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.
Monday, September 30, 1946 j
Statehood and Taxes
(Alaska Weekly)
Further proof of the dis-similarity between the for
mer Secretary of the Interior and Secretary Krug, if
any be needed, is his open assertion that Alaska should
have statehood at the earliest possible moment. It will
be recalled that Ickes sought to both extend and per
petuate his control over the Territory and therefore bit
terly resented the thought of statehood.
The Secretary’s support should prove valuable to the
proponents of the idea and that again brings up the
question of cost concerning which the Ketchikan Chron
icle offers the following editorial suggestion: j
“One of our readers makes the suggestion that the
net income tax, proposed and studied for Alaska for sev
eral years, would be almost as easy a way of collecting
revenue from transient defense base workers in the
next two years as it would have been in the war and
pre-war years of boom activity.
“The U. S. government plans to spend close to $50,-,
000,000 for construction of permanent fortifications in
Alaska, chiefly at Fort Richardson, Ladd Field near
Fairbanks, Kodiak, and in the Aleutian Islands. As Sen
ator Norman R. Walker of Ketchikan pointed out;
through this paper a few months ago, the treasury of,
Alaska could now have had 15 to 25 millions dollars in!
its treasury if it had enacted a net income tax early in
the war, to collect a few dollars from transient base
workers.
“The same thing will be true in the next few years.
While the amount to be spent will be only a tenth or a
twentieth what Uncle Sam spent for wartime construc
tion, it is still a sizeable sum. And if it turns over five
or six times in each Alaska town where it is doled out
in wages, it will create $250,000,000 or so in new busi
ness, all of which would be paying a portion into the
public traesury. Collections from that much money
would probably pay the costs of transition from a Ter-i
ritory into the new State of Alaska.
“At any rate, Alaska’s tax system is a messed up one|
and the 1 per cent sales tax has not helped much. It is
a painful tax where taxes should be as nearly painless;
as possible. The fact that a lot of government money ,
will be spent in Alaska is one more inducement to tax
defense workers whose sales taxes would be low be- •
cause their food in most cases comes from tax-exempt!
government messhalls and many of their purchases ar.
made in government commissaries. This is true, in part,
even of Alaska railroad workers.”
i
—
Our Divided Household
(Rocky Mountain News)
It is too bad Secretary Byrnes isn’t two or three men,
instead of one.
He can’t be two or three places at the same time, and
while he works at Paris for recognition of American
peace objectives, his position at home is being under
mined.
It is being undermined by the division of opinion in
the President’s cabinet, highlighted by Secretary of
Commerce Wallace’s “two-world receivership” pro
gram, proclaimed in his Madison Square Garden speech.
And it is being undermined in the Orient because the
Far Eastern division of the State Department never has
been brought into line with American policy elsewhere
in the world.
President Truman made the secretary of state’s posi
tion particularly embarrassing by his advance approval
of Mr. Wallace’s speech, which certainly ran counter to
! news: man befriends doc_
the firm line toward Russia which Mr. Byrnes has es
tablished at Paris—and which indorsement, incidental-,
ly, he rescinded later.
By appeasing Mr. Wallace, who would appease Rus
sia, the President has weakened our position on such
issues as the Polish elections, the economic infiltration
of Germany and the Yugoslav-Italian controversy at,
Trieste.
If the United States should have no voice in political
decisions concerning Eastern Europe, as Mr. Wallace!
said, then our troops should not be maintaining order
in Trieste, and we have no business asking Russia and
Poland to keep faith with the Big Three agreements
concerning free elections made at Yalta and reiterated
at Potsdam.
If, as Mr. Wallace implied, half of Germany must be
considered a part of a Red world, the other half a part
of a free world, such a premise is at odds with the plan
for the unification of Germany which Mr. Byrnes pro-1
posed at Stuttgart only a short time ago.
It seems ironic that, having achieved a substantial
measure of bi-partisan support for America’s foreign
policy, the Democrats should now go to war among
themselves.
iThe internal situation in the State Department pre-!
sents a problem which must be solved at the highest
policy level.
When Pat Hurley resigned in disgust from his ambas-;
sadorial post in China, complaining his program had
been sabotaged by certain career men in the State De
partment, its Chinese division was headed by John Car
ter Vincent.
Is it a mere coincidence that this same Mr. Vincent
now heads the division on Far Eastern affairs, which is
at odds with General MacArthur’s anti-Communist pol
icy in Japan? The Chinese situation has been permitted
to deteriorate because of leftist thinking in the State
Department.
'It would be calamitous to have General MacArthur’s
program nullified by the same kind of slow poison. Sec
retary Byrnes should give this matter his attention just
as soon as it is possible for him to do so.
Canadian Companies
Interested In Alaska Mines
—
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 (/P)—
Canadian companies are showing;
an interest in Alaska’s mining and
have taken options on properties
in several districts, the census
bureau reported today. It added
that the options may have a “long
time significance” on mining in j
the Territory.
“Mining in Canada has been
very profitable in recent years
and Canadian companies have
| considerable money for reinvest
ment," the bureau said. “Another
new current in mining in Alaska ,
is the entrance of some of the con
struction companies, which came
into the Territory to build air
fields and other war facilities.
They are well financed and are
experienced in moving dirt and
other operations common in min
ing and are controlled by men ac
customed to taking risks. Early
successes on their part may well
mean a lot for the future of min
ing in Alaska.”
The bureau said final statistics
showed Alaska’s total mineral out
put in 1945 amounted to $10,210,
000, an increase of 48 percent
I Dept, of Commerce I
Office For Alaska ’
A field office of the Depi
of Commerce will be esta
in Alaska “at an early dat
Alaska Development Boar
notified today by Secreta
Commerce Henry A. Walk
"It is my feeling,” Sei
Wallace wrote, “that the o
of a field office of the Depa
of Commerce would con
much toward the developm
the Territory.”
Carlton Hayward, Direc
Field Operations for the E
ment, is to work with the
opment Board in working ov
tually satisfactory arrange
Governor Greuning and C
Henry Clark, General Mana
the Alaska Development 1
urged Commerce officials
spring to open an Alaska
which could furnish advici
Department services to
business. Several weeks
George Sundborg, who has
appointed to succeed Ci
Clark, met in Washington
the Commerce Department’s
ka Committee to discuss the
ter further.
Several Commerce Deparl
agencies, including the Civil .
nautics Administration, We
Bureau, Bureau of the Censu
Coast and Geodetic Survey,
been operating in Alaska for i
years, but numerous servic<
the Department have never
extended to the Territory b<
owing to lack of a general
office here.
Veterans Soon To Hav<
Alaska Dental Service
Veterans in Alaska with sei
connected dental disabilities
soon be able to obtain treati
from their home town den
with the Veterans Administr?
paying the bill. This inform?
was received this week by Ni
las Zavinsky, contact represe
tive of the VA with offices
Room 9, Federal Bldg., Fairb;
from Dr. Howard H. Fisc
chief of the VA dental service
Alaska with offices at Juneau
Dr. Fischer was in Ketchil
September 25, for the purposi
conferring with dentists there
a new fee schedule they may
paid by the VA for treating ve
ans. Upon completion of the d
tal chief’s visit to Ketchikan
will go to Anchorage. Fairba
and other Alaskan towns for c
ference with dentists along th
lines.
All veterans were warned
Zavinsky, however, that auth<
zaiton for dental treatment m
be obtained from the Veter;
Administration prior to hav
any work done. The veteran -w
feels he needs dental treatnv
should visit his nearest VA e<
tact office where the necesst
forms and information may be <
tained said Zavinsky. Va offi<
are also located in Anchors,
Juneau, Ketchikan and Nome.
compared with the valuation
$6,903,000 in 1944. Gold produ
tion in the Territory increased
percent from 49,296 ounces wor
$1,725,360 in 1944 ot 68,117 ounc
valued at $2,384,095 in 1945.
The bureau said coal was oi
of the few non-metals to decrea
in output totaling 300,000 toi
valued at $1,905,000 in 1945 cor
pard with 348,375 tons valued
$2,239,684 in 1944. '
The Bureau said the end of tl
war in 1945 came too late to be <
much aid in the Alaskan miner
output.