T HE NO >1 E N U G G E T
Published Monday. Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO
NOME. ALASKA
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
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\ A. Boucher .Owner-Publishei
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1943. at ’he postoffict
• t Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3. 1879
Nome, Alaska, Monday, February 27, 1950
“WE DON’T NEED IT!”
(By George S. Benson, President, Harding College)
At the conclusion of a recent talk on the simple me
chanics of free enterprise and the great benefits the sys
tem has given our people, an intelligent-looking man
from my Mid Western service club audience came up
to shake hands. He said, “Splendid talk! But why waste
it on us? We don’t need it. It ought to be taken to those
who do need it.”
It so happened that i’d just come from a lecture tour
of eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania high schools
presenting the free enterprise story to 10,050 students
and their 2,-,0 teachers, and to 850 teachers in a separate
meeting. The week before I’d been with a large group
of industrial foremen. I’d found these audiences sur
prisingly well informed; had been thrilled by their
warm response
1 thanked my friend. Then, grinning, I asked: “Do
your secretary and your wife know these free enterprise
facts? Could they adequately uphold our American sys
tem in conversation at the corner grocery, or over a
bridge table? Would you yourself care to debate with
a glib Socialist?” He stammered a moment. Then he
smiled. “I see what you mean. No; neither my wife nor
my secretary is familiar enought with the facts you’ve
given us. You’ve got me there!”
He took my elbow and looked me straight in the eye.
“And now that I give it a second thought,” he said, “I
shouldn’t want free enterprise to be represented in de
bate by my own meager familiarity with the subject.”
But the fact is, it is being represented, every day, by
this man’s familiarity with the subject, and his wife’s
and his secretary’s and yours and mine. Millions of peo
ple are involved in conversation every day on this sub
ject. Free enterprise and socilaistic government are be
ing constantly compared—wherever people meet.
Yes, this national discussion involving the freedom of
all of us is going on in government buildings, on college
campuses (it's the official 1950 college debate ques
tion), in railroad roundhouses, in factories and on the
farms—everywhere; not just on the radio forums and in
our legislative halls. And we haven't enough well
equipped spokesmen for the American way. Particular
ly is this true among our business and professional peo
ple and our white collar workers.
A big industry in Illinois recently made a down-to
earth presentation on the American way of life to its
entire personnel. Questions asked by employees during
and following the programs were analyzed. Later each
employee filled in a questionnaire. A studious examin
atoin of the results indicated the white collar personnel
knew less about our American system than did the men
and women in the shops, along the assembly lines.
Our businessman friend at the service club luncheon,
whoe first thought was that my message on free enter
prise and encroaching Socilaism was not needed by his
group, is joined in that first thought by a number of his
fellows. And yet, as I left his city next morning a report
that his club’s executive committee had adopted three
resolutions endorsing federal legislation. White not
identified as such, the measures endorsed were social
istic to the core.
It is my opinion that no particular group in our Amer
ican society has an adequate knowledge of our freedom
system and the sorry record of Socilaism. In fact, the
need for this understanding is urgent in all groups. Wc
all need the energy to get the facts, the wisdom to ac
cept them, and the courage to use them. We need more
Americans speaking up, with authority for America.
Parents are advised by an author never to neglect to
say “Good night” to their children. After 3 a.m. it
should be said in a whisper.—The Ottawa Journal.
“Gentleman’s
Agreement” Will
Govern England
LONDON, (/P) — Strong hints
cropped up today that a Conserva
tive-Labor “gentleman’s agree
ment” may delay a new general
; election for the next few months
But final decisions are still to be
taken.
Such a true, perhaps unspoken,
would permit the virtually dead
locked House of Commons to deal
! with pressing problems both at
1 home and abroad. The communist
Daily Worker sourly spoke of a
j “backdoor coalition” by Labor
j and the Tories.
I Most British newspapers ap
plauded Prime Minister Attlee’s
decision to form a new govern
ment and attempt to carry on with
I Labor’s thin overall majority of
j eight seats.
I With two districts still unre
ported, Labor had 315 of the 625
seats. The Conservatives and al
lied parties 295, the Liberals nine,
the Irish Nationalists two, the in
dependent Liberals one. The
speaker of the House, who votes
only in case of ties, is listed as
non-partisan.
Dclaid returns from two remote
NEWS IN BRIEF i
ontinued from Page One)
waterfront.
Special police investigators said
$1,000,000 worth of unroasted cof
fee has been filched from the
docks in the last year.
Assistant district attorney
Louis Ondreozzi said the harbor
racketeers have been preying on
coffee cargoes brought from Bra
zil to Brookyln docks.
WASHINGTON, (/P)—'The Sen
ate foreign relations committee
Saturday named a five-man in
quiry group headed by Senator
Tydings (D.-Md.) to investigate
i charges that communists hold
high offices in the state depart
, ment.
Sen. McCarthy, (R.-Wis.) has
said he could name 81 past or
present state department employ
ees who are communists or fellow
travelers.
i
—
WHITE PLAINS, N. Y„ (jP)—
Trving Bacheller, one of America's
most popular novelists at the turn
of the century and after, died last
night at the age of 90.
|
districts in Scotland gave the i
Conservatives and the Liberals i
one more victory apiece this af
ternoon.
LEWIS SEES IT HIS WAY
(Philadelphia Inquirer)
John L. Lewis always puts his own interpretation on j
t the coal situation, however it may conflict with fact, j
But in a statement delivered recently he presented a
; version of current conditions that are, even for him, un
usually cock-eyed.
“The operators,” he declared, “are holding the coun
try up.” This from the man who has kept the miners
either on a strike or on a two or three-day work week
for the last six months, resisting all efforts to have full
production resumed.
“The miners desire contracts,” he went on, “and the I
operators won'B make contracts.” The miners doubtless
want contracts, but the operators are not the ones who
won’t make them; it is John L. Lewis. He has refused j
to present his proposals. He has made such a farce out
of bargaining that the mine owners have finally charged 1
him with unfair labor practices before the NLRB.
About the only factual portion of his statement was
the assertion that there is “grave unrest” among the
coal miners. There is also grave unrest among coal
users, who are not going to place the main blame upon
the operators, who are eager to produce coal, nor upon
the miners, who want a full week’s work with pay, but
upon Lewis, who is “holding up the country” with his
unreasonable attitude.
| SHAKY __
iW-' -C-.H . • ...
taeftz- I
BASKETBALL BOOSTERS DIN
NER TO BE WELL ATTENDED
The testimonial stag dinner to
be held Thursday evening at the
Pioneer Hall by the Basketball
Boosters of Nome promises to be
i well-attended get-together of
friends of fans, with a fine turkey
dinner to be served to our Nome
High School basketball team, in
appreciation and their splendid
work and record throughout the
season.
Tickets may still be secured at
various business places in the
city, and should be purchased by
Wednesday noon, in order to in
sure reservation.
News of the World
At A Glance —
(Continued from Page One)
on coastal cities would be stepped
up soon.
In Frankfurt, Germany, the
United States army announced it
has arrested a young Russian wo
man on suspicion of being a “con
fusion agent.” Such an agent is a
decoy who stirs up trouble while
spies go to work.
Monday. February 27, 1950
A top atomic scientist says the
hydrogen bomb could be rigged to
create a death cloud capable to
killing all the humans in the
world.
Dr. Leo Szilard, biophysicist at
the University of Chicago, and
three other atomic authorities
agreed that such a bomb could be
turned into a world suicide wea
pon capable of wiping out friend
and foe alike.
The scientist saw the h-bomb as
creating a cloud of radioactive
dust which carried everywhere
by the winds would poison the
air, settle to earth and slowly but
surely take the life of every man,
woman and child.
The scientists, at a University
of Chicago round table, raised
this question:
What would happen in event of
war if the enemy, faced with de
feat, would threaten to let loose a
hydrogen bomb with all the ter
rible potentialities of world sui
cide?
The scientists didn’t have an
answer. The implication was that
it was up to the diplomats to see
that such a situation never comes
to pass.
In the face of such a gigantic
issue today’s immediate develop
ments seemed somewhat insigni
ficant. But the the diplomats had
reports on their desks from over
the world like these:
The Soviet Union has under
lined her growing stature as a sea
power by creating a separate
navy ministry under Admr. Ivan
Stepanovich. The Soviet army and
navy had been unified four years
ago. The new move was designed
to give impetus to a program
which calls for building up to 1000
submarines and at least three
modern battleships.
In Singapore, Capt. R. P. P.
(Turk) Westerling was under ar
rest. He is the rebel leader whose
forces of deserters from the Dutch
army seized most of west Java’s
capital, Bandoeng, in a raid on
Jan. 23. Westerling has boasted he
could take the Indoneisian capital
of Jakarta if he had enough arms.
Israel has asked the United
States and Britain for military
equipment to bolster its army and
air force. Diplomatic officials in
Washington say such aid would
depend on the size of the present
Israel war chest. Israel apparent
ly wants to offset shipment of
British arms to Israel’s Arab
neighbors.