THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
•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.
Wednesday, October 31, 1945
COMPETITION IN ACTION
(New York Times)
The airlines have announced sharp reductions in pas
senger rates. Under the new schedules the cost of trav
eling by plane will be cheaper than the cost of traveling
by railroad first-class with sleeping accommodations.
Thus, from New York to Chicago the new cost by plane
will be $32.85 as compared with $36.93 in a lower berth
and $35.28 in an upper berth by train. Moreover, to the
train fare must be added the cost of meals, while a meal
is provided without charge on the plane. The combina
tion of lower prices plus large savings in time is bound
to make plane travel more attractive to many persons.
Here is a perfect example of the competitive system
in poeration. Eager to obtain a larger volume of busi
ness, the airlines have resorted to the action which new
industries have found to be most effective in the past—
namely, lower prices. No government fiat was required
to force this reduction. It is a perfect example of how
the self-interest of an industry desirous of expanding its
market also serves the national good. The business
gained by the airlines will not necessarily represent a
net loss to the railroads. Undoubtedly, at these lower
rates many persons will be induced to travel who have
thus far been restrained by cost considerations. The
history of business is replete with illustrations of how
this type of general reduction in prices has been fol
lowed by a larger volume of business for all concerned,
the new competitors as well as the old.
Another interesting aspect of this situation is that it
illustrates again that bigness or the monopolistic posi
tion of an industry is no protection against vigorous
competition. Here the railroads are being challenged
directly on their long-haul business, a challenge which
will become of growing importance as the willingness
to travel by air increases. Finally, this action in lower
ing prices will mean more jobs. More planes will be re
quired to handle the traffic, more pilots and crews to
handle the planes, and additional help to handle the
various services connected with air transport. Such
price reductions if adopted by many industries with
new products or forms of service will provide one im
portant means of absorbing the slack in the labor mar
ket. It represents, therefore, a socially desirable action
as well as sound economics.
_
NATURAL RESULTS
(Fairbanks Daily News-Miner)
The wave of strikes, pay rise demands and jurisdic
tional labor squabbles is having its expected conse
quences. Congress, which doesn’t like to see anything
get out of hand, is turning its eyes toward some sort of
legislation that will keep labor forces under control.
Organized labor poses a tough problem for the law
makers. Solutions tried in the past have all gone wide
of the mark, one way or the other. When legislation of
policy favors employers, labor has suffered; when the
“cure” for that situation swung favor to the worker,
the employer has suffered. Congress is still trying to
make the pendulum stop in the middle.
As matters stand, some governmental control over
labor is needed. Labor organizations have an extra-legal
status, responsible to nobody to solve the problems of
their members, to get a square deal from employers and
keep working standards up, there is no disputing the
necessity of their existence or their value in the scheme
of our democratic form of government. But when such
an organization goes beyond these objectives there is
nothing but the slow and disorganized force of public
opinion to call a halt.
The power that can be wielded by an organized gi oup
is dangerous unless that group accepts and discharges
responsibilities of equal magnitude. The responsibil
ity of organized labor is to produce economic justi
fication for its demands and to make life unwholesome
for racketeers and bandwagon-riders who would use
organized labor’s power to their own ends. Organized
labor itself should put a stop to strikes that are really
membership drives, and find some way of settling jui is
dictional disputes without misusing its treasured eco
nomic weapons.
Failure to accept these responsibilities, continued
work stoppages that are not based upon any quariel
with the employers, strikes and boycotts designed to
impress^ther workers and employers, have started the
pendulum swinging once more. Unless the unions
quickly find their proper place and accept regulations
to keep them there, the weight ot public opinion is
likely to push the weight too far the other way again.
MAYBE WE RE ALL NEUROTIC
(New York Times)
Demobilized war workers may present a greater
problem in mental or nervous instability than discharg
ed war veterans, prominent psychiatrists reported, af
ter a year’s nation-wide survey of the “neuropsychia
tric problem” for the National Association of Manufac
turers.
Urging employers and the general public to “stop
viewing him with alarm,” the physicians held that
“nine times out of ten the NP is OK to go to work for
you,” and, “just to take the bite out of your criticism,
there’s probably some of that neuropsychiatric business
going on right in your won living room, war or no war.”
Saying that “most of us have some history of a minor
or major nervous or mental condition,” the psychiatrists
emphasized that any procedure aimed at facilitating
“the better placement in industry of the neuropsychia
tric dischargee from the armed forces should be applied
with equal or greater emphasis to the demobilized war
workers.”
“It is possible,” the said, “that the greater problems
will come from the ranks of these war workers.”
In one large typical industrial organization, they re
ported, nearly 25 percent of all employees were found
to be unstable, “to the extent of requiring much atten
tion to get them to remain stable on the job.”
Persons discharged from mental hospitals and others
with histories of emotional and nervous conditions do
not constitute a risk in civilian society, the psychiatrists
asserted.
TOUR DE FARCE
! c?mTe«sr
4mk)h. Funny joke5,J|
HOLLYWOOD
CHATTER
By BOB THOMAS
AND WAS CARRADINE'S
FACE GREEN!
HOLLYWOOD — How would
you like to have lunch while look
ing at the green face of John Car
, radjne?
I know nothing about the act
j or’s propensity for envy or nau
j sea, but neither element was the
reason for his verdant hue. His
face was made up in the ghastly
green for his role as Dracula in
"The House of Dracula,” one of
Universal’s excursions into the
horror world. To show you how
blase Hollywood is, hardly anyone
in the sutdio dining room noticed
his frightful visage when he en
tered the place. The lunchers, who
included Lou Costello, Maria $Ion
tez, Franchot Tone and Sabu,
scarcely looked up from their
soup.
I «!**!• mi.
Once I had become used to Car
rid ine’s chartreuse kisser, 1 began
a discussion about ham, and not
the kind on the menu.
“Do you object to being called
a ham?” I inquired, somewhat ir
reverently.
“No, I do not,” he announced,
but added with a sly wink, “not
i by another actor. You see, the av
erage person thinks of a ham as
overbearing, obnoxious, vain, con
ceited—rather, over-conceited; be
cause all actors have to be con
ceited to some degree—and a bad
actor.
“But to actors, and others con
nected with the theater, a ham is
an actor with an unusual ability
i to create character. It is someone
with dash, with imagination, with
a grand way of doing things.
“You hear the accusation that a
ham in not normal. Well, of course
not. I know of some actors who
are normal and they are not very
good actors. Perhaps a ham does
not create a character as it would
be in real life, but that is not his
function. The actor should create
an illusion. The audience should
walk out of the theater and say,
‘Good lord! Is this reality?,’ when
they see the actual world.”
* * *
I inquired if the actor could
name some good hams. He could.
“Jack Barrymore was a very
good ham—so is Lionel. Freddie
March is one of the best. And he
is good because he remembers the
day when he wasn’t good. Kather
ine Cornell is a ham; you can tell
that every time she goes through
a door. Hams often have devices—
unreal but fascinating. Ellen
Terry used to strike a pose which
she knew was good. Then she
would hold it until you would al
most say, ‘My God, why doesn’t
she move?’ That’s good hamming.”
Carradine named other hams—
the Lunts, Charles Laughton,
Basil Hathbone, Nagel Bruce,
Charles Boyer.
But mind you, folks, he uses it
as an endearing term.
Making widowers out of bache
lors is easy in places where tree
marriage is practiced. According
to the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
a bachelor who wants to marry a
widow first marries a tree. Then
he has the tree cut down, leaving
him a widower of the same status
,as his human bride.