THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME, ALASKA
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 6its
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W. A. Boucher .Owner-Publisher
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943. at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Wednesday, April 27, 1949
THE HOOVER COMMISSION REPORT
(By Clarke Beach, (/P) Features Writer)
The “Hoover Commission’s’’ report was a plan of bat
tle. It was drawn up amid intense controversies within
the 12-man, bipartisan commission itself—as revealed
by the many dissenting recommendations—but the ma
jority did agree on a program for reorganizing the ex
ecutive branch of the government.
Now the battle lines will form in Congress. But much
of the program can be quietly adopted by the President
.and his agency chiefs if the President wishes to do so.
The Budget Bureau has made a tentative analysis of the,
commission’s reports and has estimated that they con
tain about 277 recommendations. It has figured that
about 89 of them can be put into effect by executive or i
-departmental orders. Congress would have to act on the i
rest.
By passing the pending Reorganization Act of 1949.
about 66 recommendations could be adopted. The Pres
ident could make extensive shifts in the present set-up.
He could do such things as transfer the Coast Guard
from Treasury to Commerce; or place the Reconstruc
tion Finance Corp., the Export-Import Bank and the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. within Treasury. The
commission recommended these changes.
The Reorganization Act has passed the House. The;
House bill exempts certain agencies from any general i
reorganization plan, but provides that each plan as sub
mitted by the President shall go into effect within 60
days if not disapproved by both Houses of Congress, j
The Senate version, now pending on the Senate calen-1
dar, contains no exemptions, but provides that a resolu-j
tion of disapproval by either of the two Houses can kill1
any plan submitted.
The Budget Bureau analysts believe that 17 of the
277 recommendations would require appropriation leg-*
islation. Am for the remaining 105 recommendations, in;
the opinion of bureau experts Congress would have to!
pass laws dealing specifically with them.
Under this heading would come the commission’s!
proposal that an accountant general be established to'
supervise all accounting in the executive branch; thel
creation of a new welfare department, and the author
ity for department heads to appoint postmasters and
other officials under the rank of assistant secretary
without Senate confirmation.
Many bills are now being prepared by executive
agencies to provide the legislation required. The staff
of the Hoover Commission itself is drafting about 14
bills to provide the legislation it believes necessary. The
commission also is in favor of the passage of the Reor-i
ganization Act, although it wants noagenciesexempted.
These Hoover Commission proposals, among others,
are expected to arouse fighting fury:
1. Creation of an accountant general, allowing the
comptroller general only a power of review over his de
cisions concerning accounting practices within the ex
ecutive agencies. The comptroller general is the agent
of Congress. The President has no control over him.
2. Transfer of most hospitals of the armed services
-and the Veterans’ Administration to a new agency, the
United Medical Administration. Veterans’ Organiza-I
tions already have raised an uproar, and the armed
services are not expected to like the idea.
3. Transfer of the work of the Army’s Corps of Engin
eers to the Interior Department. This would be part of a
plan to give Interior full authority over all water devel
opment work and public power planning. The highly
controversial public power and reclamation issues are
involved here.
4. Giving the Secretary of National Defense full
power within his department, denying the secretaries
I PRETTY TRICKY
'DOPNCD IF
r \/ ^
i
of each of the armed forces their present right of appeal1
to the White House. In the original unification plan, the'
Navy insisted on this right of appeal.
5. Turning the Civil Service Commission into a policy
making body, with administrative agencies doing most
of their own hiring and firing. Opponents see this as a
return to the spoils system.
EYE THAT NEVER CLOSES
(Daily Alaska Empire) ;
What may turn out to be one of the most important
of the current projects for defense in this country has
been given the green light by the Senate. This is the bill
to provide a radar screen around the whole country.
Through cooperation with Canada, the network will be
.supplemented by a string of polar radar stations. In ef
fect the nation’s defense measures will be strengthened
by the addition of an eye that never sleeps.
The project, as defense projects go, is relatively inex
pensive. The initiative expenditure is limited to $85,- I
000,000, but ultimately the cost will be $161,000,000, or
more. The bill authorizing the expenditure came out of
the House with a minimum of debate. The Senate has
passed it and the bill now awaits the President’s signa
ture.
The installation of a warning system, with stations i
placed at intervals around the periphery of the contin-j
ent, is only the first step in providing complete protec- ’
lion. Crews must be recruited and trained. Presumably;
a system of coordination of flight information will be *
worked out with the airlines and with governmental
agencies with which civilian fliers file information of
their flight plans.
While radar is deadly accurate in spotting and track
ing planes that come within range of its scanning rays,
there is still no way of positively identifying a friendly
from a hostile plane without special equipment.
It is possible that new regulations regarding informa
tion on flights out of the country will be needed. It
should not be necessary to restrict movement or curtail
any of the normal freedoms civilian airmen enjoy. This
is little enough to ask in the light of today's facts of life.
i
ONE CREDITABLE MONOPOLY !
Soviet newspapers charge that the Food and Agricul-1
tural Organization of the United Nations is an agency of
the United States “monopolists.”
The United States, one might point out, as compared
with Soviet Russia, has had almost a monopoly of send
ing food to feed the starving peoples of the world. It has
had a practical monopoly on generously spending its
money for the benefit of other peoples in the hope of
improving the living standards of all people and thus
creating a .stable world economy.
Do you educate your children to fit into the world or
to make the world fit to live in? . .. Don’t point a finger,
lend a hand-Materialism is the mother of all “isms ”
Moral Rearmament
Plan Notes
(By YVONNE MOZEE)
The person writing this column
is a former Nomeite, daughter of
B. B. Mozee, U. S. Marshal, who is
now working and training with
Moral Re-Armament at its nation
al headquarters in Los Angeles.
The editor, W. A. Boucher, vis
ited the MR A Club, and Miss Mo
zee, in Los Angeles, while on hi>
recent trip Outside.
H33 South Flower Street
Ix)s Angeles 14. California
April 22, 1949
Dear Mr. Boucher:
Greetings from southern Ca1
ifornia. I read in the Nugget that
you reported only three days of
sunshine while you were here.
You would now find the weather
made to order. Patios are once
again in season, and ours here at
the Club is blooming with shasta
daisies, iris, and people.
Since your visit about fifty of
us followed in your train as far as
the San Francisco Bay area. We
went up to give performances of
“Drugstore Revolution” a play
about teen-age America. It was
written and produced by teen
agers at the MRA summer train
ing center at Mackinac Islam*
Michigan, in 1945. Since then,
some 150,000 persons have seen it
in such cities as New York, Bo>
ton, Ottawa, Detroit, Seattle and
San Francisco. Before going north
we gave a series of performances
at Monterey Park. They were
sponsored by the Rotary Club
there, who did a matchless job
enlisting community support.
The play was written out of ac
tual experiences of one of the fel
lows, the son of a Detroit labor
leader. It tells the story of how the
gang who hang out at the come •
drugstore learn to fight together
for something bigger than them
selves. And because the boy finds
the secret of being willing to
change, his home is reunited.
Some of the teen-agers whom
you met when you were here are
in the cast. One of them is Bill
Harris from Ontario, who is a
handy lad with acamera and who
loves skiing. Bill tells of the thrill
of racing down his favorite moun
ta;n on skis, "but the greatest ad
venture of my life has been train
ing and working with this gang in
MRA." Bill is the slap-happy in
play, and the twinkle in his grin
goes with the part.
While we were on the trip we
lived in homes all over the Bay
area. It was a unique privilege t •
walk into the hearts and lives of
so many families. I arrived at the
modern hilltop home of an adver
tising executive and discovered
that his daughter had attended
Willamette University in Oregon,
my own alma mater.
This family was host to all of us
one afternoon when a number of
students who had seen “Drugstore
Revolution" wanted to know how
they could apply the same spirit
in their own homes and schools.
One highly colorful event during
the course of the afternoon was
the escape story of Captain Ronald
Mann, who walked seven hundred
miles to freedom. He told us of his
time m prison camn, his escape,
and the incredible adventures of
his journey to the Allied lines.
Since the war Ron has spent many
months working with a Moral Re
Armament task fo ce in the Bri
tish coal fields.
We made the trip in a motor
cavalcade of seven station wagons.
Driving the lead car was Major
Vernon Eriksson from Edmonton,
whom you doubtless well remem