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Alleged "Truths" Prove of No Value to Nome

"Nome is Colorful, But, Oh How Deadly Boring
by Russell Annabel United Press Staff Correspondent

"Nome, Alaska - (UP) - To visitors Nome is a colorful, unique and pleasantly - primitive place, easily the most-interesting frontier town in the high north - but to the troops and the swarm of civilian construction workers who have been stationed here for the past two years, Nome is a vast headache.

"The town is incredibly crowded, the climate is savage, and there are no facilities for recreation.

"Nome has no USO, no service club, no bowling alley, no confectionery shop or ice cream parlor.  There isn't a pool table in town. There are no dances.  Mail often arrives from three weeks to a month late.  An the rate of single white girls to white men is about 500 to 1.
Offers Little Choice

"A man has his choice after work of staying in his barracks, or wandering forlornly up and down the broken sidewalks or Front street, or of spending the evening making the rounds of the roaring, jam-packed saloons.  One result of this has been that since troops arrived two saloon keepers have retired.  Another has been that engineers in charge of vital construction work have had to discharge 60 per cent of locally-hired workers because of drunkenness.
"The frontier atmosphere which makes Nome a tourists' delight has long since ceased to interest to the men stationed here.

"It was swell for a while,' says Pvt. Bob Soden of Seattle, 'but we don't even see it any more.  We are fed up with Eskimos and that stuff.  Maybe it will help explain why when I tell you I haven't been in a white person's home or had a date with a white girl since I left Seattle two years age.
"Big Mac Jones of Spokane. a diesel shovel operator. recently summed up Nome's most urgent needs:
"The trouble is there isn't a thing to do after work but hang around bars, and we are getting almighty sick of hanging around bars,' he says. 'Some-body ought to put up a bowling 

For some time now, every once in a while, there appears in the Outside press certain correspondents meanderings directed at Nome, which proves of no aid to the city and its citizens, but rather throws a wrong slant on this community in the eyes of those in the States who have occasion to read these so-called correspondents offerings.

The nugget wishes to present two of these articles, which have a direct bearing on the civic status of the city, with the hope that such diatribes will in the future be omitted from the columns of the Outside press and be replaced by articles more beneficial and more pertinent to the future of our city.

The two articles on either side of these paragraphs are reprints of the ones in question and will prove self- explanatory. 

ably stick it out here another two years without going nuts. "Although it is only about 10- day voyage, newspapers and magazines from the States are usually a month to six weeks old when they arrive. Consquently, the men consider the newspapers valuable chiefly for their comic strips. This week in Nome the Adventures of L'il Abner were overshadowing the 'news' that the Japenesehad evacuated Kiska.

Difference in Pay
"A matter which has not endeared Nome to the troops is the fact that soldiers and civilians work together on construction projects here, but the civilian truck drivers are paid an average of $140 a week. while the soldiers draw the standard army wage of about $20 a week for the same kind of work. The greater number of protests about this come from civilians. 

"The GI kids are in there pitching as hard and earnestly as any- body.' says Paul Webber. San Fransico. ' but we make as much money in one shift as they do all week. 

"I don't know what can be done about it, but I do know that it isn't fair.' 

"Despite the lack of white girls in Nome, there have been relatively few marriages between soldiers and Eskimo girls, according to Nome's grizzled, tuba-playing chief of police. C.F. Yenney formerly of Walla Walla. One Florida- born soldier. who recently married an Eskimo girl. said he was just bored with himself and tired of not having a home and that getting married seemed like a good idea. 

"'These lads marry native girls because they are bored and lonesome." Yenney says. "Where they are transferred, they won't want to return, and I don't belive that many will feel right about their wives joining them in the States. '"

"Government Sends Tons of Unneedeed Supplies to Nome

"SEATTLE Maren -
The Seattle Post- Intelingencer said today that enough coffee, butter and other foods to give each of the 400 residents of Nome, Alaska. thousands of pounds apiece was landed there last October by the Civilian Reserve Food Supply Office.
"The coffee and butter. the paper said, were part of an unexpected and needed shipload of foodstuffs for which there was no storage place in the community. Much of the shipment the article said: already has spoiled on the beach. 
"Alaskans charged the stuff was purchased and ordered sent by Washington, D.C. and Chicago government officials to whom Nome was only a place on the map, and who do not realize that its present civilian population numbers only about 400 persons. the paper said. "Included in the alleged shipment, the paper said, were 350 tons of butter, 175 tons of coffee, 78 tons of salad oil, 59 tons of soap, 503 tons of canned milk, 70 tons of canned pears, 78 tons of toilet tissue and 78 tons of dried eggs. 
"The shipment was purchased, the article said, under the direction of Harold Snell. Alaskan railway official authorized by the U.S. Department of the Inter- to serve as territorial food administrator for the Civilian Re- 

Serve Supply Office.
No Storage Space
"The paper said lack of a warm storage space caused the brine in which the butter was packed to freeze, bursting the barrels and wasting - the shipment Canned pears also burst their containers. the article said, and the rest of the shipment is expected to deteriorate with the arrival of spring thaws.
"The paper said Alaskans expressed first disbelief and then amazement.
"This thing has become a joke the length and breadth of Alaska," one Alaskan business- man was quoted. "it is incredible. so unbelievable. it's funny.'
"Another Alaskan the paper
" 'This is only one instance. 
as was quoted. the governments canned salmon to Yukon River? If thing Nulato do Salmon. Catering Latos;s sole :ndu

Transcription Notes:
Everything was filled out in the text! Was not sure how to include the advertisement on the sides within the text.