THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 613
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice at
Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Friday, May 31,1946
What A Dog!
(Anchorage Times)
Remember Balto? He was the lead dog of the team
that carried the serum to Nome. Years and years
ago it was, back in the ice age—or anyhow around
the time all hands were keeping cool with Coolidge.
This time the dog story from the north has a modern
medical angle, and concerns not serum but vitamin
pills. It happened on Operation Musk Ox. You
know, the joint Canadian-U.S. Army expedition to test
the endurance of man and machines above the Arctic
Circle.
Man and machines did all right, too; so did a husky
hero who seems fated to remain as anonymous as the
running mates of Balto and defeated candidates for
president. Balto’s great great grandson, he might
have been, and he didn’t carry the vitamin pills any
where. He ate them. Snooping around camp one
night, he discovered the vitamin cache. Before the
northern lights could change from red to green he
had devoured 30,000 pills, from A to Z and back again.
Inclusive.
The expedition’s medicine men huddled around the
circle and waited expectantly to see what would hap
pen to man’s best friend, filled with locked-in sun
shine and energy. It would be helpful to the health
industry, no doubt, to report that the subject exploded
into action, that he did 40 miles instead of 10 or 20
on the trail next day, that single-handed he pulled
a snowmobile on the last leg of a trek to Fort Nelson
or that he faced a musk-ox single-handed and slapped
him down.
Alas, he didn’t. Stoked with 30,000 nutritious
nuggets, 30,000 energizing, pulsating pills, Balto’s heir
did nothing he hadn’t done the day before. With flag
rant disregard of all transcribed commercials, this
nameless hero flopped. Can radio and science ever
forgive him?
MORE URANIUM THAN GOLD
(New York Times)
PLANS CALLING FOR government ownership of
uranium supplies and strict regulation of traffic in
uranium presuppose that the deposits in the Katanga
district of Africa, Canada, Colorado and other places
are the only sources. The Atomic Scientists of Chica
go have their doubts, which are expressed in the bulle
tin that they issue.
Granite contains some uranium—as much as an
ounce to the ton of rock. Even the ocean contains
some. There is a thousand times more uranium than
gold in the earth's crust and more than cadmium, bis
muth, silver, mercury or iodine.
Until the atomic bomb was developed uranium was
strictly a by-product of mining carried on in Africa
and Canada. The deposits of Joachimsthal in Czech
oslovakia and of Colorado never paid for that reason.
All this has been changed by the advent of atomic en
ergy.
There is no need to worry about the exhaustion of
known uranium deposits, since uranium is to be found
everywhere. Moreover, a power bent on producing
atomic bombs and denied access to the deposits in Af
rica, Canada and the United States will simply turn
to its own rocks. Costs mean nothing to a war lord.
The Atomic Physicists of Chicago point out that
DOWN TO fARTH *
ores are commonly mined which contain only one-fifth
of an ounce of gold per ton of rock. There are vast
quantities of rock which contain from one-fifth to one
ounce of uranium per ton. “If society decides that
uranium is to be as valuable os gold, then practically
unlimited quantities of uranium are available for use
in supplying atomic energy.” The carnotite depos
its of Colorado may yet become highly profitable.
There are undeniable difficulties in exploiting rocks
for the little uranium they contain. To obtain one
ton of uranium it would be necessary to quarry at
least 40,000 and possibly 250,000 tons. So huge an
enterprise could hardly be concealed.
Much heavy machinery, an army of workers, im
mense amounts of explosives and chemicals, extensive
transportation facilities would be needed.
ROBOT PLANES FOR PRIVATE FLYERS?
PUSH-BUTTON FLYING, the new completely auto
matic flight controller, is not practical for use in com
mercial and private aircraft at present, and the Air
Technical Service Command engineers who designed
the instrument say much time and research will be re
quired to make it useful for anything but large mili
tary planes.
The new flight controller, designed for flying under
all weather conditions, is reported actually to take-off,
fly and land a plane at a predetermined destination
by merely pushing buttons to start the operation and
designate where it is to go.
According to the ATSC flight experts at Wright
Field who designed the automatic flight controller,
the device is too bulky in its present stage of develop
ment to be used for anything but military or experi
mental purposes. They expect research and invention
to make it more compact in time, but they will hazard
no guess as to how long will be required to make the
flight controller practical for commercial or private
flying. —Science Service.
lr GEORGE SBDOOVf
N*l4mt mi Nardlrvf ColUg*
S«oicy. Arkansas
-_1 L_.I
_ i
Good Strategy
Congressman Hatton Sumners,
in my opinion one of America’s
greatest living statesmen, has an
nounced his purpose to retire at
■ —
the end of the 79th congress. This
| news first appeared as a dark
cloud because men like him are
sorely needed today, but in Wash
ington last month I was shown
the silver lining. Rep. Summers is
"retiring” to a more strategic
theatre of war.
The people of America have ;i
danger that is common t > them
c.ll and a common duty to defend
themselves against it. This na
tion’s hopes for a bright future de
h
pends on a few facts being seen
by a great many people at once.
Americans can be depended upon
for action at any time the truth is
not hidden from them or distort
ed beyond recognition. Mr. Sum
ners will soon start talking
straight to them.
Powerful Truth*
•i
"I have watched what my own
generation . . . has been doing to
the greatest system of democratic
government ever evolved through
the processes of the ages.” said
the veteran lawmaker. “By ignor
ing principles and the lessons of
history, accepting for our guid
ance the theories of men and pol
itical expedience, we have made
dependents of our citizens and
vassals of our states.
"By concentration of power and
drafts on the Federal Treasury
we now have a bewildered gov
ernmental agglomeration impos
sible of democratic control. Waste
ful and inefficient, by nature it is
the instrumentality of favoritism,
oppression and corruption. It is
the destroyer of self-reliance, self
respect and self-governing ability
without which no people can reA
main free.”
But There's Hope
A public awakening will save
this country from any form of
tyranny. Mr. Sumners does not
doubt this. He said, “Washington
is as sensitive to the changi
currents of public opinion as a
barometer is to record changes in
the weather.” If Acts of Congress
fail to reflect public sentiment, it
is because such sentiment is itself
confused or indistinct to the
majority.
Mr. Sumners is taking to the *
lecture platform. I wish him as
wide a hearing as his profound ex
perience deserves. Popular educa
tion is the right place to start
winning for America a future of
freedom. This man has seen Con
gress sweat under heat applied by
political pressure groups. He sees
the need to open a door and ad
mit a cooling draft of public senti
ment. And he can do it.
Remarkable Record *
Born in Tennessee. Hatton
Sumners turned 21 in Texas. His
congressional district (Dallas) has
kept him in Washington 34 years
by electing him to the 63rd and
all subsequent congresses. He is
a sound thinker and an eloquent
speaker. He is a nationally recog
nized authority on Constitutional
Law. He is chairman of the House
Judiciary Committee and has been ^
for a long time.
In a brief and eloquent word
l*i«ture of official Washington,
the retiring crusader for decen
tralization of power said of Con
gress: “The political backing of a
well organized minority is con
sistent and dependable whereas
the backing of an unorganized ^
majority is fickle.” That’s clear.
An enlightened public opinion
must supplant loud and selfish
minorities as guiding stars of
Congress.