THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 613
$1.50 PER MONTH S16.00 A YEAR
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.I.Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1943, at the postoffice at
Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1819.
Friday, June 21, 1946
OUR CAMOUFLAGED INFLATION
ANYBODY WHO is sufficiently interested can com
pare past and current prices of a number of stand
ard commodities, and come up with a truthful state
ment that the cost of living has not increased nearly
as much since 1940, as it did in World War I But al
though truthful, the statement would be grossly mis
leading.
It would be misleading because one just cannot
purchase equivalent articles. If one can find low
priced shirts made by a manufacturer who was mak
ing shirts of the same specifications before the war, he
can get a bargain. But what the ordinary male wants
today is just a shirt. And the shirt he finds, more
often than not, is different enough to warrant a special
ceiling of its own.
The result, in clothing, home furnishings and
many other lines of commodities, is a spectacular short
age of innumerable low-priced articles and a beauti
ful abundance of high-priced equivalents. The real
effect of price ceilings, in all too many cases, is to halt
production of sensible goods and to stimulate produc
tion of extravagant luxury items.
Neither the manufacturer nor the retailer is the
principle sufferer from this situation. Most of them
are thriving. The consumer, who pays an inflated
price for available goods, is the one who is taking a
beating. ,
He is taking a beating because the method of
price control followed by OP A has the effect of di
verting materials from low’-priced to high-priced ar
ticles. This probably is more obviously true in res
pect to clothing. But it applies in many lines.
To the extent that it is diverting production from
Jow-cost to high-cost items, Federal price control act
ually is causing inflation. To the extent that it is hold
ing down production generally, it also contributes to
inflation.
It is camouflaged inflation, however, because the
prices of standard commodities have been held to ceil
ings, and for statistical purposes prices are remark
ably stable. But that is the case only for statistical
purposes. For the plain consumer, the inflation is
real and is continuing.
The answer is not abandonment of price control.
That would open a new train of abuses, worse than
now exist. The answer, although not easy to achieve,
is an intelligent price-making policy—one that does
not penalize the manufacturer simply because he is
long-established, one that does not invite producers
to switch over to high-cost lines. Price ceilings
should not be a bludgeon, but an incentive to produce
the maximum volume of economical goods.
(Cincinnati Enquirer)
INSULT TO AMERICA
THE SPEECH of British Foreign Secretary Bevin
Before the Labor Party conference at Bourne
mouth, in which he besmirched American motives
in advocating a haven in Palestine for 100,000 home
less Jews, a gross and studied insult to the government
and people of the United States.
‘'Regarding the agitation in the United States and
particularly in New York for 100,000 Jews to be put
into Palestine," said Mr. Bevin, "I hope it will not be
misunderstood in America if I say with the purest of
motives that that was because they do not want too
many of them in New York.
This is a cruel and wanton slander of the Jewish
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people.
It is scurrilous and vicious libel upon the Ameri
can people.
Dr. Stephen S. Wise, cochairman of the Zionist
Emergency Council, expressed the national sense of
shock and amazement when he called the Bevin state
ment “gratuitously and vulgarly insulting.”
Dr. Abba Hillel Silver of Cleveland, president of
the Zionist organization, gave voice to the universal
reaction in the United States when he said that Mr.
Bevin stands convicted by his own sensational and un
just language of an “anti-Semitic vulgarity reminis
cent of the Nazis at their worst.”
It is a sad and tragic spectacle in the affairs of
the civilized world when a leading statesman and res
ponsible officer of a traditionally democratic nation
lends himself to contumely disparagement of the most
distressed people on earth, and of the only nation on
earth striving to deal humanely with these persecuted
and helpless people.
Mr. Bevin was quite right in saying that the 100,
000 Jews immediately concerned “do not touch the
fringe of the problem of refugees in Europe.”
The Hearst newspapers were the first to say of
the recommendation by the Anglo-American inquiry
commission for their removal to Palestine that it was
inadequate, for more than fifteen times their number
still remain under the shadow of death.
But what would Mr. Bevin do with these 100,000?
Would he consign them permanently to the stench
and filth and disease in which the war left them, and
condemn them utterly and finally to the scourge of
death which now offers them their only hope of release?
The great yearning and aspiration of these help
less and innocent people is for a peaceful home, and
for an opportunity to find happiness and health * for
themselves and their children.
The American concept of morality and honor and
justice and human brotherhood in this grave and path
etic matter is that they should be restored to a place
of dignity and respect among the peoples of the world.
Would Mr. Bevin have them always be an un
wanted and reviled and persecuted people, targets of
the oppression and injustice for which the European
world seems to have so much talent, and prey to the
hateful and vengeful practices for which the European
world has such an appetite?
The stark tragedy and hopeless despair of Eur-j
ope’s homeless Jews are the challenging and accusing
background against which Secretary Bevin’s shameful
statement must stand.
Washington
News Letter
INTERIOR DEPARTMENT
APPROPRIATIONS BILL
Restoraton of $5,360,272 has
been recommended by the Sen
ate Appropriations Committee for
expenditure in Alaska for Inter
ior Department activities in 1947
over amounts allowed by :he
House , bringing the total recom
mendations to $13,328,100.
y
The hampering language con
tained in the House version of
the measure stipulating a con
tr'bution by the Territory of
dollar for every three dollars spent
by the federal government for
new road construction and sur
vey was stricken by the Senate
committee. Of a total of $3,790,
400 recommended by the Senate
committee for construction of new
roads and the maintenance of
roads in the Territory. $250,000
may be used for surveys of new
roads and $2,300,000 for new con
struction. Plans and construc
tion if new roads in the Kenai
Peninsula and the Fortymile coun
rty allowed by the House have
been augmented by additional
funds recommended by the Senate
committee, and the committee al
lowed funds for survey and con- ■
struction of a road to connect
the Richardson Highway with Mt.
McKinley Park. Surveys will
also be possible by the Alask^
Road Commission, if the Senate
committee action is signed into
law, for new roads from Fairbanks
to Chena Hot Springs and Liven
good to Wiseman. Construct on
of the surveyed road from Anch
orage to Potter would also be
realized.
Recognizing the ever-increas*fi
ing demand for greater know
ledge of Alaska resources, the
Senate committee authorized the
funds for conducting fishery,
wildlife, classification of land and
topographic surveys.
Possibility of a 200-bed tuber
uclosis sanitarium and a 600-pu
pil boarding school at Sitka re
ceived momentum from the com
mittee which recommended trans
fer to the Interior Department of
the Sitka Naval Station on Jap
onski Island, urging an appro
priation of $345,000 for operation
and $1,206,400 for remodelling*
and construction.
Provision is made for the trans
fer to the Office of Indian Affairs
of surplus materials, without ex
change of funds, from the War
Assets Administration and the Na
vy and War Departments to equip
and operate the hospital and
school at Sitka. To replace the
Alaska Native Service school
building at Savoonga which was
destroyed by fire a few months
ago, an appropriation of $40,000
is contained in the Senate com
mittee version of the bill.
A lodge, dock, warehouse and
other facilities in the Bartlett
Cove area of Glacier Bay National
Monument are provided by the
recommendation that $1,250,000
be appropriated for construction
of the buildings.
The National Park Service, Al
aska Native Service and the Alas
ka Railroad would acquire sur
plus property without exchange
of funds from the various govern
ment agencies to carry on oper
ation of their agencies.
Use may be made in 1947 from
revenue receipts of the Alaska