™E NOME NUGGET
4
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LI. No. 139 • NOME, ALASKA. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1949 Per Copy—15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWYORK, <#*) — Bishop Wil
liam T. Manning, one of the lead
ing figures of the Protestant Epis
copal church in the United States,
died Friday at the age of 33.
He was Episcopal bishop of New
York for 26 years, retiring less
than two years ago.
WASHINGTON UP)—'The chair
man of the Catholic Bishops com
mittee on motion pictures said Fri
day that American and foreign
films reached “the lowest ebb of
moral offensiveness” this year.
Bishop William A. Scully of Al
bany, N. Y., said that the Catholic
Legion of Decency, established in
the early 1930’s, “has found the
product of the past year, both for
eign and domestic, morally the
most offensive in numbers and
quality in the history of this or
ganization.”
HOUSTON, Texas, UP)—Speak
er Sam Rayburn says it looks like
the United States is “moving into
the greatest prosperity any coun
try or mankind avere has enjoy
ed.”
He spoke before some 3,500 per
sos at a Democratic party rally
Friday night. He criticized the Re
publican party as talking in post
war years much about a coming
depression.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (/P) —
Prices received by farmers are al
ready down one-fifth from the
postwar peak and they may de
cline another 10 per cent in 1950,
the secretary of agriculture said
Saturday at the National Grange
convention.
Secretaiy Charles F. Brannan in
arguing for his production pay
ment plan of supporting farm re
turns declared it was needed to
maintain an expanding economy
on which prosperity for agricul
ture adn industry depend.
ANCHORAGE, (/P) —Three An
chorage organizations have en
dorsed a proposed one per cent
city sales tax.
The levy is proposed to raise
$500,000 for a civic center. It
would be submitted to voters be
fore enactment.
The organizations leading the
way with early endorsements are
the Chamber of Commerce, ' the
Business and Professional Wo
men's Club and the Rifle and Pis
tol Club.
SINGAPORE, (£>)—Five Royal
Air Force personnel were killed
and two seriously injured when
an RAF Sunderland crashed in
the Straights of Johore off Singa
port Island during a takeoff Sun
day night.
RENO, Nev. </P)—Lincoln Fitz
gerald, prominent Nevada and
Michigan gambling figure, was
I critically injured by shotgun blasts
hi an ambush shooting here at
midnight Friday.
Although the 57-year-old Ca
sino operator was reputed to have
• carried large sums of money, de
tective Sgt. Michael Salonisan de
(Continued on Page Three)
IK Rescued From
Ditched B-29
After 79 Hours
(By James Strebig)
HAMILTON, Bermuda, (JP) —
Beefsteak, families, insurance and
“Move over and give me a little
room”—
That’s what survivors of the
! ditched B-29 said they thought
about during 70 “miserable” hours
! on two six-man life rafts in heavy
Atlantic swells north of Bermuda.
The 18 survivors—four of them
I on stretchers—arrived here yes
1 terday afternoon aboard the Ca
nadian destroyer Haida. The ship
picked them up Saturday after
noon after a U. S. air force B-17
sighted them about 400 miles
i northeast of Bermuda.
Two of the 20-man crew drown
ed before they could get through
the heavy swells to the two life
rafts. One of the 18 survivors was
suffering considerably from shock.
But 14 of the bruised and salt
caked airmen walked unaided
from the crashboats that brought
them to the shore from the ye
stroyer. They grinned at the wild
ly cheering hundreds who watch
ed them transfer to ambulances
that took them to the Kindley Air
Base hospital here.
Most of the man were consid
ered in good conditions. Some had
suffered sprains. Some had salt
water sores. But the majority
seemed fairly fit.
The plane’s commander and pi
lot, Lt. Col. John Grable of March
(Continued on Page Three)
Former Alaskans
Smuggle 600 Jews
Nightly To Israel
_
j ANCHORAGE — Word that
I former Alaska Airlines personnel
from Anchorage are connected
with the nightly smuggling of 600
Sephardic Jews from Arabia to
Israel, came last week in a story
by the Chicago Daily News For
eign Service.
James Wooten, former president
of the Alaska Airlines, was named
in connection with the operation,
when he sent the engine from a
v/recked C-46 aircraft to Seattle
CAA inspectors to determine the
cause of the accident that narrow
ly missed taking the lives of the
refugees who were aboard the ex
Alaska Airlines plane. Wooten’s
actual part in the human smug
gling was not revealed.
Also named was Robert Mc
Guire, former chief pilot for the
Alaskan line. McGuire is running
the secret airlift into Israel in his
capacity as president of the newly
formed Near East Air Transport.
Despite the presence of ex-per
sonnel and airplane sof the Alaska
Airlines, company spokesman at
Paine Field at Everett, Wash., de
nied any connection with the Near
East Air Transport Company. The
Alaska Airlines was charged with
failure to conform with CAB reg
ulations at the time Wooten served
as its head. Wooten personally was
(Continued on Page Eight)
Unions Balk Al
Cost Of Bridges
Perjury Trial
SAN FRANCISCO, t/P;—Long
shore leader Harry Bridges’ per
jury trial, resuming today after a
week-end recess, will cost the de
fense some $200,000, the CIO long
shoremen’s union estimates.
Morris Watson, the union’s pub
lic information offices, said long
shoremen will not put up all that
money. He said it is being sub
scribed from many sources, much
of it from other unions. Longshore
focals, he said, have voted assess
ments ranging from $1 to $5 a
member.
Australian-born Bridges, stormy
labor figure for years on West
Coast waterfronts, is on trial in
federal court here charged with
perjury in denying communist
membership at his naturalization
hearing in 1945. Two union offi
cials, Henry Schmidt and J. R.
(Continued on Page Three)
Census Taking To
Start In February
j JUNEAU, (^P) —Census-taking
i on Alaska’s 1950 population will
! get underway next February in
stead of April, Gene Tarris, 11th
area census bureau supervisor,
said last week.
The advance in the date ahead
of the stateside starting time is to
avoid transportation difficulties
accompanying the spring breakup
in the Interior, Harris said.
His staff of enumerators will be
built through cooperation of vari
ous Alaskan agencies. National
Guard aircraft will be used when
necessary to reach isolated points.
There will be class meetings to
instruct enumerators, but those in
outlying districts will learn the
ropes via correspondence course.
Harris’ office in Seattle will di
rectly administer Alaska’s census,
I with Clarence Keating acting as
Alaska supervisor.
All B-29’s Must Be
Modernized Before
Fl\ inu Again
» n r'
WASHINGTON, f/P)—a part of
tbe nation’s B-29 bomber fleet was
grounded Saturday while the air
force launched an investigation
into a series of crashes which have
killed at least 120 men in the past
12 weeks.
Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg. chief
of staff, issued the grounding or
der Friday night,
i A few hours before, the latest
crash had killed five of a nine
man crew aboard a superfortress
which was taking off to help
search for the 20 men aboard an
other B-29 mising off Bermuda
since mid-week.
Six accidents have occurred in
{ the past 16 days, with a known
death toll of 35 and with the 20
men aboard the lost B-29 still
missing.
Available unofficial records
show that since August 26, when
16 crewmen died after an engine
caught fire in a takeoff from Hic
kam Field, Hawaii, 27 superfort
resses have gone down with a
death toll of 120.
Vandenberg’s order will have
this effect:
Any superfortress used by the
strategic air command or the 19th
bomb group in the Far East—un
less all of its four engines have
been “modernized”—is grounded
until a detailed inspection can be
made by technical experts.
The greater part of all B-29’s
are used by either SAC or the 19th
group.
A second part of the order
grounds all B-29’s which have
[ been subjected to “maximum op
erating stresses,” but this part of
the directive does not apply to
SAC and 19th group planes.
The second part of the order
apparently applied only to a rel
atively few B-29’s used in rescue
search or weather reconnaissance
missions.
To keep from potential enemies
(Continued on Page Two)
GOOD OLD JOHN
_!--!_J_1
IWs of ihe W orld
\l A (ilance ...
Saturday, November 19, 1949
(By The Associated Press'
The diplomatic war between
Yugoslavia, the cominform outcast,
and Soviet Russia took on a new
spurt today.
The Soviet news agency Tass
said Lazo Lutinovic, acting head
of Yugoslavia’s embassy in Mos
cow has been expelled for spying
and subversive activities.
* Latinovic. now' in Yugoslavia,
took charge of the embassy after
I the Russian government said his
chief. Ambassador Karl Mrazovic,
no longer was acceptable. Russia
had accused Mrazovic. too, of sub
i versive activities.
The latest move looked like re
i taliation in the bitter word war
between the Kremlin and Premier
Marshal Tito who has snipped
; mother Russia’s apron strings,
i Tass said the Russian consul at
Zagreb and a military attache at
i Belgrade had bee nordered out of
! Yugoslavia by the Tito govern
j ment. A Soviet information bur
eau official had also been given
I his walking papers. They were ac
cused of “engaging in anti-Yugo
i slav activities.”
The Russians denied the charges
! Tass said. The agency added:
The Russians regard the expul
| sion of their attaches “as a new
manifestation of the hostile policy
of the Yugoslav government tow
j ard the Soviet Union.”
i Yugoslavia yesterday joined the
Sovie bloc in opposition to a U. N.
resolution approving an arms em
bargo against Greece's neighbors,
Albania and Bulgaria. The two
lily-pure cominform countries bor
dering Greece were accused of aid
ing Greek communist guerrillas. A
U. N. committee reported that Yu
goslavia, once accused of helping
the guerrillas, has not given them
help since Tito split with the com
inform.
Yugoslavia charged that the
Athens government is engaging in
terrorism, atrocities and brutality,
especially in Macedonia.
President Truman was guest of
honor at a state dinner given last
night in Washington by the visit
ing Shah of Iran. The President
said he hopes to help Iran become
the Western World’s strong “right
flank.” Apparently in the Presi
dent’s scheme the left and center
in the drive to halt Soviet expan
sion are to be taken care of by the
North Atlantic alliance.
The concil of Atlantic Pact
countries yesterday set up in
Washington a military production
and supply board to handle the
flowr of military equipment and
an economic and financial com
mittee as a watch-dog on spend
ing.
Monday, November 21. 1949
Britain’s Field Marshal Viscount
Montgomery arrives in the United
States today for a round of unof
ficial talks with America’s top
military men.
During his 12-day stay, he will
confer with General Eisenhower,
His World War II boss; Gen.Omar
(Continued on Page Seven)