VALLEY FRONTIERSMAN
Owned and Published by Anchorage Shopping Guide, Inc.
PRINTED AT PALMER, ALASKA, EACH FRIDAY
Entered as second class matter on Oct. 21, 1947, at the post office at
Palmer, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1379.
Viola Daniels .Editor
Barbara Carter .Wasilla Correspondent
Mrs. Jack Thatcher ..Valdez Correspondent
Subscription Rates .50c a month $5 a year
Mailed to all points in Alaska and the United States
No printed material in the Valiev Frontiersman may
be reproduced except by permission of the publishers.
DANIELS—In The Lien’s Den
We've been hearing quite a bit lately about the
steadily increasing "unfavorable balance of trade"
that Palmer is maintaining in its business relations
with Anchorage and the Outside. Everything going
out and nothing coming in, is about the most apt way
of expressing what's happening to us.
Conservative estimates on money leaving Palmer
show that about $8,000 walks out of our town each
week, to find a new home in the cash drawers of An
chorage merchants. If the figure is enlarged to include
the amount that is spent Outside, it totals nearly $11,
000. And that figure represents money spent for items
that could have been purchased right here in Palmer,
jf the spender had just had the proper point of view.
On the other side of the financial picture, we
learn (through estimates again) that about half that
$8,000 returns to Palmer in Anchorage money spent
here. And that from a city that is many times larger
than our town, and therefore ought to bring us much
more in trade.
We think our merchants probably have a point,
when they bemoan the fate that made them cast their
lot in Palmer, rather than in Anchorage where they
might better have hoped to gather in all of the Palmer
dollars. Sometimes we feel sorry for them.
But that's just sometimes—on the other occasions
kwhen we try to sell a hometown merchant an ad to be
placed in his hometown-paper, and are refused be
cause he's advertising in an Anchorage newspaper or
on an Anchorage radio station, our sympathy springs
dry up right at the source.
In fact, our sympathy is so far gone, that we're
eyeing the advertising fleshpots of Anchorage with an
evil glint. Thar's gold in them thar advertisers, enough
of it to put the Valley Frontiersman on a paying basis,
anyway. And if that's where we have to go to get the
money that will make the paper pay, then Anchorage
here we come.
Actually, we don t believe in it. We believe in buy
ing in your own hometown, and we know for dead cer
tain that if we begin to run some luciously-priced An
chorage specials, we're going to draw a few more dol
lars out of Palmer, where we think they ought to stay.
We do believe that those dollars belong in Palmer.
We'd like to do all we can to keep them here, and
we're willing to use all of our editorial powers of per
suasion to keep them at home. On the other hand,
we think the Vailey Frontiersman's got a right to live,
too. And we'd rather be editor of a solvent Valley
Frontiersman, even if that solvency depends on An
chorage, than to be known as the "woman that used
to put out that Palmer newspaper that went broke a
vvhile back.'/
We're leaving it up to you Palmer merchants. !
We've done all we can here.
There Is No Work
In Alaska Yet
Unemployment is on the up
grade in Alaska, high territorial
officials warn. Reports in the
states of the millions of dollars
i worth of public works planned in
the territory this summer have
touched off an unprecedented
rush of job-seekers to the north.
Unemployed men and women
have turned their faces north, in
■he hope of earning the sky-rock
eting salaries that are reported in
the states.
The truth is something far dif
ferent. No work has yet begun,
nor is it apt to start for several
weeks yet. Much of the public
works construction is in contract
authority only, with actual funds
still to be appropriated for the
work.
Too, there are still many unem
ployed Alaskans who are waiting
for these seasonal jobs. It has
been emphasized repeatedly that
Alaskans will have first priority
for the jobs, with stateside labor
hired only when the Alaskan sup
ply is exhausted.
Union officials in Fairbanks
estimate that only 10 per cent of
the job-seekers who have already
reached that city will find work
; this summer. Many of these tran
! sient unemployed men and wom
' en already are without funds and
■ are looking to the cities in which
! they are located for aid in food
l and shelter.
Territorial newspapers, Gov
ernor Ei nest G uening, the Alaska
Steamship Company, Alaskan ra
! dio stations, Henry A. Benson,
commissioner of labor, and A. A.
Hedges, director of the territory’s
Employment Service, joined this j
month in broadcasting an appeal
to job seekers to stay at home i
until they are called.
The state-side residents are
urged not to come north unless
diey have work promised, or un
less they have funds enough to
tide them through a period of job
seeking and for the purchase of a
return ticket home.
This 1950 stampede north prom
ises to assume alarming propor
tions. Alaskans everywhere are
urged to do their bit to stop the j
influx of work seekers, by publi
cizing the true work picture here.
Write your friends and relatives ;
nd tell them to stay where they
are until they have assurance of
... job in Alaska. That will be time
enough to come north.
MRS. LYNN HONORED
AT FAREWELL PARTY
WASILLA — Residents of this
community held a going-av.ay
party last week for Mrs. Allie
Lynn, pioneer resident of Alaska
and the Yukon Territory. Mrs.
Lynn has sold her Wasilla home
and will live in Washington, near
her sister.
Mrs. Margaret Turner, instruc
tor at Wasilla School, purchased
the Lynn farm.
Community residents expressed ;
their extreme regret at the loss of
Mrs. Lynn, who for many, years
has been “a friend to everyone”
in the Wasilla area. •
V BAPTIST i
:: 'Mission )
^ Services Held Every Sunday
v in '■»
Y, SEVENTH DAY ' >
ADVENTIST CHURCH i l
y ; ' ■ •" • •;
; r Sunday School.10 a. m."
'r Church Service. 11 a. m.>
Evening Worship .. 7:45 p.vrn." '
" EVERYONE WELCOME jl !
| Easter Baskets (with grass)_75c
LOTS OF THEM
Assorted Sizes
Large Chocolate Easter Eggs
25c, 50, $1.00
ijc
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Featurelock Diamond Ring Sets
Also Diamond Solitaires
Some as Low as $75
THE FAMILY EASTER GIFT
s/iewmaster's "Eg.ster Story,", a Three-Reel Film
We are the only authorized agents for Viewmaster in the
Matanuska Valley)
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