THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday. Wedne.-day and Friday bv The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box filH
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER .Editors
$1.50 PER MONTH ' S16.00 A YEAR
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Monday, April 12, 1948
EMPLOYMENT AND BUYING POWER
Pietail sales volume in general is 6 to 10 per cent
above a year ago with department store sales up in
similar proportion and the outlook described as
promising, due to increased spending power of a
well employed labor force.
Non-agriculturel employment, at 43,944,000 at
tained the highest level in history in mid-December
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, reflect
ing the holiday employment increase.
Employment in manufacturing industries reached
a new peacetime high of 15.9 million in mid-Decem
ber.
In the automobile plants direct employmont pass
ed the 1-million mark for the first time in the his
tory of the industry . The annual factory payroll in
1947 was estimated by the Automobile Manufac
turers Association at $2.3 billion.
Employment in the related trucking industry went
to more than 6 million or three times the combined
total employment in all other transportation fields.
The locomotive, aircraft and shipbuilding indus
tries also reported small increases in their work
force. Employment in the textile, leather and ap
parel group rose by nearly 50,000, surpassing the
peaks of early spring and fall.
-
* I
PRICES AND INCOMES SUSTAINED
Throughout the year 1947, prices in general moved
upward in an inflationary pattern but did not out
run increased buying power except in a few seg
ments of the economy. Wholesale prices, based;
on the index of the Bureau of Labor Statitics, rose
16.8 per cent between the week ended December
28, 1946 and December 27, 1947. Prices of farm pro
ducts increased 17.5 per cent and foods 11.8 percent.
Highest price rises for. the year were in fuel and
lighting materials which jumped 31.6 per cent.
Building materials were also up 22.3 per cent in
price, but new construction, nevertheless reached
a figure one-third higher than in 1946 and was val
ued at $12,878 million, of which approximately
$9,878 million was private construction and the re
mainder public works.
The February retreat in prices of grains, com
modities and securities does not appear to have
aroused any general fear of recession of serious
proportions since consumer buying power remains
high.
Incomes, both personal and corporate were gen
erally satisfactory m 1947, with personal incomes
at the annual rate of $196,400 million as compared
with $175,900 million in 1946. Farm incomes were
estimated at $30,340 million by the Bureau of Agri
cultural Economics, which compares with $25,320
million in 1946. Dividends reported by U. S. corpor
ations totaled $5,174 million or 18 per cent more than
the $4,407,300,000 paid out in 1946.
These factors with a third round of wage increases
in the offing, assure great reserve buying power
at the very moment prices become attractive as pro
ducers begin to compete seriously for new orders
to sustain existing backlogs* and assure unbroken
production. The chances of price rises exceeding
wage increases clouds the prosperity picture but
industry is professing, as strongly as political
groups, an understandable preference for holding
the price line steady and checking further inflation.
Upward adjustment in some steel prices at the
end of January forshadows other near-term increas
INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
es in finished products of manufacturers who musti
also face the wage-price spiral now in the making
in the steel industry.
Specific products on which prices have risen are
nails, barbed wire, fencing, tin plates, joint bars,
railroad wheels and axels as well as much wanted i
steel plates.
Freight rate increases of 10 per cent have made an
appreciable contribution to the upward pressure.'
One producer estimates the rate rise meant $1 a
ton increase in cost of his steel products.
_
SMALL BUSINESS NEEDS HELP
I
Opening of Congressional hearings on the avail
ability of long-term credit for email business dis
closes difficulties which require correction. It is
not good for small business or for the nation to have
Federal income taxes take so much of the earnings
of the "little fellow" that often he has little left
to put back into the business. Then, as the testimony
brought out, many a small manufacturer finds him-;
self in trouble trying to obtain from the outside
money enough to operate on. Certain worthy con
cerns simply haven't been able to get the necessary
capital.
Some reduceion in the'tax burden on small bus
iness would be in the public interest. The tax on the
first $25,000 of earnings now runs from 21 to 25 perj
cent, and on earnings from $25,000 to $50,000 up
take a flat 38 per cent. Most of the small business
come in the group with profits of from nothing to
$50,000.
When earnings are reinvested in the business to
provide working capital, new machinery, expanion,!
etc., small business should receive more tax relief
than is now provided. The tax of 21 to 25 per cent on
the first $25,000 needs to be lowered. The 53 per;
cent tax on earnings between $25,000 and $50,000
is obviously excessive and should be drastically
cut.
Smell business deserves the chance to prosper
without the government imposing artificial handi
caps which in the long run do nobody any good.,
Democracy would be encouraged in a basic way
by restoring to small business more of the normal
right to make a living and grow.
Communists, hoping to defeat the Marshall Plan,
have called it a scheme of Wall Street, yet labor un
ions representing more than 13.500,000 workers fyave
approved it. — (Wilbur H. Baldinger, New Leader).
-- i_
The Russians have established more than a doz
en concentration camps in Germany for "political
prisoners" and have also re-opened the infamous
Nazi camp of Buchenwald.
e
, LOOKING
} AHEAD
by GEORGE S. BENSON
k President-- Harding College
Searey. .Arkar >•
WAY TO SOCIALISM
When President Charles S y
mour of Yule University declared
recently that his university wants
no part of federal grants for edu
cational purposes, it seemed to
me high time that educators : i
general should wake up to the
dangers inherent in federal aid to
education. The public, too, seems
entirely too complacent regardin .*
this “let-Washington-do-it” atti
tude, an attitude far too many
educators have been fooled into
accepting.
It was President Seymour s i
dea that direct federal grants to
his institution would “imperil the
independence of the university.”
Indeed, sooner or later they would.
Public school educators could tear
a leaf out of Seymour’s notebook.
If federal aid would bring inter
ference and control at Yale, so
also would federal grants to pub
lic education gring control over
local educational functions.
Pockelbook Power
As far as I know, nobody has
ever argued that control over fin
ances of an undertaking fails to
bring with it full control of that
project. Surely where the pock
etbook is, there goes the author
ity. None of those arguing for
federal aid will admit they would
welcome federal control of edu
cation. Everybody wants to avoid
federal control (except the Com
munists),
Yet it amazes me that folks
would accept measures that lead
to control, as surely as dawn pre
cedes day. We work hard to spend
tax money, to promote decentral
ization, local responsibility, and
local self-government in Germany.
We still believe that Hitler and
his Nazis built a dictatorship by
concentrating political power into
hands that no one dared oppose.
Local Rights
Why then, should America ever
take a step in the same direction?
Federal aid to public ^education
is socialized education. All the
dangers attendant to the central
ized government would be mag
nified under any plan that would
permit federal control of the edu
cation of children. Must America
go in the same direction that
Czechoslovakia has gone? Free
dom of the local community in
educational affairs must be main
tained.
No sane educator or good cit
izen would argue against more
and better education. Every
body agrees on the necessity for
improving our schools constantly.
Not only the children, but the na
tion as a whole suffers when we
neglect to provide funds for school
buildings and equipment. Our
public school teachers need better
pay and better training. Although
W2 have already made the record
of any nation in the realm of ed
ucation, we can do still better.
On The Aleri
The answer to this problem is*
educate the adults. Educate the
grown folks to have the same
appreciation for good* education
that they have for good high
ways, and you will find splendid
schools in every place. State fin
ances are greatly improved. Our
States can, and will, spfnd more
and more for education. Why run
to a federal government already
in debt hundreds of billions of
dollars?
Federal aid to schools in this
nation is neither necessary nor