Chapter 6 Outline (I put everything I found interesting into the outline)

Chapter 6. NORMALCY, THE DEPRESSION, AND THE NEW DEAL

I.               Warren G. Harding

a.     succeeded Wilson as president in 1921

b.     His administration was scandalous and he hated his job

c.      He was the first president to visit the territory as he went to Nenana in 1923 to drive the golden spike completing the Alaska Railroad

d.     Believed Alaska’s resources should be used to benefit settlers and not outside speculators

e.     Provided great support for Alaska

II.             The Salmon Fisheries

a.     The commercial era of the fisheries did not begin until Americans showed up

b.     Little capital available to make the heavy investments necessary to build canneries and carry on fishing operations

c.      They were warned about overfishing

d.     Congress forbade the damming of streams to catch fish in 1889

e.     In the 1890’s scientists were convinced that artificial propagation was the answer to fixing the dwindling salmon runs

f.      A regulations that required each fishing company to establish hatcheries and “return red salmon to the spawning grounds at the rate of at least four times the number of fish taken the preceding season” was created

g.     The secretary of commerce was given the authority to regulate fishing within 500 yards of the mouths of rivers and streams

h.     The Bureau of Fisheries and the Department of Commerce resisted any suggestions that the territory be given a voice in the management of the salmon fisheries

i.       Secretary Hoover accompanied president Harding to Alaska and held hearing in several towns

j.       In 1924 the White Act was passed

                                               i.     Gave the secretary of commerce the authority to limit or prohibit fishing in all territorial waters of Alaska

                                              ii.     Fix the size and character but not the amount of fishing gear

                                            iii.     At least 50% of the fish be allowed to escape

k.     Packers loved Hoover

III.           The Alaska Railroad

a.     The fist great construction project initiated by the federal government

b.     Cost $65 million

c.      Ruined steamboat companies forever

d.     Didn’t get much business and thusly cost a lot

e.     Planes became popular and carried freight, mail, and people to isolated areas

IV.            The “Twilit Twenties”

a.     New president Calvin Coolidge thought that Alaska was a waste of time and money

b.     Focused more on business than agriculture

c.      Alaska population was about the same as was the economy

d.     Mining productions were slowed down because the demand for copper ended when the war years ended

e.     The postwar slump raised the demand for salmon again

f.      The value of furs went up

V.              Alaska in the Great Depression

a.     Employment in the mines went downhill

b.     Value of salmon fell

c.      The expansion of the lumber industry halted

d.     Alaska’s share of the new deal was little to nothing because it was only a territory

e.     The president decided to devalue the dollar and raise the price of gold which helped the development of Alaska

f.      The WPA gave employment to people on the relief rolls

g.     The PWA sponsored public undertakings in which private contractors employed men and women at the prevailing community wage rates

h.     The CCC built bridges, roads, warehouses, small-boat facilities, a trout hatchery, a dock and small boat harbor, drainage ditches, community wells, and landing fields.

VI.            New Fisheries

a.     The union insisted that packers should pay the nonresident fishermen four cents more per fish than they paid the residents and that the nonresidents should receive most of the available fishermen’s jobs

b.     Alaskans were hostile to outside forces of labor, capital, and government.

c.      Regulation of salmon pretty much failed

VII.          The Matanuska Colony

a.     Roosevelt moved 201 family to Alaska and gave them land to farm on

b.     It cost 5 million

c.      31 percent of the original settlers and 43 percent of the replacements were still living in the colony in 1948

d.     many Alaskans spoke of the need to settle Alaska, but they were reluctant and hostile whenever there was any discussion of finding new settlements in the territory.

VIII.        The “New Deal” for Native Peoples

a.     Natives are given more land of reservations as a means of furthering their welfare

b.     The Indian Reorganization Act enabled several Native American communities to incorporate and to draw up constitutions for self-government.

c.      Loans extended to a number of villages allowed them to set up canneries

d.     Individual fishermen borrowed money to purchase boats and gear for themselves

e.     The most controversial aspect of the program was the one that contemplated the creation of reservations and a system of communal land tenure

What comes after the gold rush? How is Alaska changed by it?

After the gold rush, Alaska continued to expand and become more developed. The railroad was built, mines grew and shrunk depending on the economy and war situations. Fishing became a huge part of the economy and also a very controversial subject in legislature. The gold rush created many more jobs and thusly the population increased.