m NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOI, I-.- No. 23 ' NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1948 PER COPY — 15c
, NEWS IN BRIEF
WASHINGTON, (/P) — Roy B. i
Earling, vice president and gener
al manager of the Fairbanks Ex
ploration company and resident of
Fairbanks, was a recent visitor to
Delegate Bartlett’s office. IV^r. Ear
ling will spend some time in Bos
ton on his annual trip to the home
# office of the U. S. Smelting Min
ing and Refining Company.
ATHENS, </P)—Twenty persons,
including a woman, were executed
in Athens Saturday.
Nine were convicted by an Ath
ens military tribunal Feb. 17 of
being involved in the killing of a
policeman and plans to assassinate
Greek political leaders.
The others were found guilty of
> having been members of a Com
munist execution squad which
killed hundreds of civilians near
Athens in the 1944 civil war.
WASHINGTON, (/P)—The coast
guard said Saturday it has a new
290-foot ice-breaker that plowed
through fields of solid ice 33
inches deep, and windrow's (piles
of broken ice) 25 feet deep in tests
on the Great Lakes. It has pro
pellors at both ends.
EAST ORANGE, N. J. (>P) —U.
S. Sen. Wayne A. Morse (R.-Ore.)
says Senator Arthur H. Vanden
berg (R.-Mich.) would be the
“best Presidential candidate to
* unite the Republican party and
lead it to victory” this year.
Vandenberg “is the most desir
able dark horse we have,” Morse
told an American brotherhood
• meeting Friday night.
NEW YORK, (/P)—All domestic
security and commodity markets
are closed today in observance of
Washington’s birthday. Some live
stock markets are open as usual.
British, Canadian and other for
♦ eign exchanges are open.
RICHLAND, Wash. </P) — One
man was dead and six persons
were recovering from burns and
injuries today as the result of a
fire which drove 40 Atkinson &
Jones Co., construction workers
from their barracks here early
Saturday. The dead man was A.
r C. Reynolds, 35, of Bivins, Tex.
WASHINGTON, </P)—The navy
has developed a sailor suit with a
built-in life preserver.
The garment is intended for
submarine men who have to stand
topside watch in rough weather.
It consists of a coverall with an
attached hood extending to the
waist. The hood can be inflated to
keep the wearer afloat.
Capt. T. L. Willmon told a
meeting of scientists at the office
of naval research the suit will be
tested thoroughly this fall.
KANSAS CITY, (IF)—Julius L.
Marquette, 85, has spent the last
63 years riding trains as a railroad
conductor.
Yesterday he retired from ac
tive duty with the Gulf, Mobile
9 and Ohio railroad—the oldest con
ductor in age and point of service.
His future plans?
He’s going traveling to parts of
the United States he hasn’t seen—
by train.
Chinese Reds Make
BiAdvance
In Manchuria
_
(By John Roderick)
TSINGTAO, China, (JP)—Chin-j
ese Communist troops wheeled
their big guns close enough to
shake hungry, beleaguered Muk- j
den today in their steady advance
on the heart of Manchuria.
Military reports and eye witness
accounts showed the* desperate
plight of the big industrial city.
(Government sources in Peiping
reported another grave setback—
the loss of Faku. 45 miles north of
Mukden. Its fall tightened the
Communist blockade of Mukden
and opened the way for Corhmun
ist assaults from the north.)
The Rev. N. O. Dahlsten, Ber
rien Springs, Mich., just arrived
from Mukden, said whole families
there were committing suicide for
lack of food. Month-old children
were being fed millet—a rough
Manchurian cereal.
The Seventh Day Adventist
missionary said Mukden was
shaking to the bombardment of
big guns. He said the Communists
evidently will try to capture and
hold Mukden.
i Other reports told of communist
attacks on a government airbase
only a mile and a half from Muk
den. The Chinese air force halted
all its flights to Mukden. The U.
S. state department advised all de
pendents of its consular personnel
to leave there at once,
t Fighting was reported in the
suburbs of Penki (Penhsihu), a
major source of Mukden’s coal
supply. The coal mining center is
i 35 miles southeast of Mukden. The
Communists already had cut the
rail line between the two points.
Marshall Didn’t
Want Aid for China
DETROIT, (JP) —Senator Taft
(R-.Ohio) today called for Ameri
can military help for China.
He termed President Truman’s
$570,000,000 assistance plan a “re
lief program” which “will com
pletely fail to solve the problem”
of Communist pressure.
Taft said secretary of state Mar
shall had been “unwillingly
forced” into drafting the aid pro
gram sent to Congress last week.
“The truth is,” Taft said in an
address prepared for an economic
club luncheon, “that Secretary
Marshall does not like the Chinese
and has no interest in their prob
lems.”
The Ohio, Senator, a candidate
for the Republican Presidential
nomination, said he considers the
Far East as ultimately more im
portant to peace than Europe.
Yet today in China, he continued
i “we continue a policy which
threatens to undo in the Far East
| everything the Marshall plan (for
European recovery) is trying to do
in western Europe.”
LONDON, </P)—A Tass dispatch
said Saturday that Russian fac
tories will begin “mass produc
tion” of television sets this year.
The story gave no further de
tails about television broadcasting
in Russia.
Commodities Take
Steady Decline
_
NEW YORK, (/P)—Wheat led a
general downward march among
commodities Saturday.
The decline was orderly, how
ever, and price changes relatively
small after the recent upset.
Hogs, cattle and lambs held
nominally steady in Chicago’s big
market.
No retail price changes of im
portance came to light as retailers
tried to appraise the effect of the
Feb. 4 crack in primary markets.
Trading in stocks was almost at
' a standstill.
The big break in commodity
markets has reduced retail food
prices an average of 3V£% from
January highs. Other cost-of-liv
ing items either clung to post-war
peaks or headed upward.
This was the picture presented
by the government’s bureau of la
bor statistics in its first official re
port on the effect of the market j
slump on retail prices.
The government study covered
20 foods in 12 cities. It represented
a cross section picture of grocery
and meat prices between the highs
of mid-January and February 17.
The big oae&k in commodity
prices began Febraury 4.
The report stated 13 of the 20
foods showed declines. Five show
ed increases. Two—bread and
navy beans—showed no change.
(Continued on Page Four)
Link Hank
With Negro
BALTIMORE, (tf*) —Supporters
of Henry A. Wallace for President
decided last night to select a Ne
gro as their candidate for Con
gress from the Fourth Maryland
district.
The district contains a large
segment of Baltimore’s Negro pop
ulation, the actual condidate was
not selected. •
To get on the ballot, the event-;
ual nominee must present a peti- ]
tion signed by 1,500 voters of hisj
district.
I
Communists Seize
Power In
Czechoslovakia
(By A. I. Goldberg)
PRAGUE, (/P> — Communists
bidding for supreme power put
| their security police today before
all Czechoslovak government
buildings and foreign embassies.
Opposition speech was at least
partly stifled.
Headquarters of the Czech na
I tional Socialist party, one of three
which withdrew Friday from the
government coalition, was seized
by police armed with sub-machine
guns.
Czechslovak nationals virtually
were frozen inside the country by
a ministry of interior order re
quiring new stamps of approval
on valid passports.
Police, directed by Communists
heading the ministry of interior,
arrested notable foes of the Reds.
Dr. Zdenek Marjanko, ministry
of justice employee who involved
a Communist in the perfume box
bomb plot last fall against three
ministers, was jailed.
Police were looking for Dr. Vla
dimir Krajina, secretary general
of the national Socialist party,
who directed investigations that
uncovered the bomb plot. They
seized Zdcnek Uhl, president of
the Medical Students’ union, and
Jiri Ptak, former head of the en-:
gineers’ union.
The display of arms was the ■
first since the political crisis start-1
ed Friday night with the resigna
tion of 12 anti-Communist minis
ters from the coalition of Premier
Klement Gottwald, a Communist.
President Eduard Benes was try- i
ing in conferences to save the sit-1
uation.
Communist controllers were in1
charge of radio and press centers!
in Slovakia.
SALT LAKE CITY (JP)—Hyrum j
Dempsey, the 91-year-old father of
former world heavyweight boxing
champion Jack Dempsey, died yes
terday of causes incident to age.
Hearings On Two
Important Bills
For Alaska
WASHINGTON, (/P)—Hearings
an two measures which would
have wide-spread effect on Alaska
will begin tomorrow before the
Senate committee on interior and
insular affairs.
Both measures and sponsored
by Senator Hugh Butler of Ne
braska, chairman of the commitee,
and the resolution is co-sponsored
by Senator Arthur V. Watkins of
Utah.
Under the terms of S. J. Res.
162, all Indian reservations in
Alaska would be cancelled and
the powers extended to the secre
tary of the interior to designate as
an Indian reservation any area of
land which has been reserved for
the u-e and occupancy of Indians
or Eskimos would be repealed.
The legislation states that the In
dian reservations at Akutan, Kar
luk, Wales, Unalakleet and Vene
tie would be included in those
cancelled should the resolution be
enacted.
The present authority of the
secretary of the interior to create
Indian reservations is embraced
in the act of May 1, 1936, which
extended the Wheeler-Howard
Act to Alaska providing that such
designation of land as a reserva
tion by the secretary would be ef
fective only upon its approval by
the vote of a majority of the Indi
an or Eskimo residents of the area
in question.
The second piece of legislation,
S. 2037, would transfer the present
functions of the Office of Indian
Affairs to the Territory of Alaska
and the Public Health Service. All
powers, duties and functions of
the secretary of the interior and
the commissioner of Indian affairs
with respect to the administration
of laws relating to Indians, Aleuts
and Eskimos would be transferred
to the Territorial government. The
(Continued on Page Five)
GOP Blames Steel
For Rising Prices
WASHINGTON (/P)—Angry Re
publicans may rake big steel over
the coals this week for boosting
prices.
The Senate-House economic
committee has arranged to ques
tion three “typical” steel execu
tives at public hearings Thursday.
Chairman Taft (R.-Ohio) said
big steel, little steel and independ
ents will be represented. He ruled
out any circus atmosphere.
But there are signs that Taft
himself feels the steel industry
may have put the Republican
Congress over a political barrel by
boosting some prices after the
lawmakers had voted to rely on
voluntary action to keep down the
cost of living.
Some Republicans think that
steel has given President Truman
and the Democrats a new argu
ment for government controls.
They blame big steel primarily for
the price jump.
It came at a time when other
commodities showed signs of lev
eling off.