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 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.
Monday, June 24, 1946
JAPANESE WOMEN
JAPANESE WOMEN, whose prewar status was low
er than that of all other women, have made a sur
prising showing in their country’s recent general el
ection Not only did they cast about one-third of the
total vote in their first experience at the polls, but 80
women ran for Diet seats. Of these 38 have so far
been conceded election to the Japanese House of Rep
resentatives, which has a total of 468 seats. (Ameri
can women hold 10 of the 435 seats in their House.)
Apparently Japanese women’s political trends are as
varied as men’s, as the winners were well distributed
among the parties. At last returns eight women
were leading all candidates in their respective dist
ricts.
This feminine political activity was astounding
to those who believed that the long domestic suppres
sion of Japanese women would leave them cold to the
ballot. Varied explanations were advanced. It was
the novelty of voting and holding office. It was the
result of the Emperor’s appeal to go to the polls. It
was an example of fathers and husbands exercising
their traditional authority for political ends. In sup
port of this last theory was the fact that three of the
elected women had entered the campaign after their
husbands were disqualified for the Diet by General
MacArthur’s purge of ultranationalists. However,
some of Japan’s feminist leaders were also elected,
among them 61-year-old Mrs. Hari Wazaki, early suf
fragist, and Mrs. Shizue Kato, called the Margaret San
ger of Japan. The general caliber of women candi
datee is said to have been high.
Undoubtedly there was much genuine feminine
interest in the election, and one reason for this might
be that by the ballot represented to Japanese women a
door out of their circumscribed and often slavish mode
of living. Before the war they were not only denied
the ballot and the right to hold office, but could not
hold property unless they were without male relatives.
After marriage they could be set aside by their hus
bands if they had no male children. Those who work
-ed outside the house—and in peace 60 percent of all
factory workers were women, while during the war
80,000 worked in coal mines—had to turn their earnings
over to fathers or husbands.
Considering this background, it is not likely that,
as some Japanese reactionaries hopefully suggest, the
novelty of the vote will wear off by the next election.
True, German women made a great showing in public
life after the First World War, obtaining 37 seats in the
Reichstag, and then gave up their offices and even
their jobs at Hitler’s behest. It is less likely that
Japanese women will relinquish what they have gained.
They know too well what domesticity without the pro
tection of citizenship means.
(Washington Post)
WHICH WAY ALASKA
TNTfHEN YOU ASK someone what Alaska needs to
day, the answer is usually “it needs to be develop
ed,” or “Alaska’s vast resources need to be developed.”
And when you ask where the money for this develop
ment is going to come from, the answer is that the
money isn’t in Alaska so it will have to come from
Outside.
Yet today in Alaska the “absentee owner” is a
marked man. He is bitterly condemned on all sides
because he invested some money in the development
of the Territory instead of investing it in the States.
He is assailed as an octopus with a death grip on
THUS tPAKf THI MAM IN THE MOON
mo!no/
mot f
K- THAT.
VMTMT r
Alaska. He pays the biggest share of Territorial taxes
but he is damned because he doesn’t pay more taxes
and he is told that he is going to pay more taxes and
plenty more.
Now while all this is going on we have a darn
good man at the head of the Alaska Development
Board who is working his head off to try and interest
some Outside capital into taking advantage of what
the Territory has to offer, and thereby give the people
of Alaska what they claim Alaska needs—develop
ment. Alaska’s Commissioner of Mines spends long
hours drawing up reports on the feasibility of develop
ing mining ventures. The Regional Forrester has been
working for years to get a pulp paper project started
in Southeast Alaska. Juneau is getting a modern
marine ways, built by absentee capital, and all over
Alaska a thousand and one smaller enterprises neea
money from Outside for development.
Yet the absentee owner, the man who we expect
to put up the capital to develop the Territory, is a
marked man in Alaska today. And the candidates
for the Territorial Legislature are planning new bene
fits for the people of Alaska—new and expanded pro
grams for the people of Alaska, programs which will
take a great deal of tax money to put across. If we
are going to get more tax income, we are going to need
more Territorial development, a greater flow of Out
side capital into Alaska.
But we are not going to get any of this if we
continue to thumb our noses at the terrible “absentee
owner” who is the man we count on to give Alaska its
post-war boom era.
It’s a popular notion in Alaska today, however,
on the part of the politicians, to bang away at the ab
sentee owner, the capitalist. But we can’t see how this
attitude is going to help Alaska in any way, or hurt
the absentee owner, because he can find a good many
places to invest his money. Alaska is the promised
land only if Alaskans and the Federal bureaus who
control the major part of the policy make it so. Other
wise it will continue to be a big stagnant hulk of land
with a scattering of industry and people.
(DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE)
Washington
News Letter
ALASKA SCHOOLS
TESTIFYING before the Sen
ate subcommittee on appro
priations handling the Interior
Department bill, Dr. James C.
Ryan, Territorial Commissioner
of Education, predicted that in
two more years fifty percent ol
all the native children in Alaska
would be attending Territorial
schools. Commissioner Ryan told
the Senatorial committee the Ter
ritorial Board of Education is ask
ing the Office of Indian Affairs
to pay a tuition of $100 a year
for each student of native blood
attending a Territorial school, and
he emphasized that this system
of tuition payment is common in
those states having Indian popu
lations.
“Ultimately we should have a
unified school system in the Ter
ritory of Alaska,” Dr. Ryan said,
but he emphasized that this uni
fication should be a gradual pro
[ cess and should not be forced,
i There are now 6,500 children en
j rolled in Alaska Native Service
I schools and 7,000 in the Territorial
schools, according to figures fur
nished the committee by Commis
sioner Ryan.
_
ALASKA AGRICULTURAL *
i
THE FIRST UNIT of a “task
force” of specialists from the
1 Agricultural Research Adminis^
tration of the Agriculture Depart
ment is scheduled to arrive in
Fairbanks the early part of June
to make exploratory investiga
tions to determine the basic pro
blems underlying potential agri
cultural development in the Ter
ritory. according to information
recently given Delegate Bartlett.
This group will include Dr. O.
S. Aamodt, Head Agronomist in
Charge, Division of Forage Crops
j and Diseases, Bureau of Plant In
| dustry, Soils, and Agricultural
Engineering: I. J. Nygard, Senior
Soil Scientist, Division of Soil
Survey; A. D. Edgar, Agricultural
i Engineer, Division of Agricultur
al Engineering and Arthur Orr,
Exceutive Secretary of the House
Agricultural Appropriations Com
mittee.
It is expected that later another
group of specialists in soil survey
| and specialists in animal husband
; ry, vegetable and small fruit pro
j duction, range and veterinary
' science will join the first group.
Headquarters are planned to be
! set up at Fairbanks the first month
j approximately June 15—July 5,
! the second month at Palmer, ap^
proximately July 15—August 15,
j and the third month, approxim
ately August 16—September 15,
j on the Kenai Peninsula, Kodiak
| and Aleutian Islands and South
j eastern Alaskan fiords.
The Agriculture Department,
according to a statement made to
Delegate Bartlett, considers “far
ming in the Territory as an aux
iliary to military, transportation,
fisheries, forestry and industrial
development. Present and po
tential agricultural areas need to
be examined in order to deter-^
mine their extent, relative pro
ductivity, livestock requirements,
ability to support population, pro
spective products, markets and
technical problems of develop
ment.” J
BILL PASSES SENATE
CONGRESSIONAL action on H.
R. 5453, a bill introduced by
Delegate Bartlett last February,
was completed this week when
the Senate approval was given
the measure. It will become
law when signed by the President.
The bill gives The Alaska Rail- '
! road authority to maintain and
operate boats on the Yukon River
and its tributaries; to purchase
stores for resale, and to pay
claim for losses and damages ar
ising from operation. Until now,
this authority has always been
conferred upon the Alaska Rail
road in the regular Department ^
of Interior appropriation bill but
is always subject to a point of
order because it is legislation in
corporated in an appropriations
bill. Now that danger yill b*