THE NOME' NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
• NOME, ALASKA
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Brx 618
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
E. P. BOUCHER. Managing Editor
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Wednesday. June 11, 1952
_-AND OUT?_
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OF
inherent
POWERS
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AN ATLANTIC SPEED QUEEN
The greatest commercial vessel built in American
shipyards, the “United States,” will try to crack the
Queen Mary’s speed record across the Atlantic this
summer. The Queen Mary’s present record is an aver
age speed of 31.69 knots. ,
The United States, recently tested off the Virginia
coast, should be able to better this record, though her
ultimate speed potential is a highly guarded secret.
Aside from her speed, the United States is re
portedly the most modern passenger vessel afloat. She
is fireproof, having specially-treated upholstery and
paint and other decorating firsts.
It has been quite a number of years since a ship
flying the United States flag has held the Atlantic
speed-crossing record.
OUR CRUMBLING HIGHWAYS
The highways of the nation are being worn out
faster than they are being rebuilt. According to A. C.
Clark, deputy commissioner for the Federal Bureua of
Public Roads, two-thirds of the more than 600 miles of
federal-aid highways are “below tolerable standards
of adequacy.
It has been estimated that it would cost about $32
billion to make our crumbling highway system ade
quate to meet the needs of the 52 million vehicles in
the nation.
Motor vehicles travel about 2xh times as far now
as they did in 1936. Not only are there more miles
being traveled, but it is also true that the trucks on
the highway today are larger and weigh more than
they did a few years ago. And all this adds up to more
wear and tear on the roads.
The highway system that has been built up in this
nation is a result of a partnership between the federal
government and the state and local governments. Over
a period of about 30 years, the federal government has
contributed about 14 percent of the total cost of high
way construction, but the states have maintained them.
The Automotive Safety Foundation has estimated
that keeping up our highways will cost $5 billion a
year. Spending this much money on our highways each
year must be considered in the light of our other needs
as a nation.
Committe Plans Shipping
Strike Relief for Alaska
(Continued from Page One)
Chamber's Alaska division, and
Dr. Donald H. MacKenzie, chair
man of the Chamber's labor man
agement division.
The function of this committee
is definitely not to become in
volved in labor differences or to
support either shipping companies
or unions. The immediate objec
tive is to get ships moving to and
from Alaska, pending settlement
of P.M.A. and S.'U.P. negotiations.
Long - range objectives include
getting policy adopted to insure
! uninterrupted service to Alaska.
This contemplates an agreement
under which there would be no
Alaskan shipping tieup due to any
work stoppage on the west coast.
The feeling is that the companies,
in turn, must agree to make a
retroactive settlement on agree
ment with the unions concerned.
The committee is fully con
scious of vital defense factors in
volved and has extended to Gov
ernor Gruening its pledge of co
operation in this emergency.
Orchestra at the
QUIANNA CLUB
Every Night from 10 to 1 a.m.
ANNOUNCEMENT j
Eugene Pugh of the Public,
Health Department will be in the
Nome office on June 16th and
remain until June 20, after which
he will depart for McGrath and
Bethel.
CLEANUP NOTICE
June 16 to 30 has been desig
nated by the Nome Common
Council as CLEANUP TIME.
Property owners are requested
to clean their premises during this
period and place debris, which
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must be sacked up or in cartons,
near the sidewalk where it can be
picked up by City truck.
The City WILL NOT handle
debris that is in 50 or 100 gallon
drums.
The Health Committee of the
City Council, the Chief of Police
and other City officials will make
a survey of the town from time
to time and report those who fail
to cooperate in this attempt to
make the town a cleaner place to
live in and to improve sanitary
conditions, guarding to some ex
tent, against disease.
Health Committee
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Nome Common Council
By W. C. Mclver,
72 Chairman
NOTICE
Ail cabs entering U.S.S.R. &
M. Co. camps will remain on main
road or right-of-way. Entry on
camp premises will be considered
trespass and suitable action taken.
C. S. Glavinovich,
71 Manager
WANT ADS
GIRL WANTED at MMM Hospital
FOUND — Three keys in case.
Inquire at Nugget. tf
_#_ ,
FOR SALE—Baby bed, like new.
Call Main 42. 71
FOR SALE — IVz h.p. outboard
motor, $100. Call Blk. 175. 71
LOST— Black, zippered billfold.
Name of Richard Escholt, Sr.
Please return to Nugget.
NOME GARAGE now open, im
mediate ond efficient service.
Complete automotive repairs,
Front and Mettler Way. Expert
mechanics to do ycrur work.
Nome — The Real Alaska Showing Up
Beneath Defense - Construction Boom
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By LOUIS R. HUBER, Special Nugget Correspondent
“Want it combed wet, or dry?”
I told the Anchorage barber he might put a few
drops of oil on my hair, to make it lie down. That was
my error. The charge, when I paid for the haircut,
was not merely the $2.50 as the wall placard said. It
was $3.25.
The extra 75 cents was for rub-<
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bing a dab of oil on!
“Let’s get it while it’s here,” is
the psychology gripping Fair
banks, Anchorage and Kodiak—
the three main cities in Alaska’s
“defense belt.”
Many people in these places de
plore this all-pervading aim. Even
those who practice it will agree
that when the billion dollars’
worth of Alaskan defense con
struction is finished, five or six
years hence, there is likely to be
a terrific letdown.
“But brother, you won’t see me
around here then,” they say.
Nome, strangely enough, is not
like that. This historic town be
neath the northern lights has only
a trickle of defense construction
to swell its economy. Nome and
the country surrounding it are left
to their own devices — the vast
natural resources of this appar
ently bleak region.
. To get at these resources the
people of Nome have adopted a
reasonable attitude toward each
other — and the outsider who
visits them. I paid only $1 to get
in from the airport at Nome; not
the $2.50 charged each passenger
of a full taxi at Fairbanks.
A substantial meal in Nome
costs $1.50 to $2.50 — not $3.50 to
$6 as in Anchorage or Fairbanks.
A plate of hotcakes in Nome costs
45 cents — not 60 as in the other
two cities. Hotel rooms are $4 in
Nome, and you can find one; in
Anchorage and Fairbanks they are
$6.50—when you can find them.
Arriving at Nome, the traveler
feels the steadier vibration of the
region’s basic resources at work.
Like Ignace Kowalski and Oscar
Margraf making ready to go out,
as soon as the snow has melted,
to their mining claim 35 miles
north of here.
They have a deposit of native
bismuth staked out. The federal
government will buy at $2.25 a
pound all they can produce.
May Bale, proprietor of the Po- j
laris Hotel, isn’t in town because
she has skied out to the scheelite
deposit she and Hugo Lindfors
have staked out. Scheelite is tung
sten ore, and tungsten sells for
$3.25 a pound these days.
Both Nome and Kotzebue, 180
miles to the north, are preparing
for the coming tourist season. At
Kotzebue, Louis Rotman, a trader
has just finished an 18-room apart
ment building, completely mod
ern, to accommodate tourists stop
ping there overnight.
Today Nome is a woebegone
village in comparison with towns
in the States. Front Street, Nome’s
“main drag,’* is graced at one end
by the trim white two-story Bank
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of Nome and at the other by the
sprawling warehouses of the Lo
men Commercial Company.
In between is a thousand yards
of variegated business architec
ture reminiscent of a Western
town of the 1880s. Right in the
center of this business district is
a burned-out shell of a building—
its ruins still standing although
the fire occurred two years ago.
Lounging in front of “The Glue
Pot,” a confectionery and soda
fountain, are half a dozen Eski
mos. Other Eskimos are out on the
ice of Bering Sea, hunting seal
arid oogruk (extra-large seals),
and fishing through the ice.
That is how most of the Eski
mos of Nome make their living,
except for occasional summer em
ployment. They are the north
land’s poor — still living closer to
the Stone Age than to modem
civilization.
There are 12,000 Eskimos in
western Alaska, an area equiva
lent to five average-size states.
There are only about 2,000 white
people. In Nome, the Eskimos
make up three - fourths of the
town’s 1,900 population.
It asked Tony Polet, a promi
nent merchant, why the Eskimos
have never staked mining claims
in this richly-mineralized area.
“They’re not interested,” he
said. “And perhaps you can’t
blame them. They’ve watched
nine out of ten white men go
broke doing it.”
But the tin mine at Lost River
employed 40 Eskimos all winter
long, and scores of them have ap
plied for jobs there. With game
disappearing, the more thought
ful Eskimos are turning to the
white man’s ways with a will.
The economic base, the steady
job and the pay well spent, should
be the bridge that will carry them
across from their -semi-nomadic
culture into modern civilization.
Don’t neglect your in
come tax payments just
because the mink coat
season is over. The
babes around Washing
ton still like the beaches.
CALL
MUNZ
AIRWAYS
for
Dependable
Air Transportation
Main 109
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ARCTIC
SANITARY SERVICE
Phone RED 181
CONTACT HERMAN HOOP
OR E. L. MULCH FOR RATES