THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
S1.50 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.
Wednesday, May 9, 1945
CANCER RESEARCH
(Alaska Daily Empire)
Under the chairmanship of Eric A.
Johnston, the new executive council of
the American Cancer Society is to raise
at least $5,000,000, which is to be ex
pended on research. There is need of
both this fund and this work. Though
not enough money is contributed to hos
pitals even for the care of those who
have been stricken with cancer, still less
goes to the laboratories to which we
can speak of having conquered an afflic
tion which is now surpassed only by
diseases of the heart and circulatory sys
tem as a cause of death.
' What commends the program of the
American Society is the purpose and
direction that will be given to cancer re
search. The geneticists who concern
themselves only with what looks like the
inheritance of tumors know nothing of
chemistry, and the chemists, who have
discovered scores of cancer-producing
compounds, think in terms of inanimate
matter instead of living bodies. The
pathologists are largely historians —
■■ — f — ~~ —I ■
pessimists who appraise every new an
nouncement in terms of past failures.
As for the physicists, who experiment
with X-rays, radium and retroactive
salts, they hardly understand what the
geneticists and pathologists are talking
about. These experts in different fields
should obviously be brought together,
so that they may work as a team. It is
precisely this that the American Society
for Cancer will undertake, if the meet
ing which was held under the auspices
of its director at Bar Harbor last Sep
tember means what we think it does.
Cancer has to be studied not as a dis
east but as growth. The very problem of
life is involved, for which reason a spe
cialist, working as an individualist in a
narrow field, cannot hope to solve it all
by himself.
When the public realizes that about
600,000 Americans are now suffering
from cancer and that 165,000 of these
will die this year; that one in every
seven or eight dies of cancer; and that, if
this ratio continues, 17,000,000 Ameri
cans who are now alive will succumb to
some abnormal growth, the urgency of
systematic research will sink in. Health
drives aimed at diseases that cause far
fewer deaths than does cancer raised
last year $10,000,000 to $12,000,000 each.
The war campaign against canceir met
with a response of only $750,000. This
discrepancy speaks for itself. It means
that the public is not yet aware of can
cer’s significance. The population is
aging, thanks to the lowered mortality
in early life, and because it is aging sys
tematic cancer research is more than
ever essential.
WHERE HALF A LOAF ISN'T BETTER THAN NONE
, lOOKING
' AHEAD
l •V6COE6C 1 8KNS0N
TWw'fly Atffyf
FIXED LAWS
Economic laws are laws of na
ture, rigid. They are divine laws
in the same sense that the law of
gravity is a »law of God. Such
laws were in force long before the
first man-made statute was ever
written, and no natural law was
ever repealed by act of parlia
ment. Natural laws can be broken
but they all carry within them
selves suitable penalties for vio
lation; hard to escape.
Under natural laws; every pro
ducer earns a profit when he
serves the public well; takes a loss
when he serves the public poorly.
When manipulators, government
planners or any other kind, use
| artificial price controls, they vio
late natural law. It makes no dif
ference whether the aim is greed
1 or to protect “lame ducks” from
! loss. Price controls encourage in
competence.
Wheat Price Parity
Claude R. Wickard Secretary of
Agriculture recently told an au
dience of wheat growers in St.
Paul that U. S. production last
i
, year was 1100 million bushels
i compared to 800 million in a typi
cal pre-war year. This is deemed
to forecast a post-war over-pro
duction of 160 million bushels or
more a year. There is a law com
pelling the government to hold up
wheat prices for two years after
the war.
Taxpayers may as well brace
themselves It is time to start won
dering what it’s going to cost per
bushel to prop up the wheat
price and hold it at parity; or
what bonus per acre must be paid
j to non-growers of wheat for not
j growing wheat. Another wonder:
i Can the price support be removed
, after two years or must the tax
payers continue guaranteeing a
wheat price indefinitely?
Observe Natural Law
There is an honorable way:
i Leave each industry’s problem for
j0,6,1 of that industry to solve.
Using wheat as an example, per
mit the Department of Agricul
ture to prepare such data as Mr.
Wickard gave the farmers and
make such data available to the
whole industry. Let the farmers
use their own judgment in the
Hgnt of the facts. They will do a
better job than government men,
and will not cost the taxpayers
anything.
One advantage is obvious: Men
of an industry can consider an in
dustrial problem unblinded by a
dust storm of political considera
tions. Government’s proper func
tion is to serve the citizens. Gov
ernment can get s'atistics more
0
convcnienly than an organization
■ of business men, and government
experts udoubtedly can offer val
uable interpretations but inter
ference is not help.
Business Men Think
Business men can understand
government figures, inter pret
! them and apply what they have
| learned. Figures from the Depart
ment of Commerce and the Cen
sus Bureau have benefitted many
industries in the past, interpreted
by statisticians in the employ of
trade associations. If wheat is
over-produced one year, bread
will be cheap. The next year,
wheat men can plan more wisely.
What did the cotton subsidy do
! except open the gate for rayon
to storm the cotton planter’s mar
ket? A fictitious wheat price can
only bring that industry some
i similar calamity. It is bad enough
to have loyal citizens taxed with
out mercy to build a false price
structure; worse wnen you know
that the result will be to lift a big
essential industry off its economic
foundation and permanently crip
ple it.
I
; RAINBOW SKYWAYS
STARTS TRAINING
Many local enthusiasts are anx
! ious to resume their aviation
j training and now that spring is
1 really here, the Piper Cub train
; ing plane will get a real work out
In addition to the students who
! will continue their training, there
^ are several new ones planning to
• start.
Miss Pearl Bragg, one of the in
structors, arrived from Fairbanks
Tuesday and will be back at her
old job of instructing again. Last
I summer thirteen students learned
to fly and completed their solo
J flights. Three of them now have
their own planes.
Nome Directory
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HAGEN
JEWELER AND OPTICIAN
Court House Is Opposite Us
Phone Main 40
IRA D. ORTON
Attorney At Law
Room 1—Nevada Building
Nome. Alaska
Seattle Offioe:
801 Lowman Building
Telephone EL. 8388
O. D. COCHRAN
Attorney At Law
Phone Main 121
Nome, Alaska