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 postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Friday, September 1,1950
THE PANAMA CANAL TOLL DISPUTE
(By Clarke eBach)
President Truman decided back in March 1948 that
there ought to be a little hike in the toll rates for the
Panama Canal.
Canal Zone expenses had gone up a lot since the last
toll rate rise in 1938.
Toll rates in the privately operated Suez Canal have
been raised from 28 Egyptian piastres in 1939 to 39 pias
tres—The President announced that on Oct. 1, 1948, the
rate for the Panama Canal would rise from 90 cents to
$1 per ton for laden ships.
But the rate rise never has gone into effect. It has be
come involved in one of the stormiest controversies now
raging in the capital—involving such issues as the
building of a new canal and reorganization of the canal’s
administrative and operating set-up.
At the suggestion of Congress, the President has re-!
peatedly postponed the effective date of the rise while1
Congress studies the issues. Now it is set for April 1,
1951. Shipping interests protested to Congress when the
raise was first announced. They said ship operators
were barely able to make both ends meet and some
were losing money. Besides, they were already being
charged too much in tolls, they contended, because in
setting toll rates the government made them pay for
items which should be charged to national defense.
The House Merchant Marine Committee was instruct
ed to make an investigation. It recommended that the
whole theory of Panama Canal tools be examined. The
current practice is to charge tolls which will defray the
costs of operating and maintaining the canal and Canal
Zone facilities, besides giving the government a 3 per
cent return on its investment. .
But nobody knows the true operating expenses of the!
canal, the investigators pointed out, because there is no1
business accounting system. The Hoover Commission
asked a reorganization of canal administration to simpli
fy accounting.
Tt the suggestion of the House committee, the Presi
dent had the Budget Bureau make a study, It recom
mended a reorganization, substantially along the lines
of the Hoover Commission plan. A bill is now in Con-;
gress. Here are some of the arguments brought out in
hearings on the bill:
Shipping men contend that half the interest charges
should be paid as national defense. The interest charges,
about $15,000,000 a year, account for 75 cents of the 90
cent toll.
Cross-continent railroad men, on the other hand, say
that no such allowance should be made for national de
fense, that it would amount to a subsidy for shipping.
The subsidy, they add, would go to foreign vessels as
much as American ones. Treaties require equal toll rates.
A new canal also is involved. Will toll raes be based
on interest charges on that vast new capital outlay?
If so, the rise might be fantastic. A government study
in 1945 recommended the construction of a sea-level
canal, primarly for defense purposes. It estimated the
cost at $2,482,000,000. Since then many prominent en
gineers have questioned the advisability of such a canal
and have said the cost might be as high as $20 billion.
At present U. S. government ships use the canal toll
free. The reorganization bill provides that they shall
henceforth pay tolls or that the canal shall otherwise be
reimbursed.
This is a step in the right direction, say the shipping
men, but they feel that under the plan the government
wouldn’t be paying its full share for national defense.
Anybody who finds in religion nothing but discus
sion, never commends it to anybody.
—Rev. Harry E. Fosdick
Korean Situation
At A Glance - - -
|
J
(Continued from Page One)
on, fighting doggedly for inches of
ground.
To their northwest, nine miles
away, the Red drive bogged down
at Kigye. The defenders still held
high ground south of the cap
tured city, where the South Kore
an capital division weathered a
thunderous artillery assault. A
Red breakthrough there would
put the Reds on approaches to
Taegu, 38 miles southwest of Po
hang. Taegu, main U. N. forward
base, is a prime Red goal.
North of Taegu in the Uihung
sector, the South Korean 8th Di
vision gave up onyl a mile to ^
heavy Red attack. This was in the
area sout hof Uihung, 18 miles
above Taegu, where the Reds are
believed to have massed 40,000
irocps.
Between Uihung and Waegwan,
12 miles northwest of Taegu, the
Reds are said to have massed five
divisions in all. In the Waegwan
sector, U. S. First Cavalry Divi
sion troops stormed again at a hill
position, but stalled half way up
the steep incline.
United Nations strength was
building slowly. There now are
1,500 fighting Britons in Korea.
Today Australian infantrym e n
flew into Japan enroute to battle
as the first contingent of an Aus
tralian expeditionary force. Addi
tional expeditionary forces are
arming in the Philippines and
Thailand (Siam) and others have
beer, promised by France and Bel-1
gium.
B-29’s kept up their punishing
assault on Red supplies. A fleet of
more than 90 of the air giants!
spewed more than 800 tons of
bombs on strategic targets in
North Korea—600 tons of the load
on industrial targets at Chinnampo,
the port of the Reds’ capital, Pyong
yang. Both cities were hit by car- J
rier raids yesterday. Night strikes
were made by B-29 superforts, B-26;
light bombers and fighter planes at i
Seoul, fallen capital of South Ko-!
rea. All bridges across the Han
River at Seoul were made impass
able, the air force said.
The Chinese communists accused
i
the U. S. air force again today of
violating China’s borders. The U. S.
says it has instructed its fliers to
avoid the Manchurian frontier
carefully. The New China News
agency, official Red China outlei,
broadcast a charge that U. S.
fighter planes Tuesday killed five
persons and wounded five others
on Chinese territory. A similar
complaint was registered with the
U. N. Sunday, and was heatedly
denied by the U. S.
Friday, September 1, 1950
U. S. 25th infantry division
doughboys counterattacked today
into the teeth of a communist
southwest front offensive aimed
at throwing the United Nations
out of South Korea, and smashed
the attackers back after an initial
American retreat.
But the U. S. 2nd Division,
rocked by an armored and infan
try attack on the 25th’s right
flank, abandoned Yongsan. only!
21 miles from the highway which'
links Taegu, main U. N. forward
base, with Pusan, the Allied last
ditch supply port.
The 25th*s Doughboys recap- j
tured strategic Haman, which fell;
in the first hours of the commun-!
ist attack. It is 35 miles west of |
Pusan. This temporarily blunted;
the Red drive on the extreme!
southern front.
The Reds, under orders to cap
ture Masan within three days,!
jumped off under a heavy mortar
barrage and seized Haman before j
the American counterattack threw'
them out of the town. Haman is!
eight miles west of Masan, major*
Red objective guarding the coastal
route to Pusan.
A mass Allied air attack of al
i
most saturation proportions had
slowed the initial Red drive on the i
southern flank, but had failed to(
stop it. Air observers said the
planes and U. S. big guns took a
huge toll of North Koreans.
The whole attack along a blaz
ing 55-mile front was described by
one American staff officer with
the 25th Division as “their big ef
fort—and I think it is their last
one.” But most of the American
lines were holding. i
The Reds, however, drove a
strong wedge betwee nthe U. S.'
25th and the U. S. 2nd on the
25th’s right flank, driving the 2nd|
back into an 8 Vz mile retreat. Yong
san was in flames as American
convoys moved out of the town.
This area is 16 miles northeast of
Haman.
Some 50,000 Red troops were
committed to the southwestern
front offensive on a line extend
ing from a point only 12 miles
miles southwest of Taegu to the
extreme southern front. About
30,000 Reds were in the vanguard,
with 20,000 mere behind them in
reserve. The U. S. First Cavalry
was holding down the northern
RED HOT PEPPER
KOREAN
WAR
PAYER
phase o fthe Re dattack.
A second major Red offensive,
j signalling the final all-out general
! offensive, may burst into flame at
j any moment just north of the
present one. This would be in the
Waegwan area, 12 miles north
west of Taegu and the most direct
line to that base. In that area
much of the Red strength is be
lieved concentrated.
The crash Red Second Division
may already be in action some
where on the southwest front, and
this would indicate that the pres
ent action is the communists’
greatest bid to end the U. N. re
sistance.
Allied planes rained 1,000
pound anti-personnel bombs, 500
pounders and heavy fighter plane
fire on the attacking Reds in all
out close support of the defenders.
The full force of Allied air power
has been ordered into the big pay
off battle.
Communists bridgeheads across
the Naktong River were growing
in the same area, 23 miles south
west of Taegu, in which marines
and the 24th Division wiped out
the Red foothold two weeks ago.
At 17 points along the Naktong
River, which has formed the main
Allied defense line in the west,
the Reds struck simultaneously at
American 2nd Division defenders.
Two U. S. battaloins were cut off,
but were supplied by air and
were fighting their way back to
their lines. Reds swarmed across
the Naktong, bringing their tanks
with them.
“Bodies are stacked up by the
hundreds,” a Second Division offi
cer told (i^P) correspondent Jack
MacBeth, “but they’re still com
ing.”
The Reds were just as reckless
in the expenditure of lives on the
extreme south, where they were
storming 25th Division lines in
the teeth of severe aerial punish
ment. Headquarters said this at
tack alone cost them 1,000 killed.
They were reported to have lost at
least six tanks on this sector.
Allied air power jolted the com
munists but could not stop their
advance. A mass Allied air raid
was thrown against them on a
four-mile front at Haman. It
blanketed the area 18 miles deep
with jellied gasoline firebombs
and machine gun bullets. B-26
bombers, navy Corsair fighters
and air force jet fighters rained
explosives on the lines of the Ko
rean Sixth and Seventh Divisions
in a pattern attack which slowed
but failed to stop the Red drive
into Haman.
Gen. MacArthur’s headquarters
said the assault was expected and
officers expressed confidence the
Reds would be held. Brig, Gen. J.
George Barth, 25th Division ar
tillery commander, said “they
couldn’t have hit us at a better
time,” and added, “we were really
ready for them.” Another officer
said, “We’ve got them in the open
now.”
The entire might of the U. S.
7 th Fleet carrier planes was or
dered into the battle, to join with
American and Australian land
based fighters in support of
ground forces. An American plane
was shot down by a Russian-made
Yak fighter, the first reported en
emy plane in front action for
dropped into battle zones to pick
many days. American helicopters
up wounded where they fell.
The Kougarok Railroad is closed
from Iron Creek to Bunker Hill
until further notice, according to
John Hudert, District Engineer.
Repairs are now being made on
that part of the road, which due to
the rains had become dangerous
to travel.