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 YEAH
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.v.Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome. Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Wednesday, September 17, 1947
i
The Imprisoned Peo pit's I
(Winnipeg Free Press)
THOUGH RUSSIA REFUSED to let it participate, as
it wished to do, in the Marshall plan of European recov-,
ery, Czechoslovakia pleads for United States loans. This1
plea, from one of the few eastern European nations with
democratic traditions, raises a serious question for the
United States government. Is it to confine its future aid
entirely to countries which join in a general recovery
programme and thus exclude the European territory
under Russian domination? Or should it find at least a
few dollars for unfortunate countries which are held be- j
hind the Iron Curtain against their will?
Mr. Harold Stassen, one of the most travelled and en-j
lightened statesmen of his country, insists that the
United States must not desert eastern Europe, even if it*
is not permitted to join the west in promoting general
recovery. He righly distinguishes between the govern
ments and the peoples of these countries. The govern
ments are dominated by communists and peopled by
Russian puppets. But it remains true that no country j
outside Russia has voluntarily adopted the communist,
system. No free election has returned a communist ma-i
jority anywhere in Europe. The United States has to j
consider, therefore, not only the immediate policies of1
the puppet government but the long future of the im
prisoned peoples.
It will be extremely difficult, perhaps impossible, to
persuade the United States Congress to vote any money
to be spent by a communist government which is, in
fact, an organ of Russia. In a sense such an expenditure
would contradict the Truman Doctrine which is spend
ing large sums in Turkey and Greece to prevent the
spread of Communism. And in the short run to strength
en Russia’s satellites is to strengthen the very Russian
power which the United States chiefly fears.
But there is more than the short run to consider. The
peoples of eastern Europe have shown clearly that theyi
do hot want Russian domination. They want trade with
western Europe, they want association with the British
and American peoples, they want money at the moment
and, above all, they want the independence for which
they have so often fought. If they are now deserted by
the western nations, by a deliberate act of those nations,]
or even what appears to be a deliberate act, they will
have no place to turn in future but to Russia. This is pre-‘
cisely what Russia wants and for what it planned when j
it refused to accept the Marshall plan. To refuse any aid
to eastern Europe is to play Russia’s game.
On the other hand, if the eastern European peoples
can be allowed to see, despite their governments and,
Russian censorship, that the western world is interest
ed in their welfare, they may find, in time, means of es
tablishing free governments. As Hitler found, it is an
impossible task to dominate discontented foreign states
permanently—the price is too high.
However, it is neither practical United States’ poli-l
tics nor sound principle to treat the eastern European:
nations which reject any general plan of recovery in the
same fashion as the free countries which voluntarily i
co-operate in the general reconstruction of the contin
ent. If any United States’ aid is to go to the Russian sate
llites obviously they must accept some conditions even
if they reject the larger programme.
Mr. Stassen has outlined the conditions which he
thinks the United States should enforce. He says any
nation receiving United States’ aid should abolish cen
sorship on press or radio reports to the outside world;
should guarantee that United States’ money is spent on
the specific projects for which it is granted; should
agree that this money will not be used in any way to
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hamper individual freedom; should inform its own peo
ple of all facts relating to the United States’ expendi
tures; and should not use these expenditures to increase
socialization. /
All these conditions except the last are entirely rea
sonable and nothing less can be expected of the United
States. But to tell any foreign country that it must limit
its plans of socialization is to interfere in its internal
affairs, to confirm Russia’s charge that the United States
is trying to force its own economic system on Europe
and to offer conditions which some of the free countries
of western Europe, perhaps even Britain itself, could
not accept. It will be unfortunate, indeed, and could un
dermine the whole Marshall plan if the United States
attempted to base its policy for Europe on an ideological
test between socialism and free enterprise, both sys
tems being subject to wide variation everywhere.
The true test to be applied here is the principle of
freedom and peaceful intent laid down in the United
Nations Charter. No aid should or will be given to coun
tries which are bent on present or future aggression. No
United States money should or will be given to finance
any government in its assaults on the liberty of its own
people.
Admittedly, this test will be extremely difficult to
apply and it cannot be applied perfectly in some coun
tries. The degree of freedom and peaceful intent d ffers
drastically in Russia’s satellites and is by no means the
same, say, in Czechoslovakia as in the tyranny of Tito’s
Yugoslavia. If the United States Congress agrees to
spend any money outside the area of the Marshall plan
the government, in spending it, will have to discrimin
ate carefully between countries where this aid would
be used only to consolidate Russian dictatorships and
countries where there is some hope that eventually the
people will achieve freedom.
But if any of the Russian satellites will accept reason
able United States’ conditions, and begin some econo
mic association with the western world, however small
at the beginning, a chink at last will be opened in the
Iron Curtain. This is what Russia will seek at all costs
to prevent. As Czechoslovakia’s request for United
States’ loans suggests, it will not always remain possi
ble for Russia to stop other peoples from securing the
means of life when it is offered to them—and when the
alternative is destitution within the Russian empire.
Interior Department Annual Report
(By Vern Haugland)
n/I’l Special Washington Service*
WASHINGTON, i/P)—The inte
rior department disclosed today
tentative plans to establish an all
weather seaport at Fire Island,
near Anchorage.
The port would supplement fa
cilities at Whittier, Alaska, and
%
would partially replace Seward as
i cargo-loading base when the lat
:er ceases to become a rail ter-1
ninal, possibly two years hence.
In its annual report on Alaska
projects, the division of territories
said that the interior, treasury and'
war departments agreed last
month upon a coordinated study)
of the feasibility of the venture.
“This survey will embrace stud
ies of tide and icing conditions in
the vicinity of Fire Island, which
lies off Point Worontzoff, south
east of Anchorage,” the report said.
“The establishment of an all
weather port at Fire Island would
create an extra port for Whittier
in the event that facility becomes'
too heavily loaded with army sup
plies.
“It also would save some 64
miles of rail haul to Anchorage
from Whittier and 120 miles from
Seward.”
Irwin W. Silverman,, as acting
director of the territories division,
recently told the Associated Press
the Portage-Seward rail line will
be dismantled because it is the
most expensive part of the Alaska
Railroad to maintain.
He said vessels from the south,
deprived of a rail link at Seward,
could proceed through Cook Inlet
to a rail terminal to be built at
Fire Island, which is to be joineci
with Anchorage by a causeway.
The annual report said both the
Alaska Railroad and the interior
department have notified the City
of Seward that, barring a break
down of the line, the railroad will
remain in operation on the 66
mile section from Seward to Port
age for two more years. It added:
"This, it is hoped, will be suffi
cient time in which to complete
the motor road from Seward to
Anchorage, thus insuring the "peo
ple of the former community that
they will not be totally cut off
from passenger and freight com
munication with the Interior when
Seward has been abandoned as the
southern terminus of the rail
road.”
The railroad has been author
ized to spend $4,000,000 this year
and to incur obligations totaling
$15,000,000, To be paid during fis
cal year 1949.
“It was anticipated a similar
amount would be authorized be
tween 1949 and 1958, thus giving
the railroad $34,000,000, in audi
tion to the surplus materials, for
its rehabilitation program, ’ the re
port said.
Congress also authorized 3 < .50^,
000 for 250 miles of new highways
and $2,000,000 additional for high
way improvement and mainten
ance during fiscal year 1948.
“This will include work on the
vitally important Kenni peninsula
and Livengood roads,” the report
said.
“Maintenance this next year
will be performed on 2,758 miles
of road—995 miles for year-round
use and 1826 for summer use only,”
The report described the forth
coming Oct. 1 auction of 8,000,000 -
000 board feet of pulp timber near
Thomas Bay as “one of the most,
significant developments” of the
Territory’s year.
The 80th Congress passed a bill
authorizing the federal govern
ment to sell timber to private in
dustry.
inis development, trie report
observed, “presages the opening
up of a vast pulp and paper indus
try for southeastern Alaska which
may eventually change the entire
complexion of Alaska’s economy,
“Great new airbase projects,
expansion of existing airfields
and other kindred projects—many
of a highly secret nature—all were
contributing to changes of a radi
cal design in the pattern of Alas
ka’s social and economic structure.
Pointing to expenditures of
more than $100,000,000 on the im
mediate army program—“with ex
pectancy of even greater sums yet
to be spent”—the report said “the
effects of the army’s activities can- .
not be lost even upon the most un
imaginative Alaskan.”
Airline developments of the past