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.
Monday, April 8, 1946
LET THE PEOPLE KNOW
(Washington Post)
We are much impressed by the argument of the La
Follette-Monroney committee for giving Congress bet
ter informational facilities. During the war years Con
gress was appropriating roughly a hundred billion dol
lars annually. It is conservatively estimated that it must
direct the spending of 25 billion dollars a year in peace
time. Beyond that it will be adopting national policies
with far-reaching effects upon the lives of all of us. Cer
tainly a body carrying such heavy responsibilities
should have all the resources of information that it can
reasonably use. At present, however, Congress has a re
search establishment employing only 75 persons, one
third of whom are at professional grades, and spending
$198,000 a year.
The La Follette-Monroney Committee asks that this
research agency—the Legislative Reference Service—
be granted $500,000 for the next fiscal year and ultim
ately an allowance of $750,000. The idea is not, of
course, to duplicate the experts available through the
executive departments. Congress must always call up
on such experts for technical information in their re
spective fields. But in addition to this Congress needs
qualified research workers of its own who can collate
data from many sources, run down information that
cannot be secured from any executive agency, and, in
the case of highly controversial subjects, provide ob
jective, factual studies unobtainable elsewhere.
For similar reasons the committee would expand the
Office of the Legislative Counsel and provide small ex
pert staffs for the reduced number of standing commit
tees recommended in the report. These are basic essen
tials. “The Nation must not be left to rely on lawmak
ers,” the committee rightly says, “whose only sources
of informaiton on which to base important decisions are
the daily press, casual magazine articles, or handouts
from business groups and governmental agencies. A
pure and unbiased stream of information is necessary
for the making of sound decisions.”
A special concern at the moment is information about
this report itself. Needless to say, it should be required
reading for every member of Congress—both the report
and a great deal of the data on which it is based. We can
think of no more important study for members of Con
gress than this self-analysis of the organism of which
they are a part. The public,too, needs to be informed on
the subject. In the last analysis Congress is likely to act
on this urgent program of self-rehabilitation only if the
people are pressing for it. And the people cannot de
mand action on it unless they know about it and what
it means.
Several groups of scholars and public-spirited citi
zens have done good work toward the modernization of j
Congress. But the range of their influence is limited. In
our opinion the La Follette-Monroney report should be
brought to the attention of every citizen. Cannot the
committee which has done such fine work in shaping
this policy now arrange to tell the people about it? If
not, then it must be done by private agencies. It seems
to us, however, that Congress should be able to find a
way of getting out to the people this vital information
about itself and its requirments to become a fully effi
cient legislative body.
ONE MAN’S OPINION
(By Walter Kiernan)
UNO HALL, March 28 (Delayed by pigeons)—Hello
America! When a Chinese talks in English and it is
translated into French for the Russians you can see why
the dove of peace wears a worried look. . . . That is why
By GEORGE S BENSON
President of Maiding College
Searcy. Arkansas
!
MERCHANDISE Inflation already but it can get
Warnings against inflation are much worse. Accurate definitions
beginning to reach us country »f inflat on are rather complicat
people with increasing force and ed. In fact, some of the def nitions
frequency. Nearly all the experts are harder to understand than the
who comment on it say we have condition itself what we can all
there is no applause for speeches. Half of the delegates
are afraid they don’t understand and the other half are
afraid they do. . . . And neither wishes to be caught ap
plauding what might be a bilateral blot an their unilat
eral escutcheons — not with escutcheons so hard to
come by —and pronounce. . . . The language of the con
ference is French and English until Moscow rushes an
authentic translation of Bronx. . . . The most worried
looking spectator is Borough President Lyons. — He
has no assurance yet that Russia plans to evacuate her
delegates at the end of the conference. . . . But don’t get
discouraged. There is grave danger of this coming ou.
right.
o
PROBLEMS OF WORLD WAR I VS. WORLD WAR II
(Rocky Mountain News)
Peaple persist in comparing the present era with that
following the first World War. Actually there is very
little to compare and the sooner this ;s realized, the
sooner the country can approach problems as they exist
today, particularly in the field of taxation and govern
ment debt. In the latter, the comment of the president
of a large life insurance company is significant:
“At the end of the first war, the federal debt had, it is
true, risen to what then seemed staggering figures, from
roughly one billion in 1916 to 25 billions in laid, ^arge
as this total was, it still was not of overpowering sig
nificance as compared with other forms of debt, far it
represented less than one-fifth of the total of all forms
of public and private debt of the country.
“By contrast, at the end of the Victory Drive in 1945,
the federal debt will be approximately 280 billions. Ac
customed as we are to huge figures, it is almost impossi
ble to understand the full implications of this enormous
federal debt. We are in the forest and cannot see over
the trees—but we do know that government debt now
is over twice as large as all other forms of debt com
bined, including state and municipal obligations:
“Here is another significant comparison: In 1919 the
U. S. government debt was only about one-third4 the
size of all the bonds, notes and mortgages of industry,
farms and real estate. Today the federal debt, instead of
being only one-third, is almost three times the s.ze of
all forms of private debt.”
•5 this Twrorro* act ?
wobid C
see by looking around.
When just about everyb
spending money in their
because they can’t find en
the things they want to bi
is where inflation begins,
suits are quite natural. A
tically people start bidding
each other for what item i
find, and prices advance i
yond real vales. Then, no
what we buy, we are squat
money.
Regulation Prices
What we need to cure in
is plain to see: more things t
That’s all it takes. If I need
and can find only one thi
my head and suits my tast
dealer can <unless restraint
law) charge me whateve
wishes. I may rebel at the
but somebody else will pay
the merchant will not net
worry about me. More hat
set the matter straight.
When hats that suit me a
fered by every haberdashf
town, some competitor is c<
to lower his prices to increa:
sale. Another will try to
him, and this competition
tinues until falling prices ge
near cost to go cheaper. It is
simple. Goods are the scare-c
that frighten away infk
Whatever interferes with the
duction of merchandise
makes inflation worse.
Aritficial Feeding
Inflation is like hunger. It
want that has the full force
need. Hunger includes a era
that throws a person’s sense
values completely out of plu
Food is the only satisfactory
swer to the hunger question i
just so, goods are the emly soi
solution to inflation. There
trick ways to hold prices do’
when goods have to be scarce,
they are only temporary help.
Once in a while somebody 1
a strange ailment that makes e
ing impossible, or very dangero
Physicians deny such a patic
food while they try to adjust t
malady. Sometimes they use dru
to make the patient sleep and fr
get his craving; sometimes thi
flow energizing liquids into tl
blood-stream, but it is no dif
Nobody can live on it: it onl
makes starvation slower.
War Is A Malady
During the war, people i
America were rightly deniei
goods. There were not enougl
workmen, not enough factories
not enough materials to supplj
Ihe nation’s defenders, our men
and their allies. Consumer goods
were scarce and a lot of people
had extra money. All prices would
have skyrocketed but government
restrained them by law. It was an
emergency — drastic remedy: no
complaint.
Price controls did not contrib
ute anything permanent to this
| country’s economic strength, how
! ever. They simply eased the shock
for civilians who had to undergo1
1 economic surgery or perish of dic
tatorship. Now the ordeal is over
j and the patient is wholesomely
hungry for merchandise. Every
regulation that now retards pro
' cluciion should be removed or re
laxed in the public interest.
NOME ICE POOL SALES
EXCEED LAST YEAR
The total count on tickets sold
in Nome for the 1946 Nenana Ice
Pool is 4320 which exceeds last
year’s sale of 3500 tickets, by 820.