At Last, The Highway

Icy mountains and the icier indifference of officialdom have for 13 years raised impassable barriers against a military highway from the U.S. to Alaska. Last week came a sudden thaw. From Ottawa (not Washington) the word went out that Alaska may get its highway at last.

The final decision had lain with Canada. The U.S. was willing to put up the money -some $25,000,000 to $30,000,000-and willing to maintain the road until war ends. But Canada had not much liked the idea of an "alien highway" through its territory.

There had been four possible routes. Last week Canada's Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King announced approval of a highway running far inland-northwest from Edmonton, beyond Grand Prairie, beyond Fort St. John, to Fort Nelson, Whitehorse and Fairbanks.

The inland route will be safe from shelling, if the Japs should raid the Pacific Coast; will ride over level country much of the way; and it passes through the oil fields of Alberta, handy to gasoline.

From Alaska to Tokyo by air is some 3,000 miles; from Fairbanks to Seattle is 1,550 miles. The road may be strategically useful if the U.S. launches an attack on Japan from Alaska. But it is a strategic necessity if the U.S. is to defend Alaska from the Japs.

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