Fred & the 49th

Very surprised to see Honorable Fred A. Seaton of Interior also Mr. John Butrovich. What a world it is here. Being invited to the meeting and before the start making speech. I rounded up natives so they could come to the conference meeting. On this meeting Seaton said that first item he wants to speak is about high school. High school which natives looked for all these years. Seaton said that they are going to have one already solved and in this school, they will have class rooms, kitchen rooms, utility room, and general shop room. Wow what a good news.

So reported Point Barrow's Guy Oka-kok, "the Northernmost Correspondent in the World," to his friends in Fairbanks one day last week after a treasured visit from Interior Secretary Fred Seaton, 49, in 30-below weather. A strong Republican campaigner, Seaton flew into Alaska to help the G.O.P. ticket in the first post-statehood election contests. Wherever he touched down, Fred Seaton wowed; and where he did not wow, he wooed. "I want so desperately for this great state to get off to the right start," said Campaigner Seaton to as many of Alaska's nearly 50,000 voters as he could reach by plane, automobile and dog sled.

The right start, to Seaton's mind: a vote for 1) young (39) Mike Stepovich (TIME, June 9), who resigned from the governorship to run for the U.S. Senate against aging (71) onetime Governor Ernest Gruening; 2) Territorial Senator John Butrovich Jr., 48, for Governor v. Valdez Grocer William Egan, 43; and 3)

Territorial Labor Commissioner Henry Benson, 48, for Congress v. former Attorney General Ralph J. Rivers, 55. Seaton hardly needed to mention the second G.O.P. senatorial candidate, Juneau Attorney R. E. Robertson, who is certain to be defeated by popular Democrat Bob Bartlett, for 14 years Alaska's territorial delegate to Congress.

While none of the other Democratic candidates commanded as broad a lead as Bob Bartlett, they seemed far enough ahead of their Republican opponents to warrant all the push Fred Seaton could give--and Seaton pushed hard. He collected all the "things that ought to be done" and saved them for his campaign trip, frankly admitted that his basket of good news was calculated to help win the election. In Juneau he announced a long-awaited ban on the hated fish traps, symbol of the control of "absentee" Northwest fish canners and a chief cause of depletion of fish stocks. In Point Barrow, he promised a new water line, new National Guard armory, and gas lines, as well as the addition to the local school. For Anchorage and Fairbanks, there will be multimillion-dollar help for the airports, and for Juneau a new federal building. Elsewhere--"a bridge here, a ferry there."

Even without all the glad tidings, Seaton's trip was far more effective than the brief appearance of either Vice President Richard Nixon or the Democrats' Senator Jack Kennedy. Nixon and Kennedy got good crowds, packed in a lot of visits. But Alaskans have deep feeling for Fred Seaton, who gets much of the credit for statehood. Next week if Alaska's voters surprise themselves by electing a few Republicans to office, Fred Seaton could once again take much of the credit.

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