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 S16.00 A YEAR
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1943, at the postoffice ;
at Nome. Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Wednesday, September 10, 1947 .
Youth Is The Prey Of Uonumiiiisin
a I
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
THE CONGRESS of the United States has been mak
ing a serious study of an organization called “American
Youth for Democracy” which hase become active in
many schools and colleges of the country and which at
tracted thousands of young men and women as mem
bers.
The activities of this group in the Pacific Northwest
were first brought to public attention by The Post-In
telligencer last September, when an Everett high school
student reported the matter to the Federal Bureau of In
vestigation. Subsequently The Post-Intelligencer dis
closed the existence of units in Seattle, among both high
school and University of Washington students, and in
Renton, Kirkland, Tacoma, Snohomish, Spokane and
Vancouver, Wash.
. « i i«
It is not surprising tnat many young people snouiai
be attracted to an organization so innocent in appear
ance and with such a high-sounding title, for of course
most young Americans are “for” democracy.
If it were indeed on “American” organization, sin
cerely devoted to the principles of “democracy,” the
fact that it is established in 60 colleges in 14 states and
has 16,194 members would not be a cause for Congres-!
sional or national concern, but for general and genuine !
approval.
But Congress has discovered some astonishing things
about this organization, among them that “it is neither
American nor democratic in its origin or purposes.”
Branding it as a viciously subversive organization, the
official report of a committee of Congress discloses that
it not only functions as a Communist agency in the
United States but once frankly bore and acknowledged
its Communist identitfy.
Until very recently, the campus organization which
thousands of American students familiarly know and in-(
nocently accept as “American Youth for Democracy”!
was officially called the “Young Communist League.”!
By the simple expedient of changing its name, it has
apparently made itself acceptable to thousands of young
people to whom Communism is repugnant—but in doing
so it has not renounced its origin or deviated from its
purposes.
“Manipulated by shrewd and specially trained organ- |
izers, operating in a narrow circle behind the scenes,”!
the committee of Congress reports, “it endeavors to ex
ploit to the advantage of a foreign power the idealism,
the inexperience, and the craving to join, which is so
characteristic of our college youth.
“Behind a veil of a multitude of high-sounding slo
gans one is conscious of a determined effort to disaffect
our youth and to turn them against religion, against the
American home, against the college authorities and
against the American government itself.
“It is indeed a training school in lawlessness.
“Its methods are underhanded and devious, in line
with the Trojan-horse policy initiated at the seventh1
congress of the Communist International . ..
“The tragedy is that this movement has been able to
corrupt some of our young people for its subversive de
signs.”
Of course, the title by which “American Youth for
Democracy” is known to its members is a phoney.
It is totally Red Fascist in origin and purpose, no less:
under the present phoney title than it was when it open-!
ly and correctly called iself the “Young Communist
League.”
As Director J. Edgar Hoover of the Federal. Bureau
of Investigation testified before the committee of Con-!
ANOTHER good deed, please
--■■■■ ■' ■■ n
HOW AW
*AJ *T
UH1S«M6
KhoT<»
V t
I ' FlHAMCMl
gress:
“The Communist Party . .. believes in, advises, advo
cates and teaches the overthrow by force and violence
of the government of the United States ...”
_
Keep It Good But Make It Work
(Rocky Mountain News)
AMONG THE MANY investigations scheduled dur
ing Congress’ recess is one which will deal with immi
gration and the displaced-persons’ problem. It will be
conducted by a Senate judiciary sub-conjmittee.
Nothing could be more important. We hope it will be
thorough and come out with an answer.
Ugo Carusi a few days ago said, “The system is good,
but it doesn’t work.” Mr. Carusi is head of the Federal
Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. He was re
ferring especially to the case of Lady Iris Mountbatten,
the mint-gum and rubber-check visitor who was finally
“discovered” and ordered deported.
But only, as Mr. Carusi put it, “When an alien does
something she shouldn’t and it comes to our attention,
we begin to check up on our records.”
The good system that doesn’t work should be the key
to the Senatorial investigation. This country is full of
alien visitors, here on permits which are unchecked
and unpoliced. Many of the visitors are fine people.
But many are racketeers, tax avoiders or evaders, or
those who just live by their wits. Under the law, permits
can be renewed after six months. But only on applica
tion and sufficient proof. That is, theoretically, as the
system now operates. As in the Iris Mountbatten inci
dent, the Bureau of Immigration is alerted only when
something wrong shows up consistently. But not until.
Mr. Carusi says the reason is that he has only 185
agents to check up on thousands of permit holders.
Maybe so. But what about shifting the burden of
proof to the visitor—with a penalty? why should not he
or she be compelled to report when the permit is about
to expire? Why not, under some such penalty as is im
posed on a citizen of our own country when an income
tax payer fails to file on time?
Such a policy might save us from having to extend
vastly our immigration inspection department in order
to check up on our visitors.
Certain it is that proper and sufficient screening will
have to be set up before any favorable action is ever
taken on letting in several hundred thousand displaced
persons. For letting them in—under proper screening
and follow-up—there are many good reasons, humani
tarian and economic.
But if our immigration laws can’t be enforced by “a
good system that doesn’t work,” the next Congress
will continue the same apathy that prevailed in the ses
sion recently adjourned.
PRIME MINISTER ATTLEE, representing England’s
new austerity program: “This government made some
mistakes, but I am sure a Conservative government
would have made others.”
LOOKING
AHEAD
GEORGE %. BENSON
Ptaidtai—Hsrdlsf SUkm>
Sts rtf. A Assam ‘
"YOU TAKES YER CHOICE"
I am an American worker. If I
decide I’d rather v\#>rk and live in
Schenectady, I can go there. Or
Racine, or Spokane. If I want to,
I can settle down and make the
San Fernando Valley home. If I’ve
been a machinist, but decide that
the radio industry if the place for
me. there are ways I can train
myself to get into radio. If I war.t
to drive a Diesel locomotive in
tead of a bus, I can go into rail
roading.
Nobody tells me I can’t. I can
try as many jobs as I like. If I
don’t like the job, I can walk out
the door. When I find a job that
suits me, I can work right up l >
be manager of the department or
even president of the company, ;f
I have the ability and the enter
prise. If I want to start my own
business and become an employer,
I can do that too.
Nobody Says "No"
In America nobody tells me I
can’t do all these things. But it I
lived in a totalitarian country. I
would be told. A uniformed offi
cial would have the duty of telling
me in what part of the country l
could work. A representative of
the state would inform me that I
must train for a certain job. I
would have no choice in the kind
of job.
Being told to stay put, I would
have little chance for advance
ment. My wages would be regu
lated entirely by the state, and
there would be no redress of griev
ance. Leaving a job would be im
possible. There would be no firing
for unsatisfactory work. Instead,
I could be thrown into a concen
tration camp or a slave labor bat
talion. There I would be taught
completely how to become servant
to the master, the State.
Supremiiy of "Slate"
I could never hope to start or to
own.a business of my own. My
whole life would be dedicated to
the State. I would become a pawn,
like millions of others, to do the
bidding of some commissar” rep
resenting that undeniable quan
tity, the totaliatrian State. My in
dividuality, what there is left of
it, would be subject to the whims
of some “politburo.”
Is not this contrasting picture
accurate? Yes, you agree. How
ever, what you are probably think
ing is that America can never be
come such a totalitarian state.
Friend, we would have to ignore
the history of the world to assume
that such dangers do not confront
America. When a nation is pros
perous is just the moment that you
may watch for decline to set in.
We must be no less watchful be
cause times are good. We cannot
ignore danger signs.
Swap With Europe?
No American worker would
want to swap places with the av
erage European worker. Yet so
many of us unhesitatingly accept
ideas and methods that come right
from the very countries that we
have outperformed a hundred
ways to breakfast. Not everything
is bad simply because it originates
In Russia or Europe, but it is time
to look around and see that what
we have puts totalitarian coun
tries out of the running.
Yet, in a recent survey from a
cross-section of 5,000 persons, 63
per cent of college students and 43
per cent of general population said
they would get government man
America under government man
agement and ownership of indus