THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P- O- B°x 61®
$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, September 24, 1945
BACK TO SCHOOL
It is now generally believed that rising educational
levels are necessary to achieve an increased economic
status.
Every method possible should be used to urge upon
parents the wisdom of getting and keeping their chil
dren in school. Federal and Territorial officials should
make every endeavor to make it possible for youth to
obtain the maximum in education.
To get children back to school now is a certain guar
antee that they will be in a position to take every ad
vantage tomorrow. Tomorrow’s success of the whole
American system is dependent upon the educational
status of American youth. The Back-to-School move
ment is essential in every way.
IT’S AN ADVENTURE IN THINKING ...
(Business Action)
In this welter of startling news of cut-backs, cut-offs,
cancellations and the like, let us not forget the essential
Jact:
This democracy, with a republican form of govern
ment, without selfish purpose, with no spirit of aggres
sion and in absolute contradiction of assertions that
“democracies are weak,” has conquered the world by j
force of arms. To the east of us, we have reduced to
everlasting serfdom, if such be our pleasure, a tyrant
nation which boasted that the Nazi power would last aj
thousand years; to the west of us, we have stopped in
their tracks a fanatical, scarce-civilized but powerful
and dangerous people bred on the philosophy that they
were a ‘‘super race’ ’destined to rule all others.
Had they not surrendered, we would have reduced
that proud and arrogant land to rubble, obliterated it
from the face of the sun it purports to worship.
We have had allies, brave and gallant ones, but with
out our mass production of planes, guns, tanks and food
'would the military result have been the same? What
*we have done is incredible. But not having feared the
incredible in time of war, how can we fear the peace?
At Gettysburg, President Lincoln said that ‘‘now we
are engaged in a great Civil war, testing whether that
__WREEMEMOHMORSE
iT Bl
nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can
long endure,” and he prefaced that paragraph on the
‘‘proposition that all men are created equal,” and that
such was the principle on which our forefathers brought
forth this country.
Is the adventure of peace to be less than that of war?
Are we to permit unmeployment to prevail, when we
have just concluded purloining power from the very
stars themselves and hurled it at our enemy in what we
call atomic bombs? Let us not forget, too, to define un
employment as it should be defined, and not yield to
hysterical thinking at the sight of grisly figures such as
6,000,000 to 7,000,000 ‘‘laid off.”
Haven’t we known, right along that the war would
end? That there would be contract cancellations? That
hundreds of thousands—yes, even millions—would be
without work for a time? That there would have to be
an industrial turnaround, with a little marking of time?
That many workers would want to regard the switch as
time off?
At this moment, we do not have the dismal specter 01
“jobless” as.we have used the term in years gone by.
For, thousands of workers are housewives anxious to
get back to their homes and their returning soldier hus
bands; others are elderly people who had “retired” be
fore the war and returned to their skills only from a
sense of patriotism; others will be returned service men
with money in the sock and no intention of hunting a
job until they have had a few months of absolute rest—
which, bless them, they deserve; others will be boys and
girls who interrupted their school careers to take jobs(
and will “rest up” between the war job and class re
opening this fall. These people are not unemployed, but j
our figures at the moment, necessarily, no doubt, must I
be based on the lay-offs, cut-backs, cut-offs, not on the
number of people in the job market as they should be.
It is something to think about, just as it is something to
think about that—
What we have done in the war, we can repeat in the
peace, but we can be sure there will be no lasting peace
unless we so well rule ourselves that no other nation
•
can point to us as “weak in peace,” though strong in war.
This is the great day of adventure, testing, to para
phrase the great President, “whether this nation or any
nation so conceived and so dedicated can fulfill the ob
jective for which it was created”—that all men might
have the blessings of life, liberty and the pursuit of hap
piness.
The Chamber of Commerce of the United States is I
not in the business of moralizing, trumpet blowing or
mouthing platitudes. But it is not moralizing to say we
face a great adventure and a great challenge; it is not
trumpet blowing to say we will win that adventure and
that challenge; it is not platitudinous to say that we can !
do whatever we want to do; we can have whatever we
like—and no one can stop us. In our hands is power such
as given before by Almighty God to no other people. To
deserve it, we have but to exercise it wisely, unselfish
ly, eagerly and with the same spirit with which we won
the wars.
We shall not, otherwise, have deserved it.
Women Must
Take Chances On
Getting Nylons
WASHINGTON, Sep. 24—<**)—
WPB declined today to stipulate
that sellers of nylon hosiery should
undertake to release them on a
specific date, so women who want
nylon hose as soon as they are
available will have to take store
to store chances of getting a sup
ply.
The first cook book published
in America, according to Encyclo
paedia Britannica, was printed at
Williamsburg, Virginia in 1742. It
was entitled, ‘‘Compleat House
wife, or Accomplished Gentlewo
man’s Companion.”
By OBOKQE 8.BEK30M
NriJwri tf Harming College
Searcy. Arkansas
VINSON
Shortly after Fred Vinson was
named Secretary of the Treasury
he was quoted in the press as say
ing “the American people are in
the pleasant predicament of hav
ing to learn to live 50% better
than they ever lived before.”
When he made this remark he was
talking about a future day, and
that had not come then and has
not come yet, but a completely
possible future day.
Hitler was no longer a mencce,
when the new Secretary spoke of
a 50% higher living standard :n
America, but Japan still clouded
the Pacific. Now that has cleared
up also and today’s national prob
lem is economic rather than stra
tegic. The strain is no less, but in
a different place. Ease felt in
America as firing ceased was like
the relief of changing hands with
a heavy burden.
Load Is On Vinson
About a month ago this column
carried an outline of Mr. Vinson’s
tax policies which I frankly con
sider sound. Now, in view of the
changed international picture, it is
high time everybody knew more
about this generalissimo of post
war finances, czar of economics in
the world’s most important coun
try. He is a key man on the team
that has to win if liberty, civiliza
tion and enlightenment survive.
Fred Vinson is 55 years old.
Half a century ago he was playing
in the yard of the jailhouse in
Louisa, Ky. His father was county
jailer. The next year he started to
school . . . His coarse hair is half
gray now and he has some loose
skin under his chin but he’s recog
nized as the ‘‘besi in his line” and
on a job where everybody wishes
him well, if that’s success.
A Serious Student
Louisa, with some 2,000 inhabi
tans, is across the Big Sandy river
from West Virginia. There young
Vinson entered school, there was
elected district attorney and from
there went to Congress in 1922.
At Center College, Danville, Ky.,
he worked in the library to help
pay expenses, took a leading part
in athletics and averaged above 95
in grades all through college and
law school.
Mr. Vinson is a penetrating
thinker. He has years of experi
ence in government and he knows
taxes. He is a recognized fiscal ex
pert. That’s what put him on the
Ways and Means committee and
here his ability is still respected.
He has been a Federal judge, the
successful economic stabilizer of
this country, also director of war
mobilization and reconversion —
the job that’s known as ‘‘assistant
president.”
To Make More Jobs
Vinson has many prime qualifi
cations for his present job. Anent
his thoroughness, it came out a
time or two in connection with his
work as chairman of the tax sec
tion of the Ways and Means com
mittee that he knew more than
his witnesses themselves about
testimony they submitted. Recol
lection of these incidents naturally
tends to keep alive Vinson’s influ
ence among Congressmen which is
a big asset.
It is told that he studied before
hand the financial statements of
big corporations whose officials
were to testify, and his question
ing them proved repeatedly that
he knew more about certain aspects
of a corporation’s business than
did its president. This is the man
who planned a tajc program to
create the most jobs, instead of
merely raising revenue for the
government, something I have
been shouting from the housetops
for four years.