THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box
$1.50 PER MONTH S16.00 A YEAH
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.Editors
_
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the nostoftir***
at Nome, Alaska, under the,A.ct of March 3, 1879.
Monday, May 26, 1947
Clean-Up Week—May 26 to 31
THE CITY HAS ANNOUNCED that the last week
in May will be clean-up week and urges property own
ers to get busy and do their share in gathering up the
accumulated winter debris.
This applies not only to the property owners but to
those of our community who are not owners but rent
ers. They too should help in keeping up the appearance
of the city as well as protecting their own health.
Nome has an especially big problem as there is much
refuse piled up from the wreckage caused by the fall
storms.
Where we live should be a place of which we are
proud and not one for which we make apologies.
Several streets have now been completely numbered
by the Boy Scouts, a convenience for which we have
hoped for, for many years. This project was a voluntary
one on the part of the Boy Scouts themselves, and has
taken many hours of painstaking work.
The house numbering task follows up the street signs
which they put up last year.
Too much praise cannot be given to Troop 666 for
their share in performing a civic service which will
benefit the town for years to come.
Business Man’s Plea For National Unity
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
IT IS TOO BAD that everybody in the United States
did not have an opportunity to hear an address which
William S. Street, president of Frederick and Nelson,
made last month in Washington, D. C.
Although he was speaking at the convention of the
Chamber of Commerce of the United States, he had a
message for the entire country—for labor, and agricul
ture, and the government, as well as for business.
His thesis was that the American system of free en
terprise is on trial before the world; that the closest co
operation is necessary to restore that healthy balance be
tween wages, prices and profits which will bring maxi
mum employment and maximum production; and that
if we fail it will not simply mean another depression,
but it will actually constitute a serious threat to lasting
world peace.
The real answer to the question of a peaceful world,
in my judgment,” he said, “lies in the economic strength
of the United States of America. This strength is now
about to be tested and proved—tested, alone, in a world
rapidly turning socialistic and collectivistic.
“What we do as business men will have a deep signif
icance in perpetuating this strong economy of ours. The
stakes ... are higher than they have ever before seemed
to be. The stakes are to maintain our way of economic
life, or to lose our way and have the substitution of an
other way.
“The U. S. A. has launched a clear-cut challenge to
the forces of totalitarianism to halt oppressive ventures
into the lives of other people. At the same time it still
offers to join a United Nations strong enough to sup
plant the fear of aggressiveness, strong enough to sub
stitute confidence and belief in the integrity of others,
instead of suspicion and distrust.
“The alternative, bluntly, is the development of a
world divided into armed camps, sustained by a taxation
that can only drain from its people the best of their liv
ing. And the eventuality of the alternative can only be
war. If this be the stake we have before us to consider, if
this be the choice offered us, then what else matters by
comparison?
“ .. . The only practical and real way to support the
foreign policy of this country, which is based on our
faith to avoid war, is to build a strong America.”
Mr. Street went on to say that “economic literacy” is
needed by both business and labor if a strong home front
is to be maintained.
“What we do as individual business men affects the
economy as a whole,” he observed. “What labor does in
its interest also affects the economy as a whole.
“If this is true, then the interests of business and la
bor are not at opposite ends but run together to the same
goal. Our joint aim is a strong economy; a high standard
of living for all, a freedom of opportunity in which the
individual can rise to his highest talent, and earn his
highest reward.
What we need in America is a unity oi purpose.
Management’s victory over labor or labor’s victory over
management may prove empty of reward for the victor
if those victories contribute to the undermining of our
system and help to nullify the highest ambition^ of our
government—an ambition to prevent the spread of
♦ofalitarianism and to keep it from putting its un-Amer
ican tenacles upon our country.”
He summed up his whole address in that last para
graph.
Every American has an interest in the preservation
of the free enterprise system, unhampered by monopo
listic practices by#government, by labor, by business
or by agriculture.
If we fall short of that goal, any victory of manage
ment over labor or of labor oyer management will in
deed prove empty of reward.
One Man’s Opinion By Walter kiernan
British women are asking spinster pensions at 55 ... .
They don’t ask to be nationalized, but they would ap
preciate being subsidized. — It is not expected that
American girls will pick up the crusade. . . . First of all
it means admitting to age 55 instead of “over 21.” — I
knew a woman who gave her age as “over 21” at the
last election . . . The clerk looked her over and said,
“Second time around lady?” — Anyway spinster pen
sions would have a disastrous effect on marriage. ... It
will be a sad day when a girl says, “I like you a lot, but
I have my pension to think of.” — On the other hand it
would give a lot of maiden ladies a reasonable explana
tion for staying single. ... “What do you mean I can’t
get a man?” she says. “I’m working for my pension!”
“WHAT BIG TEETH YOU HAVE, GRANDMA!”
—III! II I Ml ■ —— 1 IL ,
THAT’S THAT By bruce gustin
a
Henry Wallace is indulging in
another “pipe dream.” He has
smoked up what he calls a “con
structive alternative to the Tru-;
man doctrine.” He wants the
United States to shell out astro
nomical billions to finance recon- j
struction and development of all,
the rest of the earth. His plan is I
“a world reconstruction program, j
underwritten by American re-1
sources and administered by the
United Nations.” We put up more
than 100 billion dollars, and let
somebody else spend it.
American taxpayers, staggering
under a national debt of 257 bil
lion dollars, may well wonder
how and where Wallace expects
the United States to dig up an
other 100 billions and more for
his crazy world reconstruction
* X
scheme. For one thing, he has an
%
eye on American savings.
An investment is a venture into
whieh people put money with the
expectation of getting back their
principal with interest thereon.
They expect it to earn something
'or them. Pouring American sav
ings into Eurppean and Asiatic
ratholes would be anything but an
investment. If we didn't learn
that from our experience after
World War I. when so many for
eign "investments" went sour, we
didn't learn anything.
There’s talk from Washington,
D. C., that the House appropria
tions committee is cooking up a
33 1-3 per cent cut in the appro
priation for the department of ag
r i c u 1 ture. President Truman’s
budget called for 944 million dol
lars. It is reported this request
will be slashed to 315 millions,
mainly -by eliminating “benefit
; payments.’’ If agriculture, as pros
! perous as it is now, can’t stand
! upon its own feet in times of pros
perity, it will have to be subsi
l dized forever.
To avoid a sugar famine in the
midst of plenty later in the sum
mer, arrangements had better be
made now to get more sugar into
, the hands of consumers. Sugar
i from Cuba is piling up in eastern
seaboard refining centers. If it is
not shipped out now while freight
i cars are available, a transporta
| tion tie-up later in the year will
i make deliveries impossible. When
' the wheat harvest starts, the rail
roads will be swamped. The sug
gestion that the next sugar ration
[ stamp be made good before July 1
1 appears wise.
Plans have been made to rush
more than 1,200,000 tons of food
into American and British occu
pation zones of Germany. That
probably is necessary. But what a
lot of people are wondering is
I when the German people are go
! ing to start feeding themselves
again. They bragged about being
the “master race,” and were going
to rule the whole world. They
ought to be able to feed them
selves.
This rush of American food sup
plies to Germany, coupled with
Congressional decision to appro
priate more millions <the House
voted 200 millions and the Senate
voted 300 millions') for foreign re
lief, is liable to touch off another
series of price increases. Accor d
ing to Congressman Andresen of
Minnesota, government purchases
of 19,728,647 bushels of wheat,
for more than 40 million dollars,
on Jan. 20, 1947, “was the spark
that touched off feverish specula
tion in all grains” and boosted
wheat prices around $1 a bushel
in one week.
Andresen charged that hun
dreds of millions of dollars in
profits were made by speculators
in grains and cotton in January,
February and March. He declared
his investigation disclosed that
“certain wealthy refugees who are
enjoying the bounty and hospital
ity vof the United States and who
are not required to pay income
taxes on speculative gains wei%
among the leading speculators in
the recent bull market in grains.”
Foreigners certainly should be re
quired to pay income taxes on
any profits they make from gam
bling on American markets. And
it should not be too much to ex
pect wealthy refugees to help
their own people instead of de
pending upon American taxpayers
to supply all relief.
Sittin’ and wishin’
Won’t improve your fate;
The Lord provides the fishes,
But YOU dotta dig the bait. '