The Wrangell sentinel., 1948-09-03
THROUGH THE SENTINEL PERISCOPE

ial Legislature had been carried cut as that venerable body willed ghe TerritCry's general fund al the moment would be a little item of Sls03S,oUu in the red As it is. the Organic Act does not permit even the Legislature To run tne Treasury in the hole with the re- suit that the Board of Administra- tion, acting quickly at the close or the last session put on the brea ks under a freeze order" smIing an actual cash deficit, if failing to carry out the provisions of the Legislatures unbalanced budget
 Heres the list of appropriations the Board "froze:"
 Constructing and equipping hos pitals. S165 O0o: inspection of hos pitals. Sl.0O0; construction of roads. trails. etc. S400.000. ex- pertinent station work. University of Alaska. $50 0O0; new construc- ton al University. $1O0.O00. Fo- catioDal rehabilitation. Sl0.00O: construction and repair Of rural schools. S300,O00; audit of Terri toA A4A ANAouAA1r AN sHN1s expenses of meetings education advisory. board. S2.O00.
 With seven months until the end of The biennium. next March 3I. and the general fund down 10 trickle after meeting the payroll and paying school refunds in Aug ust, there appears no possibility that any of the ahoye appropriated sums will be available The fact is. the Territory will be lucky if il gets by with routine expenses un- til the next session meets.
 Plan. proposed some months ago. ! whereby the Army will pay the | cost Of operating schools on four Alaska military reserv4 tiOns under the supervision Of the Territoria Department of Education has fin ally jelled. Offer made by Commits, sioner Cf Education James Ryan to operate the schools at $4,OO0 per class room has been accepted by the Army. The schoOls win be al Adak, Fort Richardson. Ladd Field and Eilsen Field and vii acleom- modate the children of Army per sonnel and construction workers Buildings will be furnished by the Army.
 
 Sitka would be Legionnalrs town this Labor Day week end. Oe- casion was the annual convention, of the Departmen; of Alaska Am erican Legion. 10 which delegatesI were expected from all parts of the Territory. Gov. Gruening was to address the convention and a lot of Army, Navy and Coast Guard brass was scheduled 10 be on hand. Homer Nordling of Juneau, long active in Legion circles. was ex- pected to move to the Department Commanders chair.
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 With the closure of the fishing season at hand. prospects for ex-i tensions were not bright with the possible exception of the southern district where the pink salmon rl.n was reported fairly good Accord ing to fishery officials the north ern districts have been extremely light since the opening and chance of extension there was remote. However. a few days might be granted in some of the southern areas. --
 Postal receipts for the September quarter probably would show quite a jump. The campaign was getting on in earnest and candidates and political organizations were usirg postage stamps to carry their mes sage to the voters. 4 visit to the mail box was sure proof that an el- ectiOn wasn't far in the offing. Vote for" or your contribution would be appreciated" were the slogans of the day Republicans were circularizing their devotees with the pressing need for raising $S,6OO in the Treasury to support the Dewey Warren ticket and carry on the Alaska campaign for thelr candidates. Democrats were after S4.0O0 for the Truman-Barkley ticket and somewhere around the same amount for campaigning in the Territory to elect their candi- dntes. Any way you sliced it. Uncle wasn't going to lose. He'd get his at the stamp windows.
 
 What may develop into the hot test campaign in the Territory is that between Frank Metcalf and Donald Mcdonald for highway en- gineer Metcalf beat Mcdonald in the April Democratic primary by around TOO votes. although he lost the Second, Third and Fuorth Divi- sions the latter. McDonald's home division. At that time. Mcdonald was running as a Democrat Now. with a jump over to the Republi-