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 $16.00 A YEAR
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER....Editor*
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffic*
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Wednesday, April 23, 1947
Breach Healer
(By BARNET NOVER)
THERE SEEMS to be little doubt now that both
Houses of Congress will not only approve President Tru
man’s proposal regarding aid to Greece and Turkey, but
will do so by handsome majorities. The unanimous vote
of the Senate foreign relations committee in reporting
out the aid bill, with amendments that should help clar
ify and strengthen it, is a significant straw in the wind.
In the meantime, the debate on the Truman doctrine
goes on all over the world.
At its recent conference, the British Co-Operative
party, which claims a membership of 8 million and is
affiliated with the Labor movement, approved a resolu
tion denouncing the new trend in American foreign pol
icy.
The debate preceding the vote on this resolution re
flected the alarm that has been aroused in left-wing cir
cles in Great Britain over the possibility of a permanent
breach between east and west. It is precisely for the
same reason that an important minority of the Labor
contingent in the House of Commons has taken an in
creasingly critical attitude toward the policies pursued
by Ernest Bevin.
The Co-Operators turned down a resolution demand
ing the suspension of conscription and another that
would have put the movement on record as in favor of
a substantial reduction in the British defense budget.
To have approved such resolutions would in effect,
have meant a repudiation of the Labor government. In
stead, the delegates took it out on the United States.
The argument that the Truman policy regarding
Green and Turkey will widen the breach between Rus
sia and the west is one frequently met in this country,
too. It happens to be based on fallacious assumption that
this breach—it has been growing steadily since the end
of the war—will be healed only if the west is careful not
to oppose the Soviet Union.
The truth of the matter is that it was precisely such an
easygoing policy that has brought the world to its pres
ent pass. From Teheran to Potsdam and on through the
Moscow conference of 1945 and the two Paris confer
ences of the council of foreign ministers in 1946, many
major and a host of minor concessions were made by the
United States and Great Britain to Russia. Such a policy
did not make for peace in the world or even good rela
tions between east and west.
Despite the clamor of left-wing critics, the indications
are that the Truman doctrine has attracted a consider
able degree of support abroad. That support will grow
once it has become clear that the new American policy
means the strengthening and not the weakening of the
international order, one of whose chief pillars is the
United Nations.
The United States is capable of serving as a great
magnet to like-minded nations. But to do its world task
effectively it must stand for something. The anti-Com
munist aspect of American policy is attracting the great
est amount of attention.
1T0 be fully effective, our policy must be positive, con
structive, dynamic. It must be a doctrine of advocacy,
aiming at the perpetuation and expansion of the demo
cratic idea.
Enlightened Labor Policy
(New York Times)
LABOR UNIONS have come in for so much criticism
in recent months that it is a genuine source of pleasure
when the opportunity arises to say something of a com
mendatory nature.
Such an opportunity is presented in the case of the
Minnesota Federation of Labor (AFL). During the first
ten months of 1946. a year that produced a record crop
of labor disputes, the 125,000 members of this group lost
onlv about, one-fourth of 1 per cent of working time as a
result of strikes. Moreover, the record was no accident.
It was an accurate reflection of the enlightened point of
view of this organization.
Members of the Minnesota Federation of Labor have
the good sense to realize that a policy of union responsi
bility is an asset and that it pays dividends by attracting
good firms to the state. Thus, while many other unions
were raising funds to carry on campaigns for wages in
excess of the Government ceilings then prevailing, the
Minnesota Federation of Labor was soliciting nickels
and dimes from its members so that it could raise
enough money to acquaint business men all over the
country with its successful record in the matter of in
dustry disputes. Manufacturers were invited to write
the Federation and to seek its help in finding a desirable
location in the state and in establishing mutually profit
ab^ labor relations.
If the unions of the nation as a whole in recent years
had based their policies on the philosophy of the Minne
sota Federation of Labor remedial labor legislation
would not today be the Number One item on the Con
gressional program. It might not even be on that pro
gram.
i -
Attention, Henrv:
(Rocky Mountain News)
HENRY WALLACE is running around England ex
hording the British to oppose America’s policy in regard
to Greece and Turkey. He has talked with Prime Min
ister Attlee presumably in the same vein.
Henry probably is traveling light, as usual, and it’s
unlikely that he took along with him that bulky volume
known as “The Code of Laws of the United States of
America.”
But he might be making good use of his time if he
would drop around to the American Embassy in London, I
lay hands on that book, turn to Page 459, Title lfl—'
Criminal Code, Chapter 1, Section 5, and read the fol-i
lowing excerpt:
“Every citizen of the United States, whether actuallv
resident or abiding within the same, or in any place sub
i ject to the jurisdiction thereof, or in any foreign country,
without the permission or authority of the government,
directly or indirectly, commences or carries on verbal or
written correspondence or intercourse with any foreign
government or any officer or agent thereof, with an in
, tent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign1
government or of any officer or agent thereof, in rela
tion to any disputes or controversies with the United
States, or to defeat the measures of the government of
the United States; and every person, being a citizen of or
resident within the United States or in any place sub
ject to the jurisdiction therof, and not duly authorized.!
counsels, advises, or assists in any such correspondence
with such intent, shall be fined not more than $5000 and
imprisoned not more than three years.”
That’s pretty involved legal language, but with a lit
tle study even Henry ought to be able to get the point.
i Looxnrg
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TROUBLE IN BRITAIN
England has gone down for a
small count. That of course is no
reason why anybody should be
ready with the old “I-told-you-so.”
However, some observations are in
order. Outstanding Englishmen
have been outspoken during the
fuel crisis in their country. An ex
amination of the underlying causes
of the crisis in England ought to
make a good treatise favoring the
American economic system.
In England or anywhere else in
the world, it is my feeling that lit-1
tie or nothing along the socialist
order is to be found there that we
would wish to adopt in America.
Even before the coal and power
crisis reached the terrible propor
tions of mid-February, the British
were being urged by critics within
their own realm to abandon plans
for further nationalization.
National Suicide?
Mr. Shinwell, minister of fuel
and power, along with Sir Stafford
Cripps, president of the Board of
Trade, asked that the country fore
go any further reorganization of
the electric power industry. The
idea behind their plea was that
British industry could not afford
to be exposed to the uncertainties
and hazards that would accompany
more experimentation. It was time
Statehood Hearings
In Washington
'Continued From Page One
ing of the Territory by statehood.”
Congressman Homer Angel of
Oregon, Henry D. Larcade, Jr., of
Louisiana, Melvin Price of Illinois
and Marion Bennett of Missouri,
who have travelled throughout the
Territory, were united in empha
sising their convictions that Alas
kans are entitled to immediate
statehood. They all admitted to
some doubts before visiting Alas
ka, but they testified those doubts
were replaced by strong convic
•ions on the side of statehood fol
lowing their Alaska trips.
Marion Bennett expressed his
belief in statehood by saying, in
part ‘‘It does not seem equitable
hat American citizens who have
shown themselves to be as politi
cally mature as Alaskans have
should be deprived of a voice in
the Congress of the United States,
or of the right to elect their gov
ernor. or to vote in Presidential
elections. . . . Statehood would
mean a vastly greater participation
of Alaskans in the political life of
the United States and would se
cure to them a far greater assur
ance that their needs and wants
would be attended to.”
Voicing his belief “the time has
for danger signals to go up.
The government, it was stressed,
would have to concentrate on the
task of preserving the economic
life of England. Another warning
came from a prominent religious
leader. The English people were
confronted, he said, by immense
danger in the planned society be
coming so common. If more and
more orders had to be issued “about
which the people would have to
put up with and obey,” it would be
the beginning of national suicide.
Result of Planning
The British do not lack coal be
cause they have no plan. Socialism
is full of plans. The coal mines are
there, too. What socialism forgets,
however, is that private and per
sonal initiative, meaning hard work
and high production, make up the
factors that insure economic sta
bility. English miners can never
dig coal with paper plans. Men dig
and distribute coal to consumers of
fuel largely because of various in
centives.
Not the least of these incentives
is that men make money in the
process of getting the coal out of
the ground. But a nation does not
get rid of monopoly by making the
monopoly one of government. The
prime products of socialism and
communism, with their monopolies
of government, have been low
standards of living and meager
production. Thing to remember is
that no anti-trust laws can reach
this kind of monopoly.
Beet Statesmanship
It takes either revolution or
world conflict to sweep out failures
of monopolistic government, once
they become entrenched by long
habit. But Americans will exercise
great concern over the state of af
fairs in England. No nation can
continue indefinitely to weather
crises of this magnitude. If these
things herald the eventual break
up of the British empire, they are
therefore of greatest seriousness to
America.
In any event responsibility falls
with increasing weight upon Amer
1 ica. These duties lie most fully
now in the part we must play of
making our free and dynamic econ
omy, without taint of socialistic
I experimentation, the example for
I whole world. In that way can
the American people perform their
best statesmanship.