THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 61b
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER .Editors
t
$1.50 PER MONTH S16.90 A YEAR
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1913, at the postoffict
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3. 1379
Monday, March 15, 1948
Steel IWs For Trouble
p
(Rockv Mountain News)
AGAIN THE STEEL INDUSTRY has taken a step
which affects America’s whole economy. And very
badly, we fear.
It has raised a batch of prices, at an estimated total
cost of 68 million dollars a year. By the time the in
creases are passed to the public through higher prices
on thousands of items, the bill may run larger. More
over, the rash of increases for semi-finished and spe
cial steels seems to forecast a coming general steel
boost.
The timing of all this is amazing. If ever an indus
try seemed to be begging for trouble, it is Steel.
It happens just after a year in which Steel made
profits that often broke all records.
It comes in the face of a major decline in commod
ity prices.
It comes after General Electric and some other!
firms had cut prices in an effort to check inflation.
It comes while the industry is running at full speed,
with an eager buyer for every pound it produces.
And it comes just as the steel workers’ union is op
ening negotiations for higher wages—with Philip
Murray clamoring against exorbitant profits, and
high prices. Mr. Murray said there would be no
strike, and made no definite demands—just “sub
stantial” raises. He must be psychic—his strategy!
couldn’t have been better had he worked it out with;
the companies. I
Here, then goes that inflation bubble back up'
again, when it seemed to be losing some of its size.
In spite of government policies and the warnings of
economists. In spite of what seemed even more effec
tive—a sudden application of the old law of supply
and demand.
Steel is so big and vital in every phase of our econo
mic life that its deliberate action can offset all this.
As has happened before.
It was U. S. Steel’s negotiations with Mr. Murray
which set a national pattern for the first big round of
wage increases.
In the second round, Big Steel repeated the per
formance—that time with John L. Lewis. By granting
iemands running to about 44 cents an hour in total
jay increases about a 10-cent royalty on each ton of
roal, it gave an enormous boost to inflation.
Every steel firm and coal operator had to go along—
ncluding a lot of little companies on the remote edge
>f the steel and iron business, and a host of small and
narginal coal producers.
These wage patterns were followed by price hikes
hat helped set the national price pattern.
A third historic case came when top steel men de
ided against expanding capacity as much as govern
nent, business and union economists claimed was es
ential.
(Whatever the merits of that decision—and it is a
dghly technical matter—it must have had some bear
ng on the steel shortage which has squeezed thou
ands of businessmen, hampered production and
aused a vast and evil gray market.
Believing passionately in free enterprise, we still
an’t help wondering whether this is one of those
ases where freedom is being abused and restraint is i
1 order. Just as we have felt in the case of gigantic1
nions. Big business and big unionism have the power j
) combine in behalf of high prices and wages—at the
xpense of the public. We are not charging collusion
-just lookinw at what happened and think that had
Dllusion existed we would have got just about what
re have got.
There are dangers—great dangers—in the exist
AND THEN THE.'E WAS ONE
ence of companies and unions so big that they can up
set government policies and fix national trends for
all prices and all wages. That power can become big
ger than government.
The steel industry is already involved in an anti
trust suit. In the midst of it, leading companies seem
to have had the same thought about the same prices
at the same time.
This industry badly needs friends. But its part in
dictating wage and price policies and its inability to
supply steel and control the gray market have been
making enemies. And they are by no means confined
to the left-wingers.
We frankly fear that among the patterns it has
been creating there may develop one for government
operation or control which would jeopardize our free
economic system.
Korea Could Blow Up Asia
(By Jack Foster) -
A BLOWUP IN KOREA which “may be the begin
ning of a vaster cataclysm in Asia and the world” is
threatened, according to the U. N. Korean commis
sion report to the little assembly.
The United Nations is the last hope, in the judg
ment of the commission and of Korean leaders.
This is as alarming as it socnds. It is based on an ob
jective investigation in Korea by the commission,
whose chairman has flown to Lake Success to deliver
the report.
The commission has been unable to carry out
United Nations instructions to hold national elections
because Russia has barred it from Soviet-occupied
North Korea.
In the long list of Russian violations of internation
al commitments it would be hard to find one more
cold-bloodedly brazen.
Stalirt went into Korea on a free ticket from the
United States, whose forces overthrew the Jap Em
pire. He was allowed to share responsibilities of tem
porary occupation with the United States on pledge
that Korean independence and representative gov
ernment would be restored.
Instead, Stalin betrayed his protector’s role by or
ganizing a puppet government and a puppet Red army
to take over the Soviet dictatorship when ready. At
the same time, he sent his agents into the American
occupied zone to prepare insurrection against rule
there and to arrange for a Red minority police state
as soon as American troops were forced out.
When Washington turned over to the United Na
tions responsibility for Korean independence, and a
U. N. commission was sent out to hold free elections,
Russia boycotted the commission.
Russia and her satellites also are boycotitng the
Little Assembly to which the commission is reporting.
Here, then, is a clear case of across-the-board Sov
iet usurpation and defiance of world authority. Stalin
af puppet states across Asia, just
as he has enslaved Eastern Eu
rope. That is why a Korean explo
sion could shake all Asia and
dra\y the United States into war.
Whether it is now possible or
wise to hold elections in the
American zone of South Korea,
which contains a majority of the
total population of the country, is
for the Little Assembly to decide.
In any event, it is essential for
the Little Assembly to reaffirm
United Nations responsibility for
Korea, iind to keep the record
clear by citing Russia for violation
j of international agreements and
intends to add Korea and Man
churia to Mongolia and his string
! contempt of international author
j ity.
I
Candidates In
Primary Election
First Division
Democratic candidates for the
Senate in the First Division are:
Wm. A. Holzheimer, Juneau; Dr.
R. M. MacKenzie, Ketchikan; Nor
mon R. <Doc) Walker, Ketchikan.
Republican candidates for the
Senate in the First Division are:
Mrs. Elton Engstrom, Juneau;
Anita* Garnick, Juneau; Harry
Race, Ketchikan; Steve Vukovich,
Juneau; Harry V. Williams,
Ketchikan.
Democratic candidates for the
House in the First Division are:
G. E. Almquist, Juneau; Abel An
derson, Juneau; Robert E. Cough
lin, Juneau; A1 Daniels, Ketchi
kan; Amelia A. Gunderson, Ketch
ikan; Andrew Hope, Sitka; Ervin
H. Hill, Juneau; Marcus F. Jen
sen, Douglas; Leonard King,
Haines; Earl Leding, Ketchikan;
Eugene Lockridge, Juneau; Ver
non M. Metcalfe, Juneau; James
Nolan, Wrangell; J. H. Sawyer,
Windham; Peter Wood, Juneau.
Republican candidates for the
House from the First Division are:
Helmi A. Bach, Douglas; Doris M.
Barnes, Wrangell; John J. Far
gher, Juneau; William Ferro. Jr.,
Skagway; Frank G. Johnson,
Kake; Ed Locken, Petersburg; J.
S. MacKinnon, Juneau; J. P.
Montplaisir, Kasaan; Wm. L.
Paul, St., Wrangell; Frank S. Shel
ton, Ketchikan; Wm. Anderson
Winn,'Juneau; Jack Calvin. Sitka.
Second Division
Democratic candidates for the
Senate in the Second Division are:
Edward Anderson, Nome; Howard
Lyng, Nome; Garnet W. Martin.
Nome; Charles O’Leary, Nome.
Republican candidates for the
Senate in the Second Division are:
James E. Adams, Nome; C. D_
Anderson, Nome; Lester Bronson,
Nome; Ben F. Gillette, Nome;
George J. Waldheim, Nome.
Democratic candidates for the
House in the Second Division are:
Wm. E. Beltz, Nome; Frank A.
Degnan, Unalakleet; Axel T. Ed
man, Nome; George P. Madsen,
Nome; Wallace Porter, Haycock;
Aimer Rydeen, Nome.
I Republican candidates for the
i House in the Second Division are:
Percy Ipalook, Wales; Frank L.
Johnson, Nome; W. W. Laws,
Nome; Chester Milligan, Nome;
Samuel Mogg, Nome; Pete L.
Reader, Nome; Nels Swanberg,
Jr., Nome.
Third Division
i Democratic candidates for the
Senate in the Third Division are:
I John Simon Hellenthal, Anchor
age; Walter E. Huntley, Palmer;
Steve McCutcheon, Anchorage,
j Republican candidates for the
Senate in the Third Division are:
Julius C. Morris, Wm. H. “Bill”
Olson.
Democratic candidates for the
House in the Third Division, are: