THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 61 >*■
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEA*
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER...Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffie**
at Nome. Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Friday, December 20, 1946
lwo Important Meetings
(Anchorage Daily Times)
ONE OF THE RESULTS of the aviation conference
held in Anchorage last week, was creation of an asso
ciation that will serve as the central clearing house and
mouthpiece for the aviation industry.
This association bids well to become as important to
aviation as Salmon Industry, Inc., is to the canned sal
mon business and the Alaska Miners Association is to
the gold mining industry.
The conference brought the operators together for a
thorough discussion of their problems. Results were
written down in the form of resolutions expressing the
concensus on a great variety of subjects, proposing new
legislation, new rules and new facilities for the benefit
of the public and the carriers.
Through the Alaska Air Transport Association those
engaged in aviation—commercial or otherwise—will
have a clearing house through which they can make
known their troubles or coordinate improvement pro
jects.
Today another important conference convenes with
representatives of seven Alaska cities participating in
a Chamber of Commerce conference. This meeting is
unique in that it brings together the individual organ
izations which have played important roles for many
years in their respective communities but throughout all
those years have failed to coordinate their programs.
Many and varied are the commercial, civic and muni
cinal problems that are handled by the chambers in
Alaska. Each chamber has its own methods of approach
ing the problems. In relative isolation from each other
it is only natural that the chambers come to different
solutions and sometimes emphasize conflicting pro
grams for the development of their communities or all
of Alaska.
It has been said that Alaskans spend much time crit
icizing Congress for its failure to plan for the logical
development of the Territory. But it can also be said
that Alaskans have failed just as miserably as has Con
gress, for they have yet to produce the impeccable pro
gram for which they look to Congress.
The conference of chambers will afford an opportun
ity for the exchange of ideas which may well lead to the
coordination and harmony which must mark Alaska
planning if it is ever to be given serious consideration
in high places.
The aviation industry is to be congratulated on the
fine results of its conference. Anchorage has been hon
ored in having the leaders of this great transportation
industry as guests and will look forward to their return
each year for further conferences.
The Chambers of Commerce are likewise to be con
gratulated on having their representatives present for
the important conference which opens today. May the
results of their efforts be equally as fruitful and work of
the individual organizations welded into a unit.
Weasel Words From The CIO
(Rocky Mountain News)
THE CANCER of Communism has rooted itself so
deeply within the CIO that Philip Murray does not dare
try to cut it out.
We can see no other significance in the weazel-word
<*d resolution adopted last week by the CIO’s Atlantic
City convention as what the Daily Worker calls a “basis
lor unity.”
*“We resent and reject efforts of the Communist Party
or other political parties or their adherents to interfere
THE BW PUSH
VCTO
QUESTION
_
1 in the affairs of the CIO,” this resolution says.
It was drafted by a curious committee, appointed b
Mr. Murray. Three members were “rightists.” They
favored positive action to rescue the CIO and its affili
ated unions from Communist influence or domination.
The other three were “leftists,” and at least one of them
—Ben Gold, president of the CIO Fur Workers—is an
admitted member of the Communist Party.
A committee so divided could produce nothing more
than a meaningless compromise, as it did. Mr. Murray
is left free to go on temporizing with the Communist
who already control a number of CIO unions and have
active designs on the rest.
Phil Murry has no sympathy for Communism, and he
is no coward. His unwillingness to face this issue boldly
grows out of a deep, though we believe misguided, sense
of loyalty to the organization he heads. He fears that
an all-out fight on Communism would split the CIO.
But evading the issue will wreck the CIO. The Com
munists who scheme for power in that or any organiza
tion are not interested in the welfare of American work
ers. Their purpose is to sow seeds of dissension and con
fusion, to create chaos in America and to promote the
interests of Soviet Russia.
Mr. Murray wants to save the CIO, but we believe his
reluctance to perform the needed operation is most like
ly to prove fatal to it.
THAT’S THAT By bruce gustin
._i
Back in August, 1907, Federal
Judge Landis slapped a fine of
$29,240,000 on the Standard Oil
Company of Indiana for accepting
rebates from railroads in viola
: tions of the Elkins Act. John D.
i Rockefeller commented at the
| time: “Judge Landis will be dead
a long itme before this fine is
paid.” Judge Landis d ed two
' years ago at the age of 78 and the
' record fine which he had imposed
[ had not been collected. His deci
sion was reversed and the multi
million dollar fine he had levied
was wiped out.
! Whether the 3 and one-half mil
j lion dollar fine assessed against
John L. Lewis’ United Mine Work
ers by Federal Judge Goldsbor
ough ever will be collected re
mains to be seen. Next to the $29,
240,000 fine imposed by Judge
Landis it is the biggest in judicial
history. And it is the largest fine
ever assessed against a labor union,
or in a contempt case.
The effectiveness of this 3 and
one-half million dollar fine in
curbing labor union excesses does
not depend necessarily upon whe
ther it is paid and Judge Golds
borough’s decision finally is up
held by the United States Supreme
Court. Such a staggering fine em-1
h'.asizes the seriousness of the sit-;
.ahon confronting the nation with
arrogant and power-mad labor
readers thumbing their noses at
conMtutional government and try
ing to establish themselves as dic
tators just as greedy industrial
oarons did some forty years ago.
John D. Rockefeller’s Standard
Oil company didn’t have to pay
the $29,240,000 fine assessed
against it. But the impos'tion of
that enormous fine sounded the
death knell of its stranglehold on
the oil industry. A few months
iater, anti-trust proceedings were
instituted against the Standard
set-up and in a few years it was
broken up. The 3 and one-half
million dollar fine levied by Judge
Goldsborough may well be the be
ginning of the end for the John L.
Lewis dictatorship.
«
One of Lewis’ attorneys de
nounced the fine imposed on the
miners union as "a cruel and un
usual punishment.” To the union
autocracy, any and every attempt
to restrain its excesses, is “cruel
and unusual.” Labor leaders have
| been allowed to run wild for so
many years that any government
al move to curb them is unusual.
But governmental compulsion to
force them to stay within the
bounds of reason is a kindness_
not cruelty.
Judge Goldsborough undoubt
edly spoke the sentiments of the
overwhelming majority of the
American people when he saidtnai
the coal strike called by Lewis m
calculated and deliberate defiance
of the federal injunction "is notan
attack by a low law breaker. It’s an
evil, a monstrous thing. It m|ns
hunger, cold and destitution. Ifs a
threat to democratic governme?/
itself. If action of this kind cou*
be successtully pursued, it couk
overthrow the government.”
One may wonder if the coal min
ers who follow Lewis’ leadership
so blindly really understand just
now they got into this mes. ana
realize that in that strike they
were striking against the gov*, n
rnent of the United States, ami not
against the coal operators. Last
May, to end one coal strine, the
lederal government took over ;^
«_ jai mines and entered into a coyT
.iuet with Lewis. It is this contract
—a solemn agreement he made for
..te union witu toe government—
that Lewis broke, precipitating the
su me. He and the union were con
victed of contempt of court for
breaking that government con
tract in violation of a federal coitjh
injunction.
In a recent America’s Town
Meeting of the Air debate, broad
cast by the American Broadcast
ing company, James F. Lincoln,,
president of the Lincoln Electric
company of Cleveland and orig
inator of an incentive production
sysiem which has attracted nation
wide attention, gave two reasons
for “the lag in production.” H[e
said “the first is the obstructions
of production by radical union
leadership” and “the second is
whimsical edicts of unrestrained
government bureaucrats.” He
made it plain he intended no at
tack upon either unions of govern
ment as such. His criticism, as he
put it, was ‘criticism of the present
lawless leadership in unions and i
X
government.”
Responsibility for lawlessness in
union leadership and governmerffc
rests squarely upon the present
Democratic national administra
tion. It has blocked every move
made to regulate and restrain la
bor organizations as industry is
regulated and restrained. And it
has saddled the American people
with a system of bureaucratic reg
imentation which has resulted in
the paradox of shortages at a timj^
when there should be plenty. The
only way the American people can
change the intolerable conditions
prevailing is by changing the po
litical complexion of Congress.
New Senate
Tested
of State Byrnes is reported ready
today for an early test of the new
Republican-controlled Sena te’s
attitude on international affairs
with a request for action on four
peace treaties with Axis satellites.
Byrnes has advised interested
Senators he wants to place the
pacts with Italy, Bulgaria, Roman
ia and Hungary before the foreign^
relations committee shortly after
they are formally signed Feb. 1* *
A fifth allied treaty — with Fin
land—has been drafted, but will
not come before the Senate for
consideration. The United States
was not a war with Finland and
had no voice in the treaty terms.