TheSlattery Report, officially titledThe Problem of Alaskan Development, was produced by the United States Department of the Interior underPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt'ssecretaryHarold L. Ickes in 1939–40. It was named after Undersecretary of the InteriorHarry A. Slattery. The report, which dealt withAlaskan development through immigration, included a proposal to move European refugees, especiallyJews fromNazi Germany andAustria[broken anchor], to four locations inAlaska, includingBaranof Island and theMatanuska-Susitna Valley.Skagway,Petersburg andSeward were the only towns to endorse the proposal.
In November 1938, two weeks afterKristallnacht, Ickes proposed the use of Alaska as a "haven for Jewish refugees from Germany and other areas in Europe where the Jews are subjected to oppressive restrictions". Resettlement in Alaska would allow the refugees to bypass normalimmigration quotas, because Alaska was aterritory and not astate. That summer Ickes had toured theTerritory of Alaska and met with local officials to discuss improving the local economy and bolstering security in a territory viewed as vulnerable toJapanese attack. Ickes thought European Jews might be the solution.[1][2]
In his proposal, Ickes pointed out that 200 families fromMichigan,Minnesota andWisconsin had settled in Alaska'sMatanuska-Susitna Valley.[citation needed] The plan was introduced as a bill bySenatorWilliam King (Utah) andRepresentativeFranck R. Havenner (California), bothDemocrats. The Alaska proposal won the support of theologianPaul Tillich, theFederal Council of Churches, and theAmerican Friends Service Committee.
The plan failed to win support from leaders of theAmerican Jewish community, with the exception of theLabor Zionists of America. RabbiStephen Wise, president of theAmerican Jewish Congress, stated that adoption of the Alaska proposal would deliver "a wrong and hurtful impression ... that Jews are taking over some part of the country for settlement".[1]
Some non-Jewish Americans also moved against the proposal, relying on a backlash ofanti-Jewish rhetoric to suggest that the proposal would allow Jews to enter America as "Trojan horses" and carry Marxist ideology with them.[1][2]
The plan was dealt a severe blow whenPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt told Ickes that he insisted on limiting the number of refugees to 10,000 a year for five years, and with a further restriction that Jews not make up more than 10% of the refugees. Roosevelt never mentioned the Alaska proposal in public, and without his support the plan died.[1]