THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME, ALASKA
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
W. A. Boucher ...Owner-Publisher
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1943, at the postoffice
•t Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Wednesday, February 1, 1950
FACTS, NOT FANCIES
(By Maurice R. Franks)
(President National Labor-Management Foundation)
I have frequently had something to say about the fail
ure of Communism to measure up to the high promises
of its fanaitcal protagonists. Today, let’s take a look at
Socialist England, a land of bureaucrats, who play no
second fiddle to those of Russia inthundering against
Free Enterprise. What the the comparative facts? It’s
easy to find out because as yet no Iron Curtain has been
erected by the Socialists in Parliament to screen from
public view the mess that is currently being made of a
once proud economy.
All right, do conditions in present-day Britain add up
to a modern Utopia? Has Britain become a promised
land for labor? Is the so-called Labour Government'de
livering to the workers of Britain the social advance
ments once promised by their Socialist leaders at the
time of the general elections? Are British workers own
ing more and better homes? Driving more and better
cars? Eating more and better food? Putting in shorter
hours for longer pay? Have their rights as workers been
extended? Is collective bargaining presently more se
cure than formerly? Are workers in Britain happier to
day than they were before the Labour Party took over
the British Government?
Each query calls forth a resounding “No. The prom
ises made by Britain’s Socialist leaders have long since
gone by the board. All have been clearly repudiated by
actual experiment. In fact, Socialism in Britain would
already have collapsed beneath the weight of its own
incompetence were it not for the financial assistance of
American capitalism. Minus the help of our Marshall
Plan, with its billions of dollars in handouts, Socialism
in Britain would have fallen an easy prey to Communist
revolutionaries.
Finally, against all this, let’s check the facts concern
ing the land in which you and I live and have our being.
Even after acceptng the obvious fact that we, too, as a I
nation, have poverty in our midst, let’s ask ourselves a
few important questions:
Is labor better off in our free society than anywhere
else on earth? Do the incentives of free enterprise yield
tangible results in the form of proud possessions which
the individual by dint of his won effort may acquire and
enjoy?
Is the workingman’s house his castle here in Amer
ica?
Is the American workers free to buy into the com-;
pany he works for, thereby acquiring the status of fis
cal partnership?
Is it true that the American economy affords more j
things for more people than any rival economy?
And if the greatest good for the greatest number be
the noblest social goal, aren’t the people of the United
States closest to that very goal?
The answer to all these questions, with the facts to
back it up, must be a positive “yes.”
It is the job of an editor to help mold public opinion
by digging up the truth. But no editor can hope to carry
the ball alone. The reader, too, has an important obliga
tion of citizenship—particularly if he be in a position
to influence untold thousands of minds, as in the case of
a school teacher, clergyman, business executive or la
bor leader. With burning issues at hand it is up to all
of us as a team to clear away the smoke of confusion
and approach the hour of decision armed with FACTS,
NOT FANCIES.
Hartford (Wise.) Times Press says: “In one of our
exchanges we noted the item that one fact brought to
light by the Hoover report is that ‘it costs more than
ten bucks to fill out a single Government purchase or
der, and more than half of the Government purchases
Secy. Johnson
Asks America To
Remain Powerful
(By C. Yates McDaniel)
WASHINGTON (/P)—Secretary
I of Defense Johnson calls in his
first annual report for America to
stay powerful and alert until in
ternational cooperation “is accept
ed by the adversaries who are
now doing their utmost to destroy
it.”
He coupled this call, in the re
port issued Monday night, with a
warning that this country could
be attacked “from the opposite
hemisphere without warning and
with unpredictable fury.”
Johnson noted that Russia now
has the atomic explosion secret.
But he also expressed his belief
that “the threat of war has dimin
ished as our strength has increas
ed.”
He assessed this strength as the
most formidable since the height
of our military power in 1945.
Elsewhere he termed the readi
ness of our armed forces and our
military potential “greater today
than in any previous peacetime
period in our nation’s history.”
Johnson urged, at another
point, positive action “to prevent
piecemeal aggressions, which un
opposed, might lead to another
world war.”
Johnson gave armed services
unification some of the credit for
America’s current military
strength.
But Johnson’s heaviest accent
on power was slanted toward sci
entific developments. In high
lighting some hitherto secret work
he said the United States must
consider - “every important wea
pon an dcombination of weapons
which might be used against it.”
Johnson reported evidence that
“indicates that other nations have
experimented with new and un
tried forms of toxic (poison)
chemical warfare.”
The report also disclosed that
the mystery base at Sandia, New
Mexico, assembles atomic bombs
and teaches selected men how to
use them.
Sandia is a joint army-navy-air
force project near Albuquerque,
the report added, that also gives
technical advice and assistance
“for the preparation of atomic
HIGH WINDS DO MORE DAM
AGE TO OVERHEAD WIRES
HTgh winds last night and this
morning tore away many of the
telephone wires as well as power
wires, many of which had just
been replaced from the silver
thaw of last week.
The repair crew for the North
ern Light and Power Co., which
had not completed repairing the
damage from the ice of last week,
made a fresh start this morning
to get business lines and power
lines back in operation.
warfare.”
The reports gave some hints of
how matters arc going in the
northern bastion, Alaska, and the
whole Arctic defense perimeter.
Army secretary Gray reported
troop strength in Alaska last June
30 was 6,500. It has since grown
to about 8,000. The combat force
was made up of a single battalion
of an infantry regiment and one
anti-aircraft battalion. He dis
closed three more anti-aircraft
battalions and another increment
of infantry were tarmarked for
permanent station in Alaska. But
still are in the States because no
housing is available.
Navy Secretary Matthews gave
brief glimpses of some new plans
for the sea service in the Arctic
zone, beyond which lies Russia.
He spoke of an LSD (Landing
Ship. Dock) being equipped for
polar work, and said it is capable
of launching ‘substantial numbers
of amphibious craft in sub-freez
ing areas.” Landing craft and am
phibious tanks have been equip
ped for such Arctic operations,
Matthews said. Some strategists
have contended that the short
route to Russia, for surface attack
as well as bombing planes, is
through the Arctic to the Siberian
coast.
On the defensive side of the
Arctic picture, the navy report
showed attention being given to a
matter long disturbing strategists
—transportation to the remote
but highly valuable oil fields near
Point Barrow, on the north coast
of Alaska. The navy report said
an icebreaker and several cargo
ships have been operating in the
area, studying “various aspects of
the logistic support” of the navy’s
petroleum reserve near Point
Barrow.
Inventory blanks at Nome Nugget.
are under ten bucks.’ And the sad part of that fact is
that it is probably 100', true. What fools we mortals
(and taxpayers) be.
WHO SAYS THERE'S AN EMERGENCY ?
DWINDLING
. COAL
^SUPPLY
Reporter Gets
Taste Of Rescue
Mission Hardships
(By Lachlan MacDonald)
WHITEHORSE, Y. T„ (/P) — I
flew as an observer on a search
mission Monday and learned the
dangers faced by scores of pilots
and crewmen in ‘Operation Mike,’
[ —the farflung search for the
! missing C-54 and its 44 occupants.
A dozen times during the 7
hours, 15 minutes we were aloft
in our RCAF Dakota—a C-47—
we sighted holes in the ice of
lakes, sunlight glinting from rug
ged peaks and other formations
that seemed to be wreckage in the
heavy forest.
Once we skimmed within inch
es of a peak 7,500-feet high and
were tossed violently by the
drafts.
The plane slipped low over
peaks in the bumpy air, covering
a sector <J0 miles long and 30
miles wide just south of White
horse. The area straddled the ra
dio beam the missing C-54 was to
follow. We made 14 trips the
length of the sector.
Flj’ing officer Donald Hill of
the 414th photo group, the pilot,
twice narrowly avoided moun
tains as we craned to scan the
cloud-topped peaks and virgin
valley.
“If we go down here we’ve
had it,” said M. C. Barnes, 31, of
Trenton, Ont., who volunteered
to go along as observer from “Ex
ercise Sweetbriar," the joint U.
S.-Canada maneuvers now form
ing nearby.
Chief crewman Innes Bruce of
Ottawa has been doing aerial pho
tography from 20,000 feet alti
tudes for several months. “I’ve
never been so close to the top of
a mountain,” he said.
We were just one of more than
two-score planes participating in
a search which now involves
more planes than any other in Ca
nadian or northwest history.
\\ ill Indians (llaini
Eklutna Project?
WASHINGTON, l/P) — Gover
nor Gruening of Alaska told a
Senate committee yesterday that
“most of Alaska will be claimed
by the people who now arc pro
moting claims of Indians” to land
in the Territory.
Senabr Malone <R.-Nev.> in a
Senate interior committee hear
ing on th'e proposed $20,000,000
Eklutna power project near An
chorage had asked whether, after
the project is constructed by the
reclamation bureau, the Indians
would later claim the land.
Gruening said he knows of no
claim to that particular strip of
land now.
The Governor told the commit
tee he did not believe the exten
sion to Alaska of the provisions
of the Wheeler-Howard law, cov
ering Indian reservations, was in
tended to give the interior depart
ment authority to set up Indian
reservations.
Malone insisted the “whole
problem" of Indian rights ought
to be restudied. Gruening agreed
with him.
Mr*. Russ Apple, who accom
panied her husband to Nome via /
Pt. Barrow, on his trip for the
Boy Scouts, is scheduled to leave
today for Fairbanks with Wien
Airlines to resume her work at
the Fairbanks Clinic. The Apples
are reported to be leaving the
Territory in March for a new as
signment in Honolulu.
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