Transplanting

Near Stillwater, Okla. four years ago husky Clyde Cook, 45, and his plump wife Jessie, 40, packed their children into an old automobile, drove north. Drought and Depression had whipped them in Oklahoma. All they hoped for now was to raise enough food for their growing family. At Walker, Minn, somebody told them about a dried-up lake bottom they might farm. Clyde Cook tried it. He kept his family of five boys and two girls alive somehow until the New Deal came along. Then he went on relief.

Many an observer has pointed out that past U. S. depressions were relieved by mass migrations to the frontier, that the present depression is uniquely acute because that safety valve is gone. But there is one last U. S. frontier: Alaska. A few hundred discouraged miners who have turned to farming produce only a small portion of Alaska's food. The rest, $6,000,000 worth per year, is imported. Meantime, U. S. farmers plow under their crops, kill livestock to prevent a surplus. Last January, FERA officials put these facts together, produced their most ambitious rural rehabilitation scheme to date.

The scheme: to transplant strapped U. S. farm families wholesale to southern Alaska's Matanuska Valley, whose 76,000 tillable acres now support only 117 families. It was decided to send about 1,000 people (200 families) first, follow them with more if the plan worked. The transplantees had to be used to hard winters, so state relief workers in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan were detailed to call for volunteers. Out of 6,000 applicants they picked farm families who had long been on relief, in which father & mother were young, sturdy, courageous. Early last week an advance guard of 125 single men from Federal transient relief camps in California sailed from San Francisco to spend six months clearing the land, building. Few days later the first contingent of settlers. 67 families, rolled out of St. Paul. With 380 more transients, they were scheduled to sail from San Francisco this week aboard the Government transport St. Mihiet. The second contingent of 133 families was to follow from Seattle May 15.

In St. Paul's Union Depot an engine breakdown prolonged for a half-hour the tears, bustle and confusion of departure. Most families had killed their pets, thinking they were not allowed to take them along, but a few had dogs or cats and one woman had a canary. Having come from rented or foreclosed farms, most families were traveling light. Typically, the Clyde Cooks had only a stove. Their two attractive daughters, aged 16 and 18, were broken-hearted at leaving old friends behind. But the five boys, aged 2 to 14, were primed for adventure.

Observed an oldtime pioneer, down to see the folks off: "This is pioneering. The only difference is the train isn't a covered wagon."

Theo Gidlin, self-appointed leader of the St. Louis County delegation, surveyed the ramshackle day coaches of the party's special train, cried: "The Government promised us sleepers and we bargained for sleepers. We'll get them in Omaha or know the reason why!"

Arriving at Matanuska Valley, 125 mi. inland from Seward, each transplanted family will get a 40-acre tract, a log cabin, livestock and farm equipment. They will have 30 years to pay the Government $3,000, with 3% interest, the first payment due in four years. The cabins will have built-in furniture, running water. A physician, dentist and Red Cross nurse will be in attendance. Warmed by 20 hr. per day of summer sunlight and wet by heavy rains, Matanuska loam yields whopping crops. The Japanese Current keeps winter temperatures well above those of northern Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The land abounds in fish & game. Over all will brood the watchful care of the U.S. Government.

Chief of the colony will be Don L. Irwin, general manager of the newly formed Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corp. A lanky, pleasant Kansas State Agricultural College graduate, he was a successful Wyoming rancher until the Government sent him to head its Agricultural Experiment Station in Matanuska Valley three years ago. Of his Utopian project, Chief Irwin said last week: "Almost the first job will be to clear out the mosquitoes. They are the chief handicap."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.