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March, 1946, Governor Gruening pushed for appropriation of $250,000 to mount an all-out war against tuberculosis - the territory's most menacing health problem.
Surplus military buildings were acquired and converted into hospitals and medical teams were dispatched to find and x-ray those who were infected. As a result of Gruening's first effort, today, the population of Alaskan Natives has grown by a factor of two and one-third. This victory over the most dreaded of grim reapers was brought about by a public health program initiated by a doctor who never practiced medicine. As fate should have it, medically, Gruening was more successful with more people for more years than they would have been by practicing on a one-to-one basis.
Early in his Alaskan experience Territorial Governor Gruening recognized that the many problems challenging Alaska could not be solved without adequate attention from Washington, D.C., which could directly deliver control of government to its residents and which he summed up in one word - S T A T E H O O D.

Governor Gruening recognized that this northern territory, "Seward's Icebox," had almost unlimited economic wealth...

In 1956, the Alaska State Constitutional Convention called for two lobbying U.S. senators and a U.S. representative who would carry the statehood effort to the U.S. Congress. Gruening was elected as one of those senators; after all, he was the keynote speaker at the Alaska Constitutional Convention. And in 1954, he had authored a book prophetically titled, "The State of Alaska."
Sworn in as new U.S. Senator after admission on January 3, 1959, Ernest Gruening's early efforts were to insure a smooth transition from territorial to state status, and he continued to lecture and author books about his new state. In 1967, he published "An Alaskan Reader" and "The Battle for Alaskan Statehood," culminating one of his greatest victories.
During the mid-to-late 1960's, the United States experienced a great victory at home and a disaster overseas. At home was the epoch-making federal Civil Rights Act; the disaster overseas was the plunge into the longest war in the history of our nation - Vietnam.
Ernest Gruening had always emphasized civil rights for all U.S

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Spectacular moments of Iditarods past. Plus an in-depth look at this year's contenders. Saturday, Feb. 21.

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POST RACE SPECIAL
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FEBRUARY 1987 HORIZONS 37

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