THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME, ALASKA
E. P. BOUCHER . Managing Editor
CLINTON GRAY . Production Manager
Telephone: Main 125 $1.50 PER MONTH
P.O. Box 618 $16.00 A YEAR
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943 at the
postoffice at Nome, Alaska, under Act of March 3, 1879
Subscribers not receiving tneir papers by 5:30 p.m. call
Main 125 for special delivery. After 5:30 call Black 102
LET THE EMPLOYEES HELP OUT, TOO
( Anchorage Daily News )
Dire warnings regarding the fate of the Alaska
Unemployment Insurance Fund have been sounded at
every opportunity by the Security Commission, the
board of laymen appointed to administer it under the
territorial act.
The warning has always been the same—that
some drastic changes must be made in the basic law
or the fund will either disappear or the tax on the
employer will become so high as to become unbearable.
With a new legislature about to be selected it is
appropriate to review the status of the security fund
again.
As of the first of September the fund has reached
an all-time low of S3,757,000. There will be a slight
build-up, it is true, before the low-employment winter
season is reached, but the Commission has projected
the income and the outgo into the future and has
established June of 1955 when the fund will run dry.
The commission in its recent deliberations at Fair
banks has suggested as remedies one or more of the
following:
1. Increase the tax rate above 2.7%.
2. Retain the 2.7 % tax rate, but raise the tax base over
the present $3,000 to possibly the high of $4,200.
3. Increase the tax rate selectivity, either by a “pay-roll
decline system,” meaning that those employers with the high
labor turnover and high employment will pay a higher tax
than those with a stable payroll.
4. Have employees contribute to the fund.
5. Reduce employee benefits.
6. Tighten employee eligibility requirements.
7. Establish a wage limit of $6,000 which would elimin
ate anyone earning that amount or over from the benefit rolls.
8. Allow Alaska workers who go to the States to draw
benefits only at the rate set by the state to which they
remove, rather than at the Alaska rate.
9. Eliminate dependency benefits.
10. Tighten disqualification laws, such as making em
ployee unqualified to draw benefits when he quits volun
tarily, for the whole period of his unemployment (at present,
he can qualify after five weeks*.
Some of these are abhorrent to the employer and
it is our opinion that if changes are to be made they
should include participation by the employee. Between
federal social security and territorial unemployment
tax, Alaska employers are already contributing five
percent of their total payroll to the benefit of the
employee. While most will agree that benefits over
and above the high Alaskan wage are desirable for
good labor relations and happy employee status, there
is a limit beyond which such benefits can go.
Under no circumstances should the tax rate be
set above the present 2.7'< nor should the tax rate
be raised. In considering changes to salvage the fund,
Points 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8 could well be incorporated into
amendments at the next legislature. These all ask
employees to aid in building up their own benefit
fund. If they are bone fide Alaskans and interested in
the most good for themselves and their employers
they will have no objections.
SERVICE CLEANERS
4th and B Streets Opposite School House
QUALITY DRY CLEANING A SPECIALTY
Prompt and Courteous Service
Mr. and Mrs. Carl Mickelson, Proprietor,
PHONE RED 96
i HOW’S Ti7AT AGAIN?
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Magazine Reports Russians Have
Based Long-Range Bomber Fleets
Along Coast of Arctic Ocean
WASHINGTON, (4>i—The maga
zine Aviation Age said Friday
Communist Russia has based al
most her entire long-range bomb
er force—as well as many other
army and navy air forces—at air
fields along the coast of the Arc
tic Ocean.
“Like the United States, Soviet
Russia views the polar regions as
the main avenue for aerial war
fare in the event of World War
III,” the private trade publication
said.
It said the chain of Russian
bases begins at the Kola Penin
sula, north of Scandinavia, and
follows the arctic coast all the
way to the Chukot Peninsula fac
ing Alaska, and then on south to
Kamchatka and the Sea of Ok
hotsk.
“Along this coastal area of the
arctic and the northern Pacific,
about 60 per cent of the whole
Soviet aerial force stands ready
to attack the American continent
across the North Pole,” it said.
“Only a few months ago not one
of the 54 long-range bomber
squadrons known to exist in the
U.S.S.R. was based in the west or
south of that vast country.
“The network of airbases along
the arctic and the northern Pacific
coasts today consists of 150-200
air force, guided missile and sup
ply bases, and communication
and radar centers.”
Aviation Age long has quoted
from secret sources of information
behind Communist borders. The
Air Force has conceded the reli
ability of much of its material.
The current article said,
among other things:
1. The Russians are building
one of their largest bases on
Franz Josef Land, 3,600 miles
from Detroit. It will have a run
way 13,500 feet long and 50 feet
wide, covered with iron plates
heated electrically.
2. One of the largest bases of
the Soviet strategic bomber com
mand includes several larges air
fields on the two arctic islands of
Novaya Zemlya.
3. Fifty air bases, with a capac
ity of 1,500 aircraft, have been
built on the Kola Peninsula along
the Finnish and Norwegian bor
der. These bases containet 900
planes as long ago as January,
1953.
4. The Reds are building air
fields and weather stations on
floating ice islands, have equipped
aircraft with braking parachutes,
recently started using thrust re
versers for braking purposes, have
developed frostproof robber for
aircraft tires, have made great
progress in de-icing methods, and
have bland lubricants specially
suited for polar air operations.
5. They have an airborne divi
sion on eight airfields on Sakhalin
Island, north of Japan.
Aviation Age said the turboprop
(jet engines driving propellors)
MI-13 has a range varying from
3,700 to 9,900 miles and “will be
come the main striking weapon of
the Reds’ long-range bomber
force.”
It estimated that the strategic
command contained 400 modern
and 700 older-type four-engine
bombers.
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I M'NERS & MERCHANTS I
| RANK OF ALASKA |
I NOME ALASKA |
POLARIS RESTAURANT
ANNOUNCES NEW WINTER HOURS
EFFECTIVE SEPT. 27th
*
OPEN 7 A.M. Close 8 P.M.
Closed Every Monday
-@
* Call BARB
for late evening cocktail
or dinner parties.
World’s Most Hazardous
Airlines Operates In India
SRINAGAR, Kashmir, OPI—One
o'f the world’s most hazardous
commercial air routes opened to
day over the top of the world.
An oxygen - equipped twin-en
gine plane flew 160 miles over
the snowcapped Himalayan peaks
from Srinagar, in Kashmir, to
Leh, in India’s eastern Buddhist
province of Ladakh.
Leh adjoins Communist Chin
ese-occupied Tibet and Sinkiang.
Its airfield, 11,554 feet above sea
level, is one of the world’s high
est.
The service will be one plane
every two weeks.
DOG'S DROP KILLS MAN
ROME, OP)—A fox terrier fell
Saturday from a fourth story
apartment window, landed on the
head of a 59-year-old passerby
and killed him. The dog was only
slightly hurt.
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