— NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. L. No. 69. NOME. ALASKA. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 1948.15<* Per COPY
May Let Present
Law Expire June 30
WASHINGTON, — (/P) —Sen
ator Capehart (R-Ind> warned yes
terday that if an agreement is
not reached on proposed exten
sion of shipping service to Al
aska he will recommend letting
the law expire June 30.
A Senate commerce subcommit
tee spent, the day giving three
Seattle steamship companies gov
ernment-owned ships at one dol
lar a year to carry on the Alas
kan service.
i
“There has been too much con
fusion, too much ill feeling over
this matter,” Capehart, chairman
of the subcommittee said. “I am
inclined to let the present law
expire June 30, or at best extend
it only until next February 28.”
He asked counsel for the Ter
ritory, the operators and others
interested to confer with him if
they wished. No definite time was
6et.
During the hearings, settlement
of an Alaskan shipping dispute
over the Taft-Hartley labor law
(Continued on Pagv Seven)
Truman Gets
Idaho Support
SUN VALLEY, Idaho, — (JP) —
President Truman got physical and
political lifts in Sun Valley be
fore departing on an automobile
tour of Idaho apparently in a
mood for fence mending and “a
fighting campaign” for the White
House.
The political lift came from a
promise by state chairman Dan
Cavanaugh of Idaho’s 12 votes in
the Democratic National Conven- i
tion.
The other was a ride 1,200 feet J
up this Union Pacific Railroad
resorts “Dollar Mountain” in one i
of the chair lifts used by ski !
jumpers from all parts of the
world.
The president conferred for 25
minutes with 25 Idaho Democrat
ic politicians in the Sun Valley ■
cottage of W. Averell Harriman,'
E.C.A. “roving ambassador” and
former Secretary of Commerce.
Emerging, Cavanagh told re
porters they had assured the pres
ident of Idaho’s convention votes.
G.E. Offers Wage
Boost 8 Per Cent
NEW YORK, —iff3)—The Gen-!
eral Electric Co. today offered an j
eight per cent wage increase to j
an estimated 125,000 workers in |
GE plants throughout the country, j
The company said the offer,
would amount to an increase of
“nine cents over 15 cents an hour.” 1
It was made to negotiators for |
the United Electrical, Radio and
Machine Workers (CIO) during
negotiations which have been un
der way since March 2.
Union negotiators recessed un
til midafternoon to consider the
offer.
Congress Slashes
Atomic and Vets’
Appropriations
WASHINGTON, —(/P) —Cash
mony cuts of nearly nine per cent
for the atomic energy commis
sion and seven per cent for vet
erans’ administration were sug
gested tocfciy by the House appro
priations committee
At the same time the committee
called for a halt for “Hobby”
training under the GI bill of rights.
It also said atomic energy com
mission officials should show less
reluctance to consider the “prac
tical realities” of spending gov
ernment funds.
In a $5,795,048,921 bill to fin
ance six agencies during the year
starting July 1, the commission
(Continued on Page Eight)
Fact Board Ends
Shipping Hearing
SAN FRANCISCO, —(/P)—Pres
ident Trumaa’s maritime fact find
ing board starts east today after
hearing West Coast waterfront
employers deny they had refused
to bargain in good faith with
maritime unions.
The two-man board, Arthur P.
Allen, of the industrial relations
staff of the University of Califor
nia, and George Cheney, San Di
ego industrial relations expert,
completed their two-day hearing
(Continued on Page Four)
Truman Attacks
Republican Planks
By Ernest B. Vaccaro
ABOARD TRUMAN TRAIN,—
<>P)—President Truman today chal
lenged the Republicans to keep
Congress in session until price
control, housing and farm bills;
are passed.
He made a slashing attack on
the Republican congressional lead
ership, mentioning the opposition
party for the first time since he
left Washington last Thursday on
a western tour.
The attack came in an address :
at Butte, Montana, last night.
It stripped the last traces of
“non-political” atmosphere from
the President’s western campaign
tour.
The President charged that Con
gress, under Republican domin
ation had wrecked price control,
1 stymied the housing program, vir
(Continued on Page Four)
JUMPER HITCH DUE HERE
JUNE 15th - WITH SUPPLIES
The M/S Jumper Hitch, of the
Alaska Steamship Co., is scheduled
to arrive in Dutch Harbor today
or tomorrow and is due to arrive
in Nome on June 15th, according
to advices received here by the
company’s Nome agent, Wm.
Wood.
He reported that ice conditions ;
were fairly good wiht open water
most of the route from Dutch
Harbor to Nome. The Army re
ported no ice below latitude G3.
and scattered flows from that point
to Nome.
Maritime Comm. Is
Asked To Suspend
Items In Tariff
WASHINGTON, — (/P) —The
U.S. Maritime Commission last
week was petitioned by the Ter
ritory of Alaska to suspend two
items in a new tariff filed by
the Lomen Commercial Company
governing lighterage service to
Nome and other Bering Sea ports.
The petition claims that the
new rates on groceries and on
cigars and tobacco are actually
increases instead of decreases such
as were ordered a month ago by
the Commission at the conclusion
on an investigation of the lighter
age rates.
Heavy groceries, the Territory’s
petition alleges, would go up un
der the new tariff from 56 cents
per 100 pounds to 60 cents and
light groceries from 68 cents to
75 cents. The rate on cigars and
tobacco is estimated as advancing
11 per cent in the new tariff.
The Territory also requested the
Maritime Commission to force the
lighterage company to comply
fully with its odrer to reduce
rates.
Suspension of the grocery and
tobacco items by the Commission
would return those rates to the
previous lower level, pending a
hearing, while permitting the re
ductions on explosives, electric
signs, furniture and lumber to
go into effect as of June 5.
FLOODS BRING NEW THREATS TO PORTLAND AREA
Coulee
■
>:■ :
Rifzville*
4
The flood swollen Columbia Rive (shaded), brought new threats to
the heavily populated Portland arei (A), within 120 miles of the river's
mouth. Most gravely threatened cities are underlined. Even at this time
the flood's crest was moving past Umatilla, Pasco and Kennewick in the
great river's Cascade Gorge section a its dash to the sea. (AP photo)
NW Flood Areas
More Critical In
Watery Assault
PORTLAND, —(JF)—The Col
umbia and Fraser rivers cut deep
er this afternoon into soggy dikes
in the Pacific Northwest’s far
flung flood front. The situation
grew more critical by the hour.
A new breakthrough in the
lower valley of the Columbia
drowned Puget Island. Other
earthen barriers along the swollen
100 mile stretch run from from
Portland to the Pacific were get
ting softer, saturated by 21 days
of watery assault. U.S. Army En
gineers called their condition “very
critical.”
Canadian Navy forces stood by
for evacuation of critical sectors
along the Fraser where the river
collides with high incoming tides
from the sea.
Here is the grim picture for
Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Mon
tana and British Columbia:
Thirty dead. Vanport, war-hous
ing city near Portland, yielded
two more bodies of known dead,
in the disaster which wiped out
(Continued on Page Five)
France May Not
Approve Accord
UNDATED INTERNATIONAL—
France has informed the U.S.
and Britain her national assembly
may not approve the six-power
accord on western Germany, for
eign minister Georges Bidault in
dicated today. A vote may come
Saturday on the plan to establish
a federal government in Western
Germany, internationalize the
Ruhr but leave it in Germany,
and to safeguard against future
German militarism.
The Communists, De Gaulists
and extreme rightists oppose the
pact.
Moscow—Russia suggested she
has her own version of Ihe Mar
shall Plan for countries behind the
“iron curtain.” The government
newspaper Izvestia said Russia
is “now in a position to increase
(Continued on Page Five)
(largo Barge
Sails For Seward
SEATTLE, —(/P)—Delayed two
days because of her cargo was
held up by flood conditions, steel
barge 618 was headed for Sew
ard again today on another Alaska
Freight Express voyage.
The barge left Seattle at 6 p.m.
Monday in tow of the Tug El Sol.
Her wide variety of cargo in
cluded flour, groceries, fruits
heating equipment construction
materials, petroleum products,
wooden poles, a seine boat and a
26-foot cruiser.
Thirty-five vehicles, including
jeeps, house trailers, trucks and
passenger cars are also taken on
the voyage.
The next barge sailing is sched
uled for June 15. Cargo will be
accepted at Tacoma until 3 p.m.
June 15, and at Seattle until June
16 at 3 p.m.