FARMER VOICES HIS CON
TENTMENT WITH ALASKA
(Fairbanks News-Miner.}
When a farmer voices his content
ment there must be more than bar
ren soil within his environs. When
he urges his friends to share his lot
lie voiceB a sure belief in future pros
perity.
Such is the belief of one local
farmer, J. Austin Myers, who in a
tetter to friends in his former home
town, Morrison, Whiteside county,
Illinois, briefly sketched local condi
tions from an agricultural standpoint.
Mr. Morrison’s letter, printed in the
Whitside' County Farmer, is reprint
ed as follows:
•“Alaska is a great agricultural re
gion. in the first place, only about
one in a hundred of the people of the
States know anything of the country
the Government bought and then for
got.
“Fairbanks is a veyy busy city,
holding the same relation to Alaska
that Chicago djfes to the* States
around it, and, like Chicago, every-.
Iking, centers around it. It has a
good start and is on the way to mak
ing a large city of great importance,
having everything that any city has
to make it “grow. |
“It has thousands of good 160-acre
homesteads near by, just waiting for
Tome, Dick and Harry and their
friends to take them and raise part
off the $5,000,000 in food products
shipped into the Territory yearly.
“Fairbanks will be the capital of
one of the States some day.
"Most anything that will grow in
Whiteside county will grow in Alas
ka, and a family can live off the
country without raising anything, if
they are lazy enough. Wild berries
and fruits, will keep them going.
"Morrison could not use up all the
blueberries growing on my farm and
the red. black currents are gong to
waste, 1. have a carload of highland
cranberries ready for market now.
Where in the States can wild rhubarb
be found? i can find the wild rhu
barb* seed stalks eight feet tall, and
just last evening picked a gallon of
red raspberries. They were as large
as tame berries growing anywhere.
“If all the wild fruit could be mar
keted at an ordinary price it would
more than pay the cost of the entire
entire country, about $7,200,000. I
am told that the fruit never fails and
that there is always a big crop.
"Every kind of farm crop grows
here. Com does not grow ears a foot
long, but. who wants corn when
wheat, oats, rye and barley grow al
most to perfection ? I never saw such
growth, of vegetables anywhere. Just
now I am. cutting wild red-tqp grass
for hay that stands four feet five tall
and is as lne and thick as it could
grow. It. has been said that there
was enough grass going to waste in
•Alaska, to feed all of the cattle in
the States, and I believe it is true.
“Tame grasses do well, but some
times winter kills. Red clover sown
in the . spring makes a heavy crop the
same season.
“It is. tkx opinion that the valley in
,whirh Fairbanks is situated is equal
to any part, of the Mississippi valley
and can support as dense a popula
tion. If the real condition of this
country were known there, there
would not be a renter in Illinois. They
would come to Alaska and own a
Home of tbeir own while it is still
available..
“The length of the growing season
here is about the same as Northern
Illinois, with, lots longer sunshine in
June, July, and August. There is no
wind at all aari people work out all
winter, as the. winter conditions are
much nicer than in the wind-swept
Mddle Western) States.
“The game-hiere is plentiful. The
caribou are plentiful, the law allow
ing us to kUI five; moose, one; black
tear veryvpttnttful, kill all you need;
geese, ducks and other small game
sre very plentiful and you are al
lowed ty kill s reasonable bag; so
with wild fruit and. game; lots of
wood and a fine climate makes one
like it exceptionally well.
“The people around here are a fine
type of people, and altogether it is
■fcn ideal place for anyone to make a
home.. It is the last offering of Uncle
Sam. He gives 160 acres along fine
roads and proves to you that most
anything will grow.
“We also have many wild roses and
hundreds of other kinds of wild
flowers, bumblebees and hornets are
thicker than 1 ever saw them on
Dad’s farm near Morrison.
“The schools are of the very best,
and we have in sight of our farm a
great college and an agricultural ex
periment station.
“In conclusion, let me say that
Alaska is a most beautiful country,
with mountains and valleys, forests
and flower-strewn meadow, with fish
tilled lakes and streams.
“Deep-cut gorges and rugged can
yons, with wild fruits growing every
where, are all combined tq create a
unique condition of nature, not en
countered outside of Alaska.”
ECONOMIC CONDITION
OF ALASKA NATIVES
(Verstovian, Sitka, Alaska.)
Delegate Dan A. Sutherland deliv
ered an important speech recently in
the House of Representatives on
"Alaska's declining population.” He
indicated two inclusive causes for the
egress—bureaucracy and monopoly.
As affecting the native people he
places unjust discrimination in the
present fishery laws as a fundamen
tal cause of poverty. He calls atten
tion to President Hoover’s recent
declaration that the Government was
allowing but 20 cents a day for the
food of its Indian children wards and
urged that this allowance should be
doubled in order to the maintenance
of reasonable health. Of especial in
terest is his statement that the earn
ings of Indian fishermen in South
eastern Alaska for the past season
averaged about $150 per man. This
is significant in view of the fact that
fishing is practically the only indus
try open to natives.
The present economic condition of
the native people of Alaska arouses
the sympathy of the Verstovian.
From personal observation we believe
that the average income of Alaska
natives is inadequate to provide for a
reasonable standard of living. There
is no opportunity for bettering this
condition because there is no oppor
tunity for earning a sufficient living.
As we see it there are two reme
dies. In the first place, inequalities
in fishing regulations favoring vest
ed interests should be removed. If
any preference is shown it ought to
be in favor of the Indians rather than
adverse to' them, inasmuch as they
are the original tenants in this land
,ani have no place t» go. The re
sources of the country should be
made available for support. And, in
the second place, the Government
should be active in encouraging in
dustrial opportunity for the native
people.
Are yon a Kuske Hates subscriber ?
Why not?_
In the Probate Court at Baby, Nulato
Precinct, Fourth Division, Terri
tory of Alaska** before William H.
Growden, United States Commie
sione r and ex-officio Probate
Judge.
In the matter ofthe Estate of Rob
ert Fulkerson* deceased.
Notice is hereby given that Jihn W.
Dunn, administrator of. the estate of
Robert Fulkerson,, deceased,, has ren
dered and presented for settlement
and tiled n this court the final ac
count of his administration of said
estate, and that. Tuesday, the 20th
day ef June* 1930, at 2 o'clock p. m.,
at the Court ROom of the United
States Commissioner’s Office,.in Ruby,
Nulato Precinct, Fourth' Division,
Territory of Alaska, has been duly
appointed by. the said. Coupt,, as the
time and place, for tbe holding of
said final account, at whichitime and
) place any person interested! in said
estate may:appear and file exceptions
in writing, to said account*. and; com
test the same*
JOHN W. DUNN,
Administrator of the Estate of
Robert Fulkerson, deceased..
First publication April 19, 1880.
j Last publication* May 17.4930.,
PROHIBITION AND THE lbTH
AMENDMENT, AS VIEWED BY
NEW JERSEY CONGRESSMAN
(Continued from Page 2.>
from $13,000,000,000 to $28,000,000*
000.
1 am not so unreasoning as to claim,
that all of these remarkable im
provements in our economic status
are solely attributable to prohibition,
but 1 do say they are at least partial
ly attributable to it. I do not know
a manufacturer—and I have talked to
some who hate prohibition—who does
not agree with everything I have said
about his workmen or who disputes
the cause. I do not know a banker
who does not feel prohibition to be
the backbone of his savings accounts.
1 understand that practically every
foreign industrial commission which
has been here to study the causes of
our prosperity places prohib.ton first.
My friends who do not like the
law—and there are many—what al
ternative can you offer the American
people which will save what we have
gained? Is it Government selling
you want? Well, there are two pos
sible ways to run it. Either we can
hold down consumption by high prices
and make a vast profit for the Gov
ernment or we can hold down the
profit by low prices at the risk of in
creasing consumption. I wonder
which is the more repugnant thought..
1 will venture that there are not ten
men in the House who like either al
ternative. What then of reinstating
the traffic? Well, shall it be for
drinking on the premises? Of course
not—that is the saloon again. But if
that is not to be we will have to
drink at home, even though home
drinking is one of the evils we decry
in the present system. Well, if we
are going to drink at home we can do
that now—if we want it bad enough
to make it. So why change the law
at all, unless, of course, we want
hard liquor—and none of the advo
cates of change want that, do they?
Unless they want hard liquor,, un
less they want a return of the traffic
in hard liquor, the law needs no
change.
So where do we finish ? Just where
we started—with the Eighteenth
Amendment and the Volstead Act.
i To those who want abstinence to
1 follow prohibition, may I suggest
that they leave enforcement to offi
cers of the law and return to the kind
of educational work so splendidly
done for so many years by the Wo
man’s Christian Temperance Union
and the Father Matthew T. A. B. S.
To those whq want beer and light
wines, 1 suggest that they forego the
wish to buy and be content with what
they make, but, above and beyond all.
that they be good sports. They have
made their light and lost—lost to a
combination of two mighty tendencies
ot the age—the economic and ethical
reorganization of the Americ an peo
ple.
Louise—“T ma mind reader.”
Willie—"Can you read mine?”
' "No; 1 left my Magnifying glass at
home."
_
TABLE OF DISTANCES BE
TWEEN NENANA AND FLAT
Miles
Nenana --- 00
Tavern Roadhouse —. 17%
Knight's Roadhouse . 23%
Nineteen-Mile Roadhouse —.58 ..
Diamond Roadhouse.76
Roosevelt _ 89
Lake Minehuroina..115
Trappers’ Cabin ___ 132
Lone Star Roadhouse..158
Telida Roadhouse . 169%
Slow Fork Roadhouse_187
East Fork Roadhouse ...) 206
Berry’s Landing Roadhouse. 227%
Big River Roadhouse_241
McGrath __263
Takotna __ 280
Bill Goss' Roadhouse _ 291
Ophir ...__,___800
McCafferty....306
Brown Creek shelter cabin_318
Frits shelter cabin .— 333
First Chance shelter cabin — 346
Sckermeyer R. H. ...._360
Sditarod_876
put 3g4
Bonanzsa sheier cabin, 12 miles
Crooked Creek shelter cabin,. 19
miles from Honanra.
from Waft, _
I
Babeesch Moosebide Mitts and Booti
Furs Bought and Sold Clothing
All Kinds of Nice Fresh Groceries and Fruits
Canned Goods of All Kinds Beds and Bedding
A. R. Hdridge - McGrath
TAKOTNA ROADHOUSE
Best of Meals and Rooms
Where Everything Is Homelike and
Where You Are Cordially Welcomed
GOOD DOG HOUSES BATHS
Ivar Chilstrom - Prop.
Rough and Dressed Lum
ber of All Kinds
5 §18
MO LUMBER CO.
How About
Job
Printing
1
I I
Try
Kusko
Times
l
rr