THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska _ _ _
Telephone: Main 125 ®°x
SI.50 PER MONTH $16.00 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 16, 1945
TRUTH IS SUFFICIENT! WHY TELL LIES?
Freedom of the press also carries an equal amount of
responsibility to portray facts, certainly not fiction.
Nome’s recent storm damage was given terrific pub
licity throughout Alaska and the United States in write
ups of such fantastic proportions that something will
have to bo done about it.
The Fairbanks News-Miner, on October 30, carried
an item credited to the Fairbanks Weather Bureau that
“Front Street in Nome was under nine feet of water.”
The Anchorage Times carried a headline story on the
same theme but with elaborate details, originating
from “the Lord knows where.”
It seems that all of the (U.P.) reports in the States,
were of the “b llooned’ type. A San Diego, Calit., morn
ing paper, dated October 31, carried an item headlined
“Flooded Nome Gets Supplies.” The item went on:
“(UP)—The Army rushed relief supplies to stricken
Nome today in the wake of an Arctic gale that sent a
50-foot wall of water, blocks of ice, and drift logs
smashing into the center of town.” . .. “There was no
reported loss of life, apparently because many residents
fled their wooden homes and sought shelter in the
three-story, concrete Federal building.”
“Incomplete weather bureau data indicated that
winds of stronger than 65 miles an hour swept the surf
into thoroughfares and buildings.” . . . “The heavy
winds and seas tore out waterfront bulkheads like
matchsticks. Eskimos and whites moved out of their
homes, as ice floes thundered into town,” (probably on
horseback.—Ed.) “smashing frame buildings and rip
ping out telephone and powerlines.”
The item went on to state that prisoners were re
leased to help; also: “Buildings in the central section
of town, fronting directly on Norton Sound, bore the
brunt of the damage. Cars were swept off streets into
the surf.”
It is not the newspapers themselves who are to blame,
but some unscrupulous reporter, trying to scoop some
story which he hopes will be true by the time the pa
pers are on the streets.
This is not the first time Nome has been “VICTIM
IZED.” Romanticists, politicians, writers, and various
and sundry individuals wishing to get their names in
the headlines, tell some tall tale of the “frozen north,”
“land of the midnight sun,” or “Uncle Sam’s icebox,” to
a reporter who takes it for gospel, not knowing the real
truth, and prints the story for a fact.
Nome is not a “Paradise.” Neither is it a “Hell Hole”
as some would make it. Nome is just a nice little “Home
Town,” and we like it.
STARVATION DIET
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Announcement that the Boeing Aircraft Company
lias produced a fast new fighter plane, ^considered the
most versatile in the world, poses again the question of
our aerial defenses.
Are we to slip back to the decades of fatty degenera
tion after World War I, when we became a fifth rate
aerial power in a world that even then was arming for
World War n?
it came as a sickening shock to the American public
five years ago when the truth of the inadequacy of our
combat planes was brought home.
The British, the Germans, the Japs, and even the
smaller poverty-stricken nations of Europe were better
prepared for aerial warfare than the richest nation in
the world—the nation which had invented and devel
oped the airplane.
And even now the great warplanes which were pio
neered in the engineering laboratories of Boeing and
other aircraft factories of the nation are £ast becoming
obsolete.
If war comes again—which God forbid!—it will be
aerial warfare.
It will be total warfare in which no nook or cranny
of this broad land will be safe from attack from the air.
And until the day comes when the nations have
learned to live in Christian brotherhood, this country
must maintain adequate armament to meet any emer
gency.
Airplane companies can not maintain the pace of
aerial development without substantial military busi
ness from our government.
Our aerial defense between World Wars I and II
was literally starved on the pitiful “token” orders
which were placed by the army and navy.
Let’s not repeat the tragic error.
CLAMPING DOWN THE LID
WASHINGTON
NEWS-LETTER
j
By MARY LEE COUNCIL
Secretary to E. L. (Bob) Bartlett.
Delegate to Congress from Alaska
ALASKA AIR ROUTE
HEARINGS COMPLETED
Tho heaings before the Civil
Aeronautics Board in the matter
of Alaska air routes have been
completed, and all evidence has
gone to the Board for decision.
Alaska cities and all the Alaska
airlines have submitted their
briefs Delegate Bartlett has been
informed that it may be months
before a decision is reached by
the board.
The hearings were held follow
ing a report made some time ago
by the examiners of the Civil Aero
nautics Board to the Board in con
nection with the establishment of
new and additional air transpor
tation between the United States
and Alaska. In the report, the ex
aminers recommended that certif
icates be issued to Northwest Air
lines, Inc., for service bewteen
New York and Chicago to Hong
Kong through Anchora'**. to Alas
ka Airlines for service f-om An
chorage, via Juneau, ^etchikan,
to Seattle, to Pan American Air
ways for a consolidat on of serv
ice between Seattle an ’ Fairbanks
naming Juneau, Whitehorse and
Anchorage as intermediate points.
The hearings just completed
took the form of appeals from the
examiners’ report.
JUNEAU TO RECEIVE
FWA FUNDS
Federal Work Agency has ap
proved the advance of Federal
funds in the amount of $4,000 to
the City of Juneau in the Agen
cy’s program to encourage prepa
ration of drawings and specifica
tions for the construction of pub
lic works when materials and
manpower become available, ac
cording to information given
Delegate Bartlett.
The advance to Juneau is to be
used in planning a combination
municipal building and jail, the
total cost of which is estimated at
$120,000. Under the FWA plan,
the advance of $4000 is repayable
without interest only if the city
completes the building at some fu
ture time, but is not repayable if
the contemplated constuction is
not completed.
LUMBER FOR
EASTERN MARKETS
Lumber companies in Alaska
will be able to sell their products
in the United States at Alaska
ceiling prices, according to infor
mation given Delegate Bartlett
following his request for such ac
tion.
The Office of Price Administra
| tion has informed the Alaska OPA
• office that the regulation which
prohibits the sale of lumber mill
products in the States at Alaska
prices has been amended, thereby
making it practicable to ship
Alaska lumber to help ease the
shortage in the eastern part of the
United States.
INDIAN CLAIMS
COMMISION
Representative Jackson of
Washington, Chairman of the
j House Committee on Indian Af
fairs, has introduced a bill cre
ating an Indian Claims Commis
! sion looking toward the settle
I ment of all claims of Indians
against the United States.
Under this measure, the Com
• mission would hear and determine
! all claims of every nature on be
j half of Indian tribes, bands or
other groups of American Indians
residing within the territorial lim
its of the United States or Alaska.
The final determinations of the
Commission would be embraced
in reports to Congress and will be
considered as the final judgment
to be paid in the same manner as
are judgments of the Court of
Claims.
LAND IN NATIONAL
FORESTS
In a move designed to give en
couragement to post-war business
and industrial development in the
Territory, Delegate Bartlett has
introduced a bill increasing the
max:mum area of tracts which can
be leased in the national forests
of Alaska from five to eighty
acres, with the exception of sum
mer home tracts.
At the present time, leases for
tracts in national forests are con
fined to five acres “for the con
struction of summer homes, ho
tels, stores and other structures,
needed for creation of public con
v e n i ence.” Delegate Bartlett’s
amendatory measure enlarges the
uses for which leases for land
tracts can be granted by the Sec
retary of Agriculutre to include
hospitals, orphanages, churches,
hunting and fishing clubs, public
garages, machine shops, ship-re
pair yards, marine ways, fish
packing establishments, wood
working plants, mineral and peat
processing plants, fuel-oil storage
and distributing stations, bus sta
tions, and airplane landing fields.
The bill also provides that the
five-acre restriction can be in
creased to eighty acres with the
exception of summer home tracts.
The bill would also eliminate
the present provision of one tract
to one person or concern, except
in the case of summer home sites.
VISITORS
George R. Rayburn, business
manager of Wien Airlines, Inc., of
Fairbanks, called on Delegate
Bartlett while in Washington for
the Civil Aeronautics Board hear
ings.
Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Woodley of
Woodley Airways at Anchorage
have also been in Washington for
the CAB hearings and were visi
tors in Delegate Bartlett’s office.
H. L. Faulkner, well-known
Alaska attorney of Juneau, has
called on Delegate Bartlett while
in Washington on business mat
ters.
Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Williams of
Juneau are Washington visitors.
Mr. Willimas is general superin
[ tendent of the Alaska Juneau Gold
Mining Company.
Dr. Lor in T. Oldroyd, director
of the Experiment Station and Ex
tension Service at the University
of Alaska, has been in Washing
ton on business and has visited
Delegate Bartlet’s office.