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THE
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LIV No. 44. NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 1952 Per Copy—15d
White House Announces Release^
Gen. Eisenhower As Commander
Of NATO Forces Effective June 1
I! — - --" — V
Six Air Force
Pilots Refuse
To Go Aloft
SAN ANTONIO, Tex., (/P)—Six
first lieutenants at Randolph Air
Force Base here have refused to
fly and others have asked volun
tary suspension from flying.
Of the six officers who refused
to go aloft, one faces court mar
tial charge of “disorderly con
duct,”‘said Major Albert Hatcher,
public information officer.
Hatcher said no reason was
given for refusal of the six to
fly. But the San Antonio* Light
said today “Maintenance of planes
at the base . . . has been under !
fire in recent months.” j
Since activation of the B - 29
training program at the base in
August, 1950, eight of the bomb
ers have crashed. Fifteen airmen
were killed when two collided in
the air north of San Antonio last!
month.
The pilot accused of disorderly
conduct has disappeared. Hatcher
said he was arrested at a down
town hotel as intoxicated Tuesday
night. Police quoted the switch
board operators as saying the man :
had been trying to call columnists |
Walter Winchell and Drew Pear
son.
Hatcher said various reasons
could be given in the requests for
suspension — including fear of
flying.
All six officers who refused to
fly are World War II veterans re
called to active duty.
Air Accidents Take
More Lives Than
Are Lost In Korea
WASHINGTON, (/P)—A series!
of military air accidents this
month is claiming many more
lives than are being lost among
U.S. fliers in Korea.
The Air Force acknowledged
Thursday that non-combat flying
currently is killing more air per
sonnel than the war itself.
More than 50 persons have been
killed err are missing already this
month in domestic military plane
crashes. This total does not in
clude the 10 or more killed in
parachute mishaps or plane col
lisions in Exercise Longhorn, the
military maneuvers in Texas.
The Air Force said its casual
ties in Korea, since the start of
the war in June, 1950, total 1,111.
This includes 395 deaths in action
or resulting from combat, an av
erage of about 18 a month.
WASHINGTON, (/P) — The
White House announced Friday
the release of Gen. Eisenhower
as supreme commander of Allied
Powers in Europe effective June 1.
It made public an exchange of
letters which disclosed that Gen.
Eisenhower wrote Secretary of
Defense Lovett on April 2 that “I
consider that the specific purposes
for which I was recalled to duty
have been largely accomplished.”
Lovett, in a letter dated April
10, wrote Eisenhower he was tak
ing appropriate action “to secure
your release from assignment as
supreme commander Allied Pow
ers, Europe, effective 1 June, and
to have you placed on inactive
status upon your return to the
United States.
In his letter, Eisenhower made
no reference to the fact that he
has agreed to accept the Republi
can nomination for President if it
should be tendered him.
Presidential Secretary Joseph
Short said Eisenhower wrote the
President a personal letter, in
forming him he was taking this
step through channels — that is
through Lovett — and that the
President replied with a letter to
Eisenhower, written in long hand.
“Both letters were personal and
very cordial and will not be made
public,” Short said.
Michigan Phone Workers
Settle For 12.7-cent Raise
DETROIT, (/P) — Michigan’s
strike of 18,000 telephone work
ers was settled Friday apparent
ly opening the way to peace na
tionally in the telephone industry.
The Michigan Bell Telephone
Company and the CIO Communi
cation Workers of America jointly
announced the settlement.
Full details were not revealed
immediately, but the basis for
agreement was reported by the
union as a 12.7-cents hourly wage
increase.
NO RED JETS TODAY
SEOUL, f/P) — American Sabre
jets, on the lookout for Red jets,
couldn’t find any Friday morning
so they shot up a Communist
supply train with their machine
guns.
Infantry action Friday morning
was limited to several small and
abortive Red attacks.
American warships pounded the
eastern end of the 155 mile battle
front around the clock.
The battleship Iow*a’s 16 inch
shells wrecked 12 Communist
bunkers, burying several of them
under landslides. The Iowa ham
mer North Korean lines with 80
tons of shells.
Steel Spokesman
Terms Seizure
“Political Deal”
NEW YORK, (/P) — A steel
industry spokesman asserted
angrily Wednesday that President
Truman had abused his power,
distorted facts and paid off .a
“debt to the CIO” in the steel
dispute.
Clarence B. Randall, president
of Inland Steel Co., called the
i
government’s seizure of the steel
mills a “corrupt political deal”
and said:
“This evil deed, without pre
cedent in American history, dis
charged a political debt to* the
CIO.
“Phil Murray now gives Harry
S. Truman a receipt marked,
‘paid in full’.”
Randall’s no-holds-barred ad
dress — industry’s first formal
comment on the seizure — was
made over four major radio and
four major television networks.
The seizure, Randall said, was
done “without the slightest shad
ow of legal right.”
He noted that Truman had said
in his seizure announcement that
the steel industry made $19.50
profit on each ton.
This, the steel spokesman said,
was a “basic misrepresentation”
and didn’t include the fact “that
he (Truman! takes at least two
thirds of that away in taxes.”
OPS Raises Ceiling On
Bread and Pastry Prices
WASHINGTON, (/P) — Bread,
cake and pie prices are going up
during the next 30 days.
The Office of Price Stablization
Thursday announced new ceiling
prices which will boost the price
of a loaf of bread about one cent,
more expensive cakes as much as
five cents.
The new regulation covers
bread, rolls, fresh-baked cookies,
pastries sweet-yeast-raised goods,
doughnuts, crullers, p i e and
frozen bakery items.
The ceilings are based on how
much bakers have raised prices
during the last two years, and
will vary across the country.
Bakers may charge 16 per cent
more than the highest 1949 prices.
Those who have been selling for
more than this will have to cut
prices.
Flood Refugees Eat Venison
PIERRE, S.D., (/P)—Flood re
fugees being fed in Pierre feasted
on venison Thursday night.
Two of 17 deer attempting to
swim from a flooded island suf
fered broken legs by huge ice
cakes in the stream and had to
be destroyed.
Chief game warden Virgil John
son ordered the meat turned over
to the Red Cross. .
President Announces Plan To Shift
21.000 Federal Jobs From Political
Patronage Status To Civil Service
Alaska Steam’s Damage
Suit Scares Striking
Union Back to Work
SEATTLE, </P) — Members of
the Marine Firemen’s Union re
turned to work on Alaska Steam
ship Company vessels Wednesday
after a three-day walkout stem
ming from a dispute over over
time pay.
%
A spokesman said the union
voted to discontinue picketing Al
aska Steamship facilities because
of the company’s damage suit
against the union.
The company filed suit in fed
eral court Tuesday asking dam
ages up to $47,500 a day.
The vote to return to work
was taken a few hours after
steamship company officials
meeting with members of the
independent union had refused
the firemen the 11 cents an hour
overtime wage increase they had
demanded.
Search For Site For
Billion Dollar Atom Plant
WASHINGTON, (/Pi — The
Atomic Energy Commission an
nounced Friday it is planning con
struction of a new, billion dollar
plant. It said its search for a
suitable site is now concentrated
in the Ohio River Valley.
AEC general manager M. W.
Boyer said in a statement the com
mission is surveying prospective
locations for a site of 5,000 or
6,000 acres for a new gaseous dif
fusion plant “which is included in
the AEC expansion program now
being drafted for submission to
Congress. It would employ 4,000
to 5,000 operating workers.
> By EDWIN B. HAAKINSON
WASHINGTON, (/P)—A roaring
Senate argument has been fired
up by President Truman’s plans
to shift more than 21,000 federal
jobholders from political patron
age status to civil service.
Unless either the House or Sen
ate kills the surprise move within
60 days, it becomes law under
terms of the Government Reor
ganization Act of 1949.
The battle is expected to be de
cided in the Senate where since
1789 most senators have had the
privilege of confirming federal of
ficials “appointed by the Presi
dent by and with the consent of
the Senate.”
The surprise reorganization
plans announced Thursday would
apply to a long list of favorite
political plums, including 21,438
postmasters, 64 United States mar
shals, 51 collectors of customs
and a large number of other cus
toms officials.
Some Republicans charged Tru
man with foreseeing a Republican
victory in the fall elections and
moving to blanket thousands of
Democratic officials under civil
service protection.
A veteran Democrat, Senator
George of Georgia promptly an
nounced his opposition and added:
“If the Senate has any respect
for its responsibilities in select
ing and confirming honest and
efficient officials, the move will
be defeated.”
Senator ‘Johnson (D-Colo), who
often knows what the Senate will
do, said:
“I’m fed up with political pat
ronage and I have little or no
faith in bureaucratic government,
which is the child of civil service.
So I guess I will vote with the
President.”
For a Preview of the Rest of Alaska
5 or 10 Years Hence, Come to Nome
Louis Huber, writer for the
Christian Science Monitor and
other publishers, will be a special
correspondent for the Nugget. Mr.
Huber, who likes to write 3-bout
Alaska as Alaskans see it, has
written the following article as a
result of his visit here for the
past two days. He plans to do
more writing while in the area,
as he is making 3 trip as far as
Diomede. His observations on
Nome and its people should be of
special interest to our readers.
By LOUIS *R. *HUBER
“For a preview of the rest of
Alaska five or ten years hence,
come to Nome.”
That is what the visitor to this
Northwestern Alaska center feels
soon after arrival. Reason: the de
fense construction boom has been
p here and gone (what there was of
it) and the region is now left to
its own devices.
Those devices are not to be
sneezed at.
Nome and Kotebue are both
bracing themselves with well
founded anticipation for the com
ing tourist season.
“Thanks to the airlines the
tourists are coming—and coming
in greater numbers this summer
than ever,” observed “Tony”
Polet, one of Nome’s leading mer
chants.
He and other Nome business
men of the Northwestern Alaska
Chamber of Commerce !lre now
laying plans for accommodating
the greater flow of tourists this
summer. At a meeting April 8 of
(Continued on Page Two)
ANNUAL Women’s Society
N. C. Store of
Saturday, April 12 Community
Starting 10 a.m. Methodist Church
.