THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday. Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephohe: Main 125 p. O. Box 618
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER .Editors
$1.50 PER MONTH S16.00 A YEAR
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943. at the postoffice
at Nome. Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879
Monday, April 5. 1948
TO THE VOTERS
Tomorrow, Tuesday, April 6, the citizens of Nome
will go to the polls to elect a Mayor, Counsilmen
and other important officers of the City government.
Too often this responsibility is taken lightly at the
time of voting without careful thought to the duties
and responsibilities with which we are shouldering
those candidates who will serve without pay to carry
on the necessary work of managing the City affairs.
Too often we elect the officials and then spend the
balance of the year critizing their every action, instead
of working with them, lending our support to aid in
the problems of City government.
We have a fine selection of serious-minded candid
ates running for the offices this year. Let’s give them
our whole-hearted support by voting tomorrow.
Choose your candidates wisely.
ORDINANCE 319
An important Ordinance, No. 319, is up for ratifica
tion on the ballot tomorrow. The Standard Oil Co.,
as a protection to City property, have asked for a,
small portion of land near the oil tanks, on which1
they will construct a “berm” or fire protection. It is |
important that you vote favorably on this Ordinance!
for our protection.
China and the Russians !
(Christian Science Monitor)
In the current clamor to keep China from falling to
the Russians i.e., the Chinese Communists, by force
of American arms there is—as we have pointed outj
before—much election-year politics, much hysteria,!
much well-meant but not always well-informed im
pulsiveness.
Besides the unanswered question as to how Amer-|
ican arms can be used effectively by a thoroughly
incompetent Chinese government, there is another im
portant question: Do the Russians want the whole of
China?
Most of the expert opinion on this matter holds
that they do not. There is strong presumptive evidence
that they see more to gain by consolidating Chinese
Communist power north of the Yellow River while
continuing to recognize the Central government, thusj
keeping China weak and divided.
Why? Because the Russians well know the colossal
difficulties of unifying all China. Commenting of the
claim that the Soviet Union hopes to “absorb” China,
the Washington Post observed a while back:
The Russians are sometimes stupid, but not that
stupid. In 1927 they found that in spite of control
over the Chinese armies, they could not unify even
the province of Canton, which, like a cushion, re
verted to its old form as soon as the Russians and
their Chinese armies had moved out of sight.
Moreover, the Russians well know the strength of
Chinese antiforeignism. That antiforeignism—which
at present constitutes a formidable barrier to the ef
fectiveness of American “aid”—is directed against
whatever power is thought to be “interfering” in Chin
ese affairs. If American influence were eliminated
and Russian influence substituted for it, the full force
of Chinese hatred would be turned against the Russians
—and they know it! ,
China’s chief defenses may well be the size of her
country, antiquity of traditions, stubbornness of her!
nationalism, and individualism of her peasants.
MR. BYRNES’ WARNING
FORMER STATE SECRETARY BYRNES has made
an exceedingly important statement in the interna-1
tional crisis. State Secretary Marshall has described
ONE MORE SPRING
■weW&V
THf
i the situation as “very, very serious,” but Mr. Byrnes
can speak even more freely.
He is particularly qualified because of his personal
knowledge of Stalin’s betrayal of agreements with the
United States and others. He participated in Presi
dent Roosevelt’s appeasement efforts at Yalta and as
secretary of state went to great lengths of compromise
to find a peaceful settlement.
On the basis of that costly experience and the mount
ing record of Rusian aggression, Mr. Byrnes now warns
America that the Soviets have not completed their
'imperialistic program, that they covet Greece, Tur
key, Italy, France and other lands.
He proposes that the United States “act immed
| iately” when Russia makes her next move of agression
! or penetration. He asks for quick re-enactment of
Selective Service and a large increase in our Air Force.
He hopes this may persuade Stalin that it is not safe to
continue agression.
This newspaper (Rocky Mountain News) for a long
time has been calling for a firmer American policy and
(stronger military preparedness as the best chance of
j preventing World War III or, if that fails, of surviving
such a conflict.
But we are somewhat more optimistic than Mr.
Byrnes appears to be. Senate passage of the Eur
opean Recovery Program by a bipartisan majority of
69 to 17 shows how far the American people and Con
gress have come in a short time toward understand
(ing our stake in eliminating abroad the chaos and suf
fering which breed Communism.
Of course, the Marshall Plan in itself is not enough.
Economic recovery must be protected by military de
fense and also by security against the Red fifth col
, umns now penetrating the European democracies. This
is recognized by Britain, France, Belgium, the Neth
erlands and Luxembourg, which have just negotiated
an historic draft of economic cultural and military all
iance.
To be effective a Western European Union must be
| supported by American guns as well as dollars. We be
j lieve the United States will co-operate actively in such
a regional security pact under the United Nation.
But Americans would be kidding themselves if they
supposed our country could play the decisive role re
quired without far better military preparedness. Cert
ainly more planes are essential. Clearly, our under
strength Army, Navy and Air Force must be built up at
once. If that cannot be accomplished by voluntary en
listment, Selective Service is the only alternative—uni
versal military training though still most desirable for
\ the long haul cannot produce combat troops quickly.
Finally, the nominal unification of the three defense
services must become a fact—there must be close co-or
dination in budget, in operations and in planning.
Defense Secretary Forrestal and the joint chiefs of
•staff in their week-end meeting have recognized the
emergency. So does Congress.
Because this latest jnade-in-Moscow crisis has awak
ened America to the peril, there is reason for hope.
TEN MILLION VOTES
If one of the first steps of so
cialization — government owner
ship — should come now in this
country, ten million voters would
be added immediately to the pay
roll of the federal government.
Sounds unbelievable, doesn’t it?
Ten million voters co Id rna^e
quite a showing on a Tuesday of
.1 iy November. Mr. Wallace, or
.i.y other candidate, could go far
with that kind of backing.
There are approximately that
many persons employed in the
transportation industry in the Un
ited States. Transportation would
be one of the first industries to
be marked for nationalisation, in
this country as in Britain. This
would include waterways, air-lines
and possibly our trucks and their
drivers. (Note on airlines: the
British Overseas Airways Corp
oration, government owned and
operated, is expected to show a
$32 million loss!)
Is This Fantasy?
| Even in taking over American
railroads, a would-be dictator
could get possibly 1,500,000 votes.
There are at least that many
| people employed by our railroads.
I Not all of them would vote the
party line, at first. Jhat would re
duce the number of rail employ—
ees somewhat, until replacements
were available. Of course, a new
and revised form of WPA would
be set up to absord the unem
ployed. But even a WPA-er can
vote. Either way, perhaps, the
government would appreciate the
votes!
Lest we carry this satire too
far, I will interrupt by saying
that such a mess as the above is
not sheer fantasy. It could hap
pen here. The worst thing about
it is that the general public, and
even many folks in the trans
portation industry, are unaware
■of the danger. Yet, .economic col
lapse and consequent government
ownership is quite possible. The
nation would not have to go Com
munistic or be conquered by Rus
sia for this to happen.
Socialism. Quickly
The nation must and will have
an adequate transportation system.
On that all are agreed. The nation
could not be secure in this tur
bulent world without it, nor could
we have prosperity and effective
commerce without our efficient
transportation system. Yet, some
of those who are closest to the
transportation industry fear that
Aollapse may come. The trouble
lies in outmoded forms of Fed
eral regulation. Too much bur
eaucracy can take us to socialism
more quickly than we think.
This setting of the scene for
trouble goes back a generation.
The nation has compromised on
policies so long that the result
is a patchwork of rules and regu
lations that creates as much in
efficiency as possible. Over 50
government bureaus are charged
with supervision of some kind
transportation, with little overall
coordination of policjf. Actually
in event our common carriers find
business no longer profitable, the
government is already prepared
to begin the take-over.
Elbow Room
The trouble is that despite the
largest volume of peacetime traf
f'e. too few of our common car
riers are able to make enough
profit to attract capital to the in
dustry. if nationalization comes in