THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 613
$1.50 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, January 11, 1946
BRITAIN’S INDUSTRIAL EFFORT
(Daily Alaska Empire)
That newspapers provide a history of contemporary
life is a familiar fact. The Times of London has gone a
step farther, and recently published a formal, compre
hensive history of the industrial effort of Great Britain
and the Empire during the war years. In a 32-page spe
cial issue, maintaining the traditional format of the
Times, the great London daily has published a remark
able survey of what must be considered an amazing
national achievement.
In 1938, when the Fascist dictators were able to ride
roughshod over democratic nations in their weakness,
Great Britain spent only 6 per cent of her national in
come for defense purposes. Even after the war was
under way, and the fall of France an emergent fact,
Britain was devoting no more than 20 per cent of her
income to war. But four years later, when the stagger
ing force of ships and men, tanks and planes was cross
ing the Channel for the Normandy beachheads, Britain
was using 55 per cent of a much increased national in
come for the war effort.
The detailed story of this conversion to war is a sig
nificant historical document and likewise a fascinating
chronicle. Its publication is at once a notable enterprise
and a valuable contribution to the history of the war.
MECHANICAL BRAIN
(New York Times)
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s automa
tic calculating machine, which weighs a hundred tons
and includes in its bewildering array of parts some
2,000 electron tubes, 150 motors, several hundred miles
of wire and thousands of relays, comes about as near
being human as any invention can. Give it the velocity
of the wind, the temperature, the rotation of the earth,
the barometric pressure, the height and speed of a hos
tile airplane and a few other variables, and the com
mander of an anti-aircraft battery is supplied with the
facts he needs to score a hit—all in a matter of seconds.
Tell the machine to analyze earthquakes, sound waves,
the vagaries of electrical machinery and it obliges.
Problems which it once took experts months to solve are
dealt with in hours.
Mathematics is logic, and logic proceeds step by step
from a premise to an inevitable conclusion. Here is a
machine that goes through this step-by-step process as
if it were a living brain. What looks like reasoning is
transferred to gears, tubes, coils and levers. Yet the
resemblance is deceptive. The operator need not be a
mathematician, but a mathematician must prepare the
problem with the aid of a code book, so that holes can
be punched in a tape much like those of the paper roll
of an automatic piano-player. The perforated tape states
the problem and indicates the method of solving it, so
that the machine is in reality only a little more wonder
ful than a Linotype.
The implications of this new machine go far beyond
mathematics. We catch a glimpse of a new mechanics
with human intelligence used primarily to design mech
anism which will be completely automatic, self-regu
lating and even self-preparing. Before we know it the
engineer will punch his directions in the form of holes
in a roll of paper, mount the roll in a master-machine
and push a button, whereupon a whole series of con
nected subsidiary machines will proceed to grind, peel,
measure, polish and shape pieces of metal and assemble
them into an automobile or a vacuum cleaner.
WELCOME BANQUET
V _____
Outlines Legislative Program To
I Promote Labor-Management Peace
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Louis*
Ruthenburg, president of Servel,
Inc.\ Evansville, Ind., said recent
ly in a speech before the National
Metal Trades Association that the
employees of American industry
rightfully demand the highest real
wages consistent with steady em
ployment.
“However, if under misguided
leadership,” Mr. Ruthenburg said,
LOUIS RUTHENBURG
“the worker demands a wage that
results in prices too high for con
sumer acceptance, he disturbs the
economic balance and may, there
fore, deprive himself of steady
employment.”
The president of Servel stressed
to the Metal Trades meeting that,
| “This Republic is founded on the
precept that all men stand equal
before the law,” and, he pointed
out, that it is imperative that Con
gress adjust any inequities such
as some presented in the National
Labor Relations Act.
“Under the National Labor Re
lations Act,” Mr. Ruthenburg
pointed out, “the employer may
be heavily penalized for unfair la
bor practices, but the law is com
pletely silent as to unfair prac
tices on the part of labor. That is
un-American class legislation.”
To remedy this situation Mr.
Ruthenburg outlined a two-point
legislative program which must be
carried out, he stressed, to bring
about a situation where true “la
bor-management peace” may ex
ist.
Urges Action
Mr. Ruthenburg, who came to
►-1
Cleveland from the Labor-Man
agement Conference in Washing
ton, said, “Let an aroused and in
formed public opinion demand
that the Congress of the United
States, once more responsive to
the broad public interest . . . take
immediate steps which shall be as
follows:
“1. Revise the Wagner Act, pre
serving all of labor’s equitable
rights of organizing for collective
bargaining but balancing every
unfair labor practice for which
the employer is held responsible
by an equally weighted practice
for which Organized Labor must
assume responsibility.
“2. Enact such legislation as
may be needed to rescind all of
Organized Labor’s immunities and
special privileges under all laws
of the land, not excluding anti
monopoly measures, tax laws and
all other law? which apply to busi
ness corporations.”
Mr. Ruthenburg, using as his
title “Sound Industrial Relations
for Sound Industrial Progress,”
stressed that modern business
management is a trusteeship. It
holds in trust the interests of three
principal groups—consumers, em
ployees, and investors, and each of
these three groups has equal right
and power to disturb the balance
and injure itself and its associ
ated groups.
“Modem management is of it
self a complex structure,” he said,
“and it can not be effective with
out unobstructed channels of com
munication among all elements of
the managerial structure — from
i top management to those respon
sible for such functions as engin
eering, production, accounting and
sales, and from those who are pri
marily responsible for such func
tions to every last subordinate in
line and staff positions.
“Moreover, these channels must
be ‘two-way passages’ because
I management which is not con
: stantly sensitive to and informed
j of the changing attitudes of men
. and women who work at machines
I and desks and on assembly lines
cannot function effectively.”
! In closing his speech he again
File Income Taxes Early
For Early Refunds ^
--
|
Taxpayers of Washington and
Alaska are in competition with
taxnav^rs of four other states in
i regard to lP4f> income tax refunds.
Plans for the refunding program
for early this year were disclosed
by Clark Squire, collector of in
ternal revenue, or. returning to
Tacoma from a trip to Washing
ton, D. C., and New York.
While in the national capital
Squire was advised by bureau of
ficials that the processing division
this year will handle income tax
returns from only 10 collection^
districts instead of all 64 districts
as in the past. By such reduction
in its load, the processing division
expects to concentrate on those
districts having most turnover in
employment and thus enable the
bureau to advance the date for
completion of the bulk of refunds.
Squire urges' Washington and
Alaska taxpayers to file as soon
as possible after January 1. He
suggests further that employers
prepare and deliver Form W-2
promptly to the employee and at
the same time send Form W-2a to
the collector’s office.
“Cooperation all along the line
is necessary if we are to make re
funds early,” Squire said. “First,
we must have prompt action b^
employers in furnishing employees
with Form W-2. Second, taxpayers
must file their income tax returns
quickly. Meanwhile, employers
should forward us their W-2a
forms.
“Next, it will be our job to seg
regate various types of returns
and express as rapidly as possible
those which are to be processed
in New York. The more we can
deliver in January the faster will
refund checks flow into the hands
of our taxpayers.” *
S. David Mazen, Nome Postmas-,
ter. states that there is now avail
able a supply of Forms W-2 and
W-3 at the Post Office for those
who require them.
War Department Thanks
West Coast Cities For
Hospitality To GIs
Headquarters Alaskan Depart
ed P. Patterson has issued a state
ment in which he thanked the
ment in which he tnhnked the
West Coast cities and towns for
their splendid hospitality toward^
service men stranded there for the
Christmas holidays.
Secy. Patterson said, ‘“American
generosity and hospitality saved
thousands of returning Army vet
erans, unable to reach their homes
by December 25, from a lonely,
gloomy Christmas in some port or
inland transportation center.
“Dinners, entertainments, gifts,
open houses—in a score of ways,
large and small, true American
friendliness made the soldier
away from home realize that all »
America is his home, that what he '
fought for is good.
“This hospitality, evidenced in
metropolis and hamlet, is, to me,
further proof that ours is genu
inely a people’s Army and that
the American people appreciate
this fact.”
emphasized the need for remedial
legislation.
“Under such conditions ... as
exist today . . . true collective bar- h
gaining is impossible. Shotgun
bargaining and coercion are the
order of the day.”