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
E. P. BOUCHER . Managing Editor
CLINTON GRAY .... Production Manager
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the
postoffice at Nome. Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
WHAT KIND OF OFFICIALS?
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
The prolonged examination of C. E. Wilson, Gen.
Eisenhower’s Secretary of Defense, raises the inter
esting question as to whether it is a crime in the United
States to be successful.
The problems of government are complex. The
administration of any major department of government
is a bigger operation than the management of any pri
vate corporation.
What kind of men are to assume responsibility for
these enormous enterprises?
Are we to be limited to employing party hacks,
orators who can read ghost-written scripts, lame-duck
governors and senators who have to be taken care of?
Are we to be limited to rich men of inherited
wealth who have no records of achievement other than
to have chosen the right kind of family?
Every President has complained that he found it
difficult to get competent and efficient men to serve
even in time of war.
Even private industry, paying large salaries, pro
viding bonuses, pensions, and other attractions, does
not have an easy time finding competent, efficient,
broad-gauged men suitable for top jobs in manage
ment. It is much more d fficiilt for the government,
because not only are the rewards small but many good
men abhor the constant political pulling and weaving.
C. E. Wilson represents the acme of American
productive skill. Where are such men to be found?
They are to be found only in the manufacturing com
panies of the United States, where particular skills
are required for success and where the opportunities
are available to benefit by experiene.
There is no other place to find men like E.
I TWO-WAY STRETCH
I
Wilson, Roger M. Keyes, Robert Ten Broeck Stevens
and others who have, been asked by General Eisen
hower to man positions in government for which they
are fitted by skill, training, experience and achieve
ment.
Such men, being well paid in privae industry, own
stock in their own and other corporations. Are they to
be embarrassed or rejected because they have been
cu:cessful? Are only failures to serve our country?
This is a serious problem for the American people
who are spending close to 100 billion dollars a year,
most of which goes to military operations of one kind
or another. The heart of the American military design
is production. We won two wars by the superiority of
American production.
It is about time that we made sure that we have
at the top of this effort men who know how to go
about it.
Allies Revoke Immunity
Of Supply Route To
Kaesong Truce Area
SEOUL, IP) — Allied warplanes
Tuesday hammered Communist
supply routes and frontline posi
tions on the front western Korean
front.
Only light ground action was
reported as Gen. J. Lawton Col
lins, U.S. Army chief of staff,
began his seventh tour of the
battlefront since the Korean war
began 2Vi years ago.
Farther south, F-84 Thunder
jets fighter-bombers, for the sec
ond straight day blasted the once
attack - free Communist supply
route from the, capital at Pyong
yang to the Red truce camp at
Kaesong.
Since November, 1951, the U.N.
Command had permitted the Reds
to send daily supply convoys to
their truce delegation at Kaesong
free from attack.
But on Jan. 15, the Allies limit
ed the immunity to Sundays only.
They charged the Reds were
using the route to supply front
line troops.
ALASKA LINK TO MIDWEST
BY BARGE HELD LIKELY
SEATTLE, IP — Chicago, St.
Louis and other midwestern river
cities may be linked directly with
Alaska via the Panama Canal
within 30 days by towboat and
barge.
That was the announcement
here by officials of Alaska Freight
Lines, Inc. They said their barges
will begin regular monthly haul
age of military cargo over that
refute.
Charles E. Wilson Wins Confirmation
! Bv Senate as Secretary of Defense
After Selling $2% Million G.M. Stock
WASHINGTON, LM — Charles
E. Wilson won 77 to 6 confirma
tion by the Senate Monday—along
with some sharp advice on how
to conduct himself in his new as
| signment as Secretary of Defense.
That action by the Senate gave
President Eisenhower a full cabi
! net but apparently left him some
[ political problems.
Wilson was approved,, after a
10-day controversy, by the votes
of 47 of the Senate’s 48 Republi- i
cans and 30 of 46 Democrats.
Sen. Morse dnd-Ore) and five j
Democrats — Johnston of South |
i Carolina, Kilgore and Neely of j
! West Virginia, Lehman of New i
I York and Willis Smith of North I
1 Carolina — voted against confir- '
mation of the former General Mo- j
tors president.
Wilson’s agreement to sell more I
! than S2Vi> million worth of G.M.
stock paved the way for his con- i
I firmation.
TJie understanding of the Armed
Services Committee members was
that the names of Wilson’s pro- !
posed assistants will be sent to
the Senate one at a time, with j
that of Roger M. Kyes, chosen j
deputy secretary, to be submitted !
first.
Later, President Eisenhower!
nominated Kyes to be deputy sec- j
retary of defense.
Kyes, like Wilson a former Gen- j
eral Motors Corporation official, i
has agreed to sell about 3,000
| shares of the auto firm’s stock he
holds and to dispose of some
shareholdings in other concerns.
Wilson tapped Kyes and three
other businessmen to be his chief
subordinates -but Eisenhower sent
only the nomination of Kyes.
The President’s action in de
laying the nominations of the
three others apparently indicated
that the status of at least two re
mains in doubt.
Sen. Taft of Ohio, Republican
leader, said he understood that
“talks are going on” with Harold
Talbott, picked by Wilson for Air
Secretary, and Robert Stevens,
chosen for Army Secretary.
Both have testified it would be
difficult for them to sell their in
dustrial holdings as Wilson agreed
to do before he won Senate con
firmation Monday.
Robert Anderson,- picked by
Wilson for Navy Secretary, has
said he has no industrial holdings
which would conflict in any way
with a federal law which bars a
U.S. official from transacting bus
iness with a firm in which he
holds a direct financial interest.
WARNING
There will be firing out into the
Bering Sea from the Submarine
Beach area west of the Army
dump from 29 January until fur
ther notice. All residents and
hunters are warned to stay clear
of this area until further notice.
George D. Tanner
12 Commanding Officer
AEC Reports Advances
In Atomic Power
For Industrial Use
WASHINGTON, (J>>—The Atom
| ic Energy Commission today re- I
ported sharp new advances tcr
; ward perfecting atomic power for
I industrial use and to drive air
craft and submarines.
The commission, in its 13th
semi - annual report to Congress
! announced:
1. Production of fissionable ma
terials for A-bombs and for the
i operation of various atomic re
| search furnaces “continued to in
crease in 1952.”
2. Four different industrial
groups have told the commission
they see attractive possibilities
for tapping industrial power from
the atom in an economic basis
“in a few years.”
3. Work toward developing
atom - powered aircraft has pro
gressed to the point where some
kind of tests — presumably land
based ones—are in sight for small
atomic reactors, or furnaces, de
signed to serve as power plants.
4. Assembly is virtually com
plete on a land-based version of
the world’s first known power
plant for a submarine. The AEC
didn’t say so, but presumably this
means that a “dry-run” test is
| not far away.
JUNEAU, (iP) — Alaska’s dog
license tax has gone pretty much
to the dogs.
A report by Tax Commissioner
M. P. Mullaney shows a total dog
license collection of $36 from the
TerAtory during 1952. It all
came from the Third Division.
1,000th Alaskan
Drafted into Army
By M/Sgt Raymond L. Parsons
FT. RICHARDSON, Alaska —
Early this month a young man
from Homer, Alaska, achieved a
modest measure of fame. He be
came the 1,000th Alaskan to be
drafted into the Army since the
outbreak of hostilities in Korea.
His name is William B. Edens.
The future Private 1,000, then
“just plain Bill,” graduated from
the Homer High School just be
fore the Korean fighting began.
Born in Sequim, Washington,
18 years earlier, he had spent
most of his life in Alaska, having
come here with his parents, Mr.
and Mrs. Richard W. Edens of
Box 28A, Homer, when he was
six. A short while after Bill fin
ished school he began working
with his father as a gill net fish
erman.
About this time the war in
Korea began growing bigger and
the Army needed more men. To
help meet its needs the U.S. Army,
Alaska, Induction and Reception
Center, only such facility in Al
aska, was established at Ft. Rich
ardson. On September 25, 1950,
in the presence of Maj.Gen. Julian
W. Cunningham, then command
ing general of the U.S. Army,
Alaska, the first nine men were
inducted at the. new center. Bill’s
turn came nearly 2Vfe years later.
After being sworn in at the
center by 1st Lt. George D. Dep
pen, Private Edens reported to
the Fort Richardson Training De
tachment for approximately eight
weeks of basic military training.
When Bill completes basic train
ing, he, like all inducted resident
Alaskans, will be assigned to some
unit within the territory.
Bill is philosophical about be
ing in the Service. “I figure that
I can make as much of it or as
little of it as I choose,” he says,
“and I’ve decided the first course
is best.”
Bill has used snowshoes and
skis for almost as long as he can
remember so those phases of his
training should come easy. Diesel
mechanics is his principal interest
and he hopes to have the oppor
tunity to learn more about the
subject while in the Service.
Bill’s brother, Pvt. Richard W.
Edens Jr. is also in the Army, cur
rently serving with a tank com
pany of the 4th Regimental Com
bat Team at Ladd Air Force Base
near Fairbanks.
So far, Private 1,000 has been
busy drawing clothing and equip
ment, getting shots, and generally
becoming oriented in his new sur
roundings. However, it won’t be
long till he buckles down to the
serious business of becoming a
soldier.
The composition of salt found
in salt lakes and that of the
oceans is different.
r .. .N
GLUE POT
HI SODA
^ FOUNTAIN
FRESH ICE CREAM
AND POPCORN
— DAILY —
CIGARS, CIGARETS
TOBACCO
CANDY
>----„