THE NENANA DAILY NEWS
Published every afternoon except Sunday, by the Nenana Printing
Company, at First and B Streets, Nenana, Alaska.
R. G. Southworth..Editor and Managei
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PRETYY GOOD INVESTEMENT
During the past 15 years, according to totals figured from
statistics prepared by the United States customs service, the total
trade value of Alaska reached a total of SI,619,775,520.repre
senting $1,044,533,845 for exports and $575,241,675 for imports.
This is a pretyy good investment, says the Juneau Empire, for the
original price of $7,200,000 paid Russia by the United States gov
ernment of Alaska. And remember this startling wealth has been
produced by the enterprise of a white population of never more
than 65,000, and, taking an average for the 15 years, considerably
less. Of this great wealth mining, which figures largely, is still in
its infancy. The extensive coal deposits have not been mined as
yet beyond a few tons for local consumption. The forests have
scarcely been tuoched. Vast areas of grazing and farming land
remain to be utilized; deposits of oil have not been tapped or sys
tematically prospected; scarcely any water power has been har
nessed for manufacturing, and on every hand and in every section
lie dormant vast riches which tax the imagination awaiting pioneer
capital and enterprise and remedial legislaton. A few years ago
Alaska was remote and practcally inaccessible, inhabited by a few
roving prospectors and trappers. No other frontier in Uncle Sam’s
domain has experienced such rapid and permanent development.
The old days of gambling quickly passed and the whole nation
sat up and took notice when the territory voted itself dry a year
ago. Boys born in Alaska are now serving their country at the
front, and Alaska has given more liberally per population for
every patriotic movement than any other American community.
Delegate Sulzer, from Alaska, is now' in congress pleading for
recognition for the Northland and its industries and people, having
initiated legislation which will further assist the people to help
themselves and enrich the nation.
PLANT A WAR GARDEN
The more grown garden stuff you eat this year the more
food you will put on the dinner table of a starving family in
Europe.
It is up to every foot of American soil to prduce as much
food as it can. Put your back yard on the honor roll.
The man with the hoe must get behind the man with the gun
to beat Germany.
The United States is just U. S.. We are pledged t,o carry on
the fight, shoulder to shoulder with the Allies, with men and guns
and food. Will you plant a garden and help the fighters fight?.
Alaska has done her share, is doing it, and will continue, thus
proving that gardens can be successfully worked in the territory.
******
GERMAN EDUCATION
According to an article by J. Barker Ellis in the September
“Nineteenth Century,” the leading feature of the German ele
mentary schools seems to be a militant patriotism and militarism.
Obedience is stressed while comparatively little time is iven to
training in character and to the development of civic virtues, whicn
apparently are considered unimportant as compared to obedience
and dieipline. By examining the situation, the fixing of German
educational policies is discovered to be an exceedingly important
part of the duty of the state. Policies are not there shaped by
educational specialists but by the German rulers and the states
men. Since Prusso-Germany is a military state, it is but natural
that the educational department is but a branch of the military
establishment, and is directed for military purposes under the
influence of the military officials.
„An interesting feature of the article is the showing of the rela
tive number of students before the war in the elementary and in
th upper schools supported by the public. Out of over 11,000,000
children and young people in the elementary and higher schools
10,300,000 are in the elementary schools. Secondary schools and
higher instituions of learning herefore enroll 700,00, or opproxi
mately 6 per cent of the total enrollment. The report of the U. S.
Commissioner of Education for the school year 1914-15 shows
a total enrollment in elementary and higher schools of 19,400,000,
of which number 17,970,00 are in the elementary school. Second
ary schools and higher institutions of learning therefore enroll
1,430,000, or approximately 8 per cent of the total enrollment
German propoganda has certainly been very effective because even
in the face of these figures many persons think Germany to be
an extraordinary highly educated nation.
For its educatioal purposes, the German government controls
an army of about 250,000 teachers, in reality as thoroughly in
government service as though they wore uniforms and carried
arms. Their principal duty consists in shaping the mind of the
nation by order of the government.
Another feature of the system is noted. The classes are near
ly all taught by men. Classes of 1.*tie girls have men teachers.
It is noted that perhaps as a result of this, crimes of brutality
are exceedingly frequent among Germans, where they are treated
with great leniency. Too often brutality is deliberately con
fused with manliness. Sexual outrages and drunkenness are treat
ed with great leniency.
These facts are especially commended to those who have in •
the past indiscriminately praised the educational system of Ger
many.
President Sisson of the University of Montana, in an address
before the National Educational Association said: “The schools
of Germany have been used by the government as the chief in
strument for raising up a people fitted to hear and believe the
doctrine of “Deutschland uber Alles.” Never since the time of
Sparta has education been focused so relentlessly and so effec
tively upon fixed and rigid national aims; these aims and methods
of the German schools have all been subservient to these ends.
The German pupil never asks a question; the teachers, as r:.ore
than one of them said to me, tell him all he needs to know. ‘Lister,
to me, so that you can tell me back, what I am telling you!’
shouted a German teacher to his class in my hearing * * * For
more than a hundred years the German government has een tell
ing the people all that they need to know, and training them to
repeat it faithfully in word and deed * * Without these schools,
‘telling the pupils all they need to know,’ there would never have
been the extraordinary spectacle of mediaeval autocracy projected
into the twentieth century among a people otherwise b'ghly in
tellectualized.”
DESCRIBES TRIP
BY RAILROAD TO
MOUNTjyi'KINLEY
How inaccessible our newest na- j
tional park. Mount McKinley, still j
remains is graphically suggested in
the account which Herbert A. Meyer, i
assistant to Secretary of the In
terior Lane, gives of his last sum
mer’s trip to Alaska and printed in
the Railroad Record. He had reach
ed Alaska by the inside passage and
from Seward, the seaboard terminal
of the new railroad, had traveled a !
hundred miles by rail and team to
Anchorage, the present headquart
ers, where he was still a hundred j
and fifty miles from the point where j
the station for the Mount McKinley j
National park probably will be lo
cated.
“I was making a trip up the line,"
said Mr. Meyer, “with the intention
of going as far into the Interior
as my limited time would permit.
We had traveled by rail until the
end of track was reached and ’hen
continued by buckboard and saddle
for many miles over rough corluroy
roads, crossing sloughs where the i
mud and muck would be body-deep :
on the horses, fording streams ard !
swimming rapid rivers until finally 1
the bank of the Susitna river was !
reached. I have no hesitation in
saying that the sight of the river
boat was very pleasant after two j
days in the saddle.
Toward McKinley by Flatboat.
streams, is exceedingly rapid and for
streams, is exceedinglyrapid and for
j the most part very shallow, with
| jutting rocks and eddies and whirl
pools that tend to make navigation
difficult and dangerous. The prob-'
lem confronting the engineers at
this point was to find the mo|t effi
cient and economical way by which
men and supplies could be trans
ported farther along the lio?- Two
methods presented themselves—of :
building wagon roads, or of utilizing
jthe fiver. The cost of constructing
even temporary roads in such a coun
| try would be extremely lijgh. Could :
jthe river be utilized at less expense?
j In charactristic manner the eng'n
| eers faced the question. The result
j was the construction of a small fleet
1 of specially designed boats, each
capable of handling fifty tons
These boats have a draft of only
eighten inches, with a length of
eighty-five feet and breadth of
twenty feet, and they have been
found to be adequate in all respects
for the purposes intended.
“We traveled up the Susitna for
nearly three days, an unbroken wild
erness on one side of the river, and
i a railroad grade on the other. At
| times the river broadens to nearly
a mile in width then separates into
numerous channels, like the fingers
of a hand. The boat, toiling up the
river would now and then become
stranded on some sand bank and the
men would get out their long poles
to push it back into the ever-chang
ing channel^ at other times the river
would broaden out and be practically
bottomless. The difficulties of navi
gating a stream of this character can
be appreciated all the more when it
1 is stated that the speed of the boat
I was never greater than five miles
an hour and for the most part did
not exceed two or three miles;-' Often
there were times when we stood per
fectly still with the engines racing
at full speed. Indeed now and again
we would be overpowered by the
current and drift back to where a
new start could be made. When
this happened it would be necessary
to explore a new channel, perhaps
the whole course of the river having
been changed since the last trip of
the boat. What had formerly been
the channel might be dry land and
what had been a bank of earth might
now be a channel.
“The Monarch of Mountains.”
“The weather was delightful, and
in this we were particulaly fortunate
because, for nearly eighteen hours
each day, the great Alaskan lange
of mountains was in clear view, the
impressive scene of Mount McKinley
in all its majesty presenting a spec
tacle of never-ending charm and
wonderment. Each new bend in the
river would afford some new view
of this monorch of mountains. Mc
Kinley is flanked by two gigantic
mountain attendants, each a men
arch in his own right, their peaks
prominently lifted above the sur
pounding mountain range bat sur
passed in height, beauty and grand
sur by massive, incomparable Me
Kinley itself.
“While our boat was pushing it
ivay up the rapids, I visited the on
?ine room to see the source of tlv
power that was slowly but surJ;
conquering the resisting current
After some time spent -tn conversa
tion with the engineer in his greasy
noisy stronghold, my eye chantei
upon a magazine over in one eorne
of the room. To one used to th<
cosmopolitan life of the city, >t wa
add, to say the least, to be in th
vast solitudes for days without see
ing newspapers, books or other -ead
ing material and you can _ imagin
bow eagerly I picked up this pub
lication. To my surprise I foun
that it was a copy of the Nations
Geographic magazine Turning cas
ually through the pages I came upoi
an article by my friend Stephei
Capps, of the U. S. Geological Sur
vey, on Mount McKinley.
An Interesting Coincidence.
“Looking through the door of th
engine room, the series of coinci
dences was complete; there was Ml
McKinley in the veriest reality be
for my eyes, in my hand was
chance copy of a magazine publishe
by men whom I know well, and cor
taining an article by a persons
friend, the subject of which was be
fore me. I spedily adjourned to th
deck, seated myself on a comfortabl
bale of hay, and pored through th
article, now and again glancing u
to see the actual mountain monarc
about which I was reading so man
interesting things.”
Secretary Meyer was sixty mile
or more, as the crow flies, fror
Mount McKinley when time limits
tion compelled him to return. A
that point he describes as sublime th
spectacle presented by the vas
mountain whose upper fourtee
thousand feet is permanently ic
clad. Mount McKinley rises 20,70
fee', above sea level and 17,500 fee
above the level of the park valley
at its foot.
The railroad work is pushini
steadily forward and in the not to
iistant future tourists will be abl
to dismount from comfortable train
at the gateway of Mount McKinle;
Vational park.
Buy That Libery Bond Today.
The disbursements of the offic
at Anchorage for the period Marc!
1 to March 7 were $44,193.51. Th
payment of salaries and wage
amounted to $42,147.14; for loca
purchases $107.95; to contractor;
>1835.98; compensation, $35; othe
expenditures, $67.44.
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NEWS OFFICE
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“THE RAILROAD TIMEKEEPER OF AMERICA.”
WM. TAYLOR
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§ We Are Closing Out Our Entire SUck of
HARDWARE
Saws, Axes, Planes, Hammer and Axe Handles, Stove
Pipe, Graniteware, Kitchen Utensils and Many
Otter Household Utensils We Have In Stock
MUST GO IMMEDIATELY
See Us For Bargains In Any of the Above Lines
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Stage headquarters
THE PORTLAND
CIGARS POOL
SOFT DRINKS
First and A Streets
CONFECTIONERY
ICE CREAM
Jackson & Brakke
A caravan consisting of two four
horse teams each hitched to a can
vas covered house placed on run
ners, recently attracted much atten
tion at Council. The houses carried
enough food and supplies to last for
! sixty days, during which time the
men will be busy taking up the
j Council Solomon railroad and pre
parinjr it for shipment Outside.
E. J. White, well know Alaskan,
i
, and editor of the Douglas Island
! News, is slowly recovering from the
effects of the fall he suffered some
time ago. After a sheer drop of
ten feet he landed on the ice and
boulders alonjr the beach in front
of his place.
Take Advantage
of the New Water and Sewer Lines
Get Your Order in at Once for
Flush Toilets, Bath Tubs
Lavatories, Sinks, Etc.
Tanana Sheet Metal Works
oans to your Government Mean
oyalty to your Government
IBERTY BONDS MEAN SUCCESS