THE NOME NUGGET
i
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W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.E <1ltO»>
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoftir**
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Monday, May 5, 1947
Canada's Placev In The Americas
(Anchorage Daily Times)
A REFECTION of Canada’s new stature as an inde
pendent nation is found in Senator Vandenberg’s sug
gestion to the Pan American Union that the Dominion
be invited to join that body.
Mr. Vandenberg’s suggestion recalls a statement bv
L. B. Pearson, Canadian Undersecretary of State for
External Affairs, in a speech last month. Commenting
on his country’s absence from the Union, Mr. Pearson
said, “The short answer is that we have never been
asked."
That may sound more like a snub than is actual]v th°
case. Until the war began few Canadians had any in
terest in Latin America or felt themselves bound to the
southern republics by any hemispheric tie. Canada’s
trade with Latin America was of trifling importance.
Likewise Canadian’s sense of their country as an in
dependent world power was slow to develop. Until af
ter World War I Canada was virtually a colony. Great
Britain handled her foreign affairs until 1927, when the
Canadian government sent its first diplomatic missions
abroad. Canada’s first minister to a Latin American
country was not appointed until 1941.
For many years there was also opposition in the U. S.
government to Canada’s membership in the Pan Amer-j
ican Union. To give Canada a place in the Union, it was’
reasoned, would be to give Britain a voice in the west
ern hemisphere.
The recent war, of course, changed all that. Com
pletely shut off from her prewar European markets and
almost isolated from Britain, Canada turned her eyes
toward the south. She discovered Latin America and
was discovered in turn. Her industry, he* scientists, and
her fighting men contributed largely to victory.
Defensively, too, Canada has gained new hemispher
ic importance. Her large uranium deposits are linked
with the development of atomic energy. Opening of
Arctic air routes puts her in front line of a new approach
to the Americas.
As a democracy Canada offers an excellent example
of orderly popular government. The peaceful relations
of the English-speaking majority with a large minority
group of different language and culture are a model of
good neighborliness which other American countries
might observe.
In view of all this it hardly seems possible that the
Union’s governing board can ignore Mr. Vandenberg’s
plea for “total New World unity” in which “our con
tinental brotherhood is complete from the Arctic Circle
to Cape Horn.”
It seems equally unlikely that Canada, conscious of
her new role as part of the interdependent Americas in
this interdependent world, would refuse an invitation.
Let Them Come To See Us
(The Rocky Mountain News)
SECRETARY MARSHALL has acquitted himself
well on his mission to Moscow.
The Soviets should be convinced by now that we are
not going to pay 10 billion dollars or any lesser sum for
their consent to a unified control plan for Germany.
If there are to be any mord meetings of the Big Four,
it should be left to Russia to iniate them. And our par
ticipation should be predicated upon definite assurances
that Premier Stalin is ready to talk business with us.
Mr. Marshall has made it clear to the Soviets we
aren’t having any more Yaltas or Potsdams, much less
another Munich, and the Kremlin mav reanire some
time to ponder, and to adapt its policies to, that hard
fact.
Meanwhile, we hope that Secretary Marshall will sit
down at his desk and conduct his future operations from
his office in the State Department. Having got the feel
of things now, he should be able to entrust negotiations
abroad to h's deputies. And pressing business demands
h's presence in this country.
Pur occupation pol cies in Germany, Austria, Japan
and Korea, and our relief activities in Europe and^Asia
should be brought into harmony with the “Stop-Com
munist-Aggression” program in Greece and Turkey.
L~tin-American relations require attent.on.
The State Department itself needs to be purged of
disloyal and discordant elements. We haven’t had a
full-time secretary of state in Washington since the
end of the war, and a firm hand will be needed at the
helm for a long period.
Anyway, our Presidents and secretaries of state now
have gone to Tehran, Yalta, Potsdam, Moscow, London
and Paris. Some return visits are in order. Transacting
our business at the home stand may get better results
than sitting in the other fellow’s waiting room.
Our latchstring should be out to all comers, but our
position in the world is such that we can write our own
ticket, and the time is here to be doing it.
One Man’s Opinion By Walter kiernan
Things are so quiet you can’t hear a phone bell ring.
Mr. Truman is sitting by the telephone like every one
else—but his is working. . . . The President was given a
secret number to get service—probably “One ni-uhn
foe-uhr eight.” . . . One unfortunate effect of the strike
was that horse players were unable to contact their
bookies—Many unhappily saved a bit of money. . . .The
Supreme Court says that a veteran’s job seniority is
good for just one year—This is in accord with the un
written rule that we should be forever grateful to “our
boys” for a maximum twelve months. . . . But they have
one consolation.—If winners get such treatment im
agine what the losers draw on their home grounds. . . .
BETWEEN HALVES
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1
THAT’S THAT By bruce gustin
_
President Truman is still plead-,
ing for lower prices. But he does!
not say what prices he wants re-'
duced. And he makes it very plan;
he isn’t for cutting all prices. He1
is against tax reduction. Taxes!
are prices. They are what people
pay for government. And they are
just as much a part of the high
cost of living as are prices paid
for food, clothing, etc.
From the fact that President
Truman has said not a word
against the continuous clamor of
labor unions for higher wages, it
is a fair deduction that he is not!
against wage boosts. Wages are
the price of labor and they are an
important factor in the prices the
public has to pay for everything
it buys. But the President appar-'
ently doesn’t consider it political
ly expedient to urge that unions
call a halt on their price boosting.
The $l-a-day wage increase the
CIO has just wangled from the
steel industry means that the
union gets a steel price reduction
which otherwise would have gone
to consumers. If the steel compan
ies hadn’t granted a wage in
crease, they could have granted a
steel price reduction.
Chairman Bridges of the Senate
appropriations committee is ab
solutely right in insisting that
lend-lease “pipe-line” shipments
to Soviet Russia be stopped. Lend
lease was a war policy. It should
have been terminated when hos
tilities ended. For this country to
snend 400 million dollars helping
Greece and Turkey resist Russian ,
aggression and keep on sending
unions of dollars of supplies to
Russia under lend-lease doesn’t
make sense.
Organized labor, civil service
rganizations and teacher groups
have assailed the new law' enact
ed .n New Yoik state prohibiting
-hikes by public employees but
Governor Dewey says he isn’t con
cerned over threats of political re
prisals. His political courage is
commendable. Strikes against gov
rnment are intolerable. As Dewey 4
has pointed out, walkouts of pub
lic employees are “one of the most ,
u-eful devices” of the Commun
ists.
President Truman wants every
body else to cut their prices, but.
he won't cut the only price over
which he has any control. He is
opposing any reduction in federal
taxes. Those taxes are the price
neople pay for national govern
ment. And that is the price which
has increased the most.
“It is an axiom of good econo
mics and good business that in
mes of great inflationary pres
sures, taxes should not be reduc
ed.” President Truman said at the
Associated Press luncheon. “Any
surplus which the treasury can se
cure should be applied to reduc
tion of the federal debt. When we
are over the hump of inflation,
tax reduction will be feasible and
proper.” That may be all right in
theory. But the American people
would be gullible indeed to think
that is the way it would work out.
They know better than to expect
good economics and good business
from the national administration.
The importance of debt reduc- *
tion cannot be overemphasized.
But if the federal government is
to be allowed to keep on going
hog wild in spending, what it will
have left over for debt reduction
won’t make a dent in the 260
billion-dollar national debt. Both
debt and taxes can be cut, and
taxes still will be painfully high.
And if American taxpayers have
learned anything from their ex
perience under the national ad
ministrations of the last fourteen ^
years, it is that taxes, instead of
going down when prices drop,
keep on rising.
In most cases, the President’s as
sertion that “the government pol
icy of supporting farm prices is
not the cause of prevailing high
food prices” cannot be challenged.
But what about potatoes? Spud
prices, so far as housewives were
concerned, remained sky high last
, year in spite of overproduction
and that was because the govern
ment was buying up and dumping
millions of bushels of surplus po
tatoes.
While the President keeps call
ing for a cut in prices, you can
bet your bottom dollar the last
thing he wants is low prices. Any
sharp drop in prices would mean
a reduction in the national income.
No material reduction in the na
tional debt can be made nor can
the federal government be main
tained in the extravagant style to
which it has become accustomed
on a scale of low prices. The min
ute prices begin to topple, you
will hear a depression cry from
Washington.
4
NEBRASKA CITY, Nebr. (ft)—
“Anything smaller?” asked Bert
Hershgy, toll collector on the Miss
ouri river bridge, after a motorist
handed him a $10 bill. -
“Don’t you know,” the motorist
replied, “that farmers don’t have
anything smaller than $10 bills
these days?”