THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 61K
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAH
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER. Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffir#*
at Nome. Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Wednesday, December 4, 1946
Alaska Gets Sympathy
(Fairbanks Daily News-Miner)
ACTIVITIES of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce and
of the newspapers in the Puget Sound area indicate that
the tsrike which has cut Alaska off from the Northwest
to a certain extent is also drawing the Northwest closer
to Alaska.
Like a person who gives little thought to the organs,
his body contains, until one of them starts misbehaving. |
the Puget Sound people are getting to know about Alas
ka because of our current troubles. Although we don’t
like what it is costing us to get this sympathy we can
mark it down on the credit side of the ledger anyway.
One of the signs of the times is the series of articles
appearing in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer describing
the cost of the ship striking in various Alaskan towns.
Traveling up the coast step by step, a P-I reporter has
used strong language in telling of the woes he found at
each port—food shortages, empty stores, heavy losses to
businessmen and others. He has shown no preoccupa
tion with the bright side of the picture.
Such articles, even if the paper’s outside readers be
lieve them to be exaggerations, are bound to have in
formational value that will work to Alaska’s benefit.
These readers will have a background of information
that will make them understanding supporters when
their Chamber of Commerce comes to Alaska’s aid, or
when Washington’s congressional representatives
speak for this or that Alaska project.
Descriptions of Alaska’s troubles are not necessarily
the best publicity of the Territory, but there is nothing
that people understand better than the kind of stories
they could have experienced themselves. An article de
scribing Alaska’s glaciers, for instance, may be widely
read but an item telling of an Alaskan housewife’s dif
ficulties in keeping a full table before her family will
light a spark of kinship, especially when the cause of
those difficulties lies close to home.
Two Points Against Lewis
(Rocky Mountain News)
JOHN L. LEWIS has been cited for contempt of court
and ordered to appear before a federal judge in Wash
ing to show cause why he should not be jailed or fined
for disobeying an order that he call off the coal strike.
That gives Lewis and his lawyers time to prepare a
case, if they can, and it can hardly be claimed that the
government is moving with indecent haste in its effort
to punish him—not in view of the great damage the
strike is already doing to the country.
Meanwhile, we’ve been trying to fathom the legal in
tricacies of this contest between Lewis and the govern
ment, and we’ve been finding the going pretty tough.
Yet it’s something that gravely affects everybody, and
its issues ought to be generally understood.
So we asked the Scripps-Howard Newspapers’ Wash
ington Bureau to run down the answers to a few sp°cif;c
questions, and the answers to two points that stand out!
are given here:
1. Lewis and the government disagreed about the
meaning of a contract. Courts are provided to decid°
such disagreements. But Lewis didn’t choose to submit
the question to the courts. Instead, he chose to stop the
mining of coal.
2. Another method of seeking of higher wages and
other gains for the miners was available—an entirelv
legal method, according to the attorney general of the
United States, and one that might have avoided the
strike. But, again Lewis chose the hard way for the
UNANIMOUS ALL-AMERICAN_
t
country.
On both counts, we think, Lewis proved what we’ve (
long believed about him—namely, that he isn’t nearly
so much interested in the welfare of the miners, or of
labor, or of the country, as he is in trying to push the
government around and showing off his power as the
one-man boss of a key union.
He Needs A Good Dose Of Competition
What to do with the government’s 151-million-dollar
Big Inch and Little Inch oil pipelines is a hot issue in
Washington, D. C., right now. The war assets adminis
tration has decided to dispose of them. But whether
they should be used as petroleum carriers or converted
to use as natural gas lines are questions which have pro
voked a bitter behind-the-scenes policy conflict. The
whole controversy is to be aired at hearings before the
House surplus property committee.
The two pipelines were built by the government dur
ing the war to transport oil and gasoline from Texas to
the eastern seaboard. The Big Inch—twenty-four inches
in diameter—carried crude oil. The Little Inch—twenty
inches in diameter—was used to move gasoline and
other petroleum products. Use of the two lines was
abandoned within two months after VJ-day.
Since the end of the war, the tanker system of trans
porting Texas crude oil to east coast refineries has been
resumed. Agitation has been increasing for conversion
of the Big and Little Inch pipelines to natural gas lines.
AN INTERESTING story, illustrating the differences
between American and Russian ideas of democracy, is
told by Secretary of State Byrnes. An American G. I.
was talking with a Russian soldier in Berlin. “In my
country,” said the American, “I can go to Washington
without a permit, go to the White House, see President
Truman and tell him I don’t like his foreign policy. That
is democracy.” The Soviet soldier replied: “In my coun
try I can go to Moscow, go to the Kremlin, see Stalin,
hang on the desk and tell him I don’t like Truman’s for
eign policy either. And nothing would happen to me.
That is democracy.”
THAT’S THAT By bruce gustin
Congressman Taber, who will
be chairman of the House appro
priations committee next year,
says, “I’ll need more than a meat
ax—I’ll need a sledge hammer”—
to chop government spending
down to the size of its income. He
seems to know where to find the
sledge hammer and how to use it
One thing he has in his mind is
lopping off at least one million of
the 2,300,000 federal civilian em
ployees which will save 3 billions
dollars a year. There isn’t any rea
son why the present 41-and-one
half-billion-dollar budget can’t be
cut at least to 30 billions.
Now we are going to find out
whether John L. Lewis is bigger
than the government of the United
States. Twenty-eight years ago,
when the Wilson administration
got an injunction against the na
tionwide coal strike he had called,
Lewis backed down. “We can’t
fight the government,” he said.
Today,, he defies a similar injunc
tion. Through actions which speak
louder than any words, he pro
claims that he and his 400,000
United Mine Worekrs can an
fight the government.
This coal strike is both a s
against the government
against the American pe
Tnere is no controversy bet\
miners and the coal operators
own the mines. The United S
government has been running
coal mines since last spring,
contract which Lewis has ten
ated is a contract between
and the government. Governr
operation of the mines has be<
legal fiction. But it was
enough for Lewis when it sei
his purpose.
It used to be said of Lewis
he at least was a man of his w
People who hated him gave
credit for keeping his prom
They said that when he signe
contract he could be expectec
abide by it. But no longer car
be depended upon to do that,
has now put himself in the p
tion of repudiating a written c
tract which he himself negotit
with the government of the Un
States.
Claims by Lewis that the g
ernment has violated provisi
of the coal contract cannot by ;
stretch of the imagination jus
the strike he has precipitated.
place to settle any such coni
versy is the courts. The way is
orderly judicial determination
the issues in dispute. By ignor
and defying the courts, Lewis
taken the law into his own har
An ordinary outlaw usese a gur
enforce his demands. Lewis u
the strike club.
The C. I. O. convention e
demned the federal governmei
action in getting an injunct
against the coal strike as “a cl
violation of the Norris-LaGuar
act.” That is one of Lewis’ c<
tentions. It is a popular conc<
tion of the Norris-LaGuardia «
But it is wrong. The purpose
this law was to restrict injunctic
in labor disputes and to make
well-nigh impossible for an e
ployer to get an injunction. But
! contains no iron-clad prohitoiti
against injunctions.
The Norris-LaGuardia act pi
hibits injunctions against strik
without evidence of danger of
reparable injury to the intere:
i against which a strike is direct*
There can be no question about i
reparable injury from a coal stri
which cuts off the fuel supplies
! millions of American people at t!
: beginning of winter. The dama
I to a person who freezes to dea
certainly can’t be repaired.
i
1 The Norris-LaGuardia act al
provides for a jury trial of pe
sons accused of violating an i:
junction in a labor case. It giv
defendants in such contempt cas
the right of jury trial. If the No
ris-LaGuardia act were a con
plete prohibition against injun
tions and meant that no restraii
ing order could ever be issued ui
der any circumstances in any Is
bor controversy, it would not carr
a provision for the jury trial *
persons charged with contempt *
court for violating an injunctio
issued in a labor case.
John J. Sparkman of Alabam
made some kind of a record in th
recent election. At a time when
lot of other Democrats failed t
get elected to anything, he no
only won re-election to the lowe
house of congress but he was elec
ted to the United States senate
This is believed to be the firs
time that one man ever was electee
to both houses of congress at th<
same time. Of course, he can’t hob
both seats. But winning them 1;
something for even an Alabami
Democrat to crow about.
Originally, Sparkman only in