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 postofn™»
at Nome. Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Monday, April 7, 1947
W Iio Speaks For America?
(Seattle Post-Inteligencer)
WHENEVER THIS COUNTRY faces some crisis in '
foreign policy, the excited, articulate folks divide up as
pro-British, pro-Russian, pro-Chinese, anti-British, an
ti-German, and so on down the line.
The pro-thisers and anti-thaters organize committees,
raise funds, fill big city newspapers with advertise
ments, issue thousands of circulars.
But who is pro-America?
Where are the committees and advertisements and
circulars that demand that Congress view each question
from an American standpoint?
Who is concerned about America?
For instance, in this matter of Greece and Turkey,
the argument pro and con seems to be that whatever ac
tion is taken is good or bad for Great Britain, Soviet Rus
sia, Greece, the Arabs, and Palestine.
But will that action be good or bad for the United
States of America?
That ought to be the focus of our concern.
That ought to be the starting point of the debate. ' <
When the British press a policy upon us, their argu
ment is never that it will benefit the United States. It is i
that Britain needs help.
When Soviet Russia takes a stand, it is never that this '
attitude will strengthen the United States. It is that it is :
done for Soviet Russia.
Nobody talks “one world” but Americans.
Perhaps the reason is our mixed population of com
plex ancestries.
Perhaps it is because so many of our professors were
educated abroad.
Perhaps it is the Rhodes scholarships. 11
Perhaps it is that in our public school systems, our ;
high schools and colleges, so little emphasis is laid on
American history and American tradition.
Whatever the cause, the focus of interest and concern
is not over the welfare and future of the United States
of America. It is over the welfare and future of some
other country.
The United States now rules 26 million Germans, 70
million Japanese and half of the Koreans.
We have assumed the rebuilding of China, Japan, and
the Philippines, and are about to undertake similar
tasks in Germany and Austria.
Present loans and commitments abroad amount to 201
billion dollars and that does not include lend-lease, i
which is written off as a 40 billion-dollar total loss.
We have put up 72 per cent of the cost of the United
Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and
directly and indirectly perhaps as much as 90 per cent
of the cost of United Nations.
We are, in this Greek proposal, asked to take over the
British commitments in Greece and Turkey which will
lead to taking over the rebuilding of Italy, the struggle i
over the Dardanelles, the Arab-Jewish problem in Pales
tine, and possibly, in the future, the protection of the
Suez Canal.
In a word, internationalism is forcing this country into
imperialism.
How far can the United States go in this direction?
How much of the wealth of this nation can be sy
phoned off without impoverishing our people?
How much of an empire can we build without being
buried under the load of it?
That is an American question involving the welfare
and future of the American people.
»
ARMY DAY
£PRIL 7th
Make it a point to visit your nearest Army
Post and see many spectacular exhibits
April 7-12
A STRONG AMERICA IS A PEACEFUL AMERICA
fins Was The Year
(The Denver Post)
ONLY A FEW MUSTY historians remember the sink
ing fund act adopted by Congress on March 3, 1919.
Members of the eightieth Congress now wrestling* with
the problem of tax cuts and national debt reduction
^vould be well to recall it.
This was the year, under the sinking fund act, when
the United States government was to be free of debt.
The act divided the debt as of July 1, 1920, into domestic
and foreign categories. The government owed about 10
billions to bondholders, and about 9 and one-half bil
lions had been loaned to other nations.
Under the act’s amortization provisions the entire do
mestic debt was to be retired by 1945. The foreign debt
tvas to be liquidated by June 15, 1947 under terms of
Lhe war foreign debt funding act of 1922. It was all very
simple, businesslike and reassuring.
But the nations of Europe met trouble and defaulted
an their payments. Then came the depression and the
national debt rose. World war II, lend-lease and for
eign credits sent the debt skyrocketing.
The public debt on June 15, according to President
truman’s budget, instead of being liquidated will be
more than 260 billion dollars.
Russia Is The Problem
(The Rocky Mountain News)
BULGARIA, A SOVIET stooge state, curtly has in
formed the United Nations Balkans Commission that
questions it had raised concerning Bulgaria’s alleged de
signs against Greece were none of the commission’s
Dusiness.
The Bulgars denied the Greek charge that they sought
:o annex Aegean Macedonia. The “none-of-your-busi
ness” addition to their reply was wholly gratuitous, but
is indicative of Soviet contempt for the basic mission of
the United Nations.
This incident ought to silence some of the nonsense
about our “by-passing the United Nations” through the
Truman Greek-Turkish aid program. It highlights what
Herbert Hoover said, that the problem in the Balkans
isn’t Greece or Turkey, but Russia. And any action
sought in the United Nations to stop the war of nerves
against Greece and Turkey can be killed by the Soviet
veto.
The whole idea of the United Nations Organization
was predicated upon harmony and understanding
among the Big Five: Russia, Britain, France, China and
the United States. The organization isn’t functioning as
intended, not because we are by-passing it, but because
Russia isn’t playing ball with the rest of the powers.
We can’t cure that condition. Only Russia can.
THAT’S THAT By bruce gustin
■- V
The federal tax slash pfan ap
proved by the house ways and
means committee is fair enough.
Twenty million persons with tax
able incomes up to $1,000 would
get a 30 per cent reduction. A 20
per cent cut would be made on
taxable incomes between $1,303
and $302,000, with a 10 per cent
cut on those above $302,000. On
taxable incomes between $1,000
----
and $1,395, a flat $57 reduction
would be given each taxpayer.
No tax reduction program which
will satisfy everybody can be
worked out. One of the most com
mendable features of the plan pro
posed by the House committee is
that it gives the most relief to the
lower income brackets where it is
most needed. Not only is this
sound economically, but it is po
| lilically expedient. Nearly half the
| federal income taxpayers will get
j the 30 per cent tax cut.
The proposed tax cut is expect
ed to reduce federal revenue by
3,;:4(J million dollars a year. At the
' nime time, the Republican-con
t: oiled Congress plans ,to make a
2 GOO million dollar payment on
lie national debt. That is where
he GOP fiscal program is most
open, to criticism. The debt pay
ment should be at least 5 billions.
Even at that rate, it would take
more than fifty years to get this
country out of the mire of debt, if
federal budgets were kept balanced
that long.
Every patriotic American should
aoplaud President Truman's order
that all government departments
be purged of subversive influences.
This country cannot successfully
combat Communist aggression
abroad while tolerating Commun
ist infiltration at home. President
Truman’s order recognizes Ameri
can Communists for what they are
—enemies of this country. Com
munism in the United States is a
conspiracy which aims at the vio
lent overthrow of our constitution
al form of government and the
substitution of totalitarianism.
American Reds and Pinks will
wrap themselves in the American
flag and shriek to the high heav
ens that the President’s purge or
uer is an unconstitutional violation
of civil rights and individual free
doms. That is asinine. The Presi
i dent has taken a solemn oath to
support the consitution. He can’t
support the constitution by allow
ing federal departments to have
employees who are plotting to de
| stroy that constitution.
There can be no question about
the constitutionality of President
Truman’s purge order. The United
States supreme court recently af
firmed the right of the federal civil
service commission to discharge a
federal employee because he was a
Communist. Years ago, when he
was a justice in the Massachusetts
supreme court, the late Chief Jus
tice Holmes of the United States
i supreme court pointed out that no
person has any constitutional right
to be employed by the government.
And just as the government ha#
the unquestioned right to pick its
employees, it also has the right and
duty to select and retain only
those whose loyalty to American
ideals and American institutions is
beyond question.
Under the Truman order, the at
i torney general is to make and
maintain a list of subversive or
ganizations. Membership in or
! “sympathetic association” with any
! of these will be ground for stamp
ing a person disloyal. Included in
the government’s blacklist will be
all “totalitarian, Fascist, Commun
ist or subversive” groups; all that
approve or advocate force to deny
individual constitutional rights; all
i who advocate change of our form
! of government by unconstitutional
methods.
I It is no secret that hundreds of
, Communists and “party liners”
have infiltrated federal govern
ment departments just as they
have wormed their way into many
labor unions. They are spreading
their poison in many public
schools, colleges and universities.
States and local school districts
I should follow the example set by
President Truman, check up on the
loyalty of their teaohers and get
1 rid of those who are teaching
Communist propaganda,
j An Interesting contrast between
democracy and totalitarianism is
presented by President Truman’s
order. A purge of Communists
’ fr- m government employment in
the United States merely means
amputating them from the payroll.