Oldest Newspaper In Alaska. “The News of The Day In Pictures” Member Of The Associated Press
THE NOME NUGGET”
VOL. 43. No. 46. NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, April 18, 1941 Per Copy im
Germans Force Allies To Retreat
London Is Object Most Destructive Raid of War
To Raise Three and Half Billion By New Taxes
GERMAN TROOPS FROM NORTH
DRIVE ALLIES TO EXECUTE
GRADUAL WITHDRAWAL LINES
UNDATED, April 18 (^—Ger
man troops, flooding down from
the north, presumably from fall
en Yugoslavia, drove the Allied
armies to execute “a gradual
withdrawal and shorter line of
defense” in northern Greece. It
appeared that the 13-day-old bat
tie of the Balkans was fast ap
proaching a critical state. The
British middle cast headquarters,
P acknowledging the Allied retreat
deeper into Greece, declared that
however, the German advance in
volved a “costly” toll. Some es
timates put the Nazi dead at
50,000.
Mussolini’s command said the
Greek left wing was crumbling
and the Greeks falling back
along the Adriatic Sea coast in
disorder while Fascist columns
columns swept successively into
Argirocastro, Premet, and Porto
Palm ro. The official Italian
news agency said II Duce’s arm
ies were in sight of Porto Eddo,
named after Mussolini’s daughter
which is the last Albanian port
j held by the Greeks.
| The Greek spokesman said sad
ly “The situation is dev loping
unfavorably in the struggle ag
ainst the two empires, imposed
I on us by Germany. We couldn’t
1 last indefinitely.’’
Dispatches from Athens said
I that at least ten German divi
sions of about 120,000 troops
were slashing at the Allied lines
j with the support of a thousand
warplanes.
To Raise Three
And Half Billion
By New Taxes
k WASHINGTON, April 17 ifP)—
Secretary of the Treasury Mor
gentihau announced that the ad
ministration and both Democrat
ic and Republican congressional
leaders had agreed to ask for
three and a half billion dollars
in new taxes to be raised next
year. He told reporters that Presi
dent Roosevelt approved of the
proigram and at an early date
will discuss it with the American
people. No details as to how the
money will be raised was dis
closed but Morgenthau indicated
that the government will tap ev
ery possible means of raising dol
lar taxes, despite the former pol
icies of the administration.
He indicated that such drastic
means as the general sales tax,
payroll tax, and other heavy mon
ey raising taxes, are under eonsid
eration.
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PACT UPSETS YUGOSLAVS
The Yugoslavian government which signed an Axis pact at Vienna
(1) was out of office after protest rioting during which there were
demonstrations in Belgrade (2) and in every city shown in the
white area here, including Sarajevo (3, where assassination of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in 1914 was the
spark which set off the World War.
FDR Asserts Public
Not Aware Acute
ness Of Situation
WASHINGTON, April 18 <#>}—
President Roosevelt expressed be
! lief that American public opin
* on is not adequately aware of
the aeut ness of the war situa
tion in Europe, but is becoming
increasingly aware. He made the
statement in response to a press
conference query and went on
that he thought Americans could
be made increasingly alert thru
the exercise of their general in
telligence through what he call
ed the cracker barrel press club
conversations.
Further interrogation brought
from the President additional
statements bearing on the de
fense program and aid to coun
tries battling the Axis.
The administration has author
ized specific shipments of mater
j ials to China but the President
doesn’t know whether any have
1 started on the way across the
Pacific.
He doesn’t see, now, any steps
in prospact similar to the deci
sion to curtail auto production
'py twenty percent.
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PORTLAND CHEMICAL PLANT BLOWS UP
' ' ^WW7'', "i T""TM
mgm
Firemen are seeking possible victims in the wreckage of the R. N. Chapman Chemical company plant
in Portland, Ore., leveled by a blast which killedat least one person and injured 14 others. The plant
was completed recently.
GOVERNOR ASSAILS LOBBY
SOME MEMBERS OF RECENT
LEGISLATURE IN MESSAGE
Titled “A Message to the Peo
ple of Alaska,” a statement by
Gov. Ernest Greuning concern
ing the recem session of the Leg
islature is being released through
out the Territory.
The message is as follows:
The session of the Fifteenth
Territorial Legislature just con
cluded brings out more clearly
than ever the basic issue that
confronts the people of Alaska.
This issue is whether Alaska
shall be built up for the peopL
of Alaska in conformity with Ani
orican principles and standards,
or whether it shall continue to be
governed for and by outside in
terests whose sole concern is to
take out of Alaska as much as
they can, as fast as they can, and
to leave as little as possible.
Alaska’s Organic Act adopted
in an earlier day (1912) created a
Legislature of 16 Representativ
es and eight Senators. With a
majority vote required to pass
any measure, four Senators can
block any legislation. Under the
Legislature’s rules a two-thirds
vote is required whenever it is
desired to speed legislation by
“suspension of the rules” and
two-thirds are also required for
acceptance from one House by
the other of a measure after the
50th day. In practice this works
out so that THREE men in the
Senate can block any legislation.
And that is why outside vested
interests with tiheir private pur
poses to serve can control the
situation. They have but to win
three men out of 24.
In public affairs things are not
always what they seem; there is
the accepted story, the account
as it appears in most newspapers
the official record, the version
that becomes part of the school
history text book. And there is
the reality, which is often quite
different. Now in this great cris
is, at this historic moment when
democracy is challenged as never
before in its history we should
not deal with anything but the
realities. There is not time. The
hour is too serious. “It is later
than you think.”
Two Classes of Legislators
It was the will of the Lobby,
which determined the final result
in the Fifteenth Session of the
Territorial Legislature. A major
ity of the legislators could not
be directly affected by the Lobby.
Relatively few in our public life
can be DIRECTLY influenced by
it; and those are known in ad
vance to the Lobby. Often they
have sought election for the sole
purpose of protecting certain in
terests. For, broadly speaking,
legislators fall into two classes:
Those who seek to represent
their constituents honestly and
honorably, and those who are
there to serve something else,
themselves included. It is not
difficult to recognize in most cas
es into which classes the legis
lators fall. There are some who
unabashedly and quite shameless
ly serve the private interests
which hires them and who un
(Continued from Page Two)
LONDON BATTERED BY UN
COUNTED TONS OF BOMBS
IN EIGHT-HOUR NAZI RAID
LONDON, April 17 (JP) —Hun
dreds of Nazi planes roared con
tinuously over London for eight
hours last night and early today
to drop uncounted tons of high
explosives and fire bombs in the
heaviest raid of the war.
Morgues were crowded, hospit
als jammed and blocks on blocks
of buildings turned into smoulder
ing wreckage. No one had any
accurate idea of the number of
dead and wounded and the vast
amount of property damage to
the already batter.d capital, but
there were no doubts as to the
intensity of the attack. Thou
sands of explosive and fire bombs
fell and observers compared it to
the fierce raid on Coventry and
said it was wopse than anything
seen at London during the height
of the Nazi assaults last autumn.
Among the dead were Lord
Stamp, the government’s (econ
omic adviser, and his wife. His
body was recovered but search
ers are still burrowing in the
debris for the body of Lady
Stamp.
Death struck at air raid ser
vice men in all parts of the city.
Members of a rescue squad were
killed when a bomb exploded
directly in front of their truck as
it sped to the scene of a previous
blast.
Firemen on a high ladder, pour
ing water onto a blazing build
ing were killed when a bomb hit
th,e foot of the ladder.
Five fire watchers were killed
by a hit on a church steeple.
To an observer standing on the
roof of a tall west end apartment
building it seemed that all of Lon
don was burning or exploding,
as bombs crashed down and anti
aircraft batt ries poured an un
ending stream of shells into the
skies. The air was tilled with thick
smoke and dust, and sparks danc
ed over the sky. The very earth
seemed to shake and screams
could be heard even above the
roar of the guns and bombs.
In spite of the heavy anti-air
craft barrage and activities of
the RAF night flights, only five
German planes were reported
downed.
To Be No
Government
Control News
WASHINGTON, April 17 UP)—
President Roosevelt told the na
tion’s editors that so far as he
was concerned “there is no gov
ernment control of news unless it
is vital military information.”
In a letter to the American So
ciety of Newspaper Editors an
nual convention, the President de
dared free speech is in the un
disputed possession of the press,
magazine, motion pictures, and
radio, and so far as he is concern
ed “it will remain there, for that
is where it belongs.”
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