Letter from Congressman E. L. Bartlett and Ernest Gruening to President Harry S. Truman

E. L. BARTLETT SECRETARY: DELEGATE FROM ALASKA MISS MARY LEE COUNCIL ASSISTANT SECRETARIES: MRS. MARGERY NEIL Congress of the United States MRS. EDYTHE YARBROUGH House of Representatibes ARCMIVER AMO Washington, D. €. RECORDS SERVICE* February 12, 1946 The President, The White House Dear Mr. President: The development of Alaska -- with its area one-fifth that of the United States and its great strategic importance -- is a federal responsibility. Tens of thousands of G. I.'s want to settle there, and the development necessary to permit their successful establishment there is beyond the capacity of the Territory's 80,000 people. The program for which we desire to enlist your active support falls under three heads: 1. A positive program of development; 2. Elimination of the constant discrimination, disadvantages, setbacks which Alaska suffers from other government agencies by reason of its territorial status; 3. A maritime transportation program. The Positive Program. The United States has invested not less than a billion dollars in the defense of the Territory in connection with the second World War. A. The development program to be directed largely for the re- turning veterans should consist at least of: (1) Making available to the Alaska Development Board recently created by the Territorial Legislature (or some other agency to be created) financial assistance from federal loan agencies to aid industries and small businesses to get started (the sort of thing Smaller War Plants Corporation was intended to do) Alaska banks exact 8% interest and will not make loans to veterans under the G. I. Bill. (2) A public works program. (3) A comprehensive agricultural program of intensive and rapid research designed at least to parallel what the Russians are doing on a grand scale in eastern Siberia.