THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
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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.
Monday, July 8, 1946
“WHEN CAN I GET ONE?”
TREMENDOUS INDEED was public interest in pri
vate planes exhibited recently at the National Avi
ation Show (New York); hundreds of orders were
placed for various types of planes and the most-asked
question on the part of buyers and would-be buyers
was “When can I get one?”
Whether the favorable acceptance of the models
displayed at the Show can be accepted as a barometer
for the future of personal planes is something that only
time can prove. But there is no question about the fact
that private flying is going to expand rapidly in the
near future and that one of the big fields for small
planes is going to be their use by industry. Already aj
number of industrial organizations own ships and use
them to save time for their executives who must travel
long distances between plants or to conventions cind
the like. This use of non-commercial planes is and will
continue to be a solid backlog for aircraft manufactur
ers. It does not depend upon thrill seekers, but rather
upon the inherent values of aviation itself.
In the June issue of Scientific American Dr. A1-'
exander Klemin gives essential and pertinent facts
about personal planes. Dr. Klemin is writing a series
of articles for this magazine which will take up other
aspects of private flying so that the average person may
gain a complete and unbiased view of the advantages
and disadvantages of this most modern "form of trans
portation. •
(Scientific American)
I
WOOD FACES TROUBLE '
OFTEN DEALT with in the pages of Scientific Amer
ican have been the various aspects of wood pro
duction and use. Right now it appears that wood faces
a two-forked impasse. First is the all too familiar cost
of production versus price control. But in the long
view this must be considered as a passing phase. Far
more important is the second fork: Growth. In 1945,
for example, almost twice as many board-feet of lum
ber were cut from American forests as were grown.
Obviously such a situation cannot continue for very
long. Of course, the wood industry in general is com
pletely familiar with the facts of the case and is doing
something about it. But what is being done is not by
any means enough. More industrialists must realize
the importance of wood in our national economy, and
add their strength to adequate plans for the restora
tion and perpetuation of our forest resources.
Above all, wood must not be thought of simply in
terms of lumber. Wood offers a vast storehouse of raw
materials for a number of industries other than those
concerned with building materials. Pulp and paper
come next to mind, but then there are such diversifi
cations as textiles and textile sizings, plastics, dyes,
insect repellants, perfumes, resins, essential oils, gums,
alcohols, sugar, and a thousand and one other materials
for the chemical and allied industries.
Faced with even this abbreviated list of wood pro
ducts, the problem looms large. Our forest lands are
far from producing their maximum yield. Our research
laboratories have only scratched the surface of the po
tentialities of wood. Our forests can and must become
our largest source of raw materials for the greatest
number of industries. But they can reach the goal only
by intelligent application of scientific principles of ad-i
_•_I
I
equate reforestation.
This subject of reforestation is one that has been
bandied about for generations. Now the limit is ap
proached. An understanding has been reached of the
importance of the forests of the United States, but all
too little has been done about it. Many industries, old
and new, depend on wood. If for no other reason than
for their contribution to these industries, the forests
of the nation must be put in shape for maximum pro
ductivity.
(Scientific American)
HIS WEIGHT IN DIAMONDS
THE MOGUL rulers of India received tribute equal
to their weight in gold. The Aga Khan, who is not
a secular ruler at all and who weighs 243 pounds and
8 ounces, went them one better recently in Bombay—
he received his weight in diamonds, to the reported
value of $2,200,000. If the Aga Khan wished to do so
he could keep this money for himself. Having other
means of his own, he will employ it to help members
of the Ismaili sect of Mohammedism, of which he is
the spiritual head. His other means, which are believed
to be stupendous, come from the voluntary contribu
tions of millions of his followers.
The Aga Khan is a prince above princes. His bi
ography in the British Who’s Who lists his honorary
degree from Cambridge, his British honors and decor
ations, his chairmanship of the Indian Round Table
Delegation of 1930 and 1931, his presidency of the
League of Nations Assembly in 1937, his victories in
the Derby, his eleven-gun salute and, almost incident
ally, his religious role. He is, in fact, a descendant of
Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed, and as such is
believed by his followers to have divine attributes.
These are not visible to Western eyes. Indeed, he does
not parade them for the benefit of his cosmopolitan
friends. On the worldly scale he is a character with
two phases: an Indian leader who has tried to unite
India’s Moslems, and has done a good deal for the ec
onomic welfare of his Indian followers, many of them
converted Hindus; and an international playboy of a
type not so common as it used to be.
# Indians who are not getting enough to eat now and
who face the prospect of considerably less if the
threatened famine is not averted by large imports of
foreign grain might wonder a little about the Aga
Khan’s spiritual qualities. But one of his greetings on
the occasion of his anniversary celebration came from
Mahatha Gandhi.
(New York Times)
\LooKrmr
I AJStJSAD
Fw GEORGE Si BENSON
^k Fraldtit—MsfOaf M|v'
UNDULANT SOCIALISM
A sick republic, like a human
invalid, passes through a criiTs
in the course of any protracted
illness. After the crisis, the pa
tient rallies to a quick recovery
or sinks with alarming haste to
ward extinction. Whatever is to
be done after a crisis must be ac
complished with dispatch, or it
is too late. The English gov
ernment passed through a crisis
approximately a year ago.
Since England’s current admin
istration proclaimed itself owner
and operator of the coal mines,
Britain has been viewed popular
ly as Socialistic — one of the ooU
lectivist nations. Not all the in
dividuals in the Empire are so
cialists. Large elements are not.
But this large minority is being
forgotten. Curtains are being
drawn. The crisis is over and
England has gone left.
A Long Time Dead
There is something strangely
final abaut it when a free peo
ple turns its course toward a
State Socialism. Liberty never
comes back without a revolution
and then it’s not the same: it
is the testimony of recorded his
tory. Industrially, England is a
coal country and private enter
prise lost its last stronghold on
the enchanted island when King
Coal surrendered.
Now the ailment that prostr^
ted John Bull has been communi
cated to Uncle Sam. The symp
toms are unmistakable as undul
ant fever; wave upon wave of col
lectiveist power, with a show of
growing intensity: Our govern
ment has taken over our coal
mines from their owners because
of work stoppages through strikes ^
—strikes by the best paid group
of mine workers on earth.
Here's The Pattern
I think perhaps the workers
ought to have had an increase
in pay, which they no doubt could
have obtained without the strike
Nevertheless they struck and gov
renment took over the business
long enough, at least, to close a
new contract giving a raise of
$1.85 a day per man and a royal
ty of 5c a ton on coal to give
their union a “welfare” fund. 4
This new “welfare” fund has
no relation to the union’s sick
and accident fund, already large.
This contract, however, will raise
the price of coal 25c to 30c a ton
and build up the “welfare” fund
at the rate of 25 million dollars 1
a year. The Senate has approved
the executive department’s right
to impose this contract on the
mine owners when they take their
property back. There is the first
attack of undulant socialism.
Works Liks This
Government can now control
the cost of coal to the owner of
a mine. By fixing labor's wage,
a ruler can make coal production
cost whatever suits his fancy.
Government already controls the
price of coal to the consumer
through workings of the OPA.
The neck of the coal industry is
in a legal nut-cracker and gov