Digital Bob Archive

JANUARY 1918 - PART 7:

The Alaska Territorial Council of Defense was one of several organizations on Gastineau Channel whose main purpose was to assist in the war effort. The Council had 12 members in Juneau, 7 in Douglas and 5 in Treadwell. Objectives of the organization, as listed in its bulletin, were:

1. To expedite the production of airplane material. This meant, so far as Alaska was concerned, the production of clear, high grade spruce lumber which was much in demand in both America and England. Sawmills throughout Southeastern Alaska were cutting small quantities of airplane spruce, but the operators were complaining that they could not get logs because of labor shortages.

2. To expedite the use of Alaska water power.

3. To expedite Alaska coal production.

4. To expedite Alaska oil production. Up until that time the only oil production in Alaska had been at Katalla, south of Cordova, but there was much talk of other possible areas.

5. To diminish the unnecessary use of coal and oil.

6. To encourage the development of agriculture and home gardening.

7. To increase fish production and to protect the fish supply against destruction by predatory birds and mammals.

8. To establish a labor bureau for Alaska. Presumably this would have been an employment office to help employers find the men they needed. Mines, sawmills and fishery plants in Alaska all needed more men than they were able to find.

9. To procure the appointment of local physicians to make examinations for enlistment. A complaint by men who wished to enlist in the Armed Services was that they often had to wait weeks until a military physician was available.

10. To procure the establishment of an Intelligence Bureau to furnish the federal government information about Alaska.

11. To educate people on the issues of the war and the consequences of victory or defeat, and to offer prizes for school essays on this subject.

12. To work toward displacing importations to Alaska with native products.

13. To make the services of the Council of Defense available to all organizations assisting in the work of the war.

It appears that the Council of Defense was, in part, an early day economic development organization. And the 10th item on its agenda, the establishment of an Intelligence Bureau, would seem to have been something of a duplication of the Bureau of Publicity created by the 1917 legislature, with an appropriation of $15,000 for the biennium. The Bureau of Publicity, however, had a somewhat wider assignment than the proposed Intelligence Bureau. This was \"To aid prospectors, settlers and investors by the collection, compilation, publication and distribution of accurate information about the mineral, agricultural and commercial opportunities in the territory.\" It got another $15,000 in 1919 but thereafter the legislature turned the publicity chores over to the Territorial Chamber of Commerce.