22 NOME NUGGET
_•_OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_
9 VOL. LI. No. 23 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23 1949 Per Copy—15c
NEWS iN BRIEF
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LOS ANGELES, UP)—The Pa
cific coast league baseball train
ing season, safely past the open
y ing day lard-rendering exercises,
bore down yesterday to serious
work_ News of the camps in brief:
San Fernando—The Hollywood
Stars opening workout was ac
cented by batting practice home
runs by outfielder Bob Reach and
infielder Jim Gates. Twenty-seven
men were in uniform.
DETROIT, UP)—On the basis of
voter participation Detroit’s spring
elections Monday ran toward the
extravagant side. It cost $1.23 a
vote, according to official estim
ate.
In nine contests for minor of
fices only about 80,700 of Detroit’s
868,000 registered voters took
part. For this the city spent $99,
500. It was only second high to the
record however. In 1945 the
spring election cost $1.44 a vote.
CAMBRIDGE, O. OP)—Mother
and son are doing nicely thank you
—but the father, well, only fair.
That was the report last night
from St. Francis hospital after
Mrs. Wilbur Archer presented her
husband, a 34-year-old World
War II veteran with a six pound,
six ounce baby boy.
Ancher fainted when a nurse
showed him the baby. His head
struck the floor and he required
17 stitches in his face and chin.
i _
ROME, (.P)—A 24-hour nation
wide strike of street car and in
terurban train operators ended
yesterday morning.
In Rome, Milan and Florence
the Italian government had put
buses and other vehicles into op
eration, some of them manned by
police, but traffic was crippled in
* many parts of Italy.
The strike was called to protest
the offer of government grants to
priately-owned and financially
shaky lines upon condition that
enough men be dismissed to place
operation on an economic basis.
_
SEATTLE, (/P)—Neill Sheridan,
who clubbed .311 as a Rainier
outfielder last season, has been
optioned again to the Seattle Pa
cific Coast league club by the Bos- i
ton Red Sox.
He was recalled near the end of
last season by the Sox.
SEATTLE, (JP)— Governor Er
nest Gruening of Alaska and may
ors of five Alaska -cities were
among guests invited yesterday to
attend the annual Alaska stag din
ner of the Arctic Club Friday
night.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (/P)—
Fugitives from juke box be-bop
and ballads find solace at Otto
Katt’s Pearl Street restaurant
here. For a nickel and a push at a
button they can hear “Hymns of
the Cross” or “Near the Cross.”
Katt explains he added hymns
to the juke box fare after more
than 500 patrons petitioned for the
change.
DENVER, </P)—Denver firemen
were called out on an unusual as
signment yesterday: a water tank
NLRB Charges
Taft-Hartley Law
Creates Friction
WASHINGTON, (/P) — The na
tional labor relations board chair
man said yesterday the Taft
Hartley law has brought “friction”
Ln tween the board and its general
counsel.
Paul M. Herzog, the NLRB
chairman, cited examples of “fric- j
tion, delay, uncertainty and un- j
necessary litigation” in a letter to
Senator Morse (R.-Ore.).
Morse put the letter into the
Senate labor committee record.
The committee is holding hearings
on the administration’s bill to re
peal the Taft-Hartley law and re
store the old Wagner labor rela
tions act with some changes.
At the time Morse produced the
letter, Gerhard P. Van Arkel, a
former NLRB counsel, was in the
committee’s witness chair. He had
just testified that he believes the
• Continued on Page Three*
International News
At A Glance —
Tuesday, February 22, 1949
(By The Associated Press)
American authorities in Berlin
disclosed an incident today that
has been top secret for some time.
The authorities said a Russian
rocket fired in practice during
maneuvers landed some time ago
in the American zone without
causing any damage or injuries.
“It was a rocket of the ordinary
type and nothing unusual in its
construction,” a high American
officer said.
The officer said the incident had
been filed away in the top secret
category because it would have
served no purpose to make it pub
lic at the time.
The disclosure coincided with a
new barrage of Soviet anti-West
propaganda.
Czechoslovak cabinet ministers,
led by Premier Antonin Zapotocky
left their closely guarded homes
and offices today for a parliament
session marking the first anniver
sary of this communist “People’s
democracy.”
In China there was little to in
dicate progress toward unifying
the national government
Acting president Tsung-Jen
warned the communists must not
cross the Yangtze river if they
want peace. Li declared a Red at
tack on Nanking and Shanghai
south of, the river ’would end ef
forts for peace negotiations.
The acting president had paid a
visit to Canton to try to persuade
Premier Sun Fo and the cabinet
(Continued on Page Two)
caught fire.
The tank, was victim of a weld
er’s torch. Interior insulation ma
terial was set ablaze.
Assistant fire chief John Horan j
said he had a little trouble con
vincing his men the thing was
really burning. They set up a 100
foot ladder and soon had the
flame? under control.
B-36’s Look Good
In Operation
FORT WORTH, Tex. </P)—,Arc
tic training flights for Fort Worth
based B-36 bombers must await
study of winter Arctic tests now
being made with a B-36 sent from
Eglin Air Base, Fla., to Alaska
recently.
Maj. Gen. Richard C. Lindsay,
deputy chief of air force plans and
operations, reported this.
He said: “Even then, limited
housing and maintenance facilities
at Alaskan bases will be able to
accommodate only a few planes
at a time—nothing so large as a
group,” Lindsay explained.
“The B-36’s looked fine in their
demonstration flight over Wash
ington last Tuesday.” Lindsay re
ported. “In fact, the more we see
of them, the better they look in
operation.”
File Second Suit
Against Alaska
Income Tax Law
SEATTLE, (fP)—In a second ac
tion testing Alaska’s new income
i tax law, U. S. District Judge John
( C. Bown signed a temporary re
straining order Monday enjoining
employers from deducting the
Alaska tax from the deck person
elle’s payroll on the S. S. Diamond
Cement.
The action was brought by Bon
Dombroff, Seattle agent of the
sailor’s union of the Pacific and
C. W. Barnhart, agent for the mas
ters,’ mates’ and pilots ’and others
against the Permonente Steam
ship corporation and the Olympic
Steamship corporation, owner and
agent, respectively, of the Dia
mond Cement.
A previous action testing the
Territorial law, also brought by
the sailors’ union and involving
the Alaska Steamship company is
now pending in federal court.
LIFTING THE LID
ATJUNEAU
Tuesday, February 22. 1949
(By James Hutcheson)
JUNEAU, (JP)—The Territory’s
first general property tax of 10
mills and a quadruple fish tax
program are law today.
Signed yesterday by Governor
Gruening, the bills were the first
two major taxation measures
passed by the regular session of!
the Alaska Legislature.
Both Houses are in adjournment
today, Washington’s birthday.
The Senate voted 15-1 yester
day to trim from $90 to $75 the
maximum monthly payment al
lowed in a House-approved old
age pension measure. The upper
house also approved retention of
present laws requiring five years’
residence in the Territory and
limiting eligibility to U. S. citi
zens.
The House bill would have call
ed for increasing payments by 50
per cent from the present $60 a
month, would have qualified
aliens for benefits and would have
(Continued on Page Three)
Congress Not Com
mittal On Social
Security Program
WASHINGTON, CP)—Lawmak
ers gave this answer yesterday to
President Truman’s rec4uest for a
vast expansion of the social secur
ity system: Some of it may pass—
but not the whole thing.
The bill Mr. Truman sent to
Capitol Hill Monday proposed <a>*
providing direct “home relief” to
all needy persons; <b' blanketing
20,000.000 more persons under old
age insurance; <c) greatly increas
ing the benefits; <d> raising—in
some cases, tripling—thje tax on
pay checks and pay rolls.
It was the “home relief” idea
which ran into the closest scrutiny
in Congress.
Top Democratic manager of se
1 curity legislation — cha i r m a n
Doughton <D.-N. C.) of the House
ways and means committee and
Senate finance committee — took
chairman Geoi'ge <D.-Ga.) of the
• Continued on Page Five)
I
Russians Deport
Anna Strong,
American “Spy*’
i WAHSAW, Poland. — Anna
Louise Strong, American journal
ist deported from Russia, left War
saw yesterday for an undisclosed
i destination.
A Warsaw hotel reported she ar
rived secretly Saturday. The ar
rival was not mentioned in Polish
newspapers, which a few months
i ago had splashed her articles fa- j
vorable to the communists. She
was deported by the Soviet Union
on charges of having been a spy.
At Moscow, the Soviet press
carried a brief announcement yes- ■
terday, saying “The arrested
American woman journalist A.!
Strong was deported from the
U.S.S.R.”
The brief announcement did
not state where she was deported.
Miss Strong’s arrest was an
nounced in the Moscow press Feb.
15.
_
Engineer Treks 30
Miles In Snow To
Report Wreck
CORDOVA, (JP) — The engineer
of the power barge Flying Cloud
arrived here yesterday after a
herculean trek through some 30
miles of wartst-deep snows and
sloughs to report his vessel
grounded on a reef on the Copper
river flats.
The craft at last report still was
hanging on a bar off Grass Island,
under assault by ocean breakers,
and its three passengers—Mr. and
Mrs. Fred Howard and their son
in-law, Robert Zentmire — were
awaiting aid. A Cordova Air Serv
ice plane carrying pilot Buck
Starbuck and observer Jack
Downing spotted the 105-foot
barge yesterday afternoon.
Engineer Leonard Holeman, the
toes on one foot frozen, told this
(Continued on Page Six)
i
No “S. (). B.” Can
Influence Truman
In Appointments
WASHINGTON, (/P)—Critics of
his administration had personal
and blunt notice today from Pres
ident Truman that no “S. O. B.”
is going to influence his appoint
ments.
Some 200 persons—members of
the reserve officers association
and their wives—heard Mr. Tru
man deliver that startling pro
nouncement in an earthy, matter
of-fact. impromptu talk last night
a* a dinner honoring Maj. Gen.
Harry H. Vaughan, his military
aide.
The diners were brought to
sharp attention as Mr. Truman
departed from his homey, neigh
borly style and turned to artillery
language:
“Now, I am just as fond and
.iust as loyal to my military aide
as I am to the high brass, and 1
want you to distinctly understand
that any S. O. B. who thinks he
can cause any of those people to
be discharged by me, by some
smart aleck statement over the air
on in the paper, he has got an
other think coming.
“No commentator or columnist
names any members of my cabi
net, of my staff. I name them my
self, and when it is time for them
to be moved on, I do the moving,
—nobody else.”
The official transcript of Mr.
Truman’s off-the-cuff talk, re
leased later by the White House,
omitted any reference to the term,
“S. O. B.” Drew Pearson, radio
commentator and columnist, has
criticized Vaughan for accepting
a decoration from President Peron
of Argentina.
He stood outside the Argentine
embassy the night the medal was
presented, taking down the names
of those attending.
Afterward, Pearson said that
while this country is spending bil
lions abroad to help democracy,
and “while President Truman has
spoken thousands of words about
(Continued on Page Five)
Fishermen Net
Most Valuable
Year On Record
WASHINGTON, (/P) — Fisher
men hauled out of U. S. lakes,
streams and off-shore deeps last
year the most valuable but by no
means the biggest catch in history,
the fish and wildlife service said
recently.
The agency estimated the 1948
catch at 4,500,000,000 pounds, 500,
000,000 pounds more than in 1947
but well below the 1941 record of
5.200.000. 000 pounds.
The government experts are not
yet ready to estimate the value of
the 1948 catch except to say that
it safely exceeded the 1947 record
of $302,000,000.
The catch was processed into
products which retailed at about
one billion dollars, the service es
timated.
San Pedro, Calif., remained the
nation’s top fishing port, landing
460.000. 000 pounds of fish—most
(Continued on Page Six)