THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
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W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Monday, November 4, 1946
Ickes Wanieil That Vacation
(Anchorage Daily Times)
The trouble which Harold Ickes is having with
ICCASP, the Independent Citizens’ Committee of the
Arts, Sciences and Professions, of which he is the
$25 ,000-a-year chairman, is not entirely over high left
wing policy matters.
Last summer Ickes wanted to take a long vacation, at
full pay. His executive committee objected to shelling
out $2000 a month for no work. Ickes didn’t get the paid
vacation. That started the trouble.
Then Ickes made the ICCASP and PAC leaders angry
•at the recent convention of liberals in Chicago, by a
■speech in which he expressed foreign policy views at
variance with the principles of both organizations. On
top of that is the fuss which Ickes has now kicked up by
his opposition to Henry Wallace and his support of Ber
nard Baruch on the atomic energy question.
But all this high-level smoke is merely a cloud behind
which is hidden the more fundamental and personal
issue of vacation with pay.
A Joint Message
To Wallace And Stalin,
(The Denver Post)
Secretary Byrnes has given the world a clear and
strong statement of American foreign policy.
He has written in large letters that the United States
stands for world order based on justice and that we
pledge co-operation with other nations"—veto or no
veto—to defend, with force if necessary, the principles
and purposes of the charter of the United Nations.”
The Secretary’s address summarizing the Paris con
ference was a powerful affirmation that this country |
gives more than lip service to the world peace organiza-!
tion, and at the same time it was an unmistakable an
swer to those at home and abroad who have falsely in
terpreted our purposes.
Particularly, among these latter, was Mr. Byrnes’ ad
dress a reply to Henry Wallace, who, mistily prattling
of “love and confidence, trust and joy,” laid before the
world an utterly brutal proposal to permit the enslave
ment of half of Europe as the price of a peace which, by
that very act, could not endure.
There was no worded reference to Henry Wallace,
but it was transparent that much of the secretary’s mes
sage was aimed directly at the Wallace-P. A. C. clique
of critics. It was, for instance, in obvious reference to
Wallace that he said:
“. . . In following those policies we have been crit-i
icized at times for being too ‘soft’ and at times for being
too ‘tough.’ I dislike both words. Neither accurately de
scribes our earnest efforts to be patient but firm. ... We,
will continue to seek friendship with the Soviet Union j
and all other states on the basis of justice and the righ4 j
of others, as well as ourselves, to opinions and ways of
life which we do not and cannot share. But we must re
tain our perspective. We must guard against the belief
that deep-rooted suspicions can be dispelled and far
reaching differences can be reconciled by any single
act of faith . .
That, indeed, was the key to Secretary Byrnes’ mes
sage. We will not interfere with Russia in her own pre
cincts, but we will resist her efforts to impose her way
of life by force or deception upon an unwilling world.
We do not want war and we will go to the greatest
lengths to avoid it. But there are fundamentals of hu
man freedom and justice without which we know am
peace is an illusion.
In Mr Byrnes’ address was no retreat, no appease
ment. It was a message to bring shame to those who
have doubted the power and the sincerity of the demo
cratic ideal. It made Mr. Wallace look very small.
The People’s Rel>ellion Against Control ^
The next week and a half will toll the results of a po
litical campaign which promises to be recorded as the
nation’s postwar rebellion against government controls.
Amid general predictions that the Republicans will win!
a majority of seats in the lower house of Congress and. j
possibly, in the Senate as well, the signs are multiply
ing that the American people are in a mood to throw
away their crutches.
It is seen here in Colorado, but to an even greater de
gree in other states where administration supporters
are up for re-election; for example, in neighboring Wyo
ming, where capable Joe O’Mahoney is fighting down
his new deal record in his toughest campaign.
These last weeks before the election, bringing a se
vere crisis in administration’s domestic program, have
presented the Republican opposition with damaging
campaign ordnance. After stumbling indecis'on, the
President’s abolishment of meat controls showed his
final awareness of the magnitude of this emergency. A
Gallup survey measuring a 55 per cent skid in Mr. Tru
man’s popularity—from 87 to 32 per cent in a year and,
a half—was a significant straw in the wind.
More than anything, this decline marked public dis
approval of the President’s domestic program, for, right
or wrong, American attention is firmly fixed on prob
lems at home.
Foreign policy has failed to develop as potent a cam
paign issue because the bipartisan conduct of our ex
ternal affairs has left nothing to dispute. The Wallace
explosion caused a sensation in the field of foreign af
fairs, with repercussions extending jnto the domestic
arena which will continue to be heard long after th
election. But politically its effect has not been to project
foreign policy questions prominently into the campaign.
Rather has the Wallace affair served to turn a bright
light on an issue quite apart, but significant in its own
respect—the matter of the Democratic party’s extreme
left support. Treated much like a pet porcupine by the!
party high command, these groups, ranging from deepi
red to rosy pink, have become an element of question- ■
able political worth to the Democrats. Opposition ha:.!
derived important capital from these partisans and ha? j
brought Communism importantly into the campaign.
In the national field are other isues which reflect a
voters’ rebellion against the administration. Strikes, re-1
suiting in severe loss of production at a time when in-1
creased supply offers the only certain check on inflation.!
have caused wide-spread displeasure with Roosevelt-1
Truman labor policies. For correction, voters may be!
expected to look to a Republican Congress.
Fairly and unfairly, many voters in this uncomfor'
ably crowded nation are blaming the administration for j
failure to correct the housing shortage. In no small way,!
the shelter crisis has become symbolic of the whole broad
problem of shortages in a nation of unexcelled produc
tive capacity. No field of activity has been more regu
lated than housing, and, since the crisis continues, blam
ing fingers are naturally pointed at the regulators.
Another issue not lightly to be dismised is economy
and the national debt. Sober citizens are looking at the
continued high level of federal expenditures against a
background of the unbelievable federal debt. TTie pic
ture, despite Mr. Truman’s efforts to bring his budget
into balance, is frightening.
These are the issues as they have shaped up in a cam
paign which has all the elements of pointing the way to
a decisive change of direction during the next two years.
As issues, they take the form of worries and grievance^
against the federal government, but that is the kind of
election this is. As one writer put it, people “are voting
their irritation and complaints.” The results are like1
to be those expected when a people gets “fed up.”
This election is no test of a positive Republican pro
gram, for the Republican party has featured no sue*'
program. It is a vote for or against the “ins.” It is th'
people vs. the government.
That’s That
. By BRUCE GUS
Junking price controls
brought out the meat all
Livestock markets are swar
Shipments to some have be<
heavy that embargoes have
declared until the congestic
cleared up. Stockmen natu
are trying to get the benefit o
normally high prices.. One t
of their rush to market cattle
hogs will be to beat prices c
to a more reasonable level. U
tered operation of the natural
of supply and demand, plus
sumer resistance against i
gouging, will regulate prices i
effectively than the OPA or
other government bureauc
ever could.
Sooner or later, somebody is
ing to have to knock down J
L. Lewis’ ears. He has been
peased so many times in the
that he seems to think there ii
end to what he can exact from
public, the government and
coal operators. Now he is waiv
the strike club again.
To end the coal strike
spring, the government took o
the coal mines, and made a r
contract with the mine work
union which the operators thus
have not accepted. But Lewis i!
satisfied with that. He’s served
tice of intention to reopen the c<
tract to negotiate at “new arran
ments affecting wages, hoc
rules, practices, differentials,
equalities and all other pertirn
matters.” Just what he wants Y
not been divulged. But the imp
cation is plain. He’ll get what
demands or this country will
into the winter with a coal stri
on its hands.
A coal strike now would be
catastrophe. The twenty-seve
day power strike in Pittsburg
which ended when the 3,200 stril
ers agreed to accept arbitration,
estimated to have cost that city i
least 300 million dollars in bus
ness and wages. That would t
only a drop in the bucket con
pared with the wage and busines
losses that would result from
walkout of several hundred thoi*
sand coal miners. One thing thi
nation cannot tolerate now is
coal strike.
In charging that American for
eign policy is dictated by a “far
reaching plan to establish th<
United States’ domination over th<
whole world” the Russians ar<
making the mistake of judging uj
by themselves. Just because the^
have this fantastic idea of world
domination, they think or pretend
to think that is what we want to
do. Every page of American his
tory is a repudiation of such a
screwy notion. American capital
ism and democracy never have
had the fanaticism which charac
terizes Russian Communism. The
people of the United States never
have thought that they had any
mission to convert the rest of
world to their way of thinking.
In October, 1945, a Gallup poll
showed that 41 per cent of the
American people thought the
Democratic party would -best han
dle the problem of reducing strikes
and labor troubles, 31 per cent
thought the Republicans would do
a better job, and 28 per cent fig
ured there would be no difference.
Now, 46 per cent think the Repufc^
licans can best deal with labor
questions, 23 per cent favor
democrats and 31 per cent sayft
would make no difference. This
reversal of sentiment is not sur
'•>ri"ing. In the last year, a Demo
cratic administration has failed to
make any move toward trying to