OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LIV NO. 74 - NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 1952_Per Copy—15*
House Votes End
Price Control On
Consumer Goods
WASHINGTON, (/P) — The
House voted to end price controls
on virtually all consumer goods.
The vote was subject to recon
sideration.
By a vote of 146 to 88, the
House decided there should be no
price controls on items which are
not rationed or allocated.
At present no goods are ration
ed, and only a few metals are
being alocated.
The effect of the amendment
would be to remove just about
all price controls or force the
Office of Price Stabilization to or
der rationing of things it wants
kept under price ceilings.
The amendment was offered by
Rep. Talle (R - Iowa) and sup
ported heavily by Republicans.
Democrats almost solidly opposed
it, but many were absent.
Talle said the amendment
would encourage free enterprise.
Opponents, led by Chairman
Spence <D-Ky) of the House Bank
ing Committee, claimed it would
amount to killing controls.
Customs Service Orders
Owen Lattimore Not Be
Allowed Leave Country
BALTIMORE, \/P)—The Balti
more district office of the Cus
toms Service received instructions
June 12 from Washington direct
ing that Owen Lattimore not be
permitted to leave the country.
The bulletin, known technically
as a “proscription list,” came from
Washington over the signature of
Frank Down, customs commis
sioner. It specifies that the per
sons named may not be issued
passports.
Lattimore himself told an AP
reporter he did not know “What
the whole story is about.” He is
a professor at Johns Hopkins in
Baltimore and was the central
figure in a months-long Senate
investigation of the Institute of
Pacific Relations of which he was
a trustee.
Lattimore denied repeatedly
that he was a Communist or had
any Communist connections.
Hearing Set For July 1
Army Withdrawal 86,000
Acres Of Susitna Land
ANCHORAGE, (/P) — The In
terior Department has set July 1
as the date for a public hearing
On the Army’s request for with
drawal of 86,000 acres of land
across Knik Arm from Anchor
age.
The military requested acreage
in the Susitna area for anti-air
craft firing at towed targets. The
request precipitated a chorus of
objections from various local or
ganizations and individuals who
felt the withdrawal would limit
development of the land for other
purposes.
Use of the land as a firing
range would be confined to two
six-week periods a year, in April
and October. The rest of the time
the land would remain under the
jurisdiction of the Bureau of
Land Management. Withdrawal
was requested for five years.
Earl Cooper, Judge For
Second Division Was D.A.
At Anchorage Five Years
Earl Cooper, who was nomina
ted for Judge of the Second Div
ision last Wednesday, is from An
chorage, where he has resided for
the past twelve years. For three
years he was district attorney,
and before that he was assistant
in the office for two years.
Prior to his w’ork in the D.A.’s
office, he was with the War Man
power Commission and with the
personnel division of the U.S. En
gineers.
Mr. Cooper is married and has
two children: a son, James, 15
months old, and a daughter, Su
san, 26 months old.
The President’s recommenda
tion must now go to the Senate
for final approval, as he has been
endorsed by the Democratic par
ty after several motiths of con
troversy, has been cleared by the
FBI, it is reported, and approved
by the American Bar Assn.
Second Division has been with
out a judge since the resignation
of Joe W. Kehoe in August of last
year.
Cost-of-Living
Nears Record High
WASHINGTON, (/P)—The gov
ernment’s latest cost - of - living
barometer moved up Thursday
under pressure of rising food and
rent costs to within a tiny frac
tion of the record high reached
last January.
The living-cost index, measur
ing prices of food, cfothing, shel
ter and a host of other things,
climbed during the month ending
May 15 two-tenths of one percent
to 189 percent of the 1935-39 av
erage. That is 1.1 percent over the
mark of 18 months ago when
price and wage controls took ef
fect. The peak figure last January
was 189.1.
A million and a quarter rail
workers will get an automatic
two-cent hourly wage boost as a
result of the latest increase in
living costs. Their work contract
ties wages to the cost-of-living
index and adjustments are made
each three months.
Another 100,000 wage earners
in textiles, aircraft and oil re
fining industries also get at least
a one-cent boost.
President Signs Measure
Authorizing $6 Billions
In Foreign Aid Funds
WASHINGTON, (^—President
Truman signed the $6,447,730,750
foreign aid bill Friday.
The amount is 18.6 per cent less
than he had declared was the
minimum necessary for next year.
The cuts were imposed by a
Congress which voiced support
fo'r the principle of foreign as
sistance but sharply criticized
some aspects of the President’s
program.
This measure merely authorizes
the expenditure of $6,447,730,750
—in effect setting that total as a
/ceiling for military and economic
assistance during the fiscal year
beginning July 1. The actual ap
propriations still have to be voted,
with the possibility that the whole
question of foreign aid may be
debated again.
I
Gov. Gruening
Requests Meeting
Interested Parties
To End Strike
SEATTLE, (/P) — Gov. Ernest
Gruening of Alaska Thursday
asked Mayor Allan Pomeroy to
call a meeting of “all interested
parties” in an effort to settle the
paralyzing Alaska shipping strike.
The Governor said:
“It certainly seems no one has
accomplished very much so far.
“The object of the meeting is
tc? serve the public interest by
reaching an agreement which will
restore shipping to Alaska,” the
Governor said. He warned the sit
uation in southeastern Alaska and
in the Nome area is growing
worse every day.
“We are making efforts to get
a goverment vessel to carry relief
supplies to the Nome area,”
Gruening said, “but I don’t think
progress along that line can be
expected to be rapid.”
Court Provides Decree
For Impartial Hiring Of
Cooks And Stewards
SAN FRANCISCO, (/P) — The
Ninth U. S. Court of Appeals
Thursday signed a decree provid
ing for impartial hiring of Marine
Cooks and Stewards on West
Coast ships.
The plan, expected to go into
effect June 30, calls for available
jobs »to be divided impartially be
tween members of the warring
National Union of Marine Cooks
and Stewards (Ind) and the Ma
rine Cooks and Stewards Union
(AFL).
Under the new hiring plan, the
court will appoint as many refer
ees as “may be necessary” to
supervise registration and hiring
procedures.
Meanwhile, efforts to settle the
27 - day - old strike of the AFL
Sailors Union of the Pacific con
tinued by no progress was re
ported.
In Seattle it was announced
that special barge service to south
eastern Alaska is being arranged
with the union’s approval.
McGranery Busy, Quietly
Cleanup Up Justice Dept.
WASHINGTON, (^—Attorney
General McGranery says the fir
ing of the U.S. District Attorney
for Kansas is just one step in a
methodical house cleaning the
Justice Department is conducting
“in our own quiet little way.”
McGranery, in office only three
weeks, announced that federal
prosecutor Lester Luther, 63, was
dismissed by President Truman
at his request because of evidence
the Kansan accepted a $2,000 cut
of a $5,000 fee in a pending tax
dispute case.
McGranery said a special grand
jury will be called at Tofpeka,
Kan., to study evidence Luther
shared in fees paid to another
federal employe, Nicholas Lopes,
for representing the Dolite Co. of
Toledo in a tax case.
Luther told reporters at his
Topeka home that he and Lopes
shared in fees from the firm, but
denied he had taken any money
illegitimately.
Steel Strike Slowly
Strangling Civilian and
Military Production
WASHINGTON, (/P)—The gov
ernment today scrapped its plan
to relax building restrictions July
1. It -said the steel strike is “slow
ly but surely” strangling military
and civilian production.
Henry H. Fowler, head of the
National Production Administra
tion told a news conference the
easing of curbs on home con
struction and on building of |
amusement and recreation sites
must be postponed indefinitely.
He added: “As the President
has said, the only way we can
support the defense program is to
have nearly all the closed plants
back in operation.”
Union leaders and officials of
the steel companies agreed during
conferences with John R. Steel
man, acting mobilization chief, to
make sure that steel needed for
critical defense industries would
be made available even though
the union continued on strike.
Details of .the plan have not yet
been worked out.
Arms Production
Will Halt Within
A Few Weeks
WASHINGTON, -(/P)—Industry
and the military say the nation’s
arms production — everything
from jet engines to atom bombs
and nuclear submarines — will
come to a virtual halt within a
few weeks if the steel strike con
tinues.
A survey of manufacturers and
defense experts Friday showed
that in general enough steel is on
hand to eke out production until
some time in August, but that in
some instances the impact of the
steel production stoppage already
is being felt.
The situation goes beyond the
non-delivery of finished weapons
themselves. If the hard steels
needed for tools can’t be had, the
weopons can’t be made. The ef
fect of that can be far-reaching.
Secretary of Defense Lovett,
calling the potential effect of the
strike very serious, already has
moved to get into arms produc
tion channels the comparatively
small amounts of steel production
and finished steel still available.
The Defense Department has
requested contractors to shift
steel orders to non-struck plants.
There aren’t many of these.
Kiwanis Come to Alaska
Aboard “Mosquito Fleet”
SEATTLE, (JP) — A “mosquito
fleet” of small Seattle boats is
carrying many Kiwanians north
on Alaska cruises they had hoped
originally to take aboard strike
bound Alaska Steamship Co.
liners after their international
convention here.
At least 50 are reported to have
left or to be leaving aboard char
tered yachts and other small boats
for runs up to southeast Alaska.
On of the largest groups—16
Texas Kiwanians left Thursday
aboard Seattle’s Christmas ship,
the 108-foot converted air-sea res
cue ship Valkyrie. They expect to
cruise 10 days to Ketchikan and
return.
Taft Blasts Ike
And “New Deal”
Republicanism
NEW YORK, (A5)—Sen. Robert
A. Taft blasted Gen. Dwight D.
Eisenhower on domestic and for
eign issue Thursday night, scorn
ed a “me-too” type of presidential
campaign and lambasted “New
Deal” Republicanism.
In a nationally televised pro
gram, “Answer to Abilene,” Taft
spoke out on vital issues while
taking verbal pot-shots at Eisen
hower, his chief contender for
the GOP presidential nomination.
He accused Eisenhower of
being ill-informed on, not under
standing, or shifting his views on
several issues — particularly re
duction of government expendi
tures.
“I think the general has gone
back on his 40 billion tax cut,”
said Taft.
(Eisenhower was variously
quoted as saying he favored a 40
billion dollar tax cut and a 40
billion dollar budget cut over sev
eral years. In Denver Thursday
night the general said he had
referred to a cut of 30 to 40 bil
lions in the federal budget—not
in taxes.)
If elected president, Taft prom
ised, he would balance the bud
get during his first year in office.
COMMUNISTS RESUME
ASSAULT ON T-BONE HILL
SEOUL, (>P) — Chinese Com
munists, striking behind a heavy
artillery barrage, resumed their
assaults late Friday night on stra
tegic T-Bone Hill, 50 miles north
of Seoul.
The Communists had broken
off the attacks Wednesday after
suffering at least 2,000 casualties
in six days of futile slugging.
A brief front line dispatch said
only that the Chinese had laun
ched another attack just, before
midnight. It did not give the size
of the attacking force.
ALASKA RR EMPLOYEES GET
3<* COST-OF-LIVING RAISE
ANCHORAGE, (/P) — About
2,500 Alaska Railroad employes
whose wages are geared to the
government’s cost-of-living index
will receive a three-cent hourly
boost effective July 1.
A .2 of one per cent increase
in the index prepared by the Bu
reau of Labor Statistics was an
nounced in Washington Thursday.
Government Deficit to Be
Less Than Expected —
Maybe Only $5% Billion
WASHINGTON, (£>)—The gov
ernment’s going to wind up its
year two to three billion dollars
better off than it expected. But it
is still in the red.
Government experts, peaking
privately, said Thursday the defi
cit — the amount by which the
government overspends its in
come—is likely to be less than
GV4 billion when the fiscal year
ends June 30. It could be as low
as 5V6 billion.
President Truman, in his bud
get message last January, figured
| the government would go in the
1 hole by $8,200,000,000.