— NOME NUGGET
_OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_
VOL. LI. ~No~ 32 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 1949 Per Copy—15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
\
BULETIN
WASHINGTON. (Ah—The Sen
ate armed services committee to
day rejected President Truman's
nomination of Mon C. Wallgren to
become chairman of the national
security resources board.
OKLAHOMA CITY, (/P)—Presi
dent Truman got away with it, but
Vernon Barker had to pay.
Barker, 19, had just been fined
for reckless driving on testimony
of patrolman C. B. Mead.
As he left the stand, Barker
mumbled something under his
breath about the kind of guy Mead
was.
Police judge Mike Foster, who
has fine ears, called Barker back
and slapped on $12 extra for dis
orderly conduct.
TOKYO, (/P) — Thirty marri e d
officers and airmen of the 317th
air transport wing returned to
Tachikawa air base yesterday
from Germany.
The men, said Lt. Roy J. Russell
of South Pasadena, Calif., were
proud of their six month’s record
in flying food and supplies to
Berlin.
He described the flights as good
training.
The men were flown from
Frankfurt, Germany, to Japan in
five days by a chartered Alaska
Airlines C-54.
SEATTLE, (/P) — Radio tele
phones will be installed in all
ships of Alaska Steamship com
pany, Adm. F. A. Zeusler, execu
tive xissistant to the president, said
today. Radio telephones also will
be placed in the company’s shore
»■ side agencies at “strategic” points
in Alaska.
Test sets already have been in
stalled on the steamers Alaska
and Denali and the motorship
Terminal Knot. Zeusler said an
initial test on the motors h i p
Square Knot was highly success
ful.
WASHINGTON </P)—A national
security resources board spokes
man said yesterday three men
who were chief aidesof Mon Wall
gren when he was Washington’s
governor are on the board’s pay
roll as consultants.
Receiving $50 a day, they are
John Davis, John Ballew and Jack
Gorrie, the spokesman said.
The Senate armed services com
mittee voted yesterday to table
Wallgren’s nomination as NSRB
chairman.
-- I
SAN FRANCISCO, tfP)-James
Winfield Crosby, 74, prominent
mining executive, died yesterday.
He came to San Francisco from
Idaho, where he had been a min
ing engineer. He was secretary of
the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Min
ing and Concentrating company
and the Alaska Juneau Gold Min
ing company.
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. </P) —
The Framingham national bank is
making it easier for their left
handed depositors to spend
money. . .
An official of the bank said left
handed check books are now
House Votes To
Locate Capital
At Palmer
• By James Hutcheson)
JUNEAU, (P) — Palmer in the
Matanuska Valley scored a point
last night in the House of Repre
sentatives toward becoming the
Statehood Capital of Alaska.
Climaxing a campaign by Third
Division legislators, the House
voted 15 to 9 last night for a $660,
000 appropriation bill for a new
Territorial office building.
An amendment provided that it
be located on a free site at Palmer
—approximately 60 miles north
east of Anchorage on the Matan
uska River.
, The bill proviously had been
tabled by a 13 to 10 vote after
hours of wrangling had produced
a deadlock. In last night’s action,
it was untabled and put before
the House for a decision.
The amendment naming Palmer
as the location for the new office
1 building was passed after a three
way tug-of-war among Juneau,
Fairbanks, and Palmer support
ers.
Statehood also held the spot
! light in the Senate, which voted
15 to 1 for a bill to create an 11
member statehood committee. It
would be commissioned to lay the
groundwork for a constitutional
convention, and get an $80,000 ap
I propriation to carry on its work,
j The lone ballot against was cast by
| Sen. William Munz, Nome Repub
lican. •
i
j U. S. Charges
Russia Broke
Six Promises
1 WASHING TON, (/P) — The
United States today accused Rus
sia of violating at least six separ
! ate promises to return all German
war prisoners in Soviet hands by
the end of last year.
In a note delivered in Moscow
yesterday, the state department in
effect renewed its [ demand that
Russia set free the hundreds of
thousands of German prisoners
still believed in Soviet custody.
Russia has claimed that it was
never bound by any agreement to
repatriate the Germans captured
by December 31, 1948.
The United States, Britain and
France contend that ' such an
agreement was reached by the big
four foreign ministers in April of
1947.
The state department note, re
leased today, says on that point:
“It is difficult to reconcile the
position now taken by the Soviet
(Continued on Page Three)
available to its southpaw custom- j
ers. j
The book opens just the reverse j
of the standard types.
NEW YORK, </P) — The first
price break in the cigar industry
in seven years occurred today.
Consolidated Cigar Corp. an
nounced that effective immediate
ly two of its 10-cent brands, Har
vester and La Palina, would retail
f •
at nine cents.
-
LIFTING THE LID
AT JUNEAU
Tuesday, March 15, 1949
<By James Hutcheson)
JUNEAU, (#*) — Both Houses
whipped bills through at a rapid
clip last night in sessions lasting
to midnight to clear the decks be
fore the deadline for consideration
of their own measures.
A bill to create four Division
deputies under the attorney gen
eral for liquor enforcement topped
13 bills passed by the House. It
! was a once-rejected proposal com
I ing back in new costume from
speaker McCutcheon.
It was written into the Taylor
liquor control bill last week but
died with the bill; last night it won
116-8 approval after more than an
j hour’s wrangling, mostly over the
requirement for deputies to have
: two year’s college education or
three years’ law enforcement ex
perience.
I The House also passed nine res
I olutions and memorials, all unan
i imously, except for a 16-7 vote on
a request to Congress to allow the
legislature to modify two years’
i residence requirement for divorce.
| The House killed four'bills.
The Senate, working against a
midnight deadline, passed 11 bills,
killed two and tabled one.
j It sidetracked three measures of
' major interest. It postponed in
definitely by an 11-5 vote the Riv
i ers-McCutcheon bill for estab
(Continued on Page Two)
Railroad Workers
Feel Pinch Of
Coal Strike
I
-
PITTSBURGH, (/P) — Idleness
among railroad workers spread
through the coal fields yesterday
amid fears of some railmen that
the mine shutdown may extend
beyond two weeks.
Coal-carrying railroads felt the
pinch in earnest on the second
day of the work stoppage called
by John L. Lewis.
Other coal dependent industries
hummed merrily. More than 62,
000 railroaders are headed for lay
offs by the end of the week.
One coal source pointed out that
four days after the 463,000 idle
miners are scheduled to return to
the pits on March 28, they will ob
serve a traditional holiday—Mit
chell Day. John Mitchell was an
early united mine workers leader
credited with winning the eight
hour day.
The coal industry spokesman
said he thought many miners
(Continued on Page Seven)
PARKING METERS IN FAIR
BANKS THAWED OUT
FAIRBANKS, (/P) — Signs of
spring in Fairbanks; the parking
meters are back at their old stands
on downtown streets.
When the temperature hit 50 be
low zero early in the winter, po
lice shook out the chilled nickles
and put the meters in warm stor
age. At 50 below, the machine
would still gulg coins, but motor
ists were unable to turn the han
dles or set the dials—the mechan
ism was frozen solid.
Big, Stratocruiser
Great Surprise
To Washington
(By Edward E. Sims>
WASHINGTON—Pan American
Airways displayed its latest flying
machine here earlier this month.
Just ten short years ago, Ameri
cans would have thought such a
plane impossible — at least for
twenty-five years, anyhow. But
the war and aviation’s develop
ment didn’t confine advancements
| to expectations, and the Strato
cruiser is something to see.
As the air force’s pilots used to
say during the war—she’s some
bird! The great steel one, which is
the latest thing with wings, carries
roughly what arailroad car car
ries, as far as passengers are con
cerned, and sleeps many of them.
It makes the New York-London
hop in half a day, flies the Cali
fornia-Honolulu route overnight!
The first day the big Boeing
plane went on display in Washing
■ ton eight thousand people lined
tup and waited to go through it.
Though the ship was scheduled to
leave next day, the company de
cided to let sight-seers have next
morning also, to go over it. That
afternoon it flew away to begin
(Continued on Page Six)
I
Internation’l News
At A Glance —
Tuesday. March 15, 1949
(By The Associated Press)
Soviet Russia continued to
shake up her top government
leadership today.
In the presidium of the Supreme
Soviet, Nikifor Natalevich and
Gzorgi Sturua were relieved as
vice presidents and replaced by
Vasily Kozlov and Vasily Gogla.
Two other important changes
were confirmed yesterday. Niko
lai R. Voznesensky was relieved
as planning commission chairman
and deputy prime minister. The
chairmanship went to Maxim Z.
Saburov, veteran official of the
commission. Ivan T. Tolyakov was
replaced as president of the Su
preme Court by A. A. Volin.
The Supreme Soviet approved
the 1949 budget calling for mili
tary expenditures of 79,000,000,000
(Continued on Page Seven)
Egan “Marriage”
Bill “Just A Joke”
JUNEAU, <(/P) — Representative
Bill Egan declared yesterday his
jest about feminine finances has
gone far enough. •
Egan, a married man ran up the
white flag Monday on a bill he
introduced calling for a $50 tax
on single women to further the
happy state of marriage—and re
lieve the housing shortage.
Egan displayed letters of pro
test from as far away as Seattle,
Detroit, and even Newburgh, N.
Y. The Newburgh man protested
the measure as “most preposter
ous,” and added, “I certainly
trust, sir, that you were joking.”
Egan says he was.
Atom-Powered
Ships Loom For
Near Future
WASHINGTON, (fi>) — Atom
powered ships and submaries may
be only five or six years from
reality.
Senator McMahon <D.-Conn.)
announced Monday that the atom
ic energy commission is starting
a huge new atomic project which
may produce mobile atomic power
plants within that time.
The chairman of the Senate
House atomic energy committee
gave reporters these facts after a
meeting with chairman David Lil
ienthal and other commission offi
' cials and engineers:
1. The multi-million dollar pro
ject will include new atomic reac
tors for stepped-up experiments in
the use of peacetime atomic power
and improvements in atomic wea
pons.
2. It will be located at one of
three possible sites in a western
state.
3. The project eventually will be
about the size of the Hanford,
Wash., atomic development and
will give work to “several thou
sand.”
“At the end of this research,”
! McMahon said, “we are hopeful
we can demonstrate that mobile
power plants not only are feasible
| but are here. There is reasonable
l expectancy the result will be ac
complished.”
It is known that Westinghouse
; Electric corporation has been
' working with commission scien
! tists in trying to harness atomic
| power for propelling naval ves
sels.
I -
| Magnuson Sees
Housing I _ _
gram For Alaska
WASHINGTON, (A*) — A $75,
000,000 housing program for Alas
ka is visualized by Sen. Magnuson
(D.-Wash.) in a bill on which the
Senate banking and currency
committee in holding hearings.
Magnuson said his measure
i “should pave the way” for con
struction of 4,000 family units and
2,000 apartment units.
Seventy-five per cent of the pro
posed apartment development can
be accomplished by private con 7
struction, Magnuson quoted pri
vate builders as saying.
The rest, he said, is needed in
interior and western Alaska,
where private builders have shown
no interest. This part would be
sponsored by the Alaska Housing
Authority under Magnuson’s pro
posal.
r‘The same authority,” he said,
“is expected to sponsor three
fourths of the single homes need
ed for stable development of the
Territory. Requirements for hous
ing of the military have not been
met and this poses an additional
problem of urgency.” ,
He said the federal housing and
home finance administration and
the Alaska housing authority
would handle administration.
The' appropriation would be
(Continued on Page Six)