THE NOME NUGGET
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Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW...
w continued
■ CASUALTIES _ -WS
PURINO PEACE. --S
NEGOTIATION^
LET’S RETURN TO THE GOLD STANDARD
(Los Angeles Examiner)
During the debate last week on the controls bill,
Representative Buffett of Nebraska stated the case
convincingly. He said:
“What historical evidence supports the claim that
inflation can be permanently halted in the absence of
a currency redeemable in gold on demand? Money re
deemable in gold has been the only effective final cure
for inflation, but this Administration does not want to
talk about that remedy.
“First of all, the power of the Fair Deal is based
-on continual inflation. The Roosevelt Administration
started inflation in 1933. When inflation stops, the
Fair Deal is through unless by that time our economy
is so weakened that a Socialistic dictatorship can be
forced on us without serious opposition.”
Every sound economist knows there is only one
cure for inflation, the return of the United States to
the gold standard, but although Representative Reed,
-of New York, introduced a bill on March 5, 1951, to
repeal “the crime of thirty-three,” the Truman Ad
ministration has been able to keep it in a pidgeonhole
of the banking and currency committee, along with
half a dozen similar measures.
0
But the people are being gradually made aware
of the extent to which the purchasing power of their
printing-press dollars, redeemable, except for the sil
ver certificates, only in similar pieces of paper, has
shrunk as a result of Roosevelt’s betrayal when he
violated his most solemn campaign pledge in 1932
and took the United States off the gold standard the
following year.
Today’s 50-cent dollar, and every housewife knows
her dollar has been cut in half, however strenuously
Secretary of the Treasury Snyder may try to deny it,
is the basic economy fact confronting the Truman Ad
ministration.
Yet it refuses to permit the question of the re
storation of “the honest little dollar” to be brought to
a vote Why is this?
It is because the gold standard philosophy is gain
ing recruits every day, and this tendency must be
thwarted.
Mr. Reed reports a heavy increase in his mail
from Democrats as well as Republicans, urging Con
gress to return to the gold standard.
THE OIL CRISIS IN IRAN
AP Newsfeaiuxes
The explosive situation in the
Middle East created by the na
tionalization of oil in Iran focuses
attention on one of the most vital
sinews of a modern nation. To
day, oil is power—power to de
velop and maintain huge indus
tries and complex transportation
systems by land, water, and air,
and power to expand these indus
tries and keep jeeps, tanks and
bombers moving in war. It is not
surprising that nations vie for
sources of supply.
Some peoples have more oil
than they can use; others would
starve if outside supplies were
cut off. At the moment, the bal
ance of petroleum power is in
favor of the Western World by a
wide margin: 49 per cent of the
world’s reserves are in North and
South America, against 6V£ per
cent in the U.S.SJR. and its sat
ellites. Europe outiside of the Iron
Curtain has less than 1 per cent,
and the Far East only 2 per cent.
Iran Supplies Big
The Middle East, collectively,
has more than 42 per cent of the
world’s estimated total reserves.
Iran itself has 9 per cent, and is
the fourth largest producer in the
world (after the United States,
Venezuela, and the U-S.S.R.). But
present known reserves and pro-,
duction figures are only an in
dication of future potentialities.
Many of the American oil fields
are old and declining in produc
tion.
So far few of the benefits of
this enormous wealth have fil
tered down into the life of the
people* In Iran the British-owned
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company has
long controlled output. The major
portion of the profits have accord
ingly remained in British hands,
or in the hands of a small group
of Iranians. Most of the people
are .desperately poor, undernour
ished, illiterate, and are pawns of
an outmoded feudal system. Only
small areas in the north and
west (see map) enjoy enough rain
to grow unirrigated crops or main
tain grass in a country where 80
per cent of the people depend on
agriculture and grazing. The rest
of the land is mountainous or
forest covered, or it is barren
desert where water is almost un
obtainable and temperatures in
winter remind one of Siberia and
in summer of the hottest spots in
the Sahara.
Water Needed
The primary need of the coun
try is more water. Without more
water crop yields cannot be in
creased and much potentially fer
tile land must lie idle.
Except for oil Iran is poorly en
dowed with industrially useful
minerals. The Abadan oil refin
Regions of
probable oiiintere.
\Z\mc concession
M~ sb
ery, the largest in the world, is
the biggest single industry, em
ploying more than one-third of
all the industrial manpower. Oil is
the one resource that could in the
near future purchase for the
Iranians relief from their poverty.
On the global fror^t, oil is as
much a political as an economic
issue. Should the petroleum in
Iran and the rest of the Middle
East come within the Russian or
bit, Western Europe would find
it hard to defend itself (75 per
cent erf its supply now comes from
the Middle East), while the drain
on the supplies of the Western
Hemisphere would almost certain
ly cause grave concern, not only
to our military planners but to
their colleagues throughout the
i free world.
-//04ty Director, GAINES DOG RESEARCH CENTER
VIRGINIA IS RATEPAS THE HEART
OF AMERICAN FOXHOUND COUNTRY *
THE ANCIENT CREEKS HAP ARMY POGG
EOUIPPEP WITH SPECIAL COLLARS
FOR CARRYING DISPATCHES TO TROOPS
* «
SWISS RESORTS Y£&> TRAINED
DOCS TO HELP FIND SKIERS
WHO GET LOST IN AWANCME8
® 1951, Gaines Dog Research Center, N. 7. C.
'
. r—Jl.
An AP
Newsfeatures
Pictograph