THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
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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.
Monday, February 9, 1948
Mr. Baruch’s Peace Production Plan
(Rocky Mountain News)
BERNARD M. BARUCH’S rare ability to see clearly
through complex problem has served this country won
derfully well on every occasion when his advice was
followed. On those far too many occasions when his ad
vice was disregarded, usually because of the timidity of
politicians, the country has had cause for bitter regret.
Now, testifying on the Marshall Plan for European re
covery, Mr. Baruch has offered his solutions to the Si
amese-twin problems of world peace and economic sta
bility, here and abroad. And the usual political reaction
comes promptly.
“Few of his Senatorial audience gave his spartan for
mula much chance of adoption in an election year,” says
the United Press report from Washington. “But the
committeemen commended him warmly on its scope
and its objectives.”
We say that the dangers of another war and of infla
tionary disaster justify a Spartan program, election
year or no election year—that the American people,
their President and their Congress cannot afford to ig
nore Mr. Baruch’s advice this time.
What is his advice?
He says that in our own interest and the interest of
peace, we should help Europe and the world recover; j
that we can do it without wrecking ourselves; that, if it ;
is to be done successfully, three things, beyond appro
priation of money, are essential:
The job must be soundly organized and skillfully ad
ministered. Americans must give what it takes in mod
eration, self-denial and sacrifice to stop inflation. The
people of Europe must be willing to help themselves
ahd to help us develop a global strategy for making!
peace. He says inflation is the great present threat to
the strength, soundness and solidity America must have
in a long greulling struggle for peace. He says we must
stop inflation, not to save Europe, but to save America.
And he says that, if inflation is stopped and peace se
sured, the prospect will be bright for a many-years-long
“adventure in prosperity.”
Production is the key. Mr. Baruch proposes a two
year peace production drive in this country, “to work
for peace as we worked for war . . . without interrup
tions, strikes, lockouts or profit-scrambling.”
To make this possible, he advocates bold measures for
halting the inflationary “race to the abyss.”
He would bring down the cost of food—chief element
in the cost of living—by rolling back all major food and
agricultural prices. In exchange, he would give farmers
a three-year guaranteed market for their crops at the
new prices. He would call on labor to forego further
wage increases. And he would restore 50 per cent of the
wartime excess-profits tax on industry and business,
manwhile encouraging industrial expansion by bring
ing back wartime amortization for new plants.
These measures are interdependent. All would have to
be taken, or none could succeed.
But farmers would gain by a guaranteed market. La
bor would gain far more from lower living costs than
from wage boosts quickly overtaken by rising prices.
Industry, freed from the present prospect of higher
wage demands, could afford to moderate its profit poli
cies—all Americans would benefit.
Mr. Baruch would reduce the national debt substan
tially, postponing tax cuts for two years and then mak
ing them steadily and gradually over the next five. He
would defer all but really essential public works and
private projects, continue rent controls, make greater
efforts to promote economy in government.
To those who may object to his proposals, in the name
I KEEPING HIS EYES OPEN
—
of “free enterprise”—an ideal he has always defended
—he replies that if we will not make “these rather
small present denials for great future gain,” then he
can see no other way to save America from wreck but to
impose a ceiling over the entire economy, as in wartime.
“You cannot save free enterprise if you let the system
which protects it go to ruin.”
As to Europe, Mr. Baruch advocates an outright “po
litical, economic and defense union under the United
Nations,” including currency stabilization and lowering
of trade barriers.
He would have the United States give mutual mili
tary guarantee^ for defense of that union against attack.
He believes the United States should offer for the
next five years to buy all non-perishable raw materials
produced anywhere in the world, if they cannot find
normal commercial markets, thus encouraging enter
prise abroad and getting us something useful for our
money. Other nations need assured markets. They need
to unite for survival. Both are necessary if they are to
recover from economic chaos and are to defend them
selve against soviet sabotage and absorption.
The United States can no more force such a union of
Marshall Plan nations as Mr. Baruch urges than it can
force a spirit of self-help or resistance to Communist en
croachment. But we can, and should, state our convic
tion that Europe will be unable to produce the results
required for second-year and third-year Marshall Plan
aid without far closer economic, political and military
integration than there is now.
America is not interested in pouring money and ma
' terials into a Europe that can be taken over piecemeal
by Stalin.
Supersonic Thinking
WHEN PLANE DESIGNERS first started, talking
seriously about flying faster than sound, they wanted a
j supersonic wind tunnel—a big one—for testing their
, wings of tomorrow. But the wind experts said such a
| tunnel could not be built. Blow air through a huge tube
at 1,000 miles an hour? Why, that would take more
power than all the electric plants in the country could
generate! If the wings stand still while the air moves, the
experts are right. But now, at Muroc air base, Califor
nia, aviation engineers are using 2,000 feet of standard
gauge railroad track as an “outdoor tunnel.” Mounted
on rocket-powered sleds, their supersonic wings are
whizzing down the track at 1,019 miles an hour while
the air stands still. That’s their way of echieving the im
, possible. We have come to expect such thinking from
the men who build machines. If it “can’t be done” the>
do it anyhow. What the world needs now as never be
fore is that same kind of thinking in Washington, ir
London, In Moscow, in the United Nations assembly—
by statesmen as well as engineers.
There moist be a way to mount our political thinkim
on a sled of common sense and send it whizzing dowr
the trade to permanent peace.
Thai’s That
By BRUCE fcUSTIN
This is a heck of a time to ap
peal to the American people to use
less fuel oil and natural gas, and
to keep their homes on the “cool
side.” Cold waves have been send
ing shivers up and down the At
lantic seaboard, through the mid
dle west and into the deep south.
Just at the time when they need
it the most, areas which are most
depenudent upon fuel oil for home
heating are told there is a serious
shortage.
Government officials and the
American Petroleum Insti t u t e
agree there is a “critical petroleum
supply situation.” They say dras
tic conservation measures are
necessary. According to the Pe
troleum institute, the demand for
petroleum products is greater now
than during the war when mili
tary requirements were tremen
dous. Production and refining last
year were at record levels, but the
oil industry claims its ability to
expand enough to take care of in
creased requirements has been
limited by many shortages, in
cluding steel and other materials.
At least part of the oil scarcity
is traceable to governmental blun
dering. The government controls
exports. Last year, exports of
American oil products amounted
to about 163 million barrels as
compared with 151 million in 1946
and less than 109 million in 1941.
The commerce department has
set the export quota for the first
quarter of this year at 12 million
barrels. For the government to al
low shipment of millions of bar
rels of oil to foreign countries at
the very time it is telling the
American people they can’t get
enough oil to heat their own
homes doesn’t make sense.
Transportation bottlenecks fig
ure importantly in the oil short
1 age. There is a lack of both tank
ers and tank cars to deliver oil
I that is available. But, last month
the maritime commission sold 83
tankers to foreign countries. The
tank car shortage is blamed on a
shortage of steel.
Senator Moore of Oklahoma has
charged that “our tanker shortage
has been developed by stupidity
and stubbornness in the White
House and the maritime commis
sjon.” And Senator Morse of Ore
gon has pointed out that if the ad
i ministration had been willing t<
1 charter a number of its tankers b
j domestic users, “perhaps w
would have been able to avoi<
I some of the problems we no\
have with regard to the distribu
tion of oil.” There is no room fo
! argument about that.
If Alexander Bittleman, one c
the top leaders of the Communis
party in the United States, is s
enamoured with Communism, h
shouldn’t object to being sent bac
j to Russia. Of course, deportatio
| for him means giving up h
$2,500-a-season apartment in Mis
| mi. As compensation for that Y
can have immediately the “bles
ings of Communism” which I
has been trying to bring to tl
American people. But watch hr
struggle against deportation so I
can stay in the United Stat
where he doesn’t have to live ui
der the Communist system 1
preaches.
The state and local govemme
| committee of the Los Angel
.chamber of commerce made
i statement in a recent report wht
. should interest every taxpay<
“The high cost of living,” it sa;
“is reflected in the financial c
! mands of government, as well
t in the budgets of individual d
zens. The main difference lies