 Starring Arlene Francis on the Cavalcade of America sponsored by Dupont. Makers of better things for better living through chemistry. Tonight on the Cavalcade of America we present Alaska Under Arms. Written by Peter Lyon and based on a new book of the same name by Gene Ponder of Fortune Magazine. Starring Arlene Francis, the Cavalcade of America brings you a picture of Alaska Under Arms. Ladies and gentlemen, four or five hundred years ago when the world was much smaller, they used to say, when same moves the world trembled. Today in the hour of the long-range bomber, the center of gravity has shifted. It's important these days to remember what was said by America's great prophet of aviation, General Billy Mitchell. Let's listen. Alaska is the most central place in the world of aircraft. That is true either of Europe or Asia or North America. For whoever holds Alaska will hold the world. And I think it's the most important place in the world. Whoever holds Alaska will hold the world. Well, that's quite a sweeping statement. But maybe if we've become used to looking at the math of the world on a globe, as we certainly should do in this global war, maybe then this doesn't come as so much of a surprise to us. Fairbanks Alaska is really the hub of the aircraft world. The spokes which reach out from this hub to London and Paris and Berlin, Warsaw, Moscow, Tokyo, San Francisco and New York are almost equal in length. Fairbanks is truly the hub in a great wheel. Yes, Alaska is the most central place in the world of aircraft. And we hold Alaska. Begin our report on Alaska, a way up in wilderness, where a scant few weeks ago no man had ever been. Well, there are two characters in this first scene, an army private from Texas and a Negro corporal from Philadelphia. These two men are driving great heavy bulldozers, one south having come from Fairbanks, the other north up from Dawson Creek. Here they come, two great juggernauts, grinding over the wilderness. I'm in the way. How do you like that? How do you get ahead of me in the front? Hey, wait a minute, soldier. Where are you going? South. I'm going south. So get out of the way. Hold on now. Wait a second. I guess neither one of us should get out of the way. We've gone as far as we need to go, buddy. This is the end of the line. What do you mean? Shake, soldier. The Alkan Highway is open. What would you think of as a pretty big engineering project? The Pyramid, the Panama Canal, the Grand Coulee Dam. Well, now we've got another one to add to the list, one we can be mighty proud of. Our men, army, and civilians have built a highway that stretches 1,671 miles through the wildest imaginable country, twisting up at times to an altitude of more than 4,000 feet, spanning 200 streams broad and tumultuous. We have built a wartime lifeline through Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon to Alaska. And we have wrought this miracle in the unbelievable time of less than six months. Brigadier General C.L. Sturdovent, Assistant Chief of Army Engineers, is in charge of the project. He has inspected its progress several times, both in Canada and Alaska. Now speaking from Washington, General C.L. Sturdovent. Thank you, Miss Francis. You know that little scene in which the engineer soldier with his southbound bulldozer met the other engineer soldier with his northbound bulldozer is typical of the entire Alkan project. The road has been built by young American soldiers in whose hands our country has placed the finest of engineering equipment. In no other army in the world would you find such a combination. The credit for pushing this road through the wilderness in the short span of one working season therefore belongs first and foremost to the 10,000-odd American soldiers who took their fine equipment and did the job. By this statement, I do not overlook the excellent and necessary work accomplished by the civilian forces of the Public Roads Administration in following up the troops and improving the army road. These soldiers of ours worked early and late, neither heat nor cold, nor all the challenges of the pathless wilderness of them. During March, the men braved bitter winds and temperatures of 35 below. In July and August, gloved and swarred in netting, against swarms of huge mosquitoes and tiny flies and insects, they sweltered under 90-degree heat. The rainy season found them slogging through bottomless mud. They threw into their job the same spirit and the same courage that their comrades in arms have thrown into their operations in the old years in Morocco and at Guadalcanal. Yes, America can well take pride in the way its soldiers have performed in the building of the Alcan Highway. Now that we have the Alcan Road, America can look with increased confidence on the military situation in general and on the situation as regards the bastion of Alaska in particular. No longer is that bastion, on which so much depends, accessible only by sea and by air. It is now accessible by the always dependable means of a two-lane road. For that, I repeat, we Americans can thank the superior equipment produced in our factories and, above all, the superior qualities of the American soldier. Thank you, General Sturdiff. Now then, let's talk about this most important place, Alaska. And let's start out by admitting that our ideas of it are at best romantic. Let's just admit that when we think of Alaska, we are likely to summon up a picture of an old sourdough in a saloon away up in the frozen north. A grizzled old sourdough with his bag of gold dust beside him at the bar. A bunch of the boys will open it up in the Malamute saloon. The kid that handles the music box was hitting the Jagdime too. Our solo game set dangerous Dan McGrew and watching his luck was his light of love. The lady that's known as Lou went out of the night with her 50-balloon. I say Alaska to most people and that's what they remember. But the old sourdough's today spend most of their time laughing at what people from the states think about Alaska. By now, they've almost gotten tired of correcting what we think. Is that right, pardon me? More, I reckon, as a few folks know something about Alaska, but now... Let's see. How about some typical opinions about Alaska? Alaska is a cold country, frozen. Nothing but ice and snow. How about that, pardon me? Well, now, Port Yukon, above the Arctic Circle, I've known it goes high as 110 degrees in the shade. In the summertime, they call the country around Fairbanks a banana belt. Well, here's another opinion. It's dark up there. Three or four months out of the year, you get total blackout. What about that, pardon me? In the Arctic, it's never dark. Worst comes to worst, you can read by the moonlight, shining up off the snow. In fact, you get as much daylight up in the Arctic as you do down in the equator. It shows what people from the states think of Alaska, doesn't it, pardon me? They're all the time making mistakes. Sometimes we even get to making tourists think that there's long worms in the glaciers. Ice worms, we tell them they are. Oh, now, the last on you, Alaskan, there are little things like worms in the glaciers. Scientists have found them. There's been scientists in the outside. No Alaskan scientist ever found any. It's really not so funny what Americans think about Alaska. Alaska is ours and has been for 75 years since we bought it from Russia. We've always treated it like a mentally retarded stepson. We don't even know what Alaska means or where the name comes from. The name Alaska comes from the Russian, alexkaya, meaning mainland. If you will forgive me, the fact is quite otherwise. The word Alaska comes from the alute, a laxax, spelled A-L-A-X-S-X-A-Q. The X is like the German C-H, the Spanish J, or the Russian, or Greek X. But it does mean mainland. No part of the word means mainland and no part means land. By taking the word apart, a particle by particle, and re-assembling its individual meanings, we find that it means the object toward which the action of the sea is directed. That is, a lax, meaning sea or sword. It's a reflexive element occurring in nouns. Yes, but it all adds up that Alaska means mainland. That is correct, yes. Alaska, the mainland. To the alutes on their western Pacific Island, the mainland was a great wall of rocks, lofty mountains, highest in a hemisphere, rising up sheer out of the sea, cut by long still curving inlets, hushed and timeless, holding on their surfaces the green of the spruce and the fern. Alaska, they called it the Great Land. It's a land of glaciers and volcanoes why one valley is called the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. This is a land of riches and plenties. Somebody wrote of Alaska that it's the land that God forgot, but actually he remembered Alaska and lavishly. Fruits and flowers grow thickly, delphiniums as high as nine feet, and strawberries two inches across. And although this land is ours, it belongs to all 134 million others. When last the heads were counted, there were only 73,000 others in Alaska. That's not quite enough to fill the Yale Bowl. For three quarters of a century, we've been busy looking down our noses at Alaska. Back in 1867, Secretary of State Seward was the only man in official Washington who wanted Alaska and even needed to know why exactly. But fortunately, there was a young man named Robert Kennicott whose reports were able to give him the reasons he needed. Of course the natural resources, fish, fur, who knows what sort of mineral deposits, but there's a more important reason. Alaska is a natural bridge to Asia or from Asia. Alaska is more than just a peninsula. The Bering Sea is less than 50 miles across. Alaska is a strategical necessity for us. It must be ours before it's too late. The strategical necessity of Alaska was a little less than apparent to the gentlemen in the Congress at 1867. Near sighted. That was their trouble. Mr. Speaker, the honorable gentlemen for Connecticut, I say that this whole discussion is the most urgent nonsense. More than seven million dollars for an ice cap, which even the Russians have found worthless. As for this talk of the use of Alaska for invasion by our enemies, I would like to be told who are these enemies, what people is there so strong that they will be able to sweep down from Alaska and threaten our security. I should like to say, Mr. Speaker, that I regard this whole affair as nothing more than seven million dollars worth of sewage folly. The near sighted were proven wrong as they always are. But even after Alaska's purchase price had been returned to us a hundredfold. In America, we thought of Alaska as an ice box, suitable perhaps as a vacation land if it wasn't so far away. But if we in America were near sighted, there was an island people to the west who were not. The year is 1937. I've been thousands. Fourteen thousands. And that is this point here on the map, is it, huh? Oh, that's right. We're moving closer now. I want to sound as close to shore as we can get. I'll be sure to know the wind direction. Captain, Captain Hachikimo. Yeah. The Rukah has just reported that our Americans are watching us from the shore. How does he know? The sun is shining. Just there to the left of the coast. There are the wires operated to send out a message. Any message he wishes. Just enough to take care of their suspicions. Should he use our real call letters? Of course not, you fool. Instruct him to use force call letters. What is the sounding now? Twelve and a half thousand. Twelve and a half thousand. Fishing boats. Even if they are fishing boats, they've got no right to be here. We ought to write to the delegate in Washington. Tell him to have him send up some guns to take care of our rights. Now listen, listen. We've got to be practical. I got an idea. Now what is it? We could get Corky or Joe or one of those other pilots to take us up from one of their planes. Fly it over those japs. Oh, what good will that do? They'll just send out some funny message on the radio. Yeah. Only we could drop some bombs on them. Hey! Are you crazy? Where are we going to get bombs? Make them ourselves. If Washington won't drive those japs, away from here, we're going to have to do it ourselves. That was in 1937. However, before the Tuthalaskan fishermen took matters into their own hands, in Washington, the State Department launched a protest to the Japanese ambassador, and the reply came back promptly. The Japanese government regrets extremely the alleged violation of fishing rights and the alleged illegal entry. The Japanese government is anxious to give all assurances that there will be no repetition of these alleged activities. Barges, take her now. Very well. We may proceed. Make a note of fog and wind prevalence. Do not think the American coast guard cut out will be arriving? No. We would not be there for another three days. Come, we must hurry. We must finish our soundings before the end of the summer. In America, we still paid no attention to the Northwest. We still ignored our rich territory. Halfway around the world, men were not so willfully blind. Let's just imagine the conversation that must have taken place in an office of the Institute of Geopolitic at Munich, sometime in 1936. Even if we don't know the exact words, we can be pretty sure of the general conversation. The first to speak would have been Major General Professor Dr. Carl Huff Huffer. I will tell you what I have in my mind, Volschlager. I have been thinking about it for some time. Yeah, Professor. The reports you worked up on Central America were, of course, just what we wanted. Good door, sir. Now then, enough. I have been thinking about Alaska. I know you are just home from America, but I need a good report on Alaska. I think you are the man. We, uh, have men in Alaska can get in touch with you. Oh, yeah, we must have. Get me some to look them up in the files. How soon can you leave? Oh, ten days. Good. Thanks, Volschlager. Dropping for final instructions sometime toward the end of the week. Right, Professor. I'll hit that. I'll hit that. Yeah, a conversation was something like that. But the result of the conversation is not imaginary. It's down in black and white. Let's read a few sentences from Alfred Volschlager's report. It's headed... Alaska, future land of the white race. Like a powerful, large and patient animal, Alaska is still waiting for its master. It is a Nordic land created for Nordic people, the true home of the Nordic race. Everywhere, our lakes and rivers suitable for the landing of airplanes. Alaska is only waiting for the advent of people who are a match for her. Here one can study how a great empire is conquered. And when we think of the future of our race, we must have Alaska. That was written in 1937. And then there was a 1938 and 1939, even as late as 1940, when the army asked for an appropriation to build an air-based anchorage, the congressional committee was skeptical. A half dozen legislators examined an army officer while reporters and interested citizens watched and listened. Why is this base necessary, Colonel? To develop cold weather flying? It's more than simply a question of developing cold weather flying, Senator. I must say I can't see the danger of any military operation so far north. Colonel, what do you mean by an air-based anchorage? Doesn't that constitute a friendly act toward Japan? Why do we need an air base there? In the first place, is it not a fact that the gulf freezes over in wintertime? Gentlemen, we're asking for less than $13 million. In the army's estimation, this figure represents an absolute minimum of what's necessary. Well, frankly, Colonel, I am very skeptical as to the visibility of this project. And I am yet to be convinced of its necessity. I can only hope you won't have to be convinced too forcibly, sir. By the time the winter snows of 1940 were melting and up in Alaska the spring rains were starting, the near-psychid men were beginning to find themselves in the minority. That spring of 1940 saw the arrival of the first contingent of American troops. Here's his hook. Air base. Yeah, I thought we'd been shipped to some air base. Yeah, OK. Here's mud, trees and rocks. Don't look for any barracks because you ain't getting any. You're pitching your tents right here. You're looking for the air base? Well, brother's right where you stand is where it's going to be. You're honest. A handful of troops on a lonely field near Anchorage. They cussed at the rain. They slapped at the big Alaskan mosquitoes and cussed at them too. They unslunged their packs and pitched their pup tents. The American army had arrived and was there to stay for the duration. Today, their base is the headquarters of the Alaska Defense Command. Today it is the headquarters of General Simon Bolliver Buckner who even back in the summer of 1941 was fully conscious of the nature of his command. Well, everybody thinks that Hawaii and Pearl Harbor are closer to Japan than we are here. But up here in Alaska, we never forget Dutch Harbor is a thousand miles closer to Japan than Pearl Harbor is. That's why there's an Alaska Defense Command here. Now, mind you, we're not at war. We're when we are and if we are. Here's one thing that you can tell the people down in the States. Alaska Defense Command's the wrong name. Look at the map. We should be called the Alaska Offense Command. Since December 7th, there has been scarcely a flicker of light from dusk to dawn near the Army and Navy bases of Alaska. And out to the west, on the furthest flung island, the long, careful years of Japanese preparation have paid off. For the first time since 1814, enemy troops occupy American soil in the Western Hemisphere. It's a precarious toehold, a slipping toehold. But the fact remains that Japanese soldiers and Marines are in possession of American soil. Today we know that what General Butner predicted is coming true, that the Alaska Defense Command is becoming the Alaska Offense Command. We know that the men who have gone north to Alaska to guard the country made the giants to live in are fit guardians for our bridge to Asia. And we know that Alaska, like the rest of our world, is going to emerge from this war a greater and richer and freer place. A bridge from one continent to another, a bridge from one world to another. Don't forget Americans, from our Alaskan outpost to Tokyo. Airtime, seven hours. Whoever holds Alaska holds the world. Gene Potter's book, Alaska Under Arms, is published by the Macmillan Company. The orchestra and musical score on tonight's program were under the direction of Don Vorey. On December 1st, ladies and gentlemen, mileage rationing for everyone goes into effect. To buy gasoline after that date, you must have a mileage ration book. Only by rationing gasoline can necessary auto transportation be assured for all who need it. Gasoline rationing is the only way our government has to preserve rubber. Do your part. Drive your car only when absolutely necessary. This is Clayton Collier, sending best wishes from Dufan.