The Wrangell sentinel., 1946-11-08
THROUGH THE SENTINEL PERISCOPE

Eggs. $1.35 a dozen; lard, 70 cents a pound; butter, $l.25 a pound; tomatoes, 6n cents a pound; meat 75 cents to Sl.5O a pound: l-+tuce. 45 cents per head; 1; milk. S7.0n a case.
 The premium on living in Alas ka always has been higher than in the states but it has reached new peak as the result of the two months old shipping tieup. Tie prices listed above are Southe' { Alaska prices, as the result of bringing in supplies by air T .e astronomical prices of the Interior and Arctic are still higher. Near while. a so-called Committee On Maritime Unity, which might bet ter be called a Committee on Why Ships Don't Run.' sits down n Seattle, which is not dependent un ships to ge- produce in from the Puyallup valley or elsewhere. i"r| now more than 50 days arguing a. bout who will man relief ship t9I Alaska. One spokesman of solne- thing or other to do with the ;is- up casually comments that Aias5f-I ans have plenty to eat This was supplemented neatly by a state ment from Capt. Austin E. Lata- rop, credited with being Alaska 5 millionaire, quoted in press dis
  his Eska coal mine so everything must be hunky dory. In his Seat -le hotel suite Gap" was doing all right so why worry? Another nice little supplement to the mess may be found in an item in the Alas ka Weekly of October Is announc- ing that trucks were leaving from Seattle for Fairbanks via the Il- ternational Highway. Some of he trucks. says the item, were to be loaded with materials for finish ing beautiful foyer of the large new theater the captain k l erecting in Anchorage Two Of the trucks were being sent In ny one ]. Manialla, carrying equip | nent for his new Mecca bar at Fairbanks" While this bucket of fish was being reported govern ment officials were being asked ly | merchants of Fairbanks and other Interior towns sorely in need or just plain food supplies to try ant get some trucks routed via the h. ternational Highway to relieve the emergency.
 Coastal towns were getting sort of shirttail relief through .he gracious favor of the strike hler- archy in Seattle in permitting small independent boats to carry supplies north These are boats with a capacity of about 50 tors Three of them have been lowed in to Ketchikan thus far with broken propellors or some other trouble The fact is that it is just too tough for small boats to carry sup plies to Alaska during the win CT months. They can hardly carry | enough to make it worthwhile and, in the face of winter storms, thaj | stand an excellent chance of t;- ing up on a beach with loss of | boat, crew and cargo.
 One Wrangell merchant w11 | flew to Seattle to charter such a | foat was forced, when it got he e. to throw overheard 500 pounds Of weiners, several sacks of flour and | sugar which had been soaked bv l heavy seas breaking over the boM The merchant said he couldn't af- ford another such experiment and the skipper of the vessel said le wouldn't try such another trip a- gain. Its no place for a sm T l boat this time of year" he said.
 The Juneau Chamber of G n- merce, with which We often dis l agree, in a resolution recently a. dopted summed up some potent facts in the following paragraph.
 Severance of such lifeline (wa- ter transportation not only dis commodes the people of Alaska ny
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