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
$1.50 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.
Friday, November 7, 1947
A Stitch In Time—
(The Denver Post)
ONE OF THE MOST ENCOURAGING bits of news
to come out of Washington in a long time is that the gov
ernment is “projecting a bristling network of defenses
in strategically critical Alaska.”
Since V-J day the government—especially the army
air forces—has done its best to pound into the heads of
American citizens the need for more money and more
men. “Pound” is the word. It has taken millions of words
irr newspapers and magazines to actually acquaint the
nation with the pitiful status of our air forces as they
stand today.
Gen. Carl Spaatz, chief of the A. A. F., recently said
he had one outfit ready to go anywhere at any time. That
is the atom bomb group now based at Fort Worth. Thus
far that is the only pronouncement from any govern
ment authority which states that we have any air group
“ready to go.”
It is comforting to learn that there is a concentrated
movement under way in Alaska to protect our northern
perimeter. Government officials have repeatedly as
serted that the next attack on our country will come
from the uncharted, frigid and no-man’s-land of the
north pole region. Alaska is our first bulwark against
such an attack and we need to have the best defense for
that area.
Whatever program the nation’s air forces has set up
for the defense of our Arctic region should have the
wholehearted support of every man and woman in the
nation. A comparatively few men are doing wonders
with what equipment we have to insure that we will not
be vulnerable from the north.
Time For A Special Session
(By Jack Foster)
THE PRESIDENT IS WISE in calling Congress into
special session Nov. 17. Twin domestic and foreign
emergencies face the country. If the people cannot look
to their government to meet such crises, they will end
up in defeatism, despair and worse.
Mr. Truman cites “the alarming and continued in
creases in prices in this country.” Inflationary danger is
growing. As the cost of living soars, there are higher
wage demands and more strike threats. Thus the fatal
spiral ascends, preparing the way for that boom-and
bust sequence in which all lose.
The President says he will recommend to Congress
“suitable measures” for dealing with this problem. Two
types of approach are possible.
On the negative side is price control. The trouble with
that, as Americans and others have learned from expe
rience, is that price-fixing can’t work without wage
fixing—which most political and labor groups oppose.
On the positive side is large production. If the White
House has found the key to bigger output, we con lick
inflation.
At any rate, Congres should be in session, struggling
with this problem.
The need for prompt consideration of the foreign
economic emergency is equally clear. Scores of compe
tent investigators including members of Congress, sup
port the expert findings of State Secretary Marhall, of
foreign governments, of the international monetary
fund and the World Bank that self-help abroad cannot
succeed without American aid—food, fuel, machinery.
Superficially, American relief shipments cause domes
tic shortages; and superficially we might stop inflation
by the isolationist expedient of keeping all we have for
ourselves. But such quack remedies ignore our inescap
I I I I f I IB • ^ t • * ..a- «_A
teamwork called for,
_ - - '
learned in two World Wars and one world depression,
isolation is impossible even though it were desirable—
we go up together or we go down together.
Not only our material prosperity is tied up with the
rehabilitation of our customers, but our civilization as
well. Only a hungry Western democracy in vain will
turn reluctantly to Moscow.
And if we wait until Stalin raises the red flag on the
shores of the Atlantic, it will be pretty late in the night
for us to seek allies to preserve our Western civilization.
Most Americans understand this. But good intentions
alone will no more win the present war against foreign
chaos and domestic inflation than wishful thinking
could win the military battles of which this is the
sequel.
The vastly difficult task is to provide needed foreign
help that will speed the maximum production abroad—
and to do this without irreparably draining and weaken
ing ourselves—for an American crash would hurt Eu
rope even worse than us.
This is the job to which the President has called Con
gress.
It will need all the wisdom of Congress, all the leader
ship of which the President is capable and all the con
structive support the American people can give.
Why Minorities Control
(Rocky Mountain News)
ACTOR ROBERT MONTGOMERY, who fought Fas
cism and is a valiant opponent of Communism, testifies
that pro-Communists in Hollywood are “a small minor
ity.” We believe that is true.
Yet he and other like-minded witnesses agree, in
statements to the Congressional Committee on Un
American Activities, that this small minority exerts an
evil influence out of all proportions to its size.
The Communists, Mr. Montgomery asserts, never
have been able to dominate the Screen Actors Guild.
Another member of that organization, George Murphy,
estimates that less than one per cent of its membership
is Communistic.
But he, Mr. Montgomery and Ronald Reagan, the
SAG’s president, all say the few Communists in it are a
constant menace. As Mr. Montgomery explains, they
are organized and thoroughly disciplined. They show up
at meetings with a complete program, and are tireless
in working to put it through.
The Screen Writers Guild, on the other hand, is “com
pletey dominated” by Communists and party-liners, ac
cording to one anti-Red member, Morris Ryskind. An
other, Fred Niblo, Jr., calls the SWG the “sparkplug and
spearhead” of pro-Russian activity in Hollywood, and
tells of efforts to smear and harass him because he
stands for American ideals.
A third, Richard Macaulay, testifies that anti-Com
munists who speak up in meetings are subjected to “a
constant program of intimidation by a well-organized
J - ^ _ _
All this in an old story, in a new
setting. In most American labor
unions, if not in all, Communists
and their sympathizers are a mi
nority, usually a tiny minority.
Yet a considerable number of
unions are under Communist dom
ination, and a great many more
are in constant danger of it.
Why? Because the Communists
are organized, disciplined, always
active; because they know exactly
what they want to accomplish; be
cause they g£) to meetings with a
program, and are willing to stay
until they wear down opposition
by abuse, intimidation, parliamen
tary maneuvers or any other wea
pon that serves their purpose.
If the great majority of pro
American union members are will
ing to be equally active, tireless,
vigilant and determined, they can
save or rescue their organizations
from Communist control.
That, we believe, is a duty they
owe to themseives, their unions
and their country.
WASHINGTON
LETTER By Jan* Eadt
INTERNAL REVENUE HAS
TOUGH TIME PAYING
OUT MONEY
WASHINGTON—A half million
good income tax refund checks, to
taling about $22,500,000, are un
claimed in internal revenue offices
every year.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue
estimates that of 52,000,000 indi
vidual returns for 1946, some 31,
000,000 called for refunds averag
ing around $45 apiece,
j Among the laregst piles of un
claimed checks were 52,000 for
[ the Brooklyn office and 15,000 for
j the New York district, which in
cludes the Wall Street section.
Other districts holding large num
bers of unclaimed checks included
! Chicago and Baltimore. The latter
j is where Washington’s shifting
population files its returns.
The bureau reports that al
though the payees of the 1946
checks are appearing or being
found by the hundreds internal
revenue offices all through the
country still hold large wads of
unclaimed checks.
Even then, a spokesman for the
I bureau says, the number which re
mains uncalled for over a long pe
riod is small in proportion to the
number of refunds made from day
to day.
As soon as the returns come in
the offices get busy and write out
the refund checks, mailing them
to the addresses given by individ
uals on the returns.
However, by the time they go
through the regular channels and
arc delivered, lots of folks have
moved, especially in the bigger
, cities.
I It’s not only that some of the
| 1,000,000 persons to whom checks
I for refunds are mailed move to
oiher addresses, according to my
informant.
“Some die; some become insane,
some are in hiding from their
wives or the law—anything—and
can’t be easily tracked down for
love or money,” he told me.
The Post Office is not allowed
to deliver government checks to
; any forwarding address unless it
i has a formal notice of change of
address filed by the indiviual con
cerned.
This is toe prevent such checks
from getting into improper hands.
. Thus the Post Office is required to
, return refund checks to the inter
nal revenue office of the area
where the addressee is supposed to
be living.
The local collector’s office
where th^ return was filed holds
'ateck. for flhnnt six months. If