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 $10.00 A YEAR ;
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.....~.Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice at
Home, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879. ;
Monday, July 22, 1946
PLANES TO BE SEEN
AFTER THE FIRST post-war efforts to get conven
tional or semi-conventional private planes onto
the market have leveled out, it may be expected that
more radical designs will make their bid for public
acceptance. Some of the more interesting of these
“dream” planes include several roadable models in
which the wings either fold or are removed at the air
port, so that the plane may pinch-hit as a reasonably
satisfactory automobile. Actually, it is extremely
difficult to combine the best characteristics of an auto
mobile with those of an airplane. Inevitably, the
hybrid loses some of its efficiency on both sides, but
roadable planes have been flown and many authorities
maintain that private flying will come into its own only
when the automobile-airplane has been perfected.
Aiming at substantial improvements in vision and
comfort, minus the usual propellor noise, many manu
facturers are investigating pusher-propellor designs.
Some would mount the propellor at the extreme after
end of the fuselage and use gearing and shafting to
couple engine and propellor together. This has been
done successfully on larger planes such as the high
speed Douglas “Mixmasters.”
Other suggested power and propulsion ideas would
provide jet-driven propellor blades with the exhause
gases exiting at the blade tip. Here it is claimed that
a rudimentary combustion chamber at the propellor
hub would be all that is necessary for a simple, cheap,
and light power plant. As with most jets, fuel con
sumption would be high but it is felt that economic and
other advantages would outweigh this.
Not content with three or even two-control sys
tems, engineers at Consolidated-Vultee are experiment
ing with the Spratt wing which is mounted on a univer
sal joint above the fuselage. One control—the stick—
moves the entire wing in a manner that accomplishes
the combined functions of rudder, elevator, and ail
erons.
A considerable portion of the doube regarding
private aviation centers about the question of safety.
Again referring to statements of Mr. Geisse of the CAA,
it is reported that accident figures for stall-proof planes
now stand at 4,000,000 miles flown per fatal accident.
Using 5,000 miles per year as about the maximum that
a private pilot can be expected to fly, it would take
one pilot a reassuring 800 years to accumulate this
mileage.
PROPHETS OF
DISASTER REFUTED
*i^HE NATION’S FOREMOST prophets of disaster,
Jl as former Governor Alfred M. Landon of Kansas
observed in his recent speech, have been effectually
refuted by the course of actual events since the sud
den termination of the powers of the Office of Price
Administration.
There has been a constant and violent campaign
of propaganda in the country ever since the end of
price controls “to instill fear in the minds of a people
already bewildered by our discordant Democratic ad
ministration,” Mr. Landon told the Young Republicans
Club of Newton, Kansas.
Oddly enough, President Truman has spearheaded
this campaign, although the price control system was
killed by his own willful act, the congress having
provided for its extension under restrictions that did
not impair any of its useful powers but only suppressed
--TVWEE-WAY STRETCHER _J
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some of its most flagrant abuses of power.
The President has been strongly supported in his
predictions of disaster by former Price Administrator
Bowles, both giving dire warning to the country of the
inflated costs of essential goods which would supposed
ly follow the removal of price controls.
Both the President and Mr. Bowles contended that
restricted price control would be worse than no con
trol at all. and that unless congress passed a price
control act conforming to their dictation there would
be chaos in the country.
However, there has now been a considerable in
terval of time without price control, in consequence
of the President’s arbitrary veto, and Mr. Landon re
merks upon the very obvious inaccuracy of these
gloomy predictions, which amounts to complete refu
tation.
“There is no evidence to support President Tru
man’s and Mr. Bowles’ predictions that unless total
OPA was continued there would be chaos,” said Mr.
Landon.
“We are living once again a more normal Ameri
can economic life, and the OPA discontinuation has
not been the disaster predicted by administration spok
esmen.
“Certainly events since the discontinuation of the
OPA do not warrant a continuation of the stiff and ar
bitrary wartime control, either in the OPA, or other
agencies, which the President is requesting.
The events of which Mr. Landon speaks certainly
bear him out.
The principal commodity markets of the country,
particularly meats and other basic foods, have become
vigorously active since the end of price control.
There was a considerable upsurge of prices in the
first few days of active trading. But much of this rep
resented nothing but absorption of the subsidies which
had been paid out of taxes. And the prices leveled off
as soon as the markets were replenished.
So the American people have not been gouged
by ruinously inflated prices as the President and Mr.
Bowles said they would be, but instead have been re
lieved of burdensome subsidies and for the first time in
a very long time are beginning to have an adequate
supply of basic commodities which have hitherto been
in short supply or not available at all.
In fact, the longer the country goes without price
control the more abundant basic commodities become
and the more reasonable prices become—and the less
need there is for any price control at all.
In any event, congress should be adamant in its
determination to restrict the Office of Price Admin
istration—if it is revived—to absolutely essential and
useful and reasonable functions, and to restrain it from
Continues on Page Seven
SUBVERSION
However successful Am-1
erica’s system of free en
terprise has been, faith in
planned economy spread
rapidly over this nation’s
political thinking in the
last 25 years. It is strange
that the world’s most pros
perous and influential peo
ple should forget how its
power was built, and think
about imitating a plan that
fails every time it is tried,
but that’s the picture.
How did planned econ
omy get into the picture
! in the United States? This
is the country with no pea
sant class! It is here that
laborers drive their own
| motor cars. This is the
| land where farmers live
; like lords in older count
ries. It must have been a
strange set of circumstan
ces that turned the eyes of
a favored people to look
with envy at under-fed and
over-worked races beyond
the seas.
They Only Heard 1
The facts were not all
known. If farmers and
craftsmen of America
could see how men of sim
ilar skills elsewhere must
live, they would thank God
for giving their forefathers
wisdom to safeguard in our
Constitution the right of
ownership. Americans who
lean toward socialism have
seen very little of it and
heard only one side. Plan
ned economy invaded Am
erica thus:
After Liberty Bell had
been silent 150 years, the
Statue of Liberty grew
green with tarnish and
people began taking free
dom for granted. Care
free descendants of men
who endured Valley Forge
ceased to appreciate their
costly birthright; simply
had no idea how it would
seem to be without free
dom. Sly digs at America
and her own people were
swallowed down by an op
en minded generation.
Poisonous Teaching
Protected by the tree
speech clause in our Con
stitution, soap-box orators
started braying against in
vested capital. Crafty
minds coined such slurs as
“entrenched greed” and
“economic royalists” to
stir up envy and make sue