Because of the lack of a network of roads such as exist in the States, Alaskans have taken to the air. Before the war, Alaskans used planes to transport themselves and their equipment from place to place much as Americans in the States employed the family car or summoned a taxi. For similar reasons, the radio telephone developed rapidly, with Alaskans “listening in” on their 500,000-square-mile party line as rural Americans do on theirs. Commercial radio stations blanket the Territory. No doubt all these facilities will increase rapidly after the war.

Even the remotest settlement in Alaska is only a few hours away by air from the States. An adequate but expensive system of steamer lanes, river boats, railroads, highways, and air express serves to move freight to and within the Territory.

From EM 20: What Has Alaska to Offer Postwar Pioneers? (1944)