.THE NOME NUGGET |
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 61*
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAH
.
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoff’«'«»
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Friday, May 23, 1947
1947 Graduating Class Faces Future
LAST EVENING another group of young people
graduated from Nome High School, some of whom will
continue their studies in specialized work in various
parts of the country. Others will continue their learn
ing in the school of everyday experience. We are proud
of them all.
We quote from Dr. Raymond Allen, president of the
University of Washington in a recent address: “Our
youth should become our junior partners in citizenship.
Youth in young adult life should assume increasing re
sponsibility for the future of free institutions of our so
ciety.
“Unless we all take personal interest in giving youth
such a place by admitting them to our counsels and
sharing with them the affairs of the world they will in
herit, our democracy, our republican representative
system of government, our free enterprise system will
go the way of all social orders of the past.
“To neglect our youth is the road to regimentation
and tyranny.”
These young people have been well directed in their
school life and it is our problem that they are guided in
their early adult training; and are given our full con
fidence.
Cost Of Children
(Washington Post)
THOSE EARLY-DAY, rural Americans who looked
on children as labor assets would probably be shocked
to learn that the cost of having, rearing and educating a
child to the age of 18 years is $12,750. This estimate of
a child’s cost in a $5000-a-year-income family, as given
in the current issue of the Woman’s Home Companion,
attests not only to the rise in living standards in this
country but also to the change in thinking in regard to
children. It shows a shift in emphasis from the child’s
obligations to the parents, to the parents’ obligation to
the child.
Birth costs oi $b5u (including layette) would be es
pecially mystifying to a pioneer farm mother, who had
her 7 to 14 children at home with the aid of a neighbor,
or if she were lucky, a country doctor, who charged
from $10 to $25. But today’s higher birth costs—which
prevail in families of all incomes—include more ulti
mate human economy in lives and health of mothers and
babies. The cost of clothes in a modern child’s budget
reflects the social changes that have come to America.
A girl’s wardrobe to the time she is 18 is estimated as
costing $1400, a boy’s $1250. But the boy’s food bill is
higher. Urban life, social competition, the development
of the fashion industry, also of advertising and promo
tion, have made children more expensive sartorially.
Also commercial recreation and preventive medical
care have added to the expense. Education through high
school—paid for by the community through taxes—is
estimated at about $1000 for each child. Also charged
to the child are a share of home rental, household ex
penses, and home furnishings. And these figures, based
on cost of living statistics for 1935-36, would be in
creased about 55 per cent by current prices.
The growing cost of having and rearing children may
help explain why two-child and three-child families
have become so prevalent. Also, as the more rugged and
adventurous physical life has given place to safer and
more standardized living, parents have become more
protective of children and have sought to prepare them
better for a world that is competitive in brairis rather
than brawn. Beyond all this, there is a general growing
away from that idea that children exist for parents’ use'
and exploitation or to furnish rods on which parents
may lean. Most parents, including the great majority
who don’t have $5000-a-year incomes, aspire unselfish
ly to prepare their children for better and happier lives;
than they have known themselves. Today’s high cost of
rearing a child is the testimony of the democratic recog
nition of a child’s rights and importance.
The Red War Games
(Anchorage Daily Times)
NEWS THAT THE RUSSIANS are conducting war
games in the Bering Strait—within a few miles of the!
coast of Alaska—brings into sharp relief the pitiful
plight of the Territory for defenses.
The war games add to the feeling of insecurity found
in reports that the Russians have colonized 2,000,000'
persons in the eastern peninsula of Siberia and have es
tablished many sizeable cities in the area, the largest
^f'which is reported to have a population of 150,000.
Behind the iron curtain events are taking place that1
may well shape the course of destiny. Although the re
ports reaching the United States are meager, they are;
sufficient to indicate that the Soviet is far ahead of this;
nation in the program which is deemed not only desir
able but also necessary.
Thi^program is that of settlement along with the de
velopment of adequate defenses.
To Alaska the war department has pointed continu-j
ally as the most strategic spot in the world. Highest of-j
ficers of the army have cited the need of settlement of
the Territory and development of a full-fledged econ
omy with a large population. They contend it is too dif
ficult to defend a wilderness. Settlement means trans-j
portation and communication facilities, local sources of;
supplies and normal conditions under which to live.
Congress has heard these pleas but has hesitated to!
take action. They have appeared when appropriations
were sought for the construction of defense installa
tions, when new roads have been requested, when avia- j
tion needs were reviewed. They were heard when Con-|
gress heard evidence on a bill which would provide,
statehood for Alaska. \
There is no secret about the present Achille s heel.
Speakers have cited it throughout the land. Newspapers
and magazines have presented it in words and pictures.
Yet Alaska is allowed to stand virtually unguarded.
It has been said that 500 paratroopers could capture the
Territory with scarcely any resistance. It is well known
that the aircraft warning system in the. Territory hardly
exists and that hundreds of miles of coastline in western
and northern Alaska are totally, unguarded. Just how
far an enemy could fly into Alaska before his presence
would be discovered and reported remains a matter for
speculation.
Meanwhile, Soviets have questioned legality of the
purchase of Alaska by the United States in 1857, con
tending that the sale was made by an unscrupulous Czar
who had no right to dispose of the property of Russia.
.While the United States quibbles over appropriations
and programs, the Russians are making rapid strides in
populating the eastern Siberian peninsula, building de
fenses and now studying military maneuvers 100 miles
from the coastline.
Will the day ever come when the United States can
see the handwriting on the wall and follow the motto of
the Boy Scouts, “Be Prepared”?
* 11 ■■ ■
By GEORGE 3 BENSON
B*iid*nl et Harding College
Searcy. Arkansas
J .— i i :r=z=
WHY IS IT COMING?
Many observers are of opinion
now that the nation may expect a
considerable business recession by !
August or ^September. It is ex-i
pected that this recession will be
reasonably severe and might last
for six months. Some expect it to
bring bankruptcy to a good many
businesses that are weak finan
cially, create unemployment, and
maybe interrupt production seri
ously.
President Truman is so much
alarmed that he is asking indus
try to reduce prices of commodi
ties in order to help cushion the
expected recession. Fears are that
it might develop into a real de
pression. In view of our huge na
tional debt and the fact that we
must maintain a high national in
come, this prospect is rather seri
ous. Naturally, we are askjng our
selves: “Why must it come?”
Washington, Fabla
It is on the way because every
thing is entirely too high. Homes
are too high, manufactured goods
are too high, food is too high—
everything is too high. People are
refusing the pay the prices. They
are going to continue to refuse un
til something is done about it.
Now, why do not the industrial
ists just immediately lower prices
until there would be no talk of
depression?
That’s impossible. Prices are
regulated by costs. In manufac
turing a price is charged that cov
ers the cost. Big item in cost is
usually labor, which averages 50
or 60 or 70 per cent, and as much
as 35 per cent, of a finished arti
cle. Now the fable. When the war
was over the President’s secretary'
of commerce, Henry Wallace,
recommended that in the automo
bile industry wages could go up
30 per cent without increasing the
prices of automobiles at all.
Spiral Agaip
If that could have happened in
the automobile industry, of
course, it could have happened
also in many other industries. La
bor was encouraged to demand a
30 per cent boost, which they
were told should bring no price
increases. The facts, however,
were on the other side of the
fence. After an 18 Vi cent increase
was granted auto workers, and
even before OPA died, automobile
prices had to be increased an av
erage of 22 per cent. Other in
dustries granted similar raises and
prices went on moving upward.
Labor soon realized that it had
lost all its gains in the higher
costs of living. When we get far
enough from the present prob
lems to size them up more accu
rately and when a correct history
is finally written, it will probably
be explained that wage boosts in
the fall and winter of 1945-46
more than any other one thing
were responsible for the inflated
prices that followed. This is what
now threatens to make depression
inevitable.
Costly Ride
Neither labor nor anybody else
was benefitted by those increases
1 in wages which were so quickly
I followed by increases in prices.
1 The cost of living went up for ev
! erybody. Now, when we face a
1 depression as a result, we must
! realize that the cost of this infla
tionary ride may total billions of
dollars. Price of the ticket was too
high, indeed.
If our government could have
! found in 1945 enough backbone
for a firm stand against increases
j in wages and prices, urging in
i stead a high productivity to get
' the nation back on its feet as
quickly as possible, then the pres
ent feared depression would have
1 been mere talk. But when the gen
eral inflationary rise in wages and
a corresponding inflationary rise
| in prices came, all thinking peo
ple agreed that finally a depres
sion would probably come. We
may get back to a reasonable level
| that ^ way, but even yet we could
use a much better way, which this
column will outline next week.
- WASHINGTON, UP) — The na
tion’s Air Coordinating Committee
has decided against any govern
ment’s subsidy to develop the dir
igible as a commercial rival of the
airplane.
“The committee finds that the
J airplane can presently provide
' air transportation at three to four
' times the flight speed of an air
i ship and at approximately equal
unit cost,” the coordinator said
today, repbrting on a two-year
study.