THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER . Editors
SI.50 PER MONTH S16.C0 A YEAR
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome. Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Monday, January 19, 1948
Thanks To The Coal Miners
• (By Jack Foster) .
BRITISH COAL MINERS now seem almost certain
to have reached their government’s 1947 production
goal—200 million tons.
Such an achievement appeared all but impossible up
to a few months ago. It is a vastly important contribu
tion to brightening their country’s economic outlook.
Americans also can be happy about the fine job our
coal miners have been doing. As of Dec. 20, the U. S.
Bureau of Mines has just reported, their 1947 output
totaled 603,671,000 tons. By the month’s end they were
sure to come close to the all-time record—620 million
tons, made in wartime 1944.
Here, certainly, is one respect in which this country
is far better off than it was the year before. For that wf
can thank the fact that 1947, like 1944, saw comparative
peace in the coal fields.
Last year there were two general production stop
pages—the two-week “mourning period” last April for
victims of the Centralia, 111., mine disaster, and the 10
day official holiday in June. But otherwise the miners
worked steadily and well, and doubtless would have
boosted output even higher if more coal cars had been
available.
It wasn’t big enough, unfortunately, to repair the
damage done in the bad year of 1946, when two nation
wide coal strikes cost more than 10 weeks of production.!
These, following a long steel strike, dealt the country!
blows from which it is still suffering.
The loss of millions of tons of steel, which could not
be made because steel workers weren’t working or be
cause coal was not mined, has been a major factor in
the continuing shortage of that material which is basic
to most of our manufacturing industries.
It has had a great deal to do with our present price
troubles. Its blighting effects aren’t likely to be over
come fully for a long time.
But mourning over the terrible price paid for past in
dustrial conflicts can do no good. We have reason to be
thankful that the miners are now producing mightily in
return for wages which, by former standards, give them
much better returns for their hard and dangerous toil.
The average wage in the soft-coal mines is nearly!
$1.80 an hour, and average weekly earnings are above
$70.
Let’s hope that they will see the advantages, to them
selves and to the rest of us, of maintaining industrial
peace in 1948 and beyond.
For, in America, as in Britain and in many other
countries, coal is the foundation essential to sound and
last’ng recovery.
The Panama Volcano
(The Denver Post)
THE UNANIMITY of the vote by which the Panama
national assembly rejected the treaty providing the
lease of defense bases to the United States, and the joy
ous accla m which the action produced in the isthmian
republic, suggest that something is seriously amiss.
There is no single parcel of land and water more vi
tal to the defense of this hemisphere than the Panama
Canal Zone. It is essential not only to the security of the
United States but to that of every other-American re
public. The United States can make no bones about it—
that strategic ribbon of water and its intricate system
of controls must be protected.
It has been conjectured that Communist agitation is
at the bottom of Panama’s opposition to the U. S. treaty.
No doubt, the Communists have done what they couid
to excite animosity against the “gringo.” It would be
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well, however, for us not to take too much on such a
simple explanation. Latin American nationalism— eas
ily offended and volcanic when disturbed—is a much
more probable cause.
Considering the delicacy of Latin American sensibili
ties, the United States should proceed softly. The “big
stick” is outmoded in Pan American relations. But the
hemisphere importance of the canal defense is such that
we cannot simply let it drop. If Panama remains ada
mant, we should invoke machinery of inter-American
defense recently approved at Rio. The question offers a
proper test of American defensive solidarity.
The U. S. official reaction has been sound. We have
acted immediately to remove our troops from the ques
tioned areas, leaving no grounds for anti-American
propaganda. In doing so, we are making our actions suit
our profession of respect for the sovereignty of other
nations.
It might be noted that Russia, which has been the big
gest breast-bater for national sovereignty, would have
acted otherwise. If Russia were in our position, there
would by now have been a “soptaneous” uprising
against the Panama government, just as there has been
in every country on Russia’s European border. *
This contrast will be noted, to our good credit, in
democratic capitals of the world.
The Danger Of National Schizophrenia
(By Palmer Hoyt)
IN THE “COLD WAR” with Russia, the “front” is
vast, shifting and nebulous—but nonetheless real. It is
in the factories of western Europe; it is on the docks; it
is in the grain fields of North America, the* halls of our
Congress and it is in the minds of people whom we want
to bring to our side. It is a war fought with food, ma
chines and ideas.
There is a “hot war,” too, of whose existence we have
lately been reminded bv the mounting crisis in Greece.
There, the war is fought with bullets and bodies. The
proclamation of an independent Communist state in
Greece, with the prospect it will be supported by the
Russian puppet states to the north, has proved the real
character of the Greek conflict. It can no longer be de
nied to be the resistance of an independent nation to ex
ternal Communist aggression.
It seems almost too obvious to mention that the “cold
war” and the “hot war” are one and the same, Yet
there is danger of confusion. There is a common impres
sion—mistaken we think— that the American policy in
Greece is unrelated to the policy in western Europe.
This thought has been fostered by those who opposed
the “Truman doctrine” of military aid to Greece, but
who later acclaimed the “Marshall plan” of economic
aid to Europe. Military aid to a nation under actual at
tack was wrong, but economic aid to nations less di
rectly threatened was all right, these persons apparent
ly believed.
The danger in such a distinction is that it tends tow
ard the same schizophrenia of national policy which
stultified our resistance to Fascist
aggression before we were finally
forced into the last war. In the
“cold war” of that period we were
ideologically opposed to Fascism;
but in the “hot war”—in Ethiopia.
Spain and Manchuria—we fol
lowed a do-nothing policy of neu
trality. It was too.late then when
we learned it was all one global
war against totalitarian aggres
sion.
Our national policy has been
better this time. But the Greek
crisis will put it to a new and se
vere test. The 300 million dollars
we have given Greece to fortify
her resistance is nearly gone The
appropriation will run out in
June. It is apparent, too, that our
aid has been deficient in military
supplies and assistance. We bank
ed on strengthening Greece in
ternally in the hope she would bi
able to cope with the Communist."
herself. It may very well be, now
that we shall be called upon t(
render support more emphatically
military.
That will depend upon the sue
cess Greece may have in resistinj
the pressures of the next fev
weeks. Meanwhile, however, th<
United States should proclaim ii
strong and unmistakable languag
that it will give Greece any neces
sary aid against Communist ag
gression.
That’s That
By BRUCE GUSTtt
Whether Congress reduces taxe
or not. there is one glaring ir
equity in federal income taxe
which should be corrected. That
the discrimination against mai
ried couples in non-communit
property states. Five million ma:
ried persons living in thirty-si
states are taxed at a higher ra
than married couples in tweh
other states. There is no concei'
able justification for that.
Members of Congress are begii
ning to wake up to the fact th
discrimination between commo:
law and community-prope r t
states is hitting most of them
the pocket. Senator McClellan
Arkansas has discovered that 1
has to pay $656 more federal i
come tax on his salary than is 1
quired of the Senators from thr
neighboring community-propei
states—Louisiana, Texas and O
lahoma. Self interest, if nothi
else, should impel Congressm
and Senators from three-fourl
of the States to revise the tax la
so tax rates will be the same
all states.
Trustees of the University
Wyoming are going to investig:
the institution’s text-books to fi
out whether they contain “i
American or subversive” d
trines. This decision has promp
some faculty members to a
“What is un-American and si
versive?” That is a per‘inent qu
tion. One answer is “Commi
ism.” But that raises anot
question: ‘‘What is Communisr
This Wyoming situation emp
sizes the need for a legal def
tion of Communism. During ar
meats before the United Sti
circuit court of appeals in Illir
recently in a libel case, it was <
phasized that there is no defin
ly established definition of Ci
munism in this country. Congr
man McDonough of California
introduced a bill to remedy
lack.
Under the McDonough
Communism would be “:dcfi
and declared to be NOT a po
cal policy, but is an intematii
conspiracy and an atheistic an<
anti-religious ideology which
vocates and practices deceit,