TIIE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday. Wednesday and Friday by The
NONIK PtlBMSHINO CO
Nome. Alaska
Telephone Main 125 P O. Box 018
w A and EMILY ftOtfCHEE Editors
f 1.50 PER MONTH *10.00 A YEAR
Entered ns second class matter October 14. 1943. at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under tHr* Art of March 3. 1879,
Wednesday, February I. 1048
Tn\ t int Itiirn Dmvii-Tnniian I)hI It
(The Denver Post)
THE THIRD TIME will very likelv be the “charm”
for Republican tax-cutlers led by Cahirnian Knutson
»>f the House w;ivs and means committee, in spite of
what seems to be clear notice that the President will
veto the measure.
Secretary of the treasury Snyder warns that tliere
must be no reduction of federal revenues below present
levels beeaue of inflation, budgetary needs and the na
tional debt. The Knutson formula, be contends, would
cost tbo government 0,200 million dollars instead of the
h.000 million dollars which the Minnesotan has estim
ated. It would wipe out part of this year’s surplus and
create a deficit in 1048-1049. '
We take no issue with Mr. Snyder’s arguments 1
against the Knutson propoal—they are the reaons which
led this paper to support the President in his two vetoes
of tax-cutting bills last year. Then, the President ring
inglv said it was “The wrong kind of tax reduction at ;
the wrong time." With that statement, we still agree.
Hut we feel that Mr. Truman has lot us down with his ^
own election-year tax-reduction program.
Mr. Truman’s proposal for a “cost of living" tax crod- |
it of $40 for each taxpayer and dependent, costing 3,200
million dollars which would be offset by a boost in cor- 1
poration taxes, is bait for the ballot box. Tts outward
merit of providing greater tax relief for the low-income
groups which need it most is canceled out by the inflp- j
tionaw effect it would have. The increased tax on busi- .
ness, despite the bulge in profits, would have a doubly .
inflationary effect—result directly in increased prices
and discourage new productive enterprise.
Foolishly—-because there is not the remotest chance
of ihe Republican majority accepting his program—the
President has cut the ground out from under his own .
feet. He has played straight into the hands of the tax .
cutters. And this time 1hc public, as indicated in a re
cent Gallup survey, will not back him up.
Opinion has done a flip-flop on tax reduction since ■
Mr. T 'ruman's two vetoes of last year. Now public opin- *
on favors tax reduction, and the President, by conced- ]
mg the principle of individual tax relief, has served to
strengthen that sentiment, l^ast year he was barely able
to make his vetoes stick; this time he will very likely ’
fail His opposition will got the political credit, regard
less of the damage; and he will largely have himself to ,
blame.
Wo Mustn't (iive tlio \ao to Our Ploifcos
*
(By Lawrence Marlin')
TWO MAJOR DANGERS beset the European recov
ery program—the Marshall plan—-as it begins its trou
bled course through Congress. ,
The first is the danger that it will be whittled away ,
until what is left will be little more than another relief
fund, wholly inadequate to even minimum require
ments for recovery.
The second is the danger that the controls through
which it is to be administered will constitute a tempta
tion to and an opportunity for economic imperialism.
Both will be masked, in this Presidential campaign,!
year, under the sort of camouflage political office seek- i
ers know so well how to apply.
Whittling down ERP aid will be made to appear as i
prudent and patriotic economy with American dollars ;
and resources.
Economic imperialism will be heavily cloaked to ap- \
pear like necessary checks and controls upon Europe’s 1
uses of our aid—again in the name of diligent conserva- • <
4/
BUCK FEVER
W ' I'" I 1 I I II "" I
AMERICAN 1
PEOPLE
JSBCTlI
rroWT'.y * w
} V*'
' ■* ’ * * V ’ ’ V^Hj
_ *x M
i
lion of our resources.
On the first score, the American people should view j
efforts to chip and chisel away European aid in the light
)f these facts:
First, the amount President Truman asked Congress
to authorize and appropriate had already been trimmed
>y our government more than 3 billion dollars below
Europe’s carefully considered estimates of need. The
Oilman figure is therefore the minimum needed to do
he job, or less.
Second, increasing prices in this country will still
urther reduce the total of effective aid. The dollar aid
ve give Europe may be in dollars even more shrunken
n purchasing power than they are now.
Everyone ought to know by this time the expensive
mss and the relative futility, as a recovery measure, of
continuing emergency relief. It has already cost us 15
nllions. Unless we stop paying for relief, and begin pav
ng for recovery, there's no telling how many more bil
ious we shall have to spend.
Political parsimony, therefore, could deal European
'ocovorv and American security a fatal blow.
On the second score—the danger of economic imper
alism—we run an even greater risk. We risk losing all
hat we contribute, and of losing Europe to Communism
nto the bargain.
The sweeping charge that the ERP is in its verv es
sence a blatant piece of American economic imperialism
projected by our government on orders from Wall
Street, is the keynote of Russian propaganda against the
)lan.
We can deny this in good conscience, as matters now
stand. Wall street did not invent the Marshall plan.
Even Henry Wallace will support that statement; he
has stated in speech and in writing that he “invent
ed” it.
Rut this is no program to bo turned over to those who
5oe no further than their next million dollars. It must
not force Furow to ‘‘knuckle down" to conditions more
'avorable to the reaping of American profits than to
l ho restoration of world peace and security. Our con
trols must be adequate, but they should stop short of
undue interference in the economic systems of the
?ountries sharing our aid. Some economic controls
quickly and inevitably affect political independence.
We need to tread warily in this area of ERP manage
ment and control. We dare not assume that all econo
mic methods and practices that work well for us will
svork equally well for, and be acceptable to, Europeans.
fcVd better be doubly wary of setting up the kind of
management and control that might either involve, or
■>ffer a temptation to interference in political and gov
ernment concerns. We dare not give the lie to our
sledge of helping western Europe’s people hack to full
economic and political sovereignty over their own af
fairs.
To do that to people who, though needy, arc also
sroud and manly, would be to alienate them from us in
ear and repugnance, to drive them first to despair and
eventually into the spread net of the Communists
LOOKING
AHEAD I
r GEORGE 1 BENSON
FOR ALL THE PEOPLE
America, we someth imes sa\
is made up of Fords and Frigid
aires, Kodaks and Coca-Cola. W
like brands and trade-marks. W
respect the successful products o
industry, and have confidence ii
them. We’re even likely to tak«
these things for granted, withou
knowing the how or why behin(
them. AmeriCcf is the only lan<
where initiative, enterprise, an<
competition have been allowed t
work for the good of all the pec
pie.
Yet, to view our industry j
comprising a few great nami
and trade-marks only, is to ha\
a confused and off-balance pi
ture. To think that manufacture
of goods we all like to buy—aut
mobiles, for instance — are tl
“great monopoly’’ is to fail to s
how big and how productive t
nation really is. Neither Genei
Motors, nor any of the othe
could get by without their he
dreds of helper factories tl
make everything from cotter-p
to hub-caps.
Where The Supplies?
These helper factories are
turn supplied with parts and r
terials by hundreds of other fir:
A supply line may even go b
to a simple “alley *shop," wh
three or four men grind or po
a part. Or take a town like W
cester. Mass. The total wage
there for workers in plants s
plying the automobile indu:
was almost S40.000.000 in 'l
That’s a good sized payroll.
Or consider one of the com
atively small producers of
senger cars. The firm >pend.- r
than $7,000,000 a month for p
and supplies, k deals regui
with 1,071 suppliers, located
243 cities and towns and in
different states and Canada,
company itself employs only !
but it helps create jobs in c
places throughout the nation.
Big Little Business
Or take the whole parts ir
try, of which the~e are more
1,000 companies, with p
spread all over America. Me
these parts producers are
businesses, employing less
500 workers each Usually
origin may be traced to f
minds that invented and pat
an idea for improving au'
biles. Many newcomers are
getting into the* parts and £
ment field. Under- the Ami
system, this is possible.
Mistaken in their com
about monopolies, in the
breath some folks berate the
chine age” for not offennf
worker a chance to take pr
his work. Just putting in i
pine all day in the same c
sembly-l.ne position, they <
poor substitute for craftsrm
Right here, 1 want to go on
as praising the free and ret
ble America who put the
pins firmly and safely m th<
sis of my automobile! He
g«»d iob.
Each Has a Part
I ’ll give the average An
worker the praise that is h
He has the intelligence to i
place in our method of ma
duction of goods for the »
everybody Not so long ag
workers were being tol<
vevc "right behind the m
hind the gun." Indeed. th<
cst assembly-line worker t
clerk is a part of peacetir