THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME. ALASKA
Teieohone: Main 125 P* O. Box 618
$1 ;>0 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
W. A. Boucher .Owner-Publisher
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice
«t Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Monday, September 18, 1950
A 3,000,000-MAN ARMED FORCE
(By Clarke Beach)
The President’s plan to raise the armed forces’
strength to 3,000,00 men means that some critical deci
sions will have to be made soon in Congress and the
White House.
And if war should come and all-out mobilization were
necessary, both the armed forces and industry would
face a much more complex problem than they did in
1940.
The immediate problem is adding about 1,500,000
men to the armed forces. The pool of men who are regis
tered under the present draft law will not provide this
added force. Congress would have to change to law to
enable war veterans to be drafted. The President would
have to change the selective service regulations to per
mit the drafting of men with dependents and men now
deferred for occupational reasons. The armed forces
would have to lower their physical standards for induc
tees.
Here’s the picture:
The June, 1948, draft law required all men from 18
through 25 years of age to register. By last August, 10,
943,546 men had registered. But under present laws and
regulations not more than 818,601 of them are likely to
be inducted.
Maj. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, director of Selectice
Service, says the armed forces’ physical requirements
are too high. In World War II, 36 per cent of the men
examined were rejected for physical reasons, compar
ed to the present 60 per cent.
The biggest categories of unavailable men are the
2,673,320 war veterans, the 1,817,199 men who are 26
years of age and older (only men 25 and younger can be
inducted, and the 784,554 men with dependents.
Economic conditions are a lot different now from
what they were in 1940. Industrial production is at a
new peacetime high. Civilian employment is higher
than it has ever been before. Some 62,367,000 persons
are at work. Unemployment is down to 2,500,000.
The Bureau estimates the labor force can’t be increas
ed now by more than 5,600,000 persons. Yet between
1940 and 1945 the labor force was boosted to 11,100,000.
You increase the labor force by getting people to work
who have retired or never worked before—chiefly the
aged, the handicapped or women.
Women comprise the chief source for new workers.
TO CASH IT OR — NOT ?
^ H.S.T.
Mb5™
Korean Situation
At A Glance —
‘Continued from Page One)
heavy guns of cruisers and carrier
planes.
After the rapid-fire develop
ments at Inchon and the opening
of the Allied offensive in the
southeast beachhead, Rear Adm.
Arleigh A. Burke told a news con
ference:
“The Reds are in a helluva bad
way and ti is about time they re
alized it. Their best bet .is to sur
render.”
Allied forces in the U. N. beach
head, some 165 miles to the south
east, struck fiercely on the central
and southern fronts of the 125
mile defense perimeter. A thun
derous artillery barrage signaled
the kickoff. >
Lt. Gen. Walton H. Walker, U.
S. Eighth army commander, told
correspondents “It should be over
quickly”—if the forces in front
of him is all that’s left of the Red
i Korean army.
Round-the-clock operations of
i large bombers continued, with B
29's hamering railroad yards in
various battle sectors. They also
hit industrial targets in North Ko
rea.
The United States moved fur
ther toward a ready-for-war foot
i ing with plans to turn luxury lin
ers, now under construction, into
troop ships. The largest and finest
! ever to be built in this country is
1 the steamship “United States,” a
48,000 tonner, under construction
at Newport News, Va. She is ex
pected to be completed next
! spring.
Five other passenger ships are
being built in the country and
three of them, the President Jack
son, President Adams and Presi
dent Hayes, all will be completed
! as troop ships under.a faster con
struction schedule.
—
Monday, September 18, 1950
U. S. Marines drove within
three miles of Seoul today, and
liberation of the 500-year-old cap
ital seemed imminent.
The American drive from the
Inchon beachhead has smashed
ahead more than 15 miles against
resistance described as all the way
from “disorganized” to “stub
born.”
Allied forces advanced on all
fronts in Korea. Around the beach
head box in the southeast, some
of the 140,000 communists ringing
the perimeter were reported with
drawing and U. S. troops already
had one bridgehead across the
Naktong River.
U. S. Marines in the northwest
beachhead reached the Han River
I on Seoul’s outskirts. Kimpo air
field, 12 miles northwest of Seoul,
was held by battle-tested First
Marine Division troops after a
night-long battle. Maj. Gen. Ed
ward M. Almond, U. S. 10th Corps
commander, said the field is “in
! operation and can be used.”
i
A Marine prong reached the
1 east bank of the Han River north
west of Seoul. Army combat en
gineers raced toward Seoul with
equipment to throw a bridge
across the Han before the sur
prised communists can organize a
defense voiyy before the city,
whose loss to them would be a
heavy psychological blow.
The Reds captured Seoul June
28, three days after their invasion
started.
Elements of some 40,000 Allied
troops smashing inland are taking
a heavy toll of Red troops and
tanks. Behind these Americans, U.
S. Seventh Division troops rolled
ashore from the 262-ship Allied
tacsk force whic hopened the sec
ond front the end of last week.
They headed for Seoul with heavy
weapons and armor.
The Reds were pouring rein
forcements into the Seoul area
from both north and south. Navy
and Marine warplanes smashed
steadily at these columns.
Marines eight miles east of In
chon let two Red tank columns
pass their lines and then blasted
away at them. They knocked out
11 tanks, bringing their two day
bag to 16.
Gen. MacArthur visited front
I I
I
| But they won’t be able to flock into the labor market as
; they did in World War II. For one thing, so many babies
were born just after the war that mothers will have to
stay home with young children.
Another things is that so many women are already at
work. Now 32 per cent of women are working.
■■ ■ ■ ■ ■ .... —
! PEOPLE BEING SOAKED, SAYS SEN. MAYBANK
Senator Burnet Mavbank, of South Carolina, com
j plaining that some vital items are costing the armed
services three times what they cost earlier this year, de
clares that “only immediate passage ofi controls legisla
tion will end the price spiral.”
| The South Carolinian began work in July upon the
passage of a measure to halt the surge of war profiteer
ing but has encountered numerous delays. He points out
that, when prices go up unreasonably, “it’s the people”
; who get soaked.
The mounting costs of warfare make it plain as day
; that even the wealth of the United States will not be.
, able to finance successive wars unless the Congress is
; able to develop a plan to curb the greedy profiteers who
fatten their bank accounts while young men die in bat
tle. For some strange reason, business men, in too many
cases, look upon the nation’s beligerency as an oppor
tunity to get rich.
NOME POPULATION HOLDS STEADY
The Pan American Airways report for the month of
August indicates that Nome’s population is holding
steay for the winter. Local manager, Jim Walsh, stated
that passengers brought in were only 12 less than pas
sengers taken out during the month,, which is surpris
ing and encouraging with the undercurrent of uncer
tainly which is prevailing at this time.
lines, and heard from Gen. Al
mond that the Inchon invasion
was “going like a million dollars.”
Gen. MacArthur’s headquarters
said the communists had not yet
‘.recovered” sufficient equilibrium
from the surprise to organize more
than a sporadic resistance.” Al
lied strength, meanwhile, mounted
1 in the beachhead
The other jaw of the Allied nut
cracker was moving against the
I 140.000 Red troops in South Ko
era. Forty B-29’s ripped Red po
| sitions on the west side of the
Naktong River west of Taegu, ap
parently in preparation for an Al
lied push across the river.
The U. S. Second Division was
across the Naktong west of
Changyong, 24 miles southwest of
Taegu.
Fighter-bombers struck all
around the two Korean battle
fronts, hitting Red troops, tanks
and transports. Leaflets dropped
I on the Reds told them: “Surren
der or die.”
The Moscow newspaper Pravda,
commenting on the Allied inva
sion at Inchon, said it succeeded
only because the Americans used
20 times as many troops as there
were Red defenders. The dispatch
s .id the U. S. concentrated almost
all its available armed forces in
the Far East for the Inchon attack.
Applications For :
Women’s Pioneer
Home Now Open
The trustees of the Alaska Pio
neer’s Home is now accepting ap
plications for women patrons as
cording to trustee Henry Roden.
The Tower Apartment building in
Sitka has been purchased and ren
ovated to accommodate 20 to 25
women.
The last legislature provided
for the women s pioneer home
with an appropriation of $75,000
and $28,500 of this was used to
purchase the Tower building.
Although the Legislature made
no direct provision for operation
of the Pioneer Women’s Horae„
the board has decided to run it in
connection with the adjacent
Men’s Home, until the next Leg
islature takes action. Fotf the time
being, the women will take their
meals in the Men’s Home.
•‘The board plans to recommend
to the 1951 Legislature that the
present Tower Building, which is
of frame construction, be torn
down and replaced by a concrete
I structure,” Roden said.
The women applicants must be
at least 65 years old, have been
a resident in the Territory five of
the past nine years—and be wor
ihv, according to Roden.
Applications may be made to
! any of the thre trustees or to the
superintendent, Pioneers Home,
Sitka.
Serving with Roden on the*
board of trustees are Charles W*
Carter of Juneau, and J. H. Gil
Patrick, Sitka.
Rev. Robert Treat, pastor of the
Federated-Methodi st Church
writes from New York that ‘a boy
hood ambition is at last fulfilled’*
as he saw the United Nations
Building, Rockerfeller Cent e r ,
Times Square, Broadway and the
Methodist headquarters. He stated
that he took a bus excursion from
Ohio for $26.00 round trip and is
getting a wonderful trip out of it.
He states also that he plans to re
turn the end of the month via the
Alcan Highway
The Hindus believe that the
Ganges River rises from the feet
of Brahma.