THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 p. O. Bo* 61b
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER ..Editors
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Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943. at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Monday, December 22, 1947
The British ARE Working
(By Sir Hartley Shawcross, K.C.,
MJ., Britain's Attorney-General
and Delegate to the United Na
tions General Assembly)
<In an interview with Gordon
Graham*.
-%
Britain is a Social Democracy.
We British believe passionately
that the State and the law are
made for man, that through them
he may live a fuller life, achieve a
greater dignity. The freedom of
the individual; the right of every
man to speak his mind; to choose
his way of life; the liberty of the
press. These things are fundamen
tal and we are determined to pre
serve them. If now we are pre
pared to suspend some of the lib
erties and freedoms which we hold
so dear, to submit to regulation
and control, it is because we are
determined to preserve these
things for our children.
We emerged from the war with
our people tired, large sections of
our industry run down, unsuitable
for peace production or obsoles
cent, with our financial resources
greatly impoverished, with one
house in every four damaged by
enemy action, with many of our
factories destroyed. But already
our production has been built up
well in excess of 1938 figures.
Some say we are not working:
what nonsense! j
It is estimated that our general
level of production is up by 10% '
to 20% above the prewar figure.
Yet the number of people engaged
in civilian production has increas
ed by less than 2%.
Take one or two examples: ag
'ricultural production up by 25%4.
steel up by 37% over 1938; chem
icals up about the same; shipbuild
ing 238% of 1938 tonnage; goods
vehicles 25% up; tractors treble.
locomotives double. On the other
hand, unemployment always so
grave a scourge before, where now
it exists at all, is temporary and
transitional in character, its total
volume under 2%. The amount of
time which has been lost by
strikes has been insignificant,
about one-twentieth of one per
cent.
By the middle of this year we
have provided over 250,000 homes,
in addition to an enormous
amount of war damage repairs.
There are another 250,000 actually
under construction at the moment.
Side by side with them new fac
tories are going up, many of them
in what used to be the depressed
areas, with mass unemployment.
About 3,000 factory building
schemes have been approved.
We are fulfilling the program
on which the Government was
elected to power, and we are plac
ing certain vital basic industries
under the control of public corpo
rations representing the State. The
coal industry is the most import
ant. We have vast natural re
sources of coal^and its proper pro
duction is the key to our industrial
prosperity. For a long time the
coal industry in our country had
been in a bad way. After the last
war an independent Royal com
mission favored nationalization
but it was not then carried out. In
sufficient capital was spent on
modernization and mechanization.
There were too many small un
economic units—about 800 firms
| concerned in the production of a
little over 200,000,000 tons of coal
a year.
j Miners drifted steadily away
! from the pits to more attractive
| occupations: between the end of
the 1914/1918 war and the end of
the last war, the number employ
ed in the pits had dropped from
. well over a million to under 700,
000. We have now established a
national coal board, composed of
nine men of national reputation in
the field of mining, science, fi
nance, and administration and la
bor. That board is engaged now in,
an extensive scheme for reorgan
izing and coordinating the indus-1
try and providing new capital
equipment. At the same time we
are doing all we can to recruit la
bor to the industry, and whilst the
problem is a very difficult one we
have so far met with a good deal
of success.
Already our production is much
improved on that of last year and
British coal mines are closer to j
prewar output per manshift than
any other mines in Europe.
There is no question of the so
cialization of all British industry.
On the contrary, when the pro-'
gram is completed, about 20% of
our industry will be under public
control, the rest in the hands of
private enterprises. As for the rest
the Government has done what it
can to improve the efficiency of
private industry. In the case of
about 20 of the major industries-*
cotton, pottery, boots and shoes,
wool and so forth—we set up
what we called woking parties—
committees with representatives
of both sides of the industry to
gether with representatives of the
public.
It is remarkable to find that ‘he
reports of these committees are all
presenting much of a common pat
tern. There must—they s a y—be
more integration in our different
industries, the elimination of un
economic competition, more stand
ardization, more modern equip
ment.
All the reports show a willing
ness on the parts of the industries
concerned to adopt whatever rad
ical changes the industries need,
and we are following up the work
ing parties with permanent de
velopment councils for each indus
try.
We have felt that whilst our
country continued to suffer from
an acute shortage of materials and
i labor, whilst we had a grave ad
verse balance on payments abroad
we must ensure that there was not
a reckless and irresponsible
scramble in which the highest bid
der in industry cornered the mate
rials and the labor, irrespective of
the utility to our national economy
of what he was making. We have
STAND. CLOSER, BOVS I
-- --
not only operated a system of
price control and subsidies which
have kept the cost of living from
rising more than 40 V< above ^he
prewar figure, but we are allocat
ing materials so as to ensure tha-.
the most important industries
from the point of view of the coun
try’s prosperity get priority. Fi
nally, we are doing what wre can
consistently with our democratic
institutions, to see that labor
flows to those industries whose
need is most urgent.
Why is it that we face sucn
hardships now, in order to avoid
economic collapse? Our internal
financial position is good; we are
checking the tendency to inflat:on;
we are balancing our budget; the
wheels of our industry are hum
ming round; everyone is emoloy
ed. What is our danger? The ans
wer is simple. Britain has never
been a self-supporting country,
we always had to import great
quantities of food, of raw materi
als, of timber, of oil, and so on
from abroad, and largely from
America. Before the war we were
able to pay for those things large
ly because, in addition to our ex
ports, we had great financial re
sources abroad.
We could get by on actual phys
ical exports amounting to only one
half of our imports—the balance
we made good by these invisible
exports—these foreign investments
and so on. During the war, all that
went. Although we helped to win
the war, we have emerged far
poorer: $30,000,000,000 poorer.
About one-third of Britain’s
prewar national wealth was ex
exhausted. Wd can no longer pay
/or our imports as we used to do
largely by means of money we
were earning on capital invest
ments overseas: we can only pay
I for them now to the extent that
; we can export our own goods in
return. The dollar loans, which
j the United States and Canada \"?iy
I generously made us, were inter .1
| ed to meet that situation by g:v
j ing us time to rebuild our export
' trade. Unfortunately, they did n it
give us enough time. That was
partly because American whole
sale prices rose between 40% and
50‘.£> and so reduced the real valuej
of the loan, and partly because
other countries, both in Europe
and elsewhere, found themselves
equally in need of dollars and n-j
sisted on our paying for what we!
bought from them by dollars, or
sterling which they could change
into dollars, instead of using to
buy goods from us. All that we
can do is to cut down our imports
and build up our exports.
A country which reduces its
meat ‘ration to 20 cents a week;
which accepts, as we are having
to accept, a lower level of food
consumption than it ever had to
undergo during the war; which ra
tions bread; which .cuts out all
pleasure motoring; which deprives
itself of many of the ordinary
amenities of life—such a country,
and Britain is that country, can
hardly be said not to be facing up
to the realities of the situation. We
are, of course, concentrating every
energy we have on building up
our export trade so as to balance
our payments.
Today we are employing over a
million more people in manufac
turing for export than two years
ago: that is a 50% increase on the
number we employed in 1938. Al
ready our exports much exceed
the 1938 volume: our target is to
increase by 75% above the 1938
volume by the end of next year. In
that way, and by that time, we
hope to balance the money we
have to pay out by money coming
in, and then to build up our stand
ards of life.
We shall continue the battle be^
cause we know that with econo
mic collapse in Britain our free
dom and liberty, our democratic
institutions, all that we hold dear
in our way of life would collapse
also. It is because the totalitarians
see the imminent possibility of col
lapse in the western democracies
that the voice of totalitarian dema
gogy is raised sa stridently now.
And that is why the countries of
western Europe, taking courage
and guidance from the example
which my country shows, look to
the great American democracy for
the material assistance which my
people can no longer give.
1
: Pagans Gave Us Many Xmas Customs
. _ <4.
American Christmas customs
stem largely from pagan rites de
(veloped long before the birth of
Christ, according to a new article
j prepared for the Encyclopaedia
Britannica by Mary Emogene Ha
zeltine, principal of the University
of Wisconsin Library School.
Of American celebrations of
Christmas, the custom of exchang*
* ing gifts is one of the few that
| springs from the Christian era,
Miss Hazeltine writes. ^Christmas
candles, bonfires and Yule logs
arise from the heathen festivals
observing the winter solstice, De
cember 21, when the days begin
to lengthen. That was a time of
great rejoicing for ancient sun
worshippers who built bonfires to
give strength to the ‘‘winter sun
god.”
Pre-Christian Romans o r n a -
mented their homes with green
boughs and blowers for the Feast
of the Saturnalia which began De
cember 19. Druids gathered mistle
toe for that season, while ancient
Saxons used holly, ivy and bay.
Modern mistletoe and holly
wreaths come from those peoples.
Christmas trees, too, spring
from ancient German days when
the Germanic tribes made sacri
fices to the sacred oak tree of
Odin. When the missionary St.
Boniface traveled to Germai^y in
the eighth century and saw these
celebrations he persuaded the na
tives to substitute a fir tree for
the oak and to adorn it in tribute
to the Christ child. Thus was born
the first true Christmas tree.
Prince Albert introduced the tree
to England after his marriage to
Queen Victoria, while it was
brought to America with all its
decorations and spangles by Ger
man immigrants to this country.
In the pre-Christian world the
celebration of the winter solstice
was the principal event of the year.
And because the exact day and
year of Christ’s birth have never
been satisfactorily settled, the
fathers of the Church, when they
decided in 340 A. D., upon an offi
cial date for the birth of Christ
wisely chose the day of the win
ter solstice which was firmly fixed
in the minds of the people and
which was their most important
festival. Owing to changes in man
made calendars, the time of the
solstice and the date of Christmas
vary by a few days.”
The exchange of Christmas gifts
was originated by a bishop, born
in the third century, A. D., who
was later made the Netherlands’
patron saint of children—San Nic
olaas. Santa Claus, as the Ameri
can contraction of his name calls
him, had a reputation for making
secret gifts during the Christmas
season. Saint Nicholas has become
a familiar figure in the folklore of
many lands, yet in the Nether
lands, as in Belgium, gifts are
given on December 6, a special
holiday for children, instead of on
Christmas day. In France, too,,
gifts are exchanged on New Year’s
instead of Noel, and in Italy pres
ents are distributed on the Epiph
any, the celebration day of Christ’s
baptism.
St. Francis of Assini is respon
sible for the birth of two wide
spread Christmas customs. He or
iginated the ’use of the creche, a
miniature tableau of the Nativity,
in 1224, and since then the manger
scene is the heart of the Roman
Catholic celebration. St. Francis
also encouraged the singing of
Christmas carols and they passe l
from Italy to France and Germany
and then to England and the
United States, always retaining
their fervent festive religious
style.
During the Middle Ages the en
tire Christmas season was cele
brated in equal fervor with that
shown on Christmas day. In some
lands the celebration lasted from
December 24 to January 6—
Twelfth Night—and in others from
December 21 to February 2. By
the year 1644 Christmas in Eng
land had become such a wild orgy
that the Puritans forbade its cele
bration by law..