22 NOME
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS'
VOL. LIV No. 57 • NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, MAY 12, 1952 , Per Copy—15*
Ridgway Leaves
Japan To Take
Over In Europe
TOKYO, (JP)—Gen. Matthew B.
Ridgway, who blocked the Com
munists in Korea and engineered
the end of the Allied occupation
of Japan, left Monday on his way
to Europe to succeed Gen. Dwight
Eisenhower as commander of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organiza
tion.
It was only a year, a month
and a day that Ridgway, soldier,
diplomat and Pentagon trouble
shooter, took over from Gen.
Douglas MacArthur as Supreme
Commander of Allied powers in
Japan.
As he left he turned over his
United Nations and Far Eastern
commands to Gen. Mark Clark.
Clark then kissed the young and
charming Mrs. Ridgway goodbye
and she walked up the plane ramp
with her distinguished husband.
The assembled crowd cheered
when Ridway said from the plane
ramp:
“I am deeply honored by this
ceremony. To see the armed forces
lined up side by side seems to me
not only a tribute of purpose but
also of the people they represent
and all the free people of the
world.
“I have complete and unshake
able faith in this command. Both
Mrs. Ridgway and I want to ex
press our heartfelt thanks for
your services and our best wishes
to you always.”
Snowslide Takes Life
Of One Motorist On
Anchorage-Seward Road
ANCHORAGE, (IP) — A snow
slide about 30 feet deep and 100
yards long fatally injured a San
Pedro, Calif., man late Friday on
the Anchorage - Seward highway
when it picked him up and threw
him on the rocky shores of Turn
again Arm.
Air Force hospital officials at
Anchorage identified the victim as
Thorvald C. Thomsen, 37, of San
Pedro. The accident occurred
about 35 miles south of Anchor
age.
Witnesses said Thomsen was
one of a group standing on the
highway after their car had been
held up by an earlier slide.
They said the second slide came
down and tossed Thomsen about
15 feet onto the rocks.
Oliver Backlund said: “We all
saw it coming but we didn’t know
where it was going to land on
the road.”
Backland’s car was demolished
by the slide. Backlund, who was
driving alone, said it was folded
up like an accordion.
SON OF REAR ADM. CRUISE
DIES IN CALIF. PLANE CRASH
SAN DIEGO, Calif., (JP)— An
admiral’s son was identified as
the pilot killed in a Navy plane
crash Friday.
He was Lt. (JG) Edgar A.
Cruise, Jr., 25.
The Navy said he was the son
of Rear Adm. Edgar A. Cruise,
Sr., commander of the 17th Naval
District, Kodiak, Alaska.
CAB Establishes Mail
Rates For Certified
Carriers In Alaska
WASHINGTON, {/P>—'The Civil
Aeronautics Board said Friday it
plans to establish final mail rates
this year for all certified air car
riers in Alaska.
Alaska Airlines Inc.—$1,060,000
a year on operations within Alas
ka, and $725,000 a year on routes
between the United States and
Alaska.
Pacific Northern Airlines, Inc.
—$1,701,924’ annually starting Jan.
1, 1952.
The Board also dened a tem
•
porary exemption to permit Wien
Alaska Airlines Inc. to transport
property and mail between Fair
banks and Seattle and Portland.
Pan American Airways, Alaska
Airlines and United Air Lines op
posed the application.
Alaska Airlines had asked that
its temporary mail pay totaling
$1,785,000 a year be increased by
$750,000. CAB said the petition
failed to show that the temporary
compensation was inadequate or
that the requested increase was
warranted.
Red POWs Release
General Dodd
SEOUL, Korea, (JP) — The U.S.
Eighth Army announced Saturday
that Brig. Gen. Francis T. Dodd
had been released—in good health
and good spirits—by Communist
prisoners of war on Koje Island.
Dodd, then commander of pris
on camps on the island, was seized
by Red prisoners Wednesday as
he conferred with them at the gate
of Compound 76.
An Eighth Army statement said
the general's release came after
a meeting of Communist ring
leaders of the compound. It was
attended by prisoner leaders from
other compounds on the island.
The conclave of Communist
P O W leaders came after Gen.
James A. Van Fleet, U.S. Eighth
Army commander, made it clear
he was preparing to use force
if the general were not released
unharmed.
An Army spokesman said Dodd
would be flown to Seoul Sunday
and would hold a news confer
ence. The spokesman said also
that correspondents would be al
lowed to visit Koje Sunday. The
island is 30 miles off the south
eastern tip of Korea.
Saturday morning the Army
said they had granted some of
the Red “minor requests,” which
included use of a telephone, writ
ing paper and the admittance of
prisoner leaders from other com
pounds on the island.
Threat of Force
Brings Release
SEOUL, (TP)—Brig. Gen. Francis*
T. Dodd said Monday Communist
prisoners of war who held him
hostage on Koje Island four days
last week threatened to kill him
if the U.S. Eighth Army tried to
rescue him by force.
Gen. Mark W. Clark, new sup
reme U.N. commander, said in
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- -T- r--r~ ■ — —-j- —5— -. -*• ~
Travel Agents To
Send “Avalanche
Of Tourist” North
A group of owners of well
known and outstanding travel
agencies from Southern California
who have been travelling through
Alaska as guests of Wien Air
lines, Alaska Airlines and West
ern Airlines, seemed completely
overwhelmed with the wonders of
the far north last Saturday when
they were guests of the Chamber
of Commerce.
A dinner of Alaskan specialties
including crab legs, shee fish, and
even blueberry pie, was prepared
at the Wallace Bering Sea club
where the group were guests of
Mr. and Mrs. Joe Wallace Satur
day evening. The night before,
they had enjoyed reindeer steaks
at Kotzebue.
Informal talks were given on
several phases of living in the
far north, with Charles Jones
giving the historical background;
Carl Glavinovich, mining history;
A. Polet, the importance of tour
ists; and Sam Mogg, some facts
about the Eskimo people.
The agents responded with such
phrases as: “The Arctic tourist
wonders are sheer magic,” “Lore
of the early days sensational,” and
“an avalanche of tourists can be
expected.”
The high-light of the trip was
the christening of one of Wien’s
ships as it crossed the Arctic
Circle. First ship of the company
to be named, it is now the “Arc
tic Queen.”
The guests were fascinated by
the panning of real gold nuggets
from the “golden sands of Nome’s
historic beach.”
They found the Nome method
of fishing crab so interesting that
they took with them a live crab
which will be used in a TV show
upon arrival in San Francisco to
morrow.
They cautioned that sufficient
and adequate housing must be
planned for a permanent flow of
satisfied tourists.
Contractors File
$5 Million Suit
Against Carpenters
ANCHORAGE, (JP) — The*
Associated General Contractors
filed a five million dollar dam
age suit in federal court Saturday.
It results from the Alaska-wide
strike of American Federation of
Labor carpenters in the Anchor
age area. The suit also asks $123,
000 a day continuing damages,
and a court injunction to halt
the strike.
Plans to file the suit were an
nounced earlier this week by AGC
president D. L. Cheney.
The suit is aimed at some 3,500
carpenters who walked out Mon
day demanding an hourly wage
increase from $3.14 to $3.70.
The action is based on the AGG
contention that an agreement
reached with the carpenters. April
26 was a valid and binding con
tract which was broken by the
strike action.
i
Taft Leading Eisenhower
343 to 290 In Delegates
To Nominating Convention
(By the Associated Press)
Both Sen. Taft of Ohio and Gen.
Eisenhower expect to win new
national convention delegate votes
today as Wyoming and Rhode Is
land Republicans meet in state
conventions to select 20.
Wyoming Democrats also are
meeting to elect 10 delegates.
Taft counted on picking up a
majority of Wyoming’s 12 GOP
votes, but Eisenhower backers in
Casper said “There’ll be a hell
of a fight” if GOP state leaders
don’t agree to a split giving at
least five to the general.
As the busy political week got
underway — 13 conventions with
166 delegate votes at stake—Taft
had 343 votes and Eisenhower 290,
according to an Associated Press
tally based on delegates pledged,
conceded, instructed, favorable, or
willing to state a first ballot
choice.
Both GOP contenders picked up
new votes Saturday. Taft added
11 and Eisenhower 4 as 86 dele
gates were selected in party meet
ings in Nevada, Utah, Michigan,
Missouri and Virginia. Republi
cans chose 24. Democrats 62, most
of whom were uncommitted and
uninstructed.
Air Force Crew
Spots Cache Left
By Peary in 1900’s
WASHINGTON, (/P) — An Air
Force crew, flying near the top
of the world, has discovered a
supply cache left by Rear Adm.
Robert E. Peary during his polar
expeditions in the early 1900s.
A brief dispatch received by
Air Force headquarters from the
Alaskan Air Command Friday
said the cache had been found on
the northern tip of Ellesmere I.
At this point the Peary expedi
tions left the last* land to start
a 500-mile trek over ice to the
North Pole. The 1909 expedition
reached it.
The dispatch gave this account
of discovery of the cache:
On one of the current flights
to the ice islands in the Arctic
Sea the crew of the plane spotted
the cache and saw what was de
scribed as a “sign post.”
Upon landing, the group found
the cache contained names and
dates between 1900 *and -1909.
There were four metal and
wood boxes, their position marked
by broken sled runners.
Air Force Fisticutfs
SAN ANTONIO, Tex., (JP) —
Forty of the toughest guys in
the United States Air Forces slug- i
ged away until there were 20 late
last night in the world-wide box
ing championships semi-finals at
Lackland Base.
Down to two-man duels in each
i of ten divisions, the finals which
will send winners to the Olympic
Tournament at Kansas City, Mo.,
June 16-18, will be held Tuesday
night.
At the end of the fistic rainbow
for winners there is a berth on
the Olympic team which will in
vade Helsinki, Finland, in August.
Object Explodes
With Violent Force
Over Puget Sound
SEATTLE, (/P)—U.S. Air Force
investigators and astronomers,
•after checking hundreds of eye
witness reports, said Monday a
fiery abject which exploded with
violent force over Seattle and the
surrounding Puget Sound country
early Sunday probably was a
meteor.
They continued questioning wit
nesses from Olympia, 50 miles
south of here, to Bellingham, 80
miles north, however, and started
a search for “strange” materials
they said might have come from
a meteor.
Airline pilots and ground ob
servers said it exploded with a
blinding flare and burst into flam
ing streamers. The rumbling con
cussion that followed rattled win
dows and shook doors.
Col. T. Allan Bennett, com
manding officer of the 25th Air
Defense Division at McChord Air
Force Base near Tacoma, and Dr.
J. Hugh Pruett, University of
Oregon astronomer and Pacific
regional director of the American
Meteor Society, agreed it probably
was a meteor.
Bennett said none of the radar
installations in the Pacific North
west picked up the object on their
screens and he doubted the ob
ject could have been an aircraft
or guided missile.
Tanana Lacks Force
Of Water For Breakup
NENANA, May 10, (Special)—
Riverbank experts, eyeing the
cloudy skies and low water level
in the Tanana, are still predicting
the end of the ice-guessing game
“tomorrow or the next day.”
Although this same prediction is
nothing new, plain facts of weath
er and the obvious lack of suffi
cient water in the river lend
weight to these observations.
As every Alaskan knows, the
ice breakup rarely follows any
logical guess based on weather
and the amount of water in the
Tanana.
The channel between the bank
and the block of ice upon which
the tripod rests has widened, but
heavy ice cakes are jammed
above and below the tripod.
Fairbanksans have arrived by
train* and plane to look over the
situation.
“This is the oddest breakup I’ve
ever seen,” was one observer’s
comment.
*
Soviets Seize Two More
Japanese Fishing Boats
Off Coast of Hokkaido
TOKYO, ,(yP)—The Kyodo News
Agency said Monday two Japa
nese fishing boats were seized by
Soviet patrol boats Saturday mor
ning off the eastern coast of Hok
kaido, northernmost Japanese is
land. *
The seizures brings to five the
number of Japanese boats re
ported captured by the Russians
in the area since Japan became
independent April 28. The Rus
sians say the Japanese boats are
violating wide Russian-proclaim
ed territorial waters around the
Soviet-held island of Sakhalin.