THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME, ALASKA
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
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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, January 11, 1950
BIG ALASKA LAND GRANTS
(Ketchikan News)
Paternalism and the reservation plan go hand-in
hand.
With the sorry examples in the States, all of us, in
cluding the Natives themselves, may be pardoned for
not wanting similar conditions in Alaska.
But, evidently Alaska, used to being a bureaucratic
experimental guinea pig, is to be somewhat different.
In the first place the Indians are to be allowed to vote
the gilded reservation chains about their necks. It is a
well known fact that they won’t do that if they have to
surrender their citizenship rights.
Therefore, the “wise guys” apparently are figuring
out a plan under which they can take on their parental
leading strings and become a preferential class of citi
zens.
In some of the larger reservations which “last-min
ute” Krug ordered, each Native will get about 10,000
acres of land.
That’s quite a chunk. Many of us would probably jump
at the chance to vote ourselves so much land, without
too closely scanning “under-cover” details.
Just the same here are a few questions we think the
Interior Department should answer:
How are the citizen rights of Indians, who vote them
selves reservations defined?
Will they get clear title so they can sell, if willing, the
lands they get possession of in this manner?
Are the lands to be subject to taxes?
What disposition is to be made of white claims inside
of reservations?
What rights other than land rights go with the reser
vations?
Define exactly the boundaries of each reservation. In
case of any conflict how are settlements to be made?
Plenty of other questions occur to most of us, but the
foregoing will serve as a guide.
NO DEMOCRACY IN INDIA
The glib prediction of a democratic government in
India overlooks the fact that the populatoin is nine
tenths illiterate and thoroughly unfamiliar with any of
the democratic processes that give voice to the people’s
control of their government.
In addition, the natives of India have violent religious
differences, something like a dozen principal languages,
many conflicts of caste and vested interests that are
powerful.
The easy assumption of many Americans that, once
the people of India acquire control of their country, by
ousting the British, a wonderful democracy will shine
its light over the downtrodden masses of that area is
absurd. The next guess that India will be a powerful
factor in the conflict that might develop between na
tions is likewise ahead of time. Until the people of India
establish themselves and their government securely, in
their region of the earth, they will not hanker after ad
ventures in world control.
HELPS FEW; HURTS MANY
With foreign countries unable to secure the dollars
with which to buy American goods, the people of this
country should interested in any plan which will relieve
American taxpayers from the task of extending perm
anent assistance to other countries.
Along this line, Clinton S. Golden, labor adviser to
the E. C. A., says that we must import more European
goods, lower our import tariffs and cut our prices on ex
ports unless we expect to contribute permanently to the
European recovery. This may be a slight exaggeration
but, certainly, as Mr. Golden pointed out, “We have got
to figure our some way by which a post-war Europe can
. find enough dollars to pay for the goods she must con
Truman Urges
Congress To Aet
(By Mary Lee Council)
WASHINGTON — President
Truman asked specifically for
Alaska statehood when he deliver
! ed his State of the Union address
to a joint session of Congress last
week.
“As we go forward in achieving
greater economic security and
greater opportunity for all our
people,” President Truman said,
“we should make every effort to
extend the benefits of our demo
cratic institutions to every citizen.
The religious ideals which we
profess, and the heritage of free
dom which we have received from
the past, clearly place that duty
upon us. I again urge the Congress
to enact the civil rights proposals
I made in February 1948. These
are proposals for the enactment
of federal statutes which will pro
tect all our people in the exercise
of their democratic rights and
their search for economic oppor
| tunity, grant statehood to Alaska
and Hawaii, provide a greater
measure of self-government for
our island possessions, and accord
home rule to the District of Co
lumbia. Some of those proposals
have beeh before the Congress for
a long time. Those who oppose
them, as well as those who favor
them, should recognize that it is
the duty of the elected representa
tives of the people to let these pro
posals come to a vote.”
1U. S. Should Quit
Lending Business
Says Sen. Taft
WASHINGTON, (^—President
1 Truman’s call for more liberal
federal loan terms to business col
Taft (R.-Ohio) to end most govern
lided with a proposal by Senator
ment lending.
| “It seems to me,” said Taft,
i “that the government ought to be
getting out of the lending busi
ness, except in the agriculture
field where the policy has been
long established.”
Taft’s attitude highlighted a
general cool reaction on Capitol
Hill to the credit proposals Mr.
i Truman outlined Friday in his
| economic report to Congress.
While these proposals got a i
chilly reception from the lawmak
ers, the national goals which the
President set forth in the report
found general acceptance.
The President said the nation
should ^im at jobs for 61,000,000
persons this year as compared
with an average of 58,700,000 in
1949; 64.000 jobs in five years;
and eventual “complete elimina
tion of poverty.”
“Nobody is going to quarrel
with targets like that,” one Repub
lican said privately. “But whether
we can afford the programs the
President wants is quite another
thing.”
tinue to import from us.”
In connection with his argument, Mr. Golden points
out that we protect a few industries that cannot survive
European competition and then asks, “What happens to
those American industries which depend upon foreign
markets to keep their workers fully employed?” By re
fusing to buy from Europe, we put Europeans in a place
where they cannot afford to buy our machinery and raw
materials. This also applies to agricultural products.
AIR TRAVEL CONTINUES SAFE
Overly impressed by the publicity given a few serious
crashes, the average American has the idea that travel
ing by air has been a risky proposition in 1949.
The fact that the nation’s scheduled airlines are ex
pected to hang up a safety record may sound surprising
but it is vouched for by Joseph A. O’Connell, chairman
of the Civil Aeronautics Board.
The regular carriers have flown 6,000,000,000 passen
ger miles, with 91 fatalities to the middle of December,
or about 1.2 deaths for each 100,000.000 passenger miles.
This is better than the 1948 rate of 1.3 and the 1947 rate
of 3.2.
HALF A LOAF
i H*f*ER
awsonen
Lewis Orders Coal
Miners Back to Pits
WASHINGTON, </P> — John L.
Lewis today ordered 66,000 strik
ing coal miners to go back to a
three-day work week Monday.
These miners had quit their jobs
in seven states—refusing to work
even the three days weekly per
mitted by Lewis in his “cold war”
vvith mine operators.
Lewis sent the following mes
sage to presidents of the United'
Mine Workers’ districts where
miners had quit all work:
“Will you please transmit to our
members who are idle this week
my suggestion that they resume
production next Monday.”
Some 32,650 miners have been
on full strike in Pennsylvania, 17,
500 in West Virginia, 6,000 in Ala
bama, 5,000 in Kentucky, 4,000 in
Ohio and 990 in Utah and 250 in
Virginia.
There were 16,000 on strike m
Illinois last week, but they went
back to work last Monday.
Operators have taken the view
that this checker-hoard strike pat
tern is part of the harassing tac
tics Lewis is using in his battle
for higher wages and welfare
benefits for the miners.
They look on the three-day
work week as a piece of the same.
As they see it, Lewis is trying to
cause the operators all the diffi
culty he can without bringing
things to the point where the gov
ernment would be impelled to in
tervene.
Today’s back-to-work order may
have resulted from Lewis’ appre
hension about the growing clamor
from coal operators and members
of Congress that President Tru
man act under the Taft-Hartley
law to restore full coal production.
Mr. Truman has refused to con
sider the three-day production
week an emergency warranting
his intervention.
NEWS IN BRIEF
(Continued from Pcige One'
ler, Tom Jones and Robert Cog
hill.
NORMAN, Okla. (/P) — Angry
University of Oklahoma students
shouted their protest last night as
they burned a 15-foot cross out
side the building in which the
communist party chairman of Ok
lahoma spoke.
The group demonstrated against
Alan Shaw’s address, which was
made at Hillel House, just off the
campus, and sponsored by the
Civil Rights Committee.
MEXICO CITY, <;p) — Faye
Emerson left for Washington, D.
C., today after arranging for a di
vorce from Elliott Roosevelt.
The blonde aertess said she
“likes Mexico.”
Her lawyer, Francisco Lopez
Figueroa, said the divorce would
be quick, under the easy court. He
said he purposely avoided getting
an immediate decree because she
wished everything to be absolutely
legal.
ST. LOUIS, UP)—1The Rev. Dr.
Walter A. Maier, 56, conductor of *
the Lutheran Radio Hour, died to
day.
His death followed a fourth
hearth attack in less than two
weeks.
Since 1935 he had been widely
known for his radio programs.
The Lutheran Hour program is
heard over 1,200 radio stations
throughout the world each Sunday
afternoon. It is transcribed in 36
languages for foreign broadcasts.