THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME, ALASKA
Telephone: Main 125 ^ P. O. Box 618
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
W. A. Boucher .Owner-Publisher
Emily Boucher .Local Editor
Jim Frye ...Editor
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Monday, November 1, 1948
i
AMERICA’S SOFT SPOT
(Daily Alaska Empire)
With a Congressional Committee just completing an;
investigation into Communism in Alaska labor unions
and fifth column infiltrations, and the coming of Repre
sentative Henry Jackson (D.-Wash.) to gather first
hand details of the state of this. Territory’s defenses,
with a clamor from other leading sources for protection
from any enemy, the following editorial from a recent
issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is printed in full
without comment:
Reduced to its simplest terms, the precarious and om
inous tension that prevails in the world today is caused
by a simple and palpably clear motive: the sinister de
signs of Communism to impose its rule on mankind.
One obstacle alone stands between the Communist
overlords and the achievement of their grandiose
scheme: the power of free, productive and democratic
America.
No reasonable doubt exists any longer that Russia’s
prime objective is to transform America into a Soviet
satrapy.
In the face of this bitter and implacable pressure, j
America realizes that the only guarantee of safety lies in I
military impregnability.
There are many points to defend.
One of these is Alaska, at once the most vulnerable
presently, and the strongest potentially.
Alaska is the strategic key to the heart of America.
It is also the perfect springboard from which America
could launch a devastating counterattack against Com
munist aggression.
What then, are the relative postures of America and
Russia, in relation to Alaska, which is their closest point
of contact, and possession of which will without ques
tion decide victory or defeat for either?
Let us consider first the Russian position: i
With Alaska as a base, every major American target
from Los Angeles to New York is brought within range
of her bombers, and Russia has today the greatest air
force in the world.
The Siberian coasts on the Pacific and Arctic Oceans
have been organized into a veritable ring of air bases,
the radii of which converge acurately on the vitals of,
continental America. I
During and since the recent war, Russia moved 14
million people into her East-Siberian region, erecting
seven new industrial cities along the Trans-Siberian
Railway. Huge factories and strong submarine nests
have been built on the littoral of the Bering Sea, a mere
100 miles from America nterritory.
Her explorers and scientists have worked indefagit
ably for decades to survey, chart and study operational
conditions around the polar region.
These facts are dark enough in themselves.
They are portentously black when we realize that
Alaska, to all practical purposes of defense, is a sitting
duck; infinitely weaker in every sense than was Pearl
Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Here are some astounding and painful details of the
American position today:
The present garrison is 7,000 men, watching an area of
586,000 square miles and thousands of miles of unde
fended coast line.
Radar detection installations are so few and weak
that, according to an air force spokesman, “only a few
valleys are guarded. We’ve got to be careful not to tell
an enemy which valleys he could fly through without
SHE’S WITH US ALL YEAR ROUND
’ .k . -ak.4. '• . *»• .* — S.-W— l « . . . . a • * 1 .’’4 •*• ^aSD ^
detection.”
Equipment is scant and inoperable, even if we had the
men to run it. Outside of Ladd Field, our largest air
base, a line of tanks sits immobilized because “Green
troops didn’t know what extreme cold would do to
grease.”
A few weeks ago, 4,000 American troops had to be
withdrawn from Alaska because there was no housing
to quarter even this pitiful handful.
Of the $11,403,477,413 granted by Congress for rearm
ament during the last session, the allocation to Alaska
was 50 million dollars or less than half of one per cent of
the total.
At Point Barrow recently, a high-ranking Army offi
cer thus summed up American preparations there:
“Launch a well-prepared attack against any Alaska
base, and you’ll take it if you are not a military idiot.”
Before that, Gen. Omar Bradley, American Chief of
Staff, told the House Alaskan Appropriations Commit
tee that an enemy in possession of Alaska could easily
devastate the Northern industrial zone of the United
States and probably be able to occupy the West Coast.
There, in brief and ugly figures, is the equation.
Thanks, however, to a merciful providence, we have
yet the time, and certainly have the means, of avoiding
the criminal folly of another Pearl Harbor.
We can make Alaska, if we have the intelligence and
the will, an inviolable bastion of freedom and a guaran
tee of world peace.
The money must be voted and put to work. Bases must
be equipped and manned, communications extended and
perfected. If this is done, Russia may never strike.
If it is not done, we will be inviting Russia to strike.
'Let Congress digest these simple facts and do its pa
triotic utmost to guarantee the safety and existence of
everything we have and everything we are.
t* * - 1 " " 1
THEY’D BETTER BELIEVE IT!
We often wonder how much accurate information
about American politics and American people reaches
the Kremlin.
Doubtless they hear much from sources in this coun
try about some of the things that are being said in our
election campaign—things which might lead them to be
lieve that Americans are fighting something like a Civil
War between groups permanently divided by hatred.
That may be what they want to believe. But we won
der whether they have been told what Gov. Dewey said
recently in a campaign speech:
“Nothing will divide our country and nothing like a
crisis will so unite us. We can take our political argu
ments pretty seriously. But what some people in the
world do not seem to understand is that we have such a
thing as sportsmanship; such a thing as closing ranks
immediately when a debate is settled ... When there is a
big job to be done there is only one kind of American.”
That may not be what the men in the Kremlin w nf tr
believe. But they’d better believe it. It’s the truth.
«
Form Santa Claus
Foundation To
Help Kiddies
(By Howard C. Heyn)
HOLLYWOOD, (/P)—Hollywood
s ill believes in Santa Claus and
it seems that San Francisco does
too.
The establishment of the Santa
Claus foundation geographically
centered at North Pole, seven
miles from Fairbanks, Alaska, was
announced Wednesday night by
Eddie Bracken, one of a number of
actors supporting the project.
The foundation’s main aims will
be to answer letters to Santa
Claus and wherever possible to
send gifts to underprivileged chil
dren.
San Francisco will be the actual
headquarters for the non-profit
Corporation, to be directed by a
board consisting of five prominent
residents of the Bay area.
Hollywood’s rote is one of moral
and financial support from such
luminaries as Bracken, Jack Car
son, Dennis Morgan, Virginia
Mayo, Michael O’Shea, Donald
O’Connor, Jackie Coogan, Barry
Sullivan, Janis Paige, Dick Hymes
and others.
The board is composed of
Gladys Byrd Davis and Mrs.
Theodore Swanson, San Francisco
philan hropists; Frank J. Cayting,
national director of U. S. Junior
I
Chamber of Commerce; John J.
Davis, insurance man; and
Char D. Elkus, attorney. Mrs. Da
vis is president of the board.
Bracken said the organization is
based on the belief that the spirt
j ual regeneration of children all
' over the world is a strong force for
peace.
! “To see that all poor kids will
get a present at Christmas seems
i like a dream, but we ultimately
are going to try to do just that,”
he added.
San Francisco will serve as a
guinea pig for the first year and
gifts of the Santa Claus founda
tion will be confined to needy
children specified by service
groups in the Bay area.
However, letters from children
all over the world will be answer
ed if sent to the North Pole head
quarters.
A number of toy manufacturers
have pledged their support and a
series of benefits will be put on by
the actors. A soft b^ll game Nov.
7 in Oakland will start the bene
fits. Morgan and Carson will head
the teams.
| Hollywood Olympics in Decem
• ber are also planned to boost the
I project.
! Next years the foundation hopes
| to have a toy train tour the na
tion, picking up used toys for kids
overseas. Toys donated by manu
facturers will go to children in
this country.
The five-fold aims of the foun
dation, Bracken said, are (1> to
answer the Santa Claus letters;
(2) send presents insofar as possi
ble; (3) to establish a Santa Cluus
toy factory and village at North
Pole; (4) to found an international
orphanage; and (5) to contribute
to other children’s welfare groups
wherever possible.
Behind the foundation is the
story of anonymous construction
engineers and workers in Alaska
who for several years have ans
wered Santa Claus letters at their
own expense. It started this way:
An airplane arrived at Fair
banks with sacks of mail for Santa
Claus. The construction people set
up a new post office, North Pole,
to take care of the Christmas or