Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 December 1940 — Page 8
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-average family’s
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VALLEY COLONISTS
- FACING EVICTION
140 of 200 Families at Matanuska Lag on Payments Due This Month; Suit to Prevent Federal Action Is Planned by, Resentful Farmers.
By P. R.
CURRAN
: United Press Staff Correspondent : | SEATTLE, Wash., Dec. 3.—One hundred forty of the|| distressed agricultural families financed in “a new start in|| life” in Alaska’s fertile Matanuska Valley by the Government |
are behind in their payments
and are to be evicted soon un-
less they can do something about it.
The Alaska Rural Rehabili-
tation Corp. financed by one of the New Deal agencies, has suddenly become a hard
creditor.
Herbert Hansen, its general manager, has issued an ultimatum to those in arrears who constitute a large portion of the colonists, now Bhinbering approximately 200 fames
More than half of the colonists have Hed an agreement to institute suit against the ARRC to prevent the evictions. Carl Rasmussen is secretary of the colonists’ co-operative which took over the colony’s marketing and producing units from the corporation this year. His wife said: “It is impossible to pay. The indebetedness is $1500 and the average farm’s income for 1940 was only $300. The edict, if enforced, threatens to make homeless refugees of the colonists in the snow-covered, sub-zero val-
“ley and/ jeopardizes the colony’s fu-
28/
ture.” She said “colonists resentment is at fever pitch.”
The corporation wants te increase
the colony’s production -so it ‘can do more toward feeding increased Alaskan Army garrisons and thus aid national defense. : By foreclosing, : the corporation could consolidate these tracts into a few large farms for more intensive cultivation, Farmers “who-are good operators and good credit risks” will be given
more land, Col. Wilson said after conferring’ with Brig. Gen. Simson Bolivar Buckner, commander of the Alaska, force. : The colony has supplied a fair quantity of potatoes, some fresh
if |
milk, butter and eggs to the Army | §
it but the supply has been far less Army’ required 45,000 pounds of meat, fowl, potatoes and fats at Anchozage. Except for potatoes, almost ®ll this, plus tons of canned goods and fresh vegetables had to be shipped 2000 miles by boat and rail from Seattle to Seward and Anchorage.
94 of First 200 Remain
Of the original 200 families brought here in 1935, only 94 remain. Twenty-seven left before their
houses were built. The others drifted back to the United States. But others have taken their places. The latest crisis is one of the! many which have dogged the colony from its inception in 1935 to give a fresh start to Midwestern “dust bowl” refugees and to produce in Alaska a portion of the foodstuffs that now must be imported. Paradoxically, the colonists’ face their most serious threat in a year which’ they expect to be the most successful of the colony’s five-year history. L. C. Stock, general manager of the co-operative, predicts a 40 to 70 per cent increase in gross receipts irectly as a result of the self-management under
ary, when the co-operative bought ommunity real estate, equipment, uildings and machinery from the RC for $286,000 to be repaid on a' 30-year contract. Mr. Stock predicted that the colony will be “entirely in the black” on this basis within five years and said that it had operated at $20,000 less than its budget for the first six months of this year.
- $1500 Due From Each
His prediction did not apply, however, to individual colonists’ indebt: edness to the Government dating before the co-operative. The average indebtedness to the AARC is estimated at $5000, with an av= erage of $1500 due Dec. 1. It is this indebtedness on which the Government . has threatened to foreclose. «3 The co-operative has 256 member families, including more than 100 non-colonists who mine and farm nearby. The 1940 census showed 1700 valley residents 'of whom 1024 are colony members. The co-operative operates a creamery, a retail milk route ih Anchorage, a wholesale meat department, a produce ‘department, a retail store, a hospital, theater, hatchery, barber shop, laundry, garage, slaughter house and meat processing plant, cannery and a power plant. Mr. Stock said most of the pro-
‘|ducing units were operating at a
loss and would continue to do 50] until the colony could increase its production sufficiently to capture most of the business of the estimated 20,000 people along the Alaska Railroad which runs from Seward to Fairbanks with a branch into
|Matanuska,
E140 a CONFIRMS ANOTHER Ale INS hE Th
SMOKE
aaa SLOWERCUES CAMELS
LESS NICOTINE than the average of the 4 other of the largestselling cigarettes tested «less than any of them =according to independent scientific, tests ‘of the smoke itselt.
Despite one of the world’s shortest growing seasons, 23 crops are grown in fertile Matanuska Valley. Family incomes were ‘augmented last summer by construction jobs at Elmendor Field. =f
than needed. In November the|&
John Allen Walker . . . his first love—drums, : : : figure out how I ever had time to
JOHN WALKER BEATS A DRUM
He Can’t Figute Now How He Found Time for His Work. .
By TIM TIPPETT
Bright-eyed John Allen Walker Sr., who retired from the Big Four Railroad 20.years ago, doesn’t know how he used to find time to work. A “former engineer on the Indian-apolis-St. Louis run, his first love is’ music—especially drums. He and several other retired railroaders have formed an orchestra
which he maintains is one of. the best in the city. “We don’t have to take a back seat for anybody,” he declared. : An expert with the drums (he thinks modern drummers have lost the art), he also plays the violin, bass fiddle, valve tnpmbone and banjo. : Youngest Member 62
The orchestra plays every other Monday afternoon at the meeting of the Retired Railroad Employees’ Association at The Big Four Building. The youngest member is 62 and the oldest is Mr, Walker, who is 89. “We play all kinds of music, old and new,” Mr. Walker said. Favorites with retired railroad men: include: “The Irish Washerwoman,” “Pop Goes the Weasel” and “Diana.” A request for “Baby Face” is not infrequent. Mr. Walker’s beginning in music dates back to the Civil War, ‘when he enlisted in the recruiting service. His cousin was a drummer boy in the war and when home. on leave would instruct the boys in the art of the drums. . Back in the days when he-was firing for the “Chicago Express,” Mr, Walker got a job on the train for a friend of his. During “layovers” they would practice a song and dance act in the baggage .car.
Invited to St. Louis
Their first stage appearance was at a combination open theater and beer garden in Highland. One night one of the two gasoline lamps which illuminated the stage started dripping flaming oil ; The lamp was suspended seven feet above the stage and no one could reach-it. Mr. Walker, who was in the midst of his act, backed to one end of the stage and then running at the lamp jumped and “gave it what we called the double kick,” kocking the lamp down. The lamp was extinguished before the stage ignited. : : News of the feat spread among theatrical circles and Mr. Walker was invited to play at a St. Louis
theater.
“They made me such a good offer
that 1 gave up railroading and
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toured the country in minstrel shows and once owned one myself,” he said. : In 1879 he was passing through Indianapolis on his way out West and had a three-hour wait between
“I went over to the roundhouse to see some of my friends and my old boss offered me an engine if I'd quit show business. So I took his offer, “When I retired 20 years ago, people asked me, how I was going to spend my time. They still ask me. “Why I'm busy from the time I
0. E. S. LUNCHEON SET
The Brightwood Auxiliary to the Order of the Eastern Star will hold a covered dish luncheon and business meeting Thursday in the Veritas Masonic Temple, 3350 Roosevelt Ave. Mrs. Marvel Cole and Mrs. Mary Long will be hostesses.
“you've heard about it ; ve NEW YORK
WORLD TELEGRAM CHRISTMAS CAMERA NUMBER (Issue of December 5, 1940)
When New York’s leading
camera newspaper devotes page after page to an annual review of the latest news and: equipment in the camera field . . . you're sure to want a copy! Yours is waiting-—just mail your name and address and 15c in stamps to cover postage.
Address:
~NEW YORK WORLD-TELEGRAM A Scripps Howard Newspaper
125 Buxclay Street, New York, N. Y.
RIT
“| tonight. .
_ |modern features. The system will be| month, will be limited
get up in the morning until Igo
to bed at night. Sometimes I can't’ work for the railroad at all.”
Qo
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‘airplane beacon on top to the 16-“|ton-per-day
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DAUGHTERS ‘OF UNION ANNUAL PARTY SET
XE HOSPITA 20 STORIES HIGH 2s rem ives 7m.
| |Chapter, Daughters of the Union,
3500" Invited to Tonight's ohumbia Cub. Mes. . Alden
| Columbia Club. . Mrs. N. “Alden Preview at Medical Col- |Gebrgs Dunn will be program chair: lege of Virginia.
George Dunn will be program chairHenry ‘M. Dowling will ‘discuss: ; “The Religious Basis of The ReBy Science Service : public.” Mrs. C. A. McPheters,. s0RICHMOND, Vi. Dec. 3.—With|prano soloist, will sing. A special the opening here of the 20-story,|guest will b® Miss Mildred Murray, $2,500,000 skyscraper hospital. of the Columbus, State Regent. ; Medical College of Vitginia, Dixie - will : precede
A preview of the hospital, from MACARONI RATIONED
the Federal Government specified] ROME, Dec. 3 (U. P.)—For the first time since the war started, the per-d fice . manufacturing|Italian national dishes—macaroni pldnt in the sub-basement, will be|and spaghetti — will be rationed shown to 3500 invited guests here|throughout the country, ‘starting today. : : Complete air-conditioning through-| Italians, many of. whom have out the hospital is one of the many|eaten 20 pounds of such food in a
tq four
used for heating and humidifying ds: for December. in winter, for introduction of fresh = ss =
lair in summer, and in the beginning,
for cooling of the first and the operating room floors in summer. Other ultra-modern features of the hospital are: - Microphones - providing two-way co ication between: nurses and phy ns in operating and delivery ® rooms and observers, who will be behind glass partitions. . Elimination of the traffic congestion for students. and visiting physicians usually created by the teaching amphitheater in the ‘center of a| large hospital. tp : Lighting system which makes it impossible for a light ever. to shine in a patient’s face. 5
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