THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
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W A. and EMILY BOUCHER.Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffu***
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Monday, April 14, 1947
Fourteen Million Slaves
In “Democratic” Russia
(The Denver Post)
(RUSSIA’S INDUSTRY is engaged in a gigantic effort
to outstrip the rest of the world. Her factories, mines,
lumber mills and aircraft plants hum from the energies
of millions of persons. In order to sustain the accelerated
program, the Soviet Union relies upon the human power
of over 14 million slaves. A vivid account of this slave
labor is carried in the April issue of the Reader’s Digest.
Entitled “The Truth About Soviet Russia’s 14 Million
Slaves,” it is a condensation by Max Eastman based on
the forthcoming book “Nothing but Their Chains,” by
David J. Dallin and Boris Nicholaevsky.
It leaves one with the feeling that about the o#ly dif
ference between Communism and Fascism is the spell
ing of the first few letters before the “ism.” The world
was shocked at the revelation of brutalities practiced by
the Germans in their slave camps, but it seems the Com
munists went the Nazis one better by practicing their
brutalities mostly upon their own people.
Russians are confined to these labor battalions for a
number of reasons. Among them are: (a) People who
“obstruct, oppose, criticize, or are suspected of secretly
disliking the totalitarian Communist regime.” (b) Pea
sants “who honestly acquired a little more land than
their neighbors, and believe in their right to keep them.”
(c) Workers “repeatedly absent or tardy, or, worst of
all, those who protest against hours, wages or conditions
of labor.” (d) “Recalcitrant priests, people sentenced to
hard labor for their religious beliefs, and intellectuals
condemned for their opinions,” and any number of other
offenses which the Kremlin might deem justifiable.
Speaking of Henry Wallace’s visit to Russia and Si-'
beria in 1944 the article stated:
‘ He apparently failed to see a single one of what Wen
dell Willkie called ‘the usual concentration camps.’
Wallace had his picture taken in happy company with
Ivan Nikishov, the brutal head of Dalstroi, the hugest
and most dreaded group of death camps in Siberia. Here,
in a territory several times the size of France, wholly
ruled by the ministry of'interior affairs, slaves are dying
by the thousands in the frenzied effort of the Soviet
Union to surpass other nations in the production of gold.
In the title of his picture Wallace calls this captain of
human extermination a ‘big industrial boss’.”
Quoting testimony given by one Russian slave, the ar
ticle continued:
“We live in tents without floors. When we returned
from work at night, chilled and soaked to the bone, we
sank up to our knees in mud inside the tents. We lay in
our clothing, in a sort of feverish sleep, and succeeded
by morning in drying out a portion of it before the
guards with their dogs came to drive us out to another
day’s work. When one of us died in the night, we con
cealed the body beneath the bunks as long as we could
endure the stench, so as to receive the dead man’s ration
of bread.”
This is the picture of the great “humanitarian Social
ist state” of Russia which even the mighty Kremlin
could not suppress.
We Demand Peace
(The Rocky Mountain News)
WARREN AUSTIN, U. S. delegate to the United Na
tions, has made a convincing reply to those critics who
have held that President Truman, in proposing an inde
pendent aid program for Greece and Turkey, was by
passing the United Nations.
The President, in fact, was supporting an U.N. agen
cy’s recommendation when he urged relief for Greece,
Mr. Austin pointed out.
He recalled that Ihe food and agricultural organiza
t:on of the United Nations had recommended that the
Creek government ask the Economic and Social Coun
cil and the American and British governments for funds
for food and other essential imports, after the withdraw
al of UNRRA on March 31.
'Moreover, the United States strongly supported use
of U.N. machinery for the industrial rehabilitation of
Greece, and would co-operate in such a program. Mr.
Austin said.
We would welcome corresponding interest and sup
port from other member states, he added.
But Mr. Austin did not stop there. In addition to eco
nomic aid, he said, the United States regarded it as vital
that the U.N. act to discourage and prevent threats of
aggression of any kind against the independence of a
member state.
Thus, the U.N. has been invited to protect both Greece
and Turkey from threats to their sovereignty.
The United States took the initiative last December
in proposing establishment of the U.N. Balkan Commis
sion, now investigating the Greek border disturbances.
We now urge that the commission appoint border pa
trols to maintain order until its report can be considered
and disposed of by the Security Council, Mr. Austin
said.
That puts the problem where it belongs—right in the
lap of the United Nations. However—
Mr. Austin made it plain that we considered it an ob
ligation under the U.N. charter, “as well as a matter of j
elementary self-interest,” to do our utmost to bring
about the peaceful adjustment of any situation which
threatens peace.
We respect the right of any nation to follow the way of
life or system of government it chooses. But that choice
should be “freely made without intimidation,” and na
tions must not “interfere with the rights of other coun
tries or the liberties of other peoples.”
Thus we do not challenge Communism, but only the
right of Communism to extend itself by force.
Finally, the American spokesman emphasized that*
the President had more than Greece and Turkey in mind
when he spoke of conditions “affecting the security of
the United States through the insecurity of the world.”
Thus all nations are on notice that we are prepared to
go to the relief of any country threatened by foreign
aggression.
We have urged the United Nations to deal with all
threats to peace, if it can and if it will, and have pledged
our full support to such a program. But we have re
served the right to help free and independent nations
to maintain their freedom.
Can We Bridge This Chasm Of Conflict?
(By Edgar Ansel Mowrer)
Honest Americans who complain
that the Truman doctrine will
“split one world into two” had bet
ter take a deep breath and snap
out of their trance.
Whoever may be responsible for
the “split,” it is certainly not Mr.
Truman. All he has done is call at
tention to a state of things that
has existed ever since the Soviet
Union was bom in 1917.
Politically our “one world” nev
er got beyond the aspirations of
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Wen
dell Willkie; physically it is a fact
but the Russians will have none of
it. If we had listened to them we
should have been less surprised.
Their frankness has been com
plete. Lenin himself insisted upon
the “unbridgeable chasm” between
the Soviet Union and the “imperi
alist world” (meaning us). Stalin
unremittingly echoed this belief.
The difference between the two
was that Lenin expected the gap to
be bridged by world revolution.
Stalin is confident that it will be
overcome by expansion of the Sov
iet Union. For both, the presence
of powerful non-Soviet countries
is “capitalist encirclement” of the
Socialist world. This will gradu
ally, Moscow believes, give place
to “Socialist encirclement” of the
“imperialist capitalists.” In this
conception non- or anti-Soviet So-1
cialist states like Britain are par-,
ticularly pernicious because they
incorporate a false collectivism
that is worse than capitalism.
As the capitalist order decays (to
Bolsheviks it must decay by defin-!
ition) the "Socialist encirclement"
advances, carried by the Red
army. The Slavic states of Europe,
Soviet Germany and north Korea
and Communist China are "Social
ist encirclement." Finland and
Hungary soon will be. France and
Italy are hopes. In these last two
countries Communists already ex
ercise "dual power" within the
government and within the masses.
Why should .Soviet leaders re
linquish “Socialist encirclement”
for participation in any Roosevelt
Willkie type of one world? They
have a one-world hope of their
own. Back in the twenties, Stalin *
. tated it as follows:
"For the slogan ‘The United
States of Europe’ we will substi- \
tule the ‘Federation of Soviet Re
publics of Advanced Countries
and Colonies’ which have fallen
j of, or are falling away from
,':.e imperialist system of econo
my.”
There is a vast evidence that he
a as not alterd his aim by on tittle.
This aim it: Two worlds until such
lime as there can be one Soviet
wrrld.
The amazing thing is not that
’resident Truman has decided that
the non-Soviet order must defend W
i self or perish. The amazing thing
is that honest non-Communist
Americans from Henry Wallace
Ihrough Ray Swing to Max Lerner
and Freda Kirchway persist in af
firming that the Soviet Union con
stitutes no danger.
Soviet Ambassador Gromyko
has twice refused the only existing
cheme of atomic control that of
fers some chance <not too much' of
;>. eventing A-bombs from being
u-ed in any coming struggle. With
complete logic, he has insisted on
ie full preservation within the
United Nations security council of
a veto that protects the Soviet
Union from being sucked into the
Roosevelt-Willkie type of one
world. Gromkyo, like his master
Stalin, means what he says.
Soviet diplomats and generals
have been saying "two worlds"
ever since western generals and
diplomats began meeting them
face to face within conquered or
liberated territories back in 1944.
They said it when they took over
Romania and Bulgaria in the teeth
of American representatives. They
said it through Tito's fighters in
Yugoslavia who shot down Amer
ican passenger planes. They said
it in Hungary. They are saying it
now in Korea where their unwel
come army is Sovietizing half of
that unfortunate country. They are
saying it in the collectivized indus
tries and atomized estates of Sov
iet Germany. They are muttering
it through E. A. M. in Greece,
shrieking it in wild radio invita
tions to the Turkish people to rise
and kick out their government.
The tune differs from place to
place. The message is everywhere
the same: "Maintain two separate
worlds until we can realize our So
cialist world."
Now the American administra
tion and the wiser members of the
Congress are asking the American
people to defend themselves
against further “Socialist encircle
ment.”
Does this mean a split that must
widen finally into open conflict? In
my judgment, stern resistance now
offers the best, perhaps the only
chance, of avoiding war. It may
even lead to the creation of our
type of one world.
For despite great technical and
territorial advances Russia is still
a weak and backward state, its
natural genius crushed between
twin burdens of tyranny and serf
dom.
If the democratic peoples keep
themselves economically strong
and politically free, Russia may
come to prefer membership in a
real world federation to isolation
behind the iron curtain and the
“unbridgeable chasm” will be
bridged.
MRS. VICTOR HILL
»TO GO TO WHITE MOUNTAIN
Mrs. Victor Hill, of the White
Mountain School arrived from
Bethel Saturday with her new
4Vfe pound daughter, She is en
route to White Mountain.