m NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. XLIX. No. 144 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1947' PER COPY — 15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
MOSCOW, \JP) — The Literary
Gazette today termed U. S. Secre
tary of State George C. Marshall
“A gun carrier of Wall Street.”
The periodical’s editorial said
there was nothing in common be
tween the American people and
their secretary of state.
NANKING, 4/P) -— A spokesman
said today the foreign office is
“studying” a Soviet note propos
ing that the foreign ministers of
China, the United tSates, Russia
and England meet in China in
January to discuss the Japanese
peace treaty.
WASHINGTON, (/P)—A hearing
will be held by the civil aeronau
tics board in Seattle next Wednes
day on the Oct. 26 crash of a Pan
American World Airways plane
near the peak of Mt. Tamgas,
Annette Island. Robert W. Chrisp,
chief of the CAB hearing and re
port section, will preside. Thirteen
passengers and five crew members
were killed in the crash. Wreckage
of the four-engined clipper is ex
pected to be hidden -by snow and
inaccessible until next summer.
McCHORD FIELD, (^—“Exer
cise Yukon” company B troops of
the second infantry division left
here by air shortly after noon yes
terday. Headed by Lt. Col. Lex M.
Stout, the unit is being airborne
to Big Delta, via Great Falls,
Mont., and Fore Nelson, B. C., to
participate in Arctic maneuvers
for a one month period.
JUNEAU (/P)—Six seamen from
the Coastal Rambler were arrested
by federal bureau of investigation
agents Friday on charges of pilfer
ing goods from the Alaska Steam
ship vessel.
Authorities said eight jackets
were missing from a Kodiak ship
ment. The men were arrigned in
commissioner’s court and held un
der bond of $3,500 each.
PORTLAND, </P) — State offi
cials and foresters from 11 west
ern states, Alaska and British Co
lumbia will attend the 38th annual
western forestry and conservation
association conference here Dec.
11-13.
Governor Earl Warren of Cal
ifornia, Governor Ernest Gruening
of Alaska, and E. T. Kenny, Brit
ish Columbia minister of lands,
are to lead forestry discussions in
the Dec. 12 session.
Sustained yield programs, fire
protection, and forest manage
ment will be mulled by foresters
at other sessions of the three-day
conference.
WASHINGTON (TP)—The forest
service today announced an exten
sion in the time to qualify for bid
ding and the auction date for sale
of 1,500,000,000 board feet of na
tional forest timber near Ketchi
kan.
Under the revised schedule,
those wishing to qualify for bid
ding may submit statements to
chief forester Lyle F. Watts, by
March 1, 1948.
Applicants will be advised as to
whether they qualify by March 29,
and an oral auction of the timber
Colombia Upsets j
Partitioning Of
Palestine Plan
NEW YORK, (£») — The bitter]
fight over the “Soviet-American”!
plan to partition Palestine was j
split wide open Saturday as a re- j
suit of Colombia's surprise move
of Friday to defer final United Na-!
tions action until next spring.
As the United Nations assembly
was called back into session after
a 24-hour recess, Colombian dele
gate Dr. Alfonso Lopez was re
; ported to have lined up strong
support, including the Arab-led
anti-partitionists, for his plan of
deferrment.
The Arab countries met secretly
j last night and were slated to meet
! again before the assembly con
] vened this afternoon. One inform
, ed source said the Arabs had de
j cided not to take “too stiff” an at
| titude in the problem but they had
! not yet decided whether to offer a
j proposal on their own account,
j This was taken as evidence of
' an apparent move by the Arabs to
; be more open to conciliation.
Heretofore they have been ada
mant against any proposal except
I their demand for a single inde
pendent Arabic nation in the Holy
; Land.
The Colombian proposal for de
• lay was laid before the assembly
! late Friday at Flushing Meadow
Park when most delegates thought
they were finally at the point of
j voting on the partition plan. As
! sembly president Oswaldo Aranha
(Continued on Page Eight)
i
9
Congress Wants To
1 Know Of “Broad
Powers” Desired
I _
WASHINGTON, iff) — Senate
Republicans demanded Saturday
! that the Truman administration
I “get specific” about the anti-in
flation powers it wants from Con
gress.
Senator Taft <R.-Ohio>, chair
man of the Senate-House econo
mic committee, told a reporter he
is opposed to writing any blank
check legislation setting up power,
for example, to earmark scarce
materials for essential uses.
But the Ohioan said he might be
willing to have possibly 10 per
cent of the steel production set
aside for priority requirements,
such as box cars.
Tafe expressed the opinion that
the administration would stretch
any general authority to allocate
to cover more ground than Con
gress intended—and would do so
“very promptly.”
Senator Watkins fR.-Utah), a
member of the joint committee,
said it is time for the administra
tion to “get specific” about plans
to carry out President Truman’s
10-point cost of living program.
“The government officials who
have testified before our commit
tee seem to have only a general
idea of what* they want and they
have talked only in terms of broad
powers,” Watkins remarked.
will be held in the chief forester’s
office April 14.
Schuman Asks
Power To Crack
Down On Agitators
PARIS, (/P) — Premier Robert
Schuman asked the national as
sembly Saturday for power to
crack down on agitators for strikes
or sabotage “by speeches, writing
or tracts.”
He said he wanted this right for
six months as he pleaded for
power to help him fight a strang
ling wave of communist-inspired
strikes throughout France.
The assembly’s committee on
civil and criminal law immediate
ly approved the government bills,
26 to 13, and sent them to the as
sembly. Approval would give the
government a weapon against
n e w s p a p ers encouraging the
strikes, which have made more
than 2,000,000 French workers
idle.
Government employees found
guilty of “agitation” would be dis
missed under the measures. Key
industries, including electric
power, railroads, and wire com
munications, are nationalized and
their employees work for the gov
ernment.
The powers asked bj' Schuman
would run from yesterday until
May 31, 1948.
The proposed law provides six
months’ to five years’ imprison
ment and fine of 1,000 to 500,000
francs <$8 to $4,000 for those who
use violence to bring about a
“cessation of work.”
Schuman demanded a “complete
revision” of the laws of saobtage.
He took cognizance of Friday’s re
port that sabotage was on the in
crase.
As Schuman spoke, more than a
j third of the nation’s 6,000,000 or
ganized workers were on strike
and government forces were eject
ing strikers from rail centers and
other strongholds they had seized.
Schuman also asked the assem
bly to organize part of the French
security forces and to pass a new
law giving added protection to
non-strikers.
Delegations To
Meet With Krug
WASHINGTON. </P) — Repre
sentatives of 35 conservation
groups will give secretary of the
interior Krug and his aides their
views this week of major contro
versial questions, including the
proposals to dispose of large tracts
of Alaskan forest and agricultur
al land to war veterans.
Krug, in inviting the groups to
send delegates to the conference to
day and Tuesday, pointed out that
the interior department chiefs, in
travels throughout the west and in
the territories in recent months,
have obtained the views of many i
individuals and industries.
At this meeting, he explained,
he wants to get the other side of
the picture—the viewpoint of
those who are opposed to use of
resources for individual or com
mercial ends.
Other subjects on the program
include:
Indian hunting, fishing and
grazing rights. '
Waterfowl hunting regulations.
Survivor Tells
Story of Shipwreck
Near Ketchikan
KETCHIKAN. f/P) — Breakers
fully 20 feet high swept over the
deck where the life-jacketed crew
of the Clarksdale Victory assem
bled, clinging to whatever they
could, and the hurtling water
pulled men loose one by one,!
Henry M. Wolfe, second mate, said (
Friday.
Recovering comfortably in the;
Coast Guard infirmary, Wolfe, one I
of four survivors of 53 men on the
army transport after it grounded
last Monday night on Hippa Is
I land, recalled the ship’s last min
utes. He and three other men w’ere
i washed ashore. His home is Oak
i land, Calif.
He went off watch at 8 p.m., he
said, and was lying in his bunk
reading when he felt the ship hit
by breakers on one side and big
swells on the other.
He rushed to the bridge where
third officer William M. Rasmus
! sen, Modesto, Calif., had already
called Capt. Gerald R. Laugesen.
Oakland, Calif. Rasmussen was
also saved but Captain Laugesen
| lost.
! The engines were ordered re
| versed and the ship’s course
j changed, but as Wolfe began tak
i ing soundings, he said, he felt the
ship strike, and soon saw fuel oil
(Continued on Page Eight)
I
I Paris Communist
I Strikers Defy
I Government
PARIS, (/P)—Strikes halted the
Paris subway today and leaders of
the Communist-dominated general
confederation of labor defied the
government’s anti-strike legisla
, tion. Leaders summoned all work
i ers “to action,” asserting they
! would refuse to negotiate further
; toward ending nationwide walk-1
i outs if the legislation was enacted
in the national assembly.
' Subways halted shortly after
noon, when electric power was
! shut off by strikers. Gas pressure
was reported at “danger levels” in
the capital and service was report
ed stopped at Nice, Marseille and
Cannes.
The assembly, which last night
approved a call of 80,000 men to
the colors to combat the creeping
paralysis induced by the strikes,
became a well of tumult that it
suspended for two hours its con- j
sideration of the strike law. Nei-,
ther the chairman nor speakers
could be heard.
With thousands stranded by the
subway shutdown, Paris was
plagued also by a strike at all six
gas companies serving the sub
urbs. The concern furnishing gas
to Paris proper continued service,
although the pressure was report
ed only half normal.
Police and motorized armed
forces opened roads in northern
France to struck coal mines, but
few miners appeared to be return
ing to work. Fights erupted at
Lievin where 700 miners tried, ap
parently without success, to return
to work.
Seven Dead In
Alaska Airlines
At Seattle Airport
SEATTLE, (/Pi—The pilot of a
i'our-engined Alaska Airlines
transport plane which crashed and
burned at the Seattle-Tacoma air
port blamed the crash today on
failure of the hydraulic brakes to
“take the slightest hold,” Seven
persons died and three others were
critically injured as a result of the
accident late yesterday.
The pilot, Capt. James E. Fer
ris, 37, of Seattle, told the Seattle
Times that the DC-4 plane landed
at a speed of approximately 100
miles an hour,” rolled like it was
on a bed of ball bearings” until it
leaped a 60-foot embankment at
i the end of the airport runway. It
'crashed into an automobile on the
highway below, killing a blind
woman in the car. The plane was
flying from Anchorage, to Seattle.
It had 28 persons aboard, 25
passengers and a crew of three.
Three passengers were reported
I in critical condition at the New
' Renton hospital and two were list
ed as unsatisfactory at Harbor
view county hospital.
The others had been released
after treatment or were recovering
from minor burns and bruises in
the hospital.
Twenty-six of the 28 aboard the
big plane scrambled from door
and emergency exits or were pull
ed from the flames by rescuers.
All, however, were seared by the
gasoline-fed flames that flashed
through the fuselage. Four of the
. rescued died later.
The latest casualty was the
i plane’s stewardess, Miss Reba
Monk of Santa Monica, Calif, who
was credited by survivors with
having led many of the passengers
to safety.
The other dead are: Fred Smith,
Tacoma; Leslie Howe, Seattle; Ole
Ring, Anchorage; Mrs. Virginia
Stitsworth, Tacoma; Gordon John
son, 21-month-old son of Mr. and
Mrs. J. E. Johnson, Talmer; Mrs.
Pearl Stella Jones, Seattle, blind
woman trapped in the car which
the big transport smashed as it
careened off the field onto the in
tersection of the Des Moines,
Wash., highway and 158th Street.
Ten others of the plane’s pas
sengers and crew members were
in critical condition at Seattle and
Renton hospitals. Several were
not expected to live.
Bodies of two of the dead were
not recovered until nearly four
hours after the crash because of
the intense heat emitting from the
wreckage.
The plane, A DC-4, crashed only
a few minutes after it had been
turned back from an attempted
landing at Seattle’s Boeing field
by fog. Two airport employees in
the control tower at the Seattle
Tacoma field said the ceiling ra
dioed to Pilot James Evan Farris,
Seattle, as the plane settled
through the overcast was “600 feet
with one and one-quarter miles
visibility.”
Harold K. Philips, chief of the
non-scheduled maintenance divi
sion for the civil aeronautics ad
ministration, sped to the scene for
(Continued on Page Five)