THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER .,.Editors
S1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Monday, August 9, 1948
LEGAL PRICE OF GOLD IS $35 AN OUNCE
\
In the July 23rd issue of the Nome Nugget, we pub
lished an article on the purchase of gold at a price well
above the government-set price of $35 an ounce. Then
offered for sale to the highest bidder.
In the August 4th issue of the Nome Nugget we ran
an article showing disposition of some of the precious
metal in foreign countries. It would seem that the law
governing the sale of raw gold must be, somewhere
along the line, in error. Whether it is in the keeping of
the price as low as $35 an ounce, or the prohibition of
shipping the raw metals outside the United States.
The legal portion of the activities lies within the
United States boundaries, (including Alaska) in which
persons may purchase, sell or barter raw gold at will,
and for any price offered, although it has been general
ly assumed in mining circles that all gold should be sold
to the government. According to latest information,
banks, subject to federal banking laws, cannot enter
into such transactions which include sale of the gold
above the price set by the government.
The first article stated in part that the reason for the
demand seemed obscure. But the second article tends
to clear up the situation, in that the activities of a
smuggling ring are being investigated by the Secret
Service and Customs agents.
It is claimed the gold is being purchased for a syndi
cate which in turn is smuggling the gold out of the
United States to foreign markets where the gold brings
prices up to $100 an ounce.
It would seem likely that something should be done
to remedy the situation in one direction or the other,
to make it fair for all.
THANK GOD YOU ARE AN AMERICAN
(By Thomas H. Stevenson)
Stop, look, and think . . . And thank God that you are
privileged to be an American. Take a moment to re
flect, and remember that you are an American first—
and a member of a lodge, a society, an organization, or
a pressure group, second. Value this great privilege of
American citizenship that you so freely enjoy, realizing
that it gives you the greatest freedom and most un
bounded liberty, and highest standard of living of any
of the peoples of the world. Value your great privilege
and treasure it as gold, for you are the richest man in
the world.
Contrast your American way of life wTth that of the
other peoples of the world. . . . Where else in all of the
world do you find the treasure of liberty and freedom
to equal yours? Where is the country, the government,
the ideology, offering you greater opportunities than
you find every day with your American way? Where in
the world can you find greater returns for your labors?
How can you gain by selling America short?
Look Communism, and all of the other isms, squarely
in the face. Trace their origin. Look at current practices
in countries where they hold forth. . . . Don’t let the
talk of the rabble rouser influence your thinking—buy
your ideology as you would an automobile, a refriger
ator, or a house; examine all of the working parts.
See the thing demonstrated, compare the value!
Don’t let the high pressure salesman sell you a bill of
goods. Contrast your way of life with every other sys
tem. Look at the hunger and drudgery of Europe, the
tyranny and slavery of Russia. . . . Then ask yourself
whether or not you would trade places with the peoples
of any other country of the world. Would you? Certain
ly not! Then why do you listen to the babble of the soap
box hawker . . . why do you read the misquotes of the
SUMMER IN WASHINGTON
f rpuftArt \
IMPUnOH 1
CO***, I
red-paint columnists?
You are not a child. . . . You are an intelligent man,
educated in the schools of America, endowed with a
brain. You live in a country where freedom of speech
and written words bring to you the happenings of the
world. You can hear, you can read—why don’t you
think!
Think, man. Think before you speak, think before
you do! You are an American. . . . Throw out your chest,
set your jaw, clench your fists, and defend what you
have; knowing that you have the greatest treasure in
the world today. . . . Freedom and liberty! Don’t let
some fool lead you off down a blind lane to ambush. Ex
j amine Europe, look closely at Russia—you don’t have to
go behind the iron curtain, look in front of it. Would
you trade places with the man of Europe or the man of
Russia? What is all this poppy-cock about the beiefits of
Communism, the rewards of the totalitarian ideologies?
Don’t let a word picture blind your intelligent ryes to
the truth. Face the facts and think, man, think!
Look at countries where these so-called Utopian
forms hold sway. . . . Would you live in one of them,
would you trade places with their forced labor, with
their state ownership, with their human bondage poli
cies? Would you want your children brought up in their
unhealthy proximity? Certainly not! Why then do you
listen to the rabble rouser who peddles the word of the
master? Take facts for what they are, knowing that
Communism is best exemplified by the living example
of Russia today. Look at Germany. . . . Crumpled, de
feated, destroyed, it is a monument to the Nazi regime
and the totalitarian tsate.
Pause for a moment as you listen to the salesman of
Communism. . . . Reflect a moment as you read their
printed word. Picture, if you will, the beach at Iwo,
Normandy, Anzio, and Okinawa. What were you fight
ing for? . . . Think man, think! You have what you
fought for. Don’t trade your liberty, your freedom, your
high standard of living on an exchange that can only
bring the thing you fought against. Don’t sell America
short!
Henry Wallace’s “peace with Russia” plan is a dead
ringer for Neville Chamberlain’s “peace in our time”
interpretation of Munich. And it is just as fantastic. The
late British prime minister thought appeasement of
Hitler would avert war. Wallace is under the same de
lusion as regards Russia. He would appease the Soviet
Union to stave off the danger of war.
To maintain peace with Russia, Wallace proposes that
the United States should get out of Berlin. His notion
is that turning the German capital over to the Soviet
Union would guarantee peace without end. In his
speech “accepting” the presidential nomination of his
new “Progressive party,” he argued that the United
States would suffer no loss of prestige by withdrawing
from Berlin. He seems to think that if we just let thfe
Russians kick us out of the German capital everything
will be hunky dory.
International News
At A Glance —
</P)—Aug. 7—The United States
warned the Danubian conference
in Belgrade Saturday that the
river will remain cut in two for
traffic if the communists states of
Eastern Europe deny Austria a
seat on the waterway’s control
board.
Ambassador Cavendish Cannon
also declared that as long as the
American’s occupy part of Ger
many the United States will have
a responsibility to represent Ger
man interests in Danubian affairs.
Cannon outlined the American
position shortly before the con
ference voted 7 to 1 to make the
proposed Russian plan for a new
Danube pact the basis for its dis
cussions. Under the plan the
communist bloc of states would
have exclusive control of Europe’s
most important inland waterway.
The Danube at present is cut
in two at Linz Austria, where the
Russians have blocked non-Soviet
shipping from moving down the
river since shortly after the war
ended. This has kept nearly 700
Danubian vessels—mostly barges
—empty and idle in the American
occupation zones of Austria and ♦
Germany.
East-west relations in Berlin
received a new strain when- the
official Soviet News agency ANB
said British and American planes
bringing supplies to the Russian
blockaded city could be forced
down for flight violations.
An American air force official
conceded that "technically speak
ing," planes could be forced down.
"However, once this starts, things
are going to be pretty rough
around here," he added. "It would
require seme pretty high level ac
tion."
Diploma'ic maneuvering con
tinued in Moscow. It seemed like- |
ly the talks American, British and
French envoys have had with
Soviet officials will continue th's
week.
Diplomatic observers in Lon
don said the western envoys prob
ably will see prime minister Sta- %
lin again in the next day or two
o discuss the possibility of set
tling east-west differences.
The British press suggested the
discussions in the Kremlin thus
far have dealt with the Berlin
blockade, German currency, the
proposed West German govern
ment and possibly the Ruhr and
the withdrawal of occupation
troops. Russia long has sought a .
voice in the control of Ruhr in
dustries.
Trygve Lie, secretary-general
of the United Nations, appealed to
the major powers to end theii *
quarrel over Germany. His third
annual report to the general as
sembly, made public at Lake Suc
cess, N. Y., placed the German
problem at the top of a list of is
sues standing in the way of world
peace.
Arab governments now have an
Israeli request for peace talks.
The bid was transmitted by Count 1
Folke Bernadotte, the U. N. me
diator. Returning to his Rhodes
headquarters after a swing
around the Middle East, Bema
dotte said he is optimistic that a
final solution of the Palestine
problem will be achieved. *
LONDON, (#*)—South African
mining shares on the stock ex
change suffered sharp declines
today. Details of the South Afri- 4
can budget caused disappointment
among traders and was respon
sible for the selling.