ms NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN AIJISKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
iVOL. XLVIII. No. 90 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, JULY 29, 1946 PER COPY_15c
I
NRLB Survey
Salmon Packers
Union Vote Taken
► _
• WASHINGTON, July 29, —'$»)—
The National Labor Relations
Board is engaged in a far-flung
fishing expedition—taking a col
lective bargaining vote among the
Alaska salmon canners.
Like the workers who follow
the Salmon, prepare him for the
#able and clap a red can around i
him, an NLRB staff of six agents
is visiting each big cannery as
the salmon run hits its peak.
Clad in long-handled underwear
and layers of sweaters, the board’s j
aides, some accustomed to Wash-1
ington’s sultry summers, are hop
ping around by pontoon plane to
count the ballots of approxim
ately 1,300 workers eligible to
0ate.
The canners are employed by
members of the Alaska Salmon
Industry Inc., an association, and
four independent operators.
The balloting at fifty widely
scattered canneries in the south
eastern district of Alaska, from
•Yakutat to Hidden Inlet, will be
completed some time next month.
Voting at each cannery is timed,
to coincide with peak payrolls
so the maximum number of work
ers will cast ballots. 'Thus,
starting out of Juneau early in
July , and working down to Ket
chikan, the agent’s movements are
dictated by the natural habits
of the salmon and the weather.
Elections don’t start at any can
nery until it has been in opera
tion five days.
The balloting is being managed
by Russel R. Miller, the board’s
ace vote counter who arranged
and supervised the nation-wide
coal strike vote among more than
|i 300,000 bituminous coal ' diggers
in 1945. The huge job was done
. in 22 hours.
Since the board was established
11 years ago it has conducted a
bout 30,000 elections under the
Wagner Labor Relations Act. Few
however, have presented the tus
sle with nature and weather that
the current salmon industry vote
is offering. •
Only one other ballot was com
parable. That was among the
same workers last year. It prov
ed to be inconclusive, and the
current count is, in effect, a run
off. None of the labor organtz
i USS CONSTELLATION — Newly commissioned officers In the Naval Reserve, heading
i for a three-month cruise from Newport, R. I., pass the historic frigate Constellation.
Cliff And Craig To
Climb Alaska Peak
SEATTLE, July 29, —(/P)—Cliff
Schmidke and Bob Craig, Seattle
mountaineers, left for Alaska to
join the Fritz Weissner party in
an attempt to scale precipitous
Devil’s Thumb in the Coastal
Range, near Wrangell.
Weisner’s group has failed in
one attempt this season to climb
the 10,000 foot peak, 7,000 feet of
which is sheer rock. The attack
is to start about August 2.
Around Aug. 4, the Seattle men
said, they will join Bob Mulhall
and Fred Beckley in an assault
on one of the highest unclimbed
peaks in the Bellacoola Range.
ations won a majority last year,
but since then the independent
union, Alaska Native. Brother
hood, has become a part of the
AFL Seafarers International Un
ion.
The present ballot calls for a
choice between the Seafarers Un
ion, headed by the AFL’s big
West coast maritime boss, Harry
Lundberg, and the CIO Food
Tobacco and Agricultural Work
ers. The workers may decide for
no union at all.
Britain Accepts
Proposal Unify
Occuation Zones
■■ ■ ■ - - -
WASHINGTON, July 29, — </P)—
The State Department announced
today that Britain has accepted in
“principle” this government’s pro
posal to unify occupation zones
in Germany.
The Department's announce- j
ment reiterated the hope • that
Russia and France likewise will
accept.
Despite this hope, the expecta
tion among diplomats here is that
the United States and Britain at
once will work out details for uni
fying their zones economically,
that France probably will, join
promptly and that Russia will re
fuse to cooperate.
The announcement which will
mark a step in the hardening of
the great power split in Germany
came as Secretary of State Byrnes
met with Prime Minister Atlee
and Foreign Ministers Molotov
and Bidault in the first (Jay of the
Paris Peace Conference, the State
Department said.
Illegal Spending
Of Public Funds
WASHINGTON, July 29, — (A*)—
Comptroller General Lindsay C.
Warren told Senate investigators
that “it has looked as if everybody
and his brother were out to get
the government during the lush
war years.”
Warren made this statement to
the Senate War Investigating
Committee. At the same time he
appealed for greater powers for
the General Accounting Office as
“the last bulwark for the pro
tection of taxpayers of this coun
try against unbridled and illegal
expenditures of public funds.”
Some high officials of govern
ment, he said, accepted entertain
ment, including cocktail parties,
hotel bills and even travel from
contractor’s “while at the same
time drawing travel expense and
per diem (daily allowance) from
the government.”
This practice was “the rule rath
er than the exception.”
“It got so bad in the Maritime
Commission, for instance,” War
ren said, “that I called personally
^ on Admiral Land (chairman)—
whose name was not mentioned
WASHINGTON, July 29, — (/P)—
The Senate Banking Committee
today unanimously approved Pres
ident Truman’s three nominees
for the new Price Decontrol Board.
The committee’s action sent to
the Senate for its consideration,
possibly today but more likely to
morrow, these nominations:
Roy L. Thompson, president of
the Federal Land Bank of New
Orleans, as chairman of the de
control board; Daniel W. Bell for
mer treasury undersecretary, and
George H. Mead, Dayton, Ohio,
paper company executive, as
members.
They will be paid at the rate
of $12,000 a year.
The board’s first assignment is
to decide by August 20, whether
meats, dairy products, grains, cot
I ton seed, soybeans and hundreds
of products made from them
should be placed back under price
controls at that time. If it makes
no decision, ceilings automatic
ally will be restored.
Orah Dee Clark of the local of
fice of the OPA, informs us that
she is in receipt of a telegram
from Mrs. Mildred Hermann, Al
aska Director of OPA, to the ef
fect that price and rent regula
tions are in full force.
The Alaska OPA has received
official notification to proceed with
the administration of the price
control program under the OPA
Restoration Act signed by Pres
ident Truman July 26. Under
this authority all price and rent
regulations of June 30 are in full
force and effect, except for certain
commodities specifically exempt
ed until August 21.
On Aug. 21, meat dairy products
grains, cottonseed, soybeans and
their products will revert to OPA
control unless a specially appoint
ed board orders otherwise before
that time. Poultry, eggs, petrol
eum, tobacco and their products
are permantly exempt unless this
decontrol board orders ceilings
restored after August 21.
in any of the reports— and wrote
him officially. He issued an or
der condemning such practices.”
Warren declared that legislation
liberalizing government contract
practices during the war had
greatly weakened the power of the
General Accounting Office to pre
vent extravagance or misuse of
public funds.
Warren declared, “The cost-plus
procurement is the greatest de
vice ever invented for pumping
out the treasury.”