THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 61H
SI.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAH
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.Editor*
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1043, at the postoffio*
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Monday, January 20, 1947
The One Big Union
(New York Times)
THE BIGGEST UNION in this country is the Union
of the forty-eight States. It, too, is a labor organization.
Except for the aged, the infants, the infirm and a few
habitual idlers, its 140,000,000 members are all at work
in one way or another in field, farm or factory, in schools
or homes, on the sea, the rivers, the mountains and
prairies, in our multitudinous cities and even in the wil
derness.
This Union has its own Constitution, framed by our
forefathers and altered only sparingly, and as they pro
vided it should be. It is seldom challenged and in the
•end is always obeyed. The members of this Union, in
which every citizen holds a card, elect their own offi
cers by secret ballot and make their own laws. Its offi
cers are held to strict accountability. No president of
this Union has ever wrested from its membership the
power to perpetuate himself in office or attempted to do
so. Within the Union and under its hallowed Constitu
tion its members, who are the people of this nation, have
enjoyed a wider measure of freedom and earned a richer
and fuller life than the people of any other nation on
earth.
At times the Union has been in dire peril. It has
been threatened with destruction from without and
within? Like every other nations, it has suffered from
political strife and internal faction. A fratricidal war
was fought to preserve it. Twice within our time it has
met and overcome the most terrifying concentration of
force ever brought against any nation. It gathers
strength from every crisis and is strongest when the
danger is greatest. It has always survived.
It will survive. We have just seen that no one, how
ever powerful, can defy the one big Union save at his
peril. No other union or combination of unions will pre
vail against it.
Pulling Together
(The Denver Post)
THE LINES have been drawn by both labor and
management for the second battle of the living wage.
Labor made the first foray when the CIO adopted
Robert R. Nathan’s figure of a 25 per cent pay increase
without a boost in prices as its “guidepost” in coming
negotiations. Management’s reply was prompt—a cry
that 25 per cent is preposterous and that a new wave of
strikes is in the offing if the CIO insists on the demand.
Now the CIO’s generalissimo, Walter Reuther, who
touched off the bitter General Motors strike a year ago,
has announced the objective of the labor spearhead, the
United Auto Workers: 23.5 cents an hour increase in
pay, which together with other demands would be the
equivalent of lifting wages 30 cents an hour or about
22.5 per cent.
From the preliminary jabbing, feinting and chest
thumping, one would think that labor and management
are mortal enemies intent on annihilating each other.
Actually, each is dependent on the other for its own
welfare; one without the other would not long exist.
The answer, then, would seem to be obvious. Manage
ment has the responsibility of seeing that the working
man is paid a decent living wage which gives him a
chance to build security. Labor likewise must realize
lhat management is entitled to a fair return for its con
ribution to the labor-management partnership, namely
enterprise, investment and acceptance of risk. Any other
view by either side is shortsighted.
Yet, any housewife can tell you, emphatically, that
the 18VL*-cents-an-hour wage boosts—the formula which
settled the first round of postwar strikes—have been
swallowed up by subsequent price increases. The bur
eau of labor statistics says living costs have risen 14 per
cent in the last £ive months alone and large segments of
workers have had no comparable income increase. As
| Senator Ed C. Johnson puts it, the nation is “suffering
' from a destructive inflation which rapidly is reducin '
the American people to substandard living conditions."
Few workingmen would dispute him.
At the same time the financial statements of many
big manufacturers, upon whom postwar prosperity de
pends so much, show operations would be in the red ex
cept for tax refunds from wartime excess profits levies.
Hampered by material shortages and work stoppages,
they have been unable to hit their stride.
Somehow the ideal has not worked out and the na
tion’s economy is sick as a consequence. That economy
j can be revitalized only by increased output which will
lower unit cost. Whatever relief management and labor
can wangle for themselves at the negotiating tables will
be only temporary unless the unit cost of producing
consumer goods can be slashed. And that can be accom
plished only by management and labor working as part
; ners, not as rivals and enemies.
i
One Man's Opinion By Walter kiernan
Anyhow, the cold weather is with us and a scientist
1 says cold weather is better for man or beast than warm
weather ... a point which Florida and California will be
permitted to challenge. He says hens lay more eggs and
cows give more milk in cold weather and there is one
story about a, fellow who took a cow from a temperate
zone to the north. Two week’s later he wired a veterin
arian “the milk pails are full and there’s eighteen gal
lons of whipping cream in the bathtub—What shall I do
now?” The veterinarian wired back “get a sun lamp and
use it as it was never intended.”
HERE WE GO AGAIN, BOYS l
r
By MARY LEE COUNCIL
Secretary to E. L. (Bob) Bartlett, Delegate to Congress from Alaska
By Marjorie Goding Neil
Assistant Secretary to E. L. Bartlett. Alaska's Delegate to Congress
I
BUDGET FOR ALASKA
The President, in his budget
message to Congress for the fiscal
year 1948, has recommended ap
propriations in the amount of
$23,156,450 for the Territory of
Alaska, approximately four and a
half million dollars in excess of
funds appropriated by Congress
for the 1947 fiscal year.
If the 80th Congress approves a
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I
provision now included in the re
quests for Alaska Failroad funds,
the general manager will be au
thorized in 1948 to enter into con
tracts to the amount of $15,000,000
for implementing a comprehensive
program of construction envision
ed for the railroad. This sum
would be in addition to the four
million dollars requested for oper-J
ation of the railroad.
| STEAMSHIP RATES «
The petition of the War Ship
■ ping Administration for general
passenger and freight rate increas
es to Alaska has been dismissed
i and the entire proceeding discon
tinued by action of the Mari, me
Commission in approving reco >
mendations made by Examine i\
J. Horan that this be done.
The action of the Maritime Com
mission brings to a close the WSA
petition which resulted in exten
sive hearings started in the latter
part of 1945 and continued through
, out 1946. However, the steamship
; companies, in resuming private
! operation, may submit tariffs to
the Maritime Commission. It is ex
i pected this will be done showing
general freight increases of over
50 per cent above 1941 rates, or
about 35 per cent above present
rates, which, in efefct, will reopen
i the whole question of increased
rates to Alaska. It is further un
derstood that the steamship tariffs^
will request a five per cent long
haul passenger rate increase and a
seven and one-half per cent in
crease in short-haul passenger
rates.
According to the estimate of the
Maritime Commissioners, the di
rect financial loss to the govern
ment for operating the vessels em
ployed in the Alaska trade in 1946
will exceed the 1945 losses which
amounted to $1,361,861.93.
At the time the commissioners
held hearings on Examiner Hor
an’s report, the Territory of Alas
ka and the Alaska Development
Board had urged that the Mari
time Commission take the action
it did. The attorney for the Alaska
Steamship Company and North
la n d Transportation Company
stated his belief that the petition)
should be dismissed “without pre
judice to the private carriers to
take such action as they deem
proper if, as and when they re
sume their private operation.” The
Alaska Transportation Company
insisted upon a general increase of
67.4 per cent.
SENATE PUBLIC
LANDS COMMITTEE
The 13 members of the Senate
Public Lands Committee for the
80th Congress are all westerners
headed by Hugh Butler of Nebras
ka as chairman.
This committee, together with
its counterpart in the House, will
be the most important so far as
Alaska is concerned since under
the Reorganization Act a number
of former committees such as Pub
lic Lands, Territories, Mines and
Mining, and Indian Affairs have
been telescoped into one commit
tee.
The five Democratic members
of the newly-formed committee
are: Carl A. Hatch, New Mexico;
Joseph C. O’Mahoney, Wyoming;
Sheridan Downey, California; Er
nest W. McFarland, Arizona; and
Warren G. Magnuson, Washing
ton. The seven Republicans, be
sides Chairman Butler, are: Eu
gene D. Killikin, Colorado; Ed
ward V. Robertson, Wyoming; Guy
Gordon, Oregon; Henry C. Dwor
shak, Idaho; Zales N. Ecton, Mon
tana; Arthur V. Watkins, Utah;
and George W. Malone, Nevada.
Although the organization of
the House Public Lands Commit
tee has not yet been announced, it
is known that Congressman Rich
ard Welch of Califfornia will be
chairman.
DELEGATE BARTLETT TO
SERVE ON 3 COMMITTEES
Delegate Bartlett will serve on
three committees in the House,
namely, Agriculture, Armed Serv