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
•t Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Wednesday, September 14, 1949
“WE FIND A TARIFF WALL”
(Hugo S. Sims)
“The British do hope for understanding and sympathy
from the American people,” declares Sir Norman Kip
ping, director-general of the Federation of British In
dustries, who assures American manufacturers that
there is no reason to be frightened by the increase in
British exports to erase the dollar deficit.
The British industrialist said that “America’s future
market depends on her willingness to be a buyer.” He
pointed out that last year British sales in the United
States amounted to about $2 a person and that sales of
$6 to $8 would wipe out the dollar deficit without harm
ing American producers.
Admitting that tariffs in the United States had been
lowered in the past ten years, Sir Norman points out
that they were the highest in the word before the war
and could be considerably reduced without having much
material effect on British sales to the United States. He
said that there might be further cuts of dollar imports
unless additional sales can be made in the United States
and that it will be “desperately disappointing if every
time we succeed in overcoming a problem, we find a tar
iff wall raised against us.”
The British industrialist raises an interesting ques
tion and states the problem correctly. If the United
States, as a nation, expects to sell manufactured goods
and agricultural surpluses abroad, it must be willing to
accept some goods and services from other nations.
Otherwise, our prospective buyers will have no dollars
with which to finance their purchases in this country.
GOLD PRODUSTION IN PHILIPPINES
(Monthly Review of Federal Reserve Bank)
Gold production, which rose from about $3.75 million
in 1931 to $39.1 million in 1940, has been partially re
stored, and 1948 production was estimated in excess of
200,000 ounces. At $35 an ounce, this output would be
worth about $7 million, but as most of the bullion was
reportedly sold in the open market at $45 or more an
ounce, the miners realized about $9 million. Early in
1949 the newly established Central Bank of the Philip
pines introduced a system of licenses for exports and
imports of gold, limited domestic sales to sales for in
dustrial an'd artistic purposes only, and reiterated that
the price of $35 per ounce must be observed.
FOR EASIER TRAVEL
Close to a million Americans are exploring one of the
pleasantest ways to end the dollar famine in Europe.
These consumers of foreign travel are expected to leave
nearly $1,000,000,000 this year in friendy countries
whose need for American materials and machines is not
fully met by the Marshall Plan.
For their dollars they are collecting trips on airplanes,
ships, railways, busses, and bicycles, hotel accommoda
tions, rubber-neck tours, food, clothes, and gifts. These
last are now permitted to total $400 before customs du
ties are charged. And they reverse the usual order, since
most dollars that venture abroad these days end up as
gifts themselves. For tariffs or other obstacles bar the
goods which would otherwise be exchanged for them.
But tourist dollars create no debt; they are “paid for”
at once with goods and services which raise no “trans
fer problem.” Economists and financiers tell us that
these travel dollars play a vital role in helping to square
trade balances. They urge official encouragement for
travel. The idea should have more attention in Wash
ington.
Some time ago Juan Trippe, president of Pan Ameri
can World Airways, estimated that Americal travel
abroad could be more than doubled, and urged several
New Mining Law
Proposed
A bill has been introduced into
Congress by Senator O’Mahoney
of the Committee on Interior and
Insular Affairs “to stimulate ex
ploration for, and conservation of
strategic and critical ores, metals,
and minerals, and for other pur
poses.”
According to the report the gen
eral objective of the proposed
legislation is to develop and main
I tain through private enterprise
j mineral reserves in the United
States vital to the nation’s security
and industrial needs. Overwhelm
ing evidence was presented to the
committee that known reserves of
ores, minerals, and metals within
the country have been critically
depleted, and inadequate explora
tion and development have been
undertaken during the past 17
years and that the domestic min
ing industry is in grave danger of
disintegration.
The report of the committee on
the bill further states that most
of the principal mines now produc
ing were developed from small
mines and evidence presented
showed that current economic
trends have driven many small
mines out of existence and danger
of nponopoly threatens to drive out
more. The committee has written
into the bill a special section for
mines* with an average monthly
production of less than 100 tons of
such minerals as copper, lead and
zinc, whereby the government
pays one half of the approved rea
sonable costs of tunnels, shafts,
winches and such needed in the
exploration. Such minerals as
manganese, tungsten, antimony
and mercury are included.
Each exploration applicant will
be using his own money as well as
the aid he obtains under the legis
lation. Substantial contributions
Secy. Symington
Sees Alaska As
“Defense Bastion”
% ■ . "
(Continued from Page One)
money is available and planning
| a program on the basis of money,
we must figure how much housing
is needed and plan to make the
money available.”
He viewed as bordering on dis
honesty the sending of troops to
Alaska and compelling them to
live under conditions where rent
allowances were insufficient. “It
isn’t right to require that men dig
into their own pockets because
they are assigned here,” he assert
ed, “espcially when the govern
ment controls so many items that
make living costs high—such as
freight rates.
“Why should the soldier be pen
alized because construction costs
are so high that high rents must
be charged to support the capital
outlay for Housing?”
The secretary said there was no
part of the world “we consider
more important to ourselves (the
air force) and to the United States”
than Alaska. “Problems here must
be fixed. Housing cannot go on
the way it is. I hope to get more
practical attention from the pow
ers that be in Washington when I
return.”
In the forenoon the heads of the
Alaskan Command, Alaska Air
j Command, Ladd Air Force Base
I and 57th Fighter Wing will be in
: terviewed.
He will remain in the Territory
■ until today, he said. The joint
I chiefs of staff, who are in Kodiak
; following a visit to Adak, are
I scheduled to leave Alaska tomor
row. They are due here today.
to the replenishment of the miner
! al reserves are expected from the
legislation.
practical measures to boost it. An American can make
an extended business trip in less than a week, but it
may take him a month to unwind the official red taps
necessary to get passport and visas. It should not be
necessary to send to Washington fof a passport and the
fee should be nominal. One of the first wartime excise
taxes to be removed should be that on travel. In addi
tion, something further could be done to streamline the
customs service.
Anything that will encourage the dollar to rove in
ways that add to Marshall Plan aid and at the same time
collect very pleasant payment liiks like a good proposi
tion.
JUST NOT THE TYPE TO BRING HOME
j ECONOMY
LOUIS (>
JOMMSON\
1 <T£
ECONOMY
; Truman Formula
May Prevent
Steel Strike
(Continued from Page One)
ducer, was the first to announce
willingness to bargain pensions as
recommended by the Presidential
board in a 10-cent hourly package
not including wages.
Then No. 4 producer—Jones and
Laughlin Steel Corporation of
Pittsburgh—followed suit, accept
ing the peace plan “as a basis for
collective bargaining.”
"We are prepared,” said a J.
and L. statement, “to undertake at
once a joint study of pensions with
our steelworkers' unions in antici
pation of bargaining on this sub
ject beginning March 1 next.
“With respect to social insur
ance benefits, we will negotiate
with the union for the purpose of ,
reaching a mutually acceptable
agreement.”
The Wall Street Journal at the
same time said only “a slight in
crease” in labor costs will result if
the recommended social insurance
program is put into effect. The
newspaper added that most steel
companies now have some form of
group life insurance but less than
half have company financed acci
dent, sickness and hospital and
surgical benefits.
The men who make steel will
have to be satisfied with the av
erage $1.55 an hour they new re
ceive. The union won three in
creases totalling 46 cents since the
end of World War II.
Maurice J. Tobin, secretary of
labor, predicted the steel-workers’
acceptance of the board findings
will result in “national prosperity
such as this country has rarely
known.” ,
Tobin made the prediction at
Kansas City where he spoke at a
building dedication.
Dollar-Short
Countries Told To
Devalue Currency
(By Sterling F. Green and
John M. Hightower)
WASHINGTON, (IP)—The'inter
national monetary fund yesterday
advised dollar-short countries to
devalue their currencies, if need
be, to boost their dollar-earnings
exports.
Without singling out the British
pound but with Britain’s dollar
crisis obviously in mind, the re
port was laid before the opening
session yesterday of the fourth an
nual meeting of the board of gov
ernors of the multi-billion dollar
! fund and World Bank.
Shortly thereafter, the financial
leaders of the 48 member nations
were to hear an off-the-cuff ad
dress by President Truman.
It may be better for a country
to change an “unsuitable” ex
change rate than to clamp on re
strictions which “endanger its
well-being and efficiency,” said
the report of the fund’s executive
directors.
Although the document referred
to all “deficit nations,” its effect
was to spotlight the British prob
; lem—and to add pressure to nu
merous past suggestions for ster
ling devaluation.
The impact was the greater be
cause a cabinet level British-U. S.
Canadian conference ended Mon
day with agreement on a ten-point
treatment for Britain’s dollar ills
—without including revaluation of
the pound as one of the points.
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