OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
. .. .._i___i_____
VOL. LIV No. 92 NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 1952 Per Copy—15*
Contract Let For
Atomic Engine To
Power Carrier
WASHINGTON, i/P) — The
United States, reporting progress
on atomic - powered submarines
and aircraft, Friday launched a
new project: development of giant
atomic-powered warships.
The Atomic Energy Commission
announced it had asked the West
inghouse Electric Company to de
velop an atomic engine capable
to propelling “large vessels such
as aircraft carriers.”
This immediately revived spec
ulation that atom-powered battle
wagons and giant commercial
liners like the Queen Mary and
the USS United States could
easily make 100,000 mile cruises
at top speed and without refuel
ing.
Such estimates are based on the
fact that a pound of fissionable
uranium or its titanic twin, plu
tonium, could generate as much
power as 1,500 tons of coal or
200,000 gallons of fuel oil.
The AEC’s announcement came
only a few hours after release of
its 12th semi - annual report to
Congress in which the commission
reported progress on the devel
opment of nuclear - powered air
craft and on two different types
of atomic engines for submarines.
The fact that AEC awarded the
contract for the large vessel
atomic engine project to Westing
house indicates it believes that at
least one submarine engine proj
ect is definitely assured of success.
Evidently the Navy, too, has no
doubts that the engine will work,
because the service has already
laid the keel of the Nautilus.
The designed power of the en
gines has not been disclosed, but
President Truman gave an idea of
it when, in speaking at the keel
laying of the Nautilus, he said the
sub would cruise underwater at
“more than 20 knots” and that
“a few pounds of uranium will
give her ample fuel to travel
thousands of miles at top speed.”
63,870 Fur Seal Skins
Taken from Pribilofs
WASHINGTON, (/P>—’The gov
ernment took 63,870 furseal skins
this year—a 3,181 increase over
last year—from the Pribilof Is
lands in Alaska.
Twenty per cent of the 1952
take will be delivered to the Can
adian government under terms of
a 1942 agreement with that coun
try, Secretary of the Interior
Oscaar Chapman said.
Approximately 80 per cent of
the world’s fur seals are estimated
to go to the Pribilof Islands to
breed each summer. During the
winter they range southward as
far as Southern California.
The'government’s skins will be
shipped to the Fouke Fur Co., St.
Louis, for dressing, dying and
sale. The company acts as the
government’s agent in processing
and selling the seal skins.
Senator Nixon Terms
Gov. Adlai Stevenson
“Captive Candidate”
COLUMBUS, O., (yP) — Senator
Richard M. Nixon off California
said Thursday night Gov. Adlai
Stevenson is a “captive candidate”
who would have no choice as
President but to continue Truman
policies and to keep in power the
men who made them.
Nixon, opening his quest for the
vice presidency before the Ohio
Sepublican state convention, said
the Democrats offer the nation a
man who is captive to the CIO,
big city machines and President
Truman.
The fact that Truman hand
picked Stevenson and the Illinois
governor then picked Sen. John
J. feparkman as a running-mate
“is going to be one of the major
liabilities that Mr. Stevenson is
going to have to carry in this cam
paign,” said Nixon.
The running - mate of General
Eisenhower told the audience that
“Ike” will be a fighting candidate
for President “right down to elec
tion day.”
“Ike” was more determined
than ever about that, Nixon said,
“after he heard what the Demo
crats in the Chicago convention
were saying about him.”
Radio-Phone Equipment
Removed From Alaska
Boats to Avert Strike
SEATTLE, (#>) — Removal of
radio - telephone equipment from
two Alaska Steamship Co. vessels
late Thursday erased the threat
of a new tie-up *in shipping ser
vice to the Northern territory.
The equipment was taken out
of the passenger liner Aleutian
and freighter John Quick, both
due to sail for Alaska Friday.
The action by the company fol
lowed a report from San Fran
cisco by William Steinberg, presi
dent of the CIO American Radio
Association, that there would be
no picketing of ships from which
the ship-to-shore facilities had
been removed.
The Radio Operators’ Union
struck 10 ships in San Francisco
earlier in the day as a dispute
over operation of the equipment
came to a head.
At issue is the location of the
equipment aboard ship and juris
diction over its operation. Several
vessels now have the radio-phone
systems on the bridge or in the
master’s cabin. The union de
mands that it be in the radioroom.
Austin Tex., Theater Ceiling
Falls, Injuring 14 Persons
AUSTIN, Tex., (/P)—Three per
sons, all in satisfactory condition,
remained in the hospital Friday,
recovering from injuries resulting
from collapse of a ceiling section
in a downtown theater Thursday.
Several tons of metal lath and
plaster fell approximately 50 feet
from the ceiling to the floor, cov
ering about 20 rows of seats.
Fourteen children and one man
were injured.
Coast Guard Has
Picture of Unkown
Aerial Phenomena
WASHINGTON, (/P) — C oast
Guard headquarters made public
Friday a photograph of “unidenti
fied aerial phenomena” taken by
a 21-year-old Coast Guard photo
grapher.
The photo clearly shows four
round objects. Each appears to
have two identical shafts of light
extending across its center and
protuding at the forward and rear
ends. The lights are in a “V”
formation.
The Coast Guard said it has no
opinion as to cause or source of
the “objects” and was releasing
the picture only because of the
widespread interest in aerial
phenomena.
The picture was snapped toy
Shell R. Alpert, Salem, Mass., air
station photographer. Alpert
sighted several brilliant white
lights through the air station’s
photo lab window at 9:35 a.m.,
July 16.
He watched the lights, which
“seemed to be wavering,” for five
or six seconds before attempting
to photograph them. By the time
he had focused his camera the
lights were “considerably dimmed
down.”
Bakersfield Still Shaken
By Light Earthquakes
BAKERSFIELD, Calif., (JP) — j
Bakersfield was still shaking Fri
day, 11 days after the big earth
quake that took a toll of 14 lives
in Southern California.
There were more tremors Fri
day, but only light ones and no
thing to compare with the orig
inal shock July 21 or some of the
stronger aftershocks.
There have been settling shocks
almost daily since the original one.
There were two fairly sharp
quakes Thursday that registered
6.1 and 4.75 on seismographs.
Residents have not become blase
about the continuing tremors but
some sporting souls are laying
bets on the magnitude of future
aftershocks.
Senators Long and Morse
To Tour Secret Bases
In Search of Waste
WASHINGTON, (A>)—Senators
Long (D-La) and Morse CR-Ore)
plan to leave next Tuesday on a
25,000-mile tour of U.S. overseas
airbases. Their goal is to find
ways of saving the taxpayers mil
lions of dollars on costs of for
eign bases.
“I'm convinced from testimony
taken by congressional commit
tees that we are spending too
much on some of these bases,”
Long told a reporter Thursday.
The senators, with a small staff
of experts, plan to be gone a
month to six weeks with stops at
Greenland, North Africa, Iceland,
European bases and other loca
tions still listed as top secret.
Six Drowned, Two Missing,
«
Four Dead When Liberty
Boat Capsizes Thursday a.nt
Republicans Keep
Civil Rights
Pot Boiling
(By the Associated Press)
Republicans kept the civil
rights pot boiling Thursday for
the purpose of cooking the Demo
crats’ goose.
Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge of
Massachusetts, chairman off Gen.
Eisenhower’s advisory committee,
said the selection of Sen. John J.
Sparkman of Alabama as the
Democratic vice presidential nom
inee shows the Democratic party
intends to do nothing constructive
about civil rights.
Sen. Richard M. Nixon of Cali
fornia, Eisenhower’s GOP vice
presidential running mate, told
newsmen in Fresno, Calif., how
ever, that Sparkman is not a true
Southern candidate and is known
to be completely pro-Truman.
Some Democratic leaders in the
South are unhappy about the
party’s 1952 stand on civil rights
and have not yet decided whether
to support the Democratic ticket
of Gov. Stevenson and Senator
Sparkman.
Chairman Arthur Summerfield
of the GOP national committee
rubbed more salt in the wounds
with the assertion that Stevenson
and Sparkman are “hand-picked
candidates of President Truman”
and will be “expected to carry on
the Truman tradition.”
At the Illinois capital, Gov.
Adlai Stevenson made a few re
marks on civil rights issues in
his first news conference since
the Democrats nominated him for
the Presidency last Saturday.
He repeated a previously ex
pressed view that fair employ
ment practices legislation is pri
marily a state responsibility. He
said the federal government
should hold off unless a state fails
in its duty.
Stevenson also said he believes
the Taft-Hartley Labor Law, a
prime target of union labor lead
ers, needs substantial revision but
not necessarily repeal. He said he
views the Democratic platform
pledge of repeal as merely a
method of accomplishing the
same result through an entirely
new law.
Commenting on Eisenhower’s
expressed goal of an eventual 40
billion dollars annual cut in fed
eral spending, Stevenson said he
hoped “neither candidate or party
would offer hopes that are forlorn
and at the same time her demand
ing a defense establishment to
accomplish our common objec
tive.”
Six men are known to be dead
by drowning, two are missing and
four survived when their power
whaleboat capsized in Bering Sea
early Thursday morning while
enroute to their ship, the Navy
tanker, USS Nemasket, which has
been discharging gas in the road
stead for the past several days.
Twelve men were aboard the
whaleboat, according to testimony
given this morning by the com
manding officer, Lt. McCkiflin,
after their refusal to man the boat
0
due to the sudden storm which
sprang up during the night from
the SSW. The boat is believed to
have overturned about a mile off
shore after battling a series of
mountainous broadside waves.
Their distress was not known
until two* of the survivors washed
ashore in front of the U.S. Mer
cantile Store some time after 2
a.m. and staggered over the
breakwater to the first house with
a light showing, that of Mr. and
Mrs. Bill Shepherd. Mrs. Shepherd
took the men in, put them to bed
and notified the police station of
the disaster. The men had been
in the water over an hour.
The fire alarm was sounded and
every available persons headed for
the beach to lend a hand in the
rescue. The boat was located near
the shore in the locality of the
New Lincoln Bar and efforts were
made to right it and make sure no
one was trapped under it. A line
was secured to the shore by civ
ilians wading into the raging surf
and icy water. Wallace Mclver
and Bill Shepherd are credited
with this brave venture.
One of the officers on shore, M.
Jenkins, testified this morning at
the inquest that two of the three
crew members refused to man the
boat and the commander of the
tanker was notified. When order?
came through for the liberty boat
td return to the tanker, nine of
the sailors and three crew mem
bers were put aboard after being
fastened into their life jackets.
Testimony revealed that watch
ers on shore thought the men
reached the ship and watchers on
the tanker, including the captain,
thought the men had turned back
into the harbor.
AS the bodies of the men were
spotted drifting and swimming
ashore east of the breakwater, all
present gave a hand in getting the
exhausted men out of the water
and to the hospital. One sailor
died enroute to the hospital al
though he was able to walk to the
car.
The only reason given by the
commanding officer, Lt. McClaf
lin, for ordering the men back to
the tanker, was that he was ad
vised there were no accommoda
(Continued from Page Two)
Saturday, Aug. 2 YOUTH FOR Speaker - Chaplain Wesley Buck
8:00 P.M. CHRIST Assembly of God Church
9 * '