THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME, ALASKA
Telephone Main 125 $1.50 PER MONTH
P.O. Box $18 $16.00 A YEAR
E. P. BOUCHER . Managing Editor
CLINTON GRAY .. Production Manager
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1843, at the
post office at Nome. Alaska, under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscribers not receiving their paper by 5:30 p.m. call
Main 125 for special delivery. After 5:30 call Black 102.
MAYBE HE HASN'T HEARD
PARALYSIS IS PERSONAL
There has been <a lot of talk recently about polio
statistics. They look very good. The incidence of the
paralytic disease went down sharply in 1957. The
Salk vaccine obviously works and works wonderfully
well. There is considerable patting on the back that
victory is within our grasp.
Fine and dandy. But do we know that 1957 would
not have been a light polio year anyway? We do not.
Polio is a notoriously unpredictable disease, up one
year and down the next.
The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis
points out that there is one thing yve do know for sure,
and that is that a lot of people either haven’t been
vaccinated at all, or have not completed their full
series of three shots. These people will be in just as
much danger if next summer is a heavy polio summer
as though they lived before the age of Dr. Salk.
Statistics are figures—marks on a piece of paper.
Paralysis is personal. If your or your children contract
paralytic polio, all the encouraging statistics in the
world will not ease the tragedy. And tragedy it is, in
the fullest and most awful sense, if men, women and
children are stricken by this venomous disease when
the means to protect them are at hand.
The statistics that count, so far as any family is
concerned, are its record of vaccination. Make no mis
take about it, your own vaccination is the pay off. Get
it done. Finish your full series of three shots. National
statistics are pretty meaningless in a family where a
child or adult is struggling to breathe with muscles
that have been knocked into nothingness by polio.
THERE’S A MORAL HERE
It is hard for the historian not to draw a parallel
between us and the Romans. The couch of ease and
entertainment slowly cut the ground from under that
empire. History has a way of repeating itself. We
don’t believe we want it to do so at our expense.
But the price to prevent it is going to be high ... we
are going to have to realize that football scholarships
and a hundred thousand fans in stadiums; the biggest
consumption of liquor and cosmetics in the world;
the drive for a four day week and some more of our
luxuries are a little beside the point when there is a
possibility that we can lose the whole kit and kaboodle
because we are too occupied in bread and circuses, i
Death of Sen. Neely
Reduces Demo.
Strength by One
WASHINGTON, VFV-Sen. Mat
thew M. Neely, Democratic sen
ator from West Virginia, died
Saturday at the Naval Medical
Center in Bethesda, Md. He was
83 years old. *
Neely, former West Virginia
I governor and House member, had
been ih failing health for a year.
He was on hand, in a wheelchair,
when Congress convened early
this month.
His death stands to cost the
Democrats one seat in the Sen
ate.
West Virginia’s governor, Cecil
Underwood, is a Republican and
will appoint a successor to Neely
to serve until the next general
election.
With Neely’s death, the Demo
cratic Senate ranks are reduced
to 49, as against 46 Republicans.
The hospital announced Neely
died after ‘‘a protracted illness
from malignancy.”
At the time of his last appear
ance at the capital 10 days ago,
Neely had announced plans to
sponsor legislation to authorize a
million-dollar fund for cancer re
search.
Neely spent nearly 35 years in
Congress—about 25 in the Sen
ate and about nine in the House.
New Stack Heaters at Cavota's
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Telephone Main 113
2,899,300 Claim
1 Unemployment
Compensation
WASHINGTON, UP)—The gov
ernment . says 2,809,300 workers
claimed unemployment compen
sation in the week ended Jan. 4—
an increase of 448,900 over the
previous week and a new record
total.
The Bureau of Employment
Security said that although the
figure topped the previous high
mark set in January 1950, the
current rate of unemployment
among insured workers is 6.8 per
cent, compared with 7.3 per cent
in 1950.
The bureau said the largest in
creases in claims were reported
in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michi
gan, California, New York and
North Carolina. Increases were
reported in all but four states.
The agency said the rise was
due mainly to job cutbacks in
metals, machinery and automo
biles.
-\
Arizona Concessionaire
Offered Contract For
Operation McKinley Park
WASHINGTON, (iP> — A pro
posed 10-year contract with Don
Hummel, Tucson, Ariz., for oper
ation of concessions in Mt. Mc
Kinley National Park in Alaska
has been submitted to Congress,
the Interior Dept, announced.
Hummel would conduct the
operation as the Mt. McKinley
Park Co. Hummel is president of
Lassen National Park Co. which
operates the concession in the
Volcanic National Park in Cali
fornia.
ARCTIC
SANITARY
SERVICE
Call Black 65
For Dependable
Pickup
Appropriation Requests
'Continued from Page One;
198 for the National Park Service,,
and $410,500 for Bureau of Mines.
Agriculture’s $21,645,560 Alas
kan budget includes $19,100,000
to be made available for Rural
Electrification Admin, loans.
NATIVE HEALTH PROGRAMS
Biggest item in the Health, Ed
ucation and Welfare Department
budget for Alaska is $10,486,000
for native health programs, in
cluding $8,736,000 for Public
Health Service hospital opera
tions and $1,000,000 for the pre
ventive health program. Another
major item is the $6,500,000 for
construction of mental health
facilities.
Defense Dept, totals include the
previously announced $5,500,000
for operation and maintenance of
the Alaska Communications Sys
tem.
Of the $404,566 asked for the
Judiciary, $185,825 would go to
district court judges and their
employes in the forro of salaries.
Jurors and commissioners would
receive an estimated $205,000 in
fees.
-----—
Mrs. Cliff Allen Suffers
Mishap in Fairbanks Home
[ FAIRBANKS — Jan. 16—Mrs.
! Cliff Allen is in the hospital after
she suffered a broken leg from a
| fall in her home.
Mrs. Allen was alone in the
j house when she fell at 2 p.m. She
I was unable to get up and lay on
| the floor until her husband came
home and found her in the eve
| ning. Her leg was broken in three
places.
Reason for the fall was a romp
ing dog.
Japanese Observe Unusual
Radiation In The Pacific
TOKYO, UP) — Unusual radio
j activity was observed in the air
over the central Pacific today by
a Japanese naval fleet on a train
| ing cruise to the Hawaiian Is
| lands.
i The report expressed belief the
[ contaminated air may have come
i from Siberia.
Crater Lake in Oregon is six
miles long and four miles wide
and is 6,000 feet above sea level,
yet it never freezes over.