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.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, August 29, 1947
Balkan Record Replayed
(New York News)
OUR RUSSIAN FRIENDS, as far as we know, have,
never got around to revealing the exact details of their
so-called Molotov plan, for helping or swallowing East
ern Europe. But observable facts are that Russia, having
grabbed a passel of Balkan states, is now pushing its
influence, or empire, through the Balkan areas at the
southeast corner of Europe’s map.
Already taken over, for all practical purposes, are
Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and
Czechoslovakia. Red passes are being made at Greece
and Austria, and Turkey feels threatened.
Russia’s current action have precedent. Herodotus
(484-424 B. C.), the father of written history, first men-1
tioned the Balkans, and they were inspiring wars even
then.
A look at a map will help explain why the modern
Russians, like other ruthless conquerers before them,
have decided that their empire won’t be complete with
out most or all of the Balkan states, plus control of the
Danube.
If the USSR is going to exploit these lands (and every
dictator ahead of Stalin has had just that idea) it will
need water transportation.
The Danube, 1,750 miles long, corresponds to our Mis
sissippi, and carries heavy traffic. But the Danube, un
fortunately for Stalin and previous battlers for this re
gion, flows into the Black Sea. To get from the Black j
Sea to the Mediterranean and then the Atlantic, ships
have to squeeze through Turkey’s Dardanelles. And in
case of war, unless you’re an ally of Turkey, you just
don’t use that particular strait. Churchill rediscovered
this fact in World War I.
However if you want to ship goods to a seaport, and
want to by-pass Turkey, there’s a way. Salonika, only
a short distance from both the Yugoslavia and Bulgar
ian borders, is one of the best ports on the Aegean sea.
The catch from Russia’s standpoint is—Salonika be
longs to Greece.
The United Nations has proposed to the Red bloc that,
(1) the Danube be made an international river, and (2)
Salonika be made an international port, which it has
been before.
Stalin, so far, has refused even to discuss either sug
gestion. Acceptance of U.N.’s notions, of course,,would
mean that Western powers, as well as the Red bloc,
would be .able to use these areas beyond the iron curtain.
What the Russians really intend to do seems to be
tipped off fairly clearly by recent Red actions. Trade
agreements have been signed with Yugoslavia, Czecho
slovakia, Hungary and Albania. And three Red-stooge
states have been putting steady pressure on Greece.
Where all this will end we don’t know, and won’t pre
tend to. But, referring again to our grim historians, a lot
of conquerors and dictators have tried to hold on to the
Balkans, and none had much success.
The old Roman emperor Trajan, in 107 B.C. made it
for a time. When the Roman Empire weakened, the rug
ged individualists who inhabit the Balkans polished off
their last Roman guest. The Turks ran most of the re
gion for a while, and so did more recent gents named
Bonaparte and Hitler. But even Woodrow Wilson, who
engineered an unselfish Balkan agreement after World
War I, couldn’t make the wild and woolly Balkans stay
peaceful long.
Now, to the horror and embarrassment of our One
Worlders, Uncle Joe seems to be taking his try at the
Balkan prize.
And, since President Truman has promised our aid to
MUCH HEAD IS BETTER THAN NONE T
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besieged Greece and Turkey, we may find ourselves in
volved in another of these Balkan squabbles, which have
a nasty way of growing into wars.
The ironic history of the battling Balkans may repeat
itself, eventually, of course, right in Stalin’s face. But
in the meantime let’s keep our powder dry, and, if at all
possible, sit this one out.
I
A Question Of Freedom j
(The Rocky Mountain News)
ACCORDING TO Len De Caux, editor of “The CIO
News,” the Taft-Hartley labor bill “represents a most
serious threat to the preedom of the press.”
On that ground, he calls on the AmeriAn Newspaper
Publishers Assn, to join the campaign against this bill.
We can’t speak for the ANPA. Our opinion is that the|
bill does not endanger freedom of the press, although it
would curb the license of labor-union officers and edi
tors of their publications to spend dues paid by union
members on political activity and propaganda of which
those members, in many cases, do not approve.
Mr. De Caux bases his contention on a section of the
bill stating that it shall be unlawful “for any corpora
tion whatever, or any labor organization to make a con
tribution or expenditure” in connection with any elec
tion, primary, convention or caucus held to select can
didates for federal office.
He asserts that this section could be used—and that
Senator Taft has expressed intent that it shall be used—
to prohibit labor publicat'ons from expressing views on
political candidates and issues. In Senate debate, Mr.
Taft did say that such a prohibition would apply to pub
lications supported by union funds contributed by union
members as union dues.
But he also said repeatedly that it would not apply to
labor publications supported by voluntary subscriptions
from union members.
And that it would not prohibit political giving, spend
ing or propagandizing by separate organizations— the
CIO’s Political Action Committee, for instance—if these
organizations were financed by voluntary individual
contributions and not from union funds.
Under union-shop contracts which the Taft-Hartley
bill would permit, just as under closed-shop contracts
which it would forbid, millions of citizens would have to
pay dues to unions in order to hold their jobs.
The system Mr. De Caux defends, and hopes to per
petuate, makes it a condition of employment that slich
citizens must submit to the spending of their money in
behalf of candidates or parties to which they may be per
sonally opposed, or against candidates or parties which
they may personally favor.
That, we think, is a real invasion of American rights
—an actual denial of individual freedom. But freedom
of the press, as we understand that term, certainly does
not mean power for union officials to force workers to
contribute funds for political propaganda.
LOOXTN9
AHEAD
n GEORGE 1 BENSON
| PnsHcat—Mirtimf Mpr>
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I-1- ■■ —^
LETTER FROM CHINA
It cost $7,000 for my friend So
Tin Wong to write me from Can
ton, China. He wanted to explain
that it now takes 5,000 Chinese
dollars to buy one meal for one
person. Mr. So philosophizes that
it isn’t how many dollars one gets,
it is what be can buy with these
dollars that really counts. Do you
wonder that Mr. So has decided to
leave China, if he can, and go
abroad?
Mr. So wants to leave his native
country, even though he makes
several thousand dollars a day.
Mr. So’s trquble is inflation. It is
so bad that his wages will not per
mit him to live in China and care
for his family. The value of the
stamps that brought me his air
mail letter, amounting to $7,000,
would make the $5,000 meal worth
only two-thirds of the value of the
postage. Certainly, Mr. So was not
discussing a very extravagant
meal.
Your Dollars
This change has taken place
since I was in China in 1925 to
1936. Then one American dollar
according to the rate of exchange,
would buy only three or four Chi
nese dollars. While we do not have
that kind of inflation in this coun
try, America is actually moving
slowly in that direction. It is said
that the American dollar will buy
less, right here in America, than at
any time since Abraham Lincoln
was President.
Although American working
men have the highest wages that
they ever earned, they are com
plaining that they cannot buy
much with those dollars. From
1920 to 1940, when American dol
lars had purchasing power, an
American workman could buy an
automobile and could buy a home.
Today he can probably buy nei
ther, yet he has far more dollars
than he had then. Inflation does
not help working people. It bur
dens them.
Raises Don't Help
I wanted to buy a new automo
bile this year. But when I found
that it would take in the neighbor
hood of $2,000 to buy even an av
erage car, I decided to have my
old one overhauled and get along
with it. However, the overhauling
cost half as much as it used to cost
to buy a new automobile. It’s hard
to tell, under inflation, whether
one is wise or foolish.
Meats right now are very high.
Yet, I understand that in some
places both wholesalers and retail
ers are trying to get by on the
smallest margins they’ve ever had.
Others are handling meat with no
profit at all. You see, whether a
man gejs an adequate diet for his
family depends on other things
than how big a raise he gets from
his employer. liaises do not help
when there’s inflation.
A Solid Economy
If we would like to increase in
flation and have more dollars in
our pockets but be able to buy
less with them, then we should en
courage a high federal budget,
high federal taxes, and still high
er wages. All these things have an
inflationary influence on our econ
! omy. If we want a solid economy,
where dollars will buy more and
we can actually live better, then
we must do these things:
(1) Work for lower taxes, which
would leave more in the purchas
ing stream and would stop dis