THE NOME NUGGET
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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, February 20, 1946
ANTIRACKETEERING BILL
(Washington Post)
Opposition to the Hobbs antiracketeering bill in the
House seems to have set a new record for demagogy.
The bill was wildly denounced by Representative Gal
lagher as a “declaration of war against organized la
bor." Representative Celler thundered: “It is a strike
breaking bill. It is a time bomb with a false labet. ii
is a booby trap aimed at labor, only wrapped up in
silken terms.” What the bill will actually do, if ap
proved by the Senate and the President, is to forbid the
obstruction of interstate commerce by means of robbery
and extortion.
Mr. Celler also went to great pains to show that laws
against robbery and extortion are already on the books.
That, of course, is precisely what Congress believed up
until 1942. It had passed the existing Anti-racketeering
Act back in 1934 to protect interstate commerce from
interruption by bludgeon squads, highwaymen or other
strong-arm men. But three years ago the Supreme
Court tore away an important segment of that act by
ruling that it did not cover the racket of a New York
union of “teamsters” who were beating up truck driv
ers entering the city and collecting fees without per
forming any work. Mr. Celler admitted that “the team
sters’ union was guilty of the vilest kind of offenses,”
but he asked the House not to legislate because Danie.
Tot had already cracked down on the New York
teamsters. He blandly ignores the fact that the Supreme
Court has legitimized the offense.
Now we do not rely upon Eric Johnston to protect the
public from racketeering businessmen. It would be
equally absurd to rely upon labor union chieftains, no
matter how correct and public-spirited their attitude
may be, to protect the public against robbery and ex
tortion by organized gangs disguising their operations
as labor activities. Boiled down to its essence, the cry
against this bill was an argument to let extortioners
and racketeers alone, for fear of entrenching upon col
lective bargaining rights. But even that argument was
absurd as well as unreasonable, for the bill carries a
safeguarding clause expressly excluding any modifica
tion of the Clayton Act, Norris-La Guardia Act, Rail
way Labor Act and the National Labor Relations Act.
This is the second time the House has passed this con
structive and desirable piece of antiracketeering legis
lation. It is high time for the Senate to recognize the
bill for what it is—a national and necessary weapon
against robbers and extortioners—and to write it into
the law. Crime is not to be condoned simply because it
is disguised as a legitimate labor activity.
ATOMIC AGE WAR
The war of the atomic age was envisioned yesterday
by Maj. Alexander P. DeSeversky as exploding with an
airborne strike across the north pole from the industri
al heart of one nation against the industrial heart of
another.
Aviation authority and war department consultant,
Seversky saw no end to wars, and therefore he said
Americans should be prepared technologically, scien
tifically and psychologically for the possibility of fu
ture conflict. Victory in the next war will be achieved
through air superiority and guided missiles, he asserted.
At a press conference dealing with his report on an
official tour of the Pacific for the war department, Sev
ersky warned against too great a confidence alone in
the atomic bomb.
“We will have to assume control of the air before we
It COULP VUILL BE WORSE
~ -
can use the atomic bomb,” he said. “Before we can use
guided missiles, we must have control of the air, pos
sibly over nearly the whole globe.”
“The next war will be fought without any intermedi
ate bases,” he said. With jet propelled planes, “distances
will not even figure in our fighting.”
SOIL TESTS DETECT ANCIENT GRAVES
Soil tests so accurate that one of them might be used
to detect the location of prehistoric graves, even where
no visible traces of such graves remains, have been de
veloped by Dr. Roger H. Bray, Professor of Soil Fertil
ity in the University of Illinois.
By disclosing the presence of phosphorus left by de
composed bones, these tests can reveal the extent of a
burial ground used by man in some forgotten time of
the past, and even delimit the site of a prehistoric vil
lage, if it was occupied over a long period of time.
Accumulations of the bones of animals eaten bv the
villagers and human excreta have permanently chang
ed the soil. The tests were developed to assist Illinois
farmers to determine the quality and needs of soil on
their fairmlands.—Science Digest.
By MARY LEE COUNCIL
Secretary to E. L. (Bob) Bartlett, Delegate to Congress from Alaska
A
SURPLUS COAST GUARD
VESSELS
Twenty-seven surplus Coast
Guard vessels at Ketchikan, first
scheduled to be transferred from
Alaska waters for sale elsewhere,
will be retained in the Territory
for disposal upon the request of
Delegate Bartlett acting upon in
formation received from the
Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce.
The United States Coast Guard
has issued temporary instructions
to their field force to discontinue
transfer of these boats to be fol
i lowed, undoubtedly, by a formal
order. The Department of the In
terior has been designated as the
disposal agency handling small
boats in Alaska, and the Maritime
Commission, War Shipping Ad
ministration, War Department and
Navy Department are declaring
1 surplus craft to the department
I through its agency, the Surplus
Property Office.
Arrangements for sale of the
surplus vessels at Ketchikan will
be made by the Surplus Property
Office as soon as the office re
ceives the Coast Guard declara- j
i tions and necesary title papers
covering these boats.
ALASKA COMMUNICATIONS
SYSTEM
Thirty-three stations will be op
erated by the Alaska Communica
tions System, thirty-two in the
Territory and a master station at
Seattle, under plans outlined in
.the War Department Civil Func
tions Appropriation bill which
passed the House recently.
| The sum of $543,000 for the op
eration of these stations is carried
in the bill as passed by the lower
house, an increase of $315,160
over the money appropriated each
year during the war. Early in the
war the appropriations for the ac
tivity, operated by the Signal
Corps since 1901, were frozen ai
$227,840 a year. The additional
funds requirde to operate the sys
tem during that period were pro
vided from military funds.
During the war a total o. -p
stations were operated in the Tor.
ritory, and before the war the v
tern had 21 stations. One hun ot
and fifty civilians and 300 milh;;r\
personnel will be required t(
maintain and operate the systerr
as compared with 350 civilian anc
2000 military personnel during the
fiscal year 1945. while we were
still at war, and 52 civilian anc
191 military personnel during the
fiscal year 1941. Military fund
will now be used only for paying
the salaries and maintenance ex
penses of military personnel en
gaged in conduct of the system.
The value of military traffic*, a
commercial rates, over the Alaski
Communications System is e-tim
ated at $2,000,000 for the fisca
year 1947. as compared wit!
$1,162,000 for the fiscal year 1941
Receipts from commercial traffic
for the 1947 fiscal year are estim
ated at approximately $700,000.
SEWARD TOWNSITE
Block 11, lots 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12
has been withdrawn from the
Seward townsite for use by the
Public Roads Administration, ac
cording to a recent order of the
General Land Office.
The withdrawal is to be used ir
connection with road building
projects, and the lands describee
will be returned to the adminis
tration of the Interior Departmeni
when they are no longer needec
for this purpose.
ARCTIC WEATHER
STATIONS
The President has signed the
bill authorizing establishment of
an unstated number of meteoro
logical observation stations in the
Arctic region of North America a1
an estimated cost of about $200.00C
each.
Improvement of weather fore
casting within the United States
and on the civil international air
transport routes from the United
States is expected through estab
lishment of such stations. Accord
ing to records published in 1940.
there were 137 Russian weather
stations, while the United States
supported three such stations in
Alaska. Norway in 1940 had 75
stations; Sweden, 5; Finland. 3;
Denmark (Greenland), 9; and Can
ada, 4.
VISITORS
Mrs. John L. McCormick of
Juneau was a visitor for several
days in Washington conferring
with Red Cross officials. Mrs. Mc
Cormick attended the commission
ing ceremonies of the USS Juneau
at Kearney, New Jersey, on Feb
ruary 15 as a representative of
the city of Juneau.
A. E. Lathrop of Fairbanks
called on Delegate Bartlett during
a recent trip to Washington. He
was acompanied by Mr. and Mrs.
Harry J .Hill. Mr. Hill is manager
of the Lathrop interests in An
chorage.
Dr. Aubrey R. Carter, well
known in Alaska, where he prac
ticed for many years at Fairbanks
and later through his service with
the army at Fort Richardson, was
a recent visitor at Delegate Bart
lett’s office. Dr. Carter will be
married on February 16 to Miss
Helen Green in College Park,
Maryland. Miss Green is the sis
ter of Mrs. Ernest Wackwitz, for
merly of Fairbanks.