Imperial Valley Press

Willis Thornton's Editorial on:
Something Ought To Be Done About Alaska

The United States has owned Alaska for 72 years.

There is ground for wondering how proud we ought to be of our record in this magnificent territory.

About $7,200,000 was paid for the vast area when Seward bought it from Russia. Many times that amount has come out in gold, other metals, furs, fish, and lumber.

Yet during that whole 72 years the United States has succeeded in achieving as a population figure in Alaska a static 60,000.

There is something wrong there.

For many years it has been known that vast stretches of Alaska were no polar tundra, but regions potentially rich in agricultural soil, forests, and mineral wealth.

Perhaps because it came to the United States at a time when it was still opening up the west, when there were still vast stretches of the central continent to explore, Alaska has been neglected. Now many people keep repeating, "the frontier is closed."

Yet Alaska is yet, for practical purposes, untouched.

Imagine what the countries of Europe which claim to be hard-pressed for "living room" would do with Alaska if they had it!

Mussolini, embarking on a vast military expedition to conquer faraway Abyssinia in the pestilential tropics!

Hitler, risking world conflagration to extend "German living space" into east-central Europe!

Yet we, who complain of a "closed frontier" and an end of opportunity, have this vast area, almost a continent in itself, at our disposal, and we do nothing about it.

Nothing? Not quite that. But literally nothing compared with the vast potentialities lying there untouched.

A new survey by the Interior Department is the latest of many to call attention to these neglected resources.

Land, climate, and resources of Alaska, says this report, are in every respect equal to Scandinavia, where 13,000,000 people have developed one of the finest civilizations known to the world. The report suggests large-scale settlement by refugees (since Americans have for 72 years refused to go there in any numbers).

This would build a new market for American goods, a new source for Americans energy and strength, a new bulwark of defense, a new national inspiration for achievement. And all without injuring the people of any other country.

Whether this particular plan is possible it is hard to say. But it is certain that the United States ought to turn eyes to Alaska with a greater seriousness than it has yet done. The situation of the world, and our own internal situation, is no longer such that we can afford to pass up any bets.