1889

Our enterprising classmate, "Doc" Warden, publisher of the Great Falls (Montana) Tribune, has had his newspaper sponsor an investigation as to how best may be put to peace-time work the military, heavy-traffic, Alaska Highway, from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to Fairbanks, Alaska, which was built following attack at Pearl Harbor. In its construction, the United States spent more than $100,000,000. Great Falls is the United States departure point for the only South-to-North connecting road with the Alaska Highway, and, during the war, it was the principal take-off point for combat aircraft ferried to Alaska, and to Russia via Alaska. It was also the principal point of aerial embarkation for passengers and cargo carried by the Air Transport Command to Alaska.

To obtain thorough knowledge of the situation, an experienced staff member of the Great Falls Tribune was sent to examine the assets and important facts relating to the Highway. The results, in twelve carefully prepared articles, were published last fall. The Tribune recently issued these articles, with photographs, in pamphlet form for consideration by the Congress, or any agency or persons interested in solving this important international problem.

It will be remembered that in 1867, William H. Seward, then Secretary of State, bought Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000, and that, for some time following, it was referred to as "Seward's Folly." The way its purchase price was arrived at was told in an article published in Magazine Section of the ChristianScience Monitor, January 5, 1946. The writer of the article, Henry L. Zimmerman, Berwyn, 111., stated that the story was given him by his boyhood friend, Benjamin F. Jayne, chief clerk of the Paymasters Department of the U. S. Army, later for many years a special agent of the U. S. Treasury. According to the story, England and France in 1862, being interested in securing cotton from our South, declared their intention of blockading the port of New York; that Russia thereupon sailed a fleet into New York Harbor, warned England and France to keep their hands off, and held her fleet there until end of the Civil War. The story then went on to say that when the United States came forward to reimburse Russia for this service it was found that Russia's bill was $7,200,000, and that, after negotiations, it was agreed that the United States would accept Alaska as a gift from Russia, but announce to the world that the $7,200,000 paid Russia for protection by her fleet was in payment of Alaska's purchase price. Whether this story be true or not, it would appear that Secretary Seward did negotiate with Russia a deal not only exceedingly profitable for the United States from presentday valuations, but one that has speculative possibilities in its future development of a magnitude far greater in national importance than anything yet realized.

Persons thinking that the art of letter writing is dead should read a letter written by our "wandering Ned Dearborn," as David Blakely once characterized him. His penmanship and manner o£ expression at once reveal his individuality. His extensive travels in the northern half of the Western Hemisphere and his living in so many different places make it difficult for him now to stay-put long in any one place. Early last December he and his daughter (Mrs. Helen Dearborn Mills) left Littleton, N. H., for a motor trip South. A recent letter tells how they are spending the winter. Their first stop was a visit with his son Clarence at Hampton, Va. Following the coast from there to Daytona Beach, Fla.. they turned westward and went down as far as Lakeland, but, finding it filled with tourists, they motored up to Leesburg, known for its citrus orchards and large-scale packing and juicing activities, where they stayed a fortnight. They then went to Tallahassee for a few days, and from there westward through Apalachicola, Pensacola, Mobile, New Orleans, Galvaston, Corpus Christi, and finally to Brownsville and Rio Grande. Their journey west of Florida took them across vast prairies bearing sugar cane, rice and cattle. Many snow geese and sandhill cranes were seen feeding in the rice fields, and later large flocks of geese were seen flying high overhead to their sleeping places on inland lakes, some in V formation, others in long processions flying diagonally to their line of flight. Many accidents to native fauna due to automobiles were in evidence along the road—dead dogs, skunks and opossums were numerous, cats and rabbits less common. In the "list of mortals which suddenly acquired immortality, if ever," as Dearborn puts it, the major items were a wolf, a deer, a hog and a horse, the last of which, he states, "did not die in vain, for in the other ditch lay a wrecked automobile." On reaching Southern Texas, they found it as packed with tourists from the Middle West as Florida was with Easterners, so they returned north to Palacios, a small town on the Gulf of Mexico halfway between Galvaston and Corpus Christi, where they were expecting to spend a month having a good time keeping house, getting a coat of tan, fishing and reading. They plan to leave Texas in season to reach home late in March; in time, Dearborn states, "to see the robbins and bluebirds arrive."

Secretary and Treasurer, 108 Mt. Vernon St., Boston 8, Mass.