A General Conies Home
■I
Brig. tien. John H. Mirhaelis, home from the Korea ; rightin', t.i ri* • his year and a half old daughter
Maurene in his arms upon arriving at National Airp irt in V.'. Mr rtan fr,r a happy reunion with Maurene
and Mrs. Mirhaelis (left). The 38-year-old general, who edv: : esd from a lieutenant colonel, to his one
slarsrank while in Korea, is bound lor Kurope to jo n ( ea. 1»-v -lit liisenhower’s command! Iff! Wire
photo.
LABORATORY IS
OPENED AT U OF A
TO ANALYZE COAL
It 4 announced the Territor
ial Department of Mines that a
coal laboratory was opened May 1
at the University of Alaska, Cnee
of the Department of Mines for
the analysis of the operators active
in the'coal industry- and will in
clude ash analysis, moisture, com
plete Analysis and appraisals of
coal produced in tho Territory.
Coninissioner of Mines Leo H.
Saarolk stated that in view of the
increasing importance of the coal
industry and the substantial
amounts of coal produced yearly,
there has been a crying need for
a coa^ laboratory in the Territory
ever since the Alaska Railroad
closed down its Anchorage coal
laboratory in 1946.
A! the present time there are no
facilities for the testing of coals ip,
the Territory and millions of dol
lais are spent yearly both by civ
ilian and military consumers with
out any checking of fuel values
Coal has been sent on rare occa
sions to the Bureau of Mines Lab
oratory at Pittsburg for analysis;
however this consumes so much
time that it rarely takes place,
Saarela said.
During 1950. coal production in
Alaska declined slightly to 400,000
tons from the alltime high of 440,
C00 tons in 1949. The decrease was
causey by one of the Army bases
I converting to oil. However during
I the last ten years there has been
j a steady increase in coal consurrCp
j ticn and production, apd as there
1 are numerous steam plants building
: in the area of the rail bejt indica
* tions are that the rise will con
( Untie.
I The coal analysis laboratory at
the University will be operated by
the Territorial Department of
Mines Assay Office in cooperation
with the School of Mines of the
University under Dean Earl H.
Headline. Those persons who have
samples for coal analysis should
communicate with the Department
of Mine, at College for further in
formation.
TWO NEW HIGHWAY
PATROLMEN ADDED,
FAIRBANKS FORCE
Two new highway patrolmen
have been added to the force work
ing out of Fairbanks, it was an
nounced today by Frank Metcalf,
| Territorial Highway Engineer. They
are S. L. Edwards, who started
■.toil: May 1 and James H. Wood
ruff, wIk> began May 5.
Metcalf also announced the pro
motion of W. W. Trafton, of the
Fairbanks district, from patrolman
to sergeant.
Beautifully
correct
without
exaggeration
I
bra...
Now you con hove the becutiful, full rounded '
curves that fashion demands, so comfortably, \
so naturally no one will ever suspect! \
This ingenious bra . ..designed to flatter \
the less-than-perfect bustline ... has hidden I
} inner pockets fitted with featherlite
removable porofcam bust normalizers.
Medically correct and scientifically
sculptured, they moke your clothes look
smarter, fit better and give you
more figure poise than ever before.
SdzfiZmdi Co.
QCA/fOUy S/nCZ /£& 7
"Take He Out to the Ball Game”
Gen. Douglas MacArthur, stylish.v attired in a grey suit and a grey fedora, is. accompanied by Mrs. Mac
Arthur as they leave their hotel for the Polo Groun ds in New York to watch the Giants-Philies game.
The five-star general was in civilian clothes for a public appearance for the first lime since 1940. t/P)
Wirephoto.
U. S. IS NOT
READY FOR
SHOWDOWN
(Continued from Page One
strong military value so far as the
Korean campaign is concerned.
But he added:
Risk Not Necessary
‘The Joint Chiefs of Staff believe
,that these same measures do in-.
I crease the risk of global war and
l that such a risk should not be taken
unnecessarily.
“Korea, in spite of the import
ance of the engagement, must be
looked upon with proper perspective.
It is just one engagement — just
one phase of this battle that we are
having with the other power center
in the world which opposes us and
all we stand for.”
Russian Action
He asserted that “guerrilla diplo
macy" has been used by Russia for !
five years.
‘ In each of the actions in which
we have participated to oppose this
gang ;ter conduct, we have risked
World War III.” he said.
“Eut each time we have used
methods short of total war.
“As costly as Berlin and Greece
and Korea may be, they are less
expensive than the vast destruction
which would be inflicted upon all
sides if a total war were to be pre
cipitated.”
Bradley said a field commander
like MaeArthur ‘‘very properly esti
mates his needs from the viewpoint
of operations in his own theater or
sphere of action.”
But he added those responsible for
higher diiection ‘ must necessarily
base their actions on broader as
pect . and on the needs, actual or
prospective, of several theaters.”
Gen Bradley said the adminis
tration policy of fighting a limited
in Korea may cause the Com
ists to sue for peace “if we can
pinkish the Chinese severely enough,”
and runs the least risk of touching
off a world conflict.
But, he said, “No one is going to
promise you or the country that
we are going to get decisive results”
in Korea, i
Bradley was the third witness the
•
senators have heard in 11 days ol
hearings. The others were MacAr
thur and Secretary of Defense Mar
shall. Bradley was questioned for a
little over three hours, then thi
hearings were recessed for the day
He will return to the witness chaii
tomorrow.
SELLING
WAVE ON
STOCKS
NEW YORK. Ivlay 15 — tfi —A
short but severe selling wave swept
through the stock market today ant
left it down by as much as $5 a
share.
Brokers were at a loss to single
out any one cause for the sudden
rush to sell.
The volume came to an estimated
2,000,000 shares with more than half
of the business in the second and
third hours.
This April, one hundred and seventy-six
years after the original Minute Men fought
the Battle of Lexington, our country once
more is seeking to defend the rights which
are the breath of life to every American.
Get in the fight—buy U. S. Defense* Bonds!
Our Government is asking every
liberty-loving citizen to do his part
in maintaining the freedom for .
which America stands. Buy U. S.
Defense Bonds... be the American
Minute Man of 1951.
Tour own experience tells you— saW
Mvo regularly or you won’t tovo at all I
The secret of saving is system! Start 5SS
saving today the automatic, painless
way! Go to the pay office of the com
pany where you work and sign up for
U. S. Defense Bonds through the Pay
roll Savings Plan. Or go to your bank
and join the Bond-A-Month Plan. If
you can set aside $7.50 each week, in
ten years you’ll have $4,329,021
•U. S. Savings Bonds are Defense Bonds ly Them Regularly!
sury Department thuke
on, tha Adrartiang Couacil and
Alaska Empire
(Forty-eighth of a Scries)
THE YAKIj’TAT & SOUTHERN
Sale of an entire railroad, inclu
ding all track and rolling stock,
ought to be news anywhere, and
especially in Alaska where there
are so few railroads to be sold.
But when the Yakutat & South
ern Railroad, one of Alaska's old
est, changed hands recently the
transaction rated less than one line
in the newspapers. The railroad,
in fact, was only mentioned in
connection with the sale of a can
nery, of which Alaska has a great
many and some of which change
ownership with great frequency.
The leason the sale of the Yaku
tat and Southern didn’t make more
headlines is, of course, that it isn't
much of a railroad. It is standard
?uage in width but it is hardly of
itandard length. Actually, the track
Isn’t much longer than the name
of the road and it is one of the
shortest standard guage railroads
ft the world, with a total length
)i nine qniles or thereabout.
The Yakutat and Southern has
jeen handicapped by the fact that
it doesn’t have much of a place to
start from or much of any place
to go to. Then, too, it has had the
problem of a seasonal industry
and a one-way haul.
Practically its entire pay load
s fish, which it hauls from the
Situk Itiver (to the cannery at Yak
utat.
Yakutat is a lonesome little place
on the ocean coast about midway
jetween Southeast Alaska and
Prince William Sound. It has an
airfield built by the Army during
the war and now operated by the
CAA, a cannery that hasn't oper
ated for two seasons, lots of mag
nificent mountain and glacier scen
ery, apd the Yakutat and Southern
Railroad.
There has been an Indian village
at Yakutat for nobody knows how
long, and the Russians tried to es
tablish a colony there more than
150 years ago. The local residents
did not encourage that project.
They killed all the colonists.
After that the place was left
pretty much alone for three-quar
ters of a century until a prospector
lamed James Hollywood found gold
in the beach sands there In 1880.'
The Indians killed two of Holly
wood’s partners, but other miners
and prospectors swarmed in and
kept the place lively until the gold
played out.
In 1888 two Sw-edes, Adolph Ly
dell and Karl Henrikson, were sent
to Alaska by the Swedish Mission
Covenance of America and they
picked Yakutat as the place to
:tart a mission. They seem to have
gotten along with the' Indians bet
ter than had either the Russians
or the miners and when the mis
sion burned to the ground on Jan
uary 8, 1892, the Indians pitched in
and helped to rebuild it.
Yakutat got a postoffice on Sep
tember 14, 1897, and about 1902
the fishing industry discovered the
possibilities of the place. Several
salteries were first established and
packed both salmon and herring.
Then, in 1904, the Yakutat & Sou
thern Railway Co. was organized
with a man named F. S. Stimson
as president. The company built
a cannery and put it in charge ot
Ah Seung, a Chinaman; built a
sawmill with a daily capacity of
30,000 board feet, and laid track j
from Yakutat to the Situk. Then;
it got hold of a little steam loco
motive that had been discarded
when the New York Elevated Rail
road was electrified, and it was in
the railroad business.
The railroad, of course, depended
on the salmon cannery, and the
cannery, to a certain extent, de
pended on the railroad. It had
been the intention to extend the
railroad some forty miles to Dry
Bay, but for one ieason and an
other the extension was never built.
The cannery itself was success
ful from the start. The first year’s
pack was 24,349 cases and this in
creased in subsequent years to an
average of around 50,000 cases. The
big year was 1918 when the can
nery put up 77,073 cases, but as
recently as 1941 the pack was 65,
896 cases.
Since then the pack has declined
drastically, partly because the sal
mon runs have decreased and part
ly because buyers from other can
I nerie.s and processing plants have
invaded the grounds and taken
away part of the catch.
The main fishing grounds near
Yakutat are in a number of short
glacier-fed streams — the Situk,
Ahrnklin, Dangerous, Italio and
Ustay Rivers—which rush down
from the mountains, then meander
across the coastal plain to the
ocean. At the mouth of each of the
streams is a shallow bar that is at
best an impediment and at worst
an impassable barrier to naviga
tion.
In addition there is the larger
Alsek River which rises in Canada
and tumbles through a steep moun
tain canyon before it reaches the
ocean at Dry Bay.
The fishing in early days was
done with both gillnets and drag
seines, but nowdays it is mostly
gillnetting. There isn’t a fish trap
within a hundred or more miles
of Yakutat in any direction.
The Yakutat & Southern Rail
way Co. operated the Yakutat
cannery for several years, then sold
it to Gorman & Company, one of ,
the larger salmon firms of earlier
years. Gorman sold the outfit, in
cluding the railroad, to Libby, Mc
Neill and Libby in 1913 and lor
many years the late Captain C. E.
A hues was in charge.
' ffce cannety operated rltarly ».ev-»
ery season except the past two, and
it will run again this summer, ac
cording to Mrs. Jeanice Welsh,
whose Bellingham Canning Cb.
purchased it from Libby early this
month. Bellingham Canning Co.
also has a cannery at Hoonah,
where it employs mostly local labor
and secures'most of its fish from
resident fishermen. The same pol
icy will no doubt be followed at
Yakutat, so that the local cannery
workers will be assured of jobs and
the fishermen will have an assured
market for their catches.
It will be, as are all salmon can
neries, a seasonal industry, but for
Yakutat it will be much better
than no industry at all.
BID OPENING
Bids for regrading a five and, i
one-half portion of Sterling high
way will be opened in the office t
cf H. A. Stoddart, division engin
eer, Thursday morning at 9 o’clock.
The section involved is from the
junction with the Seward-Anchor
age highway approximately , tj*, i
Cooper’s Landing, ..■ £■!
iTh*r«'« • McCulfo«fc
I for «v*iy
I logging jok
\ 3m
Aw
j m
McCULLOCH
MODEL ISM
PORTABLE PUMP
Walglu only ST lb*.
Pump* 15,000 S-P-**
lude. fro« ia»
so lockw. u4
IJ-iacfcbo’W
North of Small Boat Harbor
Phone 867 ■ Juneau, Alaska
Home Office Colman Bide-, Seattle