory has not developed to point where it is ready for statehood; that it has not enacted tax laws and other legislation, including in many in- stances social laws, which would place it on a par with most of the states of the Union and the com mittee has serious doubts that it is ready to assume the role of soyerign state now or in the near future"
 Taking a crack at Alaska's tax system. the committee said it was "shocked" to learn that while fish ing interests have taken fifty to sixty million dollars annually from Alaska waters, the return to the Territory is "only about one mil lion dollars a year.'
 Gold mining has yielded some three hundred million dollars since the industry was started in Alaska but returns have been extremely negligible" to the Territory, the committee report said. It charged liquor taxes are enegligible,' Johnson's comittee eontended, add ing that the Territory "has no basic tax laws, no gas tax, no pro- perty or land tax outside of in- corporated towns and no Territor- ial income tax" (The committee erred on the gas tax; a one-cent gallon tax on motor fuel was im- posed by the last legislature.)
 The committee declared roads are urgently needed in Alaska and that the Territory should accept full share in construction costs which heretofore has been borne by the Federal government. It said the Alaska Railroad had a six million dollar surplus which 1t should be permitted to use to im- prove the roadbed and purchase modern equipment The report said the Indian Service is lacking pitifully; in service to the natives and declared activities other than improvement of parks and monu- ments and involving the health, education and general welfare of the natives would get the first call on any funds expended in the Ter ritory. Dubious of the opportun- ities for veterans in Alaska, cau- toned ex servicemen against homesteading in the Territory without careful personal investiga- tion. It recommended further in- yestigations of the agricultural areas by the general land office and urged that some government agency determine what business opportunities there are for vet erans.
 Altogether, the report was de- finitely unfavorable to statehood It might even be interpreted as nfavorable-period. It will be in- teresting to see what the House Committee on Territories, which also visited the Territory past summer, has to say on the subject in it's report.
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 Dr. Charles T. Battin, economic professor who headed up the wage stabilization division in Alaska during the war years, has returned to his professors chair at the col lege of Puget Sound in Tacoma with what appears to be a low opinion of Alaska and some of the people in it. The doctor in a inter view with Lawrence Harper in a Tacoma paper recently says Alaska has none of the advertised oppor- tunities but rather is "a difficult land of vast distances and few white men, and if the Seattle boat is late "you go hungry. The professor hints that Alaska is largely made up of bureaucrats