THE NOME NUGGET
-Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME, ALASKA
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 610
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
W. A. Boucher .Ovvner-PublisheV
Emily Boucher .Local Editof
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Friday, February 18, 1949
AN ENTERPRISE STORY
(By George S. Benson, President Harding College)
Freedom of enterprise is a strong and dynamic prin
ciple. It continues to work us wonders despite the many
ways we have hedged it about. The sorry plight of our
time is that we have found such a fine way of life,
proved that it works so well, then cared so little to pro?
tect and cherish it. Yes, a lot of us pay fight-rate lip
•service to free enterprise. Our politicians laud this
freedom in their campaign speeches.
But when it’s time for the crucial test, what happens?
We let the politicians (who ought to become statesmen
when elected) spread the death-web of bureaucray far
and wide. We seem to agree that government can do it
—oh, just almost anything—so much better! We tax in
dustry and incomes until capital is too scared to have
any enterprise left. In short, we back enterprise righi
up to the precipice, and seem not to realize what we
have done.
I have said that free enterprise still works us won
ders. One of the most amazing examples of freedom of
business enterprise has been working miracles right be
fore our eyes now for five years, and we have scarcely
noticed it. One of the nation’s top science writers, J. D.
Ratcliff, has outlined the miracle-story of penicillin
manufacture in the January issue of “Nations Busi
ness.” Ratcliff says this great medicine is now the big
gest selling item in the drug trade, saving 50,000 lives i
yearyl from pneumonia alone.
Just a few short years ago penicillin was made in lab
oratory flasks and sold for a fancy price. Even during
the war, a black market in penicillin got underway. A
lot of people, maybe, would have liked to nail down a
monopoly on this miracle drug. But, then, American
industry tackled the job of producing penicillin. At first
the market price was $20 per 100,000 units but today
the wholesale cost is as little as 10 cents for that amount.
A dollar’s worth of penicillin will rout dreaded pneu
monia.
How did all this happen? Well, it took enterprise and
lots of it. It took enterprise, with confidence in the fu
ture, and vision enough to tackle a really big job. Peni
cillin manufacture was pretty much a guessing game—
at first. It todk courage to invest and to plan. According
to Ratcliff, one small company in the chemical industry
had this courage and vision. Lacking freedom of enter
prise, do you suppose we would have had penicillin
today?
It seems that a man named John L. Smith, president
of Charles Pfizer & Company, Brooklyn, gets the main
honors for penicillin manufacture. Smith was an immi
grant to this country at the age of two years, and work
ed his way up to an education in chemistry. After he be
came president of\hat small firm, specialists in mi
crobes and fermentation processes, Smith heard of peni
cillin. Then Smith took a chance, made possible by
America’s system of enterprise.
This man Smith made plans to spend four and a half
million dollars for a giant new penicillin plant. That
was big money, for his company was doing only about
twice that amount of business annually. Besides, sci
ence was not certain about what penicillin could do. But
he had seen it save lives, and intended to produce it. He
did, in vats as large as tank cars. The demand was
great. Then others began to make it. Still, the Pfizer
company’s sales jumped to 50 million dollars a year.
The country had its precious penicillin.
This is a grand sucess story. But it is not a new one.
The same kind 6f story has been repeated countless
times in the building of America. In the big success
story that is America, enterprise helped make our land
ANYTHING BUT SMOOTH SAIUNG
MHSMW
Act
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Ofthty
into a land of plenty. We must keep our freedom of en
terprise, for it is the basis of our prosperity and well
being as a nation. It would be well if we should test
every bill in Congress, every national policy, with the
question: will it encourage, or will it hinder, private en
terprise?
IT S AGAINST THE LAW!
(By James B. Chapman)
Urged to stand the car closer to the corner than the
signs indicated permissible, I first partially assented,
then decided definitely not to do it, and moved on to a
permissible zone, sayng to myself in justification, “It’s
against the law.” And as I mused on the though, it oc
urred to me that, if the driver of another car came
quickly around that corner, he would have a right to
suppose that the way was clear, seeing the town ordin
ance indicated what is presumed to be a universal prac
tice; and I saw that a violation might easily become a
matter of life and death.
Then I recalled the motto of Dr. J. G. Morrison, “Do
nothing as a member of the group that, if done by all
members of the group, would be detrimental.” Such a
standard prohibits my eating without working, seeing
someone must work if any eat; it prohibits my claiming
immunities which cannot be granted to all in my calling,
social status, and class of merit. In fact, such a standard
harks back to the prohibition of selfishness of every
grade and degree.
Just what morality would be if I were the only per
son on earth is not easy to say. I know what virtue
would be, but morality lists so heavily toward “others”
that it is difficult to describe it except in terms/ of a
community. But “The Golden Rule” (which in reality
is not a rule, but a statement of fundamental principle)
applies to me as a member of the family, of the com
munity ,of the church, of the larger units of society, and,
finally, as a citizen of the world and of the universe.
Law, both written and unwritten, is based upon the
good of the group, as well as upon my own good; and
whatever is “against the law” is forbidden to me as a
Christian, seeing that willful violation of the law is born
of selfishness and a Christian is unselfish.
A Christian, therefore, is permitted to work for his
own good only in so far as his work profits his group and
himself as a member of the group. This means that the
Christian serves his home, and is profited only as a
member of the home; and the same is true of him as a
member of the church and as a citizen of the commun
ity and the state. This standard makes “pull” obsolete
for the Christian, and brings him to the place where he
is “under grace,” not under law, even in the matter of
everyday affairs; for on one is so effectively under law
as he who is “under law to Christ,r and who orders his
life only to the end that he may be good and do good
always and everywhere.
Peace is not an idea, it’s people becoming different.
j CHURCHES
CATHOLIC CHURCH
| Sunday—
• Masses at H a.m. and 10 a.m.
At the Base Chapel at 4:30 p.m.
|
LAVINIA WALLACE YOUNG
MISSION
Pastors - Rev. H. R. Amundsen,
and Rev. Theran McGrew
Sunday:
11:00 a.m. Sunday School.
7:30 p.m. Evening Service.
Wednesday - 3:30 p.m. - Chil
dren’s Miracle Book Club.
Thursday - 7:30 p.m. - Prayer
Meeting.
FEDERATED CHURCH
Sunday
10:00 a.m. Sunday School.
PENTACOSTAL ASSEMBLY OP
GOD
Third Avenue West
Pastor .A. E. Capener
Sunday—
Sunday School.10:30 a.m..
Evening service .7:45 p.m.
Wednesday—
Bible Study .7:45 p m„
EVERYONE WELCOME
CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE
Third and Division
Paster—Lewis I. Hudgins
“Sermonettes are for Christian
ettes.”
10:00 a.m. Singspiration and Sun
day School classes.
11:00 a.m. Morning message.
7:00 p.m. Young People’s Meeting.
7:30 p.m. Singspiration and special
music.
8:00 p.m. Evening message.
Chaplain Darling will be guest
speaker Sunday night.
Wednesday: 7:30 p.m. Melody and
Prayer.
Come and bring your Bible.
NOME GOSPEL MISSION
oi
Alaska Evangelization Society
Rov. Vern flimling. Pastor
Sunday: t
2:00 p.m. Sunday School for '
boys and girls.
Preaching service in the Eskimo
language by James Savok.
7:30 p.m. Gospel Service.
Tuesday:
7:30 p.m. Prayer and Testimony
Thursday:
2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Bible Club for
Boys and Girls.
Friday:
7:30 p.m. Bible Study.
RE BEK AH FOOD SALE
SATURDAY AT POLET'S
Saturday the Midnight Sun Re
bekah Lodge will have a food sale
at Polet’s Store, starting at ten
o’clock and lasting as long as the
supplies hold out.
According to Mrs. W. McDon
ald there will be a wide variety
of good home-made delicacies in
cluding pies, cake9, salad, chili,
bread rolls, doughnuts and most
everything the family likes to ear.
On the committee with chair
man Mrs. W. McDonald, are Mrs.
John Fults, Ruby Walker, and
Mrs. C. V. Haberman.
Charles Felch, veteran sales
man to Alaska, whose travels
started way back in 1903, passed
away in Seattle where he has been
residing since retiring from work
several years ago. He is survived
by his son Baxter Felch, who took
over his father’s lines several
years ago. Charlie Felch was
eighty years old‘at the time of his
death.