— NOME NUGGET
_OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS__
VOL. LI. No. 5_NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY i 2, 1349_Per Copy—15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
WASHINGTON. i/P>—President
Truman asked Congress for $1.
020.GOO for the Nome Harbor and
S5C0.000 for Wrangell Narrows in
the year beginning July 1 in his
budget message Monday.
The President's recommenda
tions for rivers and harbors works
over the nation totaled $229,224.
100.
NEW YORK (/P)—All New York
taxicabs must be stripped of their
radios, says the City Hack Bureau.
The order really affects only
owner-drivers, since nearly all
fleet operator's have eliminated
radios from their cabs. There are
11,800 cabs in the city today.
Reason for the order is an ef
fort to reduce the number of acci
dents.
FORT WILLIAN, Ont. (/P)—The
dogs will get their chance to howl
again. Bappiper Alex Simpson to
day accepted a bid to play a re
turn engagement at this year’s
northern Manitoba trappers festi
val, scheduled for Jan. 19-22 in
the Pas. The doughty Scot said he
wasn’t disconcerted a bit by the
way the trappers’ dogs followed
the pipes and started howling
whenever he played last time.
“They’ve got music in their
voices,” he said.
SEATTLE, <JP) — The Alaska
Steamship company said today the
Motorship Ring Splice will return
to the Alaska run Jan. 22.
Charter arrangements are now
being worked out with the U. S.;
maritime commission for use .of j
the vessel. It will begin loading j
Monday.
i
JUNEAU </R)—Reports received j
here said today all west coast in
surance companies have agreed to,
a blanket raise of 50 per cent in
fire insurance rates because of the
increase in the number of cannery ,
fires in Alaska.
-* I
MANCHESTER, Eng. </P)—Miss j
Margaret Allen, 43, a spinster who j
dressed like a man, was hanged (
today for murder. She was the
first woman to be executed in
Britain in 12 years.
Sse was convicted of killing a j
70-year-old Lancashire woman in j
a robbery. The jury rejected her
plea of insanity.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, <JP) —
90-year-old King Gustav opened
parliament yesterday with a 149
word-speech, one of the shortest
of his reign. He told the deputies
Scandinavian cooperation in Eu
rope defense is being investigated,
and that the nation is beginning to
achieve economic balance.
After the speech the King was
troubled by a severe coughing at
tack.
ANCHORAGE, (VP)—Planes are
searching today for the Rev.
Franklin Smith. Dillingham min
ister, who has been missing since
Saturday on a flight from Naknek
to Anchorage.
The search was hampered by
heavy snows the last four days.
The minister is believed to have
been alone in his ski-equipped
Special Session At
Last Gets Down
To Work
(By James Huicheson)
JUNEAU, (>P) — Both branches
of the Alaska Legislature got down
to business today after hearing the
Governor call for a new basic tax
program.
The House passed two routine
bill.s first of the special session,
yesterday afternoon. The Senate
organized under new president
Frank Peratrovich of Klawock,
who was chosen by compromise on
the 19th ballot to end a long dead
lock. It drew up committees with
eight Republican and seven Demo
cratic chairmen.
Gunnard Engebreth, Anchorage
Republican, is scheduled to head
the Senate in the regular session.
Governor Gruening told the
legislature the Alaska deficit ex
ceeds $2,000,000. He said taxation
experts recommended a grauated
net incofne tax for corporations
and individuals, a property tax
and an equitable trade-license tax.
Bills passed by the House were
one to make a new compilation of
laws authorized by the 1947 legis
lature and the code of Alaska and
another appropriating $750 for five
typewriters for the Legislature.
Chairman named for the major
Senate committees include: Fin
ance, John Butrovich, Jr., Repub
lican, Fairbanks; Taxation, Victor
Rivers, Democrat Anchora g e ;
Rules Howard Lyng Democrat,
Nome; Bank and Banking, Charles
Jones, Republican, Nome; Educa
tion, Public Health, Morals and
Veterans Affairs, Andrew Ner
land, Republican, Fairbanks; Fish
eries, Game and Agriculture, Wal
ter Huntley, Democrat, Anchor
age.
Judiciary and Federal Relations,
E. B. Collins, Republican, Fair
banks; Labor, Commerce, Anita
(Continued on Page Eight)
Little Likelihood
Of More Tax On
Low Incomes
(By William F. Arbogast)
WASHINGTON, </P) — Low and
middle salary groups appeared
likely to escape any general in
come tax boosts this year in spite
of a record $41,858,000,000 peace
time budget.
But there was fairly general
agreement in both Democratic and
Republican ranks that if Presi
dent Truman’s spending program
for the fiscal year starting July 1
is to be followed, someone is going
to have to ante up more money.
(Continued on Page Eight)
Cub “Super Cruiser.’’
The Reverend Smith has served
at Dillingham since 1936 and at
Palmer and Fairbanks previously.
JUNEAU, (/P)—A $260,000 bond
issue for street improvements was
adopted by voters yesterday.
It includes the paving of nearly
100 blocks of streets. Its passage
make a total of $582,000 voted in
recent months for improvements.
WASHINGTON
(By Mary Lee Council)
Secretary to E L. (Bob) Bartlett.
Delegate to Congress from Alaska
During th<? first week of the 81st
Congress Delegate Bartlett intro
duced 33 bills affecting Alaska
headed by an enabling measure to
bring the Territory into the Union
as a State. Several additional mea
sures are being drafted which the
Delegate hopes to sponsor by in
troduction in the next few weeks.
Included are bills to provide for
a program of public works for the
development of Alaska, such as
schools, hospitals, sewers, wharv
es, docks, roads, libraries and fire
houses; to transfer the fisheries of
Alaska to the Territory with a
provision which would also turn
over one-half the net proceeds ac
cruing to the United States from
the sale of sealskins on the Pribil
of Islands to be used for the pur
pose of defraying the cost of Ter
ritorial control of the fisheries; to .
authorize the Secretary of the In- j
terior to construct, operate and
maintain hydroelectric power
plants in the Territory; to author
ize the Alaska Legislature to per
mit the Adaska Housing Authority
to undertake housing projects.
Additional legislation would ap
ply the workmen’s compensation
laws of Alaska to those working
on federal projects; abolish 80
rod shore space reservations in the
national forest land in the Terri
tory pertaining to tracts of land
acquired under use-permit from
the secretary of agriculture; au
thorize increases in funds for ex
tension service and experiment
station work in Alaska! provide
for life time appointments of fed
eral judges in the Alaska district
court, those judges now serving
under four-year appointments; ex
tend the Farm Credit Act to Alas
ka; provide for the establishment
of a national cemetery at Juneau;
allow carriage of passengers be
tween ports in Alaska on foreign
vessels and permit transportation
of merchandise between points in
the States and points in Alaska on i
foreign vessels if part of the route
is over Canadian rail lines; clarify
the definition of residence as it
applies to foreign-born persons not
citizens or nationals of the United
(Continued on Page Two)
I
Sen. Jones Gives
Tax Measure
JUNEAU, bP)—The Senate met
only briefly following committee
organization and the first tax bill
introduced into the Senate pro
posed a one per cent levy of the
gross receipts of all contracts for
$50,000 or more. This would mean
$10,000 tax on each million of big
military base contracts.
The measure wsa introduced by
Senator Charley Jones of Nome,
conservative Republican. The tax
would become effective next July
first.
The bill provides heavy penal
ties for any violation. It would
double the amount of tax in addi
tion to a possible thousand dollar
fine and six months imprisonment.
Governors Message
Asks For “Sound
Finaneial Basis”
(By James Hutcheson)
JUNEAU, Jan. 11, (^—Gover
nor Gruening proposed to a spe
cial session of the Alaskan Legis
lature today a three-pronged basic
tax program in the face of an
Alaska deficit which he said ex
ceeds S2,000,000.
He said in a message prepared
for a joint House-Senate session
that recommendations of taxation
experts are: a graduated net in
come tax for corporations and in
dividuals, property tax and equi
table trade-license tax.
Income and property tax mea
sures have already been introduc
ed in the House.
The governor declared: “It is
The Governor dclard: “It is very
clearly the responsibility of this
Legislature to tackle the situation
vigorously. That mandate was un
• Continued on Page Five)
Peratrovich Voted
As Special Session
Senate President
(By James Hutcheson)
JUNEAU, (/P)—Frank Peratro
vich, a Democrat from Klawock,
took over yesterday as Senate
president fo rthe special session of
the Alaska legislature, ending a
four-day deadlock.
Peratrovich, representing the
First Division, is part Indian and
is serving his second term in the
Senate.
His election was a compromise
reached on the 19th ballot after
intermittent party caucusing and
a 2Vfe hour secret executive ses
sion.
Gunnard Engebreth of Anchor
age, a Republican, is slated to
head the Senate in regular session.
An unofficial but well-authenti
cated story of how the Senators
broke the log-jam is as follows:
Republicans decided which
Democrat they would vote for and
the Democrats agreed which Re
(Continued on Page Six)
Mention Lyng
For Governor
ANCHORAGE — Howard Lyng,
Democratic National Committee
man, has been mentioned here as
acandidate for Governor of Alaska
in the event that the present en
cumbent is given the go-by in
Washington this time. Mr. Lyng is
again in the Senate this session
from the Second Division. He is a
native Alaskan, having been born
at Sand Point in the Shumagin Is
lands, where his father was an
early-day trader.
RADIO STATION WXLN
IS AGAIN ON THE AIR
WXLN, which has been off the
air due to mechanical difficulties
is again in operation, stated Sgt.
Johnny Mock, who has been in
Anchorage and just returned. The
station’s programs for the week
are announced in this issue.
Search For Three
kin<* Islanders
r
Continues
Throe natives from their small
village on remote King Island, sit
uated in the middle of the Bering
Sea, over forty miles off the west
ern coast of Alaska’s Seward Pe
ninsula, were still missing yester
day adrift on a loose cake of float
ing ice. The natives who were out
hunting seal and walrus for food
for their families were suddenly
isolated on the ice floe when it
broke away from the solid ice
pack.
A message from Father Cun
ningham. Catholic priest on King
Island, to the Commanding Officer
of Marks Air Force Base on the
7th of January alerted personnel
at Marks Air Force Base to con
duct immediate search missions.
But sixty mile per hour gale
winds and bitter Arctic weather
precluded any attempt to initiate
search fo rthe three natives until
the 10th of January.
Since that time, USAF aircraft
from Marks Air Force Base have
been continually searching the
Bering Sea, during all daylight
(Continued on Page Four*
Weather Still
Dealing States
lev Blasts
<By The Associated Press)
Weather’s wintry elements un
leashed further damaging blows
to storm-weary States over most
of the western half of the nation
today.
Snow, ice and sleet storms hit
an area from the Texas-Oklahoma
Panhandle to the Pacific Coast.
California shivered again in
freezing temperatures.
Los Angeles suburban areas
were blanketed with up to six
inches in snow in probably the
worst snowstorm in southern Cal
ifornia history.
There was snow and ice from
the state’s winter resort spots to
the mountains. Many highways
were closed because of ice and
snow. The fruit and vegetable
crop was further endangered by
the wintry blasts. The freezing
weather followed last week’s kill
(Continued on Page Six'
Margo Freeman
In Harp Concert
Here Friday Night
The beautiful harp of Margo
Freeman, has arrived and has been
placed in the Nome School for the
concert next Friday evening.
Margo Freeman who is a mem
ber of the Anchorage Symphony
had her harp flown in from the
States in 1946, and has been very
active in Anchorage ever since.
She not only has been a soloist in
the symphony but is director of a
five-piece harp ensemble, whidfc
was patterned after her Holly
wood Ensemble.
The harpist began studying mu
(Continued on Page Seven)