THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P* O* ®ox 61®
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
W~A and EMILY BOUCHER.Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice at
Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879. _
Friday, October 12, 1945 _
NO DIFFICULTY HERE
Inasmuch as Alaska seems to be the “Land of Prom
ise” and the topic before which all other topics take
second place, a good time to do our shouting for the
future, is right now.
The “High Road and the Low Road” across Alaskan
airlanes seems to create quite a stir both in Alaska and
in the States.
The southern route, in all fairness, should be the
coastal route from Seattle, or some other major city on
the coast, touching at southeastern, southern and south
western points in Alaska enroute to the Orient, to some
terminal city designated in the certificate by the CAB.
The northern route, which will eventually be certi
fied from the midwest United States to North China,
Russia and connecting with the European and Middle
East routes, will of necessity fly over Nome and Fair
banks on the shortest route.
There seems to be a mix-up in the information re
leased as to just who wants what in the airlanes. To sum
up what has been released to the present time, Seattle
should be the mainline outlet on the coast to the Orient,
and possibly Chicago or the twin-cities the Midwest
outlet to Russia and North China, with the intercon
necting triangle routes being Nome, Anchorage and
Fairbanks.
It would then be possible ior a person to navci
Chicago to Russia or North China on a through plane,
or to transfer at either Fairbanks or Nome to Anchoi
age where he could catch a plane to the Oiient. Like
wise a person flying from Seattle could make the trans
fer at Anchorage to catch the northern route plane at
either Fairbanks or Nome. .
This we believe, would simplify the planning ot fu
ture air routes for the airline companies now serving
Alaska, and provide a direct route to the east, for Alas
kans who live on this great circle route.
These routes would in no way impair the service the
Territory is now receiving from the airlines serving
Alaska but will surely create more business for these
airlines.
JOB-SEEKERS
(Alaska Daily Empire)
To qualify for receipt of unemployment benefits idle
workers must be bonafide job-seekers. That means that
they must be prepared to accept “suitable” work. Re
fusal of such work disqualifies them for receipt of bene
fits. Difficult questions sometimes arise in the deter
mination of what constitutes suitable work even under
normal conditions. However, the problems created by
the demobilization of vast numbers of war workers who
have been earning unprecedented high wages are ex
ceptionally knotyt ones. In fact, reports from various
parts of the country show that bitter disputes have al
ready arisen over the interpretation to be given to the
phrase “suitable” employment.
Some labor leaders maintain that workers who refuse
lower-paying peacetime jobs are entitled to draw unem
ployment benefits as a matter of right. They protest
that to withhold benefits under such circumstances is
to make the administrator of unemployment insurance
a party to a plot for depressing wages. On the other
hand, if unemployment insurance funds were to be dis
bursed to maintain thousands of war workers in idle
ness, because they harbor a hope of getting new jobs
paying as much as their old ones, funds would be dissi
pated at an alarming rate. Moreover, the unmeploy
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ment insurance systems would in that case be held re
sponsible for retarding reemployment.
The predicament in which the Territorial and State
insurance systems find thmeselves is quite serious.
Generally speaking, they have a common sense rule
to guide their decisions as to the suitability of new job
offers. For instance, a job may be refused without dis
qualifying the job-seeker for insurance benefits if
wages, hours or other conditions of work are substan
tially less favorable than those prevailing for similar
work in the locality. That, of course, takes care of cases
where the worker is shifted from one concern to an
other, doing much the same type of work. But it leaves
a lot of questions unanswered concerning the status of
the war worker who may have acquired special skills
and may accordingly resent being asked to take on a job
requiring less skill and paying less.
To rush a man into a new job without giving him
time to look about him would be unfair; to give him too
much leeway would be unwise. Allowance of a reason
able period for adjustment to changed conditions, and
payment of unemployment benefits for a few weeks,
without too much questioning of the insured man’s in
tentions, would appear to be a sensible solution. But
workers will have to become reconciled to cuts in take
home pay with the return to the shorter working week
and shrinkage of employment in highly paid wage
brackets. They won’t better their lot by trying to exist
on unemployment benefits, even assuming official com
placence in face of such imposition.
GOVERNOR AND DELEGATE
CONFER WTH
GOVERNMENT HEADS
Governor Gruening and Dele
gate Bartlett have held confer
ences since their arrival in Wash
ington from Alaska with Secre
tary of War Patterson, Secretary
or Agriculture Anderson, Secre
tary of Labo Schellenbach, and G.
H. Helmbold, Assistant Deputy
Administrator for Ship Operations
of the War Shipping Administra
tion.
Revision of the point system for
discharge of Alaskans serving in
the Territory was urged by Gov
ernor Gruening and Delegate
Bartlett in their conference with
Secretary of War Patterson. Alas
1 kans serving in the Aleutians, the
Pribilofs and the Alaska Penin
sula west of the 154th meridian
are able to claim overseas credit
at the present time, but it is hoped
this system can be enlarged so
! that all service throughout the
, Territory can be claimed by Alas
kans in receiving overseas credit
for discharge.
Governor Gruening and Dele
gate Bartlett also stressed the im
portance of a change in the War
Department’s policy concerning
dependents of military personnel
in the Territory and urged upon
Secretary Patterson that families
of men serving in Alaska be al
lowed to join them.
Commissioner of Agriculture
for Alaska, G. W. Gasser, joined
Governor Gruening and Delegate
Bartlett in their conference with
Secretary of Agriculture Ander
son. A program for intensive ag
ricultural research in Alaska,
greater than ever before, was pre
sented to the Secretary for inclu
sion in the budget for the next
fiscal year.
The present and future policies
of the Department of Labor in
Alaska were discussed by the
Governor and Delegate Bartlett in
| their conference with Secretary
i Schwellenbach.
NATIONAL RIVERS AND
HARBORS CONGRESS *
Delegate Barilett has been ap
pointed Vice President for Alaska *
on the Advisory Committee of the
National Rivers and Harbors Con
gress.
The purpose of the Congress is
to promote a sound and orderly
development of national water
and land resources for flood con
rol, navigation, irrigation and
other beneficial uses.
* * *
RETIREMENT OF
ALASKA JUDGES
The House Committee on the
Judiciary has reported favorably
with amendment the Senate bill *
which extends retirement privil
eges to the judges of Alaska,
Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and
the Canal Zone.
The legislation provides that up
on reaching the age of 70, after
, having served eight aggregate ♦
years on the bench, a Federal
| judge of the District Courts men
tioned will be eligible for retire
ment and will receive annually a
sum equal to such proportion of
the salary received by him at the
date of retirement as the total of
1 his aggregate years bears to the
period of sixteen years.
The bill passed the Senate con
taining the provision that service
must total ten aggregate years,
but the House Committee has
amended this to read eight years.
* * *
JURISDICTION OF
NATURAL RESOURCES
ON HIGH SEAS
Upon the recommendation of
the Secretary of State and the
Secretary of the Interior, the Pres
ident has proclaimed the jurisdic
tion of the United States over the +
natural resources of the continen
t tal shelf under the high seas con
1 tiguous to the coasts of the United
States and its territories, and has
provided for the establishment of
: conservation zones for the pro
tection of fisheries in certain
areas of the high seas contiguous
to the United States.
Such action, it is believed, will
enable the United States to pro
tect the valuable Alaska fisheries
from indiscriminate fishing. It
was stated that “through pains
taking conservation efforts and
scientific management the United
States has made excellent prog
ress in maintaining the salmon at
high levels. However, since the
salmon spends a considerable por
tion of its life in the open sea, un
controlled fishery activities on the
high seas, either by nationals of
the United States or other coun
rties, have constituted an ever
present menace to the salmon
fishery.”
Generally speaking, the contin
netal shelf is submerged land
contiguous to the continent and
covered by no more than 600 feet
of water. International law recog
nizes ownership of submerged
land up to the three-mile limit, *
but the continental shelf, now
proclaimed to be under the juris
diction of the United States, ex
tends in many instances far be
yond the three-mile limit.
NEVADA FOUNTAIN
CLOSES FOR REPAIRS
The Nevada Fountain, Grill and
Cocktail Lounge will close Sun
day noon, October 14th, and will
remain closed until the morning
of Saturday, October 20th. An ice ♦
cream fountain unit will be in
stalled and other repairs made *
during the week.