THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
— . , i .
SI.50 PER MONTH S16.00 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.
Friday, November 8, 1946
Not An 111 Wind
(The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner)
It would be better if the boats were running, and we
won’t be out of the woods until they start again, but
meantime we can say that the maritime strike has not
.been an ill wind because it has blown us some good.
Sooner than we otherwise could have expected it, be
cause of the strike we have seen the air freight business
reach large proportions, and now we seem to have seen
the Alaska Highway problem cracked.
Just what these two developments will mean to Alas
kans in the final analysis cannot be discerned yet, but
they are gains against an obstacle that has long stood in
Alaska’s way. With two auxiliary means of supply the
"Territory will have a reinforced lifeline to the States
and will have the flavor of competition to sweeten the
supply question.
Ever increasing competition in the transportation
field has helped immeasurably in the development of
the United States. Each new method of hauling com
merce has been accorded a slice of the transportation
business but has not reduced the share held by the
others. Additional facilities have increased business to
make room for themselves.
The railroads did not put the steamships out of busi
ness but merely restricted their operations to certain
kinds of cargo and certain routes. Truck freight has
done the same thing to the railroads, and the airlines
are busily treating train and truck interests to a dose
of the same medicine.
The maritime strike has put a good deal of the steam
boats’ Alaska busines into the hands of air cargo com
panies and now perhaps into the hands of the truckers
as well. Much of this business will go back to the boats
when the strike ends, but not all of it. Experience will
show where air freight is better and worth the added
cost, and business in that class will stay with the air
lines. What can economically come by truck will con
tinue to come that way.
With three lines of supply, Alaskans can be assured
that two outfits will always be watching the third with
an eye to taking over part of his business dftng it better
or cheaper. Each will be trying to keep his own business
under the same rules.
I
Backing Up The Peace
(The Denver Post)
One year ago, stay-at-home citizens by the millions
flocked to harborsides to witness a giant, nationwide
Navy day show. There was fascination, then, in the
huge floating shapes—still gray with battle-paint but
rigged out with miles of bright-hued victory flags. This
was their first real opportunity to look over the mighty
seagoing weapon they had forged in mills and shipyards
hut whose fighting actuality they had been able only to
guess from sketchy and irregular news reports. Then,
too, victory was still fresh and peace rather bright and
shiny.
The contrast between that occasion and this is sharp
and in some respects painful. Gone to the junk yard
or into “mothballs” are most of the lean gray ships.
Gone ,too, is the enthusiasm as the navy plunges to the
other end of the emotional cycle habitual and peculiar
to the American public, which showers its military with
the most extravagant, even maudlin, attention in time
of war only to consign it again to a neglect that borders
on disrepute as soon as the shooting stops.
During this intervening year the navy has fought bit
terly against “subordination” to the army and air forces.
It has set off, measured, and studied aomic bombs Nos.
4 and 5. It has been decried on the one hand as a useless
military remnant byairmen and rocketeers, and lam
basted on the other by appeasers who somehow find in
it a threat of armed aggression by the United States. The
future is still in doubt, and the navy must wait longer
yet for the nation to set its course.
* Along with everyone else, the navy would like to
know the military ultimate of the atomic bombs. Bu!
regardless of that problem, there is meat for deep con
sideration in the assertions of Denvers Navy Day speak
er, Commodore Arleigh A. Burke, to the effect that the
navy can pay its peacetime way as an instrument of na
tional prestige and international understanding—a tan
gible expression to all peoples of American determina
tion to see that the recent war stays won.
“This country has an enviable reputation for moral
integrity and peaceful intentions,” he declares. “It re
mains the last great hope of most peoples for a lasting
peace. But these peoples can no longer put their faith in
words alone—not after Munich.”
The mere presence of American warships in the right
foreign ports at the right times, he believes, will speak
an uncomplicated language all these peoples can read
ily understand.
- - —
Luxury Item
(Anchorage Times)
During his testimony before the Tenney “little Dies”
Committee of the California legislature, Paul Robeson,
the singer and actor, was asked if he did not think that
Russia in 1917 was an ideal testing ground for Marxism.
The enthusiastically pro-Russian Mr. Robeson said,
“No, I think the best country in the world to test the
principals of Marxism might be the America of today.
Russia in 1917 was too poor.”
Some Soviet economists have said substantially the
same thing. It all confirms our growing suspicion that
Communism is not an economic panacea or even a prac
tical path to prosperity. It is a luxury which requires
a solid base of high production, high wages, high living
standards and plenty of capital on which to experiment.
So far as the world knows, this can be achieved only
through some form of capitalism. At least, it’s never
been achieved any other way. Nor does the world know
that Communism could maintain that solid base if it in
herited it. At least, it hasn’t shown any indication of be
ing able to.
Yet the Communists in America tell us that the onlv
way to correct our admitted social, economic and hu
manitarian injustices is to scrap our economic system
They sing variations on “Arise, Ye Prisoners of Starva
tion,” while the Russian peasant, under the blessings of
Maxism, envies the American farmer or worker hir
food, clothes, shoes, automobile, and other comforts.
THAT’S THAT By bruce gustin
a.
— ■" ^
The sugar famine in the eastern
part of the United States is, in at
least one respect, a carbon copy of
the recent meat famine. Bureau
craitc boneheadedness is a prime
factor just as it was in the cause
of the meat shortage. When there
was plenty of meat on the hoof in
this country, OPA price ceilings
kept meat from American tables.
Now when sugar is piling up in
the beet sugar areas of the west,
OPA regulations prevent its ship
emnt -into eastern states whose
supply from Cuba and Porto Rico
has been cut off by a maritime
strike.
The beet sugar campaign is in
full swing in Colorado and other
states in the Rocky Mountain em
pire. The sugar beet harvest is
well advanced. Beet processing
plants are running full tilt. Ware
, houses in this region are bulging
with sugar. On the eastern sea
ooard, there isn’t enough sugar to
cash the ration stamps the govern
ment has issued. But the OPA has
divided the country into two zones
for the distribution of sugar. And
it won’t let the western zone ship
part of its beet sugar surplus into
the eastern zone.
Daniel L. Dyer, New York sugar
broker, says OPA restrictions on
shipment of western beet sugar
into eastern states have not been
lifted because OPA is afraid the I
government might be accused of
sympathizing with trucking oper
ators which might incite further
strikes. James Marlow, Associated
Press news analyst, reports that
on OPA official said these restric
toins would not be removed “be
cause OPA did not want to be put
in the position of a strike-breaker.
He said labor leaders in the east
ern strike would blame OPA for
trying to break the trucking and
| maritime strikes. What d
think of that?
There’s speculation in Wa
ton, D. C. that the next cor
; as soon as it meets in Jai
i may kill OPA. If OPA is mo
terested in promoting s
i which are starving American
pie than it is in assuring ade
food supplies here in the l
! States, Congress should hast
I hold a special session and g<
of this bureaucratic monsti
right now.
Governmental action to \
one of these strikes might b
little discretion and regard
public welfare into the hea<
John L. Lewis and other arr<
labor leaders who seem to 1
I there is no limit to what the A
! ican people will tolerate in
way of strike abuse. There u
be no hesitancy in Washin
about breaking any lockout
employer might attempt. Afte
the rights of 140 million Amei
people are paramount to thos
any organized group in either
dustry or labor.
Senator Robertson (Rep.) of
oming sized up the situation
curately when he said ‘‘the
ure of the administration to 1
die strikes is superseding the (
as the dominant cause for pc
alarm.” Public pressure has foi
removal of most OPA controls
restrictions. But nothing has t
done by the Truman adminis
tion to put a stop to strike in
ference with American prosper
And now John L. Lewis’ threa
another nation-wide coal str
hangs heavy over the nation.
Three hours after a Czecho:
vak people’s court convicted h
Colonel General Daleuge of ore
ing the extermination of Lid
the notorious ‘‘Butcher of Lidi
was hanged. That was a good
well done. Hanging really was
easy a death for this monster v
ordered the slaughter of all
176 maleadults of Lidice, sent
women into concentration cam
scattered the children and tl
destroyed the entire village. I
it was the most ignominious dei
a civilized people could decree.
The international committee :
the study of European problem^
a private organization with me
bers from Great Britain, Belgiu
Denmark, the Netherlands, Frar
and Norway—thinks the Unit
Nations experiment will be a fa
ure in preventing war and wai
to organize a world federation
nations to preserve peace. H<
such a federation could be e
pected to succeed if the Unit
Nations plan cannot, is beyo>
understanding. The federati
plan appears impossible, anyho
It would involve surrenders
national sovereignty to which Ru
sia certainly would not agree.
MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM
CREMIDAS ARRIVE IN NOM1
Mr. and Mrs. William Cremid
arrived from Seattle last Thur
day morning with the Pan Amf„'
ican to settle the affairs of tl
late Gus Cremidas and arranj
for his funeral.
Gus Cremidas, who was we
liked by all who knew him mac
many friends in Nome, came froi
Mavromate, Greece, where he ws
born on Nov. 20, 1892. He becam
an American citizen in 1920 an
made Nome his home.
His funeral will be held at tl]
Federated Church on Sunday a1
ternoon at two o’clock.
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POSTAL INSPECTOR
IN TOWN
R. B. Clifton, postal inspecto
is on a routine check-up for h
department.