m NOME NUGGET
_OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_
VOL. XLIX. No. 99 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 1947 PER COPY — 15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
TAMPICO, Mexico, (>P.» — Mill-1
tary authorities Saturday counted
at least three dead and 19 injured
in the wake of a tropical hurri
cane that lashed the south coast
Friday with winds reaching 110
miles an hour velocity.
WASHINGTON, </P) — Gerhart
Eisler, 52 year old German Com-!
munist, Saturday faced a possible i
five-year prison sentence and
$5,000 fine as a result of his con
viction on passport fraud charges.
A federal court just which heard
five weeks of testimony decided
late Friday that he fraudulently
concealed his communist connec
tions and other information when
he applied two years ago for a per
mit to go back to his native land.
Sentencing was deferred pend
ing the court’s decision on a de
fense motion for a new trial.
NEW ORLEANS, f/P> — Senator
Theo. G. Bilbo, suffering “partial
paralysis” and an “unexplained
fever.” was “weak and uncom
fortable” at Foundation hospital
here Saturday, but attendants said
“his condition is not dangerous.”
WASHINGTON, (/P>—The navy
said Saturday that Fleet Admiral
Ernest J. King, 69, who was strick
en ill Friday, showed “slight evi
dence of a mild stroke without
paralysis.”
A navy official said one condi
tion of the former chief of naval
operations is “definitely not criti
cal.” He is in the naval hospital
at nearby Bethseda, Md.
WASHINGTON, (/P)—'The issue
of a new American loan went into
the discard by agreement today as
top-rank financial experts from
both sides of the Atlantic assem- j
bled to hunt a partial solution to
Britain’s dollar crisis.
Sir Wilfrid Eady, head of the
British delegation, said that so far
as his country is concerned a new
credit to supplement the almost-1
exhausted $3,750,000,000 advance
of 1946 is “not on the agenda.”
FAIRBANKS, </P) — Four Ladd
Field soldiers were held for ques- i
tioning yesterday after a Fair-!
banks woman, Marjorie Slues, told
Police Chief George Norton she
had been bound and gagged in her!
home, and forced at pistol point to |
disclose the location of a purse I
containing $2,100.
The police found the money a
short time later on the floor of a
rented car, Norton said.
ANCHORAGE, (JP)—Eight army
airmen were killed Saturday as a
B-17 bomber crashed two miles
from the 10th rescue squadron’s
base at Cold Bay, the Alaska air
command announced.
Name of the victims, believed
to comprise the entire crew of the
plane, were withheld.
9 The plane crashed as it was
preparing to land at Cold Bay
Field, army authorities said. Cold
Bay lies near the tip of the Alaska
Peninsula, about 500 miles south
west of Anchorage.
Churchill Warns
i
British Must Have
“Free Enterprise*'
—
LONDON, OP)—Winston Chur
chill told the British people Satur-i
day night they could solve their
grave economic crisis only through
a system of “free enterprise” and
asserted acceptance of the labor
government’s program w o u 1 d I
mean national disaster.
In a political broadcast to the
nation the leader of the conserva-1
tive* opposition accused Prime
Minister Attlee’s government of
failing to solve the country’s
economic crisis.
“There can be no dispute about
the socialist failure or its gravity,”
he declared.
“The choice which lies before
the British nation about the form
of its society is between a system
of competitive selection and a sys
tem of compulsion,” the wartime
prime minister added.
“Both these roads of society are
hard. The struggle for life is un-j
ceasing. There is no easy or pleas
| ant road. It will be uphill all the I
j way.
“But I am sure it is only by per-;
sonal effort, free enterprise and
ingenuity, with all its risks and
failures, with all its unequal
prizes and rewards, that anything j
like 47,000.000 people can keep
themselves alive in this small is-j
land, dependent as it is for all its
food on selling high quality goods
and rendering necessary services
to the rest of the world.”
Many Killed In
British Coal Mine
Explosion
WHITEHAVEN, England, (/P)—
Three dazed bruised miners caught
in an explosion which trapped 107
in an undersea coal mine stum
bled out alive today after a 21
hour ordeal and raised slight hopes
for 50 fniners still missing below.
The national board announced
earlier that the bodies of 54 men
had beep located, and said it had
virtually given up hope for the
other 53.
Then the three blackened men
emerged from the mine, bringing
to 13 the total of known survivors.
They told officials they were some
distance away when the blast
shattered the shaft of the 135-year
old mine stretching out several
miles under the Firth of Solway.
Cut off from' the pithead, the
men scrambled to the mine’s far
thest reaches to avoid deadly gas.
They were met by rescuers as
they made their way back, hours
later.
The coal board said 117 men,
rather than 121 as previously an
nounced, were in the mine. Ten
miners escaped soon after the
blast.
The 135-year-old mine is lo
cated just outside this grimy town
of 20,000 in Cumberland county,
in northwest England.
The blast was the fourth in
British mines since the pits came
under the jurisdiction of the la
bor government.
HEARING ON RESERVA-!
TION FOR SHUNGNAK
NATIVE TRIBE
j
This morning a hearing was
held in the Federal Court Room
by Solicitor Harry Edelstein and
Joe Flakne of the Interior De
partment on the subject of mak
ing 2,300 square miles in the
Shungnak area a reservation for
Shungnak native residents.
Mr. Edelstein after formally
opening the hearing asked if any
one present was in favor of the
reservation, and as no one present
was in favor, called for witnesses
opposed to the plan.
A. Polet was called as the first
witness and he gave a thorough
background of what has been done
to date to develop and aid the na
tives by the U. S. government and
how miserably they have failed to
accomplish the desired results.
He called to attention that a law
exists in Alaska giving equal
rights to natives with whites and
stated that he was opposed to any
special privileges being given the
natives who desired such equality.
He said that a reservation will
not help the race to learn ordinary
economy as they have not learned
to save a penny as it has not been
necessary with everything being
given to them. He believes that
the two races must work together
for the development of the Terri
tory, as well as for the natives’
own good. He states that recent
reaction of the natives themselves
to plans that he had proposed to
help them indicates that they want
the benefits established by the
white but want the whites to have
no part in organizing.
Senator Charles Jones brought
out the question as to mining
rights in this proposed restricted
area, and was informed by Edel-;
stein that white men could pros- j
pect or hunt in the area only by
permission of the natives and the
secretary of the interior. Mr. Jones
responded that he believed that
the curtailment of mining now
under way for asbestos and jade,
would do the native more harm
than good and that he was opposed
^Continued on Page Eight1*
*
Counter Suits In
Ship Sinking
SAN FRANCISCO. (7P> — The
American - Hawaiian Steamship
company Saturday faced a $2,500.
000 maritime libel action, brought
by the Libby, McNeill and Libby
company for the loss of 108.946
cases of salmon in the sinking of
the Alaska motorship Diamond
Knot last Wednesday.
The Libby company charged
that the American-Hawaiian’s
freighter Fenn Victory was oper-■
ated negligently and at excessive J
speed when it collided with the.
Diamond Knot in a heavy pre-'
dawn fog in the Strait of Juan de
Fuca.
Soon after the suit was filed,
American-Hawaiian brought a
counter action asking that it be
exonerated of liability, or that its
liability be limited to the value of
the Fenn Victory, placed at $950,
000.
A1 j Threatens
Nation Wide
Shipping Strike
BALTIMORE, (/P» — A nation
wide shipping strike probably will
be called in "the next couple of
days," spokesman for an AFL
maritime union told a rally of
4,000 striking CTO shipyard work
ers Friday night.
The prediction came from Wil
liam Centz, Baltimore port agent
of the seafarers international
union which called a strike Tues
day night against the Isthmian
Steamship company.
Other speakers addressed the
members of the international
union of marine and shipbuilding
workers of America <CIO>, exhort
ed them to continue their 90-day
old walkout.
Rantz said "We’re going to hit
everything on both coasts and .ie
everything up. Its likely that we ’l
be out when the provisions' of the
Taft-Hartley act go into effect
(Aug. 22 >. and we’ll see what can
and can’t be done under this law.”
Ross B. Blood, national secre
tary treasurer for IUMSWA, told
the gathering that the companies
"would like to cram the Taft
Hartley act down our throats and
pave the way for action against
the entire labor movement.”
Territory To Sue
Veterans Board
JUNEAU, (.4*)—Alaska's Board
of Administration has directed
the Territorial treasurer and at
torney general to bring a “friend
ly” suit against the veterans board
to force repayment to the general
treasury of a $350,000 loan origin
ally rrfade to establish the veter
ans loan and bonus revolving
fund.
The fund since has been enlarg
ed by a one per cent gross sales
tax which has produced approx*
imately $1,750,000.
The board of administration re
cently requested return of the loan
as one method of aiding the Terri
torial treasury which sank to a
balance of only $8,000 in July.
- f ■ " " --
700 War Criminals
Convicted hy Court
DACHAU. Germany. i/P)—More
than 700 German war criminals,
have been convicted by American |
military courts since the end of the,
war and nearly 300 of them have
been sentenced to hang for their,
atrocities.
Nearly a third of those convicted
were operators of the notorious
Nazi concentration camps where
hundreds of thousands of political
and war prisoners were tortured
and slaughtered.
The sentencing here yesterday
of 31 convicted Buchenwald at-1
tendants—22 were condemned toi
death and nine received prison
terms—completed the fourth such
trial in this town, itself once the^
site of a concentration camp.
ILWU Willing To
Unload Yukon
\\ inter Supplies
SEWARD, </P)—Seward’s inter
national longshoremen’s and ware
housemens union <C’IO> announced
today through Mayor Clarence
Keating that they are willing to
unload cargo for Yukon River
points to safeguard against winter
suffering in the isolated Interior
because of the Alaskan port work
stoppage.
Yukon ruver traffic normally
ends around mid-September.
The announcement also sail
that Seward’s longshore are not
concerned with the longshoremen’s
dispute which has closed the Jun
eau and Ketchikan ports. It said
the Seward union is only trying to
get a national labor relations
board ruling on whether long
shoremen of the AFL sailors' un
ion of the Pacific should unload
certain hatches, and that union
members will resume work as soon
as a ruling is made, regardless of
what the decision is.
The Juneau-Ketchikan closure
is over union demands for con
tract safeguards outside the Taft
Hartlev labor act.
WM. E. WARNE HOLDS
SHORT HEARING IN
NOME SUNDAY
Assistant Secretary of the In
terior, William E. Warne, and
party arrived here Sunday fore
noon and held a short discussion
period at 3:30 p.m., with a number
of Nome's citizens regarding prob
lems of the division.
On the trip with Warne, are Jo
seph T. Flakne, director of the
Alaska branch of the division of
territories; Harry M. Edelstein, of
fice of solicitor of the Jnterior De
partment; Don Foster, superin
tendent of the Alaska Native Ser
vice and Clarence Rogge, of fish
and wildlife, pilot of the plane.
Warne told of his travels thus
far and pointed out a few of the
actions being followed through by
the department for development of
the Territory; such as the pulp
industry, opening of lands to set
tlement. He explained also that the
native schools were closed because
the department had no funds to
carry on.
The group discussed commercial
fishing problems of this district
but arrived at no definite conclu
sion, but that it needed more con
trol.
Other matters discussed were
our mail situation, need for roads,
conclusion of survey for Bering
Sea fisheries.'
The assistant secretary closed
the discussion with the announce
ment that he was leaving for Kot
zebue immediately, but that a
hearing would be held in the court
room Monday morning at 10
o’clock on the Shungnak reserva
tion proposal. Edelstein and Flak
ne would remain for the hearing.
When the Maritime Commission
was established in 1936, there
were only 10 shipyards in the U.
S. capable of building oceangoing
vessels 400 feet long.