THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
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W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.Editor*
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffir*
at Nome. Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Friday, January 17, 1947
Labor Legislation; Not In Haste Nor Hate
(New York Sun)
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS identified only as “re
sponsible Republican leaders” are indirectly quoted to
the effect that the Republican majority in the Senate
and House of Representatives in the next Congress does
not plan any “punitive” legislation against labor. It is
not clear what this vague declaration means, but if it
means that the Republican majority in Congress will
discard vindictiveness and haste in the approach to leg
islation on a subject of such critical importance there
will be general applause from all quarters.
No group of Republicans, whether responsible lead
ers or not, can speak for all members of the majority in
the Eightieth Congress. That much is clear from what
has been said in the days since the election of Novem
ber 5. Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon, for example,
has interpreted the results as imposing on obligation
upon Republicans to make almost no change in the labor
laws. Senator Joseph H. Ball of Minnesota, reading the
same returns, has interpreted them as calling for funda
mental amendment of the Wagner Act to make it equal
ly fair to labor and management and for drastic restric
tion of the loose powers of the National Labor Relations
Board.
It is not the duty of Republican leaders in Congress to
censor such expressions of opinion or to block legislative
proposals. It is not their duty to pretend to a monoto
nous unanimity of opinion that has never existed in any
party—except possibly one within reach of the cable
from Moscow. What Senators White, Taft, Vandenberg
and Wherry and Representatives Martin, Halleck,
Brown and others can do is to set an appropriate mood
for consideration of all proposals, however well or ill
advised. Such a mood, it may fairly be suggested, should
avoid the extremes of emotional haste and of cold
blooded dalliance. What is truly and fundamentally cor
rective and constructive will be punitive only for those
who are in the business of exploiting unfair advantages.
One thing that Senator Morse said in his post-election
comment is obviously true—that the Republicans could
not have won in many districts without the votes of
hundreds of thousands of members of labor unions. In
some quarters this wholly obvious fact will be used as
an argument for stalling on legislation until after 1948,
but the vote on November 5 was not a vote for stalling
and inaction. Those members of unions who voted for
Republican candidates did so because, the secret ballot
provided them with their only effective weapon against
abuses of power of which they are just as well aware as
are those outside labor unions. There is general agree
ment that the Republicans should go slow about writing
sweeping new labor legislation or about wholesale re
peal of existing laws. But the caution of this approach is1
justified both by the seriousness of the whole problem
and by consideration of the further harm that could be
done by hastily contrived or vindictively inspired rem
edies.
Letting Down A Friend j
(Rocky Mountain News)
'THE DEMOCRATIC WAY of life is fighting a rear
guard action all over the world and steadily is losing
ground to Soviet totalitarianism. Why? Because wars
cannot be won by defensive action alone.
In Poland, the provisional government supported by
the Red Army is so rigging the election set for Jan. 19
as to make a mockery of the Yalta agreement, which
pledged free and unfettered elections to choose a repre
sentative government. _
Instead of a representative government, a Commun
ist clique, subservient to Moscow, is being forced upon (
the Polish people, with dissenters subjected to suppie-.
sion and torture. ,
We can’t do much now about the Polish situation, be
cause the Soviet Union is supporting the position of its
Warsaw puppet, which is that what happens in Poland
) is none of our business.
But we can lend a hand to nations which are working:
to establish democratic institutions, and we aren t doing
that in China. t
Chiang Kai-Shek has secured approval by China s|
National Assembly of a new constitution, designed to;
take China’s basic political power away from the official j
government party, the Kuomintang, and put it in the;
hands of the people. Plans are being made to hold elec
tions in 1947 in a country which never held elections.
Yet at this moment when China is moving in the di
rection of democracy, the State Department is threat
ening to withdraw our financial support from Chiang’. j
government because he won’t make concessions to the
Chinese Communists. This policy just doesn't make
sense.
We can’t halt the spread of Communism by compro
mising with it when we don’t have to compromise. And
democracy in the Orient must have our support and en
couragement if it is to survive.
The hard-boiled men in the Kremlin must chortle
with sardonic glee as they watch us kicking the young
Chinese democracy in the shins just as it is learning to
walk.
One Man’s Opinion By Walter kiernan
The Republicans organizing the new Congress are
like men who haven’t driven since Henry stopped mak
ing the model T... . Hesitantly they sit at the wheel and
wonder which is high gear and which is reverse on this
model. ... The momenl they dreamed of has arrived and
they still can’t shake off the feeling that they’re dream
ing. . . . The President goes to Congress in the spirit of
the lion tamer who was new on the job. . . . Said the lion
tamer, “I am the boss around here but until you learn
that fact I shall remain near the door.”
THE SWINGING GATE _
postal
m
SUIT*
By GEORGE S BENSON
Resident of Harding College
Searcy. Arkansas
..- r i....
LAND OF UNIONS 4
In Stockholm this summer I had
a delightful visit with Mr. Gun
nar Anderson, vice president of
the Swedish Federation of Trade
Unions. Mr. Anderson is a well
informed, intelligent man, who
recognizes clearly the problems of
our own unions. The federation is
-----
composed of 46 separate unions
representing trades or divisions of
trades. Membership totals 1,106.000
a most amazing number in view
of the total Swedish population of
onyl 6,000,000. The Socialist Dem
ocratic party, strongest among the
ranks of labor, is also the control
ling party in the government.
No Closed Shop
Yet, despite the preponderance A
of labor’s voice in the affairs of ^
Sweden, Mr. Anderson told me
that labor fears the closed shop.
Said he: “Our federation opposes
the closed shop. We oppose it on
the ground of individual freedom.
We believe any citizen should have
freedom to join a union or not to
join a union and to work where
ne wishes. This plan has worked
well in Sweden. Most of the work
ers recognize the value of the
union, and do join the union, but
both management and labor us
well as the rights and responsibil- *
ities of each. He answered ques
tions I put to him in 'a forthright
manner, giving statistics and fig
ures from memory.
Labor unions in Sweden have
been operating for more than 50
years. The printers’ union claims
an age of 100 years. Thees craft
organizations are much older than
they are not compelled to do so.”
Labor-management relations are^
excellent throughout most of Swe
dish industry. One reason for this
is the constant effort put forth by
the Federation to improve under
standing between employers and
employees. Many special commit
tees made up of both management
and labor are continually at work
for better understanding. Most of
the employers, acording to Mr.
Anderson, try to be fair with
workers and pay as high wages as
they can. As compared with our
American economy, however, the
wages are not as high as in this
country.
Outside Influence
Disagreements and strikes are
not common in Sweden; it is a
land of little labor trouble. But
when the need arises, “negotia-^
tion” committees attempt to reach
an agreement, but if that fails the
parties involved resort to “concil
iation.” Mr. Anderson stated that
conciliation is preferred to arbi
tration because it keeps the re
sponsibilities of the parties in
volved.
However, an important strike
affecting 100,000 metal workers
raged five months last year. “The
strike was really unfortunate,”
said Mr. Anderson. “The strikers
did not gain more than one-third
of a cent per hour more than they
were offered before the strike. Of
course, that amount will never re
pay what they lost in wages dur
ing the strike, the cost of which
was 45 million kroner. I advised
against the strike from the begin
ning.” Later I was told that the
strike actually was caused by Com-^
munist influence in the metal
workers union.”
Which Do You Prefer?
The nationalization issue has
been discused extensively in Swe
den. However, there is no inten
tion on the part of labor to ask
for nationalization, chiefly because
private enterprise is, as Mr. An
derson pointed out, “doing all
right.” Labor has no reason to I
think it would fare better under
nationalization, and it was Mr.
Anderson’s view that even the
status of labor unions would be
questionable under complete na
tionalization.
Growing thoughtful, Mr. Ander
son continued: “Private corpora
i tions and government managed
corporations could not be expect
ed to compete. Government,
through use of taxes and other
methods, could always come out
on top, so it is best to have eithe«j|
state management or private man
agement, not a mixture of the
two. We prefer orivate.”