THE NOME NUGGET
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W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.Editors
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Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome. Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Friday, September 18, 1947
The Hand <)f Destiny
(The Wyoming Eagle)
ONLY BY THE GRACE OF GOD is Harry Truman j
President of the United States today.
And only by reason of an act of Congress did Speaker
of the House Joe Martin instead of George Marshall
come within a hairbreadth of being the first Republican
President since 1932.
On Saturday September 6, Harry Truman narrowly
escaped death on a mountain road in Brazil. The open
touring car in which he was riding skidded on the mud
dy road, jumped a low retaining wall—and hung there.
A scant six inches of dirt prevented the car and its oc
cupants from plunging one thousand five hundred feet
over and down the rocky cliff.
A scant six inches of dirt stood between Joe Martin
and the Presidency of the United States.
There being at present no vice-president, the recent
Congress changed the law regarding Presidential suc
cession. In this matter, Mr. Truman and Congressional
leaders were agreed. They believed that a man elected
by the people should occupy the White House, and not
an appointive official (the secretary of state). So the
law was passed by Congress and signed by the Presi
dent—a law that decrees that when a Vice President
has succeeded to the Presidency and he dies, he shall be
succeeded by the Speaker of the House of Representa
tives; and if the Speaker cannot qualify, then the Sena
tor who presides over the Senate shall become Presi
dent.
Three timse since the turn of the century has a Presi
dent died in office—William McKinley, Warren G.
Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, In each instance the
Vice President became chief executive Calvin Coolidge,
Harry Truman.
In those three instances, Fate, in the form of six
inches of earth, did not stand between a change in the
Presidency.
Good Advice For The GOP
(Rocky Mountain News)
FOURTEEN MONTHS must pass before the ballots
are cast. But the Democratic National Committee has
jumped into the campaign with a broadcast political
rally, said to be the first of its kind. I
Gael Sullivan, the committee’s director, called for
doorbell-ringing and hard work to get out the vote.
Speakers from six states blasted at the record of the
Republican 80th Congress and predicted election of
President Truman and a Democratic Congress in 1948.
And this coincided with a Gallup Poll report that public
expectation of a GOP victory next year has “dropped
sharply.”
Just after the Republicans captured Congress last No
vember, Dr. Gallup found 79 per cent of all voters ques
tioned were sure that 1948 would see a Republican
President elected. Now, he says, only 46 per cent feel
that way, while the percentage expecting Democratic
success has risen from 9 to 30, and nearly one-fourth
of the voters have “no opinion” at this time.
Many things have happened in the last 10 months.
And many more will happen in the next 14. The one
sure thing, as ^e see it, is that neither party can count
on a walkaway, which is well for the country.
We’d regret to have the Democrats stay so despondent
that they couldn’t put up a real fight, or the more reac
tionary Republicans encouraged by continued over
confidence.
Meanwhile, it’s fair to remember that only half the
record of the 80th Congress has been written. That half,
AS TIME RUNS OUT
M WHEELS Of
T*od»ctioh
W2 think, leaves much to be desired, but it’s a lot better
than the Democratic spell-binders said.
The second half can, and should, be better still.’ It will
be, if Republican leaders follow such advice as that just
given by one of their “freshmen” Senators, Raymond E.
Baldwin of Connecticut, in an American Magazine ar
ticle: I
“When we Republicans were swept into control of
Congress by a public weary of the Democrat’s record of
bumbling, there was excited talk about a Republican
trend which would make victory in 1948 inevitable, i
Now we know better. I
“If we are to remain the majority party, we must acti
effectively in the interests of a majority of the people.
If we act only in the interests of a minority of rock-rib
bed Republicans, we shall again quickly become a mi
nority party.”
One Man’s Opinion By Walter kiernan
Most Americans will agree with Mr. Bevin that the
treasury’s gold should be redistributed. We even have
ideas on who it should be distributed among. Hey, fel
las? . . . We now have three-fifths of the known supply
of gold and five-fifths of the people who haven’t seen
any in years.. .. From what I can make out of the news,
the common building nail is the new standard of afflu
ency anyway... If we had 21 billion pounds of nails salt
ed away instead of 21 billion in nuggets we’d be well
off. . . . But Mr. Truman should have delivered his tax
veto message while standing on top of that ore dump. . ..
That part about — we can’t afford to cut our taxes —
would have brought tears to the eyes of any man. Par
ticularly any man who remembers when $5 gold pieces
were fairly common. . . . Britain has used up its 7-bil
lion dollar credit, the Greek government has collapsed
with 300 million — any more ideas? . .. . But it’s good to
know that a father of ten who ran away with a baby
sitter has come back — Baby sitters are hard to get. . . .
There was an ad in the paper the other night: “Baby
sitter, has own Cadillac, dollar an hour and can supply
own baby if yours is nosy.” . . . But this fellow said he
made a mistake. — The family was on relief and he ap
parently found that twelve could live cheaper than two
when the twelve are on relief. . . . Still it shouldn’t be
held against him. — They’ve only been on relief four
years and sixteen months and the depression didn’t end
until 1941. . . . But as has been said before. — It takes
all kinds and we’ve got all kinds.
THAT’S THAT By bruce gustin
4
What European countries want,
under the Marshall plan, is likely
to be quite different from what
they will get. Chairman Vanden
berg of the Senate foreign ralt
tions committee has announced
“we are not going to bet in the
dark, and we are not going to
write blank checks.” Which means
among other things that British
foreign secretary Bevin might as
>—--...
well forget his asinine “share
American gold” suggestion. That
would be a “bet in the dark,” if
F |
there ever was one.
Some additional financial assist-'
ance from the United States for!
European rehabilitation doubt
less is justified. But what coun
tries over there need as much as
American dollars—and probably ,
more—is “American know how.”
They need some expert American
advice on how to use whatever as
sistance this nation furnishes un-'
der the Marshall plan to increase
production. They shouldn’t be al
lowed to fritter away loans or do
nations on socialistic experimen
tation.
American taxpayers have a per
sonal stake in this European relief
business. It is their money. Whe
ther they get a tax reduction next
year may depend upon how much
it costs to implement the Marshall
plan. President Truman, in veto
ing the tax cut bills passed by
Congress this year, argued that
the surplus of revenues over gov
ernmental spending shou’d be
used to reduce the national debt.
Whittling down that deb: is im
portant. But there is a strong sus
picion he intends to use the pros
pective surplus first for foreign re
lief.
Walter E. Spahr, professoi of
economics at New York university
and executive vice president of
the economists’ national cimmlt
tee on monetary policy, voiced a
timely warning in the August
"Tax Review.” "As a na45on.” he
said, "we have not been, and still
are not, greatly unlike the profli
gate spending individual who scat
ters to the winds and gives to all
comers the savings passed on to
him by his ancestors. Wbilj we
have been, and are being, a Santa
Claus at home and abroad, we
should realize that once this
wealth is dissipated THERE IS
NOWHERE IN THE WORLD A
SANTA CLAUS FOR THE PEO
PLE OF THE UNITED STATES.’
We had better not forget that.
Ecuador certainly is in a fix.
She has had three presidents in
less than two weeks and none of
those was elected by the people.
Ideas of democracy in some Latin
American countries are as strange
as those of Soviet Russia’s rulers.
The navy definition of "overseas
service” is silly. Under it. service
men and women who never were
stationed overseas and never ac
tually served overseas are entitled
to an extra $100 mustering out pay
because they traveled through
Mexican or Canadian points from
one U. S. station to another. Any
person who traveled beyond the
three-mile limit of the United
States is classified as having serv
ed overseas. Just how much that
will cost nobody knows.
Maybe, as President Truman
says. Congress and the people will
be “proud of the success of UNRRA
when the final report of that or
ganization is made public. But
mere figures showing that up to
the end of last March UNRRA
had shipped 22,239,217 tons of
supplies valued at more than two
and one-half billion dollars to for
eign nations and that of these sup
plies the United States furnished
16,650,000 tons valued at 1.900
million dollars afford no accurate
measure of the success of this gi
gantic relief operation. What pro
portion of UNRRA supplies went
directly to needy peoples and how
much did political grafters and •
black marketeers in foreign coun
tries grab?
Communists seem to think there
is no limit to public credulity.
They expect people to swallow as
gospel anything they are told. For
example, Peter V. Cacchione. com- ,
munist member of the New York
City council, said in Denver last
week that a gigantic coalition of
American groups to organize and
advance Communism “will solve
every problem in this country.”
Russia is the only country which 4
has tried Communism over a pa
riod of years. The Communists
run everything there. And they
haven’t solved any problem