THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 618
S1.50 PER MONTH S16.00 A YEAR
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffiee
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Friday, August 1, 1947
The Eagle's Right And Need
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
FORTY YEARS AGO the United States army started
of revolutionary development.
A special division of the signal corps, consisting of
one officer and two enlisted men, was assigned to study
and experiment with a flying machine invented by the
Wright brothers.
Two years ago, the United States Army Air Force
had reduced to smoking ruins the war industries of two
great empires, destroyed their communications, para
lyzed their armies, pursued their navies into hiding and
proved with crushing finality to their peoples the hope
lessness of further resistance.
As we celebrate this Army Air rorce Day, today,
August 1, the two-and-a-half million men, the thou
sands of fighting aircraft, the bases, factories, air fields
that as the mightiest weapon in history had doomed
Japan and Germany, are a shadowy skeleton of the.
might that y/as.
And yet, today the need of air supremacy for Amer
ica is greater than ever before.
Neither peace nor the final victory has been assured to
democracy.
In a time when it is obvious that future safety lies in
the ability to dominate the air, the A. A. F. is outranked!
by other world powers.
As General Arnold has said: “A second-best air force
is like a second-best poker hand—no good at all.”
In a time when the vital organs of our nation are!
within easy reach of modern military aircraft, in a time
of intense development and perfection of guided mis
siles, of supersonic speeds and incredibly devastating
explosives, the American Army Air Force is being al
lowed to disintegrate.
Ihis is a good thing—tor the enemies ot America.
It is a gratifying condition for the enemies of Amer
ican democracy, and democracy anywhere.
For if there is one specific deterrent against world
domination by foreign totalitarian despots, it is the
awakened and every-ready strength of America.
And of that strength, the mightiest element is Amer-'
ican hegemony of the skies.
In fact, exclusive possession of the atom bomb, and
the ability to fill the air with American fighting planes,
today are together one and only guarantee of world
peace.
Should either one, or both, of these be clearly lost or
defaulted by America, the forces of totalitarian tyran
ny would immediately be on the march.
This time, by air over the Great Circle routes that
pass over the polar cap and lead to the still-free centers
of industry and civilization.
These are the premises that should be pondered by
those who blandly believe that the instrument of air
power can be permitted to rust in idleness, and sudden
ly, when the storm breaks upon us, be quickly taken up,
sharpened and wielded with effect.
There can be no more fallacious notion, nor one more
dangerous.
America needs an air force second to none.
Back of that air force there must be a strong, modern,
progressive aircraft industry; a well-trained reserve of
flyers and technicians; an elastic, well-equipped ably
staffed element of air transport.
The schools, the laboratories, the hangers, the cardes,
the factories and the service organizations must be
maintained at a high pitch of activity and efficiency.
The Army Air Force that tomorrow might be called
on to maintain the right of American democracy to live
and flourish, cannot do so on memories of past heroism
and departed strength.
On Army Air Force Day, America celebrates with
gratitude and reverence her warriors of the air, both
living and dead.
But that tribute will be empty and fruitless, if it is
not accompanied by a firm and purposeful resolution
that this nation’s air power will be preserved, nourished
kept fit in numbers and facilities.
So that, instead of a gallant handful sent aloft against
odds to be expended in a lost cause, it shall by its mere
existence restrain, or render suicidally impractical, any
attempt upon the liberties of this nation.
That is the promise that the Army Air Force has
earned beyond the call of duty and the measure of honor.
That is the promise the American people are insisting
shall be kept.
We Mustn’t Have Another Pearl Harbor
(Alaska Sportsman, August issue)
TEN YEAR AGO few people would have taken seri
ously a prediction that in 1941 the Japs would attack
Pearl Harbor, sink most of our fleet, and in 1942 occupy
a part of Alaska. And yet, newspaper and magazines had
been warning the American people for twenty years
that we must beware of the “Yellow Peril” and take
steps to prepare against an attack by Japan.
The only way to judge a man or a nation is bv the
deeds of that man or nation, for actions talk louder
than words. If we judge by the actions of Russia today
it is not far fetched to declare, as many in authority do,
that unless we take steps to become better prepared
against attack than we are, that Russia will attack
through Alaska about the year 1957.
Russia thinks that she is right and that the rest of the
world is wrong. She will brook no interference with her
policies, either domestically or by other powers—par
ticularly if these other powers be weaker than she. And
today, with 208 Army divisions in the field compared
with only fourteen divisions for the U. S., she is the
strongest military power in the world.
If it were not for the fact that the United States is
stronger industrially and holds two other great advan
tages in the atom bomb and undisputed control of the
sea, there would be immediate danger of attack.
When Cipher Clerk Igor Gouzenko quit the Soviet
Embassy in Canada and cut himself off irrevokablv
from his homeland out of friendship for Canada and the
United States, September 5, 1945, he revealed to the
people of Canada what the actions of Russia have long
made selfevident—that while “holding forth at interna
tional conferences with voluble statements about peace
and security, the Soviet government is simultaneously
preparing secretly for a third world war.” Then he pre
sented indisputable written evidence of Russian espi
onage into the affairs of other countries.
As if this were not enough, U. S. Undersecretary of
State Dean Acheson just before his retirement recent
ly gave further proof that Russia is, by her actions, pre
paring for world conouest.
Dean Acheson said: Unhappily, the whole course ol
recovery and the international pursuit of happiness has
suffered deeply by . . . the Soviet Union’s pursuit of
policies diametrically opposed to the very premises of
international accord and recovery. In Eastern Europe
the Soviet Union, over American and British protests,
has used its dominant military position to carry on a
unilateral policy ... by which free choice of their des
tiny has been denied these peoples. The minority Com
munist regimes fastened upon these peoples have acted
to cut them off economically from the community of
Europe.
“In the Far East, the Soviet Union has dismantled
the industries in Manchuria, has obstructed economic
and political unification in Korea, has not carried out
its commitments for the return of Dairen to Chinese ad
ministration as a free port. ... In the Middle East, Per
sia has been for some years in turmoil, first through
Soviet occupation of its northern territories and then
through Soviet-sponsored local attempts to separate
those areas from Persia.
“In Greece . . . the incalculably difficult task of re
building its plant, its production, its people’s health and
morale, and its governmental services, has been threat
ened with total defeat by civil disturbances, aided,
equipped and protected by Greece’s northern, Commun
ist-controlled neighbors ... We
can note without surprise the cyn
ical and barefaced coup d’etat in
Hungary.”
If for no other reason than that
history has demonstrated again
and again—even in very recent
years—that the course of all one
party governments and dictator
ships is ALWAYS toward the con
quest of her neighbors, we should
prepare ourselves and make our
selves so strong that no one will
dare attack us in 1947 or any other
time.
There are several reasons to be
lieve that the attack will come
over the top of the world through
Alaska. Alaska is only sixty miles
from the Siberian mainland. Rus
sians still consider Alaska Russian
soil, having declared ever since
the Soviets took control that the
Czar had no right to sell Alaska.
Russian airmen and seamen sta
*
tioned in Alaska during World
War II again and again referred
to Alaska as Russian territory.
The Soviet official newspaper
Pravda (Truth) has published the
statement that Alaska was sold to
the United States without the con
sent of the Russian People.
Words will not bring peace
when a people imbued with a re
ligion like Communism take a
covetous look at the world over
massed guns and uniformed men.
Only military might, which the
United States does not have at
present, will stop invading armies.
That’s That
By BRUCE GUSTIN
SOVIET RUSSIA “cracked the
whip” over Czechoslovakia. An
ultimatum from Moscow forced
the Czechs to cancel acceptance of
an invitation to participate in the
Paris conference on the Marshall
plan for U. S. aid in European re
habilitation. In rejecting the Mar
shall plan, the Russians charged
it would interfere with the "inde
pendence” of the countries to be
aided. They complained it was de
signed to split Europe into two
camps. Now they have done the
identical things they accused us of
trying to do.
The way Soviet Russia dragged
the Czechs out of the Paris con
ference was the most flagrant ex
ample imaginable of one country
interfering with the ‘independ
ence” of another. By refusing to
allow any of the European coun
tries under its political thumb to
consider the Marshall plan, Sov
iet Russia has split Europe.
| The ananymous ‘‘Mr. X” who
expressed the view in Foreign Af
fairs magazine a few days ago
that the United States for many
years must deal with Russia “as
a rival, not a partner” hit the nail
[ right on the head. Russia tolerates
no “partners.” Unless she bosses
the game, she won’t play. What’s
more, she won’t allow anybody
else over whom Moscow has any
control to take part. Any country
dealing with Russia must be either
a Soviet puppet or a rival. The
United States certainly is not go
ing to take orders from Moscow
or any other foreign capital.
SPOKANE, (TP) — Three men
were killed and four others in
jured in a fire that swept through
the Swanson Hotel here this morn
ing.
Dead from asphyxiation are
William J. McCaney, 43, Spokane
steelworker, and William Good
pasture, 65, Ritzville, Wash. A
third man, who burned to death
as he attempted to escape the
> flames, remained unidentified.