THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
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W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Monday, November 18, 1946
In The Right Direction
(The Denver Post)
(Leaders of the Republican majority are sitting down
this week to plan the program of the eightieth congress.
After fourteen years as members of the opposition, they
will face the difficulties of translating criticism into
action.
The well-known fact about criticism is that it involves
only talk. But the voters made it clear that they want
more than talk, and they appointed Republicans to do it.
In the new congress the chips will be down.
There will be tempting distractions, such as skeleton
hunts into the dusty depths of the Democratic closet.
Through investigations aiming to uncover matters of
embarrassment to the administration, the Republican
congress may be expected to try to improve the party’s
position for 1948. That will be politics and human na
lure.
There have been suggestions, too, that some members
of the new majority are not anxious about advancing a
positive legislative program. They are said to feel that
the present administration should be allowed to worry
about the problems for which it is responsible. This pol
icy of “Let Harry stew in his own juice” likewise is
aimed at 1948, in the belief that a further demanstration i
<of Democratic incompetence will assure victory.
Fortunateyl, there have been strong reassurances
since the election that Republican leaders appreciate
the impossibility of two years of bickering inactivity.
For example, the realization has formed that President
Truman cannot be stripped utterly and immediately of
his war powers, but rather that the transition must be
made cautiously.
Equally encouraging has been the hint that President
Truman will announce a program of co-operation in
which, acording to friends, he will place the nation’s
welfare above personal and party interest. The Presi
dent read the election tea leaves correctly, judging
from the alacrity with which the administration moved
toward abolishment of wage and price controls. The
Democrats thus are themselves making the first moves
in the direction of what a Republican leader calls “get
ting the government out of the people’s hair.”
It is easy to draw oversimple conclusions from these
facts. Certainly it is not going to be peaches and cream
between the President and Congress. Republican moves
toward labor regulation, economy and shrinking the
present expansive bureaucracy are bound to emphasize
the basic differences in outlook between the two parties.
Yet a modus operandi has been indicated. If the Re
publicans will move with caution and sureness and if
the Democrats—remembering what the people said in
the election—will lend a degree of co-operation, the
next two years can be in the direction of progress, even
in slowly.
Behind The Spanish Nonsense
(Rocky Mountain News)
The almost hysterical determination with which the
Soviet Union and its satellites are attempting to stam
pede the United Nations into some kind of action to out
law Franco Spain should no be permitted to obscure the
real issue involved in this situation .
As the sole survivor of the Mitler-Mussolini brand of
totalitaranism, the Spanish dictatorship has no defend
ers among the democratic nations, which is as it should
be. Franco is a no-good by any measurement you choose
to apply. But it is preposterous to contend, as the Rus
HERE HE COMES—THERE HE GOES_
_ —————
J
sians do, that Spain menaces international security.
Poor in natural resources, of no consequence in a mili
tary sense, and encircled by unfriendly, suspicious
neighbors, Spain under Franco lost any ability to do
harm with the downfall of Hitler and Mussolini.
But a Communist Spain, as a Soviet satellite, would
be a distinct threat to world peace, because of its geo
graphic position. And this is something to think about.
We may be sure Russia would not be as interested in
the Spanish situation if she did not have reason to be
lieve her fifth column could move in and take over,
should the Franco regime be overthrown.
Moreover, should all of the United Nations withdraw
recognition of Spain, the Russians might feel free to in
tervene openly there. The Soviets have a habit of taking
a mile when they are given an inch, as we have learned
from their tortured interpretation of the Yalta and Pots
dam agreements.
Apart from this consideration, it is dangerous to de
clare any country an outlaw from the family of nations
on political grounds.
Spain is a Fascist state, to be sure. But according to
Russian standards, any nation which is not Communist
is Fascist. The Soviets have denounced Greece, China
and Iran as Fascist-dominated states.
They have even accused the United States of a drift
in that direction. If Spain is to be ostracized on such
grounds, the next target may be Greece, China, even
the U. S. A.
The issue is not a moral one, involving the essential
freedoms. If it were, Poland and Yugoslavia belong in
the same category with Spain, for in neither state have
free elections been permitted. Indeed, a more immediate
problem would be presented by Bulgaria, where oppon
ents of the Communist ticket were threatened with
death before the firing squads for their opposition to the
Soviet puppet government.
Franco won his way to power by force, through civil
war and revolution. But so did the present regime in
Moscow. Fascist Spain, allied with Nazi Germany and
Fascist Italy, pose da real threat to world peace, because
through Spain the totalitarian Fascists were in a posi
tion to seize Gibraltar and dominate the Mediterranean.
Spain can become such a threat again only under a
government which, would be subservient to the Pan
Slavic Communism now menacing the world peace.
By GEORGE S BENSON
President ©f Harding College
Searcy. Arkansas
i i
MEAT CONTROL up an important moral for Ameri
Collapse and failure recently of cans. In lettering bold and poster
government control over an im- size, amounting to hand-writing
portant commodity, required in the on the wall, this moral shows that
daily lives of the people, points we are not ready for this kind of
regimentation in peacetime. We
may re-enact the plot aga n with
new characters at some future
time ,but the result will surely be
the same. ^
This we must know before more*
harm is done: A controlled econ
i omy is not compatible with Amer
ican democracy. The real reason
for meat control failure carries
blame neither to men in Congress,
nor to the packers, nor to the
packing unions. The real reason
! for complete failure of meat cgn
; trol lies in the fact that Americans
| have been brought up on a fra^j
market. They have found the
greatest sort of freedom in this
kind of economy. They desire no
j substitutee for a free economy.
Few Old Cows
Prices the government allowed
for hogs and cattle on foot were
not high enough to induce farmers
to sell their animals. Early in Oc
tober the New York Times sent a
reporter into the heart of the
Texas cattle country. Trailing
buyers at Forth Worth for bot)H
major and independent packers,
the Times reporter saw them bid
OPA ceilings and come away with
only a “few old cows” out of 5,700
head of beeves listed that day.
Choice animals were “grabbed off
by traders at prices in excess of
ceilings,” while 7,000,000 beef cat
tle continued to roam the souti&
west Texas range.
Like any man who successfully
invests capital and puts hard work
into an enterprise, the cattle rais
er is well taught about markets.
But a controlled economy puzzles
him first, muzzles him later. The
farmer, like the manufacturer, has
learned to watch markets: to buy
and sell advantageously in an hon
est, competitive market. And ia
our land we have found that the
consumer, who buys the food apd
manufactured goods at lower
prices, is best protected by this
same free market.
Failure Recognized
Why could a black market ex
ist? The public wanted meat bad
ly enough to pay more for it than ^
the ceiling price. I am not condon
ing black markets, but it needs to
be said that this one was a general
revolt against price controls on
meat during peacetime, when the
public knew the country had more
livestock than usual. The failure
of controls was dismal, and the en
t re population recognized it.
Some folks, prompted by Com
munistic thinking and desiring to
destroy freedom of opportunity,
blamed the failure on the packing
houses. People who know nothing
of the facts may believe that ac
cuastion. The facts are that price**
packers could legally pay did not
bring livestock to market. Neither
did a few men in Congress cause
the farmers to withhold hogs and
cattle. It was not the “feebleness”
of the law, but the law itself, that
turned a free market into a black
market. #
Dynamic Economy
Dynamic is the word for our
American economy. It cannot be
trammeled down at once point and
bludgeoned at another, at the
whim of some far-away control
ler. Neither can you expect it to
by-pass the bottlenecks of gov
ernment control, using the laws of
honest economics with which it is
familiar — without disastrous re
suits to the American way of life.
If we want to keep a dynamic f
economy making possible a high
average per capita income and a
continuation of high wages, we
must keep a free market and free
economy. That is the way Ameri
ca became the greatest nation In