THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME. ALASKA
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
W. A. Boucher .Owner-Publisher
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffict
a: Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Monday, March 20, 1950
LOVELY PET-BUT THE NEIGHBORS OBJECTED
ATTLEE
L
--—:
j FURTHER 1
I NATIOHM-IZATION I
As n
WHY SOME ECONOMISTS WORRY
Some of the nation’s economists are worrying be
cause the consumer debt total has reached an all-time
high and will probably pass beyond the $17,000,000,000
mark by the end of the year.
Somewhat offsetting this information is the news,
contained in a Federal Reserve bulletin, that personal
savings in 1948 were $12,000,000,000 and that the first
half of this year showed that people were saving money
at the rate of $16,000,000,000 a year.
An additional reassuring fact comes from the Federal
Reserve Board, which estimates personal income in
1948 at around $212,000,000,000. Viewed in relation to
this income, the debt of consumers is less proportionate
ly htna in 1939, when it was eleven per cent of personal
income.
Issuing a warning, however, is Marnner S. Eccles,
members of the Federal Reserve Board, who calls at
tention to the “excessively rapid growth in consumer
credit” and terms it an inflationary factor. He points
out that it exists along an increase in state and munici
pal debt, at $5,000,000,000-Federal deficit, the approach
ing refund to veterans insurance which will amount to,
$2,800,000,000 and the price-sustaining farm support
policy.
Some observers point out that the increase in the
number of workers who are protected by pensions upon 1
retirement naturally leads them to buy higher-priced
products on the installment plan, since they have less
reason to save “for a rainy day.”
* i
COMPULSORY RETIREMENT MAY BE WRONG
Some years ago, when society began to worry about
the fate of worn-out workers, the theory was advanced,
and somewhat widely acepted, that old-age pensions
would be the solution of this social problem.
Now, with the old-age security and a steady extension
of industrial pension plans, the sociologists are not quite
sure that the desires of all people can be taken care of
by an old-age pension.
There are many reports of workers, reaching the,
sixty-five-year-old retirement age, who complain bit
terly about the assumption that they are unfit to work.
It seems that there are people who desire to continue |
to work. Many men and women, facing difficulty in
finding employment because of their age, insist that,
business and industry make a serious mistake in stress- \
News of the World
At A Glance - - -
(Continued from Page One)
get nearly $500,000,000 in military
aid. The lower house had approv
ed the measure earlier, over com
munist opposiiton.
In New Delhi, India’s Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said
comparative quiet now reigns in
Bengal, where thousands have
been killed in Moslem-Hindu riots
recently. Nehru said mass migra
tion of minorities between east
and west Bengal is now proceed
ing without hindrance.
Monday. March 20, 1950
Communist officials in Shang
hai refuse to evacuate more than
1,600 foreign nationals from that
Red-held city, J. J. Berryman,
Hong Kong manager of the Amer
ican President Lines said today.
Berryman said he had talked
with officials in A. P. L.’s Shang
hai branch. He said Red officials
had refused entry of two Ameri
can vessels en route to Japan
from Shanghai. The ships were to
transport evacuees, incl u d i n g
some 300 Americans, through
Shanghai harbor waters which
the Nationalists say they have
mined.
America's billion-dollar arms
aid program to bolster Western
Europe’s defense rolls into high
gear today when the first batch of
about 75 U. S. B-29’s roars off for
Pritain.
The fcur-engineci planes are
the first American arms to be
handed over to the British under
the arms program approved by
Congress last October. They also
will be the first to reach their
European destination
Forty-eight Hellcat fighters and
Helldiver bombers, en route by
beat to Bizerte, French naval base
in \oith Africa, actually are the
first .<merican weapons given .o
an Atlantic pact nation. They are
not expected to arrive for some
time, however.
Meanwhile, the state depart
ment’s top brass turned its atten
tion to the situation in the Far
East.
Diplomatic reports have con
vinced these officials that China’s
Communist rulers; are running in-1
to trouble trying to consolidate j
their hold on the country. As a re
sult, it is believed any Chinese
Communist action to spread con
trol into Southeast Asia will be <
slowed down if not indefinitelyi
delayed.
In embattled Saigon, commun-;
ist-led Indo-Chinese rioters fought i
police for four hours yesterday int
protest against American backing
for Vietnam’s new pro-French
government.
In Belgius. the move against
King Leopold’s return which caus
ed the fall of Premier Gaston Ey
sken’s government Saturday, con-!
tinued to grow. Dock and ship-1
yard workers at the great port of
Antwerp quit work today to back
up the Socialist fight against Leo- j
pold’s return. Eysken’s began ne
gotiations for a new coalition to
call a joint session of Parliament'
to vote Leopold’s return from ex
ile.
Leopold’s chief opponents, for
mer Paul-Henri Spaak’s Social-;
ists, announced yesterday they
would call waves of st;rikes until
Charlie Blatchford
And Son Believed
Lost At Golovin
-Continued from Patre one>
floe and cruised for two hours
with no signs of the boat or hunt
ers. They returned to Golovin for
refueling and searched for another
two hours.
Major Hazelbey of Marks Air
Force Base on being contacted by
Capt. McAllister of CAP sent a
plane out Saturday to join the
search but they also returned
without having seen any signs of
the missing men.
Major Bronson also searched on
Saturday with Sammy Tucker as
observer without success.
The wind at the time of the dis
appearance was reported offshore
at about forty miles an hour and
it is assumed that the boat swamp
ed by the rough water
Charlie Blatchford is the father
of 17 children, all of whom have
been raised in Golovin where his
wife and six younger children are
left. Two of the boys served in the
army during the war.
Tragedy struck the family sev
eral years ago when two of the
smaller boys were drowned at
Golovin while out coasting.
Last year an older son, who had
served in the army during the
war, was found dead in the City
Jail. The large family included
two sets of twins. The son who ac
companied his father on this trip
was reported to be about twenty
years old.
FINE ENTERTAINMENT AT
GYM TUESDAY NIGHT
A1 Kluber and Max Cooper, top
; entertainers of the Territory, who
have become well known through
! their programs at the South Seas
j Club in Anchorage and the Ren
dezvous in Fairbanks for the past
three years, are to be featured to
morrow evening at the Nome
•High School Gym through the
combined efforts of the Chamber
of Commerce, the Arctic Club and
i the Civil Air Patrol.
Those who have seen them per
' form are most enthusiastis about
the show, and state that there is
never a dull minute during the
floor show in which the versatile
actors are comedians, expert mu
sicians, singers, with an untiring
variety of acts.
In addition to the flow show it
is planned to have dancing, ac
cording to President A. Saario of
the Chamber of Commerce.
Pianist for the show will be
Jack Estes who will perform for
the dance music as well as the in
I
strumental numbers which we un- J
derstand include drums, guitar
and bow fiddle.
The floor show is scheduled for
9:00 p.m. Tickets for admission
are available at several business
houses.
Leopold abdicates in favor of his
son, 19-year-old Prince Baudouin.
In Milan, thousands of commun
ist-led Italian workers quit work
today and packed the city’s main
square in a protest demonstration
against strict new government
measures to keep order in the
country. Union leaders in both Mi
lan and genoa were reported con
sidering a general strike call as a
further protest.
ing age in connection with employment.
These unwonted workers denounce the “prejudice
against age” and assert that older employees, through
the benefit of past experience, can be productive and
profitable. They intimate that age and experience are
assets which often offset the pep, enthusiasm and exub
erance of youth.
I Sea Otters To Be
'Transplanted
Alaska Coast
I -
(Part I>
WASHINGTON — The Govern
ment plans to sponsor some new
colonies in Alaska—colonies of
sea otters, that is. The U. S. Fish
and Wildlife Service announced
; recently that its 40 years of sea
otter protection have paid off to
the extent that more than 8,000 of
the animals now live along the
Alaskan and Aleutian Islands
; coast. So many, in fact, that it is
now feasible to transplant small
colonies of them to other areas,
where sea otters have not been
seen since the scourge of Russian
and American fur-traders that all
but wiped them out by the late
1860’s.
Fish and wildlife service refuge
workers plan to capture small
numbers of sea otters at such
places as Amchitka Island in the
Aleutians (where the largest num
ber of otters occur) and start new
colonies along the islands and
coasts of Alaska. Some day the
Government plans to harvest a
percentage of the sea otters for
their pelts. That harvest should
eventually result in a several hun
dred thousand dollar a year busi
ness.
Sea otters were once abundant
along the Pacific coast, from
southern California to northern
Alaska, and were the objects oi
intense hunting during the Rus
sian occupation of Alaska. At the
i time the United States acquiree
Alaska in 1868, these valuabh
fur-bearing animals had been re
duced to the point of commer
cial extinction.
After the United States pur
chased Alaska, the killing of th
few remaining set otters—hiddei
in little pockets along the coast
was greatly curtailed by regula
tions prescribed by the secretar
of the treasury. These regulation
continued until 1910, after whic
time the killing of sea otters ha
been completely outlawed. Som
people feared that the sea ottei
were doomd to extinction, but i
a few small places little groups c
sea otters lived under the watcl
ful eyes and jealous secrecy <
federal agencies.
It was the great worth of sea o
ter pelts that caused the secret
and the efforts to provide prote
tion for the animals. When tl
Russians came to Alaska for tl
express purpose of getting mar
shiploads of otter pelts, a sill
black sea otter pelt was worth i
weight in gold. Some skins we
said to have been sold for $2,5(
but the average was much less. .
any rate, the otter pelt was wor
enough to cause piracy and t
mass murder of whole tribes
native Aleuts. The early trade
from Asia enslaved many of t
native men, working them
death or killing them before sa
ing away. *
Later on, American and Engl:
trades also engaged in sea ot
raids and high-handed pira
With this background of bloo
profitable and adventurous i
otter exploitation, it is no worn
that the mere mention of sea
ters still creates an uncommon
tcrest.
(To be continued*
Pearse Walsh, operations m
ager here for Pan American
yesterday for San Francisco
official business and plans to
gone about two weeks. During
absence Jack Frost will take
place.