Forecast And
Weather Report
Nome and Vicinity
•f
Forecast and weather report for
Nome and vicinity:
Cloudy tonight with rain and
fog, becoming partly cloudy Tues
day afternoon.
Lowest temperature tonight 35,
highest Tuesday 45.
Nome data as of 7:30 a.m. to
day:
Precipitation last 24 hours 0.05.
Total precipitation this month
2.10.
Temperatures last 24 hours.
Highest 49. Lowest 36.
Maximum wind last 24 hours
18 mph from the SSW.
Sunrise 1:18 a.m. Sunset 10:47
p.m.
Comparative data:
Temperatures one year ago to
day. Highest 60. lowest 33.
Extreme temperatures on this
day since 1907:
Lowest 27 in 1910.
Highest 70 in 1929.
Data for other selected stations
as of 7:30 a.m. today:
Station Temp. Weathre
Barrow 35 Cloudy
Point Hope 34 Rain •
Kotzebue 46 Cloudy
Shishmaref 38 Cloudy
Wales 34 Fog
Gam bell 33 Fog
Nome 37 Cloudy
Unalakleet 52 Cloudy
Bethel 52 Cloudy
McGrath 55 Cloudy
Anchorage 53 Cloudy
Fairbanks 64 Cloudy
Juneau 60 Cloudy
Whitehorse 60 Cloudy
Ketchikan 53 Cloudy
Edmonton 62 Partly cloudy
MRS. NELS SWANBERG JR.
AND FAMILY ARRIVE
_ I
|
Mrs. Nels Swanberg Jr., and;
family were passengers on thei
SS Baranof arriving from Seattle.
Mr. Sw-anberg came in from the
mining camp at Council to meet
them. They will spend the sum
mer at the camp.
Join The Regulars
Drop in at the
GLUE POT
SPECIAL
BLUE RIBBON
GRADE-“A”
EGGS
75 c PER DOZEN
Bon Marche
Store
Atty. General
Rivers Reports
On Rate Hearing
JUNEAU, June 17, —Ralph Riv
ers, Attorney General, for the
Territory of Alaska, made a sum
mary import of the general rate
hearing, in the steamship case at
Washington, D. C. which was re
leased today.
The report states, “The U. S.
Maritime Commission rate hear
ing which I attended in Washing
ton, D. C.. was a continuance of
the case started last November
at Seattle. The petitioner, War
Shipping Administration, had dir
ected the Steamship Companies
as its agents to carry the burden
of proving the need of an increase
in freight tariffs a£ a prerequi
site to return of the ships to the
companies for private operation.
Wages and other costs had gone
up, labor slow-down practices had
crept in, and the ships had gotten
badly run down because of inten
sive war use.
“The Development Board re
tained David Scoll, a highly qual
ified attorney who had been con
nected with former Alaska rate
hearings and who had previously
fought for lower rates to Alaska.
Acting through Mr. Scoll and with
the help of the Governor and the
Delegate, the Development Board
succeeded:
1. In getting a continuation of
the case until last month, thus
permitting OPA to complete its
Alaska survey, and enabled Don
O’Connor to act effectively as
Alaska’s economist at the hearing.
2. In prevailing upon the Re
conversion Director to cause WSA
to continue the operation at ex
isting rates beyond the original
March 30th deadline—this at a
saving to Alaska shippers and cus
tomers of about three-quarters of
a million dollars per month since
that time .
3. In prevailing upon WSA to
make its own analysis based on
1945 experience in lieu of the
guesswork which the companies
had introduced at the Seattle
hearing.
In addition to credit as a mem
ber of the Alaska Development
Board, the Governor deserves per
sonal credit for invoking his top
flight contacts and his know-how
in dealing with Washington, D. C.,
and for recruiting such able men
to do the in-fighting.
What looked like an immediate
disaster last November does not
now look so black. WSA will
likely operate the ships at ex
isting rates for another six months
at least, during which time the
post-war turmoil might abate to
some extent and some evidence
of stabilization make an appear
ance.
One of the reasons why WSA
is not now reluctant to continue
the operation is that its own an
alysis based on actual 1945 ex
perience shows that about a 15
per cent increase in freight rates
and fares would have entirely
covered the 1945 operation. Of
course, the WSA analysis gave
the operation credit for the equi
valent of freight charges on gov
ernment cargo and fares for per
sonnel transported, the same as
if the government had actually
patronized a private carrier. It
also gave credit for hauling the
U. S. Mail etc., thus showing that
the government lost a compara
tively small amount of money dur
irjg 1945 in the Alaska trade. Ac
cordingly if it were not for stop
pages thus far caused by labor
troubles, the prognosis for 1946
would not be too bad. However,
the management portion of the
Alaska operation shares with lab
or in showing no great standards
of efficiency, and the consumer
has been paying for marked in
efficiency. For instance Mr.
Skinner, of the Alaska Steamship
Co. ,who is new to the Steamship
business, says that it has been
many years since the rate sched
ule has been analyzed and over
hauled as to individual commodity
rates and that the present sched
ule of base rates is out of date,
and that he would have a study
made for the WSA if directed to 1
do so. Thus it is apparent that
WSA should rewrite the entire
schedule while it still has control
and get the Maritime Commission
to authorize same. The rate on
some commodities should be low
ered; the rate on some should be
upped. All items should be ad
justed one way Or the other to
get maximum revenues compat
ible with the development of Al
aska and that means without any
increase in the average overall
freight rate.
“Accord ng t > Mr. O’Connor’s
testimony, in connection with
which he qualified as an econom
ist who had made a study of the
Alaska problem, other efficien
cies could be introduced such as
the palleting of case good' etc.
This refers to binding item' onto
a board into aggregates of 'ev
eral unit' such as 20 cases of
milk, and thus cut down handling
costs. Many other ideas were
suggested as worthy of explora
tion and possible adoption. The'e
included in revaluing the fleet',
lowering charter hire as now paid
by the WSA to the companies,
extending railway mediation prin
ciples with modifications to the
maritime trade, with compulsory
arbitration, and requiring per
formance of collectively bargain
ed contracts as to both manage
ment and labor. Of course, some
of these advances would call for
legislation by Congress. It was
also indicated by the evidence
that to get efficient service at low
rates the method of requiring cer
tificates of convenience and nec
essity might have to be extended
to the Alaska waterborne frade.
On the subject of new 'hips,
the evidence as to the financial
• Continued on Page Eight*
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ANNOUNCING
(
S. S. ROSE KNOTT
FREIGHTER - Scheduled to Sail
JUNE 20th
For Solomon, Golovin, Unalakleet and St Michael
SS TERMINAL KNOT - Freighter, scheduled to
sail from Seattle on June 13th for Kotzebue sound
points.
Nome, Teller, Weles. Shi&hmaref. Kotzebue, Keewalik and
Deering.
ALASKA STEAMSHIP
COMPANY
Thomas J. Keating, Nome Agent