m NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LI. No. 95 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1949 Per Copy—15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
JUNEAU, (/R) — The Territorial
board of administration authoriz
ed payment yesterday of $1,000,
000 in outstanding warrants and
gave formal approval to the action
of Alaska treasurer Henry Roden
in negotiating a loan with a Seat
tle bank last week for that
amount.
Fifteen private citizens and Ter
* ritorial officials have pledged
$1,000 each to guarantee the 3
per cent interest on the loan, on
which repayment is expected by
Jan. 1.
FAIRBANKS, i/P)—A mother of
four children was found dead in
the basement of her home Sunday.
The victim, Mrs. Ed Black, was
believed to have been electrocuted
when she .tried to connect a light
switch while standing in a pool of
muddy water.
SEATTLE, i/P)—A group of Ha
waiian merchants have chartered
the Anchorage Transporta t i o n
company’s deep-sea tug Myrtle
Wilson to carry 3.000 tons of relief
food supplies by barge to Hono
lulu, the company said Monday.
The shipment is expected to
leave here next week-end.
The CIO international long
shoremen’s and warehousemen’s
union, on strike in the Islands for
days, has agreed to unload the
cargo, the company said.
WASHINGTON, (JP) — The Na
tional Institutes of Health award
ed 217 grants, totaling $2,056,426,
yesterday for continuation of med
ical and allied research projects
at 94 institutions.
The projects include studies of
deafness and speech effects, peptic
ulcers, the common cold, and the
relation of the endocrine glands to
aging.
The grants include:
Alaska: Department of Health,
Seward Sanatorium, Seward,
Lawrence H. Lowell, $7,760.
JUNEAU, (>P)—Col. Bernt Bal
chen has taken his retractable-ski
wheel euipped C-47 transport
plane back to Ancorage.
Adverse weather prevented the
test landings planned for the gla
ciers of the Juneau icecap. Col
onel Balchen said he would try
again later.
JUNEAU, </P)—Gene Hulk and
his two black spaniels last night
found pinned beneath a log raft,
the bodies of two Douglas boys
missing since Monday morning.
Dozens of law enforcement offi
cers, coast guardsmen, volunteers
and firemen had searched all day
for Oscar “Chum” Neimi, 12, and
Ronnie Ellers, 8. The boys were
last seen playing around the raft.
Hulk continued to search the
area after the others had decided
the boys were lost elsewhere.
PORTLAND. </P) — Thi r t e e n
days without food while lost in a
mountain wilderness proved fatal
last night to 76-year-old John
Harrison Tracy.
He succumbed to starvation
and exposure. Foot sores caused
(Continued on Page Eight)
Fifteen Die In
States Bus Crash
BLOOMINGTON. Ind. (>P)—Fif
teen persons died in the flaming
wreckage of a Greyhound bus
that burned after smashing into
a bridge abutment near here early
today.
The bus, bound from Indianap
olis to Bloomington, hit the bridge
on a winding, hilly road shortly
after midnight. Seconds later it
was in flames.
The bodies removed were
brought to the Indiana national
guard armory here to await iden
tification.
Driver Wayne Cramer of Indi
anapolis, one of the survivors,
said a front tire may have blown
out, causing him to lose control of
the bus. After striking the abut
ment it skidded 150 feet down
winding highway 37 and came to
rest on its left side, blocking the
emergency door.
Flames enveloped the vehicle
, almost immediately. The driver
said he and “two or three” passen
gers got out the front door. The
other survivors escaped through
a rear window which a passenger
kicked out.
Glen Van Horn, manager of ra
dio station WTTS in Bloomington
said one of the survivors told him
he “walked through five feet of
flames” to get out of the bus.
Bloomington, seat of Indiana
university, is about 60 miles
southwest of Indianapolis.
Jimmy Stewart
Weds Ardent Fan
HOLLYWOOD, </P) —Jimmy
Stewart yesterday wed the girl
who “used to cut out his pictures
as a kid.”
At five o’clock yesterday after
noon, Hollywood’s most famous
bachelor married Gloria Hatrick
McLean in Brentwood Presbyte
rian church. The wedding was
small and—the shy actor hoped—
quiet.
The bridal pair plan an extended
honeymoon, including an Hawa
iian trip. Wedding plans were
completed last week.
The single-ring wedding cere
mony was rehearsed last Wednes
day in the Brentwood church,
which is near Santa Monica. The
only attendants were Mrs. Gregg
Draddy, the bride’s sister, and
film talent scout Billy Grady, best
man.
Over the week-end, Stewart
said farewell to his male cronies
at a stag which offered the only
Hollywood touch to the nuptials.
Gagsters had seven big search
lights brightening the sky above
Chasen’s restaurant. A large sign
advertised “James Stewart, actor.
Positively last appearance.”
The couple will fly to Hawaii
next month for an extended vaca
tion.
Stewart was recently asked why
he chose Mrs. McLean after 15
years of Hollywood dating. His
answer: “Of all the girls I have
gone with, she is the only one I
felt I couldn’t live without.”
As for Gloria, she said she has
(Continued on Page Four)
Vandenherg Asks
i
Slash In Arms Aid;
Johnson Says “No”
WASHINGTON, (/P> — Senator!
Vandenberg (R.-Mich.- yesterday
proposed a 50 jer cent cash reduc
tion in the first year’s cost of the
Western European arms program. |
The Michigan Senator suggest
ed to secretary of defense Louis
Johnson that about $580,000,000
be furnished in cash by Congress
—with the balance in contract au
thorizations <to be met by later
appropriations) which would not
be charged against the current
budget.
Vandenberg said he believes the
budget President Truman sent
Congress for the 11)50 fiscal year
carries funds for the European
military aid which would cover
almost all the money cost of the
first year.
But Johnson, appearing before a
(■Continued on Page Eight)
Solomon Wants
Landing Airstrip
The Chamber of Commerce is
in receipt of a petition from the
citizens of Solomon asking for
support on the construction of an
airstrip for Solomon.
The petition states that they
would like and have urgent need
for an airstrip back of the town
on the west side, near the vicinity
of the Alaska Native Service
School building.
They state that the nearest field
is at the Lee’s Mining Camp,
which is too far away from the
town and inconvenient.
As matters now stand their
mail service is very irregular and
often times the mail has been
found lying out on the field with
out notice.
Freight consigned to individuals
is sometimes left for days on the
field without the consignee being
notified.
The petition states further that
the beach line is soft with “obsta
cles such as driftwood scattered
about making it unsafe for the
I landing of planes” and thgy feel
that it would be of advantage for
all concerned, especially for com
mercial business and passenger
accommodations; emergency land
ings, etc., to have an airstrip at
Solomon.
__
BULLETIN
WASHINGTON. (/P)—Chairman
Peterson (D.-Fla.) House public
lands committee said he plans
new action to obtain House action
an Hawaii and Alaska statehood
bills this season. He said he is
asking the House rules committee
to approve the bills and is also
asking Congressional leaders to
possible to call up the bills under
the special rule by-passing the
rules committee.
August 22nd is the last chance
to call up the bills under special
rules unless the committee acts in
dependently. Peterson said the ba
sis for the new effort is based on
the Hearst newspaper poll which
others said showed Congressmen
favored Statehood three to one.
New Trenions
Rock Ecuador
QUITO, Ecuador, </P) — New
earth tremors and pillaging by un
ruly Indians spread fear and
panic today among the thousands
of survivors left homeless by Ec
uador’s destructive earthquake.
Official government estimates
of the death toll in Friday’s quake
rose to 6,000. But the truth is no
one knows for sure how many per
ished in the great piles of rubble ,
that litter some 50 demolished
towns in the populous Andes
mountain region south of here.
Fresh tremors yesterday tum
bled weakened walls in Ambato
and other cities, adding to the ter
j ror of some 150,000 homeless.
Groups of workers attempting
j to dig their way through the
I blocked highway to Pelileo. 100
miles south of Quito, were re
ported buried under a landslide
i loosed by the new tremors.
Shoot-to-kill orders were issued
to troops guarding Pelileo against
looting by the wild tribe of Sala
i saca Indians. Defense minister
! Manuel Diaz Granados said one
j band of Salasacas had been driven
i off when caught ransacking the
ruins.
The Salasacas have been the
fiercest warriors in the Andes re
gion for 400 years. Driven out of
Bolivia by the Incas centuries ago,
they have harassed Ecuadorean
settleents even in modern times.
Continuing landslides and sul
phurous fumes oozing from jag
ged crevices have terrorized the
countryfolk who escaped the
worst effects of the shocks.
Hawaiian Govt.
Seizes Two Island
Stevedoring Firms
... HONOLULU. .(/P) — Seizure of
Honolulu’s two strikebound steve
doring firms carried Hawaii’s 102
day waterfront tieup to the show
down stage today.
Gov. Ingrah Stainback signed
orders late yesterday for the Ter
ritorial government’s takeover of
two of the island’s seven struck
dock companies. The five others
in the outer islands were not af
fected.
The striking CTO international
longshoremen’s and warehouse
men’s union awaited the start of
government stevedoring oper a -
tions to defy the Territory
ILWU leader Jack Hall said the
union would start a court chal
lenge to the Territory’s new dock
seizure law within hours after the
government puts its longshoremen
to work. The government began
signing up 1,500 stevedores yester
day.
Hall also said the CIO marine
engineers’ executive board in
V/ashington ordered its members
not to sail ships from behind
ILWU picket lines. John Perry,
Honolulu representative of the en
gineers, confirmed receipt of the
order from Washington headquar
ters.
The emergency law passed by a
special session of the Hawaiian
legislature bans a strike “or any
other concerted activity’’ threat
News of the World
At A Glance—
0
Tuesday. August 9, 1949
<By The Associated Press*
America’s three top military
commanders returned yesterday
from a 10-day European tour,
hopeful of swift action to bring
the North Atlantic treaty into mil
itary effect.
Gen. Omar N. Bradley, army
chief of staff, Gen. Hoyt Vanden
berg of the air force and Admiral
Louis E. Denfeld, naval chief of
operations, flew back to Washing
ton after preliminary talks with
military leaders of all European
members of the 12-nation treaty.
! “We hope that these frank dis
cussions and exchanges of views
will help out respective govern
ments and will shorten confer
ences necessary to organize under
the pact,” Bradley told reporters
! at the airport in Washington.
The three chiefs were to report
to defense secretary Louis John
son at a luncheon meeting. To
morrow they are to appear before
the Senate armed services commit
j tee.
The committee is studying the
a d m i nistration’s $1,450,000,000
foreign arms aid program, design
j ed to provide the arms that the
' European pact members say they
j need.
In Europe, a Czechoslovak com
munist weekly magazine reported
police had put down a brief revolt
in a Slovakian town. It said Cath
olics defending their priest from
threatened arrest had set up their
own local government.
Two persons were reported
wounded and several arrested in
' the incident at Strecno, in north
i western Slovakia. The exact date
of the newest incident in Eastern
Europe’s church-state strug g 1 e
was not given.
Winston Churchill, a leading ad
vocate of a federated Europe, was
due in Strasbourg, France, to take
his place as a British delegate to
the newly created 13-nation coun
cil of Europe. Churchill was ex
pected to press for admission of
Western Germany as soon as pos
sible after West German elections
I Aug. 14 to set up a government
for the American, British and
French zones.
Greece’s government announced
i the sentencing of 23 captured com
i.munist guerrillas to death. These
included a guerrilla brigadier and
his wife. The general staff said
government forces repulsed guer
rilla counter-attacks yesterday in
the Grammos area, scene of a new
government offensive.
Wednesday, August 10. 1949
The United States government
tackled anew today the problem
of working out a new policy for
the Far East.
Ambassador to China S. Leigh
ton Stuart was reporting to Presi
dent Truman and secretary of
(Continued on Page Five>
ening to interfere with govern
ment dock operations.
Stainback said the law clearly
gives his government authority to
act against any engineers refusing
to sail ships.