Valley FRONTIERSMAN
Published each Tuesday and Friday
^ Palmer, Alaska
Entered as second class matter on Oct. 21, 1947 at the post office
at Palmer, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription rates .75c month, $8 a year
Vida Daniels .Editor
Evon DeLand .Advertising Manager, Palmer
No printed material in the Valley Frontiersman may be
reproduced except by permission of the editor.
Mailed to all points in Alaska and the United States
Daniels—In the Lion’s Den
(The following editorial is released by the McGraw-Hill Publish
ing Co. It deals with school facts and situations which are especially
pertinent to Palmer. Palmer school is now taking care of a capacity
enrollment. Its facilities are limited, and there appears no prospect
of expansion within the immediate future; yet school enrollment
will continue to rise to new peaks within the next five years, accord
ing to the figures quoted below).
The bumper crop of wartime babies, about 5,000,000 larger than
the population experts expected, is reaching school age. At school
tht*se youngsters should find a good education awaiting them. That
is their most cherished American birthright.
But unless something is done quickly, millions of these children
will be cheated. They will crowd into classrooms already run on dou
ble shifts. They will move in with children who are now sitting two
in a single seat. They will read germ-laden books mangled by a
generation of use by grimy hands.
The U. S. birthrate has jumped by leaps and bounds. Instead of
declining in the ’40s, as the experts expected it would, it climbed
from 17.9 per thousand in 1940 to 21.5 in 1943. It jumped to 25.9 in
1947, an increase of 45 per cent since 1940. Result — by 1956 ele
mentary school attendance in the United States is expected to jump
from 18,200,000 to more than 23,400,000, an increase of about 5,200,
000, or more than one-fourth.
The rush is already on. It will pick up speed in the fall. But
while this pressure has been building up, our schools and their
equipment have been running down — first through inevitable war
time neglect and then because inflation and material and labor
shortages made it difficult to catch up.
If we are to give this bumper crop of youngsters the break they
deserve — and reach the educational standards the nation needs —
we must speedily do a major job of educational rehabilitation and
expansion.
We aren’t even building enough new schools to keep up with
current needs, to say nothing of catching up on those we were not
able to build during the war years. School construction expenditures
for 1948 are estimated at $375,000,000, which is less than what was
spent in 1939. With building costs twice as high as they were in 1939,
that means we aren’t even holding our own—we are falling further
behind.
We must spend at least $11,000,000,000 on our schools in the
United States in the next decade for the construction of new build
t ings and the purchase of new equipment. The figures cover only
rockbottom needs for educational plant and equipment. There are
schools with leaking roofs and outdoor toilets in the nation’s great
est cities. There are schools where students still use histories and
geographies copyrighted before 1920 — books with no mention of
World War I, the depression of the 1930’s, the Russian Revolution
or the rise of the dictators. There are countless schools where mod
ern methods of visual education are completely unknown.
And all of these conditions promise to get worse — promptly —
as that scheduled 5,000,000 increase in the school population gets
rolling.
The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company has this statement
to make after a painstaking study of the educational crisis: “Unless
definite measures are taken immediately . . . large numbers of
‘American boys and girls will be deprived of an adequate education.”
Currently we are deeply concerned about military defenses. If
we are wise, we will raise our sights. We will give the continuing
crisis in education the same urgent attention now being given the
more obvious but no more real crisis in national defense.
Such is the state of the schools of the nation. Palmer is in
finitely blessed in that it does have a modern school plant, can make
use of progressive methods of education, and is staffed by trained
and competent instructors. Yet all of this can avail us nothing, if we
are not prepared to take care of the children who come to us for
their schooling. The finest teacher, the most modern plant and the
• most efficient methods mean nothing, if we have no room for the
child they should reach.
Our problem was considered acute last year. How much more
acute it will become when school opens in the fall only time will
reveal. However, conditions are not expected to have bettered them
selves over last year. Palmer soon will be faced with the problem of
having to refuse admission to students, or of undertaking some kind
of plant expansion.
^ Under present circumstances, no building program is possible.
It is only as some type of incorporation is achieved in the com
munity that a new school will be possible. That it will cost the peo
ple of the Valley something is obvious. However, the building cost
need not be borne entirely by the community, for there are other
funds available to organized cities and towns, when school im
provement is planned.
A municipal incorporation would fulfill the school’s need. Under
city government a percentage of territorial liquor and business taxes
* would be returned to Palmer for school costs. A municipality could
assume responsibility for financing additional school facilities.
There would be cost, but is would be shared. And in the end, we
■*’ of the Valley would find that the cost of uneducated or poorly
trained children, who will be our future citizens, is much dearer. An
investment in our children pays good returns over a long period
of years.
Classified Ads
FOR SALE
KEROSENE COOK STOVE; oil
heater; Coleman lamp; inquire
third house south of Seventh
Day Adventist Church or write
Driggers, General Delivery.
FURNACE, air conditioner,
stoker, all well used. Make of
fer. Write Valley Frontiers
man, Palmer.
’46 CHEVROLET pickup; or will
trade for car. Louis Tomsha,
Jonesville.
MUST SELL partly furnished
home; electricity, city water.
Stenson, first street north
Anch. highway, third house.
HOUSE LOGS; delivered or at
mill. Phone 50Y12 or write
Box 682, Palmer.
’37 BUICK, recently overhauled
motor, new tires; exceptionally
good condition. Hartley Broth
ers Motors.
88-ACRE farm, 7 rm. house,
water, lights; 30 acres cleared;
41/2 mil. north of Palmer. Inq.
David Bryant, Box 1848, Pal
mer.
HYDRAULIC LOADER units; fit
Ford-Ferguson and McCor
mick-Deering tractors. Hartley
Bros. Motors.
HELP WANTED
WOMAN to do cleaning for sev
eral hours, 1 day week. Inq. at
Valley Frontiersman office.
NOTICE
THERE ARE still plenty of those
bundles of old newspapers
available at the Valley Front
iersman office, but they don’t
last long. Come get yours
early, if you want to get them.
There’s no charge for them.
Jan Koslosky, Jr.
Marks Birthday
With A Party
A number of the young friends
of Jan Koslosky Jr., gathered at
the Koslosky apartment last
Wednesday afternoon to help Jan
celebrate his sixth birthday. The
young guests and their host en
joyed an afternoon of games and
a luncheon of sandwiches, punch,
ice cream and birthday cake.
The birthday cake was clev
erly trimmed to represent a cir
cus with a variety of tiny cookie
animals. Its six candles were
lighted and relighted several
times, in order that Jan and his
guests could all have a turn at
blowing them out. Movies were
taken of the birthday party.
Jan’s guests on Wednesday in
cluded:
Barbara and Gary Rice, Fred
and Ralph Dye, Tony Hilderman,
Ginger and Joey Lawton, Donna
Horton, Leif and Noel Kopperud,
Sarah Moffitt, Laddie and Mar
gie Huntley and his little sister
Susie.
Two New Soil Men
Are Expected Sunday
Two new soils scientists, John
Thompson and Rudy Mayko, are
expected to arrive here Sunday
to assist in the soil classification
survey now under way in Alaska.
The men will work out of the
Soil Conservation office here.
Meanwhile the survey took all
three of the present staff mem
bers of the Soil Conservation of
fice to Fairbanks this week.
Charles Wilson, James Hurley
and Henry Fox left last Tuesday.
Bible School to Be in August
The postponed daily vacation
Bible school of the Lutheran
Church will be held the third
week in August, Rev. W. L. Zeile
announced today. Detailed plans
for the coming Bible school will
be revealed soon.
DO YOU HAVE LOCKER SPACE ENOUGH TO STORE
YOUR YEAR’S SUPPLY OF FROZEN VEGETABLES,
FISH AND GAME?
We’ve still a few vacant lockers open, but they won't be
available for long.
PALMER COLD STORAGE & LOCKER SERVICE
FOUR TRIPS DAILY
Matunuska Valley Bus Lines
LEAVING PALMER FOR ANCHORAGE
(Daily except Sunday)
6:30 a.m. 9:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m.
LEAVING ANCHORAGE FOR PALMER
(Daily except Sunday)
9:00 a.m. 12 Noon 4:30 p.m. 9:00 p.m.
LEAVING PALMER FOR JONESVILLE
7:00 a.m. 4:00 p.m.
LEAVING JONESVILLE FOR PALMER
8:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m.
ON SUNDAY. LEAVING PALMER
9 a.m. 6:00 p.m.
ON SUNDAY, LEAVING ANCHORAGE
Noon 9:00 p.m.
Palmer ticket office at Charlie's Bar-B-Cue
or the Sourdough Club
COME IN AND SEE
our colorful and attractive selection of
cool cotton print
DRESSES AND HOUSECOATS
VARIETY VOGUES
W. B. BARNHARDT
Dimension Lumber House Logs
Phone 50Y12 Write Box 682, Palmer
(Mill located on Lower Butte road)
1
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THE FINEST FOOD
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SAILINGS ARE FREQUENT
Sailings from Seward alternate Fridays. Next
sailing SS BARANOF July 23, calling at Juneau,
Ketchikan and Seattle.
Sailings from Seward alternate Thursdays. Next
Sailing SS Aleutian July 29, calling at Valdez,
Cordosa, Juneau, Ketchikan and Seattle.
All sailings subject to
change without
notice
ALASKA STEAMSHIP COMPANY
Serving All Alaska