Digital Bob Archive

As the World War moved into its eleventh month, Gastineau Channel residents, along with the rest of the country, generally accepted the meatless days, the wheatless days, the strict rationing of sugar and the constant admonitions about conserving energy. But when William G. McAdoo, Secretary of the Treasury in the cabinet of President Woodrow Wilson, announced that all gold coins would be withdrawn from circulation, there was a good deal of grumbling.

Secretary McAdoo asserted that the United States government was suffering substantial loses because of the wearing away of the relatively soft gold in the coins. Both Juneau and Douglas were hard money towns; gold and silver coins were the common mediums of exchange and people wanted it to continue that way. As it turned out, the gold coins were not called in, or at least not until many years later.

The sale of War Savings Stamps continued as in the past, but in February the government came up with a new gimmick aimed principally at school children. This was the thrift stamp which sold for 25 cents. The buyer also got a card onto which 16 of the thrift stamps could be pasted. The card, plus 13 cents in coins, could then be exchanged for a War Savings Stamp which in five years would be worth $5. It was reported that $110 worth of thrift stamps were sold in the Juneau Public School the first day they went on sale.

Financing the war was also the aim of the Patriotic Gift Shop that the Juneau Women's Club opened in the Valentine Building in February. The shop received donations of any items that could be resold and it was announced that it averaged sales of $4.50 a day during its first week of operation.

War news filled much of the space in Juneau's two daily papers, the morning Dispatch and the evening Empire, and in addition to news of battles and ship sinkings and so forth there were daily casualty reports, listing names of the dead and wounded and their home ports.

On the local scene, the continuing efforts of the Juneau Commercial Club to secure more and better mail service to points in the Juneau trade area were bearing some fruit. Postmaster Z.M. Bradford received instructions from Washington to call for bids on a new mail boat route. It would start from Juneau and make calls at Taku Harbor, Limestone Inlet, Snettisham, Speel River, Sumdum, Windham, Five Fingers, Cape Fanshaw, Kake, Tyee, Baranoff, Red Bluff Bay, Little Port Walter, Big Port Walter, Port Armstrong, Port Conclusion, Port Alexander, Point Ellis and Washington Bay.

The Eagle Brewery, which had closed on January 1 when the Alaska prohibition law went into effect, would be reopened to produce soda water and near beer, a nonalcoholic malt beverage, according to owner S. Zynda. And J. Latimer \"Dolly\" Gray announced that the Alaska Soda & Bottling Works would also make near beer.