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. Boucher .Owner-Publisher
%
Emily Boucher .Local Editor
Jim Frye . Editor
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome Alaska, Monday, October 25, 1948
IN THE WRINGER
(Anchorage Daily News)
A recent issue of Time magazine describes Harry
Bridges, leader of the west coast maritime strike, as a
man with his nose caught in the wringer.
His nose is in the wringer, Time says, because he can’t
find much of an excuse for maintaining his strike call
against the ship owners and ship operators of the west
-coast. “Bridges has the choice of eating crow or explain
ing to his members why they should continue a strike
which has cost them more than $5,000,000 in wages,”
Time says.
It must be a hard thing for Bridges to justify in view
of the fact that the shipowners offered wage increases,
agreed to the hiring hall issue and in view of the addi
tional fact that east coast and Great Lakes unions had
gone back to work on the same terms as offered by the
west coast owners.
Bridges in fact has only one explanation and that is
he is carrying out orders from Moscow to overthrow
“capitalism” as free enterprise is branded in Russia.
Listen to Bridges’ utterances during the past decade of
strike fomenting:
In an address before the University of Washington
luncheon club May 14, 1937: “We take the stand that
we as workers have nothing in common with the em
ployers. We are in a class struggle and subscribe to the
belief that if the employer is not in business his products
will be necessary and we will be providing them when
there is no employing class. We frankly believe that day
is coming.”
In negotiating a meeting on June 28, 1948: “We pro-!
pose that you guys go out of business, if you propose anyj
such thing.” He was replying to an employer suggestion |
that the wage and hour structure be revised in the light
of an overtime-on-overtime decision of the Supreme!
Court.
On July 19, 1948, on being asked during negotiations!
whether he thought profit was not a legitimate motive
for being in business: “Making profits is not a good rea
son. My view is that the government should take over
industry and take all the profits out of it.”
On September 2, 1948: “When this strike is finished,
we will be out of business or they (the employers) will
be out of business.”
What can you do with a man like this, we ask you?
Perhaps it’s best just to let the wringer squeeze. Bridges
himself is tightening it.
ELECTIONS—TEST FOR DEMOCRACY
(New World News Service)
On November 2nd the eyes of the world will be on
the United States. Much more than a Presidential and
Rational election will be decided in this expression of
the will of a free people.
For Western Europe it will mean the end of an anx
ious period of waiting to know whether the essential
unity and bi-partisan policy of our democracy can sur
vive and surmount the fierce interplay of party politics.
For Berlin it involves the recommitment by the Amer
ican people of their declared intention to preserve free
dom at any cost in that stricken city. In the Far East
millions will be looking for the material and moral aid
which alone can stop the onslaught of Communism. In
Britain thinking people ask, “Will this election cement
the Anglo-American unity on a positive program or will
party politics split the country. Changes of Presidents
and governments, while important, are no guarantee
| ALL OVER BUT THE RUNNING
I <k ✓ v AV/. / Ji A.7tt ,V^C?
of remedy for the ills of a nation. Far beyond the choice
of candidates America must decide which ideology will
rule—inspired democracy or militant materialism.
As Senator Harry P. Cain of Washington sa’.d a few
weeks ago, “I believe every election issue relates direct
ly or indirectly to the world ideological struggle.”
A. R. K. Mackenzie, member of the British delegation
to the United Nations clarified this idea in an address
to a recent assembly of world statesmen. He said, ‘‘There
are times when national leaders think more of their own
position than of their nation’s salvation and then find
they are not even elected. There are other times when
men put their nation’s salvation before their own careers
and find they have moved into positions of highest re
sponsibility.” This is the simple moral issue facing every
candidate.
*
MR. BOWLES SCENTS A PLOT
Chester Bowles, the former OPA administrator and
now the Democratic candidate for governor of Connect
icut, is out with a warning.
Meat prices are going down, he says, only because the
“meat trust” is “manipulating” them to “bamboozle the
public on election day.” He predicts that, if the voters
let themselves be lulled by “a temporary rollback,”
prices will go up with a rush after Nov. 2.
Well, myabe. It seems rather more likely, however,
that the welcome phenomenon is due to causes other
than a hellish plot by the meat trust. For instance, to the
unwillingness or inabiliity of millinos of housewives to
buy meat at such prices as were being asked recently.
And to the fact that farmers have been sending large
numbers of spring pigs to the markets. And to the pros
pect that bountiful grain crops will encouarge the feed
ing and fattening of still larger numbers of hogs and cat
tle to be marketed a few months hence.
Far be it from us to venture into the realm of proph
| esy. It appears possible, though, that the law of supply
and demand is finally getting a few effective licks at the
butcher shop.
Bowles still believes he could outdo that law as a.con
troller of meat and other prices. Perhaps that’s only
natural. But his warning does incline us to wonder just
who really is trying to bam boozle the public.
THIS ONE THING WE KNOW
Nobody knows whether Vishinsky was bluffing when
he hinted that Soviet Russia now can make atomic
bombs. There is a strong suspicion that he was. But as
a British spokesman pointed out “everyone knows the
United States has the bomb, everyone knows she is will
ing to make her information available for international
control, provided she obtains by agreement reciprocity
from other nations regarding international control and
inspection.” When the Russians talk about outlawing the
atomic bomb, what they mean is outlawing the Ameri
can atomic bomb.
Ask CAB For More
And Better Air
Service To Alaska
• Continued from Page One)
government bureaus have filed no
tice of intentions to appear here
or in Washington, D. C., where
he second phase of the hearings
will begin, 10 days after the An
chorage sessions wind up, an es
timated week hence.
Anchorage chamber of com
merce witnesses were heard dur
ing the afternoon sessions. Cham
ber president Robert Atwood said
his organization does not advocate
one carrier over another, but
wants additional service.
ANCHORAGE (A5)—A parade of
witnesses kept up a steady chant
for increased air service to Alaska
at civil aeronautics board hearings
yesterday.
Carl Rentschler, president of the
Anchorage junior chamber of com
merce. read a resolution from his
group criticizing Northwest Air
lines because Northwest “carries
less than 20 per cent of the trade,
but has made no effor* to obtain
additional business.” The fact that
15 non-scheduled airlines are op
erating into Anchorage should
alone be enough to warrant more
certificated carriers, he said.
George Sundborg. consultant
for Alaska development board,
said his group wants to see an
Alaskan carriers, made up of Alas
kans interested in the Territory,
get certificates. It is impossible for
the Territory’s population to dou
ble in the next 10 years without
increased air transport, he said.
Mayor Ray Kohler of Fairbanks
presented the board with a city
council resolution calling for addi
tional service for Fairbanks for
routes to easaterti manufacturers
and south to Oregon and California
As high as 90 per cent of the per
ishables brought Fairbanks come
by air, he said.
Mayor Lee Bettinger of Kodiak
said his city has sufficient traffic
to warrant direct service to the
states. Kodiak residents spend
half a million dollars annually
traveling to Anchorage en route to
the States, he said.
. . . we have to go north to go
outh,” he mayor complained. ^
Alaska businessmen testified in
regard to the importance of air
transport in moving their goods
and about their plans to send large
f>argoe;? of seafood and furs to the
States by air.
Yesterday, spokesmen for Port
land, Ore., presented their case for
direct Portland-Alaska air serv
ice.
Harold S. Gill, representing the ^
Portland chamber of commerce,
said that city would like to be on
lines going direct to Alaska for
passengers, freight and air express.
He pointed out that Portland is a
wholesale drug center.
Lew Richards, aviation editor of
the Portland Oregonian, declare^
that Portland airports are open to
traffic when weather conditions
close those around Seattle. He said
the Seattle airport was closed for
11 days last February.
“Portland was the ‘capital' of
Alaska 100 years ago and the chief
port of entry,” said Richards. “We
are in love with the same gal—I
don’t mean Klondike Kate, but
aviation.”
•
Richards contended that Porfc<
land, served by five airlines, is a
national transportation hub and fi
natural distribution point for
goods and produce,
goods nad produce.