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
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1943. at the pottoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3. 1879.
Wednesday, October 15, 1947
Tactics That Hurt Labor
(Rocky Mountain News)
THE ROWDY AND INSULTING picketing of Sena
tor Taft on the Pacific Coast plainly has backfired.
Instead of harming its object, it has created nation
wide sympathy and respect for a man who could meet
such tactics with calm good humor.
It is equally plain that, though carried on in the name
of organized labor, these tactics did not spring from
the desires of American unionists. The 15 million union
members are in the vast majority, just as decent and
fair-minded as any other American citizens.
They may disagree with Senator Taft and his views—
and many of them do—but few of them would wish to
deprive him of the American right to be heard.
This use of picket lines as a means of political action
and attempted intim'dation is a perversion of one of or
ganized labor’s proper and lawful weapons. It is in
spired and engineered by Communists and their fellow
travelers—the same sort of people who picketed the
White House in behalf of Hitler up to the day Hitler
turned on his ally and attacked Russia.
These growing abuses of picketing are part of the
spirit which, in certain European countries, makes a
dissenting vote a matter of peril or violence or death.
The same spirit which permits only one party in Russia.
The same spirit which, in Bulgaria, has led to the hang
ing of the leader of the opposition political party. They
are just a little taste of what the Communists have in
mind for America—come the revolution.
■N
They should emphasize to American labor the fact
that union men and women, above all other citizens, are
being injured by Communist infiltration.
And that organized labor has more to gain than any
other group through stopping the misuse of its name
and its institutions by people whose sole interest in
unionism is as a tool to do the work of a foreign master.
Individual Can Help Make U.N. Succeed
(Daily Argus-Leader)
ASSUMPTION OF INDIVIDUAL responsibility
must play an important part in success of the United
Nations, now rounding out its second year of existence.
Gov. George T. Mickelson of South Dakota manifest
ly had this thought in mind when, in proclaiming Sep
tember 12 to 20 as United Nations Week, he called upon
South Dakota civic bodies to join with schools and other
groups “in helping to enlighten our citizenry by empha
sizing the importance of individual cooperation and
participation in the United Nations movement.”
Not all that the United Nations set out to do has been
accomplished, by far, and some judgments of this great
international agency are censorious in the extreme. Its
failures, however, must be considered as lessons for the
future rather than reasons for scrapping what still
seems the best alternative to global chaos and anarchy.
There can be no turning back to the isolationism in
which we once found a deceptive sense of comfort and
security. Now is the time to ascertain just how the U. N.
has failed or erred, and how it can perhaps succeed.
“We can conclude that there is no good substitute for
the United Nations,” John Foster Dulles recently wrote
in the Christian Century. “However, that does not mean
that we should be satisfied with everything precisely as
it is. On the contrary, there is much to be done.”
Following out Gov. Mickelson’s recommendation,
we can make a serious effort to understand what the
United Nations is and what it can be. We must make
fair allowance for the handicaps under which it has
functioned. For only two years of trying work, too much
CAN’T SEEM TO SEE EYE TO EYE '
. r . . ; ’if •»
•*»\ I
should not be expected in the way of results. Any sense
of frustration prevailing today should be dispelled by.
a common determination to make the United Nations
do well everything that is within its power. The best
of machines cannot function unattended by alert human
beings, and the United Nations is no exception to this
irrevocable rule.
• • I
! Mundt Finds English Getting Along
(William Fulton in a special dispatch to The Chicago Tribune*
“The English people individually are getting along a
lot better than their government.”*
This was the way Rep. Karl Mundt (R.-S. D.), chair
man* of a committee investigating political, economic
| and propaganda conditions in Europe, summed up his
impressions of the situation in the British Isles.'
“Here in England, the problem of finances is one fac
ing the government rather than the people,” said
: Mundt. “There’s little actual distress among the people.
They all have jobs, families are supported, and they’re
getting plenty to eat even though the diet is not varied.
“Oh, of course, there’s a lot of grousing* and grum
bling, but that’s to be expected. I don’t think the people
are turning to Communism.”
Mundt, who has made two other trips to England
since the war, gave his views following a 200-mile car
tour through the countryside and a round of interviews
with government officials.
“I was surprised on the trip to find no one who would
say he had voted for the Labor government,” continued
Mundt. “The glamor has worn off the nationalization
! program and the socialist planners will have to produce
real results in short order or they’ll be out on their ear.”
The Congressman expressed the opinion that if a spe
I cial election were held today Labor would squeak
| through with a skimpy majority.
~ ■■■-— ■ - -
Radar With Whiskers
! POUNDING TACKS with a pile-driver isn’t always
as absurd as it sounds. Telling the story of wartime ra
| dar manufacture in Bell Telephone Magazine, Freder
ick B. Lack mentions cat’s whisker trouble.
Old timers who remember the crystal sets of radio
know a cat’s whisker is a tiny wire finger. It tickles mu
sic out of the crystal. Don’t ask us why, but some radars
had whiskers, too. Their points had to be “contoured”
—not too sharp nor too blunt.
Every stunt in the book failed to shape ’em properly
until the engineers remembered an old trick of the ra
dio hams. They dipped the points in a chemical bath and
dissolved just the right amount of metal with an elec
tric current. It sounds easy, but there was a catch to it.
The job required an absolutely motionless liquid, and
the stuff wouldn’t stop jiggling on an ordinary factory
bench. “The answer,” Lack writes, “was found in forty
five tons of concrete, sunk fifteen feet to bedrock and
insulated from lacol highway and railroad vibrations.
A forty-five-ton tool for a .001-ounce product!”
\£ooxrJw\
I AHEAD I *
[* GEORGE 1 BENSON I
^ Praideat—Jitrdigf AAyri
B fa/y/, Jirt&mm X.
SHALL AMERICA FOLLOW?
Among all the postwar nations,
no countries have so quickly re
stored their productivity without
damage to standards o 1 i v;ng us
have Canada and the United
States. These two countries have
restored productivity to the 1D40
41 level, and in many industries
have surpassed th's level. It is no
coincidence that a recent New
York Times 22-nation survtfy
showed that except in Canada and
the United States, the trend is
toward government management
of industry. *
ountries that are exchanging
their freedoms for government
controls are not making good
postwar records. In general, they
are the countries that are crying
loudest for help from. outside. H
Those nations which desire to turn
everything over to the govern
ment for complete control and
management are the very coun
tries that are slipping backward.
Still, the trend is in that very di
rection, toward government man
agement.
r'UDiic Musi ueciae
The Times declared: .“The pros
pects for the survival of the com
petitive free enterprise system
outside the Western Hemisphere *
seem covered with uncertainty in
view of the growth of nationaliza
tion under various forms of so
cialism and communism. The ten
dency is apparently toward mod
erate exercise of government con
trols in Britain, the western areas
of the Continent and the Pacific,
and toward extreme application of
government control in the Soviet
Union and in Eastern Europe.”
Shall America ultimately fol- *
low this trend? In my opinion, the
public in this country has not yet
decided that issue. There are some
voices crying loudly for govern
ment management. Even our At
torney General points his finger
at American industry and accuses
it of being responsible for high
prices. Political maneuvers may
please critical people and get
votes, but in making industry un
popular the way is paved for re
placing our free enterprise sys
tem.
Best System
As an educator, I favor iha'. sys
tem‘which will pro/ide the high
est standards of living for toe
masses of the American people.
If government management o; our
industries would provide higher
wages, more productivity . and
greater purchasing power for
each dollar spent, then certainly I t
would be in favor of it. Actually,
our system of private enterprise
has put America far ahead of
other nations that have tried any
thing else. f
There are other dividends oJ -
iered by the American Way. We
have freedoms. We can work a:
what we please, where we choose.
We can speak our minds, assemble
in groups as we care to. These
freedoms and other liberties we
did not have under the cont*o’ of
despotic and dictatorial govern
ments in previous centuries. Why,
ever, should we want to follow a
trend that leads us backward
toward new despotism and lo& nf X
personal freedoms?
Act With Wisdom
The experience of England
should make us pause and think 4
seriously. Those freedom-loving
people have not found govern
ment management an asset. Their