Evening star., 1958-07-06

= ylaL B 6LEUuB, OfBdulAcu OppOoAOAO
ditch stand against change. Mos
eastern Alaska, where fishing
interests-tied closely in some
cases to stateside investors-are
worried that the State would tam
per unduly with their operations.
Fear Higher Toxes
Stili others are afraid Of higher
taxes, and some simply feel that
Alaska is not yet mature. Never
theless, statehood advocates are
counting on q repetition Of the
two-Co-one vote for the State
constitution in 1866.
The issue will not be settled
until Gov. Mike Stepovich calls a
special election, probably late in
the summer.
So what? Who cares? Who
are these oddballs, anyway, who
live in q land even the Russians
didn't want?
Before / am clobbered by q seal
tusk, let me hasten to say that ]
care. Anybody who has had the
fortune to live even for two brief
years among the hardy. enthuSi-
astic people who are tanning the
wilderness couldn't help but care.
That was not the feeling I
had one night in December as !
climbed of a troop train in Fair
banks. The temperature was 35
degrees below zero, and even a
heavy Air Force overcoat was not
enough to stop the shudders
stemming partly from the cold
and partly from utter disgust and
despair.
"Give it back to the czars," I
thought, "and let me 60 home"
Weeks later, through sheer
chicanery, / moved of base to
downtown Fairbanks and took a
part-time job on the Daily News
Miner. 1t was then my education
6egan.
1--WE have the strongest coffee
in the country, the highest noun
tain on the continent and the big
gest bears in the world" q burly
Alaskan sourdough informed me.
WoIkins' on Icy Sidewalks
I learned to dilute the muddy
coffee with canned cream (fresh
milk costs more than so cents a
quartz and n1aneuver my bear
sized bunny boots" those aWk--
ward but toasty warm limitations
of white buck shoes, over icy
sidewalks.
To anyone without binders, it
was obvious that q Jack London
novel was no picture Of mid
century Alaska. Most Of its citi-
zens are Office workers or con-
struction men, and work a union
lied eight-hour day. It begins
with the same sort Of breakfast
and ends WITH the identical tele-
vision programs (on f1lm, a
month late) that any Washing
tonian may enjoy.
But there were differences, too
the mark of a frontier land
that prizes Its individuality.
Point Barrow, for instance. is
q mans town where q mans
problems are uppermoSt in the
thoughts Of the community. Guy
Okakok is the Eskimo correspond
ent for the News-Miner who
writes Of those problems in q col
orful prose which has made him
famous Though he doesn't know
it, throughout the territory.
He wrote last week from
Barrow:
For all these years from gen.
erations hunters here in Barrow,
not In Barrow alone but all along
the Arctic coast. Each year polar
bears be killed by the hunters, and
some how this winter it's difflcult
than any year, (WHY. Its be-
cause the hunters from the states
who do went out with the small
plane and scared the polar bears
away"
- Hot Summer WeotheF
Fairbanks, too, is q mans town.
There single women are outnum.
bered perhaps 50 to / by single
men, including the military. Con-
sequently, the chemiSe is un-
known, or at least unworn-it
would probably be hooted OF
Second avenue-and women dress