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YOUR OPPORTUNITIES IN ALASKA 83
—OR FOR THE FARMER PLAINSMAN
These plant (ten-pound) cabbages attest the virgin fertility of Alaska's soil.
the States and ship them into Alaska
more cheaply than Anchorage can,
Seward will pull ahead as a commercial
center. If Anchorage can get goods out
of Alaska and ship them more cheaply
than Seward can, or if it develops better
harbor facilities, it will pull ahead of
Seward as a shipping center. A combination
of these two elements with those
of power supply and available building
sites, will give one or the other the advantage
as a manufacturing city. And
so it goes; they may be even with each
other in these matters, and so run "neck
and neck", as, in a way, Seattle and Tacoma
are running neck and neck; or one
may pull ahead of the other, as in the
old days, Chicago pulled ahead of Milwaukee.
Time, conditions as they develop,
and the relative enterprise of the
two places, will decide; but just now,
anyone on the ground, who has the intelligence
necessary to get pertinent information
and use it, can make his own
forecast. All professional and business
men should consider these problems in
picking a location.
Then, of course, there is the personal
factor in each man's problem. A prospective
settler's first decision must con­
cern itself with how much he wishes to
attempt. Obviously, if he has plenty of
capital, or knows that he is, so to speak,
a business genius, he is justified in trying
for the "big game". So also, he can
undertake to compete with established
business, if there is or will be enough
in the community to warrant his own and
the other fellow's enterprise. Otherwise,
lie would do well to seek fresh fields.
The case of an enterprising dentist
illustrates this point. This man could
find no opening for one of his profession
in any of the older towns or settlements.
If a place was large enough to
support a resident dentist, some one had
arrived ahead of him to gobble up the
field. Me was quick-witted, and he
thought of a method to help him to what
he wanted—to become a permanent
Alaskan. I Ie decided to become an
itinerant, or traveling dentist.
Then there are the opportunities for
the farmer. Congress passed the Alaskan
Homestead Act in 1903, and the provisions
for acquiring land are unusually
liberal. Any person qualified to make
entry at home may take up land in
Alaska. The maximum amount to be
taken up is 320 acres. While proving-