m NOME NUGGET
_OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBEB ASSOCIATED PRESS_
VOL. LI. No. 71 NOME. ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 1949 Per Copy—15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
I
- I
WRANGELL, (/P) — The city’s
new two per cent sales tax will j
n<fc go into effect until July 1.
The legislative enabling act failed
to include an emergency clause
which would permit it to become
effective immediately, city coun
cilman explained.
HOMER, <#>)—W. R. Benson, a
merchant, has plans under way to'
build a modern eight-room hotel. I
He also will remodel a garage and
complete another building as a
store, in addition to continuing to
get out his mimeographed news
shee\ “The Homes Homesteader.”!
FAIRBANKS, -UP) — Fellow po-!
lice officers of patrolman Ray'
Skelton give him this advice: i
“Lock up that tricycle, or better1
yet, lock up your boy, Tommy.”
The father was “booked,” on
his wife’s “complaint,” that he fell
down on his job of “baby sitting.”
While his wife was at a club,
Skelton looked after the boy anri
let him play next door. The father
went to sleep and the boy disap
* peared. When found down town,
he had ridden his tricycle out to
the airport, abandoned it, and
hiked into the city where police
picked him up.
FAIRBANKS, f/P,—July 1, date
of the retirement of Dr. Charles
I
E. Bunnell who will then be clos
ing 27 years as president of the
University of Alaska, will be
“President Emeritus Day" over
Alaska. An official proclamation
by acting governor Llewellyn M.
Williams sets the date. His order,}
issued in the absence of Governor
Gruening, recognized President
Bunnell’s long service to the Ter
ritory. Elaborate ceremonies are
planned on the college campus i
here.
—
SANTA MONICA. Calif. UP,—
Planes and a surface craft search-!
ed yesterday for a naval reserve
training plane missing with a
crew of seven since Monday
night at 8:45 p.m.
The two-engine transport nor
mally would have run out of fuel
at 1:32 a.m., yesterday, the navy
said It said seven naval reservists
from Memphis, Tenn., were
board. The search by coast guard
planes and a coast guard cutter
was concentrated along the south
ern California coastal area.
I
DALLAS. Tex. </P)—Storms and
flash floods took at least five lives
in Dallas County Monday night
and yesterday. Three other per-■
. ,
h sons are missing.
Three drowned in the Garland |
area, northeast ox Dallas, trapped
by the swirling waters of flooding
Duck Creek. Ten inches of rain
fell at Garland.
# In northwest Dallas County, a
Frisco freight train piled into a
washout. Two crewmen were
missing.
WASHINGTON (/P) — Group
burial services for the 248 serv
icemen killed when the cargoship
Serpens exploded off Guadalcanal
Jan. 29, 1945, will be held today
(Continued on Page Five)
U. N. Might Take ,
An Undeveloped
Alaska A wav From
United States
(By Vern Haugland)
WASHINGTON, (/P) — A report
before President Truman suggests
that the United States could lose
Alaska by default to the United j
Nations.
The report, describing a recla- j
mation bureau reconnaissance of
Alaska’s water resources, was pre
sented to the President by secre
tary of the interior Krug. It car
ries the endorsement of Lt. Gen.
Nathan F. Twining, commander in
chief of the Alaskan Command.
"It is quite conceivable,” the
report says, "that sometime in the
future the United Nations might
demand more equitable division of
the unpopulated and potentially
rich region of the globe.
"Therefore, the United States is
faced with the problem: Who will
develop Alaska? Will it be Ameri- ,
cans, or will it be the land-hungry
people of devastated Europe or
the overcrowded Orient?” And
the report adds:
"Today Alaska belongs to the
United States; tomorrow it could
belong to the world.”
The document describes the
"
Territory as:
< 1» One of the greatest undevel
oped areas in a land-hungry, re
sources-hungry world; <2> A po
tential leader in the development
of Asia; <3> One of the few places
on earth that could provide .the
fantastic amounts of power re
quired for the army’s proposed
supersonic wind tunnel; and <4> a
possible major weapon-launching
point in a push-button war.
And. it says, "with the United
States taking rapid strides into
the atomic age, the possibility of
Alaska as a source of radioactive
materials cannot be ignored.”
“The past delay in Alaska’s de
velopment,” it says, “proved ex
ceedingly costly when the world
was plunged into global war. To
morrow, in view of the new con
cepts of polar strategy, the cost
might be catastrophic.”
The reclamation bureau sug- j
gested in the report an extension {
of reclamation law to Alaska so
the government can build irriga
tion and power projects there.
It also proposed expansion of
reclamation authority to include
drainage work. And it urged the
closest cooperation with Canada
in exploring and developing the ‘
little-known north.
The report disclosed that feder
al agencies are considering the
production of synthetic oil and gas
from Alaska coal.
It said three areas in general
are being considered—near Homer j
on the Kenai Peninsula, in the
Matanuska Valley, and along'
Healy Creek near the north boun
dary of McKinley National Park.
. It disclosed that the Alaskan
construction program of the arm
ed services" is expected to accel
erate during the next few years,"
and that most of the military in
(Continued on Page Seven)
Violence Flares I
In Coal “Holiday”
PITTSBURGH, </P) — Pickets
patrolled the nation’s coal fields
yesterday, forcing some non-union
mines to close as the “stabilization
holiday” entered the second day.
John L. Lewis ordered tin*
walkout of the 480,000 soft and
hard coal miners. He said it was
in their interest.
In another development com- 1
pleting the cycle of UMW moves
for new contracts in all divisions
of the coal-producing industry.
Lewis made public at Philadel
phia yesterday a letter asking for
contract talks in the anthrocite
coal fields. There was no indica
tion of what the UMW demands
will be.
The present anthracite agree
• Continued on Page Six>
6*Ike“ Speaks Out
Against Federal
Aid To lueation
WASHINGTON. (/Pi — Gen.
Dwight D. Eisenhower appeared
yesterday to have gone u long way
toward torpedoing one of Presi
dent Truman’s ‘‘must” bills before
Congress — federal aid to educa
tion.
A critical letter by the general,
now president of Columbia uni
versity and acting chairman of the
military chiefs of staff, plunged
school aid advocates into gloom.
It started talk among some law
makers about possibility that Ei
senhower intends to make his po
litical weight felt.
In a letter to Rep. Gwinn <R.
N. Y.i, Eisenhower opposed feder
al school aid grants to all of the
States, a proposal already approv
ed by the Senate and now pend
ing in a House labor sub-commit
tee.
He said he favors helping only
(Continued on Page Five'
Report FBI Edgar
Hoover Resigned
WASHINGTON, (ff) —Attorney
general Clark today blasted as
“ridiculous” reports that J. Edgar
Hoover had resigned as FBI chief
in a row over use of secret files
in the Judith Coplon espionage
trial.
To a flat question as to whether
Hoover “has resigned, offered to
resign or indicated he might re- '
sign,” Clark snapped:
“Hell, no.”
A spokesman for Hoover re
sponded to all inquiries “No com
ment.”
The resignation reports were
published today in a copyrighted i
story in the Washington Times
Herald which began:
“FBI director J. Edgar Hoover
yesterday was reported to have
submitted his resignation to attor
ney general Clark during a heated
showdown on top-level justice de
partment policy.”
The story mentioned a “rumor”
of the resignation and told of “au
thoritative” reports of the position
Hoover had taken.
Krug Report Shows
Vast Hydroelectric
Power Resources
In Alaska
(By Vern Haugland)
<(7P) Special Washington Service*
WASHINGTON, bP> -Alaska
present population 100,000—some
day may become a little Scandin
avia with 10,000,000 people, secre
tary of the interior Krug said to-1
day.
Krug told President Truman in
a report on the Territory’s re
sources that Alaska has a poten
tial hydroelectric capacity of more
than 8,000,000 kilowatts.
This, he said, is “more than half
the amount of hydroelectric
power now developed in the
United States and is more than
, three times the installed capacity
I of the Tennessee Valley Author
ity.’’
But Alaskans need help to de
velop their lands and rivers, Krug
said—help under the reclamation
law, now limited t<> the western
States.
The BOth Congress gave interi
or’s reclamation bureau $150,000
with which to make an engineer
ing and economic survey of Alas
ka as the basis for possible legis
lation to extend the bureau’s ac
tivities td the Territory.
Results of the survey, first com
prehensive study of Alaska with
an eye to possible specific pro
jects, were contained in the re
port. Krug also -ent the President
the draft of an Alaska reel a.no
tion bill.
Governor Ernest Gruening of
Alaska and reclamation commis
sioner Michael W. Strauss endors
ed the report.
Lt. Gen. Nathan F. Twining,
commander in chief of the Alas
k-an command, concurred that civ
ilian development of Alaska re
sources would reduce purely mili
tary expenditures there.
Krug said copies ol' the report
also are being sent to the army,
agriculture and commerce depart
ments and to the federal power
commission, for comment.
He asked President Truman’s
“advice concerning the relation
ship of the report and draft of bill
to your program before I transmit
them to the Congress.”
'A federal inter-agency commit
tee has developed a five-year com
prehensive plan, including recla
mation projects, for Alaskan de
velopment.
'The House public lands com- \
mittee approved today a bill to
authorize the $21,000,000 Eklutna
hydroelectric project, serving the
Anchorage area—the first of many
such projects in the program).
Of Alaska’s population outlook,
Krug’s report said:
“At least 5,000,000 people could
be sustained on Alaska’s resourc
es. Norway, Finland and Sweden
with the same latitude, but more
fully matured economically, have
a present population density 2Vi
to 5 times greater than Alaska
would have if it had 5,000,000 in
habitants. . . .
“In Alaska, . . . there are 386,
000 square miles of land mori j
(Continued on Fagc Two)
News of the oriel
At A Glance —
Tuesday, June 14, 1949
The foreign ministers confer
ence in Paris was reported today
to be working out a truce on Ber
lin and setting up machinery for
east-west trade in divided Ger
many.
The conference is expected to
wind up this week, probably
Thursday, it has been unable to
agree on any plan for the reuni
fication of Germany.
According to well-informed cir
cles the foreign ministers are at
tempting to salvage some concrete
results from the session, marked
by sharp and apparently insur
mountable differences between
Russia and the west.
There is expectancy the dele
| gates will reach agreement on an
' Austrian peace treaty. They also
hope to work out a limited com
mercial accord for Germany. It
i fixes an exchange rate for the west
(Continued on Page Three)
Cernians \ ote To
Continue Strike
_
BERLIN. (/P) — Western Berlin
railway workers voted six to one
yesterday to continue their strike
rather than knuckle under to a
communist threat of reprisals.
Only a three-fourth majority
| was needed to assure continuation
' of the 24-day-old strike which has
become in effect a “little block
ade" of Berlin.
The striking union announced
the results of day-long balloting
on a compromise proposal as fol
lows:
For continuation of the -trike,
12,626.
Against continuation, 2,085.
Senate \\ ill Trim
EC A Funds Despite
Truman’s Speech
WASHINGTON. f/P)—State de
partment officials say the Euro
pean recovery program is now en
tering a critical stage of develop
ment, with its ultimate success at
stake.
Thesa authorities noted the pro
gram must meet heavy strains
not only in Congress, where it is
caught up in the battle o£ govern
ment costs, but also in Europe
where extremely difficult econo
mic problems are shaping up.
President Truman brought the
Washington side of the situation
sharply into national attention
last Saturday with his Little Rock
war memorial speech. He de
nounced as “false economy'’ any
reduction by Congress of funds
which the economic cooperation
administration <ECA> is asking
for the second full year of the
Marshall plan.
After emphasizing that he re
gards European recovery as a key
element in his anti-communist
foreign policy, Mr. Truman said
that a slash in funds now would
(Continued on Page Eight)