THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Noma, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 p. o. Box 6M
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAH
~----——
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER...Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffir*
at Nome. Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Wednesday, June 25, 1947
i
Food Prices
(New York Timse)
ALTHOUGH PRESIDENT TRUMAN continues to
give: major emphasis to the desirability of reductions in
industrial prices, what happens to food prices will
largely determine the extent to which the pressure of
higher living costs will be relieved. This is necessarily
so because the rise in food prices has accounted for
about 70 per cent of the increase in living costs since
the beginning of 1946. In this connection a distinctly
encouraging trend has developed during the past few
weeks. It will be recalled that earlier this year sharp
rises in the price of hogs and grain products led to wide
spread fears that a new cycle of price increases was un
der way It is now clear that such a conclusion was pre
mature.
All the indexes of wholesale food prices reflect a de
cline. The Dun and Bradstreet wholesale food price in
dex, which covers thirty-one foods, has dropped from
$6.70 on March 18 to $6.02 as of April 29, a decline of
about 10 per cent. The comprehensive United States
Bureau of Labor Statistics wholesale price inde^ for
foods has declined from about 171 in March to 160.3 for
the last week in*April. The sensitive price index report
ed daily by the BLS has declined from a peak of 422
(1939 equals 100) on March 17 to approximately 360 as
of the most recent date.
That the decline has been widespread is shown by an
examination of price trends for different types of foods.
The futures prfce for wheat has dropped from $3.00 to
about $2.50. Similar declines have been recorded for
other grains. Butter has declined -from 77 cents a pound
early in March to 62 cents a pound. Lard has fallen from
33 Vs cents a pound to 23 *4 cents a pound. Flour, which
was $7.85 a hundred pounds, has declined to $6.75. Hogs
have dropped from $30 a hundred pounds to under $24.
The rise in the official consumers’ price index in
March was due largely to a sharp rise in retail food
prices, which in turn reflected the rises in wholesale
prices which had taken place earlier this yea Jhe com
plete reversal of these earlier rises in wholesale prices
will probably be reflected in lower retail prices if past 1
experience is any guide. A continuation of these trends
will go far to help correct the unbalanced price relation
ships which have been causing so much concern.
While The Atomic Bomb Ticks Away i
(The Denver Post)
ALMOST TWO YEARS have ticked away since an
atom bomb from the Superfortress Enola Gay disolved
Hiroshima in one cosmic puff. Suddenly and with no
notice but the high drone of a departing airplane; a city
the size of Denver had become a flattened waste. Sixty
per cent of the people had been killed or seriously in
jured. Three days later, if happened to Nagasaki. Those
were the only atomic bombs ever dropped in anger. But
they may not be the last.
Most certainly, if the world cannot find a way to con
trol this infernal power, war will come again, and next
time it will come not with two bombs but with thou
sands. World War III—if the totalitarians have by that1
time developed the bomb, too—may mean the end of
western civilization. In the words of one grim jest:
“World War IV will be fought with bows and arrows.”
It is against this awful probability, and the failure to
reach an agreement with Russia, that the idea of pre- i
serving freedom through a union of the western democ- •
racies has been advanced by many political and intel-!
THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER_
—_* -
I
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Jk
lectual leaders. In the contemplation of this exciting
idea—and exciting is the word to describe a hopeful
program in this era of pessimism—the two articles by
Harold C. Urey, Nobel prize-winning physicist of the
University of Chicago, and Bertrand Russell, one of the
world’s greatest living philosophers, illustrate that idea.
There is a striking parallel in the conclusions of Dr.
Urey and Bertrand Russell.
Dr. Urey is a scientist whose studies contributed
greatly to the conquest of atomic power. Like many
94omic scientists, he feels a compelling obligation 4o ^o
h's w^dom to studying means of contr^B-'n^ this
marsfnr f^rn the laboratories. The idea ho advances is
not n'uv. There has. for instance been a considerable in
ternational movement in this direction since the publi
cation in 1939 of Clarence K. Streit’s “Union Now.” But
in his proposal, Dr. Urey brings the idea up to date in
terms of the atomic crisis..
The interview with Bertrand Russell is significant in
that, approaching the same problem from a different
direction, the great philosopher comes to a virtually
identical conclusion—that civilization’s principal hope
lies in the-union of free peoples.
Against the Communist conspiracy to line up a total
itarian bloc against the nations of the free west—ex
posed by present developments in eastern Europe—a
federal union of the democracies may be dictated not
by logic but by self preservation.
For in the background, the bomb that obliterated
Hiroshima and Nagasaki is still ticking.
Our “Problem” Generation
(By Roscoe Fleming)
' Worry About the Elders.
Not the Kids
Again we are being-asked what
the younger generation is coming
to? Again we hear from the elder
generation that the younger gener
ation is all wet, washed up, no
good. We are told the kids don’t
know from nothin’. They are friv
olous. They like to dance, and to
drive souped-up jalopies. They
have no responsibility.
Not long ago there was a five
year recess in such remarks, while
the younger generation went out
and won for us a worldwide war
which we of the elder generation
had had twenty-five years to
avert, yet failed to do so.
They included kids that our
supposedly universal education
system had somehow skipped, so
that the army had to teach them
their three R’s.
They included boys and girls
from high school, where their
frivolous conduct had worried
their elders.
They included bright-faced
; young scientists who somehow in
I the midst of the frivolity had man
aged to pick up enough stuff to
set the boundaries of science for
ward a hundred years.
More than one-fourth million of
those boys and girls did not come
back. We have remembered them
for a little while. We have re
ceived the living with love and
gratitude. Not very lasting, how
ever; not lasting enough to see
that they all got jobs, decent op
portunities, decent homes.
And now the honeymoon be
tween the generations is really
over, and again we hear dark and
worried criticisms of the manners
morals, frivolity and the probable
sad destiny of the younger gener
| ation.
It looks now that we shall fail
j to avert the next war, too, and the
then younger generation will have
to go into it for us. Until then, will
it be open season on them?
The truth is that the younger
9*mration has alder generation
NEW REGULATIONS
AUTHORIZE SALE OF
SMALL TRACTS OF
PUBLIC LANDS
Thousands of small tracts of
federal public land in the United
Slates and Alaska suitable for
home, camp, cabin, health, conva
lescent .recreational or business
sites, will be made availble for
purchase after one year’s tenancy
under government lease by new
regulations of the department of
the interior announced by Secre
‘ary J. A. Krug today. At the same
time the secretary issued orders
for the handling of these and cer
tain other types of public land ne- H
gotiations by field offices of the
bureau of land management, thus
providing speedier service to the
public through the saving of time
hitherto consumed in the refer
ence of such matters to Washing
ton for action.
Marking a major step in the de
partment’s liberalized program
for maximum beneficial use of the
' federal domain by the public un
der conservation safeguards, the
. new regulations and orders em
1 body important changes in policy
and procedure in the administra
tion by the bureau of land man
i a cement of the small tract act of
, 1938. This act provided for the sale
or lease of not to exceed five acres
■ of the public land to any one ap
plicant for the purpose indicated
4 but sale of the lands had not been
i provided for under departmental
policy until the new rules were
approved by Secretary Krug.
However, no lease will be offered
and no sale authorized prior to
:he classification by the Govern
’ rrvnt of the land as suitable for
i such disposal.
■j A separate act-passed by Con
I gress in 1944 gives war veterans
' a 90-day preference right in the
filing of applications for small
i tracts whenever additional areas
of public land are, through the
lifting of prior withdrawal orders
o- other administrative proced
ures, made available for disposal
; under applicable public land laws.
! This priority period begins on the
f»3rd day. after the area has been
; made available for such disposi- .
i tion.
The filing of an application con
1 fers no right upon the applicant to
settle upon, use or occupy the land
, j and all persons are warned not to
make : uch settlement and not to
j use or occupy the , land prior to
the issuance of a lease. Any such
unauthorized settlement, use or
occupancy constitutes a trespass.
Briefly summarized, the amend
ed regulations provide for the new
11 lease forms containing an option
i for purchase of the federal lands
under the small tract act. This op
• tion to purchase lands which have
been classified for lease and sale
would permit the lessee to apply
j for purchase of the land at the ex
!j piration of one year from the date
trouble, no vice versa. If the elder
generation, for example. had
worked for world peace with the
; fervor and intelligence shown, for
example, by the solemn-faced,
bright-eyed kids who made up the
youth section of the UNESCO con
ference, world peace might be
I more than a bright and vanishing
dream.
“' Just to spell it out, our‘ younger
generations are invariably bright
er, healthier, more basically in
telligent, and better prepared for
■ an inevitable heavier burden of
■ responsibility, than their parents
1 were.
j If this hadn’t been so, always,
’; we wouldn’t be here. If it ceases
to be so, God help the world!