THE NOME NUGGET
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W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postofnc**
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Friday, April 11, 1947
Anything To Distort And Deceive
(Rocky Mountain News)
AN EDITORIAL by Henry A. Wallace attacking Pres
ident Truman’s Greek-Turkish policy, appearing as a
page ad in various Eastern newspapers, hits a new Wal
lacian low in hypocrisy and misrepresentation in its all
out support of the Moscow party line.
It charges the President’s speech undermined Secre
tary Marshall’s position at Moscow. Henry should be an
authority on back-stabbing. He tried to undermine for
mer Secretary Byrnes’ position at a similar meeting in
Paris, just a few months ago.
But he misses on this one. The truth, as everyone but
Henry admits, is that Secretary Marshall took the lead
in formulating the Truman doctrine.
It is ridiculous to assume anything but complete har
mony of thought between the President and his secre
tary of state. That is being demonstrated daily by the
firm stand Mr. Marshall has taken in all the Moscow
discussions.
Indeed, the secretary’s rugged Americanism is almost
certain to make him the next target of Henry’s type-'
writer. For any American who does less than sell us
down the river to the Soviets is a menace to peace, in
Henry’s book.
‘‘Why are we doing so little to help the million dis
placed persons without homes in Europe?” he asks.
Here Mr. Wallace poses a question, lacking the cour
age to make the direct charge his inquiry implies. He
knows we are doing more than any other nation to help
these people in their distress. He knows the cause of
their distress.
The vast majority of them are fugitives from Com
munist oppression. But does he call Moscow to account
for this? No, he prefers to slander his own country by
cowardly innuendo.
Henry’s complete lack of stomach was demonstrated
on a prior occasion. When he was making his famous
Madison Square Garden speech, the advance text of his
remarks contained a series of mild criticisms of Soviet
policy. But when he read the first of these his audience
booed, Henry skipped the rest of them. Nor has he said.
“Naughty, naughty” to the Kremlin since that time, to
the best of our knowledge. Now only his own country
and its allies can do wrong.
How can we wage a war of nerves against Russia and
expect her to take in good faith our proposals to the
United Nations on atomic energy?” Henry inquires.
Here he borrows the Communist technique in toto, by
upending a situation. He knows Russia has been waging
a war of nerves against the free peoples of the world for
many months. He knows also that the Soviet Union has
rejected our atomic energy program—proposals Mr.
Wallace himself grossly misrepresented recently.
“No loan to Greece until a representative Greek gov
ernment is formed and can assure America that our
funds will be used for the welfare of the Greek people,”
he says.
The present government of Greece was chosen at a
free popular election. Would Mr. Wallace set that elec
tion aside? That is what the Communist guerrillas want
to do. That is what the Communists are doing in Hun
gary, without objection from Henry.
In recognizing legal governments, Mr. Truman is up
holding the Roosevelt doctrine that all peoples have the
right to choose their form of government.
Is there anything in the Wallace editorial suggesting
that the Soviet stooges—Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Al
bania—call off their dogs of war, and let Greece go her
way in peace? Not a word.
Does he mention the pressures Russia has been bring
ing against Turkey? He does not. He asks, “Why by-pass
UN?” But he says nothing about the Russian veto. Noth
ing about the months the UN has dallied with the Greek
border warfare. To do so might reflect upon the Soviets.
And he might be booed again.
Lewis And The Dead
(The Denver Post)
JOHN L. LEWIS uttered a tragic truth when he said,
“Coal is heavily saturated with the blood of too many
brave men and drenched with the tears of too many
widows and orphans.”
A nation shocked by the death of 111 men in the Cen
tralia. 111., mine explosion can find little comfort in the
fact that coal mining casualties have been reduced by
almost half since the beginning of the century. More
than 1,000 men still die each year, and almost 70,000
are injured. The price of coal in death and suffering is
too high.
There is more than a suspicion, however, that John L.
Lewis in ordering a sixday “memorial” work stoppage
sought to make a grim political profit out of the Cen
tralia disaster. His statement that Centralia’s 111 vic
tims have been “murdered because of the criminal neg
ligence of J. A. Krug” was most extreme, considering
that there had as yet been no investigation of the causes
of this disaster.
Lewis has borne a seething hatred for Krug ever
since the secretary of the interior led the government’s
successful action against the coal strike last winter.
Lewis carries his gall into a senate committee hearing
on the appointment of James Boyd, head of the Colorado
School of Mines, as director of the U. S. bureau of mines,
an appointment favored by Secretary Krug. For Lewis,
the Centralia tragedy was a fortuitous aid in this bitter
campaign of opposition.
It can be no coincidence either that the date set by
Lewis for his “memorial strike” was April 1—the very
date he had earlier decreed for a nationwide mine stop
page. The public will be justified in regarding this as a
design by Lewis to demonstrate his power in the face of
a supreme court order directing him to withdraw his
April 1 strike notice.
Centralia’s dead speak with tragic insistence for a
tightening of mine safety regulations. The Senate has
ordered an investigation of the disaster and it must be
pursued to a constructive conclusion. The six-day strike
will serve little further to dramatize this need.
There is something ghoulish in Lewis’ manipulation
of this tragedy to flaunt his power.
In legislatures each man has his own appropriation
bill. And. after all the pay-out bills are passed, legisla
tors fold their hands and say: “Let him who is without
sin cast the first tax bill.”—The News.
# --—
Perhaps no one is entitled to an opinion on the Turk
ish question who is too young to remember the words
and music of “Dardanella.”—The Clip Club.
THAT’S THAT By bruce gustin
a____
Soviet delegate Gromkyo must
think the American people are a
bunch of saps. Otherwise, he
wouldn’t have demanded that the
United States destroy all its atom
j ic bombs immediately, and trust
to the future for some effective in
ternational system to outlaw atom
ic warfare. His demand received
the reply it deserved. American
delegate Austin answered with a
prompt and emphatic “No!”
It may be, as Gromyko argued
to the United Nations security
council, that the American monop
oly on atomic energy “cannot con
tinue for an indefinite period.”
But plainly, if the Russians were
at all confident of being able to
find the secret of the atomic bomb
in the next few years they would
not be so anxious to have the
United States Junk all its atomic
weapons now. You can bet your
bottom dollar that if Moscow had
the secret of the atomic bomb, it
wouldn’t be destroying its bombs
nor offering to share the secret
with anybody.
Gromyko’s insistence that the
United States junk its atomic
bombs immediately seems to sub
stantiate the views expressed re
cently by Dr. Oppenheimer who
played the leading role in develop
ing the bomb. While convinced
that our atomic information should
be guarded carefully, he said “it is
my opinion that even if we threw
the books wide open and showed
the Russians, for instance, all the
facts and figures we have, it would
only confuse them.”
The current telephone strike
should arouse Congress to the ur
gent need of legislation to outlaw
i industry-wide bargaining. As long
as that system is tolerated, the
, danger of nation-wide strikes in
, key industries will menace the
: American people. The only argu
; ment for industry-wide . bargain
! ing in the telephone business is
I that wages in every section of the
, country should be on the same
level. And that plainly is unsound
because it ignores local conditions
and differences in living costs in
various sections.
•
Liberty or slavery? That is the
fundamental question in the con
j t oversy over legislation proposed
| in Congress to outlaw the closed
shop. Under the closed shop sys
tem, an individual’s right to earn
a living is entirely dependent upon
his membership in a particular
union. He must be a member of
that union to get a job. He must
remain a member to keep his job.
Under a United States supreme
court decision, “the very idea that
one man may be compelled to hold
his life or means of living ... at
the mere will of another seems to
be intolerable in any country
«
where freedom prevails, as being
the essence of slavery itself.”
Neither the federal government
nor any state can forbid any man
to work at any lawful calling. Ex
cept as punishment for a crime, no
government in this country can de- ,
prive an individual of his freedom.
But under the closed shop system,
groups of citizens are allowed to
exercise this power and to make
other men pay them for the privi
lege of working.
The way the closed shop system
was used as a “shakedown” racket
during the war should never be
forgotten. On many constructioL
projects, vital to national defense,
the government winked at union
extortions on a wholesale scale.
Large numbers of workers were
needed. The unions which had the
labor monopoly did not have that
many members. So patriotic citi
zens who' responded to the govern
ment’s appeal for workers had to
pay the union for permission to
work on these projects. In many
instances they were laid off as
soon as they finished paying for
their “work permits.” That gave
union racketeers a chance to sell
more of these permits.
Workers of this country should
be free to join or not to join a
union, as they please. To require
union membership as a condition
of employment is just as wrong as
to deny employment because a
man is a union member. The right
of workers to organize and bargain
collectively now is fully protected
by law. The rights of unorganized
workers should have equal pro
tection.
U. S. Reaching
Bottom Of Barrel
<(/P) Special Washington Service)
WASHINGTON, (/P)—Rep. An
gell (R.-Ore.) said today the United
States faces a critical financial era
and “Uncle Sam is reaching the
bottom of his financial barrel and
he cannot finance the world.”
Angell issued his statement in a
review of the proposed $400,000,000
aid to Greece and Turkey.
He said it was realized in Con
gress that it is only “the initial
payment” and not only Greece and
j Turkey need help “if the surge of
j Communism is to be kept back but
i most of the other smaller nations
will be knocking at Uncle Sam’s
j door for similar help.”
j Congressional leaders, he said,
insisted that Congress go slow in
approving the President’s program
until they can determine just what
will be required.