VOL. L. No. 131 _NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1..1948_PER COPY—15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
SAN FRANCISCO, UP) — Oil!
company spokesmen said Satur
day backsliding negotiations in the
57-day California oilstrike had di
minished hopes of settlement.
Shell Oil company, one of six
struck by the CIO oil workers
union, said a “packed” negotia
tions session Friday resulted only
in nullifying agreements which
had been reached on some points.
PHILADELPHIA, (/P)-An at
tempted holdup of a North Phila
delphia store was foiled Saturday
by a candy barrage.
Four holdup men walked into
the shop and one trained a pistol J
on Mrs. Mary Tucker, 45-year-old
shopkeeper. She screamed, flung
a handful of chocolate bars at
them. Three of the men started for
the cash register and Mrs. Tucker!
continued to fire—one candy bar
at a time. She screamed louder
and louder. The men fled.
PHILADELPHIA, UP)—Sen. Ar
thur H. Vandenberg (R.-Mich.)
will be honored here Armistice
Day as the “citizen of the United
States who in 1948 has done the
most toward the establishment of
a permanent peace.”
Vandenberg was named yester
day as the recipient of the 1948
Reserve Officers’ Association
award, established last year and
won then by secretary of state
George Marshall.
FAIRBANKS, (ff)—Firemen are
seeking the cause of a weekend
blaze which took the life of Lillian
Nearny, 47. She suffocated while
attempting to escape her flaming
two-room house.
ROME, (A*)—A family of seven
was reported entombed today by a
landslide which engulfed a house
at Posillipo, near Naples. Dis
patcher said the family was as
sembled at the bier of the mother.
0 \
NEWBURY, Vt., </P)—'Two en
gineers and two firemen met death
and five persons were injured Sat
urday in a head-on collision of two
Boston and Maine railroad passen
ger trains.
The accident occurred in an iso
lated area where trains operate on
a single track with automatic
block signals.
Both were Boston and Maine
railroad trains, although the crew
• of the engine on the northbound !
train were Canadian Pacific rail- j
road men.
A Boston and Maine railroad
spokesman was unable to explain
immediately how the trains collid
ed despite the automatic signals.
SEATTLE, (/P)—Mrs. Margaret
E. Farrell, 83, a pioneer of Alaska
gold rush days, died Friday at a
local hospital after a long illness.
Born in St. John, New Bruns
wick, Mrs. Farrell came west in
1891. When gold was discovered in
the north she went to Alaska with
her first husband. She lived in
Nome from 1898 to 1911 and was a
member of the Sourdough Club.
Mrs. Farrell lived in Seattle un
til her death.
Pro-Gruenings
Predominant In
Legislature
JUNEAU, (JP)— Along with the |
Democratic sweep of the recent
Alaska election, one significant
fact has emergend in the even
party split in the Territorial Sen
ate:
The pro-Gruening camp will be
dominant.
That development is significant
because the policie sof Gov. Ernest
Gruening have been a major issue
in Alaska politics since the one
time liberal journalist was ap
pointed by the late President
Roosevelt. <He was reappointed by
President Truman but never has
been confirmed by the Republican
controlled Senate).
The Democrats have won 19.out
of 24 seats in the Lower House,
but the Republican-Democratic di
vision in the Senate will be eight
to eight.
Six Democrats and two Republi
cans were elected to the Senate.
The Republicans led by the same
margin two yars ago and have that
advantages in holdovers. That ac
counts for the eight-eight align
ment.
Some of the Republicans are
considered in the pro-Gruening
camp. Indications on the basis of
known records and statements of
the 16 Senators are tha 11 or 12 of
them are sympathetic, in general,
to the Gruening policies.
Internation’I News
At A Glance —
(By The Associated Press)
Saturday, October 30, 1948
Mukden, largest city in Manchu-1
ria, was reported today to have j
fallen to Chinese communists. The
reports were unofficial but appar
ently reliable.
China’s government was tor
mented by the twin specters of de
feat and defection, of national
troops. Fall of Mukden to the Reds
would mean the government’s loss
of practically all of Manchuria.
Red control of Manchuria, in turn,
would step up the communists’
timetable for the next probable j
operation—the battle for North
China.
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek
hastily flew south to Nanking
from his Peiping headquarters. In
formants in Nanking said Chiang’s
return there presaged possible
“drastic developments.” Chiang’s
spokesman in the north declared
the battles raging now would be
decisive in China’s civil war.
French coal miners went back
to work Saturday in incresaing
numbqrs, boosting the’hope of gov
ernment leaders that the strike
may be nearing an end. The stop
page, led by communists, has cost
France more than 4,000,000 tons of
coal.
The apparent easing of France’s
labor troubles came as unrest de
veloped in Italy’s farm areas. In
southeastern Italy agricultural la
bor leaders assailed the govern
ment and landowners for growing
(Continued on Page Three)
Oil Strike Seems
Near Settlement
I
SAN FRANCISCO, (/P)—A mass ,
meeting of striking CIO oil work
ers is scheduled in nearby Mar
tinez tonight—in expectation that
the 59-day-old deadlock will be
settled and a proposed contract
will be ready for a vote.
Five separate negotiating ses
sions were on the slate for this
morning.
Leaders of the Martinez union
said, “There is a good possibility '
of having a proposed contract to j
submit for approval or rejection”
at the mass meeting.
' i
Emergency Air
Service Continued '
WASHINGTON, (A5) — Emer
gency expansion of air service be
tween Seattle and Alaska because
of the maritime strike has been
extended to Nov. 30, a civil aero
nautics board official said today.
The CAB simply continued au
thority which was to have expired
Nov. 1 the official said. Under this
order Northwest Airlines and Pan
Amreican Airways may operate
out of Seattle to points in Alaska
not on their certificates, and Alas
kan certificated carriers may serve
Seattle regardless of normal au
thority.
The action wa staken to facili
tate movement of food and essen
! tial materials during the shipping
1 tieup.
_
Anchorage Denies
Army “Inflationary
Prices” Charges
ANCHORAGE, (>P)—Anchorage
merchants strongly denied Friday
that retail food prices have in
creased sharply since the strike.
Replying to a statement issued
by Col. Harry Generous, Fort
Richardson commander, leading
food dealers issued an invitation
for public inspection of their food
prices, books and methods of mar
keting.
Col. Generous said that war de-1
partment employees living in the |
city had complained that prices
had been boosted since the start
of the maritime strike—in some
stores “as much as 30 per cent.”
The merchants challenged any
one to find even a 1 per cent in
crease. One asserted prices were
dropping, rather than increasihg
Col. Generous issued an ultima
tum to merchants, declaring that
the army will throw open its
commissary to war department ci
vilians living in the city unless
prices are held down.
WXLN TO BROADCAST
ELECTION RETURNS
Tomorrow, Election Day, the
Marks Air Base radio station,
WXLN, will broadcast the election
return from the election held over
the States. The broadcast will
be received over short wave and
the time of the broadcast will be
announced later over station
WXLN.
Twenty Die In
Mysterious Fog
In Pennsylvania
DONOItA. Pa., </P) — Chemists
studied their test tubes today look
ing for the cause of the mysterious
malady which took the lives of 20
elderly people in 36 hours.
The malady struck this Monon
gahela river industrial town of
13,500 late last Friday as a smoth
ering mixture of fog and smoke
lay low over the valley for the
third straight day.
Saturday the town’s eight doc
tors were besieged by calls from
Asthma and cardiac sufferers. Be
fore midnight 14 men and four
women had died. Two other men
died Sunday.
Nearby hospitals were jammed
with people finding it hard to
breathe. An emergency aid station
was set up and hurried calls went
out for oxygen equipemnt.
A doctor estimated the town’s
medical men treated between 400
and 500 cases.
The Donora zinc works of the
American Steel and Wire company
closed and plant superintendent
M. M. Neale said they would re
main so until it was determined
whether the fumes and smoke
given off by the smelter furnaces
had anything to do with the condi
tions.
Turks Not Worried
About War With
Russia
SEATTLE, (/P)—War with Rus
sia? The Turkish people aren’t
particularly worried over the pros
pect.
That was the report given by
Laurence S. Moore, retired press
attache with the U. S. embassy at
Ankara, Turkey. He said he is sur
prised at fhe “state of nerves” in
this country regarding the dangers
of a war betw’een the Soviet Union
and the west.
Moore, formerly in the Balkan
section of the office of war infor
mation, predicted that Turkey
would “fight to the death” against
any Russian attempt to destroy its
sovereignty.
In Seattle to visit a brother,
Moore said he plans to return to
Turkey in the near future.
2ND DIVISION ECONOMIC
SURVEY COMPLETED
Ralph Browne, special repre
sentative of the Alaska Develop
ment Board, who has been making
the economic survey for the past
month, departed for Juneau today
to complete and compile data gath
ered during his survey. He stated
that he expects to have the report
ready sometime in January.
He received word that upon the
completion of this assignment, he
will be employed by the reclama
tion bureau in a survey of water
Sites fqr the Territory.
IMPORTANT EVIDENCE FOUND
IN LUELLA GRANT CASE
It is reported that new and im
portant evidence has been found in
the case of the murder of Mrs
Luella Grant, which will be re
vealed in the very near future.
Contractors Heavy
Users Of Air
Freight Service
ANCHORAGE, </P)—The week
long civil aeronautics board hear
ing on Alaska air services was re
cessed for Saturday after a con
tractors’ representative testified to
the heavy use of airplanes for car
go shipments.
Jerry Dunkelberger, traffic
manager for Birch-Johnson-Lytle,
the major firm in Alaska military
projects, said shipping of many
construction items by air is cheap
er than by water. He testified be
fore examiner William Cusick Fri
day afternoon as an Alaska Air
lines witness.
I The airline is one of those seek
ing a certificate for a regular
i schedule route between Alaska
and the States.
Dunkelberger said that in the
past two years his firm had flown
approximately 7,500,000 pounds of
cargo to or from the Territory.
“Due to heavy packing required
for scientific instruments and ex
tra handling charges for fragile
(Continued on Page Eight)
Estimate Record
Vote To Be Cast
<By The Associated Press)
Polls close as early as 1 p.m.
(P.S.T.) in some parts of the east,
and at 8 p.m., (P.S.T.> in Washing
ton and Oregon.
I Estimated registration—over 66,
000,000.
Estimated vote—over 51,000,000.
Voting precincts — more than
| 135,000.
Senators to be elected 32; candi
j dates 95.
Representatives to be elected
432; candidates 962.
Governors to be elected 32; can
didates 100.
(Maine elected a Republican
Senator, Governor and three
House members Sept. 13, making
33 Senate (two in Louisiana), 33
governorships, and 435 House
seats being filled this year).
CHAMBER TO HOLD ANOTHER
DINNER TOMORROW NIGHT
The Chamber of Commerce has
announced another dinner meeting
for tomorrow evening at seven
o’clock at the Pioneer Hall. The
meeting is an important one, stat
ed President Harper, as several
important civic problems are be
ing discussed, and he urges that
all persons in the community who
are interested in making Nome a
better place in which to live, come
to the dinner and bring their sug
gestions. All new ideas he stated,
are desired to help the city offi
cials and other civic organizations
in cleaning up undesirable and un
healthy activities in the commun
ity. Only by the cooperation of ev
eryone can something be accom
plished. President Harper also
stated that those whio are not
members are welcome to the meet
ing.
Arrangements have been made
for special radio connections with
WLXN to receive election returns
during the dinner, continuously.