THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday. Wednesday and Friday bv The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
11.50 PER MONTH S16.00 A YEAR
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER . Editors
Entered as second class mutter OctoDer 14, 1943. at the postoffice at
Nome. Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
• 'Friday, August 23, 1946
IT IS GOOD TO BE FREE
WHEN THE RUSSIAN propagandist, Ilya Ehren
burg, reported to his countrymen on his recent tour
of America he commented caustically and patronizing
ly on the immaturity of the American people in cultural
attainments. He implied the people of Russia were
infinitely superior in both the creation and the expres
sion of the arts which are the expression of a nation’s
culture.
His implication was that the American people, liv
ing under the institutions and according to the philoso
phy of Western democracy, were barren of artistic
understanding; and that the Rusian people, under Com
munism. were rich in these essential things of a whole
some and fruitful national life.
The American newspaper commentator, George
F. Sokolsky, has since pondered upon these observa
tions and conclusions reached by Mr. Ehrenburg, in
the light of his own experiences.
Mr. Sokolsky had attended the annual Berkshire
music festival at Lenox, Mass., and there had seen
10,000 people absorbed in the greatest music of all time,
played by a magnificent symphony orchestra.
The license numbers on the automobiles in which
most of these thousands of people came to the festival
bore the names of every state in the union, and attested
the fact that came not only long distances but had come
of their own volition, out of a profound knowledge and
sheer love of the great music they were to hear.
All of them had come freelv and solelv because thev
wanted to, and not in response to some edict of govern
ment or in fulfillment of some policy of government.
“As 1 watched these 10.000 Americans, silent and!
absorbed, filling their souls with Brahms' First, played
gloriously," wrote Mr. Sokolsky, “I could not help re
calling Mr. Ebrenburg's comments on American cul
ture.
“This Russian tourist should have been taken to
Tanglewood, where once Hawthorne wrote his tales,
close to the house where Longfellow wrote his poetry.!
“There among the haughty pines of unspoiled
beauty, he could have caught a glimpse of the depth
and seriousness of American cultural maturity, and he!
might have realized that these people paid their own
fares, bought their owm tickets, came because they
wanted to; no one told them to come.”
Mr. Ehrenburg would find no similar assembly of
free people in Russia, because no freedom exists in Rus
sia.
Russia does indeed have a heritage of great music, j
but the Russian people hear only that part of their mus
ical heritage their rulers permit them to hear, and hear
it only when and where their rulers decree.
TTie Russian people do not go where they please,
or do what they please; but go and do, and think and
speak, and understand and believe, according to the
dictate of their rulers.
And as Mr. Sokolsky sat under the storied pines
in the company of his enthralled countrymen and heard
immortal music played by masters, and as he reflected
upon the regimented culture and thought and lives of
the countrymen of Ilya Ehrenburg, this thought came
to him:
It is good to be free.
“It is a glorious, clean feeling to be able to go any
where, to listen to anything, to see anything and any
body, without police authorization.
“It is a wonderfully unusual freedom in this de
CHALK TALK
•V
dardahei,
y
graded age.
‘‘It is America.*’
Surely, it is an unhappy and a tragic thing that
human freedom is such a rare thing in the world, when
it is so universally desired.
Is it not, then, a very good thing and a very won
derful thing, as Mr. Sokolsky observes, that we have
this freedom in such abundance and with such security
in America? And is it not our duty to cherish it and
preserve it, that it may not vanish from the earth?
1945-46 ALASKA AND PACIFIC
NORTHWEST INTERNAL REVENUE
THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST and Alaska with 2.93
per cent of the national population contributed
2.20 per cent—or $892,909,604—of the Internal Rev
enue collections for the year ending June 30, 1946.
A population - income breakdown by the Internal
Revenue Department showing first, percentages of the
national population of 132,463,174, and second, percent
age of the total Internal Revenue collections of $40,
672,096,797 includes:
Alaska .05 ond .04: Idaho .38 and .15; Oregon .91
and .67; Washington 1.58 and 1.34.
Collections by states for 1946 and 1945, respect
ively, included:
Alaska $15,187,544.11 and $19,862,708.80; Idaho
$60,211,088.37 and $59,805,443.67; Oregon $273,906,
694.16 and $318,918,694.72; Washington $543,604;281.01
and $625,723,337.32.
Public Land Order
Recinded
Restoration to the pub
lic domain of certain lands
withdrawn by Public Land
Order No. 82 will now be
possible. On Wednesday
August 14, 1946, Acting
Seretary of the Interior O.
L. Chapman signed an or
der revoking in part the
controversial Public Land
Order.
Mr. Bartlett has recently
urged that such action be
taken by the Department of
the Interior and several
weeks ago was notified by
the Department that re
vokation of this order was
under consideration. He
felt that no sensible and
sound development of Al
aska could be expected
when so many millions of
acres of land—some of the
most desirable for settlers
—were closed to entry.
According to the order
just signed roughly 18,640,
000 acres of land in Alaska
are to be restored to the
public domain. 15,600,-j
000 acres located on the
Alaska Peninsula and 3,
040,000 acres in the Katal
la-Yakataga region are the
areas to be reopened. The
only land still closed to
entry by Public Land Ord
er 82 is the area adjacent to
the Naval Oil Reserve in
the northern section of Pn
aska.
Authorization for ..Public
Health Hospitals and
Centers
President Truman this
week signed the Hill-Bur
ton bill which will make
available a total of $1,125,
000,000 for a five-vear Fed
eral-State hospital and pub-*
lie health center construc
tion program and of which
osme $200,000 is earmarked
for Alaska.
The Act will make it pos
sible for the first time for
a national policy whereby
hospitals in the future mult
be planned, located and op
erated in accordance to the
over-all health needs of the
people.
Each year for five years
$75,000,000 will be expend
ed with the federal govern
ment paying one-third and
the local State government#
two-thirds.
Division of the federal
funds to determine the am
ount of money to be allot
ted the different States
| will follow a complicated
formula devised to benefit
i as much as possible the low
income districts where such
facilities are most derper
i ately needed. In Alaska
between $37,000 and $40,
000 a year will be available
from this money to be
j matched two to one by the
Territory.
In addition to the above
mentioned amount of mon
ey the bill authorizes a fed-*
eral appropriation of $3,
000,000 to be used by the
States in making surveys
of their hospital and med
ical center requirements.
The supplemental deficien
cy bill previously approved
by the President appropri
ates two-thirds of the three
million dollars authorizes
so that surveys can be start
ed immediately. Out of
this sum of money Alaska
will be entitled to receive
approximately $10,000 and
this also must be matched
on a two to one basis by tfw
Territory.