THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
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Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Nome, Alaska, Monday, September 27, 1948
BERLIN MARE’S NEST
(By Barnet Nover) _
WASHINGTON—At his press conference before
leaving for Paris, Secretary of State George C. Mar
slall spoke in a vein of unrelieved gloom about the inter
national situation. Relations between Soviet Russia and
the western powers, he indicated, have gone from bad to
worse during the past fortnight.
Marshall’s mood mirrors the mood of official Wash
ington as the summer wanes.
What for a brief while looked like a promising effort
to achieve an easing of the world crisis through four
power talks at Moscow and later at Berlin has proved to
be just another mare’s nest.
Instead of the hoped-for breathing spell, tensions con
tinue to rise and fears of another conflict are steadily
mounting. These fears have reached such an acute stage
that such men as Gen. Lucius D. Clay, the American
commander in Germany, have found it necessary to
state not once but repeatedly that war is not imminent.
Nobody speaks with any similar assurance about the
long-run situation. Nor is there much hope that at this
session of the United Nations general assembly in Paris
any real progress will be made in drawing east and west
together.
Is the situation, then, utterly hopeless?
A growing number of Americans are beginning to be
lieve that. They notice that despite the Moscow and Ber
lin talks Russian obstreperousness has been rising, that
Russian propagandist assaults on the United States—
witness the address at the communist rally in Berlin by
Lieut. Gen. Georgi Gordeyev—are mounting in fury,
that these last weeks have seen a sharp rise in Soviet
terrorism in the German capital.
The belief is growing in Washington that this latest
phase of Russian obstreperousness is the direct conse
quence of a growing sense of failure on the Kremlin’s
part.
The siege of Berlin has clearly not gone the way the
Russian leaders expected it to go. Costly and nerve
racking as the air lift has proved to be, and inadequate
as a means of keeping the economy of the western sec
tors of Berlin operating at a normal level, the air lift has
been a spectacular triumph for the western powers.
In the meantime the Americans and the British have
given a demonstration of air power and the use of air
power which has not been lost either on the Russians or
the Germans.
There can be no question whatever but that it has stif
fened the resistance of the latter and thus helped thwart
the plans of the Kremlin to win a bloodless victory in
Berlin.
After two and one-half months the United States,
Great Britain and France have not surrendered and are
in no mood to surrender. On the contrary, their resolu
tion has stiffened.
Returning from Berlin the other day, Prof Carl J.
Friedrich of Harvard declared that from a propaganda
viewpoint the air lift would be cheap if double the cost.
“Ten times that much spent on words would never have
accomplished the same result.”
The fury of the Russians over an operation they did
not expect to succeed, which they dare not try to stop by
forcible means but whose success they cannot afford to
acknowledge is proof of the truth of that statement.
WATCH THAT ROBOT
(Clip Sheet)
Science has done so many wonderful things since the
end of the war that sometimes we wonder what will be
come of mankind as robots and machines keep encroach
PARIS OPKNINS
I
I I
j ing on our bread ticket.
Latest reports from Britain tell how electronic ma
chines have been perfected that can add, subtract, mul
tiply and divide rapidly enough to give a corporation ex
ecutive a complete up-to-the-minute balance sheet ten
minutes after he asks for it. In another development,
British railway engineers have produced a machine that
can turn out instantaneous railway tickets to anywhere,
and eliminate standing in line and waiting for the ticket
seller to fumble around with long sheets of paper and
stamp pads.
And again, at Britain postoffice, scientists have devel
oped a machine that sorts 600 letters a minute, prints in
visible fluorescent codes on each letter, and channels
them into correct boxes for their destination.
It’s all a little frightening, except when we stop to
think of one thing: There’s still a need for corporation
executives to call for the balance sheets, for travelers
to buy railway tickets, and for letter-writers to lick flaps
of their envelopes and seal them. When the machines
take those functions over, then we’ll admit that we’re all
washed up.
DEWEY REBUFFS GRUNDY
(Rocky Mountain News)
Governor Dewey has grown as a Presidential candi
date by refusing to bow to the high tariff bosses of his
party.
Everybody has assumed, since the Grundy, crowd
jumped on the Dewey bandwagon so early at the Phila
delphia convention, this test was coming. We are glad
it has come now, rather than after the election.
Apparently reliable reports say the high protection
faction sent envoys to Albany to get a Dewey pledge
against the reciprocal trade agreements, and that the
candidate refused. Governor Dewey helped to put a re
ciprocal trade plank in the Republican platform. Butj
there was a hole in it which the high tariff boys hoped |
to use.
The Republican candidate now has served notice on
the GOP Old Guard that he is not their man. He is a
Progressive with a Progrsesive running mate and a Pro
gressive platform.
GOVERNMENT SQUANDERING
Two flagrant examples of federal squandering were
called to public attention by Dr. Alvin Burger of New
Jersey, secretary of the National Association of State
Chambers of Commerce in an address to the Colorado
Chamber of Commerce last week. The federal govern
ment, he said, owns 3.6 typewriters to every employee
who uses one. The Indian Affairs Bureau, he declared,
has 11,300 employees to serve 360,000 Indians, “or one
bureaucrat to every thirty Indians.” A change in na
tional administration certainly is needed. 1
—Bruce Gustin
Arctic Operations
“Would Be Tough”'
For Either Side
PEARL HARBOR, (^—Military
operations in Arctic areas would
be as tough for the Russians as for
Americans, Lt. Gen. Nathan F.
Twining said today, adding:
“And we know that we can op
erate on land, sea and in the air.”
The air force general, command
ing Alaskan armed forces, told a
news conference that newly-com
pleted fielson field near Fair
banks is capable now of maintain
ing an aerial offensive with the
new B-50 bomber, which is Boe
ing’s larger version of the wartime
B-29.
Twining, air commander in the
Solomons during the war, express
ed belief that American forces
“now can operate as well, if not
better, than anyone else” under
Arctic conditions.
“We do know that the Russians
have the same*problems as we
have,” he said. “They put on their
pan s one leg at a time the same
as we do.”
Twining said the air forces have
a full group now of jet fighters—
about 75 improved F-80’s—operat
ing in Alaska. He added that a
group of long-range B-50’s will
undergo Arctic training this win
ter.
Twining and Rear Adm. Alfred
E. Montgomery, commander of the
Alaskan sea frontier, are conferr
ing at Pearl Harbor with Admiral
D C. Ramsey, commander in chief
of the Pacific fleet.
The big problem of the armed
forces in Alaska, said Twining is
housing and manpower for base
building. Montgomery wryly ob
served that Russia “as a dictator
ship” does not have a manpower
problem, as does the American de
mocracy.
“The Russians can send con
struction workers where they need
them,” said Montgomery. “We can
invite them.”
Asked about the size of Eielson
field, 30 miles sou'.h of Fairbanks,
Twining replied with a smile:
“Just say it’s a big one.”
He said the United States has
developed a considerable number
of Alaskan air fields from which
B-29’s can operate. Because of the
weather and the terrain, Alaskan
bases actually are like a series of
islands “and the supply pfoblem
is a rough one.”
In this connection Montgomery
said a full year’s supply was put
ashore at the Point Barrow oil de
velopment base by a nvay amphib
ious force in only five days.
This, added the admiral, was
more tonnage on Point Barrow’s
beach than went ashore at Okin
awa during the invasion phase
there.
Twining said American forces
are scrupulously observing the*
limits of approach to Russian ter
ritory, “and—so far as we know—
the Russians are doing the same"
<in regard to American territory).
“We’d like to know more about
what’s going on in Russian terri
tory," Twining concluded. “We are
using all means we can to • find
out.”
UNITED STATES INCREASES
WARPLANES
WASHINGTON f/P), The United
States has about 1,000 more first
line warplanes active now than it
had at the beginning of the year.
The Air Force made available
figures today showing that on July
1 the regular air arm, the nation
al guard and air reserve units had
approximately 5,000 first line com
bat planes active. On January 1
the total was 4,000.