THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P* O. ®°x
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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._
Friday, October 26,1945
CsEORGE OPPOSES FREE RIDES FOR CITIZENS
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Senator George (D, Ga.) should be commended for
his statesmanlike attitude toward tax revision. Though
a leader in the demand for relief of the overburdened
taxpayer, the Georgian refuses to appease the dema
gogue.
He specifically opposes the glib proposal to eliminate
the 3 per cent federal normal income tax, and thus auto
matically remove 12 million citizens from the income
tax roll.
The senator favors reducing the rate on low income
tax payers so that the impost won t be burdensome, but
he doesn’t think it would be wise to take anyone off the
tax rolls altogether.
It is politically and socially desirable in a self-govern
ing republic to make all the citizens, even those in mod
est circumstances, aware of their obligation to support
the government.
. • • ii. _ i il _ ^
This will dispel tne poisonous illusion uuu, me gov
ernment can support the citizen.
The irritant of the income tax will serve as a remind
er even to the humblest that government is not Santa
Claus.
It will help to make crystal clear that government
represents an overhead cost to the citizen, and thus re
duces his own net spendable income.
Awareness of this truth will create a popular demand i
for economy and prudence on the part of public ser
vants in handling other people’s money.
There is an additional technical factor which adds to
the validity of Senator George’s sensible and forthright
position. ,
The implication that elimination of the 3 per cent tax
would eliminate 12 million persons from the obligation
of paying taxes to the federal government is false and
grossly misleading.
For even, if this direct recognizable tax were elimin
ated, workers and others in low and moderate income
brackets would continue to be tapped heavily for in
direct taxes, including import duties, cigarette and li
quor taxes, miscellaneous excise taxes, and indirect
taxes hidden in the selling prices of all the goods they
buy. “Corporations” must rely on their customers—the
little fellows—to provide the wherewithal for meeting
taxes and all other elements of cost.
But the curse of these heavy indirect taxes is that
they are concealed, and the ultimate payer is not aware
of the nature of his tax contribution.
Thus, it is well to keep direct taxes as an indicator of
the burden of extravagant government.
Mr. George, in holding these views, is a leader m de
manding frugality in the conduct of government, so
that taxpayers, large, medium, and small, can be re
lieved of current burdens which have become well nigh
intolerable.
OUR DIPLOMATIC FEEBLENESS
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Our delegates went to the council of foreign minis
ters at London hoping vaguely to obtain something that
would make for peace and justice.
They obtained virtually nothing—partly because
Soviet Russia would yield next to nothing, but even
more because they themselves represented nothing ex
cept a few beautitudes derived from Mr. Roosevelt’s
defunct Atlantic Charter and Mr. Hull’s obsolete Mos
cow agreement. . •
They did not even represent Americas economic
strength as the most potent factor for stabilization, and
indeed they could not: our recklessness in announcing
that we wanted nothing for lend-lease, and in setting
up the Bretton Woods arrangements and the Export
Import Bank as international charities, had already de
prived our negotiators of effective bargaining power.
This was very different from the position of either
the British or the Russian representatives.
Great Brtiain, even under its new Socialist-Labor
government, is guided by a strong foreign policy rooted
in centuries of British history.
Soviet Russia also had a definite foreign policy, com
pounded of the ambitions of Czar Peter the Great and
of Stalin’s totalitarian Communism.
Russia’s policy is to expand her territories or satel
lites in Europe and Asia from the Atlantic to the Pa
cific; to establish herself in the Mediterranean; to ac
quire India and Iran and she has gradually acquired
numerous conquests since 1600—with suzerainty over
China; to become a formidable industrial and naval as
well as military power; to disseminate Bolshevism in
every continent, and eventually to rule a Communized
world.
The curious yet stupendous and aggressive combina
tion of Communist propaganda and Muscovite imper
ialism cannot be otherwise explained.
Great Britain cannot afford, and Soviet Russia can
not be persuaded, to alter their fixed courses—not even
to avoid a third conflict that may again drench the1
world in blood.
Nothing more unfortunate for us has ever occurred in
our history than that, at a most critical juncture in in
ternational affairs, Washington should have no Ameri
can foreign policy commensurate with our resources;
and with the policies of London and Moscow.
Going to conferences overseas to accomplish nothing
is not an American foreign policy.
Thinking about other countries more than we think
about our own is not an American foreign policy.
Failure to procure in perpetuity defensive Atlantic
sea bases, from Iceland and Greeland to the Caribbean,
is not an American foreign policy.
Seriously considering any suggestion of surrendering
our strategic conquests of enemy islands in the Pacific
is not an American foreign policy.
Destroying our tariff system to spread free trade in
a competitive protectionist world is not an American
foreign policy.
Giving money and goods away in billion dollar sums,
without requiring either repayment or the liberation
of captive little nations, is not an American foreign pol
icy.
Allowing Communists— the subversive agents of
alien masters and alien ideologies—to infest our public
offices and our labor unions and our armed forces is not
an American foreign policy.
These many errors—and many more—are the very
antithesis of an American foreign policy.
But the mere cataloguing of our numerous blunders
and ineptitudes is sufficient to teach any of us what an
American foreign policy should be and must be if the
United States is to become and remain a mighty power
for peace and progress in the world—if we are to imple
ment our fine words with fine deeds—if we are to ex
press our high ideals in practical achievements._
WASHINGTON
NEWS-LETTER
By MARY LEE COUNCIL
Secretary to E. L. (Bob) Bartlett#
Delegate to Congress from Alaska
JUNEAU RECEIVES
FWA FUNDS
Federal Works Agency has ad
vanced the city of Juneau $7,000
for the cost of planning an airport
building, according to information
given Delegate Bartlett.
* The estimated cost of the build
ing is $189,600, and the funds ad
vanced by Federal Works Agency
are to be used for blue-prinitng
construction. This advancement is
authorized through the public
planning program of FWA where
by such advancements are repay
able without interest if final con
struction is undertaken but not
repaybale if a decision is made to
abandon the project.
DELEGATE SEEKS PUBLIC
DISTRIBUTION OF SURVEY
MAPS AND REPORTS
Delegate Bartlett has joined
forces with Dr. W. E. Wrather,
Director of the Geological Survey,
in An effort to lift restrictions on
public distribution of Geological
Survey maps and reports on Alas
ka.
The restrictions, imposed by the
War Department during the war,
permitted the Geological Survey
to distribute maps and reports to
those having a legitimate need for
them, but Delegate Bartlett and
Dr. Wrather are urging public
distribution.
Under present conditions, the
War Department permi's the un
restricted distribution by the Sur
vey of war-mineral investigation
maps, but it is hoped the same
unrestricted distribuiton will be
permitted of other Survey maps
and reports pertaining to the Ter
ritory.
ASSESSMENT WORK
Delegate Bartlett has intro
duced in the House a bill clarify
ing the law which suspended an
nual assessment work on mining
claims held in the United States,
including Alaska.
The law, passed in 1943, sus
pending annual assessment work
is effective “until the hour of 12
o’clock meridian on the first day
of July after the cessation of hos
tilities in the present war as de
termined by proclamation of the
President or concurrent resolution
of the Congress.” Delegate Bart
lett’s bill, which is a companion
measure to a bill introduced in
the Senate by Senator Carville,
amends the law of 1943 and sus
pends annual assessment work
“until one year from the hour of
12 o’clock meridian on the first
day of July after the cessation of
hostilities in the present war as
determined by proclamation of
the President or concurrent reso
lution of the Congress.”
Delegate Bartlett has pointed
out, in introducing this measure,
that the President could very pos
sibly proclaim “cessation of hos
tilities” on a date so soon before
July 1 it would be physically im
possible to perform assessment
work.
It will continue to be necessary,
under the amendatory legislation
introduced by the Delegate and
Senator, for the claimant of any
mining claim to file a notice of
his desire to hold the claim on of
before 12 o’clock meridian of July
first for each year that the pro
posed measure remains in effect.
RELIEF OF
GOLD MINES
Owners of gold mines who had
to close their mines or curtail op
erations as the result of the re
strictions imposed by War Produc
tion Board’s Limitation Order L
208 may seek financial relief if a
bill introduced on October 16 by
Representative Engle of Califor
nia becomes law.
The measure provides that
within six months after it be
comes law a gold mine operator
may submit claims for the amount
of loss, including the costs of plac
ing the mine in its pre-L-208 con
dition, caused by closing the mine
or curtailing operations.
The bill authorizes the appoint
ment by the Secretary of the
Treasury of an examiner at an
annual salary of $7,500 for con
sideration and certification of atl
claims filed, and provision is made
for appeals from the examiner’s
decisions through the United
States District Courts.