the NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. ?OJX. No. 3. NOME, ALASKA? MONDAY^ANUARY 6, 1947 ~ PF.R~mpy ll i ^
NEWS IN BRIEF
LONDON, (/P)—The Moscow ra
dio reported that Field Marshal
Viscount Montgomery, chief of the
British Imperial general staff, ar
rived in Moscow today as a guest
of the Soviet army.
Aboard USS Mt. Olympus, l/P)—
A seaplane took off Sunday from
the navy’s Antarctic expedition on
the first search for nine missing
t?rs but was forced back by bad
ather after a two-hour, 25 min
ute flight. The missing fliers y/ere
aboard a two-engine Mariner sea
plane which was last heard from
a week ago while making a recon
naissance flight.
JUNEAU, (iP)—The first Juneau
baby of 1947—a girl—was born
Saturday morning to Lt. (jg) and
^/Irs. Arthur Fontaine, The father
^s on duty with the Coast Guard
Cutter Wachusett on Bering Sea
patrol.
SEATTLE, (P) — Frank Dowd,
79-year-old “father” of the State’s
old age pension system, died yes
terday of a heart ailment. Dowd,
would have completed his 45th
year of the Seattle Aerie of Eagles
th^s week.
SEATTLE (P) — Search for a
missing deckha.nd who was
thrown from the deck of the ferry
Kalakala as he sought to open a
car deck door in a heavy wind last
night, was to be renewed today.
The victim was identified as Nels
Forfang. A two-hour search by the
harbor patrol failed to recover his
body.
SEATTLE (/P)—This state’s ex
servicemen borrowed more than
$64,000,000 under terms of the G.I.
Bill of Rights up to the end of
1946, Henry Colver, loan guaran
tee officer of the Seattle Veterans’
Administration office, reported to
day. Veterans involved in the $64,
587,849 “borrow” number 13,604,
Colver said. More than 90 per cent
$$^,922,709, were for home pur
chases. Business loans totaled
$3,919,348 and farm loans $745,
791.
NEWARK, N. J. (/P)—Forty-six
babies who were hurriedly evacu
ated by student nurses from the
second and third floors of the
Babies hospital when a fire started
in a first floor room early this
morning, were back in their cribs
#>day. Miss Vera Floyd, superin
tendent of nurses, said none of the
infants suffered “any apparent in
juries.” Firemen were investigat
ing the cause of the blaze.
WASHINGTON, (/P)—'The office
of the House of Representatives
sergeant at arms bank was closed
today until further notice pending
the outcome of an audit of the ac
counts. William Russell of Penn
sylvania, newly elected sergeant
at-arms, told reporters he would
reopen the office until an audit
now being made by the controller
general is completed. Russell said
it was the first time in his mem
ory that the office was closed, ex
cept for customary holidays.
HALF-TRACK TRACTOR — Similar to the military half-track, a farm tractor using an
endless-band rubber track designed by B. F. Goodrich engineers, undergoes experimental test.
Attempt To Settle
Seward Strike
SEATTLE, bP)—Officials of the
federal conciliation service, Alas
ka Steamship Company and the
Sailors Union of the Pacific left
Seattle by plane Saturday for
Seward to attempt settlement of a
jurisdictional shipping dispute in
that port.
The controversy between Sew
ard CIO longshoremen and mem
bers of the AFL sailors’ union
threatened to tie up the Alaska
port.
Leaving Seattle on a Northwest
Airlines plane were Commissioner
Albin L. Peterson of the concilia
tion service, J. E. Ritchie of Alas
ka Steamship Company operating
department, and Ed Coester, Seat
tle agent for the S.U.P.
British To Crush
Jewish Rebellion
LONDON, (/P) — Government
sources said today British military
authorities were preparing the
biggest offensive in modern Pales
tine’s history to crush what they
called “the open rebellion against
law and order” by Jewish extrem
ists.
All branches of Britain’s army
in the Holy Land, estimated to total
about 100,00 men, will take part,
these sources said. Troops from
Egypt are reaching the Holy Land
by road and rail as reinforce
ments.
The informants said the British
government took the view that
whatever settlement finally emer
ged for Palestine, the reimposition
of law an dorder was Britain’s
first obligation.
ANNOUNCE NEW HOURS
FOR ACS SERVICE
Lt. Stanley R. Morgan, officer
in charge Alaska Communication
System announced today that the
local office of the Alaska Com
munication System wil be open an
additional hour and half daily ef
fective today, Monday, January 6.
The new operating hours will be
from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., daily.
Storm Sweeps
Vast Areas In
Pacific Ocean
HONOLULU, bP)—Heavy waves
surged across mid-Pacific Palmyra
yesterday, swirling around the an
kles of the 123 Americans on the
tiny atoll, but the navy reported
today that the seas had receded
and it “considers the immediate
danger past.”
Three rescue planes landed on
the Cooper Island airstrip in re
sponse to distress calls but were
not needed.
Menge islancf, where a small
group of civil aeronautics author
| ity scientists and their families are
stationed, was hardest hit by the
inundating waves stirred up by a
South Pacific storm, but there was
no apparent damage and no cas
ulties.
All on Palmyra were described
officially today as “ in fine health]
and spirits.”
The vast storm that flooded
their six-foot-high islets battered
earlier at waterfront installations
and buildings in Hawaii, 1,000
miles to the north, and stirred ru
mors of deaths in Alaska before it
faded into the Arctic. In all, it
swept across two and a quarter
million miles of the Pacific, but
left no confirmed casualties.
Alaskan department army head
quarters at Anchorage said last
night no lives were lost and no1
great damage done in Alaska or
the Aleutians. At Nome, blacked
out briefly by power-line break
age, the army said it could not
confirm rumored deaths of several j
persons in the Hooper Bay area ,
300 miles to the south.
There were no fresh reports of
destruction in Hawaii, where
smashing waves did hundreds of
thousands of dollars damage Sat
urday.
Urgent distress messages crack
led from Palmyra’s radio before
dawn yesterday saying heavy seas
were sweeping the island and
threatening its 108 navy-coast
guard personnel and its 15 civil
ians—including five women and
three children.
(Continued on Page Five)
Sen. Cain To Give
Aid To Alaska
WASHINGTON, (VP)—Sen War
ren G. Magnuson, <D.-Wash.),
pledged his cooperation with Sen.
Harry P. Cain, Washington State’s
new Republican Senator, today in
his efforts in the new Congress on
behalf of Alaska.
“We are the men who must rep
resent Alaska in the Senate where
the Territory has no other voice,”
he told newsmen.
Construction subsidies to ship
ping lines serving Alaska “appar
ently is the only way out of the
terrible situation now existing.”
He said that the Alaska fleet is
worn out and cannot adequately
and economically serve the Terri
tory. Certain government ships j
that could be purchased cheaply'
are not suitable for the run,” he
said.
Magnuson emphasized that,
shipping rates, which “already are '
excessive,” cannot be raised.
The second big Alaska problem |
that requires the joint efforts of1
Cain and Magnuson, the latter
said, is the building of the 750- i
mile Alaska Highway connection
from Prince George to the White
horse country.
“This connection would afford a
feasible highway,” he said, “the
Alaska military highway just isn’t
suitable.”
He said he would like to have
Senator Cain accompany him to
Ottawa next month when he at
tends another Alaska Highway
conference.
WASHINGTON, (/P)—President
Truman urged a year’s extension
of $1,500,000,000 in wartime ex
cise taxes today but a drive in
Congress to end them immediately
was pressed ahead.
Soon after the President’s
recommendation in his annual
message, Rep. O’Toole fD.-N.Y ),
introduced a repeal bill. Earlier,
Chairman Knutson (R.-Minn.) of
the tax-writing ways and means
committee told reporters it would
be early consideration. The taxes
involved are those on liquor, furs,
cosmetics and other “luxuries.”
I runlan In Person
(Jives Message
To Congress
W ASHINGTON, I/P)—President
Truman today handed the Repub
lican Congress a Legislative pro
gram topped by recommendations
for new labor laws and asked its
members to work with him for a
new and finer “state of well be
ing” in America.
Delivering his “State of the
Union” message in person, Mr.
Truman recommended that the
legislators outlaw the kind of
strikes and boycotts arising solely
from disputes between unions, lie
said arbitration should be re
quired when a dispute is simply
over the interpretation of a labor
contract.
Then, with a warning against
“vindictive” laws, Mr. Truman
told Congress the “whole indus
trial future of the United States”
may depend on finding the “pro
per solution” for the problem of
nationwide strikes in key indus
tries, such as coal mining.
He proposed creation of a 20
member commission — he to ap
point eight members and the Con
gress 12—with instructions to re
port a recommended solution by
March 16—two weeks before the
deadline set by John L. Lewis for
mining soft coal.
The President’s 7,000-word mes
sage covered a wide expanse of
domestic and international prob
lems other than labor management
relations.
Among other things, he renewed
the requests he made unsuccess
fully to the last Congress for:
A higher minimum wage, a na
tional health program, a new de
partment of welfare, broad hous
ing legislation, and a single de
partment of national defense.
In general, his theme was that
he and Congressmen have the
power in the next two years to
“mold the future of the nation” for
lasting peace and unprecedented
prosperity.
He told them:
“If in this year, and in the next,
we can find the right course to
take a seach issue arises, and if, in
spite of all difficulties, we have
the courage and the resolution to
take that course then we shall
achieve a state of well being for
our people without precedent in
history.
"And if we continue to work
with the other nations of the world
earnestly, patiently, and wisely,
we can—granting a will for peace
on the part of our neighbors—
make a lasting peace for the
world.”
The mesage was the first of
three the White House will have
for the Congress this week. On
Wednesday, it will send a general
economic report. On Friday, there
will be the budget message detail
ing the government’s prospective
income for the 12 months degin
ning next July 1 and telling how
Mr. Truman thinks it should be
spent.
In today’s message, the Presi
dent said he wanted a balanced
(Continued on Page Five)