THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME, ALASKA
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
$1.50 PER MONTH . $16.00 A YEAR
W. A. Boucher .Owner-Publisher
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Monday, December 5, 1949
GOVERNMENT BUYS SURPLUS FRUIT
The major development in the Twelfth Federal Re
serve District agriculture in a report just released by
“Monthly Review of Federal Reserve Bank” has been
the large surpluses of many fruit crops. California’s de
ciduous fruit growers are having one of their worst sea
sons in years. Bumper crops, the virtual loss of foreign
markets, and large carryovers from last year’s pack
will probably result in substantial losses for many
growers. Since fruit crops are not favored with price
levels.
So bountiful was this year’s peach crop that growers
and canners upped the size requirement for No. 1
peaches, leaving more of the crop to be wasted. Even so,
grower prices for canning clings dropped from the $65
per ton received last year to $40. Pear growers had to
face not only a large crop but also the tie-up of pineap
ple shipments from Hawaii. Pineapple is a component
of fruit cocktail in which most of the canning pears are
utilized. Growers are getting around $40 per ton com
pared with $125 received last year.
Other fruit growers have been faring almost as badly.
Gravenstein apple crop producers found they had 1 mil
lion boxes more than could be absorbed through the
usual outlets. The grape and raisin industry has been
plagued with its perennial surplus problem. Even fruit
growers in Washington and Oregon have been troubled
with unmarketable surpluses.
The Department of Agriculture, at the growers re
quest, attempted to relieve the situation somewhat by
purchasing some of the surpluses, chiefly for use in the
school lunch program and in eligible institutions. A to
tal of 135 cars of Gravenstein apples and 783 cars of
Bartlett pears were bought in California and a smaller !
quantity of pears was purchased in Oregon. Canned
peach purchases amounted to 937,210 cases, largely i
from California, with small quantities taken in Oregon
and Washington. Small quantities of dried fruits will be;
purchased this year, and export subsidies and diversion
payments will also be used to ease dried fruit surpluses. |
In spite of these various relief measures, however,
many fruit growers will face heavy losses in markets
depressed by oversupplies.
CANADA CAN T BUY UNLESS WE BUY
The unfortified border between the United States and
Canada has been held up to the world as a demonstra
tion of what two friendly peoples can do in the way of
keeping peace. In fact, relations between the two coun
tries have been so friendly as to be almost informal
when compared with some of the technical transactions
which occur between foreign nations.
This does not mean that there are no questions be
tween the two countries. As a matter of fact, Lester B.
Pearson, Canadian Secretary of State for External Af
fairs, speaking in the United States, recently pointed
out that his country cannot indefinitely buy two billion
dollars worth of goods annually from the United States
when it sells only one billion dollars worth. He gives
a friendly warning that Canada may have to “put on re
strictions” and expresses the wish that the people of
the United States would became “more aware” of Can
adad “before the restrictions are needed.”
The observation of the Canadaian officials is timely.
It is apparent to thinking citizens of the United States
that our large export trade balance makes difficult the
swap of goods between this country and other nations.
It should be obvious, from the figures given by Mr.
Pearson, that Canada will be compelled to place restric
tions upon trade with this country unless we are will
ing to buy a larger volume of goods from the Canadians.
Kruj* Offers Plan
To Settle Native
I,and Dispute
<(>P) Special Washington Service)
WASHINGTON, (^—Secretary
of the Interior Krug Saturday of
fered Alaska’s natives two reser
vations in an attempt to settle
land ownership disputes and open
the Territory to development.
Differences over the extent of
native rights to Alaska land long
have been a major obstacle to
settlement of the Territory.
Krug, in one of his last actions
in office offered to set aside these
two reservations:
100,000 acres on Prince of Wales
and Sukkwan Islands in South
eastern Alaska to the native in
habitants of Hydaburg, an Indian
village on Prince of Wales Island.
750 square miles of the Arctic
Slope, for use by the Eskimos of
Barrow, northernmost point of
Alaska.
The offers are contingent upon
the natives resigning all claims to
other Alaska lands because of oc
cupancy or use for generations
past.
The Alaskan natives must ap
prove the creation of the reserva
tions in an election for the plan to
| become effective.
The reservations admittedly
represent only a small part of the
land claimed by the natives.
In the case of the 360 inhabi
ants of Hydaburg. Krug said:
“I realize that, to accept the of
fer made today these Indians will
have to trim to one-ninth the land
they sought for their use, but I
believe they will wisely choose to
do so.
“Every passing year will make
it more difficult for them and for
the government adequately to
protect their way of life other
wise.”
The offer of the Arctic slope to
the Barrow Eskimos withholds
from them any petroleum that
might be found in the area.
It includes for use by the na
tives a coal deposit which the Es
kimos are now working and upon
which they depend for fuel.
Krug said the actions were
taken on petitions by the Barrow
Eskimos and the Hydaburg Indi
ans, after studies and hearings
completed months ago.
He said the Barrow reservation
would not affect or supersede ex
isting rights or claims in the area,
AIR MAIL BY JET PLANE
I
“The fastest-delivered letter to and from a destina
tion in the history of mankind” will go into the mails on
December 17th, when the nation observes the forty
sixth anniversary of the day when Orville and Wilbur
Wright put their first plane into the air at Kitty Hawk,
North Carolina.
As part of the celebration, marked by a special six
cent Air Mail Stamp, honoring the Wright Brothers, a
letter will be sent from Kitty Hawk on a Coast Guard
helicopter to Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Here it
will be taken by a jet plane which will carry it 525
miles an hour to Dayton, Ohio, birthplace of the Wright
brothers. It will be cancelled at Dayton and rushed
back to Kill Devil Hill, while the celebration is under
way.
Aviation has come a long way in the forty-six years
which have elapsed since the Wright Brothers put their
flimsy craft into the air on Thursday, December 17th,
1903. The first flight, with Orville as pilot, was ten feet
in the air and onyl 120 feet long. Later, on the same day,
with Wilbur as pilot, the plane stayed in the air fifty
nine seconds and flew 852 feet. When news of the flight
appeared in the newspapers of the nation, few people
believed the report and the epochal achievement re
mained almost unknown for several years.
j THESE WOMEN! By d’Alessio I
I I 1 ' K I I 1
-»■ ■■ ■ ■■ ■ . , ■—— —■ ■■■■ - ■ ... -*
“It's a long story—but it started with an uncontrollable
habit he has of winking his right eye.”
Will Fly Cattle
To Anchorage
--
SEATTLE. </P) — Land hungry
veterans of World War II are
sparking another Matanuska Val
ley land rush.
The fertile valley west of An
chorage, Alaska, which achieved
prominence when it was settled
by middle-west farmers 14 years
ago, is unable to meet the demand
from Anchorage and Fort Rich
ardson for milk, two officials of
the Matanuska Valley Farmers’
Cooperative reported here.
The pair, Virgil Eckert and
Merle Anderson, flew to Seattle
to purchase 60 head of dairy cat
tle for association members. An
derson also intends to purchase 10
head for his own herd. The ani
mals will be flown to Anchorage
for trucking to Palmer.
It will cost between $150 and
$175 to fly each cow north, with
each plane carrying about 12 cat
tle.
the naval petroleum reserve estab
lished in 1923, or other small war
department and civil aeronautics
administration reserves at Point
Barrow.
“The Barrow land-use with
drawel will protect the shore line
of Peard Bay and Dease Inlet as
bases for the Eskimos from which
to hunt whale( walrus and seal,
on which they are particularly
dependent,” Krug said.
“It will help them under their
own village government to con
trol the liquor traffic in their
area, and it will safeguard the
coal which they must have to heat
their homes.
“The reserve does not include
I all the hinterland that the Eski
mos use for hunting and trapping,
nor all the area that they request
ed.
“But 1 feel this action is fully
justified and that it must be taken
now to avoid careless displace
ment of these people by casual in
terference with their complex
hunting and fishing way of Arc
jtice life.”
There are about 385 Eskimos at
Barrow.
Assistant secretary Wil 1 i a m
Warne in recommending the ac
tion to Krug said. “It is critically
important to the nation that we
maintain a settlemen a Barrow
and occupy the land.
“Only the Eskimos actually live
in and occupy this Arctic region,
and they must be protected to pre
serve them and their way of life
there.
“They are a fine, loyal and
hardy people. This action will
safeguard them.”
Of the Hydaburg reservation,
Warne said that although there
has been “relatively little outside
pressure’ ’on native settlements,
the development of a Southeast
ern Alaska pulp industry will af
fect natives i nthe future.
“If these people are to be se
cure. they must have protection
in the form of a recognized land
base,” Wame said.
“Near Ketchikan, the history
and deevlopment of two villages
that have already felt the pres
sure of economic development are
illuminating.
“One, Metlakatla, has been pro
tected since 1886 by a reserve, An
nette Island, and it prospers and
its people are a credit to Alaska.
“The other, Kassan, is unpro
tected and is dying tragically.
“Hydaburg needs the protec
tion now offered. It is a strong
| village today and can be kept so
if the land base is accepted.”