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.
Nome, Alaska, Friday, Sept. 14, 1951
10% BOOST IN RAIL FREIGHT RATES .
IS BLOW TO ALASKA DEVELOPMENT
(ANCHORAGE DAILY TIMES)
An increase in freight rates on the Alaska Railroad
is just about the last thing that anyone could reason
ably expect.
Disclosure that the tariffs will increase 10 percent
effective October 15 can do nothing other than stun
the entire rail belt.
The boost knocks the economy of the area into a
cocked hat.
It will raise living costs while the government is
making extraordinary efforts to prevent a raise.
It will retard the development of Alaska while the
federal government is trying to speed it.
It will increase the cost of the military construc
tion program while the government is already over
whelmed by the present operating costs.
The higher rates come after the railroad experi
enced the biggest freight year in its history and when
it is just beginning to harvest the benefits of the
gigantic rehabilitation program.
The action is contrary to every promise and pre
diction made in recent years.
It is, in short, amazing.
There must be something wrong with all the cal
culations that went into the rehabilitation of the rail
road during the last few years.
Railroad officials announced publicly that there
would be a 25 percent reduction in operating costs
when the overhaul job was conculded. This reduction
was to make possible lower freight rates.
The lower rates would result from the replace
ment of expensive steam locomotives with diesels; the
replacement of dippy-doppy shops with modern struc
tures; the replacement of decrepit wooden freight cars
with modern steel rolling stock; the elimination of
curves, widening of banks, ballasting of right of way,
strengthening of bridges and all the other improve
ment projects.
Alaskans were told that the savings would be
passed along so that the cost of moving freight would
be less.
While this gigantic program was carried forward,
the volume of business done by the railroad increased I
tremendously. From 1937 until 1947 it had increased
more than four times from 157,717 revenue tons to
641,841 revenue tons.
Since 1947 the volume has continued to increase.
The governor’s annual report for the fiscal year 1950
noted that the railroad had concluded its biggest year
in history.
Last June the railroad closed its fiscal year 1951
with the volume of business still greater than in 1950.
And bigger years aj~e ahead. Next year will see
more tonnage moving over the railroad than ever be
fore. And the year after that the indications are it will
be still greater.
In ■ any ordinary business it is axiomatic that
greater volume brings lower units costs. The Alaska
Railroad could be expected to move each ton at lower
cost as the volume increased. And with the $47,000,000
capital investment in the rehabilitation program the
spread should have been still greater.
NOTES AND COMMENT
We hope Gen. Ike has the Russians guessing as
much as he has the political experts.
Man is mighty, no doubt, but insects bother men
more than men bother insects!
There is no perfect preparation for war, regard
less of expenditures.
Drastic Changes In Alaska
OPS Rules Are Announced
JUNEAU — Several drastic
changes in Alaska’s retail OPS
regulation were announced today
by the Office of Price Stabiliza
tion.
Fred G. Hanford, Territorial
OPS Director, said the changes
should have little effect on selling
prices. He listed the following
amendatory provisions in Regula
tion 9, the Territory’s retail price
♦
control regulation:
1 — After September 12, retail
merchants may use their tradi
tional percentage system of mark
up instead of the dollar-and-cent
system required under the pres
ent Regulation 9. The merchant
may use their system but must use
the same system throughout his
store.
2 — After September 30, retail
ers may not offer for sale any
article covered by the regulation
unless it is marked or tagged with
the ceiling price plainly visible to
the buyer. (Regulation 9 covers
all goods shipped into the Terri
tory and offered for sale. It does
not include goods produced within
the Territory.)
3 — After September 30, retail
merchants must post a sign in a
prominent * place in their store
stating that the prices of mer
chandise in the store are no higher
than the OPS ceiling prices for
the article.
FOR
FURNITURE REPAIR
CALL ISAAC EBEN
Black 115
SNACK BAR
►
OPEN
— GOOD FOOD —
... the letters start. Then
many readers of THE CHRIS
TIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
tell the Editor how much they
enjoy this daily world-wide
newspaper, with such com
ments as:
“The Monitor is the most
carefully edited news
paper in the U. S. . . •
“Valuable aid in teach
• .9f
complete
and fair . . .**
:uThe Monitor surely is a
reader's necessity . . .*
You, too, will find the Monitor
informative, with complete
world news . . . and as neces
sary as your HOME TOWN
paper.
Use this coupon for a Special
Introductory subscription — 3
MONTHS FOR ONLY $3.
The Christian Science Monitor
One, Norway St., Boston IS, Maas., U. S. A.
Please tend me an introductory snbserip*
lion to The Christian Science Monitor—
7f Junes. I enclose IS.
_ __e . __ __
(mum)
(address)
I • - •
(eone) (sum)
Williams Awaits
Letter Confirming
Ouster From HST
JUNEAU, Sept. 13, (/P) — Lew
Williams watched the mails today
for a letter from President Tru
i
man — a letter confirming his
ouster as Secretary of Alaska.
He had just received a tele
gram with the first official word
the president had fired him from
the job he had held since 1944.
Joseph W. Kehoe, judge of the
District Court at Nome, was
named as his successor. Judge
Kehoe is 61, a native of Portland,
and a graduate of the University
of Oregon.
Williams said he would not
comment until the White House
letter was in his hands.
“It’s the courteous thing to let
him do the talking first, if he
has anything to say,” Williams
said. “As a newspaperman, I have
the rest of my life to4 write about
it.”
Gov. Gruening said in a state
ment he regretted “circumstances
were such that President Truman
felt obligated to replace Williams
as Secretary of Alaska when the
latter refused to hand in his re
signation, which was asked for
last January and again more re
cently.”
“I don’t think it would do Lew
much good,” the Governor told a
reporter who asked him to ex
plain the “circumstances.”
Williams, as Secretary has been
acting governor during Governor
Gruening’s absences from the
Territory. There has been a grow
"Annie Get Your Gun"
Returns to Dream Theater
Due to popular demand and be
cause so many patrons were turned
away last Tuesday, the Dream
Theater management has a n
nounced that ‘‘Annie Get Your
Gun”, starring Betty Hutton, will
be repeated tomorrow at 7:30 p.m.
! ing rift between them in recent
years.
The legislator who went most
vigorously to bat for Williams
after an Interior Department
emissary asked for his resignation
prior to the 1951 legislature’s ses
sion was Sen. Howard Lyng of
Nome, one of Gov. Gruening’s
most outspoken foes within—or
without—the Democratic party in
Alaska.
Williams told friends at the time
i that he was standing pat; that he
was appointed by the President,
not by the Interior Department,
and it would take a resignation
! request direct from the White
House to get him out.
Williams is owner of the week
ly newspaper at Wrangell. Read
ers have noted an increasing in
clination by Williams to* take
glancing shots at Alaska adminis
! trative affairs and personalities in
! his personal column in the paper.
The dismissal was the second
of a presidential appointee in
Alaska to be ordered by the Presi
dent within two weeks. On Aug.
31, President Truman dismissed
Frank Bingham as U.S. Attorney
in Alaska’s Second Judicial Div
ision at Nome.
Some girls attain their end by
not exercising enough.
I
Norway*s
magnificent fjords
are just one of the
many breathtaking
sights you’ll enjoy
Choice of two routes... special fares
by Flying Clipper -
Fly direct from New ^ork to Oslo and Stockholm by giant
Constellation Clipper. Or fly via London in a luxurious
double-decked “Strato” Clipper . . . then by Constellation
Clipper on to Hamburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm. (Direct
Clipper connections at Stockholm for Helsinki.)
Clipper fare for a Scandinavian holiday is $784.10, round
trip from New York, ^tou may stop over at any or all of there
cities: Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen . .. Hamburg, London
and Glasgow. Ask about tbis and other low-cost Clipper
Cru ises. J ust call...
Phone Main 12
593 First Avenue, Nome
a
* Trade Mark, Pan American World Airways, Smm
Pm American World Airways
WORLD’S MOST EXPERIENCED AlkMN*