THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 p. O. Box 618
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, October 3, 1947
He^s A Nice Guy, But He Isn’t God
(New York News)
THERE IS AN OLD SAYING that God helps those
who help themselves. The inference is that God does
. not or cannot help those who won’t help themselves.
We’re beginning to wonder whether Uncle Sam, if he
goes ahead with the Marshall plan to revive Western
Europe, won’t be undertaking a job which only the Al
mighty could perform.
As a case in point, let’s take what goes on in Great
Britain.
It is reported from the once right little, tight little
isle that the British working man and woman don’t
even grasp the seriousness of the crisis which is giving
official London and Washington fits.
British workers never did eat varied foods, or pat
ronize high-price or medium-price restaurants. They
don’t go to Europe, Bermuda or the United States for
vacations. The only news that grips them is racing and
football reports.
So the only one of Prime Minister Attlee’s new “aus
terity” measures that hits the British worker is the
slight cut in the meat ratibn. He is affected not at all
by newsprint reduction, tighter restrictions on foreign
travel, or the abolition of gasoline rations for pleasure
driving.
For British workers, then, there is no crisis, except in
speeches and frantic advertisements from Government
sources begging them to produce, produce, produce, or
England may go under.
So they don’t produce. On the contrary, big wildcat
strikes break out in Yorkshire coal mines; factory work
ers take it easy while export targets are badly missed;
and the Labor (Socialist) Government bites its finger
nails back toward its elbows.
The British workers are not to blame, obviously, for
their ignorance of the crisis. Attlee, Bevin & Co.’s gpv
ernment is to blame, and for an interesting reason:
Ever since Socialism got itself organized politically,
in England and elsewhere, the Socialists have been
preaching that life would Be much easier all around un
der their system, if people would only give them a
chance to demonstrate.
That chance came to the British Socialists when the
voters dumped Winston Churchill July 5, 1945, with in
decent haste after the end of the German war.
Unluckily for the share-the-wealth Socialists, theyi
come to power at a time when little wealth was left in!
England to share. Most of it had been shot away in the
glorious tussels with Germany, Italy and Japan.
The logical thing for the Socialists to tell the people
would have been: “Now, folks, before we can make good
on our campaign promises, you’ve all got to work ex
tremely hard for quite a while, so as to create some
wealth for us to whack around. Can’t get blood out of
a turnip, you know.”
Had the Socialists said that, however, and meant it,
they would have put their party and their power in
peril. So they say it only half-heartedly, and back it up
with “austerity” measures tailored to pinch the work
ing man and woman hardly at all.
The Labor Government not only refuses to spur the
mass of its people to help themselves, but even shrinks
from letting them know how urgently they need self
help.
Meanwhile, Ernie Bevin raises the old “Uncle Shy
lock” cry in a far more vicious form by screaming for us
to dig up our Fort Knox gold and “redistribute” it, or
give him back Lend-lease, or in some way support Eng
land indefinitely. Nice of him to give us a choice.
•Much the same thing goes on, though less dramatical
ly in many of the other 15 countries that hope to climb
_ • y
JUMPING AT A CONCLUSION
f \ j
z, IV
aboard the Marshall gravy train.
These nations are most happy to draw up, at a confer
ence in Paris, a list of things they would like Uncle Sam
I to give them in the next four years at a total cost of 20.6
billions the last we heard.
But when it comes to starting work on a United States
of Western Europe, or even on % customs union, they j
smirk that yes, such things would be lovely, but no can
do any time soon. When propositioned to drop some of
their Socilaist schemes and give U. S.-style free tner
prize a chance to deliver the same sort of benefits in
Western Europe as it delivers in the United States, they
say in shocked tones that nothing must halt their “prog
! ress.” ' * I
Their “progress” to date is toward the poorhouse.
They show no signs as yet of helping themselves turn
the other way. Uncle Sam is a great and softhearted1
guy. But he is not God. How can he hope to help such
people in any ways that will count?
I _ I
Just An Incident—Or Is It More Serious?
(Fort Smith, Ark., Times Record)
YOU’VE BEEN READING some headlines about how
the Yugoslavs are trying to crowd the Americans and
British out of various positions at Trieste, the city on the
Adriatic Sea which was made a “free city” by the peace
settlements.
And it may be that you’ve passed up the stories, say
ing to yourself: “Oh, that’s just more international poli
tics.”
You might be right—then again, you might be wrong.
For what actually is happening in the Trieste region
is that the Yugoslavs, who are Russian satellites, are
trying to push their way into territory which doesn’t
belong to them.
Of course, protests would follow, but their notion ap
parently is that possession is nine-tenths of the law. And
they probably are right. It might be very difficult to
oust them, once they established themselves there.
Just suppose that they pushed a little TOO hard, that
British or American troops fired into them, that they
returned the fire
It’s a tight spot—and it MIGHT become more than
“just some more international politics.”
THAT’S THAT By bruce gustin
“Fish or cut bait!” That, in ef
fect, is what General Marshall
told the United Nations assembly.
What it does with the seven-point
program he proposed will make or
break the international organiza
tion which was created to preserve
world peace. Sooner or later there'
must be a showdown. If U. N. can |
not be made to work, it might just!
as well fold up.
Thus far, the U. N. experiment
has been a dismal failure Every
important move made in the se
curity council has been blocked by
a Russian veto. The only hope of
reform lies in the assembly. That
body has no power to stop aggres
sion^ But it is a forum where all
the facts concerning any interna
tional dispute can be given to the
world.
The position taken by General
Marshall may well force Russia to
decide now whether to go along
with the U. N., or quit that organ
ization. The Soviet Union cannot
stall along indefinitely. It cannot
talk co-operation and then veto
every move made for co-operative
action to settle international dis
i putes. Russian "noes” have hog
| tied the U. N. security council. If
j the assembly can’t function, then
the whole U. N. is finished.
General Marshall sized up the
situation perfectly when he said:
"This assembly cannot stand by
as a mere spectator while a mem
ber of the United Nations is en
dangered by attacks from abroad.
If the United Nations should fail
to protect the securtiy of one
small state, the security of all
small states would be placed in
jeopardy.” There is no escape
from this fact.
Congressman McGregor of Ohio
who has been checking up on pub
lic sentiment in his district, says:
“The high cost of living—I heard
it everywhere I went. Something
must be done about it.” But the
one thing that every kind of gov
ernment can do to reduce the high
cost of living is what none wants
to do—cut down on public spend
ing Government in this country
costs the people more than food. *
. If “limitation is the sincerest
form of flattery,” then Wallace,
former vice president of the United
States, should feel flattered be
cause Russian Communists are
copying and echoing his attacks on
his own country. Wallace’s Madi
son Square Garden speech may
well have furnished the cue for the
“warmongering” attack made by
Vishinsky on the United States in
the United Nations general assem- ^
bly last week. Wallace insinuated
that the Democratic party has be
come a “war party.” Vishinsky ac
cused “official representatives of
American government” of promot
ing war propaganda. President
Truman who heads the govern
ment heads the Democratic party.
Henry Wallace won’t like what
Henry Morgenthau, Jr., says about
him in the recent issue of Collier’s
magazine. The former secretary of *
the treasury, in the first of a series
of articles on Roosevelt and the
New Deal, classes Wallace as the
worst of the New Deal spenders.
“Wallace’s whole theory of spend
ing in order to reduce agricultural
production always seemed non
sense to me,” Morgenthau de
clares. It seemed crazy to a lot of
people.
Morgenthau declares, in the Col
lier’s article, that when Wallah
was secretary of agriculture it
cost 130 million dollars in nine
months to give away 516 millions.
“This is ten times worse than
Harry Hopkins,” he says he told
Wallace. “Hopkins is the only one
that has cut down expenses in
Washington and the one that costs
us more than anybody else is Wal
lace. My hat is off to him—he is
getting away with murder.” It
would have been more helpful to ^
the American people if Morgen
thau had told them that at the
time. He is in the position now of
trying to lock the barn door after
the horse has been stolen.
Wage increases are being Diled *
up on the railroads faster than
rate increases can be made to off
set them. Thus far, the carriers
haven’t been able to get permis
sion to boost freight rates enough
to pay increases already forced
upon them. But five operating
brotherhoods are demanding an
other wage increase—30 per cent
this time.
The agreement between the
United States and Great Britain ^
to increase the level of industrial
production in western Germany is
an important move toward getting
the Germans off the backs of t
American and British taxpayers.
European recovery is tied in with
German recovery. Until the Ger