Was the Alaska Purchase a Good Deal?

Was the Alaska Purchase a Good Deal?  By MICHAEL POWELL

AUGUST 20, 2010

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/was-the-alaska-purchase-a-good-deal/

Several readers rather better versed in Alaska than most have written to take issue with the University of Iowa economist David Barker’s essay (mentioned here earlier this week) titled “Was the Alaska Purchase a Good Deal?”

His intentionally provocative answer: Not really.

Mr. Barker argues that Alaska, like much of the American West, is dependent on the federal government. The United States, he notes, allowed Alaskans, as a condition of statehood, to keep 90 percent of the profits from the oil fields, and he says oil rents and royalties from the North Slope oil fields peaked in 1982 at $24 million.

He notes that polar winds, great piles of snow, and rain and more rain, not to mention achingly vast distances, make the state a most expensive property to maintain. The United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million, a seeming bargain that becomes less so in Mr. Barker’s rendering, as he calculates that amounts to $16.5 billion in 2007 dollars, if one adjusts for the relative size of the national economy then and now.

Now come along the rebuttals.

Professor Scott Goldsmith of the University of Alaska Anchorage and the history professor Terrence Cole of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, pose a similar question:  Could many states withstand the pitiless math Mr. Barker employs?

[…]

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/was-the-alaska-purchase-a-good-deal/

20100820 NYT Was the Alaska Purchase a Good Deal

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July 7, 1958 – Anchorage Daily News: Ike signs statehood bill

July 7, 1958 – Anchorage Daily News: Ike signs statehood bill

Ike signs statehood bill

Puts Signature to Legislation at White House

(July 7, 1958) WASHINGTON — President Eisenhower today signed into law the bill to make Alaska the 49th state.

The president put his signature on the historic legislation at 3:20 p.m. EDT in his White House office.

After signing the bill, the president looked up and commented to Gerald Morgan, White House special counsel, "Now we have 49 states." But the president quickly added, "Maybe we don't do it until the plebiscite."

Morgan replied, "We don't do it until the plebiscite."

They were referring to the fact that Alaskan voters still must approve the terms of statehood in a referendum to be held in December. Only after that will Alaskan statehood become a reality.

The president advised Gov. Michael A. Stepovich of Alaska by letter that the bill had been signed as required by one of its provisions.

"As you start the procedure that will, I hope, result in the admission of Alaska into the union as a state, you and the people of Alaska have my very best wishes," Eisenhower wrote.

In his statement, the president said he had requested Defense Secretary Neil H. McElroy to review U.S. military needs in Alaska in accordance with a provision authorizing "special national defense withdrawals to assure that the defense requirements of our nation are adequately protected."

In a statement issued shortly after the signing, the president said he was pleased with the Alaskan action but "extremely disturbed over reports that no action is contemplated by the current Congress" on legislation to admit Hawaii.

"I personally believe that Hawaii has qualified for statehood equally with Alaska," he declared. "The thousands of loyal, patriotic Americans in Hawaii who suffered the ravages of World War II with us and who experienced the first disastrous attack upon Pearl Harbor must not be forgotten."

Related: 19590630 Col Marston and Mayor Anderson stand in front of 49 star flag

And… US state Alaska, US state Alaska Anchorage, US state Alaska history, President 1953 34 Eisenhower - Dwight David Eisenhower, US state Hawaii, US state Hawaii history,

19580707 Anchorage Daily News: Ike signs statehood bill

June 30, 1958 – Col Marston and Mayor Anderson stand in front of 49 star flag hung from the Federal Building in Anchorage

June 30, 1958 – Col Marston and Mayor Anderson stand in front of 49 star flag hung from the Federal Building in Anchorage

June 30, 1958 – July 2008

Anchorage Daily News

This year, in celebration of Alaska becoming the 49th state in the United States in 1959; the Anchorage Daily News has been publishing, once a month, a vintage broadsheet of the paper from 50 years ago.

It has been a delightful series. My brother-in-law, from Anchorage, just gave me the latest installment and I really enjoyed the photograph of:

“Col Muktuk (Marvin R.) Marston, left, with Mayor Anton Anderson in front of a 48-star flag with a 49th attached, hung from the Federal Building in Anchorage in celebration of statehood on June 30, 1958. Marston was a member of the Constitutional Convention.”

19590630 Col Marston and Mayor Anderson stand in front of 49 star flag