THE NOME NUGGET
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Entered as second class matter October 14. 1943. at the postoffice
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Wednesday, December 10, 1947
A Dangerous Precedent
(The Denver Post)
BY THEIR REFUSAL to help unload their ship’s
cargo in the strike-bound port of Marseille, the crew of
the American freighter Henry Gilbert Costn have
raised a serious question which might endanger the suc
cess of the Marshall plan for aid to Europe.
Still more indicative of the gravity of the problem
was a congratulatory statement by Benoit Franchon,
Communist secretary-general of the French General
Confederation of Labor. Fanchon said:
“You have magnificiently reaffirmed the unity of the
international proletariat. You have expressed your
agreement with French workers in their struggle
against the imperialism of the Marshall plan.”
Many American seamen will disavow the intended
compliments of M. Fanchon, but there are many Ameri
can Communist seamen who are obviously working to
prevent success of the Marshall plan. American aid,
emergency as well as rehabilitatory, will be shipped in
American bottoms. If other ships’ crews follow suit, it is
conceivable that a great part of that aid may be serious
ly delayed in reaching its destination, that the American
program may be threatened.
* •
While Communists are being pushed to a lessened
role in American life, they have retained powerful in
fluence in th^ maritime unions. If, as seems obvious,
they try to sabotage the Marshall plan, American labor,
should bring its organized powet to bear and stop them.'
The China Joh And The Man
(By Jack Foster)
AS SCERETARY OF STATE Marshall departed for:
the London foreign ministers meeting he left behind
the still unsettled question of American policy in China.
But the Chinese civil war will not wait even for such
important negotiations as those on Germany and Aus
tria. It is unfortunate, but inevitable, that the secretary,
having mailed to put our Chinese policy in order, will be *
pursued and distracted by it in London.
Though a long-range aid program for China—similar !
to those for western Europe and for Turkey and Greece
-—cannot now be pulled out of the hat quickly, certain'
emergency measures could be initiated at once.
Flow of the 300-million-dollar fund to which the sec
retary is pledged could start now instead of next April.
However inadequate, this would be more effective now
than later. The psychological effect would be larger
than the financial.
Second is the matter of military supplies.
We have ammunition, in dumps not too far from
China, which is deteriorating and of no use to us. Na
tionalist troops are being pushed back by the Soviet
aided Communist army in Manchuria and North China
because they have no American ammunition for their
American-made guns. Their American-made trucks are
useless because they lack American parts. It does not
make sense to deny to our allies the weapons of self-de
fense eagainst Communist penetration which we could
supply so easily. Even if an independent China were not
basic to our own security—and everyone admits it is—a
runout on our Far Eastern ally will not make the Turks,
Greeks or Western Europeans trust us very far.
The common excuse for failure to send China econo
mic aid and military supplies is that they may be mis
handled. We have no man, it is said, whom we can spare
and of sufficient world reputation to be received as an
equal by Chiang Kai-<Shek; and any lesser person could
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achieve little in the situation.
There is such an American whose competence is
above challenge—General MacArthur.
William Bullitt and others familiar with the need
have suggested him. Chiang should consider appoint
ment of a man of the MacArthur stature an honor to
him and to China. The leadership the general could con
tribute, in co-operation with the generalissimo, would
be incalculably great.
Whether General MacArthur would be free to add
heavy Nanking responsibilities to his prior Tokyo com
mitments of course would be for him to decide. From
this distance his present job appears so well organized
and delegated to able assistants that he could spend
considerable time in China, where he is no stranger.
Secretary Marshall’s enforced absence in Europe
makes it all the more desirable that General MacAr
thur’s abilities be used to the full in the critical Far East.
I
Bradley And Gray
(Rocky Mountain News)
THAT PRESIDENT TRUMAN would select Gen.
Omar Bradley to succeed General Eisenhower as army
chief of staff was, of course, expected. And he could not
have chosen a better man.
“Character” and “integrity” are words that come au
tomatically to mind when we think of General Bradley.
As top combat commander in the European invasion, he
proved himself a truly great military leader.
Long known as the “Doughboy’s General,” he en
joyed in highest degree the confidence and respect of
his men. His new post gives him a tremendous responsi
bility. We know he will carry it ably and well.
Mr. Truman has named Carl R. Gray, Jr., of St. Paul,
to succeed General Bradley as head of the Veterans’ Ad
ministration. Mr. Gray, vice-president of the Chicago &
Northwestern Railroad, was the World War II major
general in charge of rail transportation in the European
theater, and he handled that big job with distinction.
The job he is about to take on is one of the biggest and
most important in this country. Last year the Veterans’
Administration spent nearly seven and one-third billion
dollars—a sum larger than the whole federal govern
ment’s expenditures in 1938. It employs more than
200,000 persons.
The disbursement of billions a year in pensions, edu
cational and other benefits, the management of a vast
insurance business and the direction of a huge system of
hospitals and medical services are only a few of its
many activities.
In Mr Gray, we understand, the president hopes he
has found a successful business executive, willing and
financially able to make supervision of the Veterans’
Administration a long-time career.
We share that hope. The living veterans of America’s
wars now number more than 17 million. The American
people want them to have every advantage and benefit
: to which their service entitles them. If that is to be as
sured, the government agency re
sponsible for dealing with them
must be managed intelligently and
with fearless honestly.
That’s That
By BRUCE GUSTIN
•
Taxpayers naturally would wel
come a reduction in federal taxes.
But many of them will agree with
Secretary of the Treasury Snyder
that this relief should not be voted
by Congress until “we have taken
care of aid to foreign countries,
balanced the budget and taken
care of payments on the national
debt.’’ Whatever appropriations
are made for European relief and
rehabilitation should be ma le on
a pay-as-we-go basis. And at the
same time, payments should be
made to reduce the national debt.
Secretary Snyder’s bond-selling
campaign, however, does not jibe
with his insistence that debt reduc
tion should be put ahead of tax re
lief. His argument is that a bond
selling campaign would soak up
purchasing power which otherwise
might be used to buy scarce goods
and boost prices. But when the
government sells bonds except for
refunding, it borrows money and
those borrowings increase the na
tional debt. That simply means
more inflation.
Russian Communists seem to
be over-reaching themselves. In
their frantic attempts to wreck the
Marshall plan, they have gone to
such extremes that it appears cer
tain their campaign will boomer
ang against them. The strikes and
rioting they have promoted in
France and Italy are bound to re
act against them. With France’s
whole economy endangered by
Communist-led strikes, a public
reaction against Communism
would seem inevitable.
The explanation given by Con
gressman Carroll (Dem.). of why
he voted against citing ten Holly
wood writers and directors for
contempt of Congress was pretty
weak. ‘‘I felt that I could not place
a stamp of approval on the meth
ods used by the committee on un
American activities in this inves
tigation,” he said. The methods
used by the committee were not
the issue at all. The issue was
whether ten Hollywood figures
who defied a Congressional com
mittee by refusing to tell whether
they are or ever have been Com
munists should be cited for con
tempt.
Upon what did Congressman
Carroll put his “stamp of approv
al” by voting “no” on the contempt
citation issue? Did he take the po
sition that a Congressional com
mittee created to investigate un
American activities has no right to
ask whether witnesses are or ever
have been Communists? Does he
hold that persons called before a
Congressional committee are justi
fied in refusing to answer, if they
do not like the way they are ques
tioned? Or does he dispute the
right of the committee to consider
Communism as un-American ac
tivity?
The contention that the House
committee has been “invading the
field of political conviction,” as
charged by Congressman Holifield
(Dem.) of California, is based upon
the flimsy ground that the Com
munist party is a political party.
The fact is, as Chairman Thomas
asserts, that “the Communist party
is firt of all a conspiracy to over
throw the American system of
government, the American system
of business; it is a foreign-directed
conspiracy.” No American objects
to being asked whether he is a Re
publican of a Democrat. If the
Communists consider their party