THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday. Wednesday and Friday, bv The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER . #. Editors
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Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943. at the postoffice
at Nome. Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879
Friday, April 9, 1948
TAIL WAGGING THE DOG *
Long apparent to some observers, it is becoming
generally recognized that the partition of Palestine
cannot be brought off without a degree of violence
which would endanger the peace of the world. The
United Nations, which ordered the jigsaw division
between the Jews and the Arabs, is now faced with a
problem of enforcement vastly beyond its present cap
abilities.
In Palestine, the United Nations decreed partition
but lacks the power to enforce it, and because of this
lack the entire project will very likely collapse. At
this writing it is difficult to see any answer short of
a retreat on the part of the world organization. Such
a reversal would be a belly blow to the U.N. prestige,
of course, and it may be asked how many such blows
the U. N. may take before it becomes, like the League
of Nations, a debating hall and no more.
Thus, once again, as in Greece, the United Nations
has shown its importance as an instrument for the
preservation and enforcement of peace. Again, it is for
the same reason, Russia.
If the Soviet Union were a cooperating member of
the world organization, U. N. would now have a police
force capable of dealing with such resistance to the
organization’s decisions as the Arabs are waging in
Palestine.
When the United Nations was formed in San Fran
cisco, Russia was on the verge of snubbing it by send
ing a second string delegation. At U.S. insistence, the
Kremlin at the last instant consented to send Foreign
Minister Molotov. Then commenced the actions by
which Russia has rendered the United Nations impot
ent. Together with the United Staters, Russia pushed
through the concept of big-power “unanimity,” the
subsequent abuse of which by Russia has produced the
stultifying series of vetoes. As a result, U. N. has not
once been able to block any threat to the peace where
Soviet interests are directly affected.
Why did Russia join the U.N. and why has she re
mained in? The answer has long since been clear.
The Russians felt—and events have so far proved them
right—that so long as they were in the U. N. the col
lective strength of the world could not be used against
them.
The world has been hog-tied'by its efforts to “get
along with the Russians.” It has been one of the most
gigantic cases of the tail wagging the dog that history
has ever recorded.
The answer is obvious, the only question being
whether we shall grasp it in time to preserve the con
cept of collective security against aggression. What
must be done is to force the issue with Russia on all
the great issues upon which the peace of the world
hinges, including aggression (concealed and otherwise)
control of atomic energy, freedom of information and
the cloaking of U.N. with real authority.
Then if Russia continues her course of obstruction
our own path should be plain. We leave Russia to go
her own way. And we, with the great preponderance
of the world’s free and democratic people on our side,
will go ours. Woe then to the aggressor.
■ !■ n. ■ i i ■— ■— . • m »-.■■■ i
FUEL
AMERICANS h^ve never before worried much about
fuel.
First there was plenty of wood in the forests. Then
great coal deposits were found and mined prodigally—
and still we have tremendous reserves. But coal for
I A DIFFERENT MOUSTACHE I
jd madam!
fv TH15 Mustache
WILL BE MORE f
BECOMING foVOU (
1-—4
many purposes lost favor as we struck it rich in oil.
‘Only a few years ago we had such a super-abundance
of fuel that a gas well was considered hardly worth
capping. Oil sold for 25 cents a barrel.
But as we emerge from this winter of the great freeze,
Americans wonder how in the years ahead we are going
to fire our industries, heat our homes, run our cars,!
trucks, busses, planes and trains. !
Homes were cold in the North and East this winter,
because of the fuel shortage. Hundreds of thousands;
in Detroit and other industrial centers were thrown1
temporarily out of work because there wasn’t enough
gas. Already there is talk of some form of gasoline
rationing this spring and summer. This country, which
produces more oil than the rest of the world combined,;
now imports more than it exports; and the government
is making drastic arbitrary cuts in exports.
Obviously we cannot have an economy of abundance j
without the abundant supply of types and kinds need
ed, where and when needed, and at a price the people
can afford. *■ % I
_ .
But all this can be provided in time and under
proper conditions to encourage the investment of bil
lions of capital taking the long risk. There are estimated
oil reserves of 30 billion barrels in the Middle East—|
half again more than known U. S. reserves. Hun
dreds of millions of American capital have been sunk
in the sands of Araby, but those fields can never be,
exploited on a large scale without peace in the Middle
East. Which is another reason for worrying about the
spread of Arab-Jewish strife in Palestine.
Our coal deposits are not unlimited, but they'are
suffciently large to fuel the country hundreds of years
if properly exploited. Plans have been made and some!
capital pledged to convert coal into gasoline and natural
gas and other fuel. Back of all this is our huge oil
shale deposits, and eventually we’ll learn how to ex
tract fuel from those at an economic price.
We are not scraping bottom yet, nowhere near. But
the situation calls for long-thinking, planning and un
precedented investment of risk capital.
\
“Communism is noless a tyranny than Nazism. It
aims at world conquest. It hopes to effect its purpose
by force.” — (W. L. MacKenzie King, retiring Prime
Minister of Canada.).
| ' __
j Polish citizens are frequently imprisoned by their
Communist-controlled government because they have
“contacted” the American ambassador, yet the Polish
Embassy in Washington, D. C. is free to contact any
American citizen. — (Committee to Stop World
’Communism).
j LOOKING
f AHEAD
; n GEORGE S. BENSON
^ President-Warding College
H Sea rey. Jriai. j
TRUE OR FALSE?
“American business c^mcshT
make enough profit.” Do 3 >u
think that statemeut true or f us. *
Many people haven’t the vaguvi,
idea. Some folks have been led
propaganda which seems t:> shew
at every turn that the main pur
pose of industry is to exploit the
poor man. These persons arc s. h -
tracked into the wrong answer.
Why should we ever forget that
American business under our sys
tem of freedom of opportunity
has itself done more than any
thing else to make the poor nun
rich'.’ That is industry’s goal!
There is one group, huweve \
that is well acquainted with the
fact that business in generqj docs
not make the profit it ought to
make to keep our system going
ahead safely. This group is made
up of communist and socialist
agitators, as well as fellow-travel
ers. They know our system de
pends upon honest profit incent
ives. The communist program in
this country is planned around
the fact that the average Ameri
can industry does not make en
ough profit. They are counting
on that.
ON TAKING OVER
Theirs is no short range pro
gram. It is long range. The Com
mies do not believe that our indus
trial enterpriseers, on their pres
ent profit margins, can survive
a temporary depression. These
would-be dictators are strict be
lievers in depressions. They al
ways count on taking over after
the next “boom and bust.” What
we must not fail to see is that
our American system, if not held
back, has the ability to triumph
over economic setbacks. We al
ways come back stronger than
before.
It is unfortunate that the gen
eral public sees industry as making
exhorbitant profits. Actually, most
people do not know that industry’s
profit level is as low’ as it is.
Take for example, a specific indus
try. According to surveys, many
think the steel industry takes as
much as 25 cents out of every dol
lar of sales. This is w-rong as can
be. During the five recent “boom”
years, just 3.5 cents out of each
dollar taken in by the industry
was profit. And much of this 3.5
cents was "Plowed back under.”
o&ein rnur 11 a
We look upon steel as being
the leader of our manufacturing
industries. Steel is basic. It sup
plies the raw materials which are
the chief need of manufacturing
plants today. Our daily lives are
conditioned by the place of steel
in modern civilization. This is
one reason why we should be con
cerned about the decline of profits
shown by the steel industry, on
a long term basis.
For the first half of the per
iod 1909 to 1946, steel’s profit on
sales v averaged 10.5 percent. But
for the last half of that period
(1928-1946), profits on sales aver
aged 4.5 percent. During the twen
ty-year period from 1921 to 1940,
there were twelve years in which
the return on investment stayed
lower than 5 per cent. In most
of these twelve years, it was very
much less. These figures are en
I ough to show that our most basic
: industry is finding profits very
. slim indeed.
PROFIT MEANS JOBS
( Why woud the agitators like
the profits to be less? They would