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 postoffict
mt Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Friday, February 17, 1950
A CALL FOR CITIZENSHIP
(By George S. Benson, President Harding College)
The question you should ask your government today
is this: Is my money being used as efficiently and as
economically as possible? In other words, are the dol
lars I pay in to government being wasted unnecessar
ily? Maybe you have never stopped to inquire about
these things. True, the right information is not always
at hand, and the complicated system of budgeting and
appropriations is not easy to grasp. Moreover, sums
counted in millions and billions are hard to compre
hend.
Still, the problem of government spending and tax
ing calls fo rsome of the most important and far reach
ing decisions our national leaders ever will be required
to make. The men who will have to make these deci
sions are your elected representatives and it is your
money that is concerned. Those are good enough reason
why you ought to be interested. But more important,
what’s done this year about taxes and spending may
well give us the answer to how long America will sur
vive. It’s your country, too!
In this nation can develop a government economy
that is sound and stable, then America will continue to
occupy the No. 1 place of leadership in the world of na
tions. If the nation’s financial affairs are sound, there
is a good chance that any domestic strain or internation
al storm may be safely woathered. Having the govern
ment’s business on a sound basis, there is every reason
for prosperity and plenty of jobs and high production.
Then we’ll have higher and higher standards of living.
On the other hand, there are quite a few shrewd crit
ics of America that see disaster ahead. One of these is
Joseph Stalin, who hopefully longs for an American
economic collapse as the easy road to a communist
America. There are many others who appreciate the
American way, but who are fearful that government
spending and taxing policies will carfy the nation to de
cay. World history shows no quicker way to national
suicide than wasteful spending and heavy taxing.
That is the larger view. Unfortunately, it is hard for
many of our people to take this larger view. The spend
ing situation is therefore so serious, and the need for
tax reform so critical, that the utmost in patriotism
from our people will be required. A lot of good, courage
ous citizenship will be needed to overcome the huge
odds that exist against any kind of lasting progress in
changing the ways of wasteful government.
During the current session of Congress the recom
mendations of the Hoover Commission to reorganize
the executive branch of the federal government either
wil lbe put into practical legislation, or will be ignored
and forgotten. Those experts who carefully studied the
actual functioning of the federal government said that
from three to five billion dollars could be saved every
year just through better and more efficient organiza
tion, without cutting out any present functions.
It’s going to take some real citizenship from a lot of
Americans to get the Hoover Commission’s proposals
into law. This year, when the federal government is
overspending its budget by five and a half billion dol
lars, the savings possible’through good management and
efficient organization would mean a lot. There are a
thousand places where savings to the taxpayers can be
made. These will be made only if you want these sav
ings and demand that they be made.
You ought to get mad enough about this to write all
your Congressmen! But if you want to make it some
thing really personal, just remember that you are help
ing to pay taxes today at a rate that exceeds those of
the war years. Remember that, regardless of the income
tax bracket you’re in, your family will pay more than
$700 in hidden taxes that are levied on somebody else
and passed on to you! No matter which view you take,
The Strategy of
Alaskan Defense
r
(By Clarke Beach)
| WASHINGTON (iP) — Military
1 planners intend to have 24,000
army and air force troops in Alas
ka by June 30, 1952. They believe
that will be ample defense for the
Territory. They agree with Gov.
Ernest Gruening of Alaska that
the present force of 7,500 men
there s “next to nothing.” But they
differ with someofficials who have
urged that very heavy forces be
placed in the Territory. Large
masses of fighting men could not
be used there, they say, either
by attackers or defenders. They
could not be provided in the field
with the vast amount of supplies
and equipment needed for modern
warfare.
There is only one railroad of
any length, the narrow guage one
from Anchorage to Fairbanks,
single-track most of the way.
Highways are few and inadequate.
None of them, including the new
2,000-mile Alaska (formerly Al
can) Highway, that stretches from
central Canada into the heart of
Alasxa, has a hard surface. The
long, deep winter freeze in the
Arctic would wreck any surface
but 18-inch reinforced concrete.
The roads are best in winter,
when they are frozen and the
bridges are intact. Bridges often
are washed away in the spring
floods—and 177 bridges cross ma
jor rivers on the Alaska Highway
clone.
A limited amount of extra-wide
track tractor equipment can be
moved across country, but it
would confront snow as deep as
50 feet in some of the passes in
winter—and the tundra becomes
muck in the bummer, when the ice
melts above the permafrost. Tank
trucks and other wheeled vehicles
could run only on highways.
The program by mid-1952—as
soon as hoousing and support fa
cilities can be provided—is to gar
rison each of the two large inte
rior airfields near Fairbanks with
2,000 air force and army troops, j
They are Ladd and Eielson fields, j
about 40 miles apart. Heavy stock-1
piles of oil, ammunition and
other military needs will be laid
in. Then the remaining 20,000 men
will be stationed near Anchorage,
at the army’s Fort Richardson
base and the air force’s Elmendorf
Field.
In case of attael on the interior
air field;, men fro.r. Anchorage
could be flown in. If more help
were needed, reinforcements from
the States could be brought up by
air. It would, theoretically, take
6,000 men to defeat 2,000 holding
strongly fortified positions. To
land 6,000 men in the tundra
around the fields and keep them
supplied with equipment by air,
while under aerial atack from the
fields, would be a colossal feat.
The Alaska strategy centers on
three big air fields. As long as
they are held firmly Alaska will
be safe, the military thinkers be
lieve. A successful amphibious
landing on the Alaskan coast will
be impossible as long as the U. S.
navy maintains its present world
i supremacy, in the opinion of the
I army men.
The strategists acknowledge (
that the Territory could be seized
now with comparative ease. To
them, however, it doesn’t seem so
( attractive an objective as some of
ficials have claimed. It could not
be used as the starting point for a
large-scale attack on the interior
of the continent by mass armies,
because of the supply difficulty.
The Russians, for example,
couldn’t load their ships at any I
clostr port than Vladivostok. And
that 3,900-mile communication
line would be far more than the
Russian merchant marine or navy
could maintain at this time.
ROTARYCLUB
The Rotary Club held its noon
luncheon at the Bering Sea Grill
with William Cameron presiding. |
Jack Dowd, former ACS oper-.
ator, well known here was guest
at the luncheon.
The program in charge of John
McNees was a film in technicolor
on aluminum.
Peanuts are variously known as
earthnuts, monkeynuts, oilnuts,
groundnuts, goobers and pindas.
personal or national, long or short—it’s time to assert
your citizenship.
You can travel all around the world and you will find
no better people than your neighbor^ in Nome. . . . Ad
vertising in The Nome Nugget is not charity—it is a
paying investment. Try it and see for yourself.
THEY GET INTO A LOT OF MISCHIEF AT THIS Ati
SCHOOL NEWS
FIRST GRADE
The First Grade appreciated
the cookies sent by the mothers
for valentines. Everyone was re
membered that wry
Due to the mild weather, many
play outdoors at recess. As a re
sult there have been fewer colds
t ian usual among the cnildren
and a higher percentage of at
tendance.
They are completing their fifth
book in reading.
FIFTH GRADE
Tuesday we had a Valentine
party. Everyone received many
lovely valentines.
We have been corresponding
with a school in Watertown,
Massachusetts. The letters have
been particularly interesting since
some of the children are recently
' 'O'
from Europe and wrote of their
life before coming to the States
Patrick Walker enrolled Mon
day. He transferred from White
Mountain.
HIGH SCHOOL
One of the most important
speeches made by Abraham Lin
coln was at Cooper Union in New
York City. The speech was given
in February, 1860, an exact ninety
years ago. Th ^ntir^ speech ap
peared the next day in the New
York Evening Pest of which Wil
t<am ‘wiillen Bryant, the poet,
editor. The Harper’s Weekly print
ed a full page portrait of him. His
friends in Illinois persuaded the
Republicans of that State to
name him their candidate for
President. This was done in May,
1860, at a convention at Decatur,
the town near which he had lived
when he first came to Illinois.
Rails, said to be tsose he had split
for his father’s first fence were
paraded around the convention
hall and from that time Lincoln
v as called ‘ the rail candidate.'
A few days later the Republicans
gathered in Chicago for the Na
tional convention. The New York
delegate^ came expecting to name
William H. Seward, the most em
inent man in the party, but Lin
coln won out. He was elected
President in November, 1860, and
was inaugurated the following
March.
Thy basketLall team is now
making final preparations for the
t< urnam nt *v# re held in An \m;*
age next week during the Fur
Rendezvous. Several enthusiastic
persons who want to help support
the team are also scheduled to ac
company 4hcm. Packing the most
essential things in small suit cases
and laying plans for the days
ahead ary now the main topics of
conversation. Soon they will be
winging southward in view of ma
jestic Mt. McKinley, which alone
is worth the trip. The team is go
ing down with a common purpose,
namely, to do their best. They
have done marvelously well on
our home grounds and our best
wishes go with them on more dis
tant grounds.
The enrollment of John Sahlin
into the high school brings the
total to forty-four; perhaps the
highest in Nome’s history.
Venus is now shining brightly
in the eastern morning sky. Since
its bright appearance in the eve
ning before Christmas, it has now
moved to the other side of the
sun.
fT.S. Commissioner’s Court
George Lambert was found
guilty of diverting electric power
for his own use without the con
sent of the owner and fined
$50.00.