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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, December 14, 1945
THE FREIGHT RATES
(Fairbanks News-Miner)
It would be hard to imagine a more staggering blow
to the plans and hopes of Alaskans than the doubling
of water freight rates. Knowing that transportation
costs have been too high all the time, but making the
best of things and turning the other cheek as best they
could, residents of the Territory have cherished the
hope that someone eventually would take up their case
and succeed in bringing the shipping rates down. Now
it looks as if the rates will go up instead.
That is not saying the rates should go up. There is
strong doubt in everybody’s mind up here that the sad
tales of increased operating expenses cannot be refuted.
But there is a helpless feeling that the rate hearing in
Seattle was called on too short notice for rebuttal data
to be assembled. The fact that earlier Alaskan appeals
for examination of the rate structure have failed to pro
duce any effect at all doesn’t make the pill any easier to
swallow.
Under the circumstances Alsaka will do its best—
and hope for the best. What material could be assem
bled for the hearing is to be presented. All the flaws
that appear in rate-raising arguments will be pointed
out, and probably the many complaints that have ac
cumulated over the years will be aired at last.
It is doubtless true that the expenses of the steam
ship companies have increased. It is probably also true
that they are asking for more than they know they de
serve in suggesting increases of from 80 to 100 percent
in pre-war rates. It is also true, unfortunately, that fig
ures and statistics can usually be made to prove any
thing, and that the only rebuttal is other figures and
statistics, which are a little hard for our forces to col
lect.
However, the arguments in favor of lower rates in
time past should still have weight against present con
tentions, and the investigation of shipping practices,
long demanded, should be more than ever necessary!
before the people of the Territory are required to double
what is already about an eight-million-dollar burden
each year, not counting the surcharges.
JURISDICTIONAL CZAR?
(Anchorage Daily Times)
Labor Secretary Schwellenbach has suggested to la- j
bor unions that they might find a solution of jurisdic-i
tional disputes, once and for all, by hiring a “czar” such
as the motion picture industry and professional base
ball now have.
If there is a possibility that an inter-union czar could
accomplish what his movie and baseball counterparts
have, then the plan is an excellent one. But it seems to!
us that the suggestion should come from within organ
ized labor rather than from a friend of labor in govern
ment.
• »
When Judge Kenesaw M. Landis was appointed high
commissioner of baseball in 1920, and Will Hays was
.asked to head the Motion Picture Producers and Dis
tributors Association two years later, both the sport and
the entertainment industry were in the public dog
house.
The “black sox” scandal of 1919 had shocked and,
saddened the sports-following public. And when Mr. |
Hays took over, both the movie colony’s private lives
and the studios’ products were in such a mess of bad
morals and bad taste as to create a real wave of popu
lar indignation.
Both industries—if they may be called such—quickly
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COUSINS _
9
- MANAGE
MENT
:
iSr ^
saw the light. They realized that their livelihoods and
very existence, both dependent on public favor, were
threatened. Their first concern seems to have been to
recapture public confidence before working out elabo
rate machinery for ending their troubles and prevent
ing their recurrence.
So each selected a well-known figure of unquestioned
integrity from outside its own organization. (Baseball
first sought the services of former President Taft before
engaging Judge Landis). Each then drew up a rigid set
of rules and gave its czars authoritarian powers to en
force them.
These far-sighted moves by baseball and Hollywood
achieved their purpose admirably. And perhaps the
most important point of the whole story is that Judge
Landis and Mr. Hays had remarkably little to do. They
made big money in easy jobs and seldom had to exercise
their sweeping authority. Once the club owners and
studio heads had imposed a set of rules upon them
selves, they bent over backward to live up to them.
Organized labor might ponder this story as it applies
to jurisdictional strife. As President Truman told union
representatives at the labor-management conference,
nothing is so destructive of public confidence as these
disputes. The American people have little understand
ing of them, and less sympathy with them at a time
when the whole industrial situation gives cause for
legitimate worry.
But government appointment of an inter-labor czar
holds litlte promise. Mr. Schwellenbach’s suggestion
can bear no fruit until the striving unions realize that
all labor is losing through jurisdictional strife and
strikes, until there is a spontaneous desire for a Hays
or Landis for labor from within the unions, together
with a genuine wish to make and abide by their own
rules for peaceful settlement.
WASHINGTON j
NEWS-LETTER
By MARY LEE COUNCIL
Secretary to E. L. (Bob) Bartlett.
Delegate to Congress from Alaska
FORT RAYMOND
HOSPITAL
It is hoped that negotiations will
soon be completed to turn the Fort
Raymond hospital at Seward over
to the Territory for use as a tuber
cular hospital.
The hospital is located approx
imately one mile from the center
of Seward and was constructed by
the army during the war close to
the site of the Jesse Lee Home.
AIR ROUTE DECISION
It now appears likely that the
decision of the Civil Aeronautics
Board will be made on applica
tions for air routes to and through
Alaska to the Orient at a much
earlier date than at first antici
pated.
Information g i v p n Delegate
Bartlett indicates that the decision
will be rendered within the next
few weeks, a month at the most.
TRAVEL PAY FOR
DISCHARGED ALASKANS
Delegate Bartlett has requested
Secretary of War Patterson to
consider revision of army regula
tions as they concern travel pay
for discharged Alaska residents.
Many complaints have been re
ceived by Delegate Bartlett from
discharged veterans telling of the
financial hardship undergone to
meet expenses of traveling from*
the separation center at For Rich
ardson to their homes in the Ter
ritory. Under army regulations, a
discharged veteran is allowed live
cents a mile for travel home. As
Delegate Bartlett pointed out to
Secretary Patterson travel on The
Alaska R.R. is six cents a mile,
plus 15% tax, and many residents
upon discharge are required to fly
home as the only means of trans
portation the cost of which is as
high as fifteen to twenty cents a
mile.
AIR TRAVEL FOR RETURNING
ARMY PERSONNEL
The Alaskan Department has
agreed to Delegate Bartlett’s re
ouest that Alaska resident soldiers
be carried by air from Fort Law
m
ton, Washington, to separation
centers in the Territory.
This action was taken after rep
resentations were made to Dele
gate Bartlett pointing out the
length of waiting time, often from
three to eight weeks, experienced
by returning Alaska veterans who
had to wait at Fort Lawton for
boat transportation to the Terri
tory.
GEOPHYSICAL INSTITUTE
Delegate Bartlett has introduced
an amendatory bill, replacing one
offered in July of this year, au
thorizing an appropriation of
$1,000,000 for the establishment
of a geophysical institute at the
University of Alaska.
The facilities of the institute
would be extended to qualified
members of the Federal bureaus
engaged in field work in Alaska
which may come within the pro
vince of geophysics. The Univer
sity would furnish heat, light, wa
ter, electric power and custodial
service and would staff the insti
tute with a director, appointed by
the regents of the University upon
the recommendation of the presi
dent of the University and with
the approval of the president of
the National Acamedy of Sciences;
a librarian; and a secretary.
The purpose of the bill is to
continue in the postwar period
geophysical research in the Arctic
which has been carried on since
1941 by the War and Navy De
partments, the Federal Communi
cations Commission, the Coast and
Geodetic Survey the Weather Bu
reau and other agencies. It is be
lieved that geophysical explora
tion can lead to increases in sup
plies and reserves of important
minerals and can furnish infor
mation of direct value both for
military and nonmilitary projects.
f
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY
FOR FIRST DIVISION
It is expected that the nomina
tion of Patrick J. Gilmore, Jr., o.
Ketchikan, as United States At
torney for the First Division will
be submitted at an early date to
the Senate by the Justice Depart
ment.
Mr. Gilmore, who served as as
sistant United States Attorney for
the First Division prior to the war,
has just been released from the
navy and is now in Boston, Mass.,
where he joined Mrs. Gilmore be
fore returning to the Territory.
Mr. Gilmore was a lieutenant.§n
t.ie United States Naval Reserve,
and his most recent service hall
been in the Aleutians.