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
Viola 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
“I consider the Valley an excellent site for any future institu
tions which may be planned for the Territory,” Director James
f. Davis of the Division of Territories and Insular Possessions told
a group of local residents at a luncheon last Friday.
It is to be hoped that his words were a promise. However,
he also stated, a few moments later, that no town could expect an
outpouring of Federal bounty, unless that town is willing to take
steps to help itself. This latter statement appears to bear out the
statement of Earl McGinty, Federal Works engineer, who recently
fbld Don Irwin that Palmer could “expect nothing from the Federal
Works program until some steps are taken to organize a municipal
government.”
Those words are as prophetic in their way as was the later
statement of Mr. Davis. They simply say, in short, that before
we reap we first must plant. We’ve been warned repeatedly that
we must grow up as a city before we can expect any of the
benefits that are due a city. The time is at hand when we must
either listen to that warning or give up our aspirations toward
city-hood.
We are, at present, pretending to be something that we’re
not, when we speak of ourselves as a city o rtown. We’re simply
a collection of people, grouped in an unplanned central location,
who are existing in that group under the slight guidance and help
that territorial laws alone can give us. We’ve done nothing to
lead ourselves into a better way of living.
We complain of darkened streets at night; we harp about the
dusty streets each spring; we gripe over the inadequacies of a water
4 system planned to serve an area much smaller than that which
Palmer has grown to be; we worry over our over-crowded class
rooms in the Palmer school. We pretend interest in these prob
lems. We agree that “something must be done,” but our aggres
sive action is limited to a doleful shaking of heads and a clicking of
tongues. We accomplish no more than a spinster’s tea party which
meets to worry over problems of the world.
But for all our do-lessness, we’re quick to ask when govern
ment plums are handed out—which is as it should be; we must
be alert to every opportunity to push Palmer ahead and to help it
progress. However so far most of our pushing has been of the
snowball rolling down hill variety. We expend some effort to get
it started, but we stop as soon as it’s shoved over the brink. So
far, we’ve steered clear of any shoulder-to-the-wheel shoving,
which is what it will take if we are to bring a municipal order out
of our present haphazard huddle of homes and stores.
There isn’t a paternalistic Federal government o rterritorial
government on earth that can do much more for Palmer until
Palmer gets busy and begins to do something for itself. That
fact may as well be faced right now. If we want these “future
»-institutions” of which Director Davis spoke, then right now we’d
better begin to lay the groundwork for their location here.
We have the sites, we have the scenery, we have the source
of their food supply—we don’t have the water, the municipal
building code, so recently recommended as our urgent need in
our future fight against fires; we don’t have the city planning,
we don’t have the school system and we don’t have the proper
city ordinances and legislation to warrant our inviting considera
tion for such institutions at present. And it’s not feasible to wait
until some new project is afoot, before we take hurried steps to
* make ourselves presentable, like a lazy housewife pushing dirty
dishes out of sight in the oven when she hears the front doorbell
ring.
We must act now. Either we take active steps toward organi
zation in the next few months, or we must resign ourselves to the
role of a rural agricultural community, content to live in the
background of Alaskan cities and satisfied to receive no more
community consideration than that which rightfully belongs to
an agricultural area.
We cannot continue our pretense of cityhood while existing
as a rural agricultural community. We must be one or the other,
f and we must make our decision soon.
FRONTIERSMAN ADS BRING RESULTS
I
W. B. BARNHARDT
Dimension Lumber House Logs
Phone 50Y12 Write Box 682, Palmer
(Mill located on Lower Butte road)
-4
f.. . ...
I
| For the nicest of summer desserts buy an un-iced
j angelfood cake to make your strawberry
shortcake
{ Raspberry and Pineapple Rolls are tops for that
i “different” breakfast.
SHAMROCK BAKERY
Classified Ads
FOR SALE OR TRADE
ACREAGE, close in; will take
late model pick-up, panel or
station wagon. Inq. LeDuc,
Ketchikan Spruce.
FOR SALE
FURNACE, a i r conditioner,
stoker, all well used. Make of
fer. Write Valley Frontiers
man, Palmer.
HOUSE in North Palmer, 3 rms.,
partly furnished; 75x260 ft.
lot; good soil, part planted to
spuds; electricity, running
water, oil stove with piped-in
supply. Wood range and stove
in cellar under house; quan
tity seasoned firewood; woven
wire and picket fenced. Lo
cated directly back of Church
of God. Priced reasonable. A.
G. Miller, Box 323, East An
chorage.
’35 PLYMOUTH 4-door sedan,
new tires, rebuilt motor, $500;
2-wheel trailer, canopy top,
new tires; two double sleeping
bags, wool-lined, $30 ea.; sin
gle sleeping bag, down-filled,
$20; SeaBee 5 h.p. outboard
motor, new, $100; double bed
mattress, $15; 30-40 Kragg
rifle, $75. See M. G. Bowman,
MVFCA staff house or inq. at
Trading Post.
’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;
4Vfc 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.
FOUND
YOUNG CHESAPEAKE male
dog w/collar. Owner may
claim from Philip Danielson
by paying for this ad.
HOUSE KEY on long chain.
Owner claim at the 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.
NO PATROLMAN YET
Still no announcement has
been made of the appointment of
a highway patrolman to fill Pal
mer’s long-vacant position, Wes
ley Gilman of the territorial
highway patrol stated last week.
However Mr. Gilman said he an
ticipated the announcement
would be forthcoming in the near
future.
Move Toward Hospital
The city of Anchorage last
week was requested to transfer
Blocks 35 and 36 of the water
reserve to the Department of the
Interior, as the first move toward
securing the proposed Alaska
Native Service hospital. Plans
for the hospital, on which con
struction is expected to start
next May, will be completed by
January.
Coffee Insures Everything—
Remember? —Adv.
FRONTIERSMAN ADS BRING RESULTS
f
VALLEY EXCAVATING CO.
John Zimowske Dee Johanion
For all your excavating work, call us
Basements Water Lines
Cesspools Sewer Lines
Phone 64J4 Write Box 642
Palmer, Alaska
I Why Not a Tender, Tasty Piece of Liver for Your
Dinner Tonight?
And we can sell you the Bacon and Onions you need
to dress it up, loo.
PALMER COLD STORAGE * LOCKER SERVICE
FOUR TRIPS DAILY
Matunuska Valley Bus Lines
I
LEAVING PALMER POR 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
A Brand New Shipment
of
CORDUROY PEDALPUSHERS
Blue, Red, Tan Brown
Cameron Rayon Blouses
Pastel Yellow, Pink, Blue and Green
Also Some White Blouses in Larger Sizes
VARIETY VOGUES
Your Summer
Driving Worries!
Make sure that your car con
tinues to operate with maximum
power and efficiency. Make cer
tain by having it frequently
checked by our skilled me
chanic.
Bring Your Car to
TOST’S SERVICE
STOP