2 THE NOME NUGGET Friday. May 9. 1947
THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Noma. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box tux
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W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoftir**
at Nome. Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1379.
Friday, May 9, 1947
Hoover Shatters Some Illusions
(New York Sun)
RECOMMENDING a program for Germany based on
his recent official visit, Herbert Hoover lists five illu
sions which he says have been employed as arguments
for forcing the Germans to confine themselves ±o light
industries. These are the illusions that Germany can be
reduced to a pastoral state; that restoration of heavy in
dustry would revive a war potential; that light indus
try can be expanded sufficiently to pay for German im
ports; that Germany ever could become self-supporting
under the “levels of industry” plan which would limit
production to percentages of her pre-war output: that
Europe as a whole can recover without the recovery of
Germany.
.The first of these, he says, must involve the extermin
ation or deportation of at least 25,000,000 Germans. The
second he disposes of by saying that two score intelli
gent men, members of the commission which sees that
Germany does not rearm, could make, sure that no
heavy industry makes or stores materials for illicit pur
poses. He rightly observes that no industry is going to
waste its substance making or storing materials for war
if there is no army or navy to use them. Not for years,
he says, could German light industry be made to sup
port the nation’s economy and always it would have the
competition of the light industries of the rest of the
world.
lit is the final illusion—that Europe can recover while
Germany remains a festgring sore close to her heart—
with which Hoover deals most devastatingly. No ques
tion of sympathy for the nation which brought such suf
fering on the world, no condonement of the enormity of
her crimes, he says, are involved in facing the reality
that “there is only one path to recovery in Europe”—
that of production. The whole economy of Europe is
bound to be unsettled, he argues, if what hitherto has
been an area of great productivity is permitted to be
come “a cesspool of unemployment or pauper labor.”
This is a matter which especially concerns Americans
who must continue to spend huge sums until the condi
tion is rectified. It also is a certainty that without a
peaceful and productive Europe there cannot be a peace
ful and productive world.
Soviet Surprise
(By Barnet Nover)
IT TOOK Viacheslav Molotov less than two weeks,
something of a record in speed, to answer General Mar
shall’s recent note on Korea. What is even more sur
prising is that while devoting the bulk of his letter to
an attack on American policy in Korea and a defense of
the Soviet attitude, Molotov non-the-less ended up by
accepting Marshall’s proposals.
The two occupying powers are thus now in agree
ment that: (1) the Soviet-American joint commission
set up under the Moscow agreement of December, 1945,
but in adjournment since May, 1946, be reconvened
soon and that (2) it report to the two governments by
August of this year.
If this action by the Russian foreign minister were
part of a general pattern of Soviet accommodation tow
ard the views of its western allies this agreement re
garding Korea would be very cheerful news, indeed. As
it happens, the agreement is in sharp contrast to the
deadlock which exists on the German and Austrian
problems.
It is only reasonable to assume, therefore, that the
Russian leaders are now convinced that there is far
more to be gained than lost by resuming the attempt to
establish a Korean provisional government and at the
same time piercing the iron wall that for so long has
separated the Russian and American zones.
| This does not mean that this country has anything to
gain by perpetuating the present division in Korea. The
contrary is very dec.dedly the case.
With 41 per cent of the country under American oc
cupation the United States is responsible for the we’
faro of two-thirds of Korea’s population.
It cannot be said that since September, 1945, when
our troops moved in, the lot of those 17 million people
has been bettered. For all the strenuous efforts made
bv the U. S. military government authorities and de
sp te the relief shipments that this country has poured
into Korea, their lot has grown worse. Economically, in
fact, many of them feel that they are worse off than
they were under Japanese rule.
In part, this deterioration in the economic situation
of southern Korea is the direct consequence of Ameri
can mistakes. To a very much greater extent it is the,
product of the division of Korea into two zones artifi-j
dally divided by the thirty-eighth parallel.
Normally southern Korea is a great food (particular
ly rice) producing area. Rice production in southern
Korea in 1947 was 17 per cent below the average pro
duction of wartime years. In fact, we have had to move
food into our zone from the outside to take care of the
m'nimum needs of the population.
Industrially the situation in southern Korea is even
worse and is not likely to improve greatly until the
entire country is united.
Whether the situation in the Russian zone is, from an!
economic point of view, any better than it is in our zone
, is a matter of speculation.
Tn Korea, as elsewhere, the Russians operate behind
an iron curtain, filling the information vacuum thus!
created with propagandist claims. However, there can
be no doubt that the people of northern Korea could be
better off than they are if they could draw on the food
resources and the labor supply of the south.
With only a third of the entire population of the coun
try, the Russian zone contains the bulk of Korea’s heavy
industry but does not produce enough food to feed itself.
It is possible to surmise, therefore, that economic
pressures have finally led the Russians to resume nego
tiations looking toward a unified Korea. They may be
all the more inclined in that direction in view of the
fact that the process of Sovietizing the Russian zone is
i now very largely completed.
Discount as we may tne detailed nussian claims ot
. large-scale land reform carried out in northern Korea
during the last year, the fact remains that such reforms
have certainly been made. Furthermore, the Russians
have succeeded in creating in Korea, as they did in Ger
many, a coalition of left wing groups dominated by Com
munists. The so-called Korean labor party represents
a powerful political spear point which if the zonal bar
riers were knocked down might, given the great multi
plicity of parties in the American zone, emerge as the
dominant political force in Korea.
Possibly the Russians are gambling on just that. But
that is all the more reason why the American authori
ties should do all they can and as rapidly as they can to
strengthen the democratic forces in our zone so as to
enable them to hold their own in a competition with the
Russian-sponsored groups that have their headquarters
in the north.
Our main concern now, as in the future, must be to
! see to it that the people of Korea are free to govern
themselves.
THAT’S THAT By bruce gustin
■ A
J When a tornado devastated
i Woodward, Okla., last week, strik
' ing telephone operators promptly
returned to their posts. As good
1 citizens they did everything pos
sible to help out in the emergency
created. But from national union
i headquarters the chairman of the
local union says she received a
telegram saying: “Do not permit
union members to work. If they
have done so, pull them off the
job.” It seems incredible that any
body should be so stupid as to is
1 sue such an asinine order. It was
too much for the Woodward phone
operators. All thirty members of
the union have announced they
are resigning from the union.
They are to be congratulated for
refusing to go along with a “pub
lic-be-damnedM union policy.
Congressional cowardice is part
ly responsible for this telphone
strike. Congress has been sitting
in Washington, D. C., like a bump
on a log, doing nothing to protect
the American people against
strikes. When it convened in Jan
uary it knew that enacting labor
legislation was the most important
domestic business before it. It had
a clear mandate from the Ameri
can people in the November elec
tion to put a stop to industrial
anarchy in this country. But it
has done absolutely nothing.
Years ago, Congress enacted
.he Sherman anti-trust law. This
measure prohibits combinations
in restraint of trade. Such busi
. :;wss combinations have been out
lawed. But labor combinations
which not only restrain trade but
paralyze interstate commerce still
ate tolerated and are exempt from
provisions of the anti-trust act.
uubor trusts today are more pow
c ful than any business trust this
country ever saw.
Strikes in public utilities and
other industries which are affect
ed with a public interest should be
outlawed. Industrywide “bargain
ing” which makes nationwide
tt.ik^s possible should be banned.
Combinations of labor should be
'•cquired to recognize, as combina
tions of business have been forced
to do, that the public interest is
paramount. Public utility rates
are regulated by government.
Workers in public utilities should
understand that they are in a spe
cial class, that when they strike,
they strike against the public.
Senator Tydings (Dem.> of
Maryland expressed the sentiment
of a lot of thinking Americans
when he said: “I am becoming a
little weary of hearing people say,
“Why don’t we turn this, that or
the other problem over to the
United Nations?’ The United Na
tions has no money; it has no po
lice force, The idea that we should
put up the money and the police
force and then let somebody else
spend the money and operate the
organization does not make a
great deal of headway with me, at
1 least when I first hear it.”
:
! Henry Wallace should have his
head examined. He wants the U.
S. to make a "non-political loan”
—whatever that it—to Soviet Rus
i sia. He thinks this country also
should undertake to finance re
construction of the whole world,
with* the United Nations deciding
where American dollars should be
spent. How any man in his right
i mind can make such a fantastic
1 proposal is beyond comprehen
1 sion. If Wallace believes the
! American people will stand for
i such a crazy program, the squir
j rels will be after him.
who is going to finance the U.
S., if this country should be in
j sane enough to try to finance re
construction of all the rest of the
earth? Our national debt now is
! around 260 billion dollars. It is the
biggest debt in the world. Wallace
doesn’t say how many billions
would be required for his world
rehabilitation scheme. But some
of his tribe of appeasers have beer
fighting the 400-million-d>llai
Greco-Turkish aid program on the
ground that this country cannol
afford to pour even that sum intc
European rat holes.
What Wallace calls a “non-po
litical loan” to Soviet Russia
would be an appeasement gift. H
would be the most asinine thin?
this country could do. Instead ol
buying; peace, it would be the
quickest and most certain roac
the United States could take tow
ard war.
President Truman can’t say noy>
whether we propose to maintair
our position in the Greco-Turkisl
situation by force of arms. Anj
i statement that we do Would be
equivalent to challenging Russi*
i to dar. Any statement that we
not would be an admission tha
we are bluffing.