THE NOME NUGGET
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Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffir*
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Monday, July 27, 1947
Sawing On The World’s Atomic Nerves
(The Denver Post)
THERE IS A MEASURE of grim humor in the report
of Father Bernard Hubbard, the noted “Glacier Priest,”
that Russia had an atomic energy plant but blew it up
in an accidental explosion a year ago. Father Hubbard
dryly remarked that one of the Soviet scientists “evi
dently forgot the decimal point.”
This observation on Russia’s technical backwardness
parallels the crack made by Physicist J. Robert Oppen
heimer in an interview last winter. Dr. Oppenheimer,
one of the markers of America’s atom bomb, said we
could give the /Russians out atomic secrets and they
would only be “confused.”
But such observations lose their humon when we re
flect upon the yearlong record of disagreement on
plans for international control of atomic energy. A re
port from Lake Success Monday last Monday stated that
the United Nations has virutally given up all hope of
• writing an atomic treaty before the general assembly
meets in September.
The sticking point is Russian insistence upon a pact
immediately bannning the atomic bomb and upon the
setting up of controls under the final authority of the
security council, in which Rnssia could exercise her
veto. In other words, the Kremlin wants us to disarm
atomically and share our knowledge without assurance
that the control authority will have full power to detect
and punish violations. Despite seeming concessions on
Russia’s part, this basic conflict remains.
The United States deputy on the U. N. atomic energy
commission has bluntly called the Russian plan “a fraud
on the peoples of the world,” and that is what it would
be. It would provide atom control only in name. It
would lack the essential safeguards proposed a year ago
by Bernard Barcuch and since accepted by ten of the
twelve nations represented on the U. N. commission.
Such then is the “progress” which has been made
toward control of the atom. It is in this context that we
may read*the report of Father Hubbard that Russia has
actually discovered the “secret” of unleashing the
power of the atom. The priest says he learned of the
Russian discovery during a world tour in which, how
ever, he did not actually visit Russia—“But take it from
me, the source of my information is authoritative.”
Despite the trustworthiness of Father Hubbard, we
’ may be given to minimize the value of a third-hand re
port. Still, we can tie it in with other reports such as the
one given last March by a German atomic scientist who
said he had “escaped” from a laboratory in Moscow
where the Russians were “sweating blood day and
night” to penetrate the secret of the atom. The German
predicted the Soviets were “very near—within three to
five years”—to creation of an atomic bomb. •
To these reports must be added the belief, rumored in
Washington, that the Russians will announce this fall
they have an atomic bomb—“whether or not they actu
ally do.”
All this, against the deadlock in efforts toward inter
national control of the atom, points to a mounting war
of nerves. We may expect rumors and “authoritative
reports” with increasing frequency as months stretch
by without world agreement to outlaw atomic warfare.
To Russia, the value of such nerve-sawing may be ob
vious. It could be a calculated strategy to panic the
world into accepting atomic control on her terms. But
it would be a dangerous game, Mr. Stalin, for the world
might react in self-defense.
1 WHXT THIS COUNTRY NEEDS—
TAX
OIT
Dwindling Natural Resources
(New York Sun)
A REPORT which the Geological Survey and the
Bureau of Mines have submitted to a special Senate
sub-committee demonstrates that the natural resources
in United States have been seriously depleted in some
particulars. The United States is now partly dependent
upon foreign sources for its needs in arsenic, bismuth,
cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, tantalum, tungsten,'
and zinc. It is completely dependent, or virtually so,
upon foreign sources for what it needs in chrome, ferro
grade manganese, nickel, tin, platinum, industrial dia
monds, quartz crystals and asbestos of spinning quality.
The report adds that there is little prospect that explo-1
ration in the United States will develop important new!
sources of antimony, vanadium, high-grade bauxite and
mica.
With respect to other mineral resources the report
says that high-grade and easily accessible deposits hnve
been so seriously depleted that the United Spates will |
have to depend upon new techniques of exploitation of
leaner ores at greater depths.
The nation’s natural resources have been spent with
unstinting hand in two great wars., but the report is not,
all of a character to shadow the future with gloom. This
country is well supplied with coal, it is “reasonably well
off” with respect to iron ore, and it has deposits of pot-!
ash, phosphate rock and nitrates that are “unlimited in
quantity.” Proved oil reserves are not only high, but
natural gas, coal shale and oil sands provide an invita
tion for steady improvement of means to make these
! resources available for development of oil products.
Classification of nations as “have” and “have not” is
i not as easy as it once was and is likely to be even more
difficult in the future, but the report stands as a warn
ing that the United States is not now, and has not been
for some time, a land of limitless resources, sufficient
unto itself.
THAT’S THAT By bruce gustin
- • €>-*_ --
Futures prices ot corn, butter
and eggs have been skyrocketing
to new highs. Corn reached and
| passed the $2-a-bushel mark a
i few days ago for the first time in
i the 99-years’ history of the Chica
go board of trade. If there was a
futures market on meat, meat
1 rices would oe out o! sight, too.
, They very likely will be anyway,
, by winter.
i
Weather — not inflation, nor
black marketing—is to blame for
the present corn price rampage
which is taking other prices up
with it. Cattle and hogs are fat
tened mainly on corn. High corn
price mean high prices on beef
and pork and dairy and poultry
products. What was expected to
be a bumper corn crop this year
now is in danger of being litera
ally a “washout.” Continued rains
and floods in the corn belt fore
cast a dangerously short crop. The"
June 15 deadline for planting is
past. If weather conditions change
for the better, it is unlikely that
much of the damage can be over
come.
In vetoing the tax cut bill, Pres
ident Truman took the position
that whatever reduction is made
in federal expenditures should be
used to reduce the national debt,
i But has he any intention of cut
ting federal spending? A year ago,,
when the national debt was 269
billion dollars, he estimated inter
est requirements at 5 billions a
year. Now the debt is down around
267 bill'nns and the r*-e*~irf«»nt *s
talking about cutting it more, but
he still wants 5 billions a year for
interest. How come? Are interest
rates going up, or does the Presi
dent really have in mind increas
ing the debt?
Moscow s policy seems to oe to
never agree with anybody on any*
♦v>in'T_ T.q-f the Russians
+-ied unsuccessfully to block im
mediate United Nations considera
tion of selection of a governor for
Trieste. The Soviet excuse was
that this matter should not be
taken up until the Italian neace
treaty has been ratified hv a1! the
Big Four powers, and Russia has
not yet ratified it. What the Tri
este agreement, to which Russ;a
is a party, provides is that t^e
governor shall take office “at the
earliest poss’ble mompn«”
the Italian treaty becomes effec
That warrants speedy selec
tion of the Trieste governor so he
can be ready to take over. There
is no excuse for Russian stalling
on ratification of the Italian
ratification is a mere for
mality.
Protest strikes against final en
actment of the Taft-Hartley bill
ar«* a natural aftermath of the bit
ter campaign of misrepresentation
u'aeed by top labor leaders against
♦hi«! measure. Many workers are
deluded into believing this is a
“•slave bill” as union propagan
dists told them. Truman’s veto
his attempt to bring public
nr^ssum to bear on the Senate to
nvpvent it from overruling his de
r'cion added to the bitterness and
misunderstanding.
Hot heads will cool off. Whether
union leaders like it or not, the
Taft-Hartley bill now is the law
of the land. Its provisions can be
challenged in the courts. Oppon
ents of the bill have the right to
campaign in an orderly way for
revision or reoeal. But nothing is
to be gained by any policy of de
'iance. Protest strikes merely an
tagonize the public, injure the
^a^icioants. and confirm public
oDinion in the conclusion that or
ganized labor must be regulated
as management has been regulated
fo" years.
Anv doubt as to the constitu
tionality of at least one provision
of the now labor law was removed
by a United States supreme court
decision which was handed down
while the Senate was voting to
override the Presidential veto,
that is the section prohibiting
“featherbedding” practices. It de
fines as “unfair labor practice”
any attempt by a union to compel
an employer to pay for services
which are not performed or not to
be performed. The supreme court
held constitutional the Lea act
which outlawed James Caesar Pe
trillo’s policy of forcing broad
casters to hire more musicians
than actually were needed by ra
dio stations.
So plainly was the Lea act aim
ed at Petrillo that it was generally
known os "the anti-Petrillo law."
When such a narrow measure, de
signed to curb the excesses of a
single union cxar, is held consti
tutional, there can be no question
about the validity of the broader
provfsion in the Taft-Hartley bill
making it an unfair practice for
rfny union to try to compel the
employment of "standby" workers
whose services are not needed.
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The hazard of stillbirth is least
among young women o* nge 20
to 29 who are bearing their sec
. ond child.