THE NOME MJGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 613
SI.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.. Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1943, at the postoffice at
Nome. Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Monday, April 1, 1946
ONE MAN S OPINION
(By Walter Kiernan)
New York is filled with UNO security council dele
gates hoping for better days and enjoying bigger nights.
. . . Fortunately, in our present jittery condition, it is
not spoken of as “painting the town red.” . . . There’s
some question whether Iran or India will be the first
business. — The Russians refuse to leave Iran and the
Britain’s freedom proposal is a sinister plot to destroy
Britain’s freedom proposal is a sinster plot to destroy
Indian unity. — It seems that all parties are united in
hating the British. ... If the British withdraw the In
dians will have no one to fight but each other. — The
Chinese already proved that there is no future in that.
... In Washington the wild onions are in bloom.—Just
too late to bring tears for Ickes. . . . But from now until
June any teardrops running down the seamed faces of
Congress will be purely unavoidable. ... I will keep you
posted on honest grief.
SECRETARY OF INTERIOR “CAP” KRUG
President Truman crossed up all the dopesters when
he appointed Julius A. Krug secretary of the interior.
That’s not surprising. “Cap” Krug doesn’t fit into any
of the categories of the President’s more celebrated re
cent appointments. He is not an old friend. He has no
particular influence with Administration wheelhorses
in Congress. He has earned no spurs as a loyal Demo
cratic Party worker.
Mr. Krug’s lack of qualifications on the grounds of
friendship, politics and geography, in our opinion, con
tribute to making him a very fortunate selection.
While we wish he might have been a Westerner, still
it is good to have as head of the Interior Department,
custodian of our vast and valuable public domain, one
who owes no special allegiance to any man, party or
sectional interest. .]
More pertinent is the caliber of the man. Mr. Krug’s
integrity is unquestioned. He is a man of energy, action
and decision. He is a success in private life and a top
notch government administrator, as he proved first with
the Tennessee Valley Administration and later when he
unsnarled the fouled-up War Production Board in the
latter months of the war.
Even Harold Ickes, with his talent for fault-finding,
probably will agree that Mr. Truman has done much to
restore faith in good government by his appointment of
“Cap” Krug.
SOVIET THEFT
(Rocky Mountain News)
Our government has vigorously protested the remov
al to Russia of Manchurian factories.
The State Department, in reply to the claim of the
Soviet commandant that he stripped Manchuria under a
secret Allied agreement, says:
“We have no agreement, secret or otherwise, with the
Soviet Russian Government, or any other government
in regard to war booty in Manchuria. This government
does not accept any interpretation of war booty to in
clude industrial enterprises or the components thereof,
such as Japanese industries and equipment in Man
churia."
This situation is all the more serious because Wash
ington notified Moscow some time ago that Japanese
external assets must not be touched pending an Allied
reparations agreement. Moscow has not answered, but
has continued the theft.
This is the only accurate word to describe the Soviet
» OUR FACS BLACK ! __
WPOH ME A
NEWCASTLE ? I
acts. For, as Secretary Byrnes said in his New York
speech:
“No power has a right to help itself to alleged enemy
properties in liberated or ex-satellite countries.”
Now that Russia has walked off with much of the in
dustrial equipment of Manchuria, she may try to “legal
ize” the dishonesty by forcing China to agree at the
point of a gun. This, doubtless, is one of the reasons she
is keeping Soviet troops in Manchuria, in violation of
her treaty with China and in defiance of repeated Chi
nese demands for their evacuation.
But the State Department will not accept any such
subterfuge. It has informed Moscow that the Jap assets
in Manchuria cannot be disposed of either by Russia
alone or by Russian-Chinese agreement, because they
are “a matter of common interest and concern to those
allies who bore the major burden in defeating Japan.”
Of course, the United States “bore the major burden.”
Russia has been looting Eastern Europe for so many
months it probably seems natural for her to do the same
in Manchuria. But certainly Stalin knows that the Free
China is dependent on Manchurian industries, and that
the United States accepted a war with Japan rather
than sacrifice China.
Stalin is very stupid in trying his strong-arm stuff in
Manchuria. He is undermining the friendship, not only
of China, but of the United States, which he needs.
There’s food for a lot of deep thought in the FBI re
port for 1945. It shows the greatest increase of crime
in the United States in the fifteen years since the FBI
began tabulating nation-wide crime statistics. Only two
states—North Dakota and South Carolina—did not re
port an increase in crime. Of the 543,852 arrest records
examined, 21 per cent were persons under 21 years and
51.9 per cent were persons with records of prior arrests.
More persons aged 17 were arrested than in any other
age group.—Denver Post.
By GEOROE 8 BENSON
NiU«n( of Hard inf Co II *9*
Searcy. Arkansas
r i
4
SQUADS RIGHT
Loyal military experts want
every precaution taken in Amer
ica to prevent another such calam
ity as Pearl Harbor. The nation as
a whole subscribes to that policy. I
The shout for universal military
training is itself an hysterical cry
for more national safety, but it is
ill-considered. Being a school man,
knowing the possibilities of youth,
I know it is unwise.
I am in favor of an adequate
standing army, a powerful peace
time navy and all the other factors
of a positive national defense. I
am willing to let men of proven
generalship say how big an army
is adequate and how much navy is
ample. Those are matters that
few civilians are qualified to dis
cuss. But however big the need is
America should have no less.
Least Costly Way
I am in favor of advancing the
base pay of enlisted personnel t(
an attractive level; sufficiently
high to get enough men in service
by voluntary enlistment. My rea
sons are three (1> It would save
the country money, <2> It would
provide a better fighting force
and (3) It would cause the least
disturbance to economic, scientific
and cultural progress of the na
tion.
Cramming a year of military
training into the life pattern of
every American boy when he
turns 18 or finishes high school,
would be an undertaking of fab
ulous cost, needless cost. Most ol
the youngsters could never use
what they learned (principally
squads right) and many of them
if distorted into soldiers, would
make miserably poor ones at best
No Misfit's Job
There is no place in the Ameri
can armed services for a misfit
however sternly trained. The most
routine army post is filled better
by a willing soldier. Furthermore,
war is growing yearly more tech
nical. It requires more knowledge
than a reluctant trainee can ac
quire in a year. When a man does
acquire useful skill in defense, he
deserves to be retained and paid
well.
Without any shade of disre
spect to America’s fighting men
and their singular resourcefulness
and heroism, World War II was
won in laboratory, field and fac
tory as certainly as on the firing
line. A lot of young men whc
would be misfits in any fightinj
force will be the technicians of to
morrow, and they can’t spare £
year of preparation to learn fool
drill.
One Basic Error
I know that a great many smarl
people are in favor of universal
military training, and for honor
able reasons. But I have another
serious objection to it in addition
to the ones presented above. Uni
versal military training is regi
mentation of the whole nation, in
a limited way. It is the opening
wedge with which the few can
show the many who’s boss.
buspicion may well be leveled
at the “Naziferous” not;on of com
pulsory military training. It
sounds like a defense measure, but
it is not. The first effect of it
would be to interrupt the training
of technicians and, since modern
warfare is technical, it would ac
i tually cripple national defense. By
| carefully selecting volunteers and
j pay them well, Uncle Sam can
j have a better fighting force at less
I cost and confusion.
_
Research Center In
Pacific Northwest I
WASHINGTON, Mar. 29, (A>)—
The construction of a half-billiorv
! supersonic research center, prob
I ably in the Pacific Northwest is
i being cAgidered by various gov
' ernment^gencies, and will necess
tate an immediate increase in
I power in that region.
I Senator Cordon, <R., Ore.) an
nounced he had been informed
that plans are now being drafted
by the government, which include
the construction of huge wind
tunnels to test the practicability
of airplane flight in the higher
rarefied levels of the stratosphere.