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, March 11,1946
SECRET, SORDID AND STUPID
(Rocky Mountain News)
If there was ever a more sordid deal by the United
States than the needless bribery of Russia to enter the
Jap war, we can’t recall it.
Now that the text of the agreement by Roosevelt,
Churchill and Stalin at Yalta has been made public, it
turns out to be even worse than feared.
It violated assurances by the President and State De
partment that no secret political agreements had been
or would be made.
In giving the Kuriles and South Saghalien to Russia,
it violated the first and second pledges of the Atlantic
Charter against territorial aggrandizement, and the
United Nations Declaration. It violated the Cairo agree
ment which said Japan would be expelled from territo
ries taken by violence and greed—which does not cover
the Kuriles.
In agreeing to “hand over” to Russia the Jap terri
tories, it usurped powers of the Allied peace confer-;
ence.
This peace conference authority was underlined by
President Truman in his statement on Potsdam. It was
reasserted by Secretary Byrnes last week in his com
ment that the secret Yalta pact—which had been hid
den even from him for seven months—would be subject
to peace conference decision. But the secret text pro
vides that these Soviet claims “shall be unquestionably
fulfilled”—regardless.
This was also a denial of the U. S. Constitution and
the Senate’s treaty powers.
Besides giving Russia the Jap territory, the pact in
vaded the sovereign rights of our Chinese ally. It gave
Russia special privileges at Port Arthur and Dairen and
in control of Manchurian railroads, and it separated
Outer Mongolia from China.
Since none of this could be delivered without the con
sent of Chiang Kai-Shek, the President agreed to “take
measures in order to obtain this concurrence on advice
from Marshal Stalin.” So the later Chinese-Russian j
treaty, making good on the Big Three deal, was under!
this duress.
The whole deal was dishonest, because it gave to Rus
sia territory and privileges which the United States
and Britain did not possess and over which they had no
sole disposal authority.
The deal was stupid, because no bribe was needed. It
was more to Russia’s interest than to ours that she fight
Japan; because Japan was a nearer threat to her than
to us, and because only by fighting could Russia get a
stake in the post-war Far Eastern settlement. We could
lick Japan without her help—and virtually did, any
way.
The deal was stupid not only for us, who had a repu
tation of international integrity to maintain, but also
for Russia. She easily could have obtained from the
legal peace conference legitimate trusteeship and bases
in South Saghalien and the Kuriles.
We believe the Big Three outsmarted themselves.
Roosevelt and Churchill unwittingly undermined an or
derly and just peace structure. And Stalin has tipped
his hand to America, that he is playing a game in the
Pacific of grab and ruthless power.
. * -
PATENT SUSPENSION
(Scientific American)
One of the boogies that is raised by the share-the-,
patents group is that of patent suppression. Monopoly j
is fostered, they say, by the suppression of patents that
would create competition or would vitiate existing pro
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sing and eliminate patent suppression. This is a point
that has often been brought up; the belief in patent sup
pression is far too wide spread. Thus far, to our knowl
edge, no positive proof of wilful patent suppression has
ever been brought forth. Loose talk, based on loose
thinking, can do a lot of harm when applied to the sub
iect of patent suppression. It is the kind of talk that
should be answered by “Put up or shut up!”
MILITARY VERSUS CIVILIAN
(Bruce A Gustin in The Denver Post)
The United States Supreme Court handed down a
very important decision recently when it held illegal
the action of military courts in taking over the duties
of civilian tribunals under martial law in Hawaii. It
ruled that the phrase “martial law,” used in the Hawa
iian organict act, “while intended to authorize the mil
itary to act vigorously for the maintenance of an order
ly civil government and for the defense of the island
against actual or threatened rebellion or invasion, was
not intended to authorize the supplanting of courts by
military tribunals.”
More significant than the Supreme Court’s ruling was
the philosophy of government expressed in the major-1
ity and concurring opinions. Justice Black who wrote I
the majority opinion said “legislatures and courts are
not merely cherished American governmental institu
tions, they are indispensable to our government” and
“military tribunals have no such standing.” And Jus
tice Murphv declared in a special concurring ooinion
that “FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL DESPOTS HAVE
USED REAL OR IMAGINED THREATS TO THE
PUBLIC WELFARE AS AN EXCUSE FOR NEED-1
LESSLY ABROGATING HUMAN RIGHTS.” He also
asserted that the “unconstitutionality of the usurpation
of civil power by the military is so great in this instance
as to warrant this court’s complete and outright repudi- i
ation of the action.” Whatever its faults, the Supreme !
Court as now constituted has made it plain it will not
tolerate any military usurpation of judicial authority.
BrGBOROES BENSON
Tf Idont tf Harding Collage
Searcy. Arkansas
7 I i -
RADICALISM
Undoubtedly Karl Marx, father
of Communism had a noble pur
pose. He aimed to relieve the
world’s oppressed people, to cor
rect injustices and get rid of pov
erty. That would be fine. There is
■
platform that flatly supports what j
I is right and opposes what is
wrong. The next step is getting
everybody to agree on what’s
i right and what’s wrong.
Followers of the profound Marx
*
after he left first-base. He
obliged to “run out” on the
Internationale and disband i
cause it was being used by a
of ruffians, more bent on w
ing what was in sight thai
building a new social order
cording to a noble plan. The
er and his followers were n
the same calibre.
They Misunderstood
Setting out to make a bij
form that required changing
motives of a large number of
pie, Marx recruited many fo
ers without changing their
tives It was ironic. There
story of a good mayor who
paigned so vigorously to get
ter railroad service for his
that his political followers
radical, derailed the fast trair
robbed the mail car.
The story is probably ficti
but it illustrates aptly how s«
intentions can be mustered i
the banner of holy and lofty
Already this year news
have carried a story about le
in the Communist movemen
dressing large audiences of \
ing men and “whooping it up
strikes, more strikes and b
strikes; that is, for panic.
A Political Disease
It is not that Labor, consii
broadly, is destructive in eft
ter or shot through with Cor
nistic ideas. It’s not true. It i;
however that working peopl
numerous and therefore a p<
ful segment of American so
People who want to overt
the only system on earth
gives a working man a chant
very wise to ask the woi
help. They can’t do it wi
them.
Communism has failed e>
as often as it has been tried
Karl Marx has been dead
than sixty years. This doctri
“tear down in haste and re
at leisure” has been trier
American soil. Time after
each experiment, at having e
thing in common, comes do\
its own poison and dies c
lapses into a dictatorship,
munism is a political disease.
A Social Epidemic
Russia is called a Commu
nation but it is far from it
government set out in that i
tion once, broke down prc
lines, degraded the famil
baudy level, overthrew the c
rejected God and bogged do’
abject poverty. Now it is
run by a minority party, ma
of some 3 per cent of the cil
and nobody else can even V(
sorry situation they have.
Under a dictatorship Rus
doing a little better than
under Communism, but st
nothing to brag about. Ri
wages are not more than a
as high as those in America,
average Russian farmer s
visit the average American f
he would think he was in a
palace. There is a cure fo
plague and shortly I will
about that.
Taxpayers Get Break
On Free Mosquito Bit<
WEYMOUTH, Mass., (/P)
suddenyl at a bridge damag
this summer. The Massach
Reclamation Board has n<
Weymouth selectmen that
cause the town has piled
$600.18 excess for mosquitc
trol there will be no 1946 i