22 NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_=
VOL. LI. No. 54 NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAYTMAY 6, 1949 _Per Copy—15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
- -
SEATTLE, (/P) — Virgil A.
"SpucT Murphy, 47, former Uni
versity of Washington oarsman
charged with abandonment and
non-support, was released from
the county jail Wednesday after
posting $1,000 bond and paying
costs of his extradition from An
chorage, Alaska.
He pleaded innocent at his ar
raignment. He was arrested in
Alaska last week.
— 7
CHICAGO, (/P)—Raymond Mil
ler, 44-year-old Alaska homestead
er, was discharged from Mercy
hospital yesterday, 22 days after
he was brought to Chicago on a
stretcher by plane from Anchor
age.
f Miller underwent a spinal oper
ation April 18. Immediately after
his hospital release yesterday he
boarded a train for Woodward,
Oklahoma., where he plans to visit
a sister, Mrs. J. H. Knott. He will
also visit relatives at Reece, Kans.,
before returning to Alaska later
this month.
FARIBANKS, (/P)—-Pfc. Robert
R. Swafford died Sunday when
struck by the accidental discharge
of his shotgun while hunting.
The 20-year-old soldier, from
Elmire, Mo., was to have been dis
charged yesterday.
PARIS. bP) — Count Maurice
Maeterlinck, famed Belgian au
thor of “The Blue Bird” and other
works, died in Nice today, the
French press agency reported. He
was 86.
Maeterlinck’s works are noted
for their fanciful beauty. Among
the most famous are “Pelleas et
Melisande,” made into an opera by
the French composer Claude De
bussy; “The Blue Bird,” “The Life
of The Ant” and “The Life of the
Bee.”
Maeterlinck was awarded the
Nobel prize for literature in 1911.
JUNEAU (/P)—Acting Governor
Lew M. Williams today named the
following to membership on the
Territorial board of accountancy:
Marshall Crutcher, Kodiak; El
mer G. Johnson, Ketchikan; J. A.
Boulet, Fairbanks; Clayton Es
sliger, Palmer; and Charles Mar
ler, Ketchikan. The new board is
expected to meet some time this
month.
KETCHIKAN (/P)—Parking me
ters went into operation on Ketch
ikan’s main streets this week. Of
the 150 meters scheduled, 147
were in operation on “opening
day.”
LOS ANGELES, (/P)—A former
Italian countess who came here as
a war bride complains that her
American husband won’t come
home from Italy.
Mrs. Eleanora Constanzia, 30,
the former Countess Rimbotti of
Florence, sued for separate main
tenance yesterday charging How
ard Edward Macgachen, 34, with
cruelty.
She said that he is a GI bill of
rights student in Florence on a
$105-a-month government allow
ance. She stated that he had
threatened to remove $4700 from
a local bank and leave her strand
ed here.
Superior Judge Joe Raycraft
Red Asiatics Sign
Alliance Against
“Imperialists”
• By The Associated Press*
A Red China-Burma-North Ko
rean alliance was revealed yester
day by the Chinese central news
agency in a dispatch from Ran
goon.
The alliance, designed for the
mutual defense of the communist
segments of the three Asiatic
countries, bore Moscow’s blessing,
the official Chinese news agency
said.
The pacts—one signed Feb. 26
in Burma and the other March 17
in Moscow—banded the Asiatic
communists together in “the joint
struggle against American and
British imperialism,” said the
news agency.
No other source has confirmed
the signing of the pacts, which
could bring many millions of Asi
atics under the Russian wielded
hammer and sickle.
Meanwhile Shanghai’s British
and American leaders discussed a
proposal to ask the United Nations
to declare the metropolis an open
: city.
The plan was rejected after
what one diplomat called a full
i discussion of “the whole mess.”
i However, there were indications it
might be revived later.
Rainy weather in Shanghai was
I reflected in lack of military activ
; ity. All was quiet around there.
(Continued on Page Three>
News of the World
At A Glance —
Friday, May 6, 1949
(By The Associated Press>
Western diplomats held pmer
| gency huddles today to figure how
| they will cope with the touchy is
| sues expected to crop up when
i they meet with the Russians in
Paris May 23.
An expected Soviet proposal to
i withdraw all occupation troops
from Germany is s regarded in
Washington as one of the most dif
ficult issues the West will have to
, face.
Indications are that the United
i States, Britain and France have
yet to decide exactly how they
will deal with the proposal, if the
Russians put it forward. On many
of the other problems the unified
Western position already is deter
mined.
Plans already are underway for
creation of a West German gov
ernment, thus far deve loped
against Soviet opposition. Those
plans will form the basis of West
ern proposals for a government
for all Germans.
Work on a constitution for an
independent West German repub-1
(Continued on Page Seven)
slapped a restraining order on the ,
bank account and awarded her
$125 a month and attorney’s fees
pending trial of her separate main
tenance suit.
As to the Countess’, plans:
“I like it here* I’m going to be- |
come a citizen.” I
Berlin Blockade
Will End May 12
(By The Associated Press'
The 10-month old Rus s i a n
blockade of Berlin will be lifted
May 12 under a Big Four agree
ment announced yesterday.
The communique, released yes
terday morning in Moscow, Lon
don, Paris, Washington and New!
York, said the Western powers’
counter blockade of the Soviet
zone of Germany will be ended at
the same time.
The announcement said the
council of foreign ministers will
meet in Paris May 23 “to consider
questions relating to Germany,
and problems arising out of the
situation in Berlin, including also
the question of currency in Ber
lin.”
The communique represented
1 the climax of more than two
I months of intense negotiations be
1 tween the powers. It marks the
beginning of the end of one of the
I most critical situations in the post
i war struggle between Russia and
, the Western powers.
It will require the full week
from now to May 12 to make the
• Continued on Page Three*
Senate Passes
Education Aid Bill
(By John Chadwick)
WASHINGTON, (£*)—'The Sen
j ate delivered a $300,000,000 fed
eral aid to education bill to the
1 House today for the second year
in a row.
The measure swept through the
Senate last night by a vote of 5F>
j to 15 after all efforts to amend it
were beaten down.
It would authorize $300,000,000
to be appropriated annually to
help the States pay teacher salar
ies and other school operating ex
penses. Many schools have lost
teachers to better paying employ
ers, an argument advanced by the
bill’s supporters.
By providing for the largest per
pupil allotments to the poorest
States, it is intended to more near
ly equalize education opportuni
ties throughout the nation.
An almost identical bill passed
by the Senate last year was pig
eonholed by a House committee.
This year’s measure, part of the
social welfare program for which
President Truman campaigned
last fall, had strong bipartisan
support in the Senate.
V — -- ■■ ■■ -
BULLETIN
WASHINGTON, (/P)—A record
$751,515,690 supply bill approved
by a Senate appropriations sub
committee Wednesday for civil
functions of the army during the
next fiscal year, contained $87,
604,800 in funds earmarked for
flood control and rivers and har
bors in Oregon, Washington, Idaho
and Alaska.
The Senate breakdown, for vari
ous projects includes (with army
engineers' distribution of House -
approved funds in parenthesis):
Rivers and harbors:
Alaska—Nome Harbor. $701,000;
Wrangell Narrows. $343,000.
Wallace Says State
Dept. Kept Earlier
Soviet Offer Secret
_
(By Don Whitehead)
WASHINGTON. (/P)—Henry A.
Wallace said yesterday that a Rus
sian offer on March 21 to lift the
Berlin blockade was deliberately
withheld from the public because
the state department feared it
might block the North Atlantic
pact.
He said the state department
held up news of the Russian “con
cession” for over a month “be
cause it exploded the myth on
which the North Atlantic pact is
based and destroys the basis on |
which it is being sold to the Amer
i ican people.”
There was no immediate reply
| from the department to Wallace’s
(Continued on Page Seven'
Budget Reduced;
V. A. Dismisses
8,000 Employees
I -
WASHINGTON (/Pi—The veter
ans administration ordered 8.000
of its employees dismissed today.
The agency said Lt will close 42
offices in 23 states in an effort to
meet budget limitations for the
fiscal year 1950, starting July 1.
Veterans administrator Carl R.
Gray, Jr., said the reductions will
! not affect hospitals and medical
i services.
In a letter to members of Con
1 gress, Gray said every effort will
be made to keep the essential
i services to veterans at a high
j level.
Gray said notices will be in the
hands of the discharged employees
as of Monday, giving them the!
customary 30-dav notice.
The branches to be closed are 1
known as “contact offices.” There
are 468 such offices employing one
or two persons each.
The House has approved a VA
appropriation of $5,145,431,940 for
1949-50, a reduction of $508,750.
000 from the budget estimates
submitted by the President.
Hollywood Park
Destroyed Bv Fire:
Five Million Loss
(By Ralph Dighion)
INGLEWOOD, Calif. (^—Hol
lywood Park, one of America’s
most lavish race tracks, was razed
by a $5,000,000 fire early today
but some 600 thoroughbred horses
were spared.
Exact cause of the blaze was
not known but police arson squads
started immediate investigations
because of the speed with which
the fire spread. They detained two
men and a boy for questioning but
released them later.
The fire started in the swank
clubhouse of the multi-million
dollar plant and leaped, within
minutes, through the grandstand
and Turf Club. Shortly after the
roof and upper walls of the club
house and Turf Club burned away,
the walls began to crumble. Huge
(Continued on Page Sevens
Metcalf Appointed
Acting Director
Of Aeronautics
JUNEAU — The Alaska Aero
nautics and communications com
mission met in Juneau May 4 and
named highway engineer Frank
Metcalf to serve as acting director
of the new division of aeronautics
created by the last legislature
pending the selection of a perman
ent director.
The commission said it consid
ered several names but that due to
the new Territorial salary act,
which fixed the salary for the po
sition at $7,000 per year, it was
unable to obtain the services of a
qualified man due to the high lev
els of pay in the aviation field.
The new aeronautics act leaves
the matter of salary largely to the
discretion of the commission but
the salary act fixed the figure at
$7,000 and the attorney general
has ruled that the salary act ap
plies.
The Commission said it would
make further effort to obtain a
qualified man and announced that
i applications for the position might
(Continued on Page Eight)
65.000 \\ orkers At
Ford Plant Strike
DETROIT, i/Pi—Ford Motor Co.
was hit by the second major strike
in its history yesterday at 65,000
union members walked out at
noon.
Final, desperate peace talks,
pressed right up to the deadline,
failed to settle a dispute over
speed of production.
Some 62.000 shouting workers
streamed out the gates of the big
Rouge plant. At the Lincoln-Mer
cury plant, another 3,000 left their
jobs.
Assembly line-, whose speed
had been subject to wrangling for
months, ground to a stop.
And so, Ford was hit by the
first major walkout since the
bloody 10-day battle in 1941, when
the UAW-CIO first gained recog
nition.
Within nine days, the company
said, the strike would tie up most
of the worldwide industrial em
pire and hit 106,000 production
, workers.
DETROIT, iIP)—For Motor com
pany’s huge River Rouge plant
was locked today in its first major
strike since 1941. as an estimated
5.000 pickets paraded peaceably
before main gates.
(Continued on Page Eight)
TELEGRAM
Nenana, Alaska,
May 5. 1949
Nome Nugget,
Nome. Alaska.
Would like to publicly deny
persistent rumors that the Nenana
Ice Pool is paying off one hundred
eighty five thousand dollars. No
official notice of any kind has
come from this office. Announce
ment of payoff will be forthcom
ing in a couple of days. Pleasa
publish this denial in your paper.
Floyd Avery, Manages