THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME. ALASKA
'•lephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
* 50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
\. Boucher .Owner-Publisher
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1943, at the postoffice
■ Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Monday, March 13, 1950
COMPETITION INSURES PROGRESS
(By George S. Benson, President Harding College)
Little Rock Junior College had quite a football team.
Their Trojans were feted by proud townspeople after
victory over California’s Santa Ana Junior College in
the Little Rose Bowl. The Trojan coach told hometown
ers their team wouldn’t have won at Pasadena had not
a bandy-legged little halfback named Benny Scott (125
pounds) been the greatest competitor on the field that
day. To clinch a victory the little halfback whirled 80
yards through the entire California team in one of the
most sensational punt returns in the bowl’s history.
Describing this and other thrills of the game, their
coach said: “Every one of our boys is a great competi
tor. All have splendid character and play cleanly. But i
they love to win. They work hard in practice and play
fiercely to win. It is this spirit of individual competition,
moulded into team play, that has, above all else, been
responsible for our success.”
Yes, America turns out fine competitors on our ath
letic fields. Every season the great competitors win
games. Is it that way on the field of life, the longer
range game? How about the pursuit of economic com
fort and security? I’m afraid we may be losing the spirit
of individual competition in this vitally important.
arena, our workaday world. Consider labor-manage
ment relations, for instance. Both sides often fail to un- j
derstand and make use of this spirit of individual com ■
petition which belongs to every American.
Management strives to find capital so it can build
bigger factories. Then batteries of huge machines and
clanking assembly lines seem to dwarf the individual i
worker and smother his tiny flame of individual com-!
petition. An employee of a big automobile factory may
be one of 350,000 workers scattered through a hundred
plants. Not even his initials show on the Buick or |
Chrysler he helps produce. Sometimes a company’s re
lationship with such a worker is distant and impersonal.'
Unions, on the other hand, sometimes set standards j
on jobs and wages that permit little, if any outlet for
individual competition. Rigid standards and codes that
put limits on ability and productivity cast the individ- j
ual into a mould from which only an exceptional few
rise. To standardize human ability is a dangerous prac-!
tice. Moreover, ceilings on individual productivity are
based on the unsound theory of scarcity. In our nation’s
march of progress there can be no substitute for a con
stantly rising productivity.
Fortunately, in most of our industries there still is re
ward awaiting the great competitors, awaiting even the
good competitors. Various forms of incentives for indi
vidual performance now are being offered. These are
attracting the favorable attention of more and more
sound-thinking union leaders and workers. And at
Hardings Freedom Forum last year we heard several
executives report on new employee relations programs
that are bringing now understanding and warmer re
lationships into the labor-management picture.
Yet, in some quarters there is a trend away from the
competitive idea. Some of our political planners and
social reformers want to fit American workers into
moulds and set their capacity of production by stand
ards and limits, like a machine’s. Their plea is that the
individual’s competitive spirit must be sacrificed for
the good of the masses. This is absurd. No civilization
in history ever has benefited by holding down produc
tivity.
We got where we are today in American because our
free enterprise system gives free rein to man’s instinc-1
tive competitive spirit. It has been the wellspring of
our progress. It gave us the atmosphere of compeition
that encouraged pint-sized Benny Scott to believe he
could carry a punt 80 yards through 11 big Santa Ana
Dr. Sander Sure
Board Will Mol
Revoke License
CANDIA, N. H., (A*)—Dr. Her
man N. Sander is confident the
state board of registration in med
icine will permit him to resume
practice.
The handsome young doctor,
acquitted of murder in the death
of a cancer-plagued patient, said
Friday night he felt sure the
board will allow him to return to
his patients “after calm, cool de
liberation.”
Dr. Sander made the statement
shortly before he and his wife
left on “a southern trip.” They
would not disclose their destina
tion.
A representative of the state
board, who talked with the doc
tor before he left, said the group
may not hold a formal hearing on
suspension or revocation of Or.
Sander’s license for several
weeks.
Members of the board will meet
at the state house today to set the
date.
Nationalists Bomb
Communist Forces
TAIPEI, Formosa, (JP)—Nation
alist bombers today walloped
communist invasion forces on the
mainland as a new cabinet pre
pared to begin functioning on For
mosa.
Main target was a potential in
vasion force of 4,000 communist
troops oU Chusan Island, Nation
alist blockade base 100 miles
southeast of Shanghai. Air head
quarters claimed a third of the
Red forces of Shanghai and a
warehouse at Ninghai, 55 miles
from there.
Other planes flew over Shang
hai, Hangchow and Nanking drop
ping copies of President Chiang
Kai-Shek’s message of March 1
pledging recovery of the main
land.
All Chinese political segments
are included in the cabinet except
followers of deposed acting presi
dent Li Tsung-Jen, who is in New
York.
The cabinet will be inaugurated
Wednesday and will hold its first
formal meeting Friday.
tacklers at Pasadena and win the ball game for his Little
Rock Trojans. If continued and encouraged, competitive
enterprise will bring us all much higher standards of
living.
SNOW
Snow is a silence falling. It is thought without words.
Snow is a quiet dream, rest that outlives the awaken
ing.
Snow is the unsought experience, infused with unex
pected benignity.
Snow is a gentle critic. The stark tree blooms in
whiteness. The angular roofline is clothed.
Snow is the kind historian. The record vanishes.
Snow is a master disciplinarian. It does not preach
about your morals. It tests them.
Snow is the good companion. It makes you believe
the thoughts you are thinking are your own.
Snow is the children’s playmate. For the lone child it
is a crowd. And snow disputes adulthood wherever it
finds it.
Snow is the political hero. Whatever you say of it—
someone holds the opposite view.
Snow is the sophisticated guest. It knows there are
places where it is not. The snowshovel is not an affront
to it.
P.S.—You’ll find it (the shovel, that is) just outside
the back door.
THESE WOMEN! By d’Alessio |
“Nonsense, Mother—you and Dad run along to the movies.
Sis and 1 will stack the dishes and you can wash
’em when you get back!”
*
Reds Seek Converts
Among Eskimos
At Bristol Bay
ANCHORAGE, (/P)—The Alas
ka canning industry has a warn
ing from a Catholic priest that the
concentration of Eskimos in Bris
tol Bay for summer cannery work
is attracting communist workers
seeking new recruits.
Describing it as a menace,
Father Jules Convert, Jesuit mis
sionary told of his findings in a
letter to the industry. Father Con
vert spent seven years working
with Eskimos along the Bering
Coast, the past two summers at
Bristol Bay with the Eskimo
workers.
He wrote that communism has
discovered a rich potential offered
by the concentration on Bristol
Bay of so many natives, who
otherwise are scattered all over
the coast. His warning against
communism was part of a com
prehensive report on Eskimo em
ployment in the canneries.
This week-end’s issue of the
49th Star said the priest empha
sized that the practice of employ
ing Eskimos in the canneries was
bringing about a great social
change among them.
“Whether it is a change for the
good or the bad depends to a
great extent on the white lead
ers,” he wrote.
He called for liquor control
among the natives, charging that a
few “unprincipled men are en
couraging the natives to drink at
the canneries so they can better
use them for their own purposes.”
On the credit side, the mission
ary found the Eskimos are using
their earnings to improve their
homes and living conditions. He
noted that since Hooper Bay Es
kimos have been working in the
canneries, their clothing ration
has improved, and births exceed
deaths for the first time.
Also noted was an ambition on
the part of the Eskimos to improve
their knowledge of English, and
also their skills, in order to get
better jobs.
Business Outlook
Brighter for 1950
WASHINGTON, OP)—'The 1950
business outlook badly clouded by x
the coal strike, was reported clear
ing nicely to a forecast of sunny
and generally prosperous.
President Truman’s council of
economic advisers, while not is
suing and statements, reportedly
felt that the mine shutdown
brought a bad freight but no last
ing damage.
The council, informed officials
said, is again standing on its offi
cial January appraisal that for
1950 “the economic outlook is
good.”
Some federal economists feel
the pent-up production which
now is released may give an extra
fillip to business, sales and em
ployment, in the process of catch
ing up on deferred orders.
Others, who had feared a slump
after mid-year, now believe a let
down may be postponed—possibly
even until next spring—when Ahe
usual seasonal upturn might can
cel it entirely.
Emphasizing that it is too early
to gauge the force of industry’s
rebound, one top-ranking econo
mist noted the ambitious sched
ules set for restoring output in the
steel, and metal-working indus
tries. He commented:
“I can’t see anything except a
very favorable prospect in the
coming months.”
This could be upset, however,
by more big strikes.