22S NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_
VOL. L. No. 22 NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1948 PER COPY — 15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
BAYONNE, N. J. (/P) — An ex
plosion in a grease mixing plant
of the Tide \Vater Associated Oil
Co. rocked New York harbor yes
terday, but resulting flames were
extinguished before reaching any
of the extensive petroleum works
on the waterfront. There were no
reports of casualties.
BRISBANE, Australia, (/P) — A
Royal Australian air force Lincoln
bomber crashed at Amberley,
Queensland, airport last night,
killing 16 RAAF crewmen. The
ship was on a training flight from
Waverton, near Melbourne. It was
attmepting to make a landing at
the airport, which is about ten
miles from Brisbane.
WEBSTER SPRINGS, </P)—The
trustees of the Hendrix Memorial
Methodist church debated incon
clusively last night whether to re
pair the structure or build a new
one. An hour later, the question
was settled.
Fire burned out the interior of
the stone building beyond repair.
Damage was estimated at $10,000.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (/P) —
Henry M. Abele of Birmingham
ended an address last night with
the words, “May God bless you
until we meet again.” As the mem
bers of the audience congratulated
him, he fell to the floor. He was
dead.
Abele spoke to the men’s club
of the First Methodist Church on
“The Laws of Human Equation.”
TACbMA, (/P) — Five fire en
gines and two battalion chiefs an
swered a fire call to a downtown
garage yesterday, but mother na
ture was credited with the put-out.
The fire was extinguished by
jerking out the burning back seat
of an automobile and dropping it
into a puddle of water in the al
ley. . '
BALTIMORE, </P) — Northwest
Airlines has ordered 15 more Mar
tin 2-0-2 transports at a cost of
$4,500,000. This will increase
Northwest’s 2-0-2 fleet to 24. The
company plans to retire all of its
smaller and slower DC-3 trans
ports by July. The 2-0-2 is a 36
passenger, 250-mile an hour plane.
VATICAN CITY. (/P)—Vatican
sources said today two Roman
Catholic Bishops have been exe
cuted in Albania, and a third has
been sentenced to 20 years in pri
son. The executed bishops were
named as Msgr. Francis Cjini,
bishop of Lezhja (Alessio) and
Msgr. George Volaj. bishop of
Sappa.
NEW YORK (/P)—Robert P. La- j
mont, 81, secretary of commerce
during the Herbert Hoover ad-!
ministration, died yesterday. La
mont, an engineer and industrial
ist, had retired,some 12 years ago.
He was a native of Detroit.
PHILADELPHIA, (JF) — Caleb j
F.' Fox, Jr., socially prominent ‘
Philadelphia banker and sports
man, was robbed of $40,000 in val
uables by four masked bandits
who invaded his home in suburb
Philip Murray
Pleads Innocent
WASHINGTON, (/P)—CIO pres
ident Philip Murray today plead
ed innocent to charges of violating
the Taft-Hartley act’s ban against
union political expenditures.
Murray’s attorneys, then moved
that the charges be dismissed.
They argued that the ban violates
freedom of the press and is uncon
stitutional.
Judge Alexander Holtzoff set
February 27 as a tentative date for
argument of the motion in U. S.
District court. He set March 22 as
the date for Murray’s trial in case
the charges are not dismissed.
Murray also entered an inno
cent plea for the CIO itself. The
CIO was indicted with Murray.
The indictment charges that the
CIO News, a union newspaper fi
nanced with union funds, carried
an endorsement written by Mur
ray for a Democratic Congression
al candiate in Maryland last July.
Shirley Call, 16,
Formerly Of Nome
Dies In Seattle
■
SEATTLE. —A woman who
adopted seven part-Eskimo na
tives during a long teaching career
in Alaska was in mourning today.
Mrs. Corinne Call, 66, told of
! the satisfaction that had come
from opening her home and hef
heart to the seven as she prepared
for the funeral of Shirley, 16, one
of the foster-daughters. She died
Tuesday at a sanatorium.
Mrs. Call adopted the girls dur
ing 30 years of teaching “from
Barrow on down.” She had dedi
cated her life to the Eskimos after
their kindness to her at the time
of her husband’s death.
Shirley, only a few weeks old at
the time, was the last child Mrs.
Call adopted.
As the girls—Melba, who .was
blind; Nita, Anna, Olga, Sally,
Betty and Shirley—Grew older,
she sent them to Seattle to attend
(Continued on Page Eight)
• |
an Rydal last night, police report
ed. The thugs herded the seven
persons in the house into a bed
room, tied them up with strips
torn from bedsheets and left them
there while they ransacked the
house.
LOS ANGELES, </P)—Los An
geles and nearby communities
were jolted last night by a sharp
earthquake which rattled windows
and shook homes but caused no
major damage.
The tremor, recorded at 8:21
p.m. was felt in Santa Monica,
Hollywood. Inglewood and Bur
bank.
SEATTLE (JP)—A slide derailed j
a Seattle-bound Great Northern j
mail train about two miles south
of Mukilteo at 6 a.m. yesterday,
injuring two trainmen. The loCo-|
motive careened into Puget Sound;
after striking the big slide area, j
One baggage car came to a stop
hanging over a sea wall adjacent;
to the tracks, and two other j
coaches were derailed.
House Recommend
Statehood For
Alaska
—
((/P) Special Washington Service)
WASHINGTON, </P)—A House
sub-committee recommended to
day that Alaska be made a state.
It made the recommendation to
a still larger sub-committee, which
met to consider approving the
proposal and sending it on to the
full House public lands commit
tee.
Rep. Crawford (R.-Mich.) is
chairman of both sub-committees.
He and a small group of other
representatives visited Alaska last
summer. It is their report which
recommends statehood to the sub
committee on territories.
“On the basis of the record and
findings of fact, the sub-commit
tee concludes Alaska should be
admitted to statehood,” the report
said.
“Although statehood bills have
been regularly introduced in one
Congressional session after an
other, it is only in recent years
that conscientious consideration
has been given to them.
“That is because the importance
of Alaska to the United States as
a whole has been brought home to
us, and because the steadily in
creasing population of the Terri
tory has been diligent in calling
public attention to the differences
(Continued on Page Eight)
Barge Freight Co,
Doesn’t Want Aid
((/P) Special Washington Servie>
WASHINGTON, </P) —A House
committee today had the word of
officials of the Alaska Freight Ex
press Corporation that it does not
want government aid for its barge
service to Alaska.
Leon Delong, a barge company
official, told the House sub-com
mittee on territories that his com
pany was privately financed and
was willing to continue that way.
He said, however, that if the
law providing interim steamship
service to Alaska is renewed for
another year his company wants
the same benefits from it that
three Seattle steamship companies
receive now.
The law permits the maritime
commission to furnish the- Seattle
companies government owned
ships at a nominal charter hire.
The agreement between the
commission and the companies
gave them exclusive right to serve
Alaska. The companies are The [
Alaska Steamship company, The
Northland Transportation com
pany and the Alaska Transporta
tion company.
Delong testified his company
has cut freight rates 35 per cenL
under those charged by the steam-1
ship companies and believes it
will be able to show a profit. He
said his firm plans to extend its
service this summer.
Delong was invited to testify be
fore the committee by Rep .Craw
ford <R.-Mich.) who said he want
ed the other committee members
to know competition with Seattle
companies
is actually operating.
“Ball Of Fire”
Startles Six
Midwest States
KANSAS CITY (/P)— Observers
yesterday sought further explana
tion of a strange “ball of fire,”
possibly a disintegrating meteor,
seen in six states.
The brilliant explosion thou
sands of feet in the air was ob
served in Kansas, Texas, New
Mexico, Oklahoma, Nebraska and
Colorado Wednesday.
Oscar Monnig, secretary of the
national meteorological society,
said at Fort Worth, Tex., he felt
sure the fire ball was a meteor
disintegrating.
Officials of the Chamberlain ob
servatory at the university of
Denver, however, could offer no
explanation. Director A. W. Recht
saind there was “no meteor show
er and no other known phenomena
in the sky to explain it.”
Alter the flash civil aeronautic
and state highway patrol officials
received reports of flaming plane
! crashes from widely scattered
j points. All reports proved ground
less.
Newspaper offices also received
numerous calls from observers. C.
L. Jacoby, editor of the Norton
(Kas.) Daily Telegram, said a
number of callers asked excitedly
if an atomic bomb had exploded.
The explosion, Jacoby reported,
rattled windows in a 35 mile area
in northwest Kansas. A large
white cloud was visible in the sky
for an hour after the flash, some
observers said.
•
Czechs Fight
Red Control
PRAGUE. Czechoslovakia, UP)—
Members of three outspoken anti
communist parties resigned from
Czechoslovakia’s cabinet today in
the growing fight against Com
munist attempts to dominate the
coalition government.
It was the first open break in
Czechoslovakia’s postwar repub
lic, formed in April, 1945.
Leaders of the National Social
ist party, the Slovak Democrat
party and the Catholic People’s
party quit the government of com
munist Premier Klement Gott
wald, a seven-party coalition
which has governed by compro-1
mise and barter.
Earlier these leaders had re
fused to sit in with the Commun
ists in a cabinet meeting called by
Gottwald in an atmosphere of pre
election tension.
The parties resigned in letters
to President Eduard Benes.
With the communists momen
tarily on the defensive in this bor
derland country between the east
and the west, U. S. ambassador!
Laurence Stenhardt told the!
Czechoslovak press he hopes the
nation still will participate in the
Marshall plan.
C z e c hoslovakia changed her
mind about participating in the
original Marshall plan talks in
Paris last June after here high of*
ficials were summoned to Mos
cow.
Enemy Destroyed
Defenses At
IVome Air Base
(By Capt. Keith Angwin)
(Special to The Nome Nugget)
NOME, Feb. 18—“There are no
defensive ground forces in Alaska
now,” stated Lt. Gen. Twinning,
commanding general, Alaskan
theater, today to 250 men of Exer
cise Yukon, “and more than any
where else, the ground soldier
must become used to the Arctic
conditions. It is a “must” up here
for the air force and ground forces
to team up for their mutual pro
tection—it is also an Arctic necess
ity.”
The general had just witnessed
skilled infantrymen knife through
the defenses of the Nome Air Base
enabling the “invaders” to encir
cle the base personnel who threw
up a strong defensive perimeter,
which caused the “doughboys” to
take the complete morning to ac
complish the enveloping move
ments which proves how difficult
a maneuver is in the north coun
try.
A trip to Nome and Seward Pe
ninsula is one never to be forgot
ten by the men of the Second In
fantry Division, who have just
completed the final winter man
euver known as Exercise Yukon.
Gone are the famous characters
of yesteryears; the Dan McGrews
and the dance-hall girls are but
memories: in their place are a
pioneer people, kindly, progres
sive, who offer a hearty welcome
to the stranger.
These people witnessed Wednes
day the first large scale attack on
the Nome Air Base by infantry
troops of the Second Infantry Di
vision. who were flown here from
Fort Lewis, Washington, in the
largest air transported operation
ever carried out by the air force
and ground force headquarters.
The military problem—part of
Exercise Yukon—has theoretically
been a success, although the “tor
rid” weather has hampered
chances throughout the winter for
the army’s test on cold weather
clothing and equipment in the un
found sub-zero temperatures.
The infantrymen were returned
to Big Delta Thursday in C-82
cargo planes of the Twelfth Air
Force Troop Carrier Group sta
tioned at Elmendorf Field, Alaska.
The reinforced infantry company
will spend one more week at Big
Delta and then will fly back to
their home station at Fort Lewis,
thus completing the largest winter
maneuver ever held in Alaska.
Warm Weather
Hard on Bottles
BALTIMORE, (^P)—The recent
warm-up in the weather was ap
parently rapid enough to crack
whisky bottles, with a resultant
loss of blended rye.
Before the mishap was discov
ered, the contents had run out of
half a dozen bottles that had been
standing in a store window
through the recent cold weather.
The high temperature was the
only apparent cause.