m NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. XLiX. No. 16. NOME,"ALASKA, WEDNESDAyTfEBRUARY 5, 1947 PER COPY — 15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
MOSCOW, (/P) — The govern
ment toua^ tosuei its fil'cn demob
ilization order since June 23, 1945,
singling out several thousand more
Russian armed force personnel for
return to civilian life in another
step toward getting the Soviet
Union back to a peacetime basis
and furnishing manpower for field
and factory.
This latest demobilization looks
even larger than the preceding
one, announced last October.
Signed by chairman of the su
preme Soviet Nikol Shvernik, it
goes into effect between March
and June. It affects older person
nel in the ground forces, air force
and navy, but not officers. The or
der did not specify age groups be
yond mentioning “older” troops.
JOHANNESBURG, South Afri
ca, (/P)—A new gold strike sent
mine share prices up ten shillings
($2) on the Johannesburg stock ex
change today while in another p'art
of South Africa a great diamond
rush continued unabated.
95 ounces to the ton was the of
ficially announced assay in the
gold strike at Odendaalsrust, 4,000
feet southeast of last year’s big
strike.
5,000 white diggers and 6,000
native laborers were taking part
( in the diamond rush ten miles
north of Bloemhof on the Vaal
river, where diamonds worth more
than $40,000 were discovered dur
ing prospecting.
SEATTLE, {lP)—Departure of a
Birch-Johnson-Lytle construction
company caravan for Anchorage,
via the Alaska Highway was put
off until tomorrow because of a
loading delay. The caravan, con
sisting of five army busses, four
army automobiles and a weapons
carrier, was to have started the
3,400-mile trip today.
WASHINGTON, (^—President
Truman hopes to send to Congress
next week a bill providing for uni
fication of the armed services,
Presidential Secretary Charles G.
Ross told reporters today.
►
SEATTLE, (/P)—The family of a
Greek poet, James G. Chumos, 78,
has asked his friends not to send
flowers for his funeral, but to do
nate the money instead to the El
Nathan home which burned Mon
day at Valdez, Alaska, with the
loss of two lives.
Chumos, 78, died Monday. He
was well known in the northwest
for his poetry about the region.
SEATTLE, (/P) —The freighter
Reef Knot, which sailed as a “re
lief ship” from Portland Dec. 18,
finally left Seward, yesterday for
Seldovia after a stay of more than
five weeks, Alaska Steamship
company officials here said.
Two other of the line’s freight
ers, the Jumper Hitch and the
Rose Knot, were still held up at
Seward. The delay has been caus
ed by the lack of Alaska Railroad
cars to move shipments, with the
snow and extreme cold causing
the “worst situation in years,” a
spokesman said. The Reef Knot
is due in Seldovia tomorrow.
SKIMOBILE CLIMBS MOUNTAIN — A skimobile ascends Mount Cranmore,
near North Conway, N. If., taking skiers to the top of a 2,052-foot rundown. They also can jump off
at the half way mark. In the distant background are the White Mountains.
Magnuson To Ask
Voting Representa
tion For Alaska
WASHINGTON, (/P) —- Senator
Magnuson (D.-Wash.), said today
he will ask Congress to grant vot
ing representation in the House to
Alaska and Hawaii.
Under the present law each Ter
ritory has an elected Delegate in
the House, but neither Delegate
has a vote. They can be members
of committees and can speak in
the House but they have no actual
voice in legislative actions.
“Efforts have been made for
several years to give the District
of Columbia representation in
Congress,” Magnuson said in a
statement, “and I see no reason
why Alaska and Hawaii should
not have voting representation in
the House. They are entitled to it
and I shall introduce shortly legis
lation'designed to give them that
right. I think they should have
this right pending Congressional
action on granting the two Terri
tories statehood.”
Bills are now before Congress to
give both Territories statehood
and the Senate has legislation to
grant the District of Columbia rep
resentation in Congress. The reso
lution proposes a constitutional
amendment which would have to
be approved by three-fourths of
the states before it would become
effective.
Chamber Held Regular
Noon Luncheon Tuesday
At the regurlar noon luncheon
in the Nevada Lounge, the NWA
Chamber of Commerce discused
several telegrams, resolutions and
bills, Relative to the legislature
now insession in Juneau.
The committee, for the Annual
Meeting to be held in the Nevada
Lounge on February 11, reported
that all the necessary arrange
ments were made.
Visitors were Herbert McClel
lan, Reindeer Supervisor at Kotze
bue, and Victor Hill, Superintend
ent of the White Mountain School.
Steamship Lines
Threaten 35% Hike
Or No Service
(By Mildred Hermann)
JUNEAU—The most important
matter before the legislature the
past few days has been transpor
tation, brought up by Delegate
Bartlett’s wire concerning trans
portation companies demand for
an overall thirty-five per cent in
crease or they will cease opera
tions on March first. Delegate
Bartlett requested an expression
f.om the legislature as to whether
they desired to resist this demand.
A joint session of both Houses
Monday afternoon sitting on as a
committee of the whole, heard
Alex McDonald, vice president of
the Alaska Steamship Company
claim operating losses of more
than a million and a half dollars
in the first six months of 1946.
George Rogers, former OPA
(Continued on Page Four)
Two Perished
In Valdez Fire
VALDEZ, (&)—'The fire which
destroyed the community hospital
and two adjoining buildings of the
missionary-sponsored El Nathan
home Sunday midnight took two
lives.
Edward Edgerton, elderly Val
dez resident and a hospital pa
tient could not be moved out anc
Jack Crawford, a fireman, died of
a heart attack fighting the flames
The three-story hospital was
completely destroyed in the 14
degree weather 30 minutes after
the furnace blew up, firemen said.
The other buildings were burned
and a third one badly damaged
within an hour and a half, with a
25-mile wind handicapping fire
men.
Sheldon V. Williamson, Red
Cross officer at Fort Richardson
Anchorage, flew here yesterday
and dropped penicillin from the
Cordova hospital when his plane
was unable to land because of the
high winds.
Administration
“Played Polities**
With Labor
WASHINGTON, f/P)—Congress,
debating new labor laws, today
heard Republican contentions the
Administration has “played poli
tics” with labor and a declaration
from the head of General Motors
that it will never have a “closed
shop.”
Separate hearings by the House
and Senate labor committees fur
nished the forums:
1. Rep. Landis (R.-Ind.) told the
House group: “The White House
has been pro-labor at one time and
the other way at another time.” He
suggested that Congress limit ap
plication of federal labor laws to
fewer industries. Rep. Hoffman
(R.-Mich.), another memue*-wit
ness, proposed outright repeal of
the Wagner act.
2. Charles E. Wilson, white
haired president of General Mo-!
(Continued on Page Five)
Many In jured In
Train-Truck Crash
FRESNO, Calif. (/P)—'The flam
ing crash of the Southern Pacific
Railroad’s streamlined Daylight
Limited into a loaded gasoline
truck claimed an additional fatal
ity today, bringing the dead to |
four.
i '’ety passengers were injured
—some 12 remaining in serious j
c ■ on- when the orange-color-;
ed streamliner was enveloped in
flames which completely or par
tially gutted 10 of the 14 cars.
The fourth victim died in Kings
burg hospital early today. She was
Katherine Ann Hansen, 17, of
Pasadena, a victim of burns. Ear
I
lier the engineer and fireman and
a woman passenger had died.
The Daylight left Los Angeles
yesterday morning en route for
Oakland and San Francisco. It
the tanv-trailer of the gas
oline truck at 3 p.m. on the out
skirts of Kingsburg, 20 miles south
of Fresno.
LIFTING THE LID
AT JUNEAU
• Special to The Nugget)
JUNEAU, Feb. 4, 1:30 a.m.—
Sen. Frank Peratrovitch <D.-lst
Div.' introduced a bill to increase
the aid to independent children
from $25 to $50 for the first child
und $15 to $25 for any additional
child. Granting the department en
tire leeway by the education com
mittee providing for the termina
tion of the operation of rural
schools in communities where en
rollment reaches one hundred pu
pils. The same committee re
defining the school age and re
quiring a child becoming six years
of age on or before the first day
of November next following the
beginning of the school year.
A bill introduced by Sen. O. D.
Cochran <D.-2nd Div.) appropriat
ing $675 to reimburse the North
ern Light Si Power company for
tax paid on fuel oil lost during the
storm at Nome last October.
Following the afternoon joint
session the committee as a whole
of the Senate and House, discussed
a reply to Delegate Bartlett on
what action to take relative to the
freight rate increases.
The folowing was adopted:
“That rate hearing be held be
fore the Maritime Commission and
that the Legislature does not agree
to the raise in rates before it is
justified by such hearing. That
Delegate Bartlett be informed of
our action by wire.”
JUNEAU, Feb. 4, 6:00 P.M.—
The first liquor tax measure intro
duced in the Senate by Sen. Tol
bert Scott <D.-2nd Div.) would in
crease the tax on malt beverages
from five to ten cents a gallon.
Wine and other liquors of twenty
three or less per cent alcohol by
volume from fifteen to twenty-five
cents, would hoist the levy on
hard liquors from two to three
dollars a gallon, effective May fif
teenth.
The fish trap referendum bill
after arguments practically all
day, passes the House by nineteen
to four, one absent.
Soviets Agree To
French Proposal
NEW YORK, (£■)—Andrei A.
Gromyko, Soviet delegate, was re
ported today to have agreed with
one reservation, to a French solu
tion of the United Nations security
council dilemma on how to start
wo k an the U. N. arms limitation
program.
An informed source said Grom
yko, speaking at a closed meet:ng
of six delegates to the security
council, declared he would accept
the French proposal except for a
paragraph calling on the U. N.
military staff to report within
three months.
The French have suggested that
the council form an 11-member
arms limitation commission and
that the council expedite the con
sideration of the report of the U.
N. atomic energy commiss'on so
it can instruct the commission on
further work.