Spellman Arrives At Formosa
TAIPEH, Formosa, —Francis
Cardinal Spellman, archbishop of
New York, arrived today from
Okinawa for a crowded 26-hour
round of meetings, receptions and
a talk and dinner with President
Chiang Kai-shek.
The cardinal will visit the cruis
er St. Paul, flagship of the U.S.
7th fleet, tomorrow.
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Economist Cautious In Summary Of
Alaska Employment In Labor Review
By FRANK W. VAILLE
WASHINGTON, (*►_ “Alaskan
employment is still in a stage of
transition—possibly to greater fu
ture stability.”
That cautious prediction is the
conclusion reached by George W.
Rogers, economist in the office of
Gov. Heintzleman, in an article on
Alaska’s economy and its labor
force. The article is one of five on
various phases of the territory’s
labor picture contained in the De
cember issue of Monthly Labor
Review, published by the Depart
ment of Labor.
The overall tenor of the articles
is best summed up in the maga
zine’s prefatory note which de
scribes Alaska as “an arctic and
sub-arctic region, underpopulated
and underdeveloped.”
“Much of its industrial enterprise
is absentee owned and its stable
unionism operated from the States.
Government workers constitute a
large fraction of the work force.
Wages and prices are high, and
there is considerable seasonal im
portation of workers, especially in
the construction field.”
Rogers backs up his forecast of
possible greater stability for Alas
kan employment by citing a recent
prediction by the Bureau of Em
ployment Security that “by 1962,
although average employment in
construction will drop by about
4,400 from 1954 levels, the antici
pated establishment of six new
forest products facilities in south
eastern Alaska will generate al
most 9,200 jobs.”
Rogers rescribes Alaska’s eco
nomic base as “narrow, highly
seasonal and regionally varied.”
Despite recent population increas
es which have brought important
price reductions, the territory
“must still be characterized as a
high-cost region.”
The rapid increase in the size of
Alaska’s labor force” during the
past 15 years, he said, have seen
the government and industries
primarily dependent upon federal
spending emerge as the territory’s
principal employers.
The same period was one of
generally rising employment and
wages. Although average annual
earnings by persons^ebvered under
the Employment Insurance Pro
gram increased in this year from
about $1,850 to nearly $6,300, Rog
ers emphasized that not all Alas
kans are highly paid and well off.
He cites Census Bureau data
showing that in 1949 the average
earnings of gll income-producing
persons over 14 years of age was
$2,072, while that for non-white
Alaskans, who make up about a
fourth of the total, the average
was but S784.
By contrast, the total earnings
of workers covered by the Unem
ployment Insurance Program that!
year averaged $4,633.
“The wide income differences,” I
Rogers explained, “were due in
part to the inclusion of military
personnel in the census data, but
more significantly they reflected
the limited degree to which native
Alaskans (who make up most of
the non-white category) had been
brought into the regular labor i
force.”
Another of the articles, by H. L. i
Clark of the Alaska Security Com- !
(Continued on Page 8)
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ARCTIC
Sanitary Service
■— . . I-.—L
NEW YEAR’S GREETINGS
Nome Lutheran Church
Hev. and Mrs. Thomas Knudson
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The approach of the New Year,
with its many possibilities and
opportunities, is awaited with
great anticipation. Gone are
the disappointments of the past
twelve months . . . the failure of
some ambitions to be realized.
But the New Year brings with
it new determination . . . new
hope ... a future unlimited.
May each of us find the New
Year the one we have dreamed
of so long . . ..the year in which
each ambition will be realized,
not only by ourselves but by
those about us. Let^s make it &
wonderful year, all of us!
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and The Breakers Bar I
ERNIE. BETTY and BOB
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