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' _•_OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. XLIX. No. 155 NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1947_PER COPY — 15c
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NEWS IN BRIEF
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LOS ANGELES, Yesterday was
the second hottest Christmas day
in the history of the Los Angeles
weather bureau. The maximum
was 84 degrees, exceeded only by
an 86 degree temperature on
Christmas in 1914.
LOS ANGELES, (/P)—Fire chief
J. H. Alderson and his family
were unwrapping their Christmas
gifts yesterday when someone no
ticed neighbors squirting water
from a garden hose on the Aider
son roof.
The chief took a look, then
called the fire department. Flames
believed to have been started by
a chimney spark, destroyed the
roof with a loss, chief Alderson es
timated at $3,000.
. SAUGUS. Mass., (/P) — A 35
year-old father of five children
bundled his youngest into a blan
ket, and hurred down a ladder
early today when fire swept their
home—reaching the ground to find
the blanket empty.
Firemen restrained the horror
stricken father, Richard Crowe,
from returning to the flame-filled
house and later found the charred
body of Arthur Crowe, two years
old, on the floor of his bedroom.
The child had slipped out of the
blanket as the father slung him
over his shoulder, pack fashion,
the firemen said. The others es
caped.
WASHINGTON, {£>)—'The inter
state commerce commission today
announced the election of William
Erwin Lee of Idaho, as its chair
man for 1948. i
Lee, a 65-year-old Republican,
was first named to the commission
by former President Herb e r t
Hoover. He will succeed %Clyde B.
Atchison in the chairmanship
which is rotated annually among
the 11 commission members. At
chison resumes his place as a com
missioner on Jan. 1.
WASHINGTON, (/P)—President
Truman will act early next week, j
probably Monday, on the anti-in
flation bill passed by the special
session of Congress. !
Telling reporters this today,
press secretary Charles G. Ross
said Mr. Truman will issue “an
adequate statement” of his views j
on the legislation.
It has been indicated the Presi
dent will sign the bill, although he i
has criticized it as inadequate. The
heart of the measure is a provision
for the government to promote
voluntary industry agreements to
hold down prices. Mr .Truman
asked Congress to give him power
to put> on price and rationing con
trols.
______
NEW YORK, (/P) — A swirling 1
snow storm, intensifying as the day i
wore on, blanketed an area ex-,
tending from southeastern New
York to Washington, D. C., today
with the year's deepest snowfall.
The snow was expected to reach
a depth of six to ten inches in!
southeastern New York.
Six inches were reported in At
lantic City, N. J.,—the heaviest
Dec. 26 fall there since 1874.
In New York City, trains, buses
Bright Prospects
For U. S. In 1948
_ I
WASHINGTON, (iflP)—1The next
12 months should bring record
breaking U. S. production and per
haps an ebb in the tide of rising
prices, the government’s top econ
omist reported today.
“Given a fair crop year, there’s
a distinct possibility that 1948 will
I see an abatement of inflation,”
said Dr. Edwin G. Nourse, chair
man of the President’s council of
economic advisers.
The three major influences on
the economic pulse during the next
year, Dr. Nourse told a reporter,
j probably can be listed in this or
| der:
j 1. The weather. If wheat, corn
! and other crops escape the
drought which hurt last fall’s har
vest, food costs could lead the way
j to more stable prices.
2. Labor relations. A “third
: round” of sizable wage increases,
or a new wave of strikes curta:l
j ing production, could heighten in
1 flationary pressures.
; 3. Foreign Aid. Depending on
how much help is voted for Eii'o
i pean recovery, exports could make
some existing shortages more crit
ical.
! Congress thus far has author
ized only voluntary agreements by
| business, agriculture and industry
to divide scarce goods. This is a
provision of the Republican anti
, inflation bill which Mr. Truman
, is expected to sign shortly.
As for the No. 1 factor, weather,
the agriculture department had
good news last week. Its winter
wheat forecast indicated another
|t
“bumper” wheat crop—more than
a billion bushels—may be harvest
ed. And as for goods and services,
! the nation’s production rose in
I 1947, Dr. Nourse pointed out, and
l can be expected to rise further. He
gave no figures, since these will be
included in Mr. Truman’s econo
mic message to Congress next
month.
Freak RR. Accident
In Florida
MIAMI, Fla. (/P> — A Florida
East Coast passenger train en
route from Miami to Jacksonville
ripped into a freight train here
early today, injuring five mem
members of the crew. Fourteen
railroad cars were either demol
ished or badly damaged.
J. R. Ashworth, of Miami, en
gineer on th^ passengers train, es
caped death as his locomotive
plowed through one freight car
and on into another. He was in
jured and taken to a hospital.
No one was able to recount how
the accident occurred, but most
railmen believed a part of the
front section of the freight train
heading south jumped the rail as
the passenger train, going north,
was passing. The freight train lo
comotive continued south on the
FEC tracks, carrying a few cars
with it for almost a mile.
and autos moved slowly. All i
planes were grounded. Thousands |
of commuters braved sub-freezing
temperatures and growing drifts
to get to work.
U. N. Workers
Xmas-Feted In
American Homes
(By Toni Adams)
BINGHAMPTON, N. Y., </P)— j
Well-fed, jolly groups of United
Nations employees from 35 coun
tries set forth today to view the
inner workings of three industrial j
communities that gave them an i
American Christmas with all the!
trimmings.
Stored away for recollection in
odd moments at bustling Lake
Success were memories of warm
hearths, clean snow, bountiful
tables, mistletoe and gay present
opening sessions under tinseled
Christmas trees.
The 175 clerks, typists, inter
preters and other workers of the
peace organization have been en
j tertained since Christmas Eve at
approximately 100 homes in Bing
* hampton, Endicott and Johnson
City as a good will gesture from
this south central New York area.
One of the heart-wa rming
touches of this adventure in inter
nationalism was the informal use
i of first names.
“Maybe we’d get further in this
peace project if we stopped mis
(pronouncing last names and call
; ing each other Mister,” comment
ed one host.
Dr. Otto Frey become “Otto”
i and “forgot the difficulties of his
work as chief of the U. U. atomic
energy commission. He relaxed on
a couch 3t the home of Mr. and
Mrs. Joseph Tomiska.
“The way to get to know Amer
icans is to get out of New York
City,” he observed.
_■
Right Town, But
Wrong State
ALBUQUERQUE, N. M. </P)—It
was the right town but the wrong
state.
Yvette Daigle, 18, of Quebec,
Montreal, Canada, was en route
! to join her brother, Louis Daigle,
in Las Vegas, Nev., but someone
forgot to designate which Las Ve
gas on her plane ticket.
The attractive French-Canadian
girl speaks only French. When she
showed her ticket at the Denver,
Colo., air terminal, she was ush
ered aboard an airliner bound for
Las Vegas, N. M.
An alert hostess discovered the
error and brought her to Albu
querque for an overnight stay. She
boarded another plane for the
right Las Vegas yesterday.
Alaska Steamship Co.
Announces Change In
Policy For 1948
Officials of the Alaska Steam
ship Company announce that the
company is discontinuing the
practice of forcing the prepayment
of charges and lighterage to Nome,
and that the handling of the
charges “collect” will be resumed
in 1948. AlsdP in the announce
ment was the statement that ship
ping orders for collection through
the bank would be accepted.
Tom Keating, Nome agent for
the company, now in Seattle,
Stassen States j
Officials Gambled
In Commodities
WASHINGTON, (/P)—Harold E.
Stassen yesterday challenged the
administration to say whether any
present and former officials in the
“executive department of the
White House” traded in commodi
ties prior to big government pur
chases in early 1947.
Stassen also asked in a state
ment whether White House and
other past and present government
officials made a “huge profit at
the steep climb of prices which
followed the governmental buy
• w li *
mg.
Reporters who asked Presiden
i tial secretary Charles G. Ross
i about Stassen’s statement got the
reply, “No comment.”
Stassen first charged two weeks
i ago that “insiders” in the govern
1 ment had profitted from commod
ity trading. His assertions then led
to disclosure that Edwin A. Pau
; ley, special assistant to secretary
1 of the army Royall, had been a big
market ^fcculator.
Pauley told a Senate committee
i he went into the market before
1 taking the government post. He
said he began getting out after
taking it and has never had inside
information on government com
modity purchasing plans.
Since then, Congress has voted
for publication of names of all big
traders in commodities and two
committees are investigating spec
(Continued on Page Six)
i
Many Government
Workers Played
The Market
WASHINGTON, (/Pi—Rep. Mac
Kinnon (R.-Minn.) said Wednes
day the agriculture department
knows of 71 local, state and fed
eral employees who were trading
on the grain markets in Septem
ber. MacKinnon called on Secre
tary Anderson in a telegram to
disclose the names of the 71.
His action coincided with a re
quest by the Senate appropriations
committee that five government
departments hurry up with reports
on whether any of their officials
have been gambling on commodity
markets.
The committee is checking on
allegations that “government in
siders” made use of official infor
mation to profit in commodity
trading.
MacKinnon said in a statement
that J. M. Mehl, administrator of
the commodity exchange author
ity, told the joint Congressional
committee on the economic report |
on Nov. 24 that as of Sept. 17 the |
71 public employees were “long”|
on 384,000 bushels and “short”
131,000 bushels in the wheat fu
tures market.
stated he was sure the Nome busi
nessmen will be glad to hear of
this arrangement so that they can
advise their Outside suppliers and
banking connections that it will
not be necessary to prepay their
shipments to Nome.
Many Dead In
Typhoon-Ravaged
Philippines
MANILA, (/P) — A savage ty
phoon swept the Philippines to
day, leaving at least 56 persons
dead or unaccounted for — 46 of
them from the Danish motorship
Kina, which sank off Samar.
Five other ships were damaged,
70 per cent of the historic city of
Tacloban was reported wiped out
by storm-whipped fire, and nor
tions of Manila were hard hit.
The latest official death toll in
Manila and nearby Quezon CLy
was five, and the Red Cross re
ported five persons missing in La
guna province.
President Roxas declared an
emergency holiday to permit all
energies to be devoted to recovery
as the storm—the worst December
typhoon to hit the Philippines in
129 years—swept over the China
Sea toward Hainon.
The Danish motorship Kina,
bound from Tokyo to Europe with
a crew of 36 and 15 passengers,
was reported a “total loss” in the
Samar Sea. It crashed on rocky
Camandag Island about five miles
; off the coast of Samar Island.
The 9,823 ton vessel of the Dan
ish East Asiatic lines was driven
aground. Its loss was reported by
(Continued on Page Six)
i
j Hoover Deplores
Increase In Juven
ile Delinquency
J. Edgar Hoover, director of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation,
recently made the following re
marks in a nation-wide broadcast:
“My message tonight is directed
to the mothers and fathers of
America—to all adult, citizens re
sponsible for the welfare of our
youth.
“During the war years, when
age seventeen was leading all
other age groups in frequency of
arrests, the volume of juvenile de
linquency in the United States
reached an all-time high. It was
disheartening to see thousands of
our youngsters caught in the back
wash of war; but I had hopes then
that the condition was temporary
and that after the war the factors
that contributed to delinquency
would be removed and corrected.
“That, apparently, was wishful
thinking. There was an encourag
ing decline in youthful delinquen
cy immediately after the war, but
arrests of youngsters are again on
the increase. During the first nine
months of 1947, arrests of boys 18
to 20 years of age increased nearly
27 per cent over the same period
in 1946. Moreover, some of the
wartime teen-age offenders have
grown up, and many are now com
mitting more serious crimes.
“With a major crime occurring
every 18 seconds, it is time to
pause and examine the problem. I
have noted that there is something
lacking in the home life of most
youngsters who violate the law.
Even the delinquents who are from
apparently normal homes are vic
tims of parental neglect. The par
ents are either too careless or too
(Continued on Page Five)