THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
SI.50 PER MONTH 516.00 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 ol March 3. 1879.
Monday, June 17, 1946
OUR BIG MORTGAGE
We have a Federal debt of 274 billion dollars. That
is a gross debt of approximately $2,000 for every man,
woman and child in America. It is a gross debt of
$5,330 for every employed worker in America.
The public debt of 274 billion dollars—IOLJs held
by 85 million war bond buyers and other investors—
represents a mortgage on the value of everything
Americans own.
The people will have to pay in taxes the interest
on this debt—amounting to perhaps five billion dollars
annually—and will be Liable also for the amounts of
the debt as they become due.
The millions of investors in war bonds, for exam
ple, should be paid the interest and principal as guar
anteed in these investments. This will be a big item
in government budgets for years to come.
The United States has as many “payrollers” as it
has soldiers.
The Army stands today at less than 2,600,000 men
while the Federal civilian payroll, at last report, car
ried 2,508,000 persons. The number of “payrollers”
is declining, too—but at about one-tenth the rate at
which the Army is discharging men.
Senator Byrd, the outstanding authority on the sub
ject of our prodigal bureaucracy, has said we could
well do with fewer than half of our present “payroll
joyriders.”
The demobilization of this vast army of experts, ec
onomists, researchers, typists, and tabulators of trivia
quickly would improve the whole country’s chance of
stability and prosperity.
BOWLES ANSWERS ANOTHER QUESTION
Would it be better to let a free economy seek its
own level even at the risk of some inflation?
“We’ve just come through a long, tough war.
We’ve had enough restrictions—enough worries, en
ough controls—to last us a lifetime. Business men
very understandably want to be free, to do wholly as
they like. All of us are tired too, and a little jittery,
and we have a very human temptation just to sit back
in the hope that, somehow, everything will come out
all right.
After the last war, when inflationary pressures were
far less severe than now, a “free economy” prevailed,
without price controls. Food prices, apparel prices,
building material prices, rents and everything else
shot up at disastrous speed—and to disastrous heights.
Almost half of the enormous rise that occurred in the
cost of living in the entire World War I period took
place after the Armistice. Is this what is meant by
'“some” inflation?
Of course, those 1920 prices after climbing to dizzy
peaks, soon sought “their own” level. In other words
they crashed. But at the same time something else
happened, something far bigger, more personal than
a plummeting line on a price chart. Half a million
farms were foreclosed, 106,000 American businessmen
failed, 5,500,000 workers were thrown on to bread
lines. Thousands of homes were foreclosed. Bil
lions of dollars in personal savings were swept away.
In the absence of large enough production to meet the
war-swollen demand, our too rapid return to a free
economy, brought only misery and suffering.
Today again, we are asked to let a “free economy”
toy with the high explosives of post-war inflation
and risk our homes, our savings, our investments. And
we know that those explosives are far more deadly this
CCTTM60NTMC BEAM
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time. We know that they could not only shatter
America’s hopes of security and prosperity under a free
enterprise system, but her economic strength and
prestige throughout the world. I do not believe that
any sincerely responsible person in possession of the
facts would dare to take that risk.”
OPA 2000 BC
There is nothing new about price control. The
oldest such regulations known to man are the prix
fixes of King Hammurabi of the Babylonians (2200
B. C.), carved in stone for posterity and the OPA.
; Hammurabi provided:
For a builder of houses—two shekels of silver
per 18 square yards of house;
For surgeons, provided the operation was suc
cessful—ten shekels of silver (on full citizens); five
shekels (freemen); and two shekels (slaves);
For veterinarians treating oxen or asses: one
sixth of a shekel of silver.
TO CURTAIN A FILIBUSTER
There are only three ways to end a filibuster:—
(1) for the windjammers to run out of wind and allow
the issue to come to a vote;
(2) for the session to come to an end with sine die
adjournement;
(3) th invoke cloture, which is simply a two-thirds
majority vote of the Senate to put an end to debate.
Senators are very loath to vote cloture. The
present cloture rule was passed after the long filibus
ter on the Armament of American Merchant Ships
bill in 1917, but it rarely has been used. Gagging
a group of Senators or even one Senator can have
lasting legislative repercussions. Too much Senate
business is done by the unanimous consent and gen
tlemen’s agreements to invite the lasting wrath of any
members.
There is one primary cause for ending a filibuster
outside of parliamentary methods—public opinion.
[ Filibusters, as a rule, are popular only with a very few.
\Looxnm
I ASSAD
WAGE WISDOM
Wages rose and prices fell dur
ing the ten years just before
World War II when working
men were able, through collective
bargaining, to influence the op
erations of private enterprise
without political interference.
Workers earned more dollars per
working day and each dollar took
on more buying power as time
went on. It was a two-way im
provement.
“The actual buying power of
one hour’s work (straight time)
rose at the rate of more than 4
percent each year, or over 40 per
cent for the entire ten-year per
iod,” says Labor’s Monthly Sur
vey, issued in May by the Amer
ican Federation of Labor. “Thi<
was possible because productior
per man-hour increased steadily
creating the wealth to pay highei
wages.”
WAR CHANGED THINGS
So long as men. money anc
machinery were busy making
things to eat, wear an t use foi
better living, it turned out a«
planned; better living resulted
But when capital, labor and tools
by necessity, had to swung int<
the manufacture of munitions ant
instruments of destruction, bettei
living ceased. Wages increased. \
be sure. So did profits. But. wha
could w'o buy?
i Once more let the AFL survej
answer: “Every hard-won nick<?
of wfage gain was ofset by ;
price rise w’hich cancelled it ant
workers’ actual buying power pe:
hour of work, as measured bi
reBl wage rate1, did not incroasi
at all.” These statements are sup
ported by government figure
made available through the de
partment of Labor. Moreover th<
AFL analyst’s logic is perfectl;
sound.
HOLDING PRICES DOWN
The labor bulletin container
no carping against governmenl
nor against the artificial restraint
it set up to keep a fictitious econ
omy from getting out of contra!
On the other hand it says plainl;
that under wholesome busines
conditions “Wage increases ar
' paid for by rising productivity.
; Thus with mass production an
volume sales “the wage rises
all clear gain.”
“Our first task is to increa?
production of consumer goods s
■ that supply will be enough t
meet demand, and competition a
! gain will keep prices down, s
! that increasing productivity wil
create the income to pay furth«
wage increases.” Anything
might say about that doctrin
would be simply guilding the lily
It is the plain truth and a credi
! to any philosophy.
CUT RESTRAINTS
At the present, conditions ar
: far from wholesome. The govern
j ment’s new artificial wage con
. trols, born of political expedient
I create higher wages with on
hand and snatch them away wit!
i the other in the form of highe
| prices. In a government-foule<
J economy, it is small wonder tha
| farmers and business men alik^
line up for help at the door o
I Uncle Sam’s “fix-it” departmenl
The Office of Price Adminis
tration is getting as much criti
| cism as it deserves now perhaps
My comments are brief: Private
enterprise needs freedom if it i
to operate by the law of suppl:
and demand, and in some fields
, supply will meet demand mucl
; sooner if regulations arc lifted
1 The OPA has done some gotx
work and well deserves a digni
fied funeral, soon.
BELLOWS AND KINNEY
TO MINE IN KOUGAROK
Erwin Bellows, who has beei
living at his home in Bellevu<
Washington, during the war-year
returned on the SS Baranof t<
resume mining operations in th<
Kougarok.
Ross Kinney, veteran Alaska
Road Commissioner, who retire<
a year ago, was also a passengei
on the Baranof.
It is understood that Ross Kin
ney and Erwin Bellows will mint
together in the Kougarok.