m NOME NUGGET
_OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_
VOL. LI. No. 96 NiOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 1949 Per Copy—15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
MEDFIELD, Mass. </P) — Mrs.
Laura Brown Smith, 96, mother
of the wife of Gov. Ernest Gruen
ing of Alaska, died today at her
home. She lived here for 50 years
and was the town’s oldest resi
dent.
SEATTLE, (/¥*>—'The fishpacker
Wanderer reported engine trouble
* at Swanson’s Harbor in Icy
Straits in Southeastern Alaska,
the coast guard reported today it
will be towed to Juneau by the
cutter Storis. The Wanderer re
ported it had 16,000 pounds of sal
mon aboard and its ice running
low.
A patrol boat took the 36-foot
Puppy in tow from Taku harbor
to Juneau. The craft was disabled
with a broken shaft.
■ ■ ■■ 1 -l— —
WASHINGTON, <£>)—'The com
merce department asked an addi
tional $4,000,000 yesterday to com- j
plete commercial airports at Fair- ,
banks and Anchorage.
Congress last year authorized1
$13,000,000. Secretary Sawyer to
day wrote Cog res ^ that costs have
increased and $610,000 more is
needed at Fairbanks and $3,890,
000 for Anchorage.
ANCHORAGE (/P>—Mrs. Ernest
Strickler of Mountain View was
found dead yesterday and two
children critically ill from what
Dr. James O’Malley described as
possible food poisoning.
A daughter Winifred, and son
William, were taken to Providence
hospital where their condition was
described as “precarious.”
An autopsy was to be held today
by Dr. O’Malley who said analy
sis also will be taken of luncheon
meat found at the home.
JUNEAU, (£>)—'The JATE (jet
assisted-takeoff> plane piloted by
Col. Bernt Balchen made two suc
cessful landings on glaciers of the
Juneau icecap yesterday with ex
perimental ski-wheel gear.
The experiments had a practical
turn, too—Balchen carried in sup
plies for an ice research group
spending the summer on the ’cap.
Balchen’s was the first high al
titude ski landing in Alaska by a
large plane. The colonel flew
back to Elmendorf field at Anch
orage this afternoon.
WASHINGTON, (/Pi—President
Truman raffirmed today the de- '
sire and aim of the United States
to help the Philippine Republic
“assume its rightful position as a
free and self-reliant member of
the world community.”
. The White House made these
view’s public in a statement which
•bore the one appeal of Mr. Tru
man and President Elpidio Quir
ino, the Philippines President.
Quirino left for New York today
after a four-day visit to Washing
ton at Mr. Truman’s invitation.
FAIRBANKS, (/P) — Duncan
Gray of New York and Fred Egan
Seattle, arrived yesterday to con
fer with city officials on details
for marketing the city’s $4,000,000
utilities program.
The program contemplates a
(Continued on Page Five'
Grueiiing Blasts
At Postponing Of
Alaska Defenses
ANCHORAGE, (/P> — Gov. Er-1
nest Gruening charged yesterday
that Congress is perpetuating
Alaske “as America’s Achilles
heel.” In a press statement, the
governor termed as "nothing short
of unbelievable” the decision of
the U. S. House of Representatives
to shelve the military appropria
tion bill carrying $137,738,712 for
Alaskan defense construction next
year.
Gruening said Alaska could be
taken tomorrow by a minor-scale
airborne invasion.
“While Congress has just ap
proved a $5,797,000,000 appropria
tion for Europe to check the ad
vance of communist totalitarian
ism across the Atlantic, three or
four thousand miles away,” he
said, “it denies less than two and
one-half per cent of that sum for
the long overdue defense construc
tion of our own American terri
tory just 54 miles away from our
police-state neighbor.”
“Instead of having made Alas
ka impregnable as a bulwark for
the United States and for the
western hemisphere, the Congress
is perpetuating it as America’s
Achilles’ Heel.
“It was the only part of Amer
ica invaded by the enemy during
World War II.
“To allege that the appropria
tion is merely deferred to the sec
ond session is to miss the entire
(Continued on Page Four)
Truman Receives
Deep Freezer from
Five Percenter
WASHINGTON, (/Pi—A report
that Mrs. Harry S. Truman was1
among notables who received deep
freezers from a concern figuring
in the Senate’s five percenter in
quiry today brought this reply
from Presidential secretary
Charles G. Ross,
“I have no information what
ever about that.
Ross was told, a news story said,
Mrs. Truman, along with Chief
Vinson, secretary of the treasury
Snyder, James K. Vardaman, fed
eral sererve board governor, and
George E. Allen, former RFC
member and Presidential intimate
also received deep freeze units.
“I know nothing whatever
about that, either,” Ross said when
the other names were mentioned.
Vinson left a White House cab
inet meeting a few minutes later
and told reporters that since the
Senate investigation committee is
making an inquiry, ‘‘I believe I
prefer the matter be developed by
the committee.”
“I feel I ought not to make any
statement,” the chief justice said.
There was no immediate com
ment from any of the others.
The matter of the deep freeze
units entered the hearing yesterday
whn a Milwaukee businessman
testified that he shipped one in
1945 to Maj. Gen. Harry H. Vau
ghan, president Truman’s army
(Continued on Page Eight)
Hawaii Seizes All
Stevedoring Firms j
_
HONOLULU, i/P) — Hawaii ex
tended government seizure to all
seven of the island’s struck steve- |
doring companies yesterday. CIO
longshore leader Harry Bridges
said the Territory’s effort to re
open its strike-plugged ports will '
fail.
Gov. Ingram M. Stainback sign- j
ed orders late Wednesday to bring ;
five firms in the outer islands un- j
der Territorial control. He had
done the same Tuesday for Hono
lulu’s two companies. Actual take
over of all seven was expected to
be completed yesterday.
Striking stevedores of the CIO
ILWU announced mainland sup
port in their avowed attempt to
defy government dock operation.
Bridges, president of the ILWU,
j told a meeting of high Territorial
: officials: “I’m here to tell you the
Territory is not going to break
(Continued on Page Two)
Unions Object To
Independent Crew
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (/P)—An
independent crew has been placed
aboard the SS Asa Lothrop, tem
porarily ending contention be
tween AFL and CIO maritime un
ions which sought to man the ship.
Alaska Ship Lines officials said
today a full crew has been taken
on and the vessel may leave this
week-end for the West Coast.
The merchant ship is at Newport
News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock
company, where it underwent ma
jor overhauling. A few minor in
stallations are still under way.
Agents for the AFL and CIO,
which sought to furnish cooks, oil
ers, deckhands adn other person
nel, have left the scene, but an
AFL spokesman said the ship will J
be picketed upon arrival at any j
West Coast port.
The vessel is under charter
from the U. S. maritime- commis
sion to Alaska Ship Lines, a new
company operating into Canada.
Produce, Spuds
Expected To Show'
Record Yields
(Palmer Frontiersman)
Cutworms and pessimists to the
contrary, early indications are for
a bumper crop of produce and po
tatoes in the Matanuska Valley, it
was agreed this week by James
Wilson and Harold Stephan of the
Matanuska Valley Farmers Co-op
erating association. The pair, Co
op manager and head of the pro
duce department respectively, say
unseasonal rains have been a boon
which have produced particularly
fine crops of cabbage, lettuse and
celery.
Manager Wilson was especially
optimistic in his outlook. “If we
get the harvest of produce it ap
pears that we will, and if the milk
and egg production holds up as it
gives evidence of doing, farmers
this year will have added almost a
million dollars of new wealth in
the Matanuska Valley,” he said.
Quiet Voice Works
Where Tear Gas
And Violence Fail
STEILACOON, Wash. (£>»—'The
quiet, presuasive voice of a Ta
coma doctor early today talked a
rampaging steelworker out of a
house in which a woman had died
—possibly violently.
Fourteen peace officers using
tear gas and billy clubs had failed
in a three-hour effort to bring him
out.
The steelworker was John Da
vis, 43, and the dead woman was
identified tentatively as Mrs. Ar
lene Stone, 47, both of Tacoma.
Davis was being held in the
Pierce county jail.
Coroner Paul Mellinger said the
woman has been brutally mutil
ated.
Davis, wife told officers this
story:
Her husband and the woman
came to the Davis home, an un
finished residence on a sideroad,
at 7 p.m. last night. Both were in
toxicated. Davis ordered his wife
from the house.
Watching from a window, Mrs,
Davis said she then saw the cou
ple “tie on a first rate binge” un
til the woman appeared to pass
out on a bed.
Mrs. Davis said she called the
(Continued on Page Four)
Ford Workers Vote
To Strike If
Necessary
DETROIT, (/P) — Ford workers
in Michigan voted overwhelming
ly to strike if necessary to get
pensions, health benefits and a
wage increase.
The state labor mediation board
reported yesterday that 65,001
voted for a strike and 9,549
against. This was a 7-1 majority.
The three-day election, required
by state law, cleared away the last
legal obstacle to a strike of Ford
Motor Co.’s 106,000 hourly rate
production employees, 80,000 of
whom work in Michigan. The
election was asked by the CIO
UAW.
UAW president Walter Reuther
said there would be no immediate
walkout.
The vote almost exactly corre
sponds to the results of a nation
wide union-conducted strike elec
tion in Ford plants. That election,
held in July, resulted in a 7-1 ma
jority for the UAW.
ALASKA TO GET FIRST
RURAL DELIVERY ROUTE
WASHINGTON, (/P)—'The post
office department announced
plans yesterday for establishing
its first rural free delivery route
in Alaska.
Contingent upon recruitment of
personnel and arrival of equip
ment, the route will be put into
service Oct. 1, centering ac Ketch
ikan and extending over slightly
more than 51 miles of the Tongass
Highway on Revillagigedo Island.
It will serve some 3630 rural
homes on the highway.
There is now neither city nor
rural mail delivery in the Terri- ]
tory.
News of the World
At A Glance—
Thursday. August 11, 1949
(Bv The Associated Press*
The European Council’s consul
tative assembly elected Paul
Henri Spaak of Belgium its first
president by acclamation today.
Sponsors hope the assembly,
meeting in Strasbourg, France,
may become Europe’s first inter
national parliament. It has 101
members from 12 countries.
Spaak was nominated by Win
ston Churchill, one of 18 dele
from Britain. He resigned as act
ing Belgian premier and foreign
minister to be eligible for the post.
The assemblys choice will keep
one of Europe’s outstanding post
i war political figures in public life.
| Spaak has been prominent in his
1 own country’s government since
. liberation. He was first president
: of the United Nations general as
i sembly and has been a leader in
steps toward European economic
[ cooperation under the Marshall
Plan.
Spaak’s resignation marked the
end of a government crisis in Bel
gium since elections six weeks
ago, in which his Socialist party
lost ground. A new coalition cab
inet of Social Christians and Lib
erals, headed bv Social Christian
Gaston Eyskens, was being sworn
in today.
Greece’s general staff announc
ed a stepping up of the new of
fensive against communist gueril
las in mountains near the Alban
ian frontier. A communique said
four fortified heights in the Vitsi
I triangle were stormed during the
night.
The ministry of war labelled as
fantastic charges broadcast from
Tirana last night that the govern
ment troops had invaded Albanian
territory.
Louis Johnson, United States
defense secretary, traveled to Ot
tawa for talks with Canadian mili
tary chiefs. The conferences are
believed likely to cover both U. S.
Canndian planing for defense of
North America and close military
cooperation of the two countries
under the North Atlantic pact.
Latest word on China in Wash
ington was that U. S. ambassador
J. Leighton Stuart may not return
to his post withthe hard-pressed
Chinese nationalist government at
Canton. It was also reported that
secretary of state Dean Acheson
and British foreign secretary Er
nest Bevin will seek to coordinate
U. S.-Briitsh policies toward China
at neetings next month.
In Canton theer were indica
tions nationalist armies may not
defend the provisional capital
against communist forces now
on’y 215 miles away. The central
China commander. Gen. Hai
Chung-Hsi, was reported moving
his headquarters inland to Kwang
si province.
Friday. August 12. 1949
Vatican representatives in
Prague disclosed today that two
new bishops will be consecrated in
Slovakia Sunday, without approv
al of Czechoslovakia’s communist
led government.
The action may cause a new
(Continued on Page Five)