THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the *
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME. ALASKA
Telephone: Main 135 P- O. Box #18
$1.50 PER MONTH >16.00 A YEAR
W. A. Boucher-.Owner-Publisher
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice
•t Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Friday, July 14, 1950
ALASKA LEGALIZED GAMBLING
(Jessen’s Weekly)
With gambling a leading form of recreation in Alaska
and with authorities no more able to suppress it than
they were to stop drinking in prohibition days, the Ter
ritory would be wise to follow the example of Nevada
an turn a human weakness into a governmen asset.
With legalized gambling, the tax "burden should be
materially reduced and wealth now going to gambling
houses operating illegally would go toward building
streets, schools and other needed improvements. With
statehood in the offing, it would also answer in great
part the question of where the money is to come from
for increased government costs.
Local federal enforcement officers have been in
structed as a matter of policy to be lenient in the matter
of card games and only interfere when complaints have j
been brought of too wide an infraction of rules, on the •
theory that most people like to gamble to a certain ex
tent, and to a certain extent it comes in the category of
recreation. Why not go farther and profit by it, •
Nevada has shown how a state can benefit by legal
ized gambling. It has used it as a constructive method
of raising money for government operations. The re-:
suits are apparent to anyone traveling through Nevada. j
And the travelers come from all over the country to in
dulge in a pastime openly that in most other places must
be done under cover. • j
A good rule is that if a nuisance is too deep-rooted to
be eradicated, to make a practical use of it, to harness
it to work for the good of the community instead of en
riching a few at the expense of the losers.
It is worth thinking about.
U. S. SPENDING FOR THE NATIVES
The United States Government, which took over some
90-odd island groups, making up the Carolines, Mar
shalls, and Marianna islands in the Pacific, is spending
about $7,000,000 annually to take care of the political,
economic, social and educational advancement of the
54,000 inhabitants of the islands.
The islanders themselves are credited with paying
about five per cent of the expenses out of their local
revenues. This looks, at first blush, like a very generous
move on the part of the United States, but some repre
sentatives of other countries, speaking in the United Na- i
tions Trusteeship Council, expressed fear that the be- j
neficence of the United States would render more diffi-!
cult the territories’ progress toward economic autonomy.;
Mr. John Fletcher-Cooke, British Deputy, expressed!
the hope that the United States would not, by continued ’
outpourings of money, pauperize the islanders and give
them the idea that life on the dole could be a pleasant
and effortless business. This, he thought, would, in the
long run, impede any progress toward self-development!
in the islands and discourage native efforts toward fi-!
nancial independence. j
FINDS 99.6 PER CENT LOYAL
One unfortunate aspect of the wild charges of disloy
alty against employees of the Federal Government is
the creation of suspicion in the minds of the American
people that many of our citizens are not loyal to their
government and country.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has examined a
total of 2,571,602 loyalty-form papers since August 1,
1947. J. Edgar Hoover, chief of the Bureau, reports that
it has returned to the Civil Service Commission 2,561,
046 forms without disloyal data. This means that 99.6
per cent of the total forms processed by the F. B. I. failed
to disclose any disloyalty.
The use of 2 billion pounds of frozen foods has been
reported for 1949. ‘
Korean Situation
At A Glance - - -
(Continued from Page One)
pointment of Lt. Gen. Walton H.
Walker, veteran tank fighter of
World War II in Europe, as com
mander of ground forces in Korea.
He commanded the famous ar
mored “Ghost Corps” of Gen.
George S. Patton’s swift Third
army in Europe.
In Washington the U. S. Con
gress, given a gloomy review of
American fortunes in the Korean
war to date, heard rising demands
to threaten the Korean commun
ists with atom bombing. Pravda,
the communist party newspaper
in Moscow, denounced the sugges
tions. Congress also heard increas
ing demands to bring into active
service more than 800,000 Nation
al Guardsmen and reservists as a
means of stiffening Allied resist
ance in Korea.
There were also rports of grow
ing pressure by President Tru
man’s administration to seek at
least limited control powers over
industry to help arm the country
for a long struggle in Korea.
Within the administration strong
sentiment was reported deevlop
ing to speed up the flow of U. S.
arms to Western Europe to guard
against a possible communist blow
there while the Allies are engaged!
with the Korean battle. Some of
ficials spoke of sharply increasing!
—perhaps doubling—the present j
rate of delivery of $1,000,000,000!
worth of guns, tanks and equip
ment being sent to the Atlantic
Alliance countries. j
Gen. J. Lawton Collins, U. S. |
army chief of staff, and Gen. Hoyt j
S. Vandenberg, air force chief of
staff, conferred in Tokyo with
Gen. MacArthur. Adm. Arthur W.
Radford, navy commander in
chief in the Pacific, was flying
from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo for
conferences. There have been re
ports in Washington that the Rus
sians have an assorted collection
of about 800 naval craft deployed
near the Korean area, including
between 70 and 80 submarines, j
Those studying the situation say j
many of the Soviet vessels are;
small craft, and nothing bigger;
than cruisers is in the area.
-- i
Friday, July 14, 1950
North Korean communist forces !
opened a full scale offensive today
against the Americans’ do-or-die
Kum River line in South Korea,
already crossed by a small ad
vance shock force of Reds.
The opening of the offensive
was heralded by the Reds’ deadly
infiltration tactic, a front line dis
patch said. Communist guerrillas
who sneaked behind U. S. lines,
wearing uniforms possibly taken
from American dead, struck at
the iU. S. forces in the rear while
the Reds threw an artillery bar
rage across the river.
An advance headq u a r t e r s
spokesman said the Reds brought
up two or three divisions to the
Kum River to face the greatly
outnumbered Americans on the
south bank.
The front dispatch said intense
fighting began by night (Korean
time) an the Kum River front af
ter the communists dared heavy
American artillery and fighter
plane fire to send a small jabbing
shock force across the stream. It
was the first breach of the Kum
River line, last bastion before
Taejon, emergency capital. The
South Korea government was re
ported to have fled Taejon and a
curfew and alert were ordered in
the city.
Associated press reporter Leif
Erickson, in a dispatch from
American advance headquarters,
quoted a headquarters spokesman
as saying the Red guerrillas at
tacked suddenly from the rear,
clad in green twill fatigue uni
forms such as Americans wear.
He said presumably these were
taken from American dead or war
prisoners.
The advance communist force
which reached the south bank of
the Kum numbered possibly 100
men but posed a serious nighttime
threat to the doubly exposed
Americans fighting to prevent a
Red bridgehead buildup.
Despite heavy American artil
lery and fighter plane fire, the
communist force waded across the
river in what looked like an at
tempt to hold a bridgehead for a
flanking movement against Amer
ican positions guarding Taejon.
To the east, the outnumbered
defenders worried over another
communist flanking movement
which threatened to cut off the
Kum River positions and Taejon
from their supply port, Pusan.
The Reds drove toward Hamchong
and Andong, 44 and 75 miles east
of Taejon and about 60 miles
north of Taegu on the Pusan-Tae
jon highway.
An artillery duel preceded the
communist river crossing west of
Kanju, on the river’s south bank,
held by the U. S. 34th infantry
PUBLIC LOUSE NUMBER ONE
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Aleutian Bases
Will Stay Open *
WASHINGTON, (JP) — The de
fense department said yesterday
it will keep in operation three air
bases in the Aleutian Islands—
Shemya, Cold Bay and Adak.
It notified Senator Magnuson
(D.-Wash.) of its reversal of an
earlier decision to close them.
Magnuson told a reporter the
bases, which provide the shortest
route to Tokyo, were to have been
closed for economy reasons but
that the situation in Korea had
caused a change in the plans.
Shemya which has cost $100,
000,000, is 1,500 miles from Fair
banks, Alaska, and 2,000 miles^
from Tokyo. Magnuson said it is
2,000 miles shorter than the mid
Pacific route via Honolulu.
regiment. Red guns covering the
crossing were silenced for a time
by the American counter barrage.
Moscow radio, quoting front
dispatches, reported North Kore
an armies advancing on all fronts,
and said North Korean air
strength was growing. The Mos
cow press ridiculed the United
Nations action in Korea as a cloak
for American aggression. Gen.
MacArthur accepted the U. N. y
flag for his command today and
promised his forces would do all
possible “to uphold this noble
ideal.”
The United States, said Wash
ington dispatches, is quietly in
forming other interested U. N.
members that it would welcome
their ground forces in Korea, al
though theer is no official expec
tation that any but the Americans *
would carry the main burden. A *
number of U. N. members have
sent sea and air help, but Britain
and France, the two most likely
prospects for ground force help,
have their own communist trou
bles in Asia.
The feeling was growing in
Washington that Russia might be
trying ta lure the Western Allies
into such great military efforts in
Korea that there would be no
challenge to aggression elsewhere.
With fears of a broadened con
flict rising, the Senate-House
atomic energy committee indicat
ed it expects the U. S. to develop*
a hydrogen bomb 1000 times more
powerful than the a-bombs drop
ped on Japan. There was no indi
cation, however, of an intention
to %use atomic weapons in Korea.
Sen ator McMahon (D.-Conn.),
Senate-House committee chair
man, said both the U. S. and Rus
sia are moving closer to perfecting
a hydrogen bomb while piling up
“stacks of atomic weapons.”
Congressional leaders indicated
quick action on a President*A
plea for $69,000,000 to start
“campaign of truth” countering
Soviet propaganda.
Both the United States and Rus
sia received notes from India’yes
terday, and there was speculation
that India was proposing steps to
attempt a peaceful settlement N
Korea.
European non-communists anx
iously watched the progress of the
fighting in Korea, but throughout
West Europe, the reaction seemed
to be that the Americans would
take the offensive in due time.
American and Australian war
planes rained death and destruc
tion on the North Korean front
line positions and their supply
centers to the rear, despite in
creasingly bad weather. The
mightiest strike was a raid by
nearly 50 B-29’s yesterday
Wonsan, strategic North Korea
port 80 .Res above the 38th para
llel. !