THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Mam 125 P. O. Box 61 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 postoffir*
at Nome. Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Friday, February 28, 1947
Main Trails And Bypaths
(Alaska Sportsman)
BECAUSE A MONOPOLY has a strangle hold on the
juglar vein of Alaska—its shipping—the future of this
great Territory is threatened as never before. The eco
nomic existence of the people of Alaska depends for it
lifeblood on the artery along which all freight is carried
to and from the North. At the present time, indications
are that unless Congress finds a solution, this artery wi1!
be completely choked off on February 28, when ship
ping to and from Seattle is scheduled to cease because it
is no longer economically possible to continue this pub
lic service.
The monopoly is not some great shipping corporation
as might have been the case in the past, but is the com
bination of maritime unions, joined together to get whai
they want at the expense of the other people of the
country. This combination, of course, is not a band of
unions serving only the Territory of Alaska, but it is a
part of a Coast-wide association controlling all the ships
on the Pacific. And the union organizations within
Alaska take their orders from San Francisco and Seattle.
So great is the power of these maritime unions that
they are able to tell the Government and the operators
acting as agents for the Government, not only what the
men shall be paid and the hours they shall work, but
how hard they shall work and how many men shall be
put at each task and who these men shall be. In all this
the power of the unions is absolute.
This entrenched monopolistic power of the huge mari
time unions, now concentrated in a handful of union
leaders, many of whom are not in sympathy with our
system of free enterprise, is a threat not only to Alaska
but to the whole nation. At a word these leaders can tie
up the water transportation system of the United States,
no only to enforce a demand for higher wages, but to
contravene the policies of the elected representatives of
the people and bring disaster upon the Nation in th?
event it should be threatened by an Outside power. A
stoppage of work in the maritime industry in time of
war or threatened war could bring upon us the sam~
form of slavery that has been visited upon millions ol
innocent people in Europe—and this is no idle dream!
Just because the three months of m'aritime strikes
which strangled Alaska during the latter part of 1946
are ended is no reason to hope that Alaska’s troubles in
transportation are over. The ink was hardly dry on the
new one-sided contracts before local stoppages began all
over again in controversies over who should man the
winches and tend the hatches of the ships. And long
shoremen wralked off the Northern Voyager when it
started loading in Seattle for Alaska in January because
the operators had put uniformed but unarmed guards on
duty again in an effort to cut down the pilferage of car
goes which caused losses totaling more than a hundred
thousand dollars in merchandise during the war wh« •
these guards were taken off.
Higher wages, pilfering, feather-bedding, wrork-stop
pages, slowdowns, inefficiency and just plain misman
agement on the part of the union personnel who are in
effect really operating the ships, have made operation ol
ships to Alaska so prohibitive even under the piesent
high Government-set rates, that no ships will operate
after February 28 unless a solution can be found.
The solution, of course, is to give management a hand
in running the ships. The way to do it is to apply the
anti-monopoly laws to the field of labor just as they are
applied to business and industrial monopolies. Labor in
the maritime industry, as well as in many other activi
ties, has abused its powers and special privileges. The
organized power of any group to control or dominate the
economic life of the country must be destroyed by legis
lation. The sooner Alaskans and people interested in
Alaska recognize where the trouble really lays and are
not afraid to speak out against it, the sooner Alaska will
have a chance to progress and the Nation will be re
leased from its peril.
The Issue Of Good Faith
(Rocky Mountain News)
DURING THE WAR this country extended to the
Soviet Union lend-lease aid amounting to more than
11 billion dollars.
The State Department has written four notes to Mos
cow requesting a settlement, but no replies have been
received.
Every other country with which we had a lend-lease
treaty has settled its accounts.
In 1942, we loaned the Russians 125 merchant vessels,
with the stipulation those not destroyed during the war
would be returned to us on demand. Last year, this
country told Russia that if she did not want to bey the
ships, to return them to us within 60 days. Almost a
year has passed, and Russia has neither bought the shipc
nor offered to return them.
Now, State Department officials insist, we must ship
the Soviet Union some 25 million dollars worth of lend
lease goods, on order but undelivered when the arrange
men was terminated, or violate “agreements made in
good faith.”
That is sheer nonsense.
Good faith is a two-way street. When Russia will not
even discuss a settlement on the 11-billion-dollars ac
count for, goods previously delivered, why throw good
money after bad by shipping her more goods which will
not be paid for.
We have been treating the Soviets as too-indulgent
parents often do a spoiled child. Understanding with
Russia never will be achieved by suspending all rules
to do her favors.
One Man’s Opinion By Walter kiernan
News that only one in ten college men knows what he
wants to be in later life should not be disquieting. — It
will be recalled that Mr. Truman just wanted to be ob
liging. . . . Students with a definite goal lean to adver
tising. — They seem to think there is a frontier beyond
Chiquita banana. . . . Goal or no goal, our campuses
are packed today as never before. — A few Junes from
now there won't be a sheep left in the country with a
whole skin. — But it’s hard to believe that there are
nine fellows or girls on each campus who don’t know
what they want to do later. . . . Anyway it’s good news
that Admiral Byrd dropped flags of the United Nations
on the south pole. — But I hear that the penguins imme
diately named a security council and started fighting.
THVT PRSi TY ?
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HAFMONV
RESOLUTION
ALASKA MINERS ASSOCIATION
Auociaied with
The American Mining Congress
FAIRBANKS, ALASKA
February 20, 1947
WHEREAS: Water-borne freight
rates to Alaska which before the
jvar were already unusually high
and during the war increased by a
id per cent surcharge still in ef
fect did not provide sufficient rev
enue to meet the operating ex
penses of the service furnished by
;he War Shipping Administration
m 1946; the deficit being in excess
of $4,000,000;
WHEREAS: The Maritime Com
miss.on’s authority to operate
shipping to Alaska terminates
March 1st and Congress is pres
ently considering legislation that
would continue this service either
by extending the Maritime Com
mission’s authority to operate
ooats or by returning boats to pri
vate operators;
WHEREAS: None of the iegisla
; ion now before Congress settles
problem of the rates that will
je charged after March 1st:
WHEREAS: The records in the
hearings before the Maritime Com
mission in Docket 641, and before
a sub-committee of the House of
Representatives held in Juneau, n
j August 1946, show that a very
I large proportion of the operating
deficit was due to excessive ibor
costs resulting from the monopoly
granted labor under the Wagner
Act which fosters “feather-bed
ding” provisions in the conti acts
negotiated between labor unions
, and steamship operators; general
■ slow-down tactics practiced by
J members of the various maritime
j unions which have cut the tonnage
j handled on to and off the boats
from an average of 25 tons per
hour in 1939 to less than half that
quantity in 1946; and the non-pro
ductive expenses resulting during
the shipping tie-ups and strikes,
one of which lasted for approxi
mately three months while charter
hire to the owners accumulated;
WHEREAS: In the hearings
above referred to the steam h.p
| operators have recently testified
! that no increase in freight ra'tas
would be necessay if the effic ency
of labor could be increased to pre
war standards, which could be
done if the operators could regain
the right to hire and fire; and
WHEREAS: The Alaska Miners
Association does not believe that a
solution of this problem giving a
permanent equitable rate structure
can be obtained without complete
I revision of the Wagner Act and all
i similar labor laws;
NOW. THEREFORE, BE IT RE
SOLVED: The Alaska Miners As
sociation respectfully requests the
Delegate from Alaska, the Mari
| time Commission, the appropriate
committees of Congress, and all
| others concerned, use their best
efforts to see that the underlying
cause— the Wagner Act—be either
repealed entirely or amended to
the extent necessary to provide
real collective bargaining^ preserv
ing the rights of labor and restor
ing the rights of management; and
that both sides to any contract be
equally bound legally to observe
all the provisions of such contract.
' At a meeting of the Alaska M n
ers Association held February 14.
1947, at Seattle Washington, the
above Resolution was passed unan
I imously.
NORMAN STINES,
Acting Secretary.
According to geological re
searches. the islands of Bermuda
are the peaks of a submarine
mountain range.