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 $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.
Friday, September 6, 1946
HOW MANY BORN
TO BLUSH UNSEEN?
¥N SEGREGATING STUDENTS for admittance to
college, grades play a big part, and they should be
as dependable an index as any single means of gauging
the abilities of a stranger. It is highly desirable that
they not be the sole measure, however.
Take the case of Ed Stettinius, former secretary
of state. iHis grades at the University of Virginia
were once described as “atrocious.” Yet at 31 he was a
vice president of General Motors and chairman of the
board of U. S. Steel at 37. Later he began a series
of distinguished services to his country.
Mr. Stettinius was slow in school, so far as his
grades indicated. Perhaps at the time the grades
were an accurate appraisal of his ability. But it is
alarming to think of the loss to his country if he had
been dissuaded from trying further to succeed. It
is alarming to think how many youngsters with the
stuff of success in their veins are being denied admit
tance to college now because their high school grades
brand them as unworthy. —(Spokane Chronicle.)
ON THE WARPATH
OR IN TROUBLE?
6I> ELEASE’ OF MAXIM LITVINOV as deputy for
-l-Veign minister of Russia could mean either of two
widely differing developments in the- Soviet Union.
One could be the obvious one, a tendency toward
a break with the western powers with whom Litvinov
has been conspicuously friendly. The other could
be a strong drift toward nationalism inspired by a
not-toogood situation at home. Which is the right
one is anybody’s guess.
There are many signs that explosive happenings
are near the surface in Russia. For all of the show
window talk about a new five-year plan in the land of
the socialist republics there is no concrete evidence
that any striking post-war progress is being made.
United States representatives have been removed at
Russian request from one after another of the Russian
key-points. American news men have not been grant
ed even a semblance of free access to Russian civilian
life. The American press, and therefore the Ameri
can people, just don’t know what is going on behind
the scenes there.
To scramble a saying one might venture the asser
tion that a purge goeth before a fall. Litvinov is
not the only official who has been sacrificed to the
Russian plan, whatever it is. Just how many are be
ing dropped no one in this country knows. It is
idle to pretend that any one knows. But it will do
no harm to speculate and one guess is that Joseph
Stalin et al. are holding down a powder keg.
(Spokane Chronicle)
ANOTHER CRIMP
TO ALASKA DEVELOPMENT
Handicaps in uncle sam’s icebox are not
enough for those rugged Alaskans, a maritime
strike, stopping the shipping of supplies into the Terri
tory, was begun last Wednesday. This on top of the
tie-ups during the past years, is another blow to people
who are trying to develop the last American frontier.
Strikes have not only caused much loss due to
spoilage of merchandise, but have increased the cost
I •
JUST SHORT OF THE VANISHING POINT
ft* ■ "I /—- —
I;.''-'
of doing business in Alaska, increasing the cost of liv
ing scale.
Most of the merchandise used in Alaska must be
brought in by boat from the states, therefore the mari
time industries hold the fate of Alaska in the balance.
It seems to the uninitiated, that someone is hold
ing up the parade. Someone is responsible for these
unnecessary delays in settling disputes.
According to recent press releases the Wage Stab
ilization Board refused an increase in wages demanded
by the sailors, although the companies and the unions
had agreed on the terms.
Perhaps we are a little selfish in believing that
the shipping to Alaska could have been left out of the
strike, in that the Territory is not in a position to
fight for or against the agreements, and in such dire
need of the supplies which dribble into Alaska as
a miserably low rate because of shortages of the many
commodities of life, necessary to sustain body and soul.
If this treatment of Alaska continues ,Alaskans
will be forced to make a plea for government opera
tion of the steamships, (perish forbid) even though
it means the end of private ownership of Alaska ships.
Northwestern Alaska is wholly dependent on the
next forty days to lay in a supply which will feed its
thousands of people, who have no means at hand to
cultivate the d.fewthl cmfwyp cmfwyp cmfwyp cm
grow or manufacture the necessities of life.
A vessel was to have sailed for Nome and other
Bering Sea ports on the 5th of September, (yesterday),
it seems that the vessel could have been scheduled out
of Seattle at an earlier date, when the strike threat
was known to the War Shipping Administration and
the operators.
|If the strike should drag out into weeks and
months, there is little doubt that most of the population
of Northwestern Alaska would be forced to seek aid
from the army to have air transports fly the necessary
food and supplies.
We might try trading with Russia or Japan.
! tpw NEWS LETTER
LAND RESTORED j
TO PUBLIC ENTRY
Seventeen Alaska resi
dents whose homesite ap
plications have been pend
ing for a long while becanse
thex were located within
the Chugach and Tongass
National Forests will soon
receive patents to their
land. Public Land Or
der 325 signed this week
by Assistant Secretary of
the Interior C. Girard Da
vidson, excludes these sev
eral tracts of land from the
National Forests and res
! tores them to entry under
, the applicable public land
laws.
Applicants for homesites
who will now be able to
obtain patents to their land
under this new land order
are: Hermann A. Berger,
Cooper’s Landing; Joe W.
Whitehead, Cordova; Rob-^
ert L. Jernberg, Ketchikan;
C. A. Zaruba, Ketchikan;
R. C. Mayo, Ketchikan;
Harold Thompson, Ketchi
kan; Otis H. Price, Juneau;
Carl Olson, Juneau; Kenn
eth Kiffer, Ketchikan; J.
S. Kiffer, Ketchikan; Sal
mer O. Aanstad, Ketchi
kan; Jacob West, Ketchi
kan; Chester Ross, Ketchi
kan; Albert S. Atkinson,
Ketchikan; Orville L. Da
vis, Ketchikan; Eric L. Han
son, Loring; and W. C. Gra
ham, Gull Cove via Jun
eau.
SECRETARY KRUG
FAVORS STATEHOOD «
Following his return to
Washington from his first
visit to Alaska Interior Sec
retary Krug has come out
strongly in favor of state
hood for Alaska.
In many interviews to
the local press he stresses
the hope that the 80th Con
gress will hasten action on
the matter soon after it con
l
venes in January if Alas
kans vote for statehood in
the referendum to be held
in October.
Secretary Krug is very
enthusiastic about Alaska
and its future development.
In a press conference held
in Seattle upon his return
the Secretary stated he
felt Alaska definitely and
soon should be connected
with the continental Uni
ted States by railroad as
well as by highway, sea and
air. He pointed out that
the western portion of the
United States did not know
real development of its
rich resources until rail
connections were built.
DELEGATE’S SECRET
ARY RETURNING
\Mary Lee Council is re
turning to Washington next
week to resume her duties
as secretary to Delegate
Bartlett.
Miss Council has been in
Alaska for the past three
months and during that
time has had opportunity