THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
*1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 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, May 20, 1946
FEDERAL ARBITRATION
IS THE ANSWER
T WOULD BE A WONDERFUL THING, an thedes
trustive and disastrous coal strike proves, if all labor
management problems and controversies were required
by law to peaceably, reasonably jind impartially re
solved under a comprehensive system of federal arbit
ration.
The coal strike is the latest and worst of a long
series of industrial disputes which have disrupted the
country’s productive life since the end of the war, and
have now virtually paralyzed all productive enter
prise.
The steel industries have been reduced to a mere
4
trickle of their normal capacity.
The automotive industries are coming to a stand- j
still.
The construction industries have been made impot-'
ent.
The already critical shortages in the nation’s sup
ply of food, clothing and other essential products have j
become desperate.
Whole communities are facing total depletion of1
fuel and power, and even health facilities are on the
verge of collapse. '
All of these consequenses would have been avoided
if congress had possessed the foresight and courage
to establish the simple and sensible proceedures of
federal arbitration, with district and regional courts
of arbitration to hear and rule upon labor controvers
ies and with a supreme court of arbitration as the final
authority.
Wouldn’t it be infinitely better for the country if:
the coal miners, instead of going on strike, had an !
impartial and and competent agency of the government
to which they could submit their demands, with full
confidence in both wisdom and the justice of the ulti
mate decision?
Wouldn’t that be infinitely better for the miners
themselves? i
Under that wise and sensible system, there would
have been no interruption in the production of coal,
and the steel and automotive and all other vital indus
tries would continue to produce, and the country
would continue to be supplied with adequate stocks of
essential goods, and the health and security and pros
perity of the American people would not be under the
ominous shadow of economic collapse.
Under that system, the coal miners would not only
have kept on working pending adjudication of their
demands, but would have spared their families the
tragedy which their idleness has imposed.
Why does congress persist in its failure and refusal
to provide the legal instruments of federal arbitration
that would give the country something better than
strikes for the solution of labor-management contro
versies?
Why does organized labor persist in its unwise and
unsound opposition to a system of federal arbitration,
when it would be the principal beneficiary of such a
O. P. A. Will Furnish The Ceiling -
©V#
system for the simple reason that it is the principle
sufferer from the archaic and futile strike method?
(Seattle Post Intelligencer) .
MORE ON ATOMIC ENERGY
(Scientific American)
PROBLEMS REGARDING NUCLEAR ENERGY are
many-faceted, but can generally be reduced to j
two classifications—engineering and sociological. And
for glimpses of the two horizons involved, qquotes are
in order:
“It seems unlikely,” says Dr. John R. Dunning, of
Columbia University, “that atomic power ever will
really replace our common fuels in most applications.
The new fuel is likely to be a supplement to existing
methods. The immediate applications seem to be in
the premium fuel field, and where the special advant
ages of atomic power finds wide application. Many
problems must be overcome, and it will be a number
of years before definite practical utilization is made.”
On the other side of the ledger is the matter of how
nuclear energy will be applied—whether for the good
of all or to appease the greed of the few. Says Dr. A.
R. Stevenson, Jr., of General Electric Company:
“Whether nuclear energy will be used for the benefit
of mankind, or whether it will be reserved in dark
secrecy for the destructive purposes only, will depend
more on our leadership as citizens than scientists and
engineers.” To achieve the more desirable end, Dr.
Stevenson points out, engineers will have to climb out
of their specialties and look around in other fields, will
have to develop a knowledge of the inexact art of hu
man engineering, will have to expand their analytical
faculties,, and, in short, will have to prepare them
selves to take an active part in the applications of atom
ic energy as well as in its development.
Today the world stands at a cross-road. Atomic pow
erer offers vast potentialities. Improperly channeled
by the few, it can destroy every vestige of life on this
planet—even that of its greedy directors—and can
nullify man’s laborious ascent from the caves or pre
history. Properly handled, it can open new ways of
life for every man, woman, and child from pole to pole.
The same engineers who have contributed so greatly to
human comfort through industry are responsible for
the creation of the possibility of atomic energy; they—
the only ones who fully appreciate its possibilities—
must make themselves equally responsible for its fut
ure use.
iLooxrm
•V GEORGE 1 BENSON
| PraUiHt—HMr4l»§
I Sunf. ArUmtm
It Was Tried
Soon after V-E Day, Col. Ed
ward D. Churchill, surgical con
sultant of the Allied Mediterra
nean forces, toured six German 4
military hospital areas and report
ed his findings. The report
most significant in the light of ef
forts to make medicine the ser
vant of politics in America. Com
ments on the report are here re^
printed by permission of COLL
IERS the National Weekly.
“As we all know. American
doctors’ care of wounded in this
war has been and continues phe
nomenal as regards its record
breaking percentages of cures and
its development of new tech
nioues and remed'es. There was
considerable expectation that the
German doctors . . . would have
some pretty phenomenal achieve
ments of their own to report . . .
but Col. Churchill did not find
them.
A Generation Behind
“His overall conclusion . . .
was that German handling of *
wounded was about 20 years be
hind the American procedure.
Going into details, he reported
that German army doctors as *
rule just casually passed up badly
wounded men on the assumption
that they were going to die any
way.whereas our doctors fight to
the last gasp for every wounded
man’s life, and frequently win . . .
“As for professional pride in
pulling off near-miracles of curSft
or amelioration, such pride just
was not in the bulk of German
military physicians and surgeons.
. . They were victims of apathy
and lack of ambition which would
enrage a typical American doctor.
This is a sad backslide from Ger
many’s proud position as world
leader in medicine and surgery in
the pre-Hitler days.
How Did It Happen?
"Are there any lessons in it for
us? It began to happen soon after
Hitler saddled his brand of totali
tarianism on Germany. It seems
reasonable to conclude that $
happened because Hitler saddled
Nazi totalitarianism on Germany.
... In Nazi philosophy, your race
and politics matter far more than
your brains and talents. •
You might be a brilliant physi
cian or surgeon or research scient
ist, but if you were a jew or an
anti-Nazi of any description, you
had to get out of Germany if you
could, ... go to a concentration
camp if you couldn’t get out
Thus Hitler and his crew deci
master-race convictions, too, led
logically to . . . the use, in some
concentration camps, of humans
of "inferior” breed as guinea pigs
for . . . laboratory experiments.
Medicine vs. Politics
“Ruled by the politicians and
browbeaten by Nazi gangsters,
German medicine (on the
findings, at any rate> withered
and, in due time, the German
armed forces paid, in . . . bigger ,
death totals than they need have
; suffered.” Here is the sound con
, elusion reached by Collier’s, a
conclusion in which America’s
best doctors concur,
i "The lesson in the German ex