Palmer, Alaska
4 Dorothy M. Boll, Editor—*:aSg$gtan?ey
Published ovary reek at Palmer, Alaska, for the Katanuska Valley Palmers’ Cooperating
Association forthe purpose of giving news of the Associations ’“ork, Problems and
Accomplishments, and the dissemination of ners of a public character.
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At the 4>H National Congress held in Chicago, Harvey S. Firestone, Jr. gave a talk to
4-H Club members on ’’The American ’"ay." A copy of the talk was brought back by Lynn
Sar.dvik and loaned to the "Valley Settler." There are some very good points brought
out in this talk which we feel are well worth passing on.
Mr. Firestone first compared the alight of the ~orld as against the prosperity of the ,
United States and points out that in the span of one hundred and seventy-one years, me
have become the most prosperous, the most powerful and the most successful nation on
earth. How did this happen?
First,-Mother Nature endowed us with tremendous resources.
Second, we had no powerful neighbors to threaten our security.
Third, we adopted at the start and developed down through the years a better system
of government.
Fourth, re created an economic system which brought to us a better way of life.
Mr. Firestone went on to explain what the weekly wages of an American worker would pur
chase in comnarison with that of workers in many foreign countries. For example—it
takes one hundred and sixty hours of work to buy a pair of shoes there while here it
takes only three hours.
He also pointed out that the machine age was not taking work away from the wage-earners
—using the case of an automobile as an example—It used to take five men to do what
one can do with the aid of machinery today—yet there are twenty times as many people
employed in the industry as there were in 1905. The development of mass production
has reduced the price so that more people can afford to buy, and the number of wage
earners has increased rather than decreased.
However, the part that concerns us more now than anything else—is the principal dif
ficulties confronting us today, If we just look around us, we note that one of our
major problems is the Distribution of what we produce. Our problem in Alaska is com
plicated with lack of transportation as well as high cost of transportation. Mr.>
Firestone's discussion on this problem is worth repeating here we reel. He says in Pari
"One of the principal difficulties is a severe shortage of men trained in the science
of distribution. Comparatively few institutions of learning have comprehensive courses
of study aimed at graduating a student qualified to enter into distribution as a vo
cation. A young nan today has the choice of hundreds of schools which grant degrees in
chemical, electrical, mechanical and civil engineering and in many other subjects which
will fit him to become skilled in various phases of manufacturing. But, if he intends
to follow distribution as a vocation, he must acquire most of his training after he
leaves college, by working in one or more of the marketing organizations now establish
ed or in the market research division of some industrial concern. Only after years of
on-the-job experience can he qualify as an expert in this field.
"Consequently, if re are to progress in the years to cone, re must begin at the grass
roots by fostering and encouraging young men and romen to consider the science of dis
tribution as their life rork and by persuading colleges and universities to offer reg
ular courses of study rhich rill eventually result in the granting of degrees in dis
tribution.
th men and ranen trained in the science of distribution on the staffs of farm organ
izations, as rell as on the staffs of industrial organizations, both agriculture and
industry rill cultivate more markets for their products and thereby continue to gror."
The natter of production is easy as compared to that of distributing it after it is
produced. This has been a big problem in our country and is far from solved even today,
llr, Firestone may be right in his analysis of the situation rhen he spys that re are
not training people in that field. *''e have concentrated too much on the production
end, and have forgotten the most important phase of distributing the product. Better
trained personnel in the field of distribution might be one step torard helping to
solve the problem.
Locally—re have had our problems of distribution, snail as they are in comparison to
tho^s of the nation, but very real to usf ^e have been pronidV. a Territorial Ilarket
ing Agor.cy undor tho new Agricultural Program. The establishment of such an office can
nean a great deal to farmers in the Territory, distribution of our oroducts means the
difference between prosperity and failure,