THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
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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 September 8, 1947 [
Gall Off The Olympic Games
(Rocky Mountain News)
BRITISH NEWSPAPERS ask if it is fair for their
athletes to compete with well-fed Americans in next
year’s Olympic games in London in view of the rigid
diet enforced in England.
British golfers, oarsmen, tennis players and boxers
consistently have been losing to Americans. They are
certain that near-starvation rations have been a con
tributing factor.
The weekly food allowance in England is* one egg,
three ounces of butter, three of margarine, two of bacon,
two of cheese and the equivalent of two small hamburg
ers. Some American athletes we know consume that
much meat and fats in one day, and top it off with a
thick steak. Certainly, the low-caloried English diet
don’t produce the stamina needed by a miler. And in
most European countries the fare isn’t any better than
, that in England. (
It would be no credit to us to win honors in the Olym
pic Games against unnaturally weakened competition.
Conceding this point, a sports writer has suggested
that in addition to the food we take to London for our
own team members, we undertake to supply all of the
4000 athletes for the 16-day poried of the games. That
seems a short-sighted and unsound answer to the prob
lem.
Stamina is developed during the long training ordeal,
not under actual competition. A new, unusually rich
diet then would be harmful rather than otherwise. And
would it be fair for us to feed 4000 husky athletes and
ignore the mose genuine needs of thousands of nursing
mothers and small children, not only in England, but
all over the continent?
Provide nourishing food for all the hungry, in Europe,
and elsewhere? If only we could! But we don’t have
that much food.
The one solution to the Olympics problem is not to
hold the games next year.
This international competition was founded on the
theory that it contributed to international amity. Much
in the record of previous events argues to the contrary.
In 1948, the issue would be overstuffed America ver
sus a half-starved rest of the world. We can’t afford to
be placed in that position.
The world simply isn’t prepared for the Olympic
Games next year.
If they are held, we should decline to participate.
Fair Treatment For China
(By Jack Foster)
CHIANG KAI-SHEK’S for more sympathetic consid
eration of China’s problems by the American press in
vites thoughtful examination.
When inequalities in China’s social system are taken
out of their true perspective and measured by Western
standards, it is easy to get a distorted picture of condi
tions in that vast and complex country.
The so-called Chinese republic was little more than a
name when the Japanese began war in 1937. Warlords
controlled certain areas, the Communists others. From
then until 1941, China stood alone against the invader,
and from 1941 until 1945 Nationalist China itself was
divided between Chiang’s forces and the Japs.
Retreating before the Japanese until he found a final
refuge at Chungking, Chiang was in no better position
to introduce reforms in his country than was George
Washington during his winter at Valley Forge. Yet an
Ido PERCENT OCCUPIED
important section of the American press began to clam
or for changes in Chiang’s regime as early as 1944.
As soon as peace was proclaimed in 1945, Chiang was
confronted with a preemptory demand by the United
States that he end his feud with the Communists. This
was to be done by formation of a Nationalist-Commun
ist coalition government for a United China.
Obviously, while these negotiations were in progress
there was little time to devote to other political prob
lems. Meanwhile, too, the Nationalists’ position was de
eriorating because the Russians were evacuating liber
ated Manchuria in such a way as to turn over that area
to Communist control.
Today China’s political and economic situation is even
more complicated than it was at the end of the war.
But this is due as much to Soviet intrigues and Amer
ican indecision as it is to Chinese ineptitude. Chiang has
not had a free hand in his own country until recently.
The generalissimo must have suppressed a wry smile
when he suggested to a group of American editors that
the United States, too, had a stake in his fight against
the Communists. That view is gaining wide, though be
lated, recognition in this country. But not long ago our
State Department was insisting that Chiang Kai-Shek
invited the Communists into his government.
One Man’s Opinion Ry Walter kiernan
The department of justice investigation of housing
will start as soon as the department finds a house.
Conspiracy is suspected in the price of materials used
by $3-an-hour plasters, $2.81-an-hour plumbers and
$2.15-an-hour carpenters. . . . The theory is that if the
price of paint could be forced down 40 cents a gallon no
once ever would miss the few $2.15-hour pennies paid to
the painter. . . . Look for a magnificent drive to bring
down materials costs and save the home builder up to
$16.... I don’t know that this investigation will replace
the old-fashioned flying boat probe but it has almost as
many interesting angles_There is the same eager de
sire to grab hold of the right problem by the wrong end.
General Eisenhower says no one has asked him to
run for President. — At this writing we can’t tell whe
ther that’s regret or relief in his voice. . . . But Maine
Republicans are warming up Senator Brewster for vice
president. That automatically puts Howard Hughes on
the Democratic ticket. ... It was unfortunate that the
Hughes hearing ended so abruptly. — Many had hoped
it would stay on until McGee and Molly were back. . . .
The consensus was there was no substitute for Fib
ber’s closet quite as good as the cupboard Senator Fer
guson unwittingly unlatched.... But the committee was
correct in calling off the hearing because of John Mey
er’s absence. — Who was going to sign the check? . . .
Anyhow it robbed us of the best front page*story in
months. — Now we’ve got to go back to “Experts say
atom bomb could blow Grant’s Tomb, N. Y., to Grant’s
Pass, Ore.”
U. S. Strength Best
Bar To Aggression
By Barnet Nover)
In a world as confused, djs.
traught and divided as ours is, the
spectacle presented by the repub
lics of the Western Hemisphere as
their representatives confer at Rio
de Janeiro is’ immensely comfort
ing.
Of course, it would be a gross
exaggeration to say that a state of
perfect harmony obtains among
the twenty-one republics. That is
simply not true.
In some parts of Latin America
echoes of old fears and suspicions
of the United States as the “colus
sus of the north ’ can still be
heard. The Communists are doing
their best to keep those fears and
suspicions from dying out.
The scars of ancient feuds, such
as that over Tacno Arica, have
not altogether healed. Almost ev
ery one of the Latin American na
! tions is suffering from economic
i dislocations aggravated when not
; produced by the war and some are
suffering acutely. The tendency in
; some places is to blame the United
i States or at least look to this coun
try for succor that may not come
■ or prove adaquate.
! There are certain immediate is
sues, such as the question of Nica
ragua and the problems arising
out of the Paraguayan civil war,
: which may tend to divide the Rio
conferees.
Taking all these things into ac
count, it can still fairly be said
that there is more harmony at Rio
than was to be found at any other
' international conference that has
been held during recent years.
Fed doubt that the conference
will achieve its intended purpose,
; namely, draw up a treaty of mu
! tual defense to which the nations
of the Americas will subscribe.
This will mean completing the
task under taken at Chapultepec
in 1945. It will mean putting the
capstone on the arch of hemi
sphere solidarity which has been
a century and a quarter in the
building.
The treaty of Rio de Janeiro
which is expected to result from
the present deliberations will bind
the nations of the new world in a
security system designed to mob
ilize the full weight of the twenty
one republics against aggression
from within or without.
The importance of such a de
velopment is not to be discounted.
It must also not be exaggerated.
Upon his arrival at Rio, Secretary
of State George C. Marshall de
scribed the conference as one to
help "consolidate the peace of the
world.”
Taken literally, this gives the
Rio conference a significance it
simply does not have and cannot
achieve. It is wholly desirable, of
course, to set up barriers within
the hemisphere so that war among
the American nations will hence
forth become impossible. It is
equally desirable to link the na
tions of the new world together in
such a way as to make the defense
of every'one of them the concern
of all. Whether such an arrange
ment can in and of itself discour
age future aggressors is far from
certain, however.
In the last anaylsis, the defense
of the Americas depends on the
force which the most powerful of
American nations—the United
States—can put into the scales.
If this country remains strong
this hemisphere is certain to be
free of aggression. If it is weak the
combined strength of all the re
publics may, under existing con
ditions be inadequate.
Certainly, no aggressor intent on