THE
* - — —
* _OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED TUESS_
VOL. L. No. 106 NOMETaLASKATfrIdAY, SEPTEMBER 3. 1948 PER COPY I5<*
NEWS IN BRIEF
SAN FRANCISCO, UP)—Alaska
Packers Assn, reported Monday
that sales and operating revenues
in the first half of 1948 were
about a third of last year, due to
extremely low salmon inventories.
Last year the inventory situation
was the reverse.
Sales and operating revenues
for the second quarter were $629,
059 compared with $969,341 last
year. This brought sales and op
erating revenue for the first half
to $1,203,618 against $3,575,547 a
year ago.
WASHINGTON, (/^ — Califor
nia gold production was 21 per
cent higher last year than in 1-946,
reaching a total value of $15,099,
525, the bureau of mines reported
today. In 1946, the figure was
$12,488,840.
Production by volume in 1947
* (with comparative 1946 figures in
parenthesis' was:
Gold 431,415 fine ounces <356,
824 fine ounces!. ,,
SITKA. i/P)—The four-day 29th
annual convention of the Ameri
can Legion department of Alaska
will open here Saturday. It will be
held in conjunction with the 25th
annual convention of the Legion
Auxiliary. Governor Gruening
and Richard B. Otto, national
vice-commander, will speak.
SEATTLE, (/P)—Probate filings
Wednesday valued the estate of
Charles A. Burckhardt, late Seat
tle shipyard operator at $500,000.
His will left the estate to his
widow, Mrs. Phoebe A. Burck
hardt.
Burckhardt was president of
the Lake Washington shipyards.
He also had been president of the
Alaska Pacific fisheries company
before it was enlarged into the
Alaska consolidated canneries and
sold to the Skinner and Eddy
company in 1928.
JUNEAU (TP)—Officials of the
fish and wildlife service are meet
ing with fishermen and canneries
representatives to determine whe
ther the commercial fishing sea
son in southeast Alaska will be
extended. The hearing is being
cortductcd by Seton Thompson,
chief of the Alaska fisheries
branch.
% NEW YORK, (TP)—The first two
donations—one of 10 cents and
the other of $100,000—have been
received by the Babe Ruth cancer
fund.
The big gift came yesterday
from Sam Briskin, chairman of
the board of the Revere Camera
Co., Chicago, and the dime from
Jackie Minogue, 13, New York
schoolboy.
“My boys and I loved Babe
Ruth,” said Zriskin. “We knew
the disease that killed him—it has
struck among our relatives and
friends.”
SEATTLE, (/P) — Ivor Kriken,
63. project manager for the Drake
Puget Sound company and widely
known as a construction superin
tendent in Washington and Alas
ka, died here yesterday. He be
came ill three weeks ago at Attu,
Alaska, and was flown home.
Survivors include his widow,
two sons and three daughters.
Local ACS Men |
Rescue Sgt.Warner
SEATTLE, (/P)—Rescue of Sgt.
Leonard L. Warner of Nome after
he spent 35 hours stranded and
alone in barren wastelands 45
miles north of Nome was report
ed yesterday by the Alaska com
mun' cat ions system.
Sergeant Warner, an ACS em
ployee, accepted an invitation
from an army pi^ot to take a short
ride in an army plane last Thurs- j
day. Engine failure forced the pi
lot to land on a small island in
the Sinuk River.
Repairs were made but the flyer
was unable to take off until the
plane was strinpped of all but
bare essentials and Sergeant War
ner remained behind. Later an
army C-47 plane was sent out to
locate the sergeant, and dropped
an emergency kit to him.
He was picked up later, ex
hausted but uninjured, by 1st Lt.
Stanley R. Morgan, commanding
officer of the Nome ACS station,
and Sgt. William Wilcox, driving
a weasel.
Internation’l News
At A Glance —
Thursday, September 2, 1948
• By the Associated Press*
The western powers appeared
yesterday to be yielding to Rus
sia’s demands that only her Ger
man currency be allowed in
blockaded Berlin.
A western retreat on that point
quite likely will mean a lifting of
the 71-day-old Russian land
blockade and an end to the expen- j
sive air lift.
The anti-communist city gov
ernment, which the Russians and
reds have been attacking, appeal
ed to the big four meeting of mil- j
itary governors to end the west- j
east political strife in Berlin.
While the governors maintained
secrecy, the Russian and Social
ist newspapers in Berlin tipped
off the way the currency issue |
• Continued on Page Five
* Agriculture Secy.
Tries To Slop
Falling Prices”
ALBANY, N. Y. (/P) — Harold
E. Stassen yesterday accused sec
retary of agriculture Charles F.
Brannan of a “deliberate attempt
to stop the downward trend of
food prices.”
Stassen, former Minnesota gov
ernor, who was defeated for the ,
Republican Presidential nomina
tion by Gov. Thomas E. Dewey,
told a news conference that the
a g r i culture department, with
Branna’s approval, had issued
statements intended to “raise food
prices when they should be shak
ing down.” The Minnesotan talk
ed the reporters after concluding
a conference with Dewey about a
speech opening the GOP cam
paign which Stassen will make in
Detroit next Tuesday.
It will be a reply to President
Truman’s Labor Day address in
the same city.
Jury Verdict Says
Kawakita, Nisei,
Is Traitor
(By James S. Lindsley)
I .OS ANGELES. (JP) — A ver
dict branding Tomoya Kawakita
a traitor was returned by a feder
al court jury but it “can’t stand,”
his defense counsel said as he pre
pared today to appeal the case.
The jury of nine women—in
cluding one Nisei girl—and three
men returned the verdict late yes
terday holding Kawakita, 27. guil
ty of eight overt acts of abusing
American captives while he serv
ed as war-time interpreter in Jap
an’s Oeyama prison camp. Ka
wakita was charged with 13 acts.
♦ Continued on Page Three)
LABOR DAY
Some of the stores will be
closed for the two-day holiday
Sunday and Monday. No paper
will be published on Monday.
Shipping Strike Paralyzes West Coast;
56.000 Workers. Many Ships Affected
SAN FRANCISCO (Ah—Pacific
Coast ports were idler! yesterday
as CIO longshoremen quit work
and prepared with allied unions
for a strike.
Pickets patroled the waterfronts
beginning at 10:30 a.m. yesterday,
Harry Bridges, presdient of the
international longshoremen’s and
warehousemen’s union, predicted
the strike would last three
months.
Contract negotiations chiefly
Truman Starts
Slugging Fest
With Republicans
• By The Associated Press)
President Truman bounded into
a political slugging match with
the Republicans today over com
munists, high prices, health insur
ance, and the St. Lawrence sea
way.
The President took specific is
i sue on those points with Gov.
Thomas E. Dewey, the GOP nom
; inee; Harold E. Stassen, who will
open the Republican campaign
next Tuesday, and other party
members.
On the subject of Reds in gov
ernment jobs, Mr. Truman told
his news conference ygsterday it
was “a lie out of whole cloth” for
anyone to say that he ever pro
tected a communist or a disloyal
person in a federal post.
The House un-American activ
ities committee earlier this week
accused the White House of re
fusing the help “protect the na
tional security” and of hamper
ing, bv refusing to supply infor
mation, the committee’s inquiry
into “communist espionage in the
U. S. government.”
Mr. Truman told the reporter
who brought this up that the real
spies during the war were Ger
man and Japanese, that Russia'
was an ally. He added that he
(Continued on Page Eight)
62 Jet Fighters of Army Air Forces Over Caribbean
Sixty-two jet-powered F-80B Air Force shooting stars fly over the Caribbean prior to their de
parture for Europe. The planes, from the 36th Fighter Wing, are being transferred from the Panama
Canal Zone to Germany, the Air Force announced. (/P) Wirephoto from Air Force 1
concerned with wages and the
hiring hall collapsed Wednesday
night. The strike will affect about
10,000 longshoremen and seafar
ers. About 500 ships are involved.
The walkout affects about 2,500
Puget Sound longshoremen. The
action idles 23 .hips in Seattle,
and others at Everett, Bellingham,
Aberdeen, Olympia, Raymond,
Port Gamble and Port Townsend.
Longshoremen at Tacoma, Ana
cortes and Port Angeles are unaf
fected since they are affiliated
with the AFL.
The tieup from Seattle to San
Diego will be felt across the na
tion. Railroads have ordered an
embargo on most freight destined
for the coast ports. Military
freight will be shipped.
The longshore walkout was
called for 10 a.m. Meetings to hear
reports on the failure of negotia
tions which had begun last spring.
Union spokesmen said the strike
would become official at 10:30
a.m., because at that time an 80
day federal court injunction for
bidding a strike was expected to
be dissolved. It halted a threaten
ed strike 80 days ago.
CIO marine cooks and stew
ards, CIO marine engineers, inde
pendent marine firemen and ma
rine radio operators are expected
to follow the longshoremen out.
The unions had agreed not to sign
a contract unless all did. The ra
dio operators are also involved in
a jurisdictional dispute between
the AFL marine radio officers
union and the CIO American ra
dio association.
Loaded ships sailed abruptly
Wednesday to beat the strike
deadline. Twenty-five left San
Francisco, leaving that many
more partly loaded vessels along
side the docks.
After the negotiations collapsed
Bridges said:
“The employers handed us a
contract and said: ‘Take it or
leave it.’ We wanted to go on and
negotiate, but they walked out
on us.
“The length of a strike? With
these characteristics it will take
three months to get wound up.”
An employer spokesman said:
“The ILWU walked out ’ of the
meeting. They announced they
were on strike as of 10:30 a.m.
Thursday. The union negotiators
flatly rejected proposals, practic
ally all of them.”
Employers had offered to leave
the disputed question of whether
a union employee or an impartial
dispatcher shall run the hiring
hall up to the supreme court. The
present union dispatcher mean
while would continue.
I3ut Wednesday night Bridges
said, “We cannot accept a hiring
hall clause with strings on it.”
He said another major unsettled
issue was wages. Employers of
fered hourly hikes of 10 cents and
15 cents for overtime. The union
asked 15 cents straight and 22V6
cents overtime.
No provision was made by long
shoremen to handle shipments of
(Continued on Page Three)