2 THE NOME NUGGET Friday. November 28. 1947
THE NOME NUGGET j
Published Monday. Wednesday and Friday bv The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 p. o. Box 618
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER % ... Ed.tors
|
S1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943. at the postoffice
at Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3. 1379.
Friday, November 28, 1947
Germany's Plight
J c'
FOLLOWING A GRAND celebration of Thanksgiv
ing throughout the United States, Alaska and other U.
S. possessions, most everyone is suffering today from
overindulgence of food and drink.
Other parts of the world fare less well, in fact reach
the extreme opposite—hunger and thrist, famine and
pestilence.
The Nome City Council received a letter recently
which brings this question to Nome. (The letter is pub
lished on this page and needs little comment). The let
ter states severe conditions exist in Germany today.
Men. women and children are dying for want of suffi
cient food and care. Tuberculosis, the scourge of human
ity, is running rampant. What is to be done for them?
The council of Nome requests that any help the Nome
people wish to give can be made directly to the address
given in the letter. Addresses from other supplicants
may be obtained from the City Clerk.
, -"P 1,1
Taxes
(Rocky Mountain News)
REPUBLICAN LEADERS of Congress have agreed
with President Truman that there should be no tax leg
islation in the special session.
This makes sense. Most of*the special sessions will be
devoted to foreign aid, and not much could be done
about taxes in so short a time.
But the tax problem cannot be avoided in the regular
session starting in January. The taxes we pay and how
they are laid, and the amount of money the government
spends at home and abfoad, all affect directly our
prices, our living standards and the health of our eco
nomic system.
They are of a general pattern and should be consid
ered as a whole. In the past we have tried, unwisely, to
deal with these matters separately and piecemeal, with
the result that we have let inflationary pressures devel
op that strain and threaten our economic system.
That system is the goose that lays those golden rev
enue eggs which feed the government’s big spending
appetite and support the 258-billion-dollar public debt.
Competitive private enterprise has its faults, but it
also is the only system in the world today that is func
tioning in a big way, producing the goods the world
must have in this post-war crisis.
For our sake and the world’s, we must keep our eco
nomic system lusty and expanding. Which is why we
cannot for long ignore taxes..
Levies and laws that gum up the works of our econo
mic machine are unwise. They prevent the risking of
capital to build and expand industries, creat more jobs,
produce more goods at. lower prices, and in the end,
larger revenues.
There are many such levies and laws in our present
jerry-built tax structure. We’ll have more to say about
them when Congress gets around to the general renova
tion job.
Here’s One
“TOKYO ROSE,” the wartime broadcaster of Japan
ese propaganda, is trying to get a passport to come and
live in the United States.
The state department, a spokesman says, in investi
gating her claim that she is an American citizen, born in
Los Angeles. Her story is that she went to Japan, five
LET ALL BE THANKFUL
TkoHksqiviKq
Dau -1947
9
months before Pearl Harbos, “to care for an aunt.” She
didn’t bother to ask for a passport to make, that trip.
Should the state department find that she is a citizen,
the spokesman says, it “unquestionably” would be
forced to grant her present request, unless individuals,
organizations or other government agencies protest.
If “Tokyo Rose” can be brought to this country and
tried for treason, okay. Otherwise, we’re for letting her
stay forever in Japan. And if protests are what the state
department needs to keep her there, here’s ours.' We im
agine plenty more will be forthcoming.
The Crystal Ball Shows
(By Palmer Hoyt) . •
EVEN AS WESTERN EUROPE sits and waits for the
United States Congress to consider the Marshall plan,
the effects of participation in the “Stalin plan” are be
ing felt in eastern European nations which declined to
participate in the European recovery program.
Actually there is no “Stalin plan,” but the negative
attitude forced upon eastern Europe gave rise to belief
that the Russians would take some positive action to aid
their satellite countries if they abstained from the pro
gram of general European recovery.
Immediately after the Paris conference, Soviet diplo
mats busied themselves with formulation of trade treat
ies. These agreements were made between Russia and
her sattelites, and the satellites further signed agree
ments among themselves. To date those treaties have
not borne much fruit. The latest announcement, which
came from Hungary, revealed that the Soviets expected
several million dollars worth of Hungarian machinery
—but even this did not specify what the Hungarians
would receive in return.
Recently the Czechoslovakian government must have
doubted the wisdom of its refusal to co-operate with
western Europe. The government announced a 20 per
cent cut in the Czech bread ration for the month of No
vember. Cuts in other food rations were madQ, and the
amount of wheat flour in bread was drastically slashed.
While the Marshall plan is yet nothing but an idea
and a list of requirements, such news must strengthen
in the minds of Europeans. They do know that as yet
the nonparticipating nations have received nothing
from Russia. But even as this news strengthens, so it
places a larger burden on the United States, for aid
must be definite and soon if advantage is to be taken of
the Soviet default to its satellites.
In the bare Marshall proposal there was hope for Eu
rope. When it is finally approved and carried out there
will be more than that. Meanwhile, the people of eastern
Europe are watching. They should meditate on the
events of recent years, and the aid policies of both
America and Russia, if they want the answer to their
own future.
Communication
Mrs. Auguste Nikolaus,
39 Hallgartenstrasse,
Frankfurt am Main,'Germany
• September 18th, 1947.
To The Town-Mayor of
Nome, Alaska. • •
Dear Sir,
The appalling food-condtions
in our country induce me to direct
a request for help to you dear
Mayor, with my heart full of con
fidence, because I am not such a
lucky person as to have relatives
or acquaintances in the States.
You certainly are well informed
about the critical situation over
here, and I may refrain from en
larging on this subject at this
juncture.
I am a poor German woman,
who lost everything by the evenis
of the dreadful war. Now I am es
pecially deeply in sorrow about
my 14 year old daughter Ursula,
because she is more than 20
pounds underfed and very weak
and in a constant danger to con
tract t.b. As the food rations in
Germany have lowered to a criti
cal point, she has no possibility to
recover. It is a sad fact that we
hardly can live on the rations we
actually get. Owing to an unusual
dry summer, we are even now vir
tually out of potatoes, which con
stitute the bulk of Germany’s
skimpy diets.
Much is done by your generous
nation to overcome our present
bad situation, and we all in Ger
many are deeply touched by the
good will and collaboration y ju
people show toward us. This spirit
has been created by your good
pioneers of the past and devel
oped by the following generations
to its present high standard. Now
it is coming to the rescue of all
Europe.
No doubt, you, dear Mayor,
have an understanding for the
agonizing feelings of a mother,
who must witness the sldw fading
away by hunger and misery of her
beloved children and therefore
show an understanding for my
entreaty to you.
I would feel much obliged to
you, if you could arrange any
thing in that direction, even if it
is only a small help. We really ap
preciate anything. Should you,
however, not be able to accom
plish my request, I can very well
understand that you’ll be other
wise claimed, engaged and ob
liged to help. I would be extreme
ly thankful to you, dear Mayor,
with all my heart, if you might
have the kindness to recommend
I me and my address in the circle of
: your friends or citizens, who are
i able and in a situation to help.
I assure you that nothing could
be a more welcome tidings than
the accomplishment of my request.
For your kindness I shall always
consider myself in your debt.
Very sincerely yours,
Mrs. Auguste Nikolaus.
Thai’s That
By BRUCE GUSTIN
When it comes to helping to
feed European people, why not
send them some of our surplus
food? Wheat isn’t the only thing
that they can use. Recently a dis
patch from Greybull, Wyo., stated
that bean elevators in .the Big
‘Horn basin are accepting beans for
storage only and are not buying
them because there is no market
for beans. Why isn’t the govern
ment buying these beans and send
ing them to Europe if there is such
dire need over there for American
food nsppl'es?