m NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LII. No. 64 NOME. ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 1950 Per Copy—15c
Western Powers
To Give Arms
To Middle East
WASHINGTON, (/P)—'The Uni
ted States, Britain and France
have announced a joint agreement
to supply arms to the middle
east—for defense alone. President
Truman hailed it as a move to
stimulate “increased confidence in
future security” in that area.
The president expressed this
view in a statement commenting
on the three-power accord reach
ed at London during the foreign
ministers conference early this
month.
Under the agreement, arms can
be sent to both the Arab nations
and Israel if they giv? assurances
they will not use the military
equipment “to undertake any act
of aggression against another
state.”
The agreement marked an end
to long-standing differences a
mong the western powers over the
question of providing weapons to
permitted to fix fees for polling
(Continued on Page Two)
House Voles For
•
Year Extension
Of Rent Controls
WASHINGTON, (TP), The House
banking committee voted 13 to 4
for another year of federal rent
control.
The bill provides, however, that
controls will end December 31 in
cities that do not vote to continue
them until June 30, 1951.
The present rent control law ex
pires at the end of next month.
The committee’s action sends
its bill to the House. The measure,
sponsored by chairman Spence
fD.-Ky.). has these main provi
sions:
1. Continuation of the federal
rent control powers to June 30,
1951.
2. Increased “local optibn” pro
visions whereby localities can de
termine whether they want fur
ther controls. A city would have
the power at any time to vote out
controls. Once taken off, no rent
ceilings could be re-imposed in a
particular locality.
3. Rent controls to end auto
matically December in all locali
ties where the local governing
body or the people in referendum
do not decide to continue the con
trols to June 30, 1951.
Governors of the various States
would have no authority to veto
the action of cities taking them
selves out from under the federal
rent ceilings.
President Truman asked for a
renewal of the rent law in a spe
cial message to Congress April 21.
He said “a sudden and cimultane
ous removal of rent controls on a
national scale would precipitate a
wave of exorbitant rent increas
es.”
Labor groups also campaigned
strongly for continuation of con
trols. Spokesmen for the CIO and
AFL told the committee that if
controls were dropped labor cer
tainly would ask for a new round
of wage increases.
HOME ARTS PLANT SALE
SET FOR SATURDAY AT N. C.
The annual plant sale of the
Home Arts Club is scheduled for
next Saturday at the N. C. Store.
This annual event of the club is
for the purpose of maintaining
the children’s playfield which
they started and have sponsored
for many years. This year the
proceeds are planned for a fund
to buy a new piece of playground
equipment which hasn’t been an
nounced.
Members of the group as well
as other people in the community
have been raising plants for the
sale and anyone who has plants
who has not been contacted may
call Mrs. Ben Hyndman, chair
man, who will see that they are
picked up on Saturday morning.
Other members of the commit
tee are Mrs. Pearse Walsh, Mrs.
Robert Long, Mrs. John Hudert,
and Mrs. Frank Bingham.
Latest “Scientific”
Fishing Boat Soon
To Locate Fish
I -
By Rowland Evans, Jr.
WASHINGTON, May 18, UP)—
The last word in experimental
fishing boast will leave Seattle,
Wash., in about two weeks to
search out new tuna grounds in
North Pacific Alaskan waters.
And if the brand new, $225,000
“John N. Cobb” has the luck of
some of its predecessors, say com
mercial fisheries experts in the
department of inte^or, south
eastern Alaskans may find them
selves an off-season industry.
R. T. Whitdeather, assistant
chief of the commercial fisheries
branch, said in an interview that
the new, 250-ton boat will be out
fitted with every conceivable
fish-locating device, including a
bathythermagraph, which auto
matically records water tempera
tures at specific intervals all the
way down to the bottom, and
supersonic depth recorders, by
located at practically any depth,
which large schools of fish can be
“We are putting the latest sci
entific developments to work in
locating now fishing grounds and
improving existing ones,” White
leather said. Some day. he said,
electronic fish-locating devices
may revolutionize the industry.
Scouting out the places where
tuna and other fish can be
caught and pin-pointing them for
development by commercial oper
ators is a relatively new field of
operations, Whiteleather said. But
it has been “very successful in
some areas,” he added.
In 1940, for instance, the gov
ernment’s first fishery explora
tion in the Bering sea was made.
Result? A king-crab industry
which in 1948 netted more than
2,000,000 pounds
“We found some prolific crab
grounds,” Whiteleather said, “but
of sourse we had nothing to do
with catching that 2,000,000
ponnds. All we do is locate. The
commercial people take over from
here.”
The best king crab grounds dis
covered so far are off Amuk Is
places.
(Continued on Page Two)
iU.S. “Point Four”
Program Desired
By 60 Countries
WASHINGTON, About 60
countries and dependent areas
want to share in the “Point Four”
program of U.S. help provided for
the foreign aid authorization now
passed by congress.
State department officials re
ported this following the Senate’s
47 to 27 vote of approval for the
$3,120,550,000 aid bill.
The vote gave president Tru
man his first major victory of
the year in the field of foreign
policy. ,
Republican Senate leaders
fought unsuccessfully to block fi
nal action on the bill with an at
, tack on the $35,000,000 Point Four
plan to benefit backward areas of
the world with American techni
I cal aid.
The Senate voted to accept a
Senate-House conference agree
ment on the foreign aid measure.
This action sent the authorization
bill to the White House for Mr.
Truman’s expected signature.
Congress must still act on an
i appropriations bill supplying the
money. In this connection, the ec
onomic cooperaion administration
)iECA>, which administers the aid
program, reported it would have
$277,000,000 left over from the
current fiscal year ending June 30.
—
Alaskan Peal Moss
i
Is Good Insulator
(Anchorage Times*
Soon Alaskans may be living in
homes insulated with peat moss
; from their own vast areas of mus
! keg and marsh, thanks to the in
j ventive mind of John B. Huff of
; Anchorage.
At a small plant on Potter Road
1 five miles from Anchorage, Huff
| is experimenting with insulation
block made of the light-weight,
highly-resilient material. Afraid
of premature announcements he
kept his work a partial secret
| during years of experiments. But
last winter, after living in a houss
I insulated with his own product,
j he felt the insulation had passed
j its test.
; Huff’s experiments first began
in Goodnews Bay, where he owns
a small gold mine. He studied the
native construction of sod igloos
and was convinced that turf could
j be cut and formed for commercial
insulation. He cut thick sod blocks
' from the peat moss fields of the
-Bering Sea Coast and dried them.
The biocks were resilient, easy
to handle, and inexpensive. They
weigh two-thirds as much as sim
ilar cork insulation and can be
treated for fire resistance.
"The fields of peat moss are un
limited,' Huff states. "It is inex
pensive to produce as insulation.
I call it heatherite. Getting the
right sod is important and selec
tion is not easy. After it is cut
there is the matter of control."
Mr. and Mrs. E. Rice, who have
been stationed here with the Ar
my Air Force for the past two
years leave tomorrow for re-as
signment at McChord Field near
Tacoma, Wash.
I St*ii. Lvim of Nome
I j “
Reports on
Statehood Rill
i
_________
Senator Howard Lyng of Nome
recently returned from Washing
ton, D. C., where he attended the
statehood hearings as a member
of the Alaska Statehood Commis
sion. Senator Lyng is in receipt
of the following letter from Sen
ator Joseph C. Mahoney, chair
man of the U. S. Senate commit
tee before which the hearings
were held during the week of
I April 24 to 29 inclusive:
Mr. Howard Lyng
Box 241
Nome Alaska
Dear Mr. Lyng:
Your interest in the Alaska
Statehood bill, as evidenced by
the expression of your views
thereon, promjts me to send you
herewith a copy of the first Com
: mittee Print authorized by the
Senate Committee on Interior and
Insular Affairs.
It should be understood, how
ever, that the proposed amend
ments, which appear in italics in
this print, have not yet been for
mally acted upon by the Com
mittee. i
The Government Printing Of
fice will probably deliver the
printed hearings the latter part of
next week. As soon as this volume
is available, I hope to be able to
secure prompt consideration ot
the bill by the Committee.
. Sincerely yours,
Joseph C. Mahoney
(Senator)
Chairman
(
I n order that the people of
Nome and the Second Division
may have the opportunity of
reading and appraising the sali
ent features of H.R. 331 'State
hood Hilli Senator L.vng has writ
ten the following for the Nome
Nugget:
•First of a series to bo conclu
ded in a future issue.)
i The bill that was inclosed in
the letter to me from Senator O’
Mahoney is a product of the Sen
ate Committee for the most part,
J thereby greatly altering and en
hancing the original bill, which
was termed by editor Earl Knight
of the Alaska Weekly, strictly a
Dept, of the Interior Bill which
would perpetuate the iron control
; of Alaska now vested in the In
terior Dept., bive little or nothing
to the State of Alaska, and to all
intents and purposes give two U.
S. senators and one or more vo
ting congressmen to the Execu- I
tive branch of the federal govern
ment, through its Dept, of the In
terior.
The re-written Statehood Bill
now provides that the State of
Alaska shall extend to the inter
national boundary instead of one
marine league (3 miles) from Al
aska’s coastline.
It provides that 5 years after
the admission of Alaska to the
Union, Alaska shall be entitled to
select twenty million acres of
(Continued on Page Two)
Pan Am’s
Parrs l{(‘(iiice(l
I'an American World Airways*
17-year history of service to Alas
ka passed another milestone to
day with the announcement of a
.-harp reduction in regular,* all
year fares between Nome and Se
attle.
James Walsh, PAA district traf
fic manager here, said the new
one-way fare between Nome and
Seattle will be $130. The present
one-way fare is $160.
The new rates have been filed
with and are subject to approval
by the Civil Aeronautics Board.
If approved, they will go into ef
fect on June 1.
“Pan American's constant ef
fort to reduce the cost of trans
portation in Alaska can be seen
ia the record >f the past ten
years,’’ Walsh said. He pointed
cut that in 1940 it cost $234 to
fly from Nome to Seattle. After
1945, the fare was cut to $200, and
after a short time at $170, the rate
went down to $160. Twelve days
from now it will drop to $130—
slightly more than half of the
fare charged between 1940 and
1045.
The new round-trip fare be
tween Nome and Seattle will be
$?34—exactly what a one way
ticket cost five years ago. The
present round-trip rate is $280.
All fares are subject to the 15r'«
! federal transportation tax.
SOUTH AFRICA BUILDING UP
SECRET URANIUM INDUSTRY
PRETORIA, Union of South Af
, ricu, uPt—South Africa is build
! iug up tc a highly secret uranium,
industry in her rich gold fields.
The union government has
launched a production project de
signed to extract uranium from
previously wasted by-products of
the Union's gold production. If
South African expectations arc?
fulfilled, the output may keep the
west surpreme in production of
i atomic cr.erby.
Top secret experiments are un
derway m a number of pilot
plants along the rich Witwateis
Rand gold reef, the deposit which
extends south and west of Pre
toria to Johannesburg.
Successful production, persons
connected with the project said,
could make South Africa the
world’s largest supplier of ura
nium, an essential atomic energy
raw material of which the earth
offers a limited known supply.
Already the Union government
has offered to sell her potential
uranium output to the United
Statei and Britain.
The 40 to 5C mines along the
Witwateis Rand last year pro
duced some 57,000,000 ions of
gold 01 e.
"BIG HUT” JOINS
FRONT STREET STORES
Mrs. Harry Gabrielson has an
nounced the leasing of the Nev
ada Grill to Margaret Helling,
who has been operating “The
Hut” for the past two years. It
is reported that the new business
is to be known as the “Big Hu: