THE NOME NUGGET
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Entered as second class matter October 14. 1943. at the postoffi e
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, U579.
Nome, Alaska, Friday, December 31, 1948
World Has Uneasy Peace, U. S. Has
Uneasy Prosperity; Progress In 1948
*
(By John L. Springer)
((#*) Newsfeatures Writer*
The year 1948 was a year of un
easy peace, of uneasy prosperi y,
of uneasy progress.
Time table devised by the hope
ful during the war suggested this
third full year after ^victory would
find the world well on the road to
permanent peace. But large-scale
warfare flared in the Middle East.
It was a year of blood-letting in
China. Chances of a lasting settle
ment of the “Russian question”
grew dim.
Scores of economic records wrere
shattered in 1948. American indus
trial production hit its all-time
peacetime peak. More Americans
were working than ever before in
peace. They were earning imre,
spending more, enjoying a more
lavish standard of living. Yet in
the midst of all their wealth,
Americans looked to the future
with foreboding. The fear of re
cession. depression, or panic, could
not be shaken loose.
Scientists made imp o r t a :i t
strides these past twelve months.
Man flew faster than ever before
in history. Man made rnesinr, the
infinitesimal c o m p oncnts of
atoms. The first postwar furnace,
using atomic power to gene ate
tlectricity, neared completion. But
while atomic science boomed, so
did the threat of mankind’s self
destruction in the face of the
mighty atom.
Symbolic Story
The symbolic story of 1948’s un
easy peace was written in the cap
ital of defeated Germany. Bomb
battered, carved up Berlin became
the prestige prize of World War
II.
For six years the Allies had
spent millions of lives to reach
Berlin. When the Nazis finally
were exterminated, in 1945, Ber
lin became a “little world” divid
ed into four big sectors—Ameri
can, Russian, British and French
—where, it was hoped, the Tour
great powers would govern in
harmony. But now Berlin’s 318
square miles became the funnel
into which the discords of the east,
led by Soviet Russia on one side,
and by the United S ates and the
west on the other, were poured.
When the Allies carved up beat
en Germany they set up Russian
controlled territory all around
Berlin. Then, when they establish
ed their capital in Berlin, the west
ern powers could reach i; only by
traveling over Russian-controlled
territory. The Americans believed
they had an unwritten agreement
to use automobile and rail roads
from the U. S. zone into the Ber
lin, and they had a written agree
ment to use certain air corridors
for planes flying into the city.
As 1948 began, the western pow
ers in Berlin—who had failed re
peatedly to get Russia to agree on
a unified administration for Ger
many—pushed plans for an econo
mic merger of their zones. As
early as January 11 the Russian
Army paper in Berlin was hinting
that the Reds might try to push
the American and British out of
the city. After the failure of the
Foreign Ministers’ conference late
in 1947, the “cold war” progressed
to the point where Foreign Secre
tary Bevin of Great Britain was
calling fo" a “spiritual union” of
Western Europe to oppose the Red
o’.oe in the east—tension mounted
in Berlin.
In February, the “Big Three” of
the west opened talks in London
on what to do with western Ger
many. There were Russian pro
ests that the talks violated the
Potsdam agreement, but early in
March the “Big Three,” along
with Belgium, Netherlands and
Luxembourg, announced an agree
ment in principle to international- !
ize the Ruhr’s economy under J
western control and to bring Oer- i
many’s western /ones into the'
Marshall Plan. The Soviet re
sponse was ominous i‘s delegation J
stumped out of the Allied Control .
Council meeting in Berlin.
On Ap.il 1, the Russians began j
topping military trains for Ber
lin at the border of their zone, de
manding they be inspected. Grad
ually, in the next few weeks, the
Reds shut off all rail and road
traffic from the western zones to '
Berlin. The Americans began fly
og food and supplies into what
now became an isolated island, j
The Berlin airlift—one of the j
grfcat aviation transport achieve
ments of our time—was born.
Numerous attempts were made j
to solve the Berlin question. Al- j
lied representatives met with Sta- i
lin in the Kremlin in August and
milingly announced ‘‘agreement
n principle” but the talks fell
down. The Allies handed the case
»ver to the United Nations Secur
• ty Council when it met in Paris
n September. Still the issue re
named deadlocked. Russia insist
d that the western powers with
draw their new currency from
Berlin: the west insisted that the
blockade must be lifted first.
Free Ride Ends
While the big freeze, developed i
>n the diplomatic level, an air of
•risis flew along the bomb-pocked
itrects of Berlin. “Kidnapings”
grew; there were near-riots when
soviet officers shot at anti-com
munist demonstrators near the
Brandenbrug Gate. And • as the
city-wide elections scheduled for
December 6 came closer, the com
munists set up their own regime
in their zone and urged their fol
lowers to boycott the balloting in
i he western sectors. The vote,
however, was a rousing rebuke for
Ihe Communists.
Why was Berlin so important?
One 'American official explained:
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK
“It's our way of telling the Rus
sians their tree ride is over.”
That free ride carried the Marx
ist banners into little Czechoslo
vakia in February. In a rapid se
ries of moves, the Reds took over
the Socialist party, forced anti
communists to quit the cabinet, j
banned foreign newspapers, and j
set up a government on the ap- j
proved Moscow model. On March |
10, Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk, |
son of Czechoslovakia’s beloved I
i
first president, went out his bath- :
room window to death three floors
below. Quickly the iron curtain
clanked down over Prague.
The Red ride did not quite make \
it to Rome. Italy’s general elec-1
tions in April, were a victory for j
the anti-communists.
To keep the Communists lrom
riding over western Europe, Con
gress in April approved the for
eign aid program built around a i
four-year plan for Europe’s econo- i
mic recovery. ECA—the Economic1
Cooperation Administration — go*.!
under way to help Europe to its
feet. Its periodic repor s through
out the year indicated it was doing :
that job.
Even with American economic!
aid helping Italy and wes e*.i Eu
rope to resist the lu es of Stalin.!
there was always the had nv over
;he continent or Russia’s army, re
garded as the mightiest in the'
world. If America allowed herself
o be pushed out of Berlin, most
observers said, it would be Rus
sia’s cue that she could overrun
the continent without resistance
Irom the only nation powerful
enough to counter her.
But the big story of 1948, for ,
rmst oT Europe and the world, was !
hat the U. S. showed, through
ler appropriations and her actions,
at her stakes were planted in
he old continent for good.
Peace also had a rough time
dsewhere in the world.
War. continued in China, with
he Chinese communists advanc- j
ng through Manchuria and North!
- ’nina against dispirited resistance
f ‘he Nationalists of Chiang Kai
Shek. Ase the year neared its end.
Madame Chiang made a spectacu
\r visit to the United States to
>eek aid for the Nationalist cause.
In Palestine, a new nation was
y»rn to the thunder of cannon. On
May 15, the British gave up their
mandate over the territory and
he nation of Israel came into ex
istence. It was bombed and ma
chine-gunned from the air, shell
ed from the east and invaded from
the north and south.But the Isra
elis threw back their attackers
and, between U. N.-sponsored
armistices, gained a mill.ary supe
riority over their foes of the Arab
#
League nations.
As a commentary on the kind of
wor.d through which 1948 moved,
two notable men of peace were
assassinated:
India’s venerable Mohandas K.
Gandhi, shot at a prayer meeting
by a Hindu extremist; and Count
Folke Bernadot e, sent to Pales
tine by the United Nations in an
effort to mediate the struggle in
the Holy Land.
Politics
When historians look back on
these past twelve months, they
canno. ignore one of the greafCin
derella stories ol' American his
tory.
Sweeping Republican victories i
:n the Congressional elections of
1946, most observers thought, fore- ]
cast a G.O.P. vie ory in the Presi-I
dential race this year. Republicans I
licked their lips some as Henry A.
Wallace .former secretary of com
merce in President Truman's cab
net. announced a new party wi;h
himself as its head, to fight the ad
ministration’s “trend toward war.” j
After Truman alienated powerful '
-outhern sections of his own pa y
by his insistence on a Civil Rights'
b ogram in Congress most Repub
licans fel me White House would;
be theirs in a walk.
A host of Democrats walked out
on Truman. Others hopped on a
bandwagon for Gen: Dwight D.
(Ike* Eisenhower, despite his re
peated statements that he would
not run. Party leaders in key
states, like Illinois’ Jake t\rvey
and Jersey’s Frank Hague, said
Truman’s cause would be a hope
less cause. But Ike’s last “no”
proved so definite that the “stop
Truman" campaign died aborning.
On Junfe 24 a jubilant Republi
can convention in Philadelphia,
confident ij was nominating the
next President, voted first place
on their ticket to smiling, unruf
fled, confident Thomas E. Dewey.
Truman won the Democratic
.nomination July 1'5. in the same
hall in Philadelphia. The conven
tion was listless, dispirited. When
Truman delivered a fighting ac
ceptance speech, he reminded one.
reporter of a “corpse who refuser
to lie down at his own wake.”
Then another blow fell on Tru
man. Southern Democrat opposed
to his Civil Rights program called
it an invasion of states’ rights and
held their own convention. In Bir
mingham July 17, they nominated
Gov. J. Sti^m Thurmond of South
Carolina as their Presidential
choice.
The conventions were no sooner
over than the major public opin
ion pollsters, feeling the nation’s
collective pulse, announced that
_ca'cv \vac the overwhelming fa
vorite. Other assorted experts, the
counny over, indicated the elec-,,
tion was as good as settled.
Truman didn’t believe them,
in his speeches Truman hit hard
—proof, sad: the experts, that he,
too, knew his back was flat to the
wall.
He set out on a tireless cross
country tour, stopping at hun
dreds of pin-point hamlets, ready
always for a “chat with the folks.”
"I'm going to give the Republi
cans hell,” he announced in Wash
ington in September. And he did
it. The Republicans, he said, were
“gluttons of privilege . . • silent
and cunning men who have a
dangerous lust for power ... a
bunch of old mossbacks, living*
back in 1890 .. . Your typical Re
publican reactionary is a very
. hrewd man with a calculating
machine where his heart ought to
be . . . ”
From one end of the country to
the other, Truman preached that
“the Republican 80th Congress is
a do-npthing Congress.” “What
his country needs,,” he said, “is
not a new President, but a new
Congress.”
While Truman lashed out in all
directions, Dewey conducted a
calm and confident campaign.
Aside from a few thrusts at his
opponent’s “fumbling,” he prom
ised that he would bring national
unity into the government. *
It was all over but the voting.
On November 2 Harry Truman
pulled the political coup of the
centu y. And into office he swept
with him a Democratic House of
Representatives and a Democratic
Senate.
Now it appeared that his entire
domes'ic program, on most of
which the Republ can Congress
had fought him to a standstill,
might stand a better chance,
4
Living Costs
Probably no general subject in
‘he news was as talked about in
194.1 as that three-word phrase:
“Cost of Living.” If ever a phrase
were a household phrase, it was
this.
x Still pursuing the postwar
trend, economic records fell like
e.npins in 1943. During the year,
nrw peaks were set for such *
ihings as :he value of the copn
iry’s total production, the coun
try’s national income, the total
number of people employed. Dur-.
i">g the year, the cost of living also
hit a new high. In August, the
Bureau of Labor Statistics report
ed, it cost $1,745 to buy the same
essentials for an average-income
family that $1.00 would buy in t’n^
four years before the start of
World War II.
In general—we were spending
more, but - we also were earning
more. Economists who stood back
a bit and got a perspective on
what was going on said that never
in history has any people been so
prosperous. ^
Still we worried.
In February prices tumbled
sharply on the commodity ex
changes. They never quite recov
ered. Throughout the year, reports
increased of economic soft spots
now here, now there. Successive
cuts were taken in the prices of
such things as meat, and butter,
and jrnce-precious men’s white
shirts. No longer was it neces
to “sir”, the butcher; the word
“sale flashed more often on the*
windows of the electrical appli
ance stores. If you wanted fand
had the money), you could walk