THE NOME NUGGET ,
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
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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, November 2, 1945
KEEP SCIENCE FREE
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
In his prepared remarks before a Congressional hear
ing on proposed bills to grant aid to science, Dr. Irving
Langmuir, associate director of the research laborato
ries of the General Electric Company, told us that Rus
sia will have enough atomic bombs to destroy every
man, woman and child in this country—maybe within
20 years or so.”
That warning (note that Professor Langmuir did not
say Germany, Japan, England, France or China), com
ing from a cold scientific brain, ought to jolt our poli
ticians who are coddling the Soviets.
Professor Langmuir said of the Kilgore bill that it
aims at an essentially political control of science.
That, indeed, is the object of the Kilgore bill and of
many other bills now before Congress.
Their purpose is not patriotic or American in intent,
but they are introduced to build up a state Socialistic
political machine.
Professor Langmuir told the Congressmen, who lis-j
tened to him intently, that science had best remain in j
the hands of the individual. On this subject he said:
“The main contribution that government can make
through the proposed foundations is to lay better foun
dations of pure science which can be freely used by all.
Such results can best be had in universities. There are
two reasons for this: First, the universities provide the
ideal environment to stimulate science, and, second, the
research spirit thus fostered in the university gives an
inspiration to the students which is essential for the
further growth of both universities and industry.”
In other words, in nonscientific language, Professor
Langmuir says to the government, “hands off!”
He warns against laws that would tend to destroy our
pioneering system of private incentive in these words:
“We have inherited from our past (personal liberty,
freedom of thought, free enterprise, patents, etc.) a sys
tem of incentives more effective than that existing in
any other nation, but the obvious necessity of govern
ment control of some features of our capitalist system
has frequently led to attacks on the capitalist system
as a whole, attacks on its good as well as its bad fea
tures.”
Then the professor gives us a list of evils that are
liamstringing private enterpries, such as taxation, on
which subject he has this to say:
“Individual income taxes, and especially the huge
surtax rates, have been based on the so-called democrat
ic principle that taxes should be paid in accord with the
ability to pay. A much more reasonable principle for
taxation would be that taxes would be distributed ac
cording to the best public interest. With such a princi
ple the importance of retaining incentives would be
recognized.
When the politicians and left-wing demagogues that
control the country today give us tax legislation in “the
best public interest” then canvas-back ducks and bot
tled champagne will fall from the heavens.
Anohter growing evil that the professor warns us
against is the proposed 30-hour week. He says:
“The pioneering spirit in the United States shows
signs of dying out; vve now talk about a 30-hour week—
the right to a job. We attach too much importance to se
curity and too little to opportunity.
“In 1938 and 1939 I spent some time in France. There,
too, labor wanted soft jobs without much work but with
increased pay and the people wanted security behind
their Maginot Line, hut what did they get?”
They got the Germans and the heel of Naziism.
Soviet Russia is using a diplomatic “push-button”
now to destroy us.
Her Communism is undermining our old way of do
ing things, which was the best way.
Our science must be free and not state-controlled,
like “Soviet science.”
The Langmuirs, the Edisons, the Fultons, the Wright
brothers and the Morses came up the American way.
Let us stay on that road!
DISABILITY NO BARRIER TO JOB SUCCESS
(Science Digest)
Wounded veterans are assured that in most instances
their earning capacity need not be impaired even by
serious disability.
Nor need they lose out socially, or with the girl back
home.
These assurances, contained in the pamphlet “Straight
Talk For Disabled Veterans,” published by the Public
Affairs Committee, are tempered by the admission that
the disabled men face a hard, gruelling task and that
success will only come to those who work for it.
“The fellow who would have made good with all of
his body intact can make good despite the most severe
body losses,” writes Edna Yost, who prepared the pam
phlet in collaboration with Dr. Lillian M. Gilbreth.
The authors describe a number of actual instances
out of tens of thousands that could be cited to prove
that men bearing all kinds of physical losses can achieve
economic independence and build for themselves lives
that are as satisfying and happy as anyone’s. They point
out that one company alone employs nearly 12,000 dis
abled men on regular jobs. They tell of cases in which
men earned more after being disabled than before their
injury.
Disabled men are warned, however, that success does
not come without great effort. They are urged to coop
erate with their physicians and nurses in activities de
signed to overcome the effects of their injuries, and to
get the best training possible for their future jobs.
The majority of the disabled are urged to prepare
for normal work at a normal wage, making the choice
exactly as they would have if they had not been injured.
“Do not approach the problem of vocational choice,”
the pamphlet says, “by asking ‘What are the jobs an
armless man can do?’ but by saying, ‘I am a man with
such-and-such abilities and assets to be used in suitable
work’. . . After you have chosen wisely and then train
ed wisely for some specific kind of work, you have at
least as much to offer an employer needing that kind of
work done as anyone else has.”
A Congressman says we must live on barks and ber
ries. Are we men or moose?—‘Milwaukee Journal.
BUS (SAME HUNTER
WASHINGTON
NEWS-LETTER
By MARY LEE COUNCIL
Secretary lo E. L. (Bob) Bartlett.
Delegate to Congress from Alaska
JONES ACT WAIVER
CONTINUED
Upon representations made by
Governor Gruening and Delegate
Bartlett to the War Shipping Ad
ministration and the Treasury De
partment, travel will continue to
be allowed on Canadian vessels
between points in Alaska until
December 31, 1945.
Because of the shortage of
American ship facilities, the Jones
Act was waived during the war
and with extensions of the waiv
ers passengers were allowed this
means of transportation in the
Territory through October 31 of
this year. The two months’ exten
sion to December 31 is based upon
the fact that traffic at the present
time in Alaska is too heavy for
the American operators to handle.
ARCTIC WEATHER
REPORTING STATIONS
The Senate has reported favor
ably on Senator Brewster’s bill to
establish meteorological observa
tion stations in the Arctic region
of the Western Hemisphere.
The legislation authorizes the
Chief of the Weather Bureau to
establish the stations for the pur
pose of improving the weather
forecasting service within the
United States and on the interna
tional air transport routes from
the United States.
ALASKA HIGHWAY
The Canadian army and the
Royal Canadian Air Force will as
sume responsibility and mainten
ance of the Canadian section of
Alaska Highway and airdromes in
1946, acording to press dispatches
from Ottawg, Canada.
Acting External Affairs Minis
ter Louis St. Laurent has an
nounced the United States will
withdraw from the Canadian sec
tion of the highway on April 1,
1946, and from thp airfields along
the northwest staging route on
June 1, 1946.
PETERSBURG MAY GET
FEDERAL BUILDING
The need for a Federal building
at Petersburg has been recognized
by the Public Buildings Adminis
tration, according to information
given Delegate Bartlett, and the
proposed building will be added
to the list of eligible projects re-*
cently submitted to Congress.
The project will be included in
legislation now pending before
Congress which authorizes a total
appropriation of $193,000,000 for
Federal building projects outside
the District of Columbia. The
bill’s purpose is to grant author
ity to the Public Buildings Admin
istration to purchase sites, prepare
working drawings and specifica
tions and construct those build
ing projects most essential to ef
ficient operation of the Federal
Government.
Two other Alaska projects are
included in the measure totalling
$1,150,000, one calling for remod
elling and extending the Federal
Building at Juneau in the amount
of $1,000,000, and the other listing
the expenditure of $150,000 for a
postoffice site and building at Ko
diak.