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.
THE CAN THAT CAN’!
^ • r»*V rv *
AMERICAN
FARMER
k fRUVT |r|8L
^E6ETAB|.k4
^T CROP E |
U.S. AVERAGE: $1,678 A YEAR
The Commerce Department has reported that the
average income in the United States reached a $1,678
annual level in May. That is, if the rate of personal
income continues all year at the May level, the aver
age income will be $1,678 a year.
The Commerce Department also reported that the
May rate of personal income was only $100,000 short
of the all-time record for one month. With defense
spending on the increase, and wage increases now tak
ing effect, an all-time record average earnings is likely
to occur in the current year.
Another factor which increased earnings in the
United States was a pay raise granted armed services
personnel and this—combined with another distribu
tion of G.I. life insurance dividends—accounted for
some of he April to May increase.
The annual rate of wages and salaries, which ac
count for two - thirds of total personal income, rose
$8,000,000,000 from May 1951, to May 1952. If total
earnings continue at the May level, or above, the 1951
personal income record of $254,000,000,000 will be
surpassed this year.
C.I.O. ON RECESSION
The Congress of Industrial Organizations said re
cently that an economic recession was probable next
year or in 1954. The CIO based its prediction on the
fact that defense spending will decrease from its peak
late this year.
If normal consumer buying does not fill the gap
by a decrease in defense spending, a recession period
is likely, the organization believes. The C.I.O. also
charges that there is no sign that business will change
its pricing policies, reducing its prices and lowering
its net profits to bolster consumer buying power.
The C.I.O. is not alone in its prediction, although
its reasoning differs in detail from that of other econ
omic forecasts. Whether or not the many recession
forecasts are accurate, the average American is be
coming well aware of a recession possibility. T^iis is
a good sign. The next President is also well aware of
the danger and we can only hope that adequate plan
ning, in advance, prevents a severe depression and
limits whatever reaction there is to a mild recession.
Million dollars: A sum that may be acquired by
putting aside $122.55 out of one’s salary every week
for eighty years.
Valdez Seen As link Between
Notre And Pacific Northwest
With Construction of Nome Highway
By LOUIS R. HUBER «
Special Correspondent
For The Nome Nugget
VALDEZ — Nome residents
have a special interest in this
farthest-north year-round ice-free
seaport of North America. Some
day—soon, let us hope—it will be
their year-round port.
When the highway to Nome is
constructed, trucks that roll over
highways in the States will come
north via the Inside Passage and
the Gulf of Alaska, on barges,
and six days later will be speed
ing northward and westward to
Seward Peninsula.
This will mean that Nome,
Teller, and very possibly Wales
and Shishmaref, will be only ten
days by highway from the Pa
cific Northwest. Lost River may
find a big boost in its operations
when all this is realized.
If anybody thinks this sounds
improbable, he should come to
Valdez and consult the oldtimers
here. They didn’t think Valdez
would be what it is today. They
thought Thompson’s Pass, 30
miles inland up the Richardson
Highway, could never be kept
open in winter.
It took another Alaskan, Al
fred Ghezzi, Jr., of Nenana, to
show that trucking was just what
Valdez had been waiting for.
Ghezzi is not Alaska’s first
trucker, but he is Alaska’s best.
He began trucking the length of
the Alaska Highway as soon as it
was finished during the war. He’s
never stopped. Today his com
pany, Alaska Freight Lines, Inc.,
is the liveliest new outfit in
Alaska.
Valdez found this out three
years ago when Ghezzi, having
tried the all-land route (via Ed
monton and Great Falls) and the
Haines Cut-off route (north by
barge up the Inside Passage to
Haines, then onto the highway),
chose Valdez as the most econ
omical combination.
At that time Valdez, with the
historic Klondike gold rush for
its fondest memories, was turn
ing its face to the wall and pre
paring to become a ghost .town.
The town had experienced a
World War II flurry of activity,
but everyone here thought that
was the end.
Half the buildings in town were
haunted already, and there was
an acute shortage of ghosts for
those needing haunting. All the
vacant lots were thickly grown
over with wild celery and sour
dock, and the fragrant cottonwood
trees were worried lest they be
crowded out with skunk cabbage,
also making inroads.
And then it happened.
Alaska Freight Line trucks
came in, churned the quiet gravel
streets into fine grey dust, woke
up the last of the moribund old
timers, and raised the population
from 350 to 1,500.
The ghosts took fright and beat
a hasty retreat up the highway,
some of them reportedly heading
for Nome. The last stubborn ap
parition was evicted from a
casket-like building near the dock.
He had to leave because some
one wanted to make a tavern out
of the place.
Today the building,* still look
ing like a coffin, bears a brilliant
neon sign, appropriately legend
ed: “The Village Morgue—Cock
tails.” Its inside, needless to say,
is quite different from its outside
funereal aspect.
• The great surplusage of Rousing
>
(discounting the ghosts, this time)
three years ago has turned inter
an acute shortage. Brady Village,
a government housing project,
was constructed but it has not
solved the problem.
There are several nests of
shiny trailers amongst the town’s
picturesque cottonwoods, and the
erstwhile haunted dwellings are
either being rehabilitated or torn
down gradually. I saw one hardy
individual living in a tent while
he built himself a shack along
side.
The secret to all this activity
was, of course, the imagination
exercised by Ghezzi and his asso
ciates (his company now has a
payroll of around 400). Their
eight powerful tugs and 14
streamlined, sea-going, 200 - foot,
2,000-ton barges are the key to
the trucking success.
Alaska Freight Lines is the first
company to make a go of two dis
tinct types of transportation and
make them both pay. The com
bination gives the outfit an ele
ment of versatility no other trans
portation company enjoys, too.
Presently, I understand, an
Alaska Freight Lines barge will
appear in Nome with supplies. A
tug-and-barge call is to be made
at Naknek for the military, too.
All this takes businesslike cour
age—like the time Ghezzi and his
associates wanted to keep the
Richardson Highway open all
winter. In the face of fierce warn
ings that they’d better not try
(Old Man Winter would get them
if they didn’t watch out), they
bought their own snow-removing
equipment and did it.
This all begins to sound like
the courageous days of ’98 all over
again. Maybe it’s just that cour
age is returning to the northland.
The highway is now kept open
the year around by the Alaska
Road Commission, which is busy
paving Richardson Highway in
the sumer. The 14 miles from
Valdez through the historic and
wildly - beautiful Keystone Can
yon have just been completed
with purringly - smooth blacktop
(said to be one of the most prac
tical forms of paving in cold
country).
It is probable blacktop will get
beyond Thompson’s Pass — 30
miles inland—before winter stops
the work. A considerable stretch
of the Richardson has already
been blacktopped, of course, on
the Fairbanks end.
If all this doesn’t sound like
something tha ought to be hap
pening around Nome, too, then
this writer doesn’t know much
about Alaska.
Judge Cc;rer Takes Oath
ANCHORAGE—J. Earl Cooper
was sworn in as District Judge
for the Second Division at Nome
shortly before noon on Monday,
July 28.
Third Division Judge Anthony
J. Dimond administered the oath
« •
of office in his chambers at an
informal ceremony before a small
gathering of Justice Department
officials and members of the staff
of the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Judge Cooper said that he
plans to leave for Nome within a
week to assume his new duties.
He will start immediately to
work on 25 civil and 14 criminal
cases that have accumulated on
the court docket since the end of
last year when Joseph Kehoe re
signed the position to become
Secretary of Alaska.
Judge Cooper will have at least
one assistant on his judicial staff
—a person who would act both as
private secretary and court re
porter. Applications for the posi
tion are now open and interested
individuals are asked to contact
Judge Cooper in the U.S. Attor
ney’s office in Anchorage.
Price of Lean Pork
Going Up 1 to 8 Cents
During Summer Months
WASHINGTON, (/P) — Hams,
chops, and other lean pork cuts
popular during the summer
months are going up from one to
eight cents a pound.
The Office of Price Stabiliza
tion anounced Monday that ceil
ing prices on lean cuts — those
accounting for about 40 to 45 per
cent of pork sales—are being in
creased through October. Then
they may be reduced.
These are the authorized in
creases, effective immediately:
pork shoulders, one cent a pound;
hams, bellies, Boston butts and
neckbones, three cents; pork
chops, loins and spareribs, eight
cents.
Grocer originally meant one
who sells by the gross, but now
menas a dealer in foodstuffs.
SPECIAL
OOMIAK
EXCURSIONS
See SAM MOGG c/o A. Pole!
Excursions to Sledge
Island, Cape Nome, and
around the roadstead
can be arranged for as
many as 25 persons.
SEE THE BIRD ROOKERIES
ON SLEDGE ISLAND
ARCTIC OIL DELIVERY
Phone—Shop: Black 76 — Residence: Main 52
WE CHECK YOUR TANK REGULARLY
____ _ «. \
B«n Young
THE NOME LIQUOR STORE
WE CARRY LARGE ASSORTMENT OF
FINE LIQUORS, BEER AND WINE
Out-of-Town Orders Carefully Handled