THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
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NOME, ALASKA
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W. A. Boucher .Owner-Publisher
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943. at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Monday, June 6, 1949
I
U. S. MUST GO TO THE ROOT OF THINGS
(New World News)
Is America really going to the root of the issue today?
In April another $5,000,000,000 was voted to ECA for
the coming year. The Atlantic Pact was also signed, an
historic document, which throws America farther out
on the limb of her destined role in world affairs.
Ten years ago it was inconceivable that America take
this leadership. Events, however, have demanded rev
olutionary action.
But still, are we going to the root ot the issuer
An American wrote recently from China: “I hope the
signing of the Atlantic Pact won’t give the western
powers a false sense of security, while the world falls
apart here in Asia,” And, in a widely advertised article,
“Time” magazine recently quoted a German leader:
“Whether any of us likes it or not, one thing is true in
Europe today—its future depends on the workers of
Germany. Russia cannot win them yet—but the West
can lose them. ... If they should ever desert the West
. . . then you can have all the Atlantic Pacts you can
write. Communism will be everywhere.”
Once again, events are forcing America to re-evalu
ate what she is giving Europe and the world.
Take a country like France. The United States has
poured in many millions of dollars in aid. In terms of
aid, Russia has hardly sent a thing—actually one ship
load of wheat. But she has sent 1,000 trained ideological
fighters. What has happened? Some indication of com
munist strength was given last Fall when the French
coal industry came to a standstill and the equivalent in
coal of six months’ Marshall aid was lost.
You can go around the globe and find the same story
being written.
Tarined ideological fighters have turned the Far East
into a ferment of strife and revolution.
We in America must face the fact that we are not go
ing to the root of the issue today. If what that German
leader says is true, then it is imperative that American
policy develop the means at once of,complementing our
security pacts and Marshall air plans with the trained
ideological fighters who can demonstrate and sell in-j
spired democracy to the world.
Unless this happens, there is every ground for the
fear, expressed on many sdies, that in the pinch the At
lantic Pact will become just another “scrap of paper,”
and ECA “Operation Rathole.”
If we can produce ideologically trained and equipped
personnel in time, then the millions we’ve poured into
Europe can become the real basis of recovery and the
North Atlantic Pact can usher in a new age of human
cooperation.
.
_
ANGLO-SAXONS A HELPLESS MINORITY i
(Hugo S. Sims) ;
The United Nations now includes fifty-nine mem-i
bers, involving a heterogeneous collection of small and
iarge, backward and progressive, strong and defense
less and, we might add, civilized and near-civilized
countries.
The United States, Great Britain France and Russia,
sometimes referred to as the Big Four, constitute the
backbone of the strength of the organization. When act
ing in concert, they have the resources, power and abil
ity to accomplish practically anything. However, they
have only four votes out of fifty-nine. This, in large de
gree. explains their possession of the veto prerogative.
The misuse of the veto by Soviet Russia should blind
us to the obvious advantages of such an arrangement.
Only through concerted action of the larger nations
can the United Nations function as it was intended to
operate. It is better for the organization not to under
take a questionable task rather than to plunge into it
«_OPtR*"°" STTfCH-W-TIME
with the larger nations divided and antagonistic.
There is another phase of the operations of the United
Nations which should receive the attention of the peo
| pie of this country. Most of all the members, regardless
I of all the talk about the four freedoms, do not seriously
apply them at home. Moreover, what is generally re
ferred to as the Anglo-Saxon civilization is shared by
not more than ten or twelve of the members. In addi
tion, the membership is broken up into a number of
groups acting through something of a mutual self-in
terest. This would include a Latin bloc, a Near East
bloc, an Asiatic bloc, a Communist bloc and some other
delineations.
So long as the United Nations confines itself to the
general peace of the world, which is obviously in the
interest of all the nations, and seeks to prevent aggres
sive attacks upon free nations, it can hope to move, in i
the future, with .solidarity. Whenever it dips into the *
domestic business of the various states, regardless of
motives, it treads on dangerous grounds.
CIVILIZATION A TOUGH BABY
The reader knows, no doubt, that civilization is facing
“extinction.”
We have it on no less than the word of several ex
perts, who hold degrees from institutions of learning.!
that the next war, with its terrific violence will end1
what we have sometimes referred to as “modern cul-i
ture”
The funny thing about the lamentation is that for
many years, for one reason or another, the experts who
worry have been seeing the “finish of civilization” on
tho horizon for a long time. Whatever it may be, civil
ization seems, however, to have many more lives than
the proverbial cat and, despite the tragic development
that worries the experts, modern people believe that
the present civilization is worth having.
Whatever happens in the future and many strange
events may come to pass, we need not worry about the
destruction of civilization. What we admire may die,
what we like to cherish may expire and all traces of
what we adore may crumble into death but, even so,
civilization will still exist for the people who may be
around to share it and they will brag about it then, as
we brag about ours today.
Thousands of years from 1949, writers and speakers,
who will know little or nothing about the crises that
| troubled the Twentieth Century, will tell the younger
generation of their day that “civilization is facing ex
tinction.” So it has been for many years and so it will
1 be for many more.
If the entire population of Nome would trade at home
for just one month, vye would all be surprised at the
difference in business it would make. . . The reason
you can’t believe all you read in the newspapers is just
because the newspapers have to depend on folk just like
you for more of their information. Get it?
I News of the World
(Continued from Page Orie>
see if some avenue of agreement
can be reached on the Berlin
! problem.
I U. S. Secretary of State Dean
Acheson has made a personal at
tempt to reach a compromise with
Russia on the subject. Moscow’s
reaction now is awaited.
Acheson dined with Soviet for
eign minister Andrei Y. Vishinsky
in the U. S. Embassey in Paris
Saturday night. The American
proposals were said to have been
put forward then.
This is the main point at issue:
Vishinsky has insisted that if the
four-power Kommandatura (gov
erning body) is revived in Berlin
' it should be restored exactly as it
operated before the split last year.
This would mean retention of the
veto power.
The western powers want the
veto power reduced and the au
thority of the Kommandatura
trimmed to give the Germans
more power. They also want new
city-wide elections under four
power supervision to choose a
new city administration.
Officials acquainted with what
has been happening at the recent
secret talks of the foreign minis
ters said they thought the discus
sions were approaching a climax.
They agreed, however, that it
would be “premature” to expect
an immediate settlement on Ber
lin.
The United States has pledged
Western Europe its entire
“strength and resources” to main
tenance of world freedom, peace
and democracy. The assurance
came last night from President
Truman and former secretary of
state George C. Marshall at a din
ner in Washington.
The western allies remembered
their dead of World War II in an
observance marking the fifth an
niversary of D-Day. On June 6,
1944, church bells all over the Al
lied world pealed to herald the in
vasion of Adolf Hitler’s “fortress
Eiuiope” by shock troops of the
.vestern democracies.
There still are marks of that in
vasion on Omaha beach in France.
Offshore lay the rusting hulks of
ships sunk to make an artificial
harbor for the Allied troops. In
land battered Norman villages
st.l. bear witness to the lury
he onslaught.
Archbishop Joseph Beran yes
terday served notice on the com
munist government of Czechoslo
vakia that “there can be no true
Roman Catholic church without
its head in the Vatican.
The archbishop spoke at St. Vi
tus’ cathedral in answer to the
government’s campaign against
what it calls Vatican interference
with the sovereignty of the state..
In the English seaside resort of
Blackpool, leaders of Britain’s la
bor party met to hammer out a
1950 election program. During
their five-day conference they
will consider such problems as
tontrol of wages, prices and prof- t
its; the best methods of controll
ing and operating state industries,
and the question of whether to
proceed slowly or swiftly w: »
more nationalization.
Bolivia announced yesterd; y
that loyal soldiers and civilia* s
had smashed an attempt by rev >
lutioharies to capture the town <>.
Villazon on the Argentine border.
The attack came amid reports that
extreme rightist and leftist groups
had formed a coalition to over
throw the government of Presi
dent Enrique Hertzog and acting
president Mamerto Urriolagoitia.