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r ORT COVINGTON SUN VOL. LI. FT. COVINGTON, N. Y., THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1935. NO. 2. 200 AMERICAN FAMILIES WILL START LIFE ANEW IN ALASKA Federal Emergency Relief Commission to Supply Work Animals and Necessary Farm Tools for This Sensational Pioneering Adventure. By WILLIAM C. UTLEY P ROBABLY countless times since depression and drouth struck sub-marginal lands and poor farming country, farmers and their families, discouraged and in somfe cases destitute, have prayed for a chance to go away somewhere—any- where—and start all over again, with nothing more perhaps than the strength of their hands and a few fundamental pieces of equipment, but with a clean slate and an equal footing for all. In one of the most spectacular ex- periments the Brain Trust has yet de- Vised, the Federal Emergency Relief •commission is trying to determine whether a literal answer to that prayer is not, after all, the solution to the farmer's plight in many an advanced •case of economic collapse. The FERA is taking 200 families from drouth-stricken farms in northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, families who had just about given up ^11 hope of ever again \making a go\ out of their farms, herding them and a few of their effects into a boat and shipping them away to a brand new stake and a new life—in Alaska. Here is a land which to most of them is one so cold that ice cream tars are named after it, so wild that most of the life consists of Eskimos, •caribou and grizzled prospectors pan- xiing for gold. But they care not. For them it is the land of new hope, and in It they are going to build a Utopia in the wilderness, where everybody starts from scratch and where, they are certain, reward will come in actual proportion to sweat and sincerity of effort. The exodus has, in newspaper ac- counts somewhat colored, been called the \exiling of families to bleak terri- ple new farm lands in the United States proper. This, officials declared, would be simply handing out alms, and one of the objects of the entire experi- ment is to find out whether such fam- ilies can be rescued without alms. The same officials admitted that the payment of the passage in itself con- stituted alms, but they claimed that the situation was modified considerably by an agreement that the money will be paid back when the new farm land produces more than a living for its people, if it ever does. Besides this, it is argued, the colonists will have a new mental outlook they could never attain were their new homes estab- lished in one of the states. The move- ment will further serve a useful pur- pose by helping to build up Alaska. Bound for Seward. On steel rails, over the Oregon trail famed in pioneering history, the ad- venturers and their meager accoutre- ments will go to Seattle, where they will board a steamer for Seward, Alaska, Some of them are already on their way as you read this. Perhaps a good share of these peo- when the second half of the migration arrives. All of this land of new hope is en- tirely overgrown with spruce, cotton- wood and birch. This must all be cleared away, and with the help of the OCC workers, the families hope to have a large share of the work done before the short Alaskan summer draws to a close. Log dwellings will be erected at first, from the gleanings of the timber clearing. According to the plan, the women folks will have to pitch right in, maybe even swing an as or two, and help the men with their work. FERA architects have designed a sort of hamlet for the center of the colony, and the CCC workers will begin upon this project soon after their ar- rival. A modern schoolhouse, accom- modating 480 children, will be erected first, for these people have no Intention of robbing their offspring of the cul- tural a,nd educational benefits of the civilization back home. The schoolhouse will serve in sev- eral other capacities. It will be the center of all community life. It will have a community hall and a gymnasi- um where meetings, dances and enter- tainments of various kinds will be held. If the workers are able to maintain the schedule laid out for them, the coming of the nest winter will also find a comfortable dormitory for the teachers in the school, and a home for the manager of the colony. There will be a community industrial build- ing which will include a creamery and a greenhouse. Construction will be speeded on a barn for 40 teams of horses, a warehouse, shops, garages, a community poultry farm and other essential community projects. Animals in Zoos Require ; Most Careful Attention PACIFIC \ OCEAN Captive Beasts Suffer From Many Illnesses. Washington.—One of the most pe- culiar bears ever born in captivity put in a brief appearance recently at the National Zoological park in Washing- ton. A cifoss between a polar bear and a brown kadiak bear, the tiny silver-gray cub aroused the interest of scientists. Hopes of studying it were dashed, when, after two weeks of ap- parently normal development, the cub mysteriously died. \If it were not for the careful at- tentions of the zoo doctor, zoos would soon be full of empty cages,\ says the National Geographic society. \For captive animals, although given the finest food and surroundings, suffer from all the illnesses in a patent medi- cine pamphlet. Bear cubs get mumps, and monkeys get toothache. Pneu- monia, distemper, and parasites wipe out large numbers of animals. Bron- chitis and digestive troubles affect others. Monkeys are especially sus- ceptible to tuberculosis. Elephants Get Bellyache. 'Many of the illnesses are natural to the animal in a wild state. Change of climate accounts for others. Elephants, upon first being brought from the tripics to more temperate regions, often roll on the ground with stom- achache. The usual remedy is a blan- ket-sized mustard poultice and a stiff dose of gin and ginger. Elephants become so pleased with the tonic that they frequently stage an illness merely to be dosed! \Many animals, however, quickly be- come acclimated. Lions and ostriches learn to live outdoors in snow, while the Brazilian tapir revels In it from choice long after animals from colder climates have sought shelter. Similar- ly, polar bears do not seem to be af- fected adversely by the summer heaf of temperate regions. \One of the most amazing adapta- tions to changed environment wai made by chinchillas. These small ro- dents, from which valuable fur i obtained, normally live on the frigii heights of the Andes. How they wer< successfully transferred from there t( fur farms of southern California is monument to patience. A dozen cap tured at high altitudes were carefullj nurtured for two years at 11,000 feei brought down to 9,000 feet, kept there for a year, and then, after almost sis years of successive descent and stops they were taken on a 40 day sea voy age from Iquique, Chile, to Los An- geles. In ice-cooled cages they passec safely through the tropics, and an now thriving by thousands in thei new environment. Confined surroundings account fo: several diseases affecting animals, When captive animals, lapped in com- :ort, become too lazy to do much more than eat and sleep, they frequently fa: victims to 'cage paralysis.' Trained Just as These Pioneers in the Gold Rush Days of '98 Set Forth to Conquer the Wilderness, Will 200 American Families Seek a New Start in Alaska This Summer. torial outposts,\ inferring a parallel to the exile of Russian peasants into Siberia. It is not like that at all. No- body has to go who doesn't want to— and everybody 'in the party seems to be tickled to death of the chance. Selecting the Company. For the past few months FERA work- ers have been going about quietly ' selecting members of the company. This has been an exacting, task, for only the purest American farming stock will be allowed to settle in the Alaskan colony. They must also be healthy and well equipped physically to stand pioneer life and temperatures which sometimes fall to 40 degrees be- low zero. Most of them are families that have been entirely dependent upon the government for their exist- ence. Along with the 200 families, 400 sin- gle men, CCC workers, are being sent to help in the hard work of starting the frontier Utopia. They will help in the clearing of government land and in the building which will be necessary. Each family is allowed to take but 2,000 pounds of belongiugs. Many an heirloom, itself carried west in an earlier day by an earlier pioneer, is being left behind, making way for equipment that will be of greater value in the new life. There is not room for an unnecessary pound. Live stock and machinery are being disposed of, for at the end of their journey these fam- ilies will not tools and equipment bet- ter suited to Alaskan climate and ter- rain. Not a few heartaches may be imagined its some treasured possession, of -Treat sentimental but uo practical Value, is kissed good-by. But then, moving day Is always u house-clean- ing for non-essentials. The average family making the trip has four members. Kach family will have the benefit of a government draw- Ing u<vmmt of $:},000, which must be paid back in :?<> year» with 3 per cent Interest. To finance the project the government has sot asl<l« $500,000. In same quarters it has been misses! etl that half a million dollars mlKlit be -wore wisely spent In buying those peo- ple will never again pass south of their point of entry into the Alaskan peninsula. At any rate, they will never again return to the farms they have left, for these, in accordance with the FERA plan of relocation of desti- tute farm families in many sections of the United States, will be turned into bird refuges, wild life preserves, forests and other adaptations, but will never again be farms. Up in this rugged country Arctic winds chill the climate but at the same time warm Pacific currents from Japan temper it. It is not really as bad as imagined by those not familiar with Alaska. The winters are not really much more severe than those of many well-populated parts of Canada, and the summers are quite comparable to those of the Middle West, although the winters are longer and the summers shorter. From Seward the little band will pass onward through Anchorage, which is the southern gateway to the rich Matanuska valley. They will travel by train to Palmer, a little village 150 miles north. It is in the wild country near Palmer that their new plots of land will be staked out. Leader of the party is Don L. Irwin, son of a man who was among the lead- ers in the Oklahoma land rush. Lie is superintendent of colonization in Alas- ka. The organization itself is knowu as the Alaska Colonization corpora- tion. Draw for Locations. Not until it has reached Palmer will the party settle the question of loca- tion of individual farms. There a drawing will be held which will assure the dispensation of land with complete impartiality to all. Slips of paper, numbered, will be mixed up In a hat, just\ as tit a raffle, The number on each slip of paper will correspond with the number of a plot of 40 acres of unsettled, wooded land. For temporary dwellings the Alaska Colonization corporation will have set up a tent on each plot. Each family, when it draws a number, will move? into tbe tent designated by that mm»- ( ber. The process will be repeated The permanent houses of the fam- ilies will be equipped as are many modern farm houses in the states, with running water, wood-burning stoves, chemical toilets and other conven- iences. About the only thing that will be lacking is electric light. Kerosene or oil lamps will be used. Just as their cousins who attend the consoli- dated schools \In the states, the chil- dren will be taken to their lessons each day by motor bus. Each family will keep one milch- Longhorn cow, supplied by the govern- ment, which, in fact, will supply all work animals and tools. Even here, however, the farmer-citizens will not be free from close government super- vision over their industry, for the gov- ernment reserves the right to regulate strictly the crop production of each farmer. Reason for this regulation is said to be that the colony is being formed to supply stores in the Matanuska valley with $1,000,000 worth of goods an- nually. The valley now imports this amount of goods every year from the United States and Canada. The land in the Matanuska valley is fertile, and is especially good for dairy and truck farming. Although the sum- mers are shorter the days are really much longer than they are in the states and give about twice as much sunlight. The land is rich in natural and mineral resources. The rivers and streams abound in fish and there is plenty of game in the wilds, Alaska could support a population much larger than the 60,000 it now docs, and It is quite possible that this colony may be the start of a progres- sive growth. It Is at least the largest attempt the federal government ha: yet made to colonize the northern possession. Alaska needs more people to make use of its vast agricultural and min- eral wealth. It Is the only part of the United States where unemploy- ment does not exist, although it is not hard to get a job in Hawaii, either. It is one of the very few parts of tin world which invites immigration. © IVastern Newspaper Uulon. inimals, forced daily to jump through loops and race around arenas, keep in setter condition than most zoo animals, ne reason why certain animals are confined together Is because chasing each other around the cage gives them exercise as well as diversion. Need Companionship. \It is well known that companion- ship is an aid to the good health of most animals. Many animals, If kept alone, are apt to fall sick. Hatred of solitude probably accounts for many strange friendships between animals, not only between those of the same species, but between those of far dif- ferent, and often hostile species. \Between acts of trained animal shows, visitors may be surprised to see a tiger, a panther, and a fox ter- rier rolling over each other in friend- ly play, or a bantam rooster crowing from the vantage point of a giraffe's neck. Such friendships sometimes terminate abruptly. Sea lions may live peaceably with penguins for years, and then suddenly turn upon and devour them. 'Not only do zoo doctors have fc contend with ordinary illnesses of ani- mals, but anacondas must be helped out of the skins they are shedding, and overly pugnacious alligators must have Dachshund Displays Long Understanding Great Falls, Mont — \Spotty dachshund-terrier—half a dog high and two dogs long—isn't much on looks but apparently is a good list- ener. When the dog is at the home of two-year-old Ruth Lofstrom's grand- mother, it Is brought to a telephone and Ruth says. \Spotty come play with me.\ The pet gives a Joyful yip and scampers to Ruth's home, a block away. The telephone Is also used to get \Spotty\ home. Dental Hygiene as The Road to Health By DR. R. ALLEN GRIFFITH their teeth sawed off. Elephants charge iron framework and splinter their tusks. Hippopotamuses break their teeth by biting out pieces of con- crete. Leaping chimpanzees fall and fracture their limbs; birds break their wings, and storks and gazelles, their slim legs. \One of the most interesting places in every large zoo is its hospital, where operations are performed and post- mortems held. From cages and crates of every size peer Invalids amusing and pathetic. In one limps a deer with a bandaged foot. In another, sad-faced monkey wears a big wooden collar around its neck to keep it from tearing the plaster cast from a broken arm. A giraffe with a sore throat looks down on them, its long neck wound In bandages.\ TEETH AND VANITY Mr. Garner Meets a Lord Mayor Vice President John N. Garner is here seen with a distinguished visitor from overseas who stepped into the Capitol at Washington to chat with the gentleman from Uvalde. He is Rt. Hon. Alderman Alfred Byrne, lord mayor of Dublin, Irish Free State. T WENTY-FIVE or thirty years ago it was considered quite the thing to have diamonds set in the teeth. About the same time, too, even some of our own American people had gold crowns put on their front teeth to add to their attractiveness. A little later, several American dentists did a land office business in old Mexico grinding down the front teeth of the peons and put4 ting gold crowns on them. Many ot these peons would spend their last dol* lar for a gold crown. And these were nearly always put on perfectly soun€ teeth. The mouth is the most expressive or- gan of the human body. What is more attractive than smiling lips with a per- fect set of clean, white teeth? Most people could have beautiful teeth If they would only give them the neces- sary time and attention. My lady some- times spends a fortune for a string of pearls and neglects the real pearj£ which are in her mouth. Teeth, care- fully polished and free from decay, have much of the sheen of the pearl, and should be far preferable. Teeth are the first organ of digestion. Poorly chewed food places an enor- mous strain on the digestive system. Not only does the person lose much of the food value, but serious digestive, disorders may result The average Individual does not real- ize the value of either teeth or health until they are lost Then he makes frantic efforts to regain what is too frequently gone forever, when a little prevention in the beginning would have preserved both. Vanity, alone, should prevent the very absurdities noted above. Evea the loss of a single back tooth will show in a photograph. The teeth form perfect arch and any single tooth removed from that arch will cause a change in its form. In the same way, should a brick or a stone be allowed to disintegrate in an architectural arch, it will cause the arch to gradual- ly collapse. Porcelain teeth are made nowadays to take the place of teeth \lost\ from any cause. The art of \dental cer- amics\ has reached a stage where the artificial is hard to tell from the nat- ural. Vanity is unquestionably the cause of this high degree of perfection, but no artificial tooth is ever as good as the natural. It is perfectly natural for every nor- mal human being to want to look as well as possible, and vanity alone should teach them to care for their teeth in time and to keep them clean. * * • TEETH AND SELF-RESPECT New Apparatus Probes Into Earth's Core Permits the Study of Minerals Under Pressure. Cambridge, Mass.—The searching eye of science will be able to tell about conditions approximately 20 miles be- low the earth's surface with the aid of apparatus newly developed at Har- vard university. Use of the apparatus for the first time is announced by the staff of the Gordon McKay and Dunbar physics laboratories. The equipment may reveal hitherto unknown properties of rocks deeper down in the earth than can be reached by digging. It also is expected to aid in attaining accurate interpretation of seismological and gravitational obser- vations. Permitting the examination of min- erals under a pressure of 10,000 atmo- spheres (about 75 tons per square inch), combined with temperatures as high as 500 degrees centigrade, the ap- paratus was devised by Drs. Francis Birch and R. R. Law, research associ- ates in geophysics. Heretofore scientists have been able ADMIRAL OF THE AIR Roar Admiral Henry V. Butler who •was raised to the rank of vioo ad- miral when he was placed in com- mand of the American fleet's aircraft battle force. The appointnumt stressed the increasing importance of aviation to the navy. to investigate only the effects on min- erals of high temperature alone, or of high pressure alone, whereas a joint study will now be possible. Two methods of obtaining the combi- nation of high temperature and pres- sure have been used. The first em- ploys a steel pressure chamber about the size of a pop bottle which has a hole of half-inch diameter bored along its axis. Into this hole is inserted the specimen, a small cylinder of the min- eral a quarter inch in diameter and two to five inches long. The neck of the pressure chamber is connected to a-piston capable of compressing nitro- gen gas to a pressure of 10,000 atmo- spheres. Then the compression cham- ber is placed in an electric furnace and heated as high as 500 centigrade. The second method makes it possible to attain temperatures as high as 1,000 centigrade. In this apparatus the pres- sure range is at present limited to 5,000 atmospheres. Heat is applied electri- cally within the pressure chamber, and the other walls of the chamber are cooled. In all their heat-pressure experi- ments Harvard physicists have found that the best substance for transmit- ting the pressure is the inert gas ni- trogen. Discover Graveyard of Prehistoric Animals Pasadena. Calif.—A graveyard of the queer misshapen beasts that roamed North America 30,000,000 years ago was being excavated in the Armargossa desert recently by scientists of the Cal- ifornia Institute of Technology. Fossils of the prehistoric monsters, according to Dr. Chester Stock, paleon- tologist, are being found in a rock lay- er cropping out along the west side of the desert near Death valley. Most important of the fiuds so far is a perfect skull of a titanothere. a bulky beast resembling a hornless rhi- noceros. Nearby the scientists picked up bones and bone scraps of now ex- tinct rodents, even-toed mammals, and a small, fast running rhinoceros. Scien- tists will explore the entire seam for the telltale glint of a preserved tooth, or the discoloratl bone dry rocky wastes indicates, he said, that the area must have been cov- ered with dense vegetation, well wa- tered by rains, at that time. FULL OF MISCHIEF M ANY a man takes a bath and changes his collar every day and wears the latest style clothes, while his teeth cry aloud: \Give me a bath and take me to the dentist.\ Go where you will, there is a con- tinuous parade of irregular, elongated, unkempt teeth. Of those who visit the dentist, very few do so because they sincerely believe that sound, clean teeth are conducive to lengthening their lives. Most men visit the den- tist because they are driven to him by pain or pride. Few people think of their health until they are sick. As the physician and dentist see- things today, there will be far less surgery and sickness when the full knowledge of modern preventive medi- cine and dentistry become fully knowa I throughout the world. The average I duration of human life has been In- creased many years during the last half century. This has come about more through the protection of the people by public health laws and the saving of children than through the knowledge and use of drugs. j Concerning the diseases of chil- i dren, it used to be thought necessary | for children to have diseases that are '< now largely prevented by quarantine. ; We know, too. now, that tbese annee- | essary diseases leave their scare ac- { cording to the seriousness of the in- : fectioD. Scarlet fever breaks down aa i enormous amount of the surface of the kidney, the chronic infections do ; the same thing in a small way. We • cannot afford to \have\ our children ; suffer these handicaps. Bad drinking water is probably one ! of the most common and dangerous • carriers of disease. In our cities mil- i lions of dollars have been spent to I insure pure drinking water, but we are just beginning to spend anything to keep clean the child's mouth. { This great advance in the preven- I tion of the diseases wherein dentists are so much interested is the knowl- ' edge that acute, special, local and i chronic diseases such as neuritis, sci- Princess Josephine Charlotte, only • fitica and acute para ] TSis come from daughter of the king and queea of the mouth i D f ect ions in the majority of Belgians, snapped as she was on her lnstance s. We are also coming to be- way to the public school she attends Ueve that appendicitis, diseases of the in Brussels. The seven-and-a-half-year- old girl is. said by her teacher to be the most mischievous member of her class. betrays a hidden fossil. Doctor Stock fixed the age of the \graveyard\ as the lower oligocene pe- ftod, thousands of years before the great Ice ago. Existence of the fossils in the now Ohio Hortet Reduced Marysville, Ohio.—The number of of the rock that [ horses on Ohio farms has been reduced from 811,000 in 1020 to 541,000 during 1934, a decrease of 43 per cent in 14 years, L, P. MeCaun, extension spe- cialist, Ohio State university, reported here. Farmers have taken stejwi to promote Interest iu colt raisittg- gall bladder and. ulcerated stomachs may be caused by bacteria in the ca- pillary circulation at the base of mn- cous cells. Another prime cause is lo- cal infections. We find foe! of infections in the tonsils, in pyorrbea, in cavities in the teeth, in abscesses at the roots of the teeth. All of these foci of infec- tion may be prevented by keeping the. mouth clean and healthy. Can we not change our attitude from on.> of neglect to one of s*?lf-respecting care? ©, Western Newspaper Ur^on.
