THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME. ALASKA
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
$*.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
W. A. Boucher .:.Owner-Publisher
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Wednesday, April 26, 1950
THE CASE OF THE VANISHING $500
(By Fred G. Clark and Richard Stanton Rimanoczy)
Many people are trying to do something to cut. down
this biggest-in-all-history tax bill, and they are getting
exactly nowhere.
We believe that it is because most of them are going
at it the wrong way.
Every time they get in an argument about it, they are
stopped cold in their tracks with this kind of question
ing: “What Government expense would you cutj down?
Would you take any of the money from national de
fense, starving Europeans, our war veterans, our un
der-privileged farmers, etc., etc., etc.?”
As long as economy-minded people go at it this way,
they can’t win: they are put in a position of being
“against” something, particularly “against” the “wel
fare of the people.”
There are always a lot of tears shed for the need of
social welfare, health, and security, yet no one seems to
notice that only 6% of the Federal budget goes for these
purposes.
Our mistake is arguing with the politicians instead of
telling them.
What do you do at home when your taxes go up and
your spendable income goes down?
You tell your wife: “Honey, this is all there is, there
isn’t any more. “This is what we are going to live on,
and it’s up to us to figure out how.”
You don’t say: “We can’t cut off the $10.00 a month
we have been sending Uncle Joe,” or “We can’t get
along without a new car.”
You just sit down and sweat it out.
The Government’s money problem is no different
from your money problem.
You live within a certain income because you have to.
The Government doesn’t live within any certain in
come because it doesn’t have to.
But if it did have to, you would be amazed at how
much more efficient and economical our Government
could be.
Nobody watches the pennies because they want to;
they watch them only when they have to.
“ECONOMIC ASTROLOGY”
“Economic astrology” is what Q. Forrest Walker, an
economist, calls the practice of making long-range fore
casts on the state of the national economy.
Mr. Walker recognizes that progress has been made
in removing some factors in forecasting, such as pestil
ence, weather, economic disturbance and the like, but
he insists that new tools and techniques have been de
veloped to fortify our judgment about the course of fu
ture events. Nevertheless, the random factors are so
important that accuracy of forecasting is all but impos
sible.
TALE OF THE RUBLE
(Washington Post)
The ruble does not circulate outside Russia, and the
dollar or sterling, which is tied to the dollar at the pres
ent rate of $2.80 to the pound, is used as the basis of
measurement in foreign deals with Western countries.
Thus the revaluation of the ruble will have little effect
on Russia’s trade with this part of the world. However,
it might mean that in future the U. S. S. R. intends to
put its barter trade with satellite countries on a ruble
basis. If that happens, the terms of trade will be altered
to their disadvantage, since the Russians by keeping
ruble prices for exported goods unchanged could de
mand more goods of their satellites in exchange.
The announcement that the special diplomatic rate
of exchange fixed at eight rubles to the dollar is to be
changed to a six-ruble rate, and abandoned after July 1
“Soviets am! IJ. S.
ReeonnoiteriiifS
The Other's Coast"
(Continued from Page One)
the Soviets of shooting down the
unarmed American plane over the
open Baltic Sea.
Moscow’s version is that a U. S.
plane of the B-29 type appeared
over Latvia, disregarded Soviet
warnings to land, exchanged gun
fire with Russian planes and dis
appeared toward the sea.
Young, in saying Russia and
the United States are each en
gaged in coastal reconnoitering,
recalled the loss of an American
submarine in Arctic waters last
year and the recent frequent re
ports of unidentified submarines
off the Pacific U. S. coast. He said:
“Russian submarines have appear
ed off our coasts.”
As for the plane, Young said:
“It is significant that there were
three radar experts in our plane.
... It is highly important that
this nation test the effectiveness
of the Russian radar net.
Our aviators may be said to be
making routine practice flights
but you may be sure they are ren
dering important service to our
country and they are risking their
lives for us on every mission they
make.”
The navy, advised of Young’s
statement, said. “Th navy will
continue to fly its planes where
international law permits, and
will fly unarmed.”
The American submarine lost
last year was the Cochino. The
navy announced Aug. 26 that it
exploded and burned while en
gaged in cold water training ex
ercises. Six navy submariners and
a civilian technician were lost. Af
ter the rescue, the Tusk put in at
Hammerfast. That is a port at the
northern tip of Norway.
Confidence is sensitive; it never
returns where it has been abused.
Gruening Slates ]
“Statehood Bill
lias A Lot of Room
For improvement’"
(Continued from Page One>
whelming percentage” of the peo
ple of New York want Alaska to
j have statehood.
Alaska’s Governor Ernest
Gruening, not a scheduled wit
j ness, took the stand briefly to dis
I cuss a disputed point involving
the right-of-way along the Alas
kan Highway.
Senator Eckton <R.-Mont.) had
asked whether statehood would
remove federal control of this
‘‘most desirable” frontage land
along the highway.
Gruening said the 600 foot right
of way was a typical example ‘‘of
what might not happen” if Alaska
had voting membership in the
House and Senate.
“When that issue came up,” he
said, “field agents of the interior
department recommended a 300
foot right-of-way for Class A
roads, 200 for Class B and 200 for
Class C.
“But the interior department
in Washington overrode this re
commendation. It imposed a “blan
ket” 600-foot right-of-way which
he said, is unfair to road-side ho
tel and restaurant operators.
“This is exactly the type of bur
eaucracy we don’t want,” he said.
It would not continue, he added,
if Alaska were a state.”
Gruening said Alaska has al
most twice as much coastline as
the Continental United States.
When it came to cutting out a
coast guard station, he said, the
one cut out was the only one Alas
ka had.
“The Representatives and Sen
ators of all the States having coast
guard stations descended on the
commandant of the coast guard,”
he said—and added that Alaska
will, however, result in a large boost in the already ex
tremely high costs of the United States Embassy in
Moscow. That is one way of fleecing foreigners. The in
creased value of the ruble in terms of gold may also
portend cuts in Russia’s own gold production, since gold
mining is being carried on at great cost at the present
time. It is surmised that Russia may be planning to ob
tain additional gold supplies at the new parity rate for
rubles from Romania and other satellites. But that is
sheer speculation.
HARD TO CONCENTRATE ON THE BALL
k FALL
1 ELECTIONS
V
CONGRESS
legislative
PROGRAM
L* 7tfOK#/j£
Mystery Blast
Wrecks Seattle
Apartment Bid".
• Continued from rage One>
known. Police Capt. R. F. Ma
honey said several firemen re
ported a strong smell of illumin
ating gas throughout the struc
ture.
Ray Sonnenberg, who occupied
a third floor apartment with his
wife, likened the blast to the
shock of an earthquake. The cou
ple was among those temporarily
trapped when the rear of the
building caved in.
Firemen raised ladders to the
windows, but the couple reached
the ground by clearing a way
down a flight of debris-covered
outside steps.
“I’ve been ill and this is my
first trip outside since Septem
1 ber,” Sonnenberg said. “I don’t
like it.”
; The two most seriously injured
were listed at the hospital as Mr.
and Mrs. S. V. Jones. Both were
■ suffering from head and internal
injuries. Their small daughter,
Kathleen, between two and three
years old, also was hospitalized
with burns.
Fire chief William Fitzgerald
j said the owners were Mr. and
Mrs. Oren Diamond. Both were
out of the city. He said Diamond
was fishing in Alaska and Mrs.
Diamond was visiting friends in
Port Angeles, across Puget Sound.
lost its station.
He said the bill before the com
mittee, already passed by the
House, has a lot of room for im
provement.
| “But we’d rather take it as it is
and then solve its defects,” he told
the committee, quoting the old
saw about a “bird in the hand is
worth two in the bush.”
“The basic thing we want is
self-rule,” he said. “We now have
two masters—the federal bureaus
| and the Congressional commit
tees.”
Zachery Loussac, mayor of An
[ chorage and former Alaskan busi
nessman, testified that the war
brought a new era to Alaska.
He estimated the Territory’s
present population at 127,000, up
from 92,000 in 1940.
Senator Anderson <D.-N. M.)
acting committee chairman in the
absence of chairman O’Mahoney
(D.-Wyo) questioned the 92,000.
He said census bureau figures
show that Alaska’s 1940 popula
tion was about 72,000. Loussac
said he was aware of that, but
that he felt 92,000 was a truer fig
ure.
“We are entitled to statehood,”
Loussac said, “and we shouldn’t
have to beg for it.”
Irene Ryan, a mining engineer,
told the committee that many of
the Alaskan opponents to state
hood are not permanent residents.
A 1946 vote showed two Dis
tricts for and two against state
hood.
“The ones who voted against it
won’t stay in Alaska,” she said.
Senator Butler (R.-Neb.) said
Monday that one of his major ob
jections to the Alaska statehood
bil is the land provisions.
He favors giving the Territory
half the public land instead of
four sections in each township. He
has offered an amendment for
such a provision.
He reiterated his position on the
land issue in explaining his ex
pressed belief that the people of
Alaska have not yet been offered
“an acceptable proposition.”