THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday. Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME. ALASKA
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
W. A. Boucher .Owner-Publisher
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1943, at the postoffice
et Nome. Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Monday, October 17, 1949
BILLIONS FOR DEFENSE IN EUROPE
BUT HARDLY A PITTANCE FOR ALASKA
(Anchorage Daily Times)
The two Houses of Congress have agreed on $1,314,
000,000 for arms aid to friendly countries. This sum will
be used in Europe to check the spread of communism.
It is principally a defense measure to protect the East
Coast of the United States from possible attack.
While action on the arms aid bill for Europe was be
ing rushed, the Congress still delaped action on appro
priations totalling some $137,000,00 for use in building
defenses in Alaska.
The record now stands as indicating that the United
States will spend billions in Europe but hardly a pitt
ance in Alaska.
Great concern is expressed for the protection of the
East Coast by bolstering the friendly nations in Western
Europe, whiie the back door is left wide open. The West
Coast of the nation is left virtually unprotected from ag
gression by way of the Pacific and more especially
through Alaska.
The news that Russia has the atomic bomb was the
spur to quick action that brought agreement between
the two houses of Congress on the arms aid bill for Eu
rope. The result is commendable as far as it goes, even
thouugh it was achieved under a sort of duress. It seems
unfortunate that so often Congress is moved to wise
steps not by gauging their wisdom but by responding to
threatening gestures from abroad.
It is conceded, for example, that it would have been
difficult—if not impossible—to have won approval of
the Marshall Plan were it not for the 1948 Communist
coup in Czechoslovakia and the later Berlin blockade.
Until President Truman’s disclosure of Russia’s
atomic explosion, the House had prepared to battle for
a $580,000,000 cut it had made in proposed military
assistance to nations which have signed the North At
lantic Treaty.
But what sort of development must come before Con
gress will see the wisdom of building a protective radar
screen and strong military establishments in Alaska?
The atomic explosion was taken as a signal for the I
need of bolstering nations in Europe so that they can
stand off an aggressor until the full might of the United
States can be brought into use. •
Isn’t the same explosion a warning that the approach
es through Alaska must be protected?
Russia already has an airplane that will deliver an
atomic bomb to Seattle and return to Siberia by way of
Alaska. It may not be long before Russia develops an
airplane that will make a longer round-trip flight to de
liver bobmbs to other industrial centers of the nation.
But it will change the picture substantially if the na
tion closes Alaska as the route for Russia’s long-range
planes. Seattle would be out of reach now. Minneapolis,
Chicago, Detroit and other industrial areas would be be
yond the range for some time to come.
The atomic explosion should certainly be sufficient
notice for the need of quick action in Alaska as well as
in Europe. It isn’t very effective to lock the doors at one
end of the barn and leave the other end wide open.
TRUE DEMOCRAT CAN VOTE G. O. P.
• (Urich (Mo.), Herald)
I met up with a new kind of politician the other day
—new to me, that is—a citizen who claims to be a true
Democrat but votes Republican because the Democrats
have wandered far from their original platform and pol
icies. Well, maybe there are millions of others like him.
If so, then 1952 probably will see a GOP president back
in the White House after, lo, these many years.
I remember when anything that savored of Socialism
was thmubs-down with the people and the politicians.
Failure To Make
Tax Return Will
Bring Penalties
(Continued from Page One)
ligated to file declarations and
other tax returns and pay the
taxes due thereon have had ample
time to familiarize themselves
with the requirements of the laws
and unless the delay in filing and
making payment can be attributed
to causes beyond their control,
penalties and interest will be as
sessed and collected.
Under the Alaska Net Income
Tax Law every employer making
payment of wages or salaries
earned in Alaska, regardless of the
place where such payment is
made, is liable for the payment of
the tax required to be deducted
and withhld and is not liable to
any individual for the amount of
any such payment made to the de
partment of taxation. Some em
ployers have seen fit to place with
held taxes in a special account
rather than make payment to the
Department of Taxation, their
reason for this action is based on
the premise they may be required
to refund to their employees
amounts of th tax withheld in
the event the act is declared in
valid. When money representing
I the tax is deducted and withheld
1 from an employee's check or pay
envelope it becomes Territorial
| funds and the employer has no
right to deny the Territory the use
j thereof. Under such circumstances
[ the penalties ad interest will be
i assessed.
It is true, the Alaska income tax
act is being litigated in a lawsuit
by the Alaska Steamship Com
pany, however, the District Court,
of the First Judicial Division, Ter
ritory of Alaska, has upheld the
I validity of the Act,-but this deci
sion has been appealed to the
Court of Appeals of the Ninth
Circuit. At the present time this is !
a matter involving the Alaska
Steamship Company only and has
no bearing on other employers. If,
perchance, the Act is held invalid
by the Court of Appeals, the ques
tion of refunds to employees is the
sole responsibility of the Territori
al department of taxation and not
that of the employer. Should it be
come necessary to make refunds
the Territorial Government will
find ways and means to meet the
obligation.
Attorney General J. Gerald Wil
liams has advised the Tax Com
missioner that he will institute
legal proceedings immediately
against those who do not comply
with the requirements of the law
as set forth in the respective Acts.
If Eugene V. Debs, who died in 1926, was still alive, I
can imagine the broad smile he would be wearing, for
while the people never quite accepted his theories along
came Franklin D. Roosevelt and adopted them—only—
under the guise of Democratic ideas. I say Roosevelt
adopted them because he led the people out of the wil
derness by using Debs’ theories, even as Moses led his
pople out of the wilderness.
Time marches on; history repeats itself and at the rate
in which the economic picture is changing I will live to
see another David step out and kill another Goliath
with his little slingshot.
BOB TAFT DOMINATING FIGURE
(Jewell, Iowa, Record)
An interesting editorial discussion in the Des Moines
Register of the fact that Senator Bob Taft of Ohio has
proven to be the dominating figure of the present 81st
Congress, despite the fact that Democrats are in major
ity, refers to the Taft leadership in the Republican
Party as being the “conservative” leadership. The Rec
ord would say that is either a case of mistaken identity
or of a wrong choice of adjectives. “Moderate” or “mid
dlc-of-the-road“ is the adjective that more correctly de
scribes the Taft leadership.. Senator Kenneth Wherry
of Nebraska is better identified as representing the
“conservative” lineup in the Republican Party.
HOPE HE CAN SEE THEM SAfElY ACROSS ,
OUR
ZSS BILLION
DOLLAR pubuc
debt
C. of C. Board of
Directors Meet
The Chamber of Commerce held
its weekly board of directors
meeting in the office of Nome Mo
tors Company on Friday evening
with President Harper presiding.
Among the mutters discussed
by the members present was tne
Consumers Sales Tax Measure
which is soon to be enacted. Com
mendation was made to the Tax
Review committee which studied
the measure prior to its being
voted upon at the recent voting
poll. The Chamber of Commerce
will endeavor to assist the City
Council in drafting this tax ordin
ance. One of the recommendations
already made is that the tax
should not be imposed until after
the first of the new year. The
committee appointed to study the
drafting of the tax measure is
composed of Ted Duffield, Steve
Anderson, and Paul Mandeville.
A. Polet, chairman of the Tour
ist committee, stressed the im
portance of encouraging tourist
travel during the winter months, a
period heretofore neglected as a
tourist season. During the winter
months there are many attractions
in our area which could be fur
ther developed for encouraging
tourist travel to Nome, proving
beneficial to all.
Bill Wood, chairman of the
membership committee reported
very good col operation in regards
to the membership drive.
The date of the next Chamber
of Commerce general dinner mee<
ing was st for the evening of
Thursday, October 27. at the Pio
neer Hall.
Following adjournment of the
business meeting refreshments
were served by Mrs. Harper.
Reds* Convictions
Will Bring Much
Stiffer Laws
WASHINGTON, </Pi—'The con
viction (if 11 national communist
leaders in New York stirred de
mands in Congress Saturday for
state and local crackdowns, back
ed by laws to root communists out
if they go underground.
Rep. Velde «R.-111.> said the staff
of the House un-American acivi
tic committee has been “alerted’’
to the possibility that the com
munist party may publicly dis
solve. with jts members operating
thereafter from behind the scenes.
Party officials have disclaimed
any such intention.
. Capitol Hill greeted! the New
York jury’s veriict with almost
unanimous acclaim, although Rep.
Marcantonio 'ALP. N. Y.) called
it a blow to “the basic American
right of free political opinion and
free political association.”
Most members of the House and
Senate declared the deci s i o n
should establish to everyone’s sat
isfaction that the communist par
ty’s purpose is the overthrow of
the government by violence.
Some saw in the jury’s action a
signal for a national drive to wipe
out all “subversive” elements in
the country.
Velde, a member of the un
American activities group, s,aid
attorney general McGrath should
hasten final disposiiton of the case
through the courts of appeal, so
similar prosecution can be brought
against state and local commun
ist leaders.
Senator Mundt <R.-S. D.) de
clared the Uew York convictions
emphasize the need for speedy
passage of the Mundt-Nixon bill,
which he helped write last year.