Alaska Has Added
Greatly To
National Wealth
(By Vern Haugland)
<(/P) Special Washington Service*
WASHINGTON, (/F)—‘The bur
eau of land management estimated
today that at least 640 new farm
families could make a go of it in
Alaska “right now.”
Almost half of them—310 fam
ilies—could establish a sort of lit
tle Matanuska project on the Ke
nai Peninsula,' the bureau report
ed.
Simultaneously, the bureau of
mines estimated that Alaska has
added almost $2,000,000,000 to na
tional wealth, in 80 years as a U.
S. possession, and still contains
vast unexploited resources.
Oscar L. Chapman, acting sec
retary of the interior, said Alas
ka’s mineral resources are suffi
ciently varied to form the basis
of a much more general industrial
ization than has yet taken place.
The land management bureau,
in a listing of Alaskan areas suit
able for agricultural settlement
said Alaska now has less than 650
farms.
The land management report es
timated that the 640 proposed new
families would have “reasonable
expectation of establishing suc
cessful farm enterprises” in speci
fied localities. It said that 640 is a
“conservative minimum” which
under favorable conditions in sev
MacArthur’s veto of the general
strike of Japanese government
workers last week “laid bare a re
markable identity of views be
tween the Russian government
and the Japanese union leaders."
The union leaders raised the same
points which the official Moscow
organ Izvestia, had raised. It is
logical to suspect Russian Com
munists promoted or at least en
couraged the general strike plan
in Japan. They want to make all
the trouble they can.
eral areas might be doubled, and
added:
“Assuming that each new farm
family would cultivate the mini
mum acreage required by the
homestead law—20 acres of each
160-acre tract—a total of 12,800
i additional acres would be brought
j into production.
“This would mean at least a
doubling of the present cultivated
acreage, reported to be about 11,
| 000 acres, of which less than 7,500
| acres were harvested.”
In the mines bureau report,
fo m bu-eau director H. Foster
Ba n said that since the U. S. pur
chase a Alaska in 1867, fur trap
j ping and fishing ha^e contributed
|about $1,000,000,000 and mineral
interests almost $1,000,000,000 tc
the nation’s income.
Mineral production decline.!
from $28,724,221 in 1940, and
$26,809,380 in 1941 to $7,032,000 ir
1944, the lowest since the turn o!
I the century, the report said.
Gold production, formerly two
thirds of the annual value of min
erals, declined to one-fourth of th*
total in 1944. Copper, formerly
second to gold in production value
since 1939 has been produced ir
Alaska only incidentally in th»
mining of other ores.
Of 310 families which the repor
estimated could be established o:
Kenai peninsula farms, 100 wouir
settled in the vicinity of Homer
100 at Kenas, 75 at Kasilof, 20 a
Ninilchik and 15 in the Ancho
Point area.
The report said “there is mucl
more good agricultural land” oi
Kenai Peninsula.
The other proposed settlemen
areas:
Matanuska Valley—75 families
some “fair” agricultural land wes
of the colony, toward Wasilla, a nr
GooseBay; very little of it in largr
contiguous tracts. The report saic
that public lands in the Anchoragi
area are insufficient for addition
al group settlement.
Tanana Valley—160 families, in
eluding 25 along the Steel Creel
road and elsewhere within a 10
mile radius of Fairbanks; 50 aloni
the railroad from Fairbanks t<
Nenana, particularly in the Dunba
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area; 50 on truck and poultry
farms along the Richardson High
way; 20 in the Chena River area;
and 15 in the Big Delta area, where
the land is suitable for livest >ck
and limited cultivation.
The report said the upper part
of the Tanana Valley offers little
prospect for group settlement.
Kodiak Island—25 famil es on
Kodiak and Afognak, principally
to produce livestock;* processing
and marketing plants require I b >
fo-e any material expansion feas
ible.
The 40-mile area, near the Yu
i hon border northwest of Fairbanks
—10 families. Mining area, largely
unsurveyed for agricultural pos.
:| b'lities.
, Haines — 10 families; limited
acreage on the peninsula south o.
Chilkoot barracks.
Ruby-Nulato area on the Yukon,
Naknek on the Alaska Peninsula
and McGrath on the Kuskokwim
—10 families each; relatively iso
lated sections.
, Southeastern Alaska—20 fam
ilies. chiefly near the Stikin
River mouth.
I
1
> Chinese Generalissimo Chian*
Kai-Shek received his military
, j training in Japan.
SPORTS
SAN JUAN, P. R. (A*}—Marius
Russo, the New York Yankees’
one time southpaw’ pitch ng ace
believes he will be able to take his
regular turn w’hen the season ro’U
around, Russo, virtually imct've
last season because of an elb >w
operation the previous
fes’ed his arm yesterday ami r
ported it "feels like new’."
NEW YORK. (Jp)—A -ec . en
try of 645 athletes from 40 col
leges will compete in the 13 cham
pionships events at the UNA in
door track games here Mr -h 1.
according to director Bushnell.
Bushnell said Gil Dodds of the
Boston Athletic association had
accepted an invitation to start in
a special tw’o-mile race on the pro
gram. Dodds won the Toussant
two-mile race at Boston Saturday
after running away with the mile
on three previous weekends.
I NEW YORK, UP) — The North
Atlantic League turned up with
the batting champion of minor
SPECIAL PICTURES AT
NAZARENE CHURCH TONIGHT
Included in the mid-week serv
ice of the Church of the Nazarene
tonight at 7:30 will be Kodachrom
pictures of the Fairbanks area.
Rev. A. B. Morgan who has been
the guest speaker in the Nazarene
pulpit for the past two weeks,
will be speaking for the last time
tonight before returning to his
Fairbanks pastorate. The pictures
hi* will show’ will include some
-eer.es from Southeastern Alaska.
Everyone is invited to enjoy this
special service.
league baseball and a pitcher w’ho
won 21) games without a defeat last
. eason and couldn’t sell either one
into faster company—not even for
the $700 draft pjrice to class “C”.
Walter Forwaad hit .406, the year’s
highest mark in organized ball,
for the Carbondale, Pa., club and
22-year-old Tony Napoles of Peek
skill, N. Y., pitched 18 straight vic
tories during the regular season
and four in the playoffs to beat by
one game the minors’ consecutive
win streak set by Baxter Sparks of
Yazoo City, Miss., in the Delta
league in 1904.
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