THE NOME NUGGET I
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER .Editors
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3. 1879.
Wednesday, January 28, 1948
* i
“Survival In The Air Age”
(Rocky Mountain News)
IF THERE WERE SUCH A THING as required read
ing for every American citizen, we would place near
the top the report of the President’s Air Policy Com
mission.
“Survival in the Air Age” is the title. The conclusion
is that the United States may not survive unless we
drastically and quickly step up our aviation defense
against attack.
The commission finds that we cannot depend on the
United Nations alone to develop necessary authority
fast enough to prevent another war. Therefore it pro
poses a double-barreled policy of working for peace
through the United Nations, while arming America so
strongly that others will not dare to attack—or will
suffer defeat if they do.
The absolute deadline for defense against atomic at
tack is fixed as Jan. 1, 1953. Other nations are expected
to have atomic weapons in quantity by that time.
The Commission points out that, while the chief dan
ger of planned major war is five year off, “there ,is
however, such a thing as blundering into war” before.
Hence the need for immediate preparedness.
Our new strategic concept must be based on air
power.
That, the commission admits, will be extremely ex
pensive. It would increase the Air Force from 55 to 90
air groups—the present budget of less than three billion;
dollars would be raised to more than four billion dol
lars for the 1948 calendar year and nearly five and one
half billion dollars in 1949.
At the same time, the Navy air budget would be in
creased half a billion over the next two years.
Without going into the many detailed recommenda
tions of this exhaustive report or passing judgment on
its technical aspects, we wish to register our agreement
with its basic findings.
We believe the danger of future war is terribly real.
We believe that our nation should provide constructive
peace leadership through the United Nations, the Mar
shall Recovery Plan for Europe and special aid to such I
exposed countries as Greece, Turkey and China. \ j
But that peace programs cannot be effective unless i
backed by military force which the Kremlin under
stands. Superior air power is essential.
I
“Open Sore Policy.”
(By Barnet Nover)
AS WAS TRUE during all of 1947, the one great and
overshadowing problem confronting the world of na
tions in the new year is the problem of the relations be
tween east and west, more particularly between Russia
and the United States. All other questions and issues in
international life as not only overshadowed by that
problem but swallowed up by it.
What happens to Russia-American relations, will de
termine the fate of the United Nations, the speed and ef
fectiveness of the efforts toward world economic recov
ery, the relations between eastern Europe and the coun
tries west of the Stettin-Trieste line, the future of
Greece, China, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Germany, and
Korea, Above and beyond all the state of Russian-Amer
ican relations will have a deciding influence on the
question whether the world will, at long last, begin
moving toward real peace or continue its present drift
toward war.
It happens that neither country wants war and very
few responsible observers believe that there will be a
war in the near of foreseeable future. Yet any further
deterioration in the relations between the United States
BEGINNER’S LUCK
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it;
and the Soviet Union will without question intensify
war fears and accelerate was preparations.
The circumstance that, in the closing hours of 1947,'
Foreign Minister Molotov of Russia has suggested the
advisability of summoning a new conference to take up
the German and Austrian problems anew has aroused
little hope in Washington. i
The reaction, to that move here has been decidedly
negative. The feeling is that Molotov was indulging in
no conciliatory gesture but merely providing himself
with ammunition for another propagandist assault
against the west.
But if Russian-American relations cannot conceiv
ably get much worse, is there any chance that, in the
months that lie ahead, they will somehow get better?
In a world in which the unpredictable can and does
happen, it would be unwise to discount such a possibil- ‘
ity altogether.
A vast deal depends on the policies pursued by the
United States. If the Marshall plan is fully supported by
Congress, if the sums required to set western Europe on
the road to recovery are promptly voted and without
crippling limitations, a change in the Russian attitude
before 1948 runs out would not be out of the question.
Since the Soviet regime came into being in 1917, Rus
sian foreign policy has followed not a straight line but
a series of zig-zags. There have been retreats as well as
advances, periods of conciliation toward the capitalist
west as well as recurrent reversions to the basic mood
of hostility toward those nations.
Experience has proved that the leaders of the Soviet
Union have an incurable propensity for being influenc
ed in their thinking on world affairs by purelv doctrin
aire consideration and wishful thinking. But the record
also shows that they know how to recognize a stone wall
when they find their country running into one.
The actual going into force of the Marshall plan
would so clearlv mark the failure of the most important
of present-dav Russian aims as, willy-nillv, to force a
change in Soviet policy, temporary as that change
might prove to be.
To expect earlv and wholehearted action by Congress
on the Marshall plan is to expect the impossible. We
have it on the great authority of Rep. Charles A. Eaton,
chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, that
final action on this matter mav not be taken until .Tune.
In the meantime we can take it for granted that the
Kremlin will continue to battle the Marshall Plan and
use every weapon in its armory to defeat it. And the
Soviet leaders will find vast encouragement in every
sign of hesitation by the United States, every indication
of division in our ranks.
In the meantime, too, we can expect Russia to inten
sify her efforts, already very largely successful, to
crush every vestige of democratic sentinment in eastern
Europe and to pursue along the periphery of Soviet
power what can be described as the Open Sore policy—
a policy of doing everything possible to prevent the po
litical stabilization and the economic recovery of na
tions in the western cam]
In view of existing circ
es and prospects, 1948 is r
to be a happy year. Bi
courage, boldness and im
understanding on the pai
people and government
United tSates of the probl
fronting the world, there
no reason in the months
despair of the ultimate oi
Claims Industi
Set For “Steal
(Anchorage Time
WASHINGTON, (/P)—'
fin, author of the syndic
umn “Washington Daybo<
day described present rr
at the Capitol for leas
traps as smoothing the pc
magnificent steal.”
The writer, whose col
pears in papers from
coast, named Nick Bes,
caner, W. C. Arnold, sal
byist and Gov. Ernest G*r
principal characters in s
rial "war," and predicted
governor would not be r
ed "largely because of hi
al of the little fellows ai
ity to the fishing industr
Coffin said the fishing
“holds Alaska under its
and that legislation to 1
traps for the next 15 yea
ing pushed with vigor”
statehood is imminent a
gress will no longer co
fish and game resources
The columnist descril
deal as follows:
“Identical bills droppe
in Congress with depar
interior backing would
powerful fishing interej
year lease on Alaska’s gr
source. This is part of
struggle that’s been goiri
36 years between the bi|
fishing companies and tl
doughs” for political an
mic control of this rich
“With the help of i
and the boys behind the
the Washington burea
smooth industry lobby he
ka under its thumb—p
reforms that would raise
better the lot of residen:
ing much mild measures
come and personal prope
and monopolizing the ric
fishing. The industry
headquarters in Seattle,
ten, has usually the su
the state's delegation of C
The columnist said tl
Gov. Mon C. Wallgren
ington was in the S<
“fronted for the indus
authored a bill to “give t
dustry boys five year 1(
the traps.”
“There was such a h
Alaska that the Wallgrei
quietly dropped,” he <
“But now, it’s back agy
other form, and with th
backing of the departmc
interior. This time the lc
15 years. The only cone
the “sourdoughs” and ]
that the boys will giv<
traps. But even this is cc
Mention of Bez, Ar:
Gruening was as follov
“One of the shadow
behind scenes pushing
Nick Bez, the towerinj
able Yugoslav. Nick is i
Governor Wallgren s
friends of President Tr
i~ also one of the succe
ing operators in the nor
“Another backer is th
charming “Judge” W. I
managing director of A
non Industry, Inc.
“A casualty of this
‘war’ will be Gov. Ern<