THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 O* B°x
$1.50 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. , _
Friday, November 23, 1945
ALASKA ON THE STAGE
(Fairbanks Daily News-Miner)
More than just a battle between rival airlines began
today in Washington before the Civil Aeronautics
Board. The facts and figures and opinions being bandied
back and forth will go far in helping the Territory of
Alaska along toward its future development.
The accent of course is on air travel, but the spotlight
thus cast on aviation to and across Alaska is bound to
spill its rays over the whole transportation problem in
‘the Territory. Inasmuch as all factions are agreed that
Alaska’s future is bound up in transportation facilities,
the CAB hearings are providing an airing of Alaska’s
biggest economic problem.
Some of this effect will come about in devious ways.
Alaska is completely airminded, but that is not yet true
of the States. Where Alaskans do their travel thinking
in terms of airplanes they are apt to miss the signifi
cance that will be attached to Alaskan problems when
they are disclosed to persons who do their thinking in
terms of the family automobile. Roads are still a prime
necessity in Alaska and the more people who begin to
think about Alaskan roads the easier it will be for the
Territory to get roads.
The idea of flying to the Orient has captured the im
agination of many persons who otherwise might not
have thought much about Alaska. The maps and argu
ments connected with the North Pacific air route are
going to place Alaska under the noses of more people
than ever before. They can’t understand the maps and
assimilate the arguments without becoming more ac
quainted with Alaska. The common impression of Alas
ka gained from stories and pictures that deal almost en
tirely with winter and snow and ice is certain to thaw
out as the testimony unfolds.
Thus Alaska stands to gain not only in having its avi
ation picture understood but also in getting its trans
portation problems before road-minded and ship-mind
ed people and in parading its climatic, economic and
strategic features before new eyes.
NO EXCUSE FOR SECRECY
(Seattel Post-Intelligencer)
The order issued by President Truman to all federal
departments and their employees, including the armed
forces, to give all available information to the special
Congressional committee investigating the Pearl Har
bor disaster has apparently failed to accomplish its pur
pose.
The committee itself has in fact defeated the purpose
by applying its own means of suppression.
When Senator Brewster of Maine, a member of the
committee, sought to examine navy department files in
search of a missing message bearing on the Pearl Har
bor tragedy, he failed to get the support of a majority
of the committee.
It is a serious reflection on the competence of the
committee, and certainly upon its integrity, that it re
fuses to permit examination of all documents pertinent
to the subject under investigation.
Whether the missing document sought by Senator
Brewster would prove or refute that the navy depart
ment had several days warning of the Japanese attack
on Pearl Harbor, it would establish the truth of the
matter.
What is the committee after, if not the truth?
“It is essential to a full investigation of responsibility
for the Pearl Harbor disaster that we be permitted to
look for leads in government documents,” said Senator
Brewster.
While the war was in progress, the efforts of Con
gress to inform itself about matters in which the armed
forces were involved were often blocked by the sup
posed necessity for military secrecy.
However, the war is over now.
Whatever excuse there was for secrecy during the
war, there is no reason for it now.
There have been several most peculiar manisfesta
tions of the lack of enthusiasm for the truth on the part
of the Democratic members of the Pearl Harbor inves
tigating committee.
The obstruction placed against Senator Brewster and
other Republican members of the committee is only one
of these manifestations.
Another is the mystifying incident of the hospitaliza
tion by the navy of Capt. Alwin D. Kramer, an officer
who was on the naval operations staff at the time of the
Pearl Harbor Assault and who was in a position to have
intimate knowledge of the events prior to the assault.
Although it is now said that Captain Kramer is avail
able to the committee whenever it desires to question
him, he was strangely unavailable for a considerable
period of time.
It is not hard to understand why the navy department
should be uncooperative in the Pearl Harbor investiga
tion, especially if it has anything to conceal.
But there can be no understanding of resistance to a
thorough and honest and competent investigation by
the members of the committee.
Surely it is not a sufficient explanation of this resist
ance that a majority of the committee is affiliated with
the Democratic Party and the Democratic Administra
tion—for the Pearl Harbor disaster was an American
disaster, and the placing of responsibility for it is an
American duty.
PREWAR DOLLARS
(Anchorage Times)
It may be that what this country needs is not so much
an industrial wage scale of 52 hours’ pay for 40 hours’
work as a 40-hour week paid straight time at the current
scale, but in 1939 dollars. Those dollars’ greater pur
chasing power would just about make the 30 per cent
straight-time increase that the unions are demanding.
Naturally, a return to the prewar cost of living would
mean abundant, competitive mass production of neces
sary goods, which in turn would mean abundant jobs.
That isn’t a goal to be achieved overnight. But at least
it seems like a goal worth shooting for. And it’s at least
worth considering against a program of continuing pay
boosts which in time would certainly lift prices with it,
and which hold the ultimate prospect of one’s carrying
his weekly pay home in a wheelbarrow.
WASHINGTON
NEWS-LETTER
By MARY LEE COUNCIL
Secretary to E. L. (Bob) Bartlett,
Delegate to Congress from Alaska
DELEGATE ASKS ALASKA
FREIGHT RATE HEARINGS
POSTPONEMENT
•
Declaring that “it would be
simply impossible in any such
time for the government of Alas
ka or the people in their individ
ual capacities to assemble the data
which they certainly would desire
to and ought to be allowed to
present,” Delegate Bartlett has
vigorously urged that the Alaska
marine rate hearing scheduled for
November 27 be postponed for a
period of six months.
The order setting the hearing
down for the latter part of No
vember was issued on November
9, allowing only eighteen days for
preparation of material which in
terested parties in Alaska could
present at the hearing.
Stating his unalterable belief
that any Alaska rate increase
would be an unbearable burden
on the economic life of the Terri
tory, Delegate Bartlett, besides
urging a postponement of the
hearings for six months, requested
that when the hearing is held it
should not be confined to Seattle,
but also hearings should be held
in Alaska and Washington, D. C.
This would enable the presenta
tion of all pertinent facts by all
interested persons and agencies.
Delegate Bartlett has stated
that he does not believe the War
Shipping Administrator is the pro
per petitioner for the marine rate
hearing, saying “I am reliably in
formed and believe that the War
Shipping Administration will
shortly withdraw from the field
of Alaska operations. At that time
the vessels in the Alaska fleet
will be turned back to their own
ers. If they, operating under pri
vate management techniques and
under peacetime conditions, can
not carry on a profitable opera
tion the time will then have come
1 for a hearing. It seems inappro
priate that the War Shipping Ad
ministration after incurring, as I
am imformed, continuing deficits
all through this calendar year in
Alaska should be concerned with
an immediate rate increase now,
almost at the end of its period of
activity.”
SURPLUS MARINE
EQUIPMENT
Delegate Bartlett has requested
the “freezing” in the Territory by
the Maritime Commission of all
marine equipment, including tugs
and power barges, declared sur
plus until residents of Alaska
have a fair opporutnity to pur
! chase it.
In a suggestion made to Com
modore E. J. Moran, Assistant
Deputy Administrator for Small
Vessels, Maritime Commission,
I Delegate Bartlett has urged the.
! establishment of central marine
equipment disposal depots in
! Alaska to enable ready access to
! all interested persons. This action
followed receipt of information
that the movement of surplus tugs
I and power barges and other simi
] lar marine equipment was contin
! uing to Seattle from Alaska.
The Maritime Commission is
the disposal agency for all surplus
shipping equipment in the terri
t tories.
NOME HARBOR
Review of reports on Nome
harbor looking towards its im
provement has been requested of
the Army’s Board of Engineers
for Rivers and Harbors by the
House Committee on Rivers and
Harbors at a committee meeting
! attended by Delegate Bartlett.
It is expected that the Division
Engineer will make a survey and
examination at Nome upon in
struction from the Board of En
gineers, at which time all inter
ested persons may be heard.
SENATOR HUFFMAN
The new Senator from Ohio,
James W. Huffman, has told Dele
gate Bartlett of his great interest
in Alaska stemming from time he
spent in the Territory many years
ago.
Senator Huffman spent several
months in Juneau and vicinity
following his return from France
in the first World War, and he
states he has had a continuing in
terest in Alaska since that time.
Senator Huffman was appoint
I ed by the Governor of Ohio re-j,
j cently to take the place of former
Senator Harold Burton, now Asso
ciate Justice of the Supreme
Court.
VISITORS
The Most Reverend Walter J.
Fitzgerald, S. J., of Juneau, Cath
olic Bishop of Alaska, was a
Washington visitor and called <m
Delegate Bartlett. Bishop Fitzger
ald was in the Capital for a three
day conference of Catholic Arch
bishops and Bishops.
Daniel A. Jones, son of Charles
D. Jones, of Nome, Alaska, was a
recent visitor at Delegate Bart
1 e 11' s office. Daniel, who is
now stationed at Fort Belvoir,
Virginia, is expecting to be sen$
to Europe in the near future for
occupation work in Germany.
Theodore N. Law, one of 4ke
owners of Alaska Airlines at An
chorage, was in Washington an
company business and called on
Delegate Bartlett