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.
Friday, June 9, 1946.
WIDOWS AND CHILDREN
OF HEROES
IN CONGRESSIONAL action to provide rehabilita
tion for those who fought and won the war, the
widows and children of men who lost their lives win
ning the war have been almost entirely neglected.
Congress ignored them in the GI Bill of Rights,
and a later measure designed to correct this injustice
by including combat widows among the beneficiaries
of the act was rejected by the senate veterans com
mittee.
Moreover, thousands of combat widows and their
children have been deprived of survivors’ benefits un
der the social security act through the very circum
stance that their husbands died in their country s ser
vice.
Many of these men had established with their tax
payments under the social security system, survivors’
benefits which their families would have received had
the husbands died in civilian employment.
But fighting a war is not a “covered employment”
under the social security act, and the longer a man re
mains outside a “covered employment” the more his
benefits—and his family’s—diminish, until presently
they vanish altogether.
That had happened in the cases of many men who
lost their lives in the war. Their widows and orphans,
therefore, receive nothing toward their support from
the social securiey system.
And the pensions paid to war widows are bitterly
inadequate; a widow with two children to support re
ceives less money than a single veteran who is unem
ployed.
As a result of the nation’s strange and disgrace
ful neglect, many widows of heroes are struggling to
bring up their children on meager earnings at whatever
jobs they can get.
Pregnant widows have had to turn to the Red
Cross for hospitalization to bear the children of heroes,
and the children of men who died for their country
have been denied admission to government hospitals
in desperate illness.
Now the Gold Star Wives of World War II, with
a membership of 73,000 combat widows, have appeal*
ed to congress to end the neglect that imposes such
hardships upon them.
They asked for the same benefits that they and
their children would have received under the GI Bill
of Rights had their husbands survived—loan guaran
tees, educational opportunities, unemployment allot
ments and help in finding employment.
They ask for the benefits they should have receiv
ed under the social security system.
They ask for medical care and hospital treatments,
and for pensions substantial enough to support their
children.
Is not that little enough for the nation to do for
these women and children whose husbands and fathers
died for the nation?
Congress should act at once to remedy the shame
ful neglect and indifference that have made it nec
essary for these widows and orphans, whom the nation
should cherish with a very special tenderness, to plead
for their necessities.
(Seattle Post Intelligencer)
nMCRtfr *m*r MAM AMif)
4 - - —------ - - - - ■ - - ---——
CAN WAR BE PREVENTED?
TALK OF “PREVENTATIVE*’ WAR keeps cropping
out, but certainly it is not up to the United States
to undertake such a mission during the first stages
of the atomic race,, while we alone have the bomb and
as soon as we obtain sufficient quantity, with the re
sult that we would rule the world. There are others
who would suggest collective sanctions to enforce a
possible international control system.
There is a feeling among scientists that there should
be some international control for atomic energy.
Most nations will strive dilligently for the next few
years for perfection of atomic power relative to arm
ament both offensive and defensive.
That is the first stage of the armament race, the
U. S. has atomic bombs, no other nation now has the
secret, so, they will not feel secure without at least
some defense against the atomic weapons and will try
to every means to get the weapons. The production
system of the U.S. will keet it ahead in the race at
least for a while, but it is certain that some of the
other nations will produce a small supply of bombs
and the means to deliver them.
The policy of the U. S. being that of a democracy
and not aggressive by nature, will feel smugly safe
with a preponderance of the weapons in stores through
out the nation, but the supply which a smaller nation
can muster might be enough to destroy all of the major
centers and our great quantities of atomic weapons
will be of little avail.
With all nations stock-piling atomic bombs and other
rocket and atomic weapons, there will be enough po
tential atomic energy, in the event of another World
War, to destroy the entire world, including the aggres
sor.
Can war be prevented?
i
I -
t—
Eli Ciki
Today’s acute housing shortage
was in plain view ten years ago.
Experts in the business of build*
ing and equipping homes were
writing articles and making
speeches back in the 1930’s fore
1 casting what they called the build
I---__
ing boom of the 1940’s. They
supported their predictions with
«:ound reasoning and leaders in
many equipment lines arranged to
meet the demand.
A quick look at census figures,
I years before Pearl Harbor, would
have convinced almost anybody
that an unusually big share (say
20 per cent) of the U. S. popula
j tion would reach an age to
j married between 1940 and 1946.
! Patently this would call for more
! places to live and, true to form
under free enterprise, business
men began getting ready quietly
to serve this market, but war
interfered.
Plans Not Executed
Wars always frustrate plans,
and few w-ere revised more in
World War II than those of the
building trades. Priorities, on ma
terials, shortage of labor and the
compelling urge for victory
changed most things but the prd>»
dieted need for more housing
came right on schedule. It is even
bigger than experts estimated ten
years ago because war retarded^
building and accelerated marrying.
Plans made before the war for
meeting this expected peak de
mand are still workable plans. If
industry were free today as it was
then, people who want .homes
would be getting them a great
deal faster. I believe Herbert U.
Nelson of the National Associa
tion of Real Estate Boards has
proved that Washington bureau
cracy is chiefly to blame for to
day’s housing shortage.
Facts To Remember
It's an old story that America
has housing* a plenty, and it was
always true until right lately.
France, England and other Euro
pean countries that have endured
regulation of home building since
World War I have been short oi
housing meanwhile. Bureaucracy
got a firm grip on American
building during World War II
and now hates to let go, shortage
or no shortage.
The OPA is the sorest bunion
on the toe of our progress. Here
is an illustration: Manufacturers
of fir doors got caught behind
increased manufacturing costs and
asked OPA for permission to raise
prices 75c per door. It was refus
ed. Result: No doors by mass
production. Carpenters can build
doors where they hang them, of
course, at much loss of time and
at several times normal cost.
Industry Is Ready
A similar man-made muddle
built a bottle-neck in window
sash. There’s almost no end to
the roster of crippling rules in
this one industry. Miles Colean, ^
thoroughly respected Washington
economist says that industries
producing building materials are
fully reconverted, full capacity
restored. Still the most productive
nation of history is hand-cuffed ^
and can’t house itself. Why?
A price fixing agency, while
proclaiming its loyalty to the peo
ple, has refused many small stra
tegic upward revisions, thus halt
ing production. Consumers do
without things or pay amazing
prices for make-shifts. It savors
of the Marie Antoinette school
of thought On being informed
that by reason of her extrava- J
gance her subjects had no bread,
she said, “Let them eat cake.”
When does “high” mean “low”?
According to the Encyclopaedia
Britannica, the musical term “al
to” describing the lower kind of
boy’s or woman’s voice actually j
means “high” and is used in this
sense to mean the highest adult
male voice.