THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 p o. Box 618
W. A. and EMILY BpUCHER ......^.Editors
11.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3. 1879.
Wednesday, July 21, 1948.
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f|10 PROVIDE for the construction of shore protect
ive works at the town of Nome, Alaska.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep
resentatives of the United States of America in Con
gress assembled. That the followinq work of im
provement is hereby adopted and authorized, to be
prosecuted under the direction of the Secretary of the
Army and supervision of the Chief of Engineers, the
cost to be paid from appropriations here after made
for improvement of rivers and harbors:
Nome Harbor, Alaska, in accordance with the
plan presented in the report of the Chief of Engin
eers, dated March 8, 1948, and subject to the con
ditions set forth in said report.
Approved June 16, 1948.
The foregoing is the essence of the bill passed by
both houses of Congress and signed into law by the
President.
Nome can be thankful it has friends in the houses
of our national government. The passing of the fore
going bill, as a distinct benefit only to Nome, was
not the usual run of the mill legislation. It required
much work on the ^>art of several of our leading
citizens of Nome, among whom were Carl Lomen,
G. R. Jackson, Frank Whaley, Art Hartford and oth
ers. These, assisted muchly by those Senators and
Congressmen who have visited Nome in the past
few years, lending their support in our behalf be
cause of first-hand knowledge of the situation here.
Our hats are off to them, for a job well done.
Many thanks, to all those who assisted in any way.
We the people of Nome are indebted to you.
I
THE PUSHLESS AGE
REMEMBER the push button age?
Yes, that's it — the one we just left. Remember
how so many people were afraid that the era would
be marked by a push button war? Now the notion
may be as obsolete as the push button itself.
Trouble with push buttons is — someone has
to push them. Its too much work, or so the inventors
have decided. So now there's an elevator that comes
to your floor when you just touch a button. No, you
don't have to push; save you* energy for something
more important, like turning on the television set.
The new elevator is expected to be a boon
to shoppers who are just too tired to lift a fingei^
They'll have to lift a finger, but at any rate that will
be all there is to it. The electricity in their finger ends
will do the rest. One of these days, we suppose, peo
ple will find that keeping up enough electricity in
finger ends is nothing short of drudgery. But by
then we'll have a gadget that will read a person's
thoughts— if any manage to limp about in the
weary intellect — and will perform the required
THE LAST WALK
service without the recipient so much as batting an
eye.
This, we gather, is Progress, according to the
self-reading definition in the new automatic dic
tionary. It reminds us of a situation in a radio play
the other evening (we had to turn that old radio on
ourselves!). A man was describing an imaginary
machine so complicated that no human being could
understand it. He wds asked who built it, and re
plied that it had been invented and constructed by
another machine.
We haven't come to that, yet. But the pushless
push button seems to offer us a lackadaisical shove
toward the self-indicated goals. All we have to do is
wait — until the time when there'll be nothing else
to do.
#
PROPOSED ALASKA RAILRW'Y
t
(Ketchikan News)
W^TH SENATOR BUTLER behind a proposed rail
road across Canada and Alaska to Fairbanks,
there is a chance for some serious consideration.
Senator Butler carries some weight and is proving
a good friend to Alaskan development.
Such a railroad would open up an immense new
frontier. It would prove invaluable for future de
fense, besides cementing and expanding trade rela
tions between the United States and Canada. We
quote the following from the "Story of Alaska." Cax
ton Press:
$ '»
"The value of a new country is always under
estimated. The difficulties of an unknown region
are always feared and dreaded. A man who has
never laid a foundation of a building cannot under
stand the work of years that it takes to improve land
and make it habitable and desirable, The man who
looks over uncultivated valleys and the forested
mountains does not envision the future of the land
when the work of years will have changed its
face.
i
"Alaska is the great unexploited, almost un
touched storehouse of raw materials for the United
States. It will take the toil of millions to make it av
ailable. The most that has been done to the present
time is to despoil the lands of the richest and easi
est wealth that can be removed."
Internation’l News
At A Glance —
(Continued from Page One)
less in Berlin by Saturday.
THE HAGUE
The leaders of Britain, France
Belgium, Holland and the Lux
embourg advised extreme caution
in dealing with the Russians over
the blockade. They were reported
to consider the crisis “extremely
grave.” American officials were
known to fear that war might
grow from the situation.
PARIS
France looked for a ne\y Prem
ier. Robert Schuman and his Cen
trist Cabinet resigned yesterday
when beaten on their insistence
that the $1,017,000,000 defense"
budget not be cut by $40,000,000.
Schuman may succeed himself.
The Communists proposed a Com
munist-Socialist coalition under
Communist leader Maurice Thor
ez.
CAIRO
The Jews said fighting contin
ued in northern Palestine despite
a three-day-old truce. A plane
bombed a main street in Cairo
last night and another gave Dam
ascus a 40-minute alert. Jerusa
lem was fairly quiet. United Na
tions officials went ahead with
plans to carry out the truce.
WASHINGTON
Yugoslavia agreed to pay $17,
000,000 in U.S. claims and in turn
receive funds frozen in Washing
ton $47,000,000 in gold which had
been blocked in the German inva
sion of 1942. The agreement fan
ned speculation that Premier Mar
j shal Tito may be warming’ up to
the West. Wary American offi
cials said they want stronger evi
dence.
BELGRADE
The recent break of Tito with
| the Cominform was emphasized
: by the Communist Party Congress
opening in Belgrade. The Reds of
Russia and other countries be
hind the Iron Curtain shunned
invitations. The Cominform has
acsused Tito of leaving the Party
line.
BERLIN
The U.S. Army in Germany con
firmed that Gen. Bohumil Hasal,
deputy chief of staff of Czecho
slovakia, had fled to the U.S. zone.
WASHINGTON
Property of Romania, Hungary,
and Bulgaria remained blocked
| in the U.S. The assets of Ger
many, Japan and three countries
Russia absorbed—Estonia, Latvia,
and Lithuania—also was tied up
and no negotiations were in pro
gress.
ROME
Pammiro TogliaPi, wounded It
alian Communist chief, recovered
enough to speak with his hench
men over new plans to unseat Pre
mier Alcide de Gasperi.
TOKYO
The Japanese Communist lead
er Kyuichi Tokuda was wounded
by an assassin. The act was ex
pected to touch off a new labor
drive for political power. Gen.
MacArthur once predicted a clash
between radicals and conservatives
could plunge Japan into a blood
bath.
SEOUL
Koreans picked Syngman Rhee
first President of the first free
government in that peninsula in
4,000 years. The Russian-occupied
northern part of Korea is holding
out for a Communist regime. An
American soldier was killed from
ambush and another wounded by
Korean thugs who fled to asy
lum in the Russian zone.