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
W. A. Boucher ...Owner-Publisher
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1943, at the postoftice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3. 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Friday, February 3, 1950
BUREAUCRATIC OCTOPUS
(By George Peck)
Bearing in mind that these United States of America
were intended to be a Republic—not a Democracy—
what then is the duty of our Federal Government at
Washington? And what limitations did the Constitu
tion and the Bill of Rights place upon the Federal Gov
ernments?
The primary function or duty of the Federal Govern
ment is to protect the private citizen against oppression
resulting from the abuse of power, including that which
destroys competition and interferes with equality of op
portunity. Concentration of power, whether it be vest
ed in business, in Labor Unions or in Government, is
opposed to the philosophy and the continuation of a re
publican form of government.
Over the years we have laid down safeguards to pre
vent unbridled concentration of power in business( the
Clayton and Sherman Acts). We have made a first step
toward averting concentration of despotic power in La
bor Unions (the Taft-Hartley Act). We drew up the
Constitution in 1787 and added the Bill of Rights in 1791
to prohibit concentration of power in the Federal Gov
erment. In the case of business we have succeeded fair
ly well in protecting the individual; in the case of Labor j
Unions we have not done quite so well; but as far as the
Federal Government is concerned, we have failed mis
erably.
Article X of the Bill of Rights reads: I he powers not;
delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States
respectively, or to the people.” Because we have not in-'
sisted that our politicians obey this law and because the
individual States have not jealously guarded their
rights, we have seen the Federal Government usurp
power after power that in a Republic rightfully belong
to the individual States.
Undoubtedly the saddest thing about this is that
when a State surrenders a power, its ability to do that
thing departs. Thus, the State is left weaker to do its
remaining duties. Through this process, therefore, we
are destroying the States and as they become weaker
and weaker, more and more power is being taken to
Washington. This has resulted in a bureaucracy to
handle the machinery of Government, a bureaucracy i
that is no longer susceptible of popular control. Of ne- j
cessity we have had to delegate to this bureaucracy the
power to make rules which have the force of law, to
construe these rules and to enforce them. These are all
the powers that any king has ever had.
As the concentration of power in Washington in
creases, he number of employees feeding at the public
trough also increases, the while they become less and
less supervised. Unless we start immediately to decen-1
tralize this power at Washington by lopping off the ten
acles o*f this bureaucratic octopus, our Republic is doom
ed. We either must decentralize or make up our minds
that we are to be ruled by a great central bureaucracy ;
which nobody can control. A bureaucratic system of
government is an alien to a Republic, is as susceptible
to tyranny and corruption, and is impossible of popular
control as any other system of government, including
even that of Russia.
If the time has come when the responsibilities and
difficulties of Government exceed the capacity of the
American people to discharge them, then we are in for a
change in the form of our Government. No thinking
American wishes this to happen, but we are allowing it
to happen. To prevent it, powers must be taken from
Washington and restored to the smaller units of Gov
ernment. These smaller units must once again flex their
muscles and become strong; they must govern again.
The Federal Government has a job to do, but it can
Hot do a general job of government, that is, if we are
News of the World
At A Glance - - *
• Continued from Page One*
kind since the sensational break
ing up of a Russian-directed spy
ring in Canada in 1947.
The top figure in that case was
another British psysicist, Dr. Alan
Nunn May who was sentenced to
10 years in prison for slipping
samples of uranium to a Soviet
agent.
This latest development may
well affect vitally the U. S. policy
on sharing atomic secrets with
Canada and Britain. Both nations
have long sought pooling of in
formation. *
The U. S. navy announced in
Tokyo it will conduct “hunter
killer” anti-submarine exercises
this year in the Pacific. It is es
timated that Russia has one
fourth of its 280 submarines in *
Pacific waters.
Following a meeting of the U.
S. joint chiefs of staff in Tokyo,
Adm. Forrest P. Sherman, chief
of naval operations, said the es
cort carrier Sicily and six de
stroyers will move into the Pa
cific soon to augment the present
fleet. "Hunter-killer” tactics
against German and Japanese
submarines proved very effective
in World War II.
The visiting military chiefs
have concluded their conferences
with General MacArthur and his
commanders.
In Washington last night U. S.
Secretary of Defense Johnson
said the U. S. is ready to “lick
hell" out of Russia at an hour’s
notice. It was the toughest lan
guage yet used in the cold war by
a U. S. cabinet member.
“Joe Stalin will know that if
he starts something at four a.m.,
the fighting power of the United
States will be on the job at five
a.m." The defense minister said
in a talk before the alumni of the
University of Virginia. Johnson
said the U. S. defense setup is
mor6 powerful than it has been
since 1945.
Washington observers said Bri
tain and France would join the
U. S. in striking back at Russia’s j
new “baby blockade in Berlin.,
State department officials con
sider the current hating of east
west truck traffic in Germany by
the Russians is an effort to cre
ate new uncertainty and unrest in
W eather Slows i
Down Seareli For '
Missing C-54 |
(Continued from Page One>
west of the Alaska Highway air;
route and is west instead of east j
of the Rockies.
Still unchecked was a report j
received by the Canadian press
from three men who reported
hearing an explosion in the vicin
ity of Caribou Mountain, near
Carcross, Y. T., and some 50 miles
southeast of Whitehorse.
The men, each in a different
location at the time, said the ex
plosion was heard around the
time the U. S. C-54 was due over
Whitehorse.
ANCHORAGE, (&) — Six sur
vivors of a C-47 that crashed
south of Whitehorse while en
gaged in the search for a missing
C-54 returned to Elmendorf Field
by air last night.
Lt. Charles Harden, the pilot
whose dogged hike through seven
miles of snow was credited with
saving the lives of all, expressed
the belief that “If I’d been cruis
ing at 20 miles an hour more, I
wouldn’t have cracked up.”
“At the briefing Monday we
were told to cruise at 120,” he ex
plained. “If I’d been going 140 I
could have pulled out. I think
they’ve changed the orders now.”
The plane crashed into trees
when a down draft caught it.
The of the six were taken to
the air force hospital. They were
Sgt. Forrest Hudson, Eugene Cole
and Capt. Peter Berry. Cole had a
painfully dislocated shoul d e r .
Harden and Cpl. Bruno Pryzyd
zial were walking and O.K. Jack
Borges, Anchorage radio news
man, was taken to his home after
being met by his wife, Polly.
West Germany.
British foreign secretary Er
nest Bevin met with French offi
cias in Paris today to discuss some
of the potentially explosive east
west differences.
King George VI in a proclama-,
tion dissolved the British Parlia
ment today which officialls starts
the British election campaign.
Voting is on Feb. 23.
I
to remain the Republic under which we grew strong
and made ourselves the greatest nation in all world
history.
STIR CRAZY
SCHOOL NEWS
EIGHTH GRADE
*
This semester two more pupils
enrolled in the Eighth Grade, Tess
Bronson and John Sahlin. We
now have 16 in our class.
All the children were excited
about semester exams, which they
though were very hard, but the
teacher didn’t. The majority of
them passed.
Our “Pokey Club’’ isn’t as well
known as it used to be, because
most of the children are getting
down to business and studying
hard, they know what will hap
pen if they don’t keep up their
lessons.
Last Monday we started our
civics.
Our class is planning to elect
new class officers soon.
HIGH SCHOOL
One of our great American
heroes is Colonel Charles A. Lind
bergh, bom on Feb. 4, 1902. His
birthday is tomorrow. He was
born in Detroit, Michigan, but
spent his boyhood days at Little
Falls, Minnesota. Lindbergh
spent two years at the University
of Wisconsin studying mechani
cal engineering and continued his
studies at the Lincoln Aircraft
School, located at Lincoln, Ne
braka. In 1923, he made his first
flight. Four years later on the
Spirit of St. Louis, he flew alone
from New York to Paris. The first
part of the trip was comparative
yl easy but as night came on he
encountered fog and snow. He did
not have a radio nor parachute in
his plane. Finally he saw a fish
ing boat close to Ireland. He tried
to get directions from the boat
but could not. Soon he flew along
the coast of Ireland, then south
ern Englnad and landed at Le
Bourget Field In Paris on May 20,
1927.
Colonel Lindbergh and his wife,
the former Anne Morrow, visited
Nome on Aug. 12, 1931 on their
memorable flight to the Orient.
The English classes are study
ing sentence structure. Reading
charts showing the progress of
each student in outside reading in
Eng. Ill who have read the most
are: Harold Bell, Ralph Bingham,
Juanita Fagerstrom, Irene Gray,
Olga Hay, and Alice Miller.
The following Eng. II students
are furthest in their reading:
Katherine Bjornstad, Cliff o r d
Cobb, Raymond Miller, and Clyde
Nershak.
A new course this semester is
blue print reading and the stu
dents are answering questions
about actual blueprints.
We are very happy to welcome
to our High School a new stu
dent, Ruth Fagerstrom. Our High
School has a unique record this
year of being the largest for many
years and what is more unusual,
not one student has dropped out.
The planet Mars holds only
about half the atmosphere that
the earth can hold. Hence the
temperatures on Mars are lower.
The Nome Hardware Co., is
looking for someone who has a
card with the number 26190. They
are asked to call at the Hardware
Store.
WIND CARRIES FISH
TRAPS AWAY IN ICE
Peter Johnson who has been
using the fish traps set out for
specimens of crab and shrimp
had misfortune of losing them
Wednesday when the wind car
ried the Bering Sea ice away
from the shore rather unexpect
edly. He did however obtain some
specimens before the traps were
lost.