THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday. Wednesday and Ft:day by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
SI.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, August 30, 1946
WORKERS AND INVESTORS
IN CURRENT DISCUSSIONS the emphasis is us
ually given to the needs of wage-earners. Little
attention is paid to the stockholder. To a large ex
tent this development results from “the habit of think
ing of large corporations as impersonal aggregations
of capital.” The fact that millions of people have
made available this capital and are the major bene
ficiaries of any profits earned is overlooked. The Na
tional City Bank has recently prepared an interesting
survey of seventy-two large industrial companies to
ascertain the number of employees and stockholders
in 1945. These companies had total assets exceeding
$27,000,000,000. They employed 2,925,000 workers
and had 4,082,000 shareholders. In other words, for
every three workers there were four shareholders.
A survey of eight railroads and public utilities having
total assets of over $17,000,000,000 showed a similar
picture.
These shareholders had an aggregate investment
equivalent to $9,300 for each employee In other
words, this substantial sum was required to provide
the tools which enable labor to produce the large
quantities of goods which makes possible the wages
and high living standards in this country. The bank
concludes its analysis with this pertinent observation
“If additional new capital is to be forthcoming,
proper recognition must be given to the rights and in
terests of the millions of people who, directly or
through savings accounts, insurance policies and trust
funds, own American corporate enterprise and provide
the tools with which it operates. These citizens and
others will be expected, as their share of the partner-;
ship with labor, to supply and risk the vast sums
needed for replacement and expansion of business
facilities in the future.”
The importance of profits cannot be overempha
cized. Only if holders of savings see an opportunity
to obtain a reward will they make their investment.
These investments in turn lead to greater productivity,
which makes possible larger wages for those already
working as well as new opportunities for those seek
ing jobs. Workers and shareholders have a common
interest in the success of their joint undertaking.
Neither group can obtain permanent gain at the ex
pense of the other. (New York Times)
I
TAXES AND SPENDING I
TAKEN BY ITSELF, THE PLEDGE made by Rep
resentative Harold Knutson of Minnesota, that!
income taxes would be cut 25 per cent in 1947 if the
people this fall elected a Republican Senate and House
of Representatives, sounds demagogic. But Knut
son’s promise was conditional. He said that taxes
could be thus reduced if the Federal budget were
slashed 50 per cent and his assumption was that only
a Republican Congress would do the slashing. ’Under
the conditions fixed—a 50 per cent reduction in Fed
eral spending—the Democrats could promise tax re
duction just as readily.
It has been held in Washington that the way to
win popularity with the voters is to be for all appro
priations and against all taxes That has always
been oversimplified. Voters are taxpayers too and
taxpayers in greater number than ever If a sharp
•eduction in Federal spending can reduce the amount
cf money that Uncle Sam takes out of the pay envel
ope, then those who get pay envelopes are likely to
favor the reduction in Federal spending. If it comes
• NOT A PIE-THROWING CONTEST
inflation
CHART
WllC
j^HW*
down to a question of who can spend the money that
John Brown earns to best advantage—Brown or Un
cle Sam—Brown sometimes thinks that he knows the
answer. It is unlikely that Federal appropriations
can soon be brought down to pre-war level. The
size of the public debt makes the payment of interest
a burden far greater than it was before the war. But
there are nevertheless innumerable opportunities to
cut Federal spending and the political party that
seems most likely to pursue those opportunities re
lentlessly is going to get a lot of votes in November.
(New York Sun)
CLEMENCY OR JUSTICE
FTER REVIEW BY A SPECIAL War Department
clemency board, the sentences of almost 20,000
soldiers convicted of serious offenses have been re
duced, former Supreme Court Justice Roberts has
reported. It is a record that speaks well for the
board and even for the department itself, indicating
that the quality of mercy is not, indeed, strained.
The record does not, however, Justice Roberts to the
contrary, speak very well for the military court-mar
tial itself.
Making his report, the Justice said that Congres
sional criticism of the court-martial system should be
based on sentences as finally fixed, not on those in
itially given, and added: “Clemency is and always
has been the capstone of the whole system of military
justice.” Wouldn’t it be better, however, to have a
system not so heavily dependent on clemency, one
in which a board in reviewing sentences would not
find, as this board has, that 85 per cent of the cases
warranted a reduction in penalty?
Reduction of sentences after calm review can cor
rect some major injustices; it cannot substitute for in
itial justice. No review board, acting after the war,
can bring back to life those soldiers who were given
the death penalty during it—and there were too many
such, acording to a Senate committee.
The courts-martial still demand thorough reform.
(Washington Post)
I
RESERVATIONS «
An order withdrawing
public lands for classifica
tion and proposed designa
tion as native reservations
for inhabitants of the vill
ages of Barrow and Kluk
wan was signed this week
by Acting Secretary of the
Interior Oscar L. Chapman.
Following the new pro-,
cedure of the Department"
of the Interior which has
so long been advocated by
Delegate Bartlett hearings
will be held to allow per
sons having objections to
the terms of the public land
order or the proposed de
signation to present these
objections. ^
The order for the hear
ings was also signed by Act
ing Secretary Chapman and
they are to be held at Jun
eau and Fairbanks from
September 16 to 21, the
time and place to be arran
ged to determine whether
the public land order dated
August 14, 1946, withdraw
ing public lands for classi
fication and proposed des
ignation as native reserva
tions of the villages of Bar
row and Klukwan and vi-.
cinity should be designat
ed under section 2 of the
act of May 1, 1936, 49 Stat.
1250 (U.S.C. Title 48, sec.
358a), as native villages of
Barrow and Klukwan and
vicinity.
The hearings will be held
with Joseph T. Flackne,
Chief of the Alaska Branch,
Division of Territories and
Island Possessions as im
mediate representative of
The Secretarv of the Inter
Tor and Irwin W Silver
man, Chief Counsel for the
Division of Territories and
IsLand Possessions acting
as alternate.
NEW POSTMASTERS
Following the resigna
tion of Trenton A. Johnson
as postmaster ojf the fourth
class post office at Gird
wood, Delegate Bartlett
has recommended the ap
pointment of Robert S.
Dorf as his successro.
(Mrs. Toyne Armstrong
has been recommended by
Delegate Bartlett as acting
postmaster at Craig suc
ceeding Miss Beatrice Ed
enso.
VISITORS
George Sundberg arriv
ed in Washington this week
following a recently com
pleted trip through the Ter
ritory with Secretary of the
Interior Julius A. Krug.
Mr. Sundberg is in Wash
ington to make a report of
the trip for the Secretary.
Frank Dufresne, Direct
or of Information for the
Fish and Wildlife Service,
has been in Washington
and called at the Delegate’s
office.
John Lathanan, Jr. for
merly of Fairbanks has
been a visitor in Delegate