2 THE NOME NUGGET Friday. April 4. 1*47
THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.* v
Noma, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. o. Box hik
•1.50 PER MONTH $18.00 A YEAH
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.Editor*
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postofn*^
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Friday, April 4, 1947
GOOD FRIDAY
The World Citizen
(Anchorage Daily Times)
AT LAKE SUCCESS the members of the United Na
tions Human Rights Commission have begun work an
a unique project. It is the creation of a new political be
ing upon the face of the earth—the world citizen.
Even if the new world citizen is a confirmed stay-at
home, he will be a world citizen all the same: He won’t
be a cosmopolite, although the Greek words kosmos and
polites do mean world citizen. For we think of a cosmop
olite as a man of the world, at home in any country.
Politically, this new being will resemble everyone en
gaged in making him. He will have traces of socialism,
communism and capitalistic democracy. His character
will be influenced by various religions and philosophies.
But he will finally emerge with a new look—the look
of a person who has certain definite rights which must
be recognized and respected, wherever on the face of
the earth he happens to live.
The world citizen will mature slowly. We who are
living today may see him only in his infancy, for the
people appointed to create him don’t even know how to
commence. Each knows how he wants his own particu
lar world citizen to look, but right now there is no agree-’
ment. The commission members are like the fairies in
the nursery stories who stand around the cradle of a1,
new-born prince, endowing him with this quality and
that. *
Take Mr. Tepliakov of the Soviet Union, for instance.
He’s not sure what rights he wants the new world citi-;
zen to have. But he’s pretty definite about some of the
things he doesn’t want him to have.
Mr. Tepliakov would leave out the following: The
rights of life, personal liberty and protection from slav
ery and compulsory labor; the right to petition national
governments and the United Nations;; the rights of
property, freedom of movement and resistance to op
pression; the right of protection from unlawful expro
priation and retroactive penal laws.
Dr. Malik of Lebanon, on the other hand, wants the
world citizen to be a free, independent individual, first
and last. He would put the “human person” above class,
nation and race. He calls the world citizen’s mind and
conscience the most sacred and inviolable thing about
him. He thinks that forcing the world citizen’s consent
by any social pressure is wrong. In short, he believes the
state exists for the individual—an idea which doesn’t
please Mr. Tepliakov.
This disagreement among the creators means that
their work will be long and difficult. But that is to be
expected, and it is not discouraging. At least the crea
tors are assembled and are laying out an assortment of
ingredients which they want to see used.
Eventually the creators should be able to agree on
enough selections from the assortment to build a being
who embodies the rights of all men. The only immediate
danger is that one of the creators might get mad, pick
up his ingredients, and go home.
'Who will protect the rights of this new world citizen
—who is all the inhabitants of the earth—in that distant
day when he is an actuality? How will the government
which denies him these rights be punished? Those are
difficult questions. They will have to be dealt with some
time, but not now. The immediate problem is to create
the world citizen, for a permanently peaceful world is
not possible without him.
Uncharted Peaks
(The Denver Post)
IT WAS ABOUT a year ago that the pressure against
OPA was turned on in earnest. Businessmen, industrial
ists, farm organizations and other interests boomed the
drum. After a while the small consumer began to be
lieve they were right, that perhaps the only way to more
plentiful supplies—and an ultimate drop in prices—was
to get rid of OPA, thus restoring free enterprise, compe
tition and normalcy. This week:
The wholesale price index compiled by the Associated
Press is at the highest point in history.
Few if any retail food prices have returned to OPA
ceiling levels, and items like bread, milk and pork have
spurted up again from the plateau to which they climbed
after the death of OPA.
The wheat and hog markets are at all-time peak lev
els, indicating continued high retail prices in those com
modities for some time to come.
Seasonal production declines and foreign relief de
mands account in part for the high domestic price of
some food commodities. But in large part the prophecy
of lower prices made by those who wanted OPA killed
have not been borne out.
When OPA controls expired last summer it was, to be
sure, foreseen that there would be a spurt in prices; but
that living costs should reach such peaks as today’s or
that they would remain at these peaks for so many
months was not generally anticipated. It is apparent
that we asked too much in hoping for a relatively pain
less recovery from the dislocations of war.
If the American people have not utterly lost faith in
t,he opinions of economists, they may find some cheer in
predictions of a price drop this summer and autumn. If
this occurs, the cost of living graph will be tracing the
curve which marked our recovery from the first World
War. In 1920, almost two years after victory, prices
went into a steep decline which continued for a year,
finally leveling out in 1922.
i
i
Observance Of Lent
• ^
_ ♦:
Lent—The world now describ
ing the period oi fasting observed
by Christians preceding the cele-.
bration of Easter—originally mere-;
ly meant spring, according to the
Encyclopaedia Britannica. The
word is of Teutonic origin.
From the beginning, Lent has
been considered an essential part
of the Easter celebration, which
comes as a day of rejoicing after a
fast commemorating the death and
burial of Christ.
Such fasts have always varied
in rigor according to the country
and people observing them, occa
sionally meaning complete absen
tion from food and drink for a
stated length of time.
Pre-Easter fasting was required
by civil, as well as ecclesiastical
law in England during the Middle
Ages. The law was enforced until
the reign of William III in the 17th
century.
Originally there was much con
fusion as to the exact limits of the
Lenten period because the early
Christians had chosen the time of
the Jewish Passover as the date
for celebrating Easter.
Christians of Jewish origin end
ed their fasts on the “14th day of
the moon at evening’’ with Easter
following at once, without regard |
to the day of the week. Gentile
Christians identified the first day
of the week with the Resurrection,
disregarding the day of the month.
The disparity was settled by the
Council of Nicaea in 325 when it
was decreed Easter would be kept!
on Sunday.
But, although some of the earli
est peoples agreed that Easter Sun
day is “the first Sunday after the
full moon following the vernal
equinox,’’ <April 6 this year) the
custom of observing a Lent of six j
weeks and four days, comprising;
40 days of fasting, excluding Sun- j
days, developed very slowly.
Originally, pre-Easter fasts last- i
ed one day. The fasting period was
increased a little later to 40 hours;
(the time during which Christ’s*
body rested in the tomb) and it •
gradually increased to its present
40 days.
As early as the second century,
in the time of St. Irenaeus, men
tion is made of a short but very j
severe fast before Easter. Some,
persons ate nothing for forty hours i
between the afternoon of Good
Eriday and the morning of Easter.!
In the middle of the third cen-1
tury, fasting throughout Holy,
Week was observed in Alexandria;
in Egypt.
The first formal recording of a
Lenten Fast is in the fifth canon of,
the Council of Nicaea in 325.
The Lenten fast was first order
ed in England by Earconberht.
King of Kent (640-664.) Lenten
laws governing fasting were placed
on the statute book in England in
the Middle Ages and remained
there until 1863, when they were'
repealed.
However, England still observed
the Lenten fast widely during the
18th century, and Queen Elizabeth
and her court followed the custom
of English women of wearing
mourning before Easter, a habit
which survived until well into the
19th century.
“Mothering Sunday” was ob
served in England on the fourth;
Sunday in Lent. On that day, girls
in the service of the church re
ceived a holiday to visit their par- j
ents. Each girl took as a present)
for her mother a small, plum-filled j
cake known as a “simmel.” The'
custom of “mothering” still is fol
lowed at Usk, Monmouth, site of a
Benedictine nunnery, the Britan
nica adds.
| Legislative
Highlights
—
'Continued From Page One
hire stew in their own juice, just
before the primary election, while
they attempt to explain to the vot
ers of their districts, why their
schools are closing, the teachers
and Territorial officials are un
paid, pensioners are going hungry
and cold, public health needs un
attended to, and other important
functions of government are col
lapsing.
For after all, it is not the func
tion of the Territorial Treasurer to
r'ai.se the money to pay the bills. It
is not the job of the Govenor to
supply the tax program that will
adequately finance the Territory.
The Governor can only advise,
which he did in his biennial mes
sage, and administer the program
for which the legislature provides
the money, and appropriates, or al
locates it, to the various depart
ments. The Treasurer can only is
sue the warrants to cover ap
proved expenditures—he can do
this only as long as he has the
money available to cover these
warrants. The Territory cannot go
into debt. It cannot bond itself to
meet obligations. The Organic Act
under which its authority to act is
set up prohibits that.
So what?
Speaking before the House by
request just before the vote was
taken on the General Appropria
tion Bill, Senator Joe Green, chair
man of the Senate Finance Com
mittee, assured the doubting House
members that there was ample
revenue to meet all expenditures
authorized in the Senate, a few
minutes previously by Senator Ed
Coffey, a member of the Finance
Committee had made the same
statement. Both Senators Green
and Coffey had voted against every
important tax measure which
reached the Senate, by the way.
Those were the statements of
the two Senators—these are the
facts.
1. The General Appropriation
Bill covers appropriations of ap
proximately $8,342,101.14.
2. Special and emergency appro
priations bills passed by the legis
lature at this session amount to
$543,542.44.
3. That makes a total of $8,885,
754.58 appropriated by the legisla
ture this year.
4. From that you may deduct
$450,000 appropriated for the Of
fice of the Highway Engineer,
which is a loan which will be re
paid to the General Fund, from
the tax receipts on motor fuel,
which is earmarked for the Roads
fund.
5. That still leaves us $8,435,
743.58, appropriated for the com
ing biennium.
Now let’s take a look at the es
timated income for the biennium
1. The estimated income for the
Territory from all sources, as made
by the Budget Board before the
session opened was $3,736,700, to
the General Fund.
2. From that we must deduct
$600,000, estimated income from
the motor fuel tax, w'hic.h has been
removed from the General fund
and earmarked for Road construc
tion projects only.
3. That leaves the estimated in
come for the General Fund at
$3,136,700.00.
4. New tax measures have been
enacted at this session that will
add the following amounts of in
come to the Territory:
<a) Increased taxes on
liquor . $900,000
<b> Salmon pack tax.$375,000
(c> Increase on trap tax