— NOME NUGGET
__OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LI. -No. 99 . NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 1949 • _Per Copy—15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
’ ' * i
JUNEAU, (/Pi— Charles McClel
lan, 19, was killed Thursday at
the Juneau S.pruce corporation)
mill when a load of lumber be
neath which he was working fell!
on his head..
The victim’s mother, Mrs. H^jr-i
bert McClellan, a teacher at -Kot
zebue, came here to attend, his:
graduation from Juneau. . high
• school this, ye^r., ... :
His father .is Alaska Native
Service- agrictiltwrhl ' 4jrten‘ s:i o nf
agent ir\ chfaVge?6V relffdeer in the!
Kotzebue area.- "
ATLANTA, (/P) — Hundreds of
persons stood outside a small, stone
chapel as. last rites were held yes-,
terday.for Margaret Mitchell, au
thor of “Gone With The Wind.”
Lour speakers brought to the
public the words of the Episcopal
church service. Some 300 persons,
admitted by invitation only,
crowded the inside of the funeral
home.
Miss Mitchell, struck down by
a speeding automobile last Thurs
day night, died Tuesday.
WASHINGTON, <7P) — There
was no bad news in Ambassador
Alan G. Kirk’s report on his con
ference at Moscow Monday with
Premier Stalin, President Truman
said yesterday.
The President said it was the
usual courtesy call.
A reporter asked if there was
“any bad nems” in the report, and
Mr. Truman replied in the nega
tive. He did not elaborate.
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (£>)—Arctic
natives—a pack of 11 husky pup
pies—arrived here yesterday as
navy mascots.
The pups were aboard the at
tack cargo ship Seminole, return
ing from the annual Arctic supply
expedition to Alaska’s most north
ern outposts.
Ten of the pups belong to crew
members and the 11th has been
declared the ship’s mascot. They
are gifts from the military post at I
Skull Cliff, Alaska.
i
NEW YORK, (£*)—Plump Mar
tha Beck and her lover, Raymond
Fernandez, were convicted of first
degree murder yesterday in the
lonely hearts murder case. The
verdict carries a mandatory death
sentence.
Fernandez, 34, and Mrs. Beck,!
29, were convicted of slaying Mrs.
Janet Fay, 66, Albany, N. Y., wi- ;
dow, at Valley Stream, N. Y., in a
scheme to fleece lonely women in
mail romances.
WASHINGTON, f/P>—'The Sen
ate has adopted a House-Senate
conference committee report ap
proving the Senate version of a
bill to authorize sale of public
lands in Alaska.
The lands must be intended for
industrial or commercial purposes,
including housing. Land in nation
al parks, forests, Indian reserva
tions or military reservations is
excluded.
HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. </P)—Six
women died early yesterday when
their automobile and a car of sol
ders crashed into a transport
(Continued on Page Eight)
Roden Explains
Large Deficit
JUNEAU I/P)—The more than a
million dollar jump in' the Alaska
deficit that caused Seattle bankers
to drop a proposed loan to Alaska
was "explained today by Henry
Roden, Territorial treasurer.
In'a statement to the Jun’eau
Empire, Roden said that' during
processing of the loan “it was dis
covered that the education depart
ment had contracted for slightly
over '$ 1,200,bOO ' for which no
vouchers had been filed with the
auditor’s office!” '.
Roden said that prior to his trip
to Seattle to arrange the loan, the
auditor’s books had showed a def
icit of approximately $350,000.
The treasurer said he had added
another $650,000 to meet antici
pated expenses.
Payment on the unlisted de
partment of education contracts
is due Sept. 10, Roden said.
Roden is expected to make an
enlarged statement later today.
The Territory’s bid for $1,
000,000 short-term loan fell
through when bankers said inves
tigation showed that its indebted
ness actually approaches $2,500,
000.
Senate Confirms
Clark After Fight
WASHINGTON, (^—Confirm
ed by 73 to 8 vote after a hot-tem
pered Senate session, attorney
general Tom C. Clark delayed to
day taking the oath as the 86th
justice to mount the Supreme
Court bench.
Similarly, Senator J. Howard
McGrath of Rhode Island, unani
mously approved by the Senate to
succeed Clark in the cabinet, held
up his retirement from the Senate,
probably until next week.
From Rhode Island came re
ports that Edward L. Leahy, for
mer director and now adviser to
that State’s finance department,
may be named by Democratic
Gov. John O. Pastore to fill the
Senate seat vacated by McGrath.
McGrath will turn in his chair
manship of the Democratic na
tional committee at a meeting of
the group next Wednesday.
"Round The World
In 366 Days
PRESTWICK. Scotland. (VP) —
Mrs. Richarda Morrow-Tait, Bri
tish round-the-world flier, re
turned today to Britain, which she
left just a year and a day ago.
Mrs. Morrow-Tait’s single-en
gine plane landed at Prestwick
airport from Iceland at 3:05 p.m.
The model-turned-aviatrix was
held up by weather in Iceland and
so prevented from finishing the
trip on the anniversary.
After refueling her light plane
here, Mrs. Morrow-Tait is expect
ed to fly on to London’s Croydon
airport to end the first single-en
gine round-the-world flight by a
woman at the point where she
started it.
Flying with her as navigator is
Michael Townsend, 36.
Five Percenters
Used Army Plane
For Transportation
WASHINGTON, (tfV — Senator '
Mundt <R.-S. D.» sought today to |
link a flying trip to ’Paris in 1945
by three agents of a Chicago per- j
fume firm with the firm’s gifts of
home freezer.4-to Mej. Gen. Harry
H. Vaughan *“ahd Ms-friends.’’
Mundt told reporter? that - the
testimony’given the Senate invest
1 tigating committee’setefetly Mon^
1 day, and made public -yesterday,
“begins to disclose a'Suspicion Of
a motk'e of what is behind the
gifts of deep freezers.”
• He referred to freezers paid for
by the Albert H. Verley Perfume
Co., which were sent to Mrs.
Harry Truman, General V-aughan
I and four other administrative of
ficials during the summer of 1945
and the winter of 1945-46.
Three representatives of the
Verley company made the Paris
I trip on an army transport plane in
July, 1945, at a time Mundt said,
“when businessmen just couldn’t
get there.”
Two of the central figures in the
! inquiry are Vaughan, President
Truman’s military aide, and John
Maragon, Washington man-about
town who used to have free access
to the White House.
The testimony released by the
committee yesterday, after Presi
dent Truman had accused it of
! withholding testimony “favorable”
| to Vaughan while producing the
unfavorable parts at public hear
ings, threw a new spotlight on the
two men. ,
Testimony by Harry Hoffman,
' Milwaukee advertising man who
J handles the Verley account, named
j Maragon as the man who arranged
I for the army transport to carry
! Hoffman, Maragon and Emmett
King, New York attorney to Paris
on Verley business.
The record shows that Mundt
commented that “someone had to
exert a colossal amount of influ
ence in high circles “to wangle
such a trip.”
Fate Of Seawall
Hangs In Balance
i -
WASHINGTON (^)-Two Alas
ka projects are included in the
disputed army civil functions ap
propriations bill list approved by
House conferees. But there is no
indication how the Senators stand
on them.
The projects are: Nome harbor,
$701,000; Wrangell Narrows, $343,
I 000.
The bill has been tied up in
committee by Senate-House dis
agreement for 11 weeks. Finally,
Rep. Cannon (D.-Mo.) disclosed
last night the projects which the
House members of the conference
committee are willing to have in
the bill. His list included the two
Alaska projects. Chairman Mc
Kellar fD.-Tenn.) of the Senate
conferees told a reporter the con
ference is deadlocked on a num
ber of projects. The number was
reported to be 18 out of more than
300 in the bill. There was no indi
cation whether the two Alaska
projects might be among them.
Alaska Owes . |
$2,500,000 Not Just
One Million Dollars
JUNEAU, (/P)—The president of
the !Alaska Bankers association
said today he found “acceptable”
the findings o.f a Seattle financial
group which led to cancellation of
a proposed million dollar loan to'
the Territory. *
John F. Mullen, also head of the
B. M. Behrends Bank of Juneau, |
said in a statement issued yester
day that:
“Alaskan bankers have made no
particular investigation of ^the’
Territory’s* deficit to my knowl- \
edge and I am sure the findings of
the Seattle group would be accep
table to each Alaskan bank as it
was to us in the same manner as
any other financial transaction we
might jointly enter.”
Mullen said that when efforts
began to aid the Territory through
i its financial crisis “the entrance
i of a financial group composed of
; the Seattle Trust & Savings bank
and the brokerage house of Foster
i and Marshall into the picture
i seemed welcome assistance.”
He said the Seattle group asked
Alaska banks to participate in the
loan up to 20 per cent of the total
amount.
“I stated this would be accept
able to our bank.” Mullen con
tinued, “and I felt confident other
Alaskan banks would approve a
like arrangement.
“Thereupon the Seattle group
proceeded to process the loan.
“When it developed the Terri
tory needed approximately $2,500,
000 to operate through the year
(Continued on Page Two)
Hawaiian Strike
Negotiations (Shaky
HONOLULU, (VP)—Negotiations
to end 111 days of a strike on Ha- j
waii’s waterfront wobbled ahead
today in a cloud of gloom.
“Another extremely discourag
ing session,’’ said an employer
spokesman of yesterday’s meet
ing. The CIO longshoremen’s un
ion didn’t have anything to say.
Unless some agreement is reach- 1
ed by tomorrow, the dispute is to
be thrown into the lap of Cyrus
Ching, head of the U. S. concilia
tion service. And Ching doesn’t
know whether he can come to
Honolulu.
The employer spokesman said (
that in yesterday’s session the
talks reached the wage issue.
Harry Bridges, head of the
ILWU, said the 2.000 longshore
men who walked out May 1 would
settle for substantially less than
the 32-cent hourly increase orig
inally demanded. He refused to
say how much less. The longshore
men now draw $1.40 an hour.
Meanwhile, government steve
dores worked four ships.
EMPEROR GEESE BEING
SHIPPED TO SEATTLE PARK
The Alaska Airlines has twenty
four Emperor Geese, which were
brought here from Shishmaref,
and are being taken through An
chorage tomorrow, and on to
Woodland Park in Seattle, by Dr.
B. S. Nevill, of Cordova.
News of the Xi oriel
At A Glance - - -
- ^Thursday. August 18. 1949
<By The Associated Press).
... Premier Marshal. Tito of, Yugo
slavia received assurance from
thfc United States today that he
can buy an American steel mill.
His-reigme also may . receive - a
Joan from the World Bank.
Both developments would serve
to strengthen ^Tito’s hand in hiis
dispute with the Moscow-directed
communist international informa
tion bureau <comin£orm>. . •
After months of consideration,
the United States government
granted Yugoslavia an export li
cense which she needs before plac
ing an order for an American steel
mill. President Truman said in
Washington he ordered the license
granted.
The American decision repre
sents the strongest move taken by
Washington to help the Yugoslav
dictator. Shipment of the steel
mill, valued at $3,000,000, would
mark the first time since the war
that the United States has delib
erately sent “war potential” ma
terial to the communist-run na
tion.
The decision also foreshadowed
possible approval of a loan to Yu
goslavia from the world bank,
where the United States has a
dominant voice.
A committee of top Briitsh fi
nancial experts has drafted a doc
ument which, if approved by the
cabinet, will form basic British
policy at next month’s dollar
pound conference in Washington.
The Washington talks will deal
with the unbalanced trade be
tween the U. S. dollar and British
sterling areas which has left Bri
tain desperately short of dollars.
An increase in bus fares nas
touched off two days of bloody
rioting in Santiago, Chile. The
Chilean government says the dis
o r dels are communist-inspired.
The roiting cost seven lives.
Congress has granted the gov
ernment emergency powers to
cope with the situation. Now the
government can move citizens
from one part of the country to
the other; arrest suspects in their
homes without court order, and
suspend or restrict the right of
public assembly and the liberty of
the press and radio.
There was further deterioration
in the position of the Chinese na
tionalist government. Ch i n e s e
communist armies started a big
offensive in Hunan province.
Americans and other foreigners
fled from Canton, provisional na
tionalist capital. Foochow, big fort
opposite Formosa, fell to the com
munists. The nationalists admitted
withdrawing from the Miao is
lands which nationalist navy units
had used to blockade communist
held North China ports.
The nationalist government also
protested that British warships,
displaying a bellicose attitude
toward nationalist naval units,
had violated Chinese territorial
waters.
Friday, August 19. 1949
Finland’s government, determ
ined to smash a strike offensive it
(Continued on Page Eight'