THE NOME NIJGGET
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 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, October 23, 1946
Behind The Iron Curtain
(The Anchorage Daily Himes)
The remarkable eye-witness story of “The People
Behind the Iron Curtain*” which John Strohm has writ
ten, comes at a particularly fortunate time and with a
particularly comforting message.
In a period of international tension it rekindles our
admiration for the Russian people, as distinct from their
government. And it presents in a surprisingly favorable
light a government which allowed Strohm to go where
he pleased in the Soviet Union and to emerge with story’
and pictures uncensored.
John Strohm talked and listened and took pictures
without hindrance. And he has set down what he saw
and heard in a vivid and credibly unbiased manner. The
fact that Strohm is a midwestern farmer and farm mag
azine editor, a Baptist and a Republican, lends weight
to the assumption that he did not go to Russia with a
load of favorable preconceptions about Communism.
Strohm found a courageous people fighting another
battle against the wreckage left by a ruthless enemy
and the continuing hardship induced by the circum-;
stance of the history and their form of government.
He found an economy set back to pre-revolution lev
els, with sickles and flails doing the work of the com
bines that the Nazis stole.
He found spades and oxen and camels where there
had been plows and tractors and horses. He found wo
men doing most of the farm work under pitifully primi
tive conditions.
He found a people living on subsistence rations, with
supplementary food costing at least ten times our most
inflated prices. He found the general level of wages far
below ours. He found hours and working conditions j
which would come close to causing a revolution here at
home.
But Strohm also found cheerfulness and friendliness.
In spite of the bitter anti-American attacks of the Soviet
press, he was met at every turn by expressions of
thanks for America’s help to the Russian people during
the war.
Everywhere he went, and from almost everyone he
spoke with, he heard assurance that the Russian people
do not want war. That was the message, which time and
again, he was urged to bring back to the American peo
ple. In turn he gave like assurance of the American peo
ple’s overwhelming desire for peace.
/The Foreign Minister of Byelorussia gave Strohm a
brief but apt summing-up of the situation. “It looks like
our job is to educate the diplomats,” he said. “Our diplo
mats are our main problem—they must be shown the;
road to peace.”
The difficulty of that job obsesses most of the world
today. Here iin America we may speak our minds in an i
attempt to do that job. But what of Russia, where criti
cism of government policy is a serious offense?
Strohm does not answer that. But he gives the strong
impression that the Russian people do not only desire
peace. They have a fierce and positive will against war.
Their reconstruction problem is enormous. Their econ
omy is at a low ebb. Their present existence is hard and
discouraging, and they seem to be living largely by
sweat and hope.
That seems to be the life and the spirit in Russia to
day. Undoubtedly the Russian government is well
Aware that any attempt to lead the Russian people into
an aggressive war would be a perilously unpopular
move. And no matter how rigid the controls and how
—HE GOES IN AND OUT WITH ME
numerous the police, even the strictest dictatorship
must retain the active good will of a majority of its
people.
Strohm makes a convincing case for the hope of
American-Soviet peace. Certainly, if his testimony is as j
correct as it seems, there is at least no problem of “war!
with Russia” behind the iron curtain.
> _
There Is No Peace
(Rocky Mountain News)
Spokesmen for the great powers have marched to
their respective rostroms in recent days to decry the
probability of another global war in the foreseeable fu
ture. !
Yet these same statesmen, or their representatives,!
facing one another across the table, have been unable to1
agree upon a formula for the legal termination of World 1
War II.
Actual peace seems more remote today than it did on
Sept. 2, 1945, when the Japs signed surrender terms in
Tokyo Bay. Indeed, we remain at war in much more
than a mere technical sense. There is more shooting go- \
ing on in various parts of the world than there was be
fore that September morning in 1939 when Hitler
crosesd the Polish border.
An all-out political war is mounting almost every
where. Varying weapons are being used, but the oppos
ing elements are the same everywhere: Totalitarianism
and the Western concept of democracy.
The United States has gone about as far as it can in
compromising wit hthe Soviet Union. Any further re
treat from our widely-proclaimed peace objectives
would endanger Senate retification of the pending
treaties, or lead to their ratification with reservations,
which would put the situation back exactly where it is
today.
By GEORGE S BENSON
Resident of Harding College
Searcy. Arkansas
GOVERNMENT COAL «
In England the government now
orwns the coal mines. The mines
were token over by the govern- j
ment. There, it is known popular-1
ly as “nationalization,” and the
coal industry and its mines are not
expected to be returned to the
former owners at any foreseeable
date. Former owners were given
government bonds bearing a low
rate of interest. Under this plan
the smaller stockholders could
| cash out their interests if desired,
I but it is very difficult at this time
for the larger holders to exchange
their bonds.
English coal mining has faced
many difficulties in the past. The
industry got underway long be
fore any mining machinery was
developed, and some of the mines
have never adopted modern meth
ods. In many, the vein depth has
such wide variations that an un
even floor has been created, mak
ing it difficult to put in modern
conveyors. Some mines are deep,
some are shallow. To modernize
and keep them operating
same time, would require a
many new shafts.
Hinderance Factor*
Londoners say these fj
kept private owners from mo
izing to a greater degree in
past: ' 1 » Labor opposed it, fei.
not enough jobs would be left
Numerous government regulat
retarded progress and hi tide
modernization, <3> Limited pro
and high taxes made it hard to
reserves needed to pay for mode
equipment, and <4> Uncertajjp
with regard to the issue of go
ernment ownership, about whit
there had been constant agitatic
since World War I; owners right
ly saw no expediency in makin,
large expenditures when then
was threat of losing control of the
investment, not knowing what
type of remuneration they might
expect.
Although the conditions set
forth to justify the nationalization
of England’s mines are non-exis
ent in America’s coal industry,
where the equipment is modern^
and production efficient, these
four obstructions to progress have
presented themselves in various
shapes to plague and sometimes
to stall our own industries. We
must come to realize that these
factors which limit our progress
could in time bring the same sort
of “nationalization” which no^
retards Britain’s industrial prog
ress.
No Success Yet
Has the new system given Eng
land the coal she wants? The an
swer is: No. Output per man-hour
has not held up—much less im
proved—under the labor govern
ment and nationalization. All
methods of recruiting adequate
labor have failed. The month of
May was one of the best, witn
nine-tenths of one ton produced
per man per day, but since May
the average has decreased. This
figure compares poorly with an
average of more than five tons
produced per man-day in Amer
ica.
The Minister of Fuel, Mr..Shin
well, has just warned that “there )
may be some stoppages in indus
trial undertakings this winter.
He estimates coal reserves in Bri
tain at the start of winter will be
5,000,000 tons below the safety
margin. Referreing to nationaliza
tion, Mr. ShinweU said: “If under
the new program, the industry
proves to be a failure, and does
not secure the coal we need, it
will be a bad outlook for the
whole country.” So far the out
look is bad. ^
Whether industries closely re
lated to coal should be national
ized is presenting some peculiar
problems to the government of
England. Gas and many other
products are made from coal.
Shall these related industries be
nationalized? The government has
not yet decided whether to take
them over.
With production national izec|.
what about the retailing of coa't?
Sources close to the government
told me the selling of every ton
and every bag would bo taken
over. However, a prominent econ
omist for the government said
this would not happen. My guess
is the question will be settled fi
nally by expediency.
DINTY MOORE HERE
ON BUSINESS TRIP #
Dinty Moore of the National
Grocery Co., arrived from fy*7*
chorage Monday to assist in the
settlement of the affairs of the
Bon Marche. He is assisting Chris
Roust who is in charge of the
store’s affairs.