_OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS___
VOL. XLIX, No. 78_NOM~E~ALASKA, MONDAY, JUNE ~30, 1947 PER COPY — 15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
ANCHORAGE, (/P)—Word was
received today tfcat the Congres
sional committee due here July 4
to survey international airfield
sites is not coming due to pressure
of business in the capital.
. SEATTLE, (/P)—A new offer by
the fishing vessel owners’ associa
tion will be considered by mem
bers of the deep sea fishermen’s
union Tuesday, management and
union officials have announced.
Acceptance would free Seattle’s
halibut fishing fleet, which has
beer} UP since May 1 by a dis
pute over catch shares.
DES MOINES, la. UP) — After
Arthur Williams, 18, entered a
plea of guilty to a traffic charge
he was given the choice of a
fine or three days in jail.
He hesitated a moment and then
told the court:
“My home is under water (due
to the flood) despite my efforts to
save it. It have been sleeping on
the levee for the last two night.
Take me to jail.”
WASHINGTON, UP)—President
Truman Saturday signed legisla
tion extending until next Dec. 31
the present law allowing alien fi
ancees of past or present members
of the armed forces to enter the
United States for purposes of mar
riage. The present law would have
expired Monday midnight.
WASHINGTON, UP)—President
Truman Saturday signed legisla
tion extending until next March 1
the maritime commission’s war
granted authority to operate, char
ter and sell goverrtment-owncd
ships. Most of the original author
ity expires at midnight tonight.
The administration requested
the extension to facilitate the ship
ment of coal, grain, oil and other
supplies abroad for relief and re
habilitation of war-devastated
countries.
KETCHIKAN, (/P) — Ketchikan
is threatened with a complete tie
up of its cold storage docks and
possibly other port facilities as re
sult of a show cause order ob
tained in federal court by 28 Seat
tle halibut boat owners.
The owners are seeking a perm
anent injunction against the deep
sea fishermen’s union, which has
been picketing four Seattle boats,
the Nordby, McKinley, Comman
do, and Masonic.
The show couse order is return
able in courj July 1.
SANTA ANA, Calif. (/P) — The
Overell murder case has bur
geoned out with a series of threats
the latest of which was reported
Friday by police chief R. R. Hodg
kinson of Newport Beach.
He reported his wife received a
phone call from a man who said:
“Tell your husband we’re out to
get him and we’ll do it.”
The chief brushed off the threat
as the work of “a crackpot.”
Hodgkinson was prominent in the
early investigation of the deaths
of Mr. and Mrs. Walter E. Overell,
with which their daughter, Louise
18, and her fiance, George Gol
Labor Will Fight i
New Labor Law
In The Courts j
WASHINGTON, (fl5)—'The CIO
high command passed the word to
member unions Saturday that the
battle of the Taft-Hartley labor
act will be fought in the courts
and in the 1948 national elections, j
Rejecting all suggestions of a
general protest strike, the 51
member CIO executive board de
cided to (1) attack the new law’s
constitutionality and (2) call on
the AFL and railroad unions for
a united attempt to get the Con
gressmen who voted for it.
Meanwhile CIO unions will be
advised to make their own deci
sions on whether to involve them
selves with the new national la
bor relations board in any way. 1
As a starter in the court fight,
President Philip Murray said, the
CIO will take aim on the Taft-1
Hartley bill’s ban against union
political contributions on editori- ]
al expression for or against Con-!
gressional candidates in newspa
j pers supported by union funds.
' “We will not comply with the
unconstitutionality limitations on
political activity which are writ- j
j ten into the Taft-Hartley bill,”
Murray said in a formal statement
late Friday after the executive
board ended its one-day session,
j Murray proposed a meeting of
himself and leaders of the other
big uniorfs to work out joint strat
• egy for the court and election!
fight.
He sent invitations to William i
Green, president of the AFL; Al- j
vanley Johnson, head of the
brotherhood of locomotive engin-'
eers; A. F. Whitney, chief of the
brotherhood of railroad trainmen,
and Arthur Lyon, secretary of the
railroad labor executives associa
tion, which represents the other
railroad brotherhoods.
__ !
j Prices Have Risen j
Greatly In Year j
CHICAGO, (£*)—On this first
anniversary of the end of federal
price controls, pork on the dinner
table costs 78 per cent more than
it did a year ago, beef and veal 62
per cent more.
Other food, clothing, and living
costs in general also have under
gone sharp rises, trade and gov
ernment figures show. Within the
year many prices zoomed to rec
ord peaks, topping the highs of
the 1919-20 postwar period.
JUNEAU. (/P)—A sharp earth
tremor, lasting several seconds,
rocked Juneau at midnight Satur
day. The movement set windows
and doors to rattling but no dam
age was reported.
JULY FOURTH NOME NUGGET
TO BE PUBLISHED THURSDAY
Due to the three-day July 4th
holiday and the general closing of
stores in Nome, the Friday, July
4th issue of the Nome Nugget will
be published and delivered on
Thursday, July 3.
i
I
! lum, 21, are charged. Trial con
1 tinued today.
4
Rivers Rise To
Near Record Mark
ST. LOUIS, (/P)—New crests of
the flooding Missouri and Missis
sippi rivers rolled toward a junc
tion 20 miles north of here Satur
day as army engineers and thou
sands of volunteers fought to save
crucial levees in this highly indus
trialized metropolitan area.
Federal meteorologist Harry C.
Wahlgren predicted the Mississip
pi, swollen by the advance waters
of the Missouri, would crest early
today at slightly over 39 feet and
“perhaps exceed” the 39.14 high)
water mark of 1944, second high
est in weather bureau records.
The record, 41.3 feet, 11.3 over;
flood stage, was reached in 1844.
ST. LOUIS, f/P)—The Mississip
pi river climber to a new 103-'
year record here today and U. S.
army engineers warned that the
battle for two remaining “critical” J
levees in this area was “far from
over” with another crest pouring
down from the mouth of the Mis
souri river.
A brief earthquake at 11:25
p.m. (EST) yesterday brought the
threat of breaks to watersoaked
barriers holding back the river
from thousands of acres of rich
farmland on the Illinois side, but
the engineers said no levees were
reported damaged by the tremors
which lasted about five seconds.
The Chouteau Island levee,;
guarding 2,000 acres across from
Nort St. Louis, broke at two points
today but engineers said other
barriers would keep water out of
nearby Venice and Granite City
industrial areas.
Fresh appeals for volunteers
were made by the engineers in
their efforts to save dikes south i
of East St. Louis and 100 miles,
south at Chester, 111., while hun
dreds of persons were evacuated j
from their homes ahead of the
flood.
The river reached 39.3 feet here
and Harry F. Wahlgren, chief
meteorologist, predicted the stage
would be 39.5 today.
—
T
Govt. Returns
Mines To Owners
(By Harold W. Ward)
WASHINGTON, (IP)—'The gov
ernment lowered the American
flags over more than 2,500 soft
coal mines today and formally re
storecLthe pits to the private own
ers after 13 months of federal op
eration.
The contract dispute which j
prompted federal seizure of the j
mines May 22, 1946, still was un
settled, however, and another
strike at conclusion of the current
10-day vacation July 8, is a defin
ite prospect.
I
With the government stepping j
aside as operator, it will be up to
the owners themselves to make
terms with the miners. If they
don’t succeed by July 8, the min
ers are expected to stay home.
The government gives back the
mines in the same condition ’t
found them 13 months ago—empty!
of workers. *
Seek To Avert
National Coal
Strike On July H
J
WASHINGTON, (/P>—Labor de
partment officials said Saturday
Secretary Schwellenbach will try
this week to bring John L. Lewis
and the soft coal operators togeth
er and head off a full-scale na
tional strike July 8.
Secretary of the interior Krug
estimated that there is only 48,
000,000 tons of coal in storage
above ground, or a 32-day supply.
As the last miners filed out the
pits early Saturday for a 10-day
vacation, Krug prepared to give
the mines back to the owners
when federal authority to run
them expires at midnight tonight.
The vacation was provided for
in the government contract signed
by Lewis and Krug to end the
strike 13 months ago. That con
tract runs out along with federal
operation of the properties.
The miners’ Vacation—shared
also by the 75,000 Pennsylvania
anthracite workers— may develop
into an indefinite holiday if no
agreement is reached in the next
10 days.
Labor officials expressed the
belief there is still a chance that
a contract can be obtained before
the deadline.
Krug told reporters a strike
would “afford an opportunity to
see what, if anything, the Taft
Hartley act can accomplish.”
The new law provides for an in
junction against a national emer
gency strike, but Krug asked if
the miners simply stay home July
8 instead of reporting to work
(Continued on Page Five)
Nab Fortune In
Daring Holdup
ALLENTOWN, Pa. (>P) — In a
daring holdup in a home in the
fashionable west end of Allentown
four men—two armed—held up
five couples and fled with $175,000
in loot.
Louis Wiener, a manufacturer,
told police he was sitting on the
front porch of his home chatting
with his wife and two other cou
ples, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Neff and
Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Salitsky
when the men mounted the porch
and ordered the couples into the
house.
Mrs. Neff told police the gun
men, speaking in low voices, kept
repeating assurances that no one
would be hurt if everyone did as
ordered.
“We’ve heard you have a safe,”
she quoted one of the gunmen as
saying to Wiener. “Show it to us.”
The safe was concealed in the
bedroom. Wiener pointed it out
and was ordered to open it. He
did. Then all but Wiener were
bound and gagged. Later Wiener’s
daughter and her escort arrived
and were treated likewise.
Police said the holdup men took
$150,000 in non-negotiable securi
ties. Wiener reporter they relieved
him of about $850 in cash, Neff
of $365 and Solitsky of $80. Police
said the stickup men also took
about $23,000 in jewelry.
Success Of Aid
Europe Conference
Looms Doubtful
(By Tom Williams)
PARIS, i#1)—A gloomy atmos
phere pervaded both British and
French quarters Saturday after a
private conference between Ernest
Bevin and Georges Bidault, prior
to their second meeting late Sat
urday with Soviet Russia’s V. M.
Molotov.
French sources reported the
preliminary meeting of the Brit
ish and French foreign secretaries
and one informant said:
“The success of the conference
is in doubt.”
There were indications that *he
Russian position at Saturday af
ternoon’s three-power se s s i o n
might be one of a continued re
quest for more information.
Because of a news blackout im
posed by British request, official
reports were scanty.
Tass, official Societ news agen
cy, said the conference’s “fore
most task” was to “clarify the ac
tual meaning” of the Harvard uni
versity speech June 5 in which
secretary of state George C. Mar
shall offered United States help in
rebuilding Europe’s war-wrecked
economy. Some regarded this as
a tipoff on the Russian attitude.
A spokesman for the British
foreign office reported the full
agreement among the conferees to
impose the news blackout and said
it would not be lifted unless a
“leak” developed which would
prejudice the rights of other news
men.
Purpose of the blackout he said,
was to guard against public de
bate of controversial issues which
would delay conclusion of the con
ference. He added that the em
phasis was on speed in view ot the
(Continued on Page Five)
—
U. S. Asks Indo
nesian Cooperation
BATAVIA, Java The U. S.
state department requested the
Republic of Indonesia Saturday
to “cooperate without delay in the
immediate information” of an in
terim federal government and
promised to consider financial aid
when the government was estab
lished.
There were indications that the
eleventh hour delivery of the state
department’s^ message to the Re
publican government had avertec
the start of Dutch military opera
tions today.
Earlier an Indonesian republi
can army spokesman reported evi
dence that Lt. Gen. Siem Spoo
had ordered his forces to be pre
pared to launch “united action o:
all fronts” Monday, but Spool
I commander of Dutch forces in th
East Indies, denied this.
On the political front it appeal
ed probable that Sutan Sjahr
ousted Indonesian premier, woul
be reinstated following a sudde
switch by Sajap Kiri, powerfi
leftist in the popular front.
Condemnation by Sajap Kiri
Sjahrir’s concessions to the Duti
forced his resignation Friday.
, i