THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P- O* ®ox
$1.50 PER MONTH _*M«°° 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.
' Monday, October 29, 1945
AN UNJUST SYSTEM
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Enlisted men and women in every branch of the
armed forces are being subjected to a manifest injus
tice in the matter of the pay they receive on discharge.
Commissioned officers draw terminal leave pay
what amounts to a bonus computed on the basis of two
and a half days’ pay for every month of active duty,
minus the pay for the actual leaves taken. In most cases
this runs into hundreds of dollars.
An enlisted man or woman is theoretically entitled
to 30 days’ leave a year, but this is not cumulative. Fre
quently, during the war, it was impossible for them to
get it. Most of them didn’t object too strenuously at the
time, because they recognized there was a vital job to
be dene. But now that they are being discharged they
feel they are entitled to the same type of readjustment
as their officers for the leaves they were unable to take.
It is true that enlisted personnel receive up to $300
mustering out pay.
But so do officers—up to the grade of lieutenant com
mander in the navy or coast guard and the grade of ma- j
jor in the army or marine corps.
Certainly the enlisted personnel worked just as hard,
fought just as hard and underwent as many hardships
as the.officers. And they did it for considerably less
money—which means most of them are more in need
than their superiors now that they are returning to civ
ilian life.
In fairness to the armed services, it should be pointed
out that this unjust system is not a matter of adminis
trative discrimination. Under the existing laws there
in no way the situation can be changed.
The question of terminal leave is governed by stat
utes designed primarily for the peacetime establish
ments—in which officers are presumed to be making
lifetime careers of the service, while enlisted personnel
sign up for only a limited “hitch.” In peacetime, the
average enlisted man gets the full 30 days leave to
which he is entitled every year—and often more. So
there may be no need for a permanent change in the
system.
But there certainly is no reason why Congress should
not amend the law to permit the wartime enlisted per
sonnel to receive the same terminal leave pay as emer
gency officers.
VETERAN TAX RELIEF
(Cincinnati Enquirer)
The Senate Finance Committee is considering a ten
tative plan to give war veterans a breather for a year
or two by exempting some of their civilian income, just
as they were allowed a $1,500 “military exemption
while in uniform. In effect, that military exemption
gave the average enlisted man in uniform complete im
munity from Federal income tax, if he had no income
other than service pay. .....
Undoubtedly there is something to be said for finan
cial assistance of this sort for veterans. A good many
served at a monetary sacrifice, although of course,
others were financially better off than they would have
been in civilian life. Many veterans will need help for
the first year or two, if they are buying homes, or start
ing small businesses, or reestablishing themselves in
the medical or legal professions, for example
On the other hand, it must be acknowledged that the
proposed partial tax exemption of veterans would tend
to give the-most substantial help to those who least
need it The larger their civilian incomes, the higher
their surtax rate—the relatively few who are in the
surtax brackets—and consequently the greater the re
lief afforded. Those with very small incomes will not
benefit appreciably. It must be noted, however, that
there are unemployment benefits for those without jobs.
Rather than invite abuses, the proposed exemption
might well be limited to veterans who served a substan
tial time—possibly those in uniform for two years or
more. This would avoid what would be in effect a sub
I sidy without good reason for the vast number who were
discommoded for a very few months, and at a nominal
sacrifice.
_
New Safety Air Fuel Puts Out Lighted Match
(Science Service)
A new safety fuel for aircraft, so resistant to acci
dental ignition that a lighted match can be dropped
into it without causing a fire, has been perfected. It has
all the power of 100 octane fuel, extended tests in a
high-powered airplane engine show.
The new safety fuel is a development of the Standard
Oil Company of N. J.
The safety feature of the new fuel is due to the tact
that it does not form inflammable vapors in the air in
great enough quantities to ignite, unless it is at tem
peratures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Ordinary mo
tor and aircraft gasolines do, and they ignite readily
and burn rapidly because of the vapors formed.
The new fuel, however, must be fed into the engine
by direct injection rather than by ordinary carburetion
such as is used with conventional gasolines. Unless suit
able carburetors are developed, engines now in use will
have to be converted for fuel injection if the new fuel
is to be used. After the fuel is injected in the cylinder,
it is vaporized by the heat developed during compres
sion. The fuel mixture is fired by the conventional
spark plug.
A failure now and then won’t harm you, unless you
start blaming it on some other fellow.
HITTING TW Hk\l ON TH H6AP_
l WWOWT*
The Beer Board, Lady,
That’s Who Said So
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.— (/P)—Al
though a local cafe owner had an
eloquent plea, the Knoxville BeeT
Board refused to reverse an order
that the cafe could sell beer to
men only.
The owner had placed a sign in
his window—“no minors, drunks
or ladies will be served”—but “it
didn’t work,” he told the board.
“A woman came in and wanted
beer,” he said. “I refused and she
wanted to fight. She yelled, ‘Who
said I was a lady’?”
By GEORGE 3 BEHS0H
ftrvatcUnt of Harding Collsgs
Ssatcy. Arkansas
1" L.
RESEARCH
%
A salesman representing a firm
of efficiency experts managed,
several year sago, to gain admis
sion to the office^jf a small manu- J
j facturer, one who employed fewer
than 200 people. The solicitor
made a sale. He induced his pros
pect to hire the services of the
system fixers who, he promised,
would show the owner how to
save a great deal more of his fac
tory’s annual earnings.
After contracting for this rather
I high-priced advice, the owner of
i the business was impatient for re
| suits. He could hardly wait for
| the first “expert” to come and
prune out needless expenses. Less
work and more profit on the same
volume always seems attractive.
Finally came a polished man of
40 with a chisel-shaped nose and
spectacles with conspicuous rims.
He Liked Action
The owner of the plant and his
hired adviser walked solemnly to
gether through offices and shops.
They were returning to the main
office when the expert’s eye fell
upon an idle man—an old man,
sitting at a desk looking out a
window. As soon as they were out
of ear-shot, the expert exclaimed:
“That old fuddy-duddy is a net
loss. Discharge him! He is just sit
ting there dreaming.”
“Do you suppose he is dream
ing?” inquired the owner of the
factory. “Day-dreaming, to be
sure,” replied the expert. “Well
that’s just fine,” said the owner.
“Now we won’t be needing your
help. Every so often that old chap
has a day-dream, and the cheapest
one he ever had was worth half a
million dollars to this business.
Don’t disturb him as you go out.”
Ideas Have Life
Creative work has its peculiari
ties. It takes place inside people’s
heads, and superficial critics don’t
look that deep. First comes the
germ of an idea; then careful
analysis. Since no one person can
know all about anything, research
is necessary. Research is costly
too, because it must be carried on
by men who have special knowl
edge and special skills.
Inventions don’t go into produc
tion direct from the dream stage.
Manufacturing profits begin when
multiplied copies of an invention
start coming off the assembly line,
but mass production permits no
guess-work. The dream is neces
sary but numberless laboratory
tests and exhaustive practical ex
periments must pave every inven
tion’s road to market. Many a
good idea has died unworked for
lack of research—too costly.
Increase The Yield
In America are many factories
—geese able to lay golden eggs,
such as employment, prosperity
and progress. The fertile 14-carat
gander in the flock is Research.
Without this motivating influence
industry may start its post-war
program and pursue a well chart
ed course, efficiently amputating
cost after cost until there’s noth
ing left to cut off, but it’s the road
to ruin.
Not many weeks ago I read a
scathing criticism of American
business. In it the author hoisted
a red flag in warning against cap
italism. He pointed to hundreds of
thousands of dollars spent annu
ally in industrial research by a
mere handful of wealthy corpora
tions. I have only this to say: I
hope they spent all he said and
more, because the brightest spot
in the outlook is research.