THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME, ALASKA
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 6i»
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
W. A. Boucher ..Owner-Publisher
Emily Boucher .Local Editor
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Wednesday, March 23, 1949
*
BUY EASTER SEALS
Many children will benefit materially when you buy
Easter Seals this month. The benefits will be commen
surate with the amount of seals sold.
Put an Easter Seal on each and every letter or pack
age you mail and it will cost very little to bring satis
faction to a crippled Alaska child.
Mount Edgecumbe Hospital, near Sitka, is a haven of
refuge to Alaska Crippled Children. It needs your sup
port, your generous response will bring a ray of hope to
children who lie on beds of suffering and misfortune.
Buy Easter Seals.
The services performed by the Association offers the
largest possible opportunity for self-sustaining life and
happiness for the physically handicapped. They.need
the warmth of friendship and of human kindness which
comes from the heart through discharge of our sacred
trust in caring for the thousands of handicapped chil
dren in Alaska. Help a crippled child. BUY EASTER
SEALS.
ASIA FOR THE ASIATICS
(New World News)
Asia for the Asiatics. American boys fought and died
on unheard of Pacific Isles because an ambitious nation
rallied a continent to that slogan and a program of race
hatred only a short time back. Yet, with China slipping
into communist hands, that slogan is today as close to
reality as ever.
American prestige, so high at the end of the war that
ordinary G.I.’s were met with a hero worship, is slip
ping and the Orient is in danger of falling into a bitter
disillusionment with American democracy.
The losses in China have caused a loss of face to
America. This is reflected in the Japanese elections.
The conservatives multiplied their number of seats in
parliament by two but the communists multiplied their
number by eight. They had four members. Today they
have 35.
Significance of these 35 becomes apparent when it is
realized that the largest portion of them come from
around Tokyo. Toyko is the heart of Japan and the bat
tle for control rages there. Many national labor unions
take their cue from party line policies. Marxism is mak
ing a determined bid for the intellectual leadership of
university youth.
What is America doing about all this?
She has a brilliant administrator in General Douglas
MacArthur—now under steady attack by the commun
ists. He has done brilliantly in the economic, military
and political fields. But ideologically we Americans
have failed. We have failed to provide ideologically
trained troops to fight an ideological war. We have
failed to give ideological training to Japanese leader
ship, and especially the leadership of youth and labor.
Fortunately, there are encouraging factors. Wide
spread interest and gratitude was stirred up when for
mer Ambassador Kensuke Horinouchi lead a delegation
of nine leading Japanese to this country for a confer
ence on ideological preparedness. Newsprint hungry
papers followed their tour with front page coverage.
They are demanding that a Moral Re-Armament task
force go to Asia.
Japan will be the pattern of what the people of Asia
can expect of American democracy. It may be Ameri
ca’s last chance to demonstrate inspired democracy to
that continent.
There is still time to see that Japanese leadership is
brought here for ideological training. There is still time
to see that a task force is equipped to take movies and
dramas of inspired democracy to Japan.
I ONE MAN PYRAMID £LUB
I
The youth and the labor leadership are looking for a
[ greater idea, and only criminal neglect will keep us
from giving it to that country and through it to the
j Orient. We have paid too high a price in the lives of our
loved ones not to follow through now.
MEDICAL-CARE INSURANCE?
The American Medical Association, spurred by the
accusation of 136 members that it had failed to develop
a program for improved medical care, has come for
ward with a twelve-point program which is generally
believed to be an effort to head off the President’s uni
versal medical-care insurance plan.
' The Association, said to represent 150,000 physi
cians, recently levied an assessment of $25 against each
member to finance its campaign against the compulsory
proposals by receiving attention in Congressional cir
cles. We will not attempt to discuss the program of
fered by the Medical Association until a complete copy
is available for study. It should be apparent, however,
that if the Association has a fund of more than $2,000,
000 to finance its fight against medical care insurance,
the public will be advised as to its position.
It has been somewhat surprising that some doctors
throughout the nation fail to make a difference between
the economic problem related to medical care and the
medical problems relating to the treatment of patients.
Certainly, if the government confines its efforts largely
to a program of insurance to meet the economic dis
aster that disease inflicts upon individuals ,and leaves
the treatment of patients to doctors, the medical pro
fession has nothing to fear except the possibility that a
greater number of patients will be able to pay for their
medical treatment. ,
Of course, it would be unwise to pass final jud^men1 '
upon the proposal of the Medical Association or that of
President Truman or Senator Taft, until these pro
grams are outlined in complete detail. It may develop
that there is some possibility of “socialized medicine”
which might produce some mediocrity in the skill avail
able to serve the sick and there likewise exists the pos
sibility that, however well-planned such an insurance
program may be, it may turn into a bureaucracy to en
croach upon the* field of physicians in the treatment of
the patients.
Every Nation Has Spies—There is not much need for
excitement in connection with reports that the Russians
are trying to get security secrets and other intelligence
in various countries of the Western world. Practically
every nation on the earth that is involved in the game of
international politics has an intelligence staff which at
tempts to collect information, about other countries, in
cluding our respective enemies.
The mere fact that the United States, or any other
country, including Russia, is anxious to get secret in
formation about another country is not, in itself, a sign
of immediate aggression.
LIFTING THE LID
ATJUNEAU
‘Contined from Page One)
000,000 in appropriations, “which
leaves us sledding on thin ice.”
He said reports indicate the
Senate may raise the general
problem that there is a likelihood
of a court challenge of the prop
erty tax which is now figured to
bring $2,500,000 to the Territory
general funds.
After the cities get their share
the result might be court im
pounding of receipts, he said.
Democrat Warren A. Taylor
challenged the figures as being
Franklin’s personal estimate, but
ways and means chairman James
Nolan confirmed that the revenue
figure is a joint committee estim
ate.
Taylor predicted a $3,000,000
surplus in arguing for a full $80.
000 appropriation. Clarence Keat
ing said Hawaii is starting its
statehood campaign with a $200,
000 appropriation and is adding
more.
Speaker Stanley McCutcheon
said statehood would mean hun
dreds of thousands more in feder
al funds, “and if we only pay $30,
000 for the 49th star in the flag, it
is the best $80,000 we ever spent.”
Yesterday the legislation set a
record for the current session by
going through the afternoon with- J
out either House passing a single
new bill.
The House took only one roll
call in three hours, then adjourn
ed to return for a night session.
The roll! call was to concur in a
Senate amendment to a bill allow
ing the Ketchikan Eagles lodge to
obtain a liquor license for a pro
jected building within 200 feet of
a church.
The amendment restricts the
exemption to a national fraternal
order with more than 500 units in 4
at least 36 states.
In the original House bill blan
ket exemption was given to all
lodges or clubs. v
Most of the House time in the
afternoon was consumed in read
ing a long pure food and drugf act
and a bill to establish a Territorial
division of aviation.
The Senate held a brief session t
to advance the income tax bill
through a second reading with
only minor amendments. It then
adjourned to allow the finance
committee to work on the general
appropriations bill.
Atty. Gen. Ralph Rivers told the
Senate that an amendment spe
cifically applying the income tax:
to ships’ personnel in the Alaska
trade “will have to be fought out
in the courts, too, but we will
know what we are standing on;
the court might hold that we can’t
impose such a tax but we would
n’t have a basis for our case with
out spelling out the terms specifi
cally.”
Rivers referred to challenges
filed • in Seattle courts by mari
time unions over contemplated
withholding of Alaska income
taxes.
Earlier, the House passed a bill*
providing for a 1 per cent cold
storage tax an halibut and salmon
and sent it to the governor.
The Senate, meanwhile, killed
two measures. One proposed
doubling the school tax and. the
second called for the addition of
two labor representatives to the
unemployment compensation com
mission.
Wednesday, March 23. 1949
JUNEAU, (£*) — The Territorial
House joined the Senate last nigl^
in voting increases in Territorial
salaries from 14 to 20 per cent