THE NOME NUGGET ;
Published Monday, Wednesday and Frday by The
NOME PUBLTPHTNG CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
$1.50 PER MONTH S16.00 A YEAR
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the posto^fice at
Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Wednesday, February 13, 1946
AIRLINES BRING FARMERS
NEW $100,000 MARKET
(Alaska Farmer)
The farmers of the Anchorage-Matanuska district
has a new market for their produce, thanks to the vision
and enterprise of the Alaska Airlines. Because the Air*
lines tried an experiment and found that it worked per
fectly, a potential market for $100,000 in products oi
Alaskan agriculture in 1946 has been added to the farm
picture of the Territory.
For years Nome has been hungry for fresh vegetable,
and greens of all variety. What little green stuff Nome
received came by infrequent steamers from Seattle or
was brought over from Unaiakleet. The Alaska Airlines
and Carl Kaiser, Asst. Mgr. of the Matanuska Valley
Farmers Co-op, saw an opportunity and explored the
market during the summer of 1945. A special low rate
for larm produce was established by the Airlines and i
before the season was over, more than 50 tons of celery, |
lettuce, carrots, radishes, cabbage, cauliflower and spin
ach travelled in DC3s from Anchorage to Nome.
Merchants in Nome were delighted with the fresh
produce and with the regularity of shipments, which!
arrived three times a week. The landed cost in most;
cases was less than the Seattle produce and was garden- I
fresh when put on display. Local housewives, the res-i
taurants and mining companies cleaned off the shelves
in short order, and if the MVFCA had not run out of
produce to sell, the shipments would have continued!
all winter.
“We are happy to have served our feiiow Alaskans in
this maner,” said Marshall Hoppin, president of the
A.aska Airlines. “We are interested in the developmem
of the Territory and look forward to continued coopera
tion with Alaskan agriculture in every way possible.’ !
PEACETIME INTELLIGENCE
(Washington Evening Star)
America’s new peacetime foreign intelligence service
will have little resemblance to the undercover groups |
romanticized in the mystery novels of E. Phillips Op-;
penheim and other storytellers of the foreign imriguc
school, according to Col. Alfred McCormack, who has
been assigned to organize the service. Its members will
not wear false mustaches, carry daggers and flit in anu
out of foreign chancelleries with furtive looks on their
faces and microphones in their pockets. Their mission
will not be to stir up wars, either deliberately or by the
indirect methods of giving offense through inept espi
onage. On the contrary, Col. McCormack asserts, it wil.
be the purpose of the service, first, to avoid war by
learning to know and understand other countries and
peoples, and, second, to be prepared for any attack that
m.ght be launched against us.
One of the great handicaps which confronted this
country in both world wars was the scarcity of reliable
information at hand concerning not only industrial am*
military resources of our enemies, but such vital things
as depth of certain harbors and channels, details of
shore configuration, soil conditions at spots considered
for amphibious landings and for construction of ail |
strips, etc. Being traditionally a nation more interested
in preserving peace than in preparing for war, we al
lowed our potential enemies to photograph and map
many of our own defense points, while we were content
to receive and file what meager data our consuls and
military and naval attaches were able to pick up more
or less casually. We Have no full-time collectors of spe
cial information, and suffered by reason thereof.
It is reassuring to know that we intend to profit by
past mistakes and that in the new era of atomic energy
IN PAWNS_
& *
1 --^—1
and electronics, when it will be vital to America’s secur
ity to keep abreast of what the other nations are doing,
our State Department and our armed services intend to
be properly informed of developments and conditions
abroad.
RADAR CLOCKS INVISIBLE BIRDS
(Science News Letter)
Wild geese flying at night have been tracked by radar
operators on the eastern coast of England, so accurately
that their ground speed could be measured, it is re
ported in the British magazine, “Nature.”
Radar pick-ups of bird flocks were made as early as
1941, and similar occurrences have been reported from
other countries, including the United States; but it is
only now that the information can be made public.
Longest radar track on a flock of geese thus far re
corded was one made by a station of the R.A.F. on the
c.ast of East Anglia. The birds were kept in the radar
^eiu ior 99 minutes, during which time they flew 57
m -cs—an average of 35 miles an hour.
* mother station picked up the same flock and tracked
cm for an additional 22 miles, at a ground speed of 33
m oa an hour. The geese were never seen, but when
rossed the coast near a Royal Observer Corps post
they were identified by their call as gray geese.
Ju .c as well as geese have been picked up by radar,
even small birds travelling in flocks. Experimental
that birds actually do produce radar echoes was
uced by suspending a dead gull beneath a balloon
en;. “radaring this known target. The echo from the
hi” body could be clearly distinguished from that pro
:’u cd by the balloon.
V7V,on approaching flocks of birds were first detected
by radar it created some confusion, but this did not last
Ln ' because of the great difference in speed between
e^en the fastest of birds and the slowest of airplanes.
i LOOKING
I AHEAD
:m GEORGE %, BENSON
k Prt*Utnt—Mar4l*t Mkft
B Stanjf. Arkaaam
INITIATIVE
The son of a drainage engineer
who had done a great deal of su
pervisory work with and for his
father, was inducted into tne
Un ted States Army during the
war. Before he had grown famil
iar with discipline he found him
self digging a ditch to divert sur
face water from camp. His instruc
tions had been verbal and reason
ably plain, but were not precise
In every detail .
The youth had some knowledge
of soil drainage and a real inter
est in it, so he set about to dis
tinguish himself with good work
manship. When he was nearly half
finished, his sergeant appeared,
ruddy with indignation. Firmly
the sergeant denounced the breach
of discipline, going beyond orders.
The recruit was confused and
made a second mistake, speaking
in his own defense.
Central Planning
“But, Sergeant, 1 thought ...”
t rv*M” '"’o^nfully
echoed his superior. “What r:ght
have you got to think? Are you
vt a .hinkin" '*<? nay*”’
Such is regimentation! The
young man was not in school,
where superior work wields su
perior grades. He was not in busi
ness, where better work means
better pay. He was in the army.
This is not a criticism of mili
tary discipline or army efficiency, i
I am no military expert. I use this
story to illustrate how regimenta
iton kills initiative. By the very
nature of its workings, it is de
structive of progress in peaceful
pursuits. In despot-ruled coun
tries, things happen to all think
ing civilians very much like what
the young recruit experienced.
Competition A Remedy
In lands where authority is com
pletely centralized, strict obedi
ence to orders is the matter of
gravest importance to private in- «
dividuals. However wise and kind
the dictator, when power-hungry
henchmen reach into what we
Americans call private business
(as invariably they do) progress
is paralyzed. Farmers and all
other workers learn from unhap
py experience to do as* they are
told, period.
Admittedly, parallel things hap
pen occasionally in private enter
prise but competition corrects
them. Sometimes owners of busi
nesses become indifferent, live
apart from their interests and try
to run live industries by dictum,
as if methods they worked out
years ago were eternally right.
These cases develop their own
cure quickly. Every office and ev-f#
ery shop of such a proprietor be
comes a hatchery of potential
competitors.
Efficiency Rewarded
American business in general is
operated with an aim to get max
imum yield per hour of work. Ex
ecutives and supervisors exist for
no other purpose. More yield per
hour means better wages for
workers, more profits for manage
ment and lower prices for buyers
who consume what is produced.
The newest recruit on any job ^
can get paid for an idea that im
proves production.
America is famous as the best
place on earth to live. Many peo
ple know it who don’t know why,
but here’s why: In America, ideas
count. No matter who originates
them, they have value. Anybody
with an idea is free ot use it and,
if it’s good, we all benefit. Thus,
Americans live better than people
under centrally planned systems
where only the few think who are
officially appointed to think.
FIRE TRUCK LAB i
TRACES FUMES
NEW YORK— (/P) —The New
York Fire Department’s newest
lifesaver looks like a department
store delivery truck repainted red.
It is a mobile laboratory, man
ned by five young firemen, all col
lege chemistry graduates, and
equipped to detect toxic and ex
plosive fumes and liquids.
The unit’s first official run was
to a busy uptown subway tunnel
where passengers had whiffed gas- J
oline odors. There the squad spot
ted a stream trickling down fhe
tracks. A quick analysis proved it
a mixture of water, gasoline and
crude oil, seeping in from a gar
age above the subway.
Precautions promptly were
taken to prevent what might have
been a disastrous underground ex
plosion. • .
More firemen are killed by
fumes than by flames or falling
debris, the “lab on wheels” men
point out. Preventing such acci
dents is their job.