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OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_
VOL. LIII No. 153_NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1951_ Per Copy—15<r
Private Citizens To Raise $120,000
Ransom For Four U.S. Airmen
WASHINGTON, (TP) — While
the government pondered what to
do about Hungary’s offer to free
four U.S. airmen in exchange for
* $120,000, private citizens in scat
tered areas promised to raise the
money promptly.
Robert Vogeler, an American
who was a prisoner of the Hun
garian communist regime for two
years, said he will seek to co
$10 Reward Paid
For Capture Of
General Dean
PUSAN, Korea, (TP) — Police
said Wednesday that two South
Koreans led Maj. Gen. William F.
Dean into communist captivity in
August, 1950, for $5 apiece.
Chief investigating officer Yoon
Myung Woon said the two had
been arrested and freed on bail.
He did not give the amount. Yoon
said Cholla province police had
orders to keep the men under
“strict surveillance.”
The officer said the two re
ceived “30,000 won ($5) each from
the Reds for enabling the Red
army” to capture the U.S. 24th
Division commander near Chinan,
about 35 miles south of Taejon.
He said they admitted receiv
ing the reward for Dean’s cap
ture but declared they turned the
money over to an unidentified
Red organization.
Yoon quoted the men as saying
they had tried only to help Dean
but they encountered Reds who
captured him.
Dean was reported missing
after the fell of Taejon in July,
1950.
His name was on a prisoner list
handed the United Nations Com
mand last week.
Accidental Death
Toll Christmas
Holiday 758
J
(By the Associated Press)
The accidental death toll for
the four-day Christmas holiday
mounted to 758.
This figure compares with the
record accidental death toll of 761
recorded in the four-day Christ
mas holiday in 1936.
Traffic accidents caused more
than 500 fatalities, but the 516
total was below the 600 predicted
by the National Safety Council.
Ice - coated and snow - covered
highways in the Midwest sharply
curtailed travel and appeared a
major factor in holding the traffic
toll under the council’s estimate
of 600.
The accidental death toll does
not include the 119 miners killed
in a coal mine explosion in West
Frankfort, 111., last Friday night.
The nation’s traffic deaths in
1951 already have passed 36,000,
the largest total since the record
breaking 39,969 deaths in 1941
and compares with 35,000 last
year. The death toll since the ad
vent of the automobile reached
the 1,000,000 mark last Saturday.
fc-- . ... -—
ordinate private efforts to raise
the $120,000 in fines levied
against the four fliers.
“I can understand any official
ransom payment by the govern
ment might be embarrassing to
the United States,” Vogeler told
a reporter in New York. “But I
think this .way we might accom
plish the same thing without em
barrassment to the government.”
There was no indication as to
how the State Department would
react to efforts by private citi
zens to raise the fine money and
thus save the four fliers impri
soned by Hungary from serving
three months each in jail.
They got lost in the air of
Hungary Nov. 19 while flying
supplies from Germany to the
U.S. embassy in Belgrade, Yugo
slavia. Soviet fighters forced
them to land their unarmed C-47
on Hungarian soil.
On Sunday the Hungarian gov
ernment announced that a mili
tary court had convicted the fliers
of violating the Hungarian bor
der and had fined them 360,000
florins (about $30,000) each, with
the alternative of spending three
months in jail.
The State Department was still
debating what ta do about the
Hungarian demands. Some mem
bers of Congress have urged that
the U.S. not pay the fines, which
they termed a ransom demand. A
department spokesman declined
to comment on various offers to
raise the fine money privately.
Slight Improvement In
East-West Relations
Despite Name Calling
OSLO, Norway, (/P)—U.N. Sec
retary-General Trygve Lie said
Wednesday there has been a
“slight improvement” in East
West relations and no worsening
of the general world situation
since the General Assembly open
ed in Paris Nov. 6.
In a Christmas-time broadcast
to Scandinavians over the Danish,
Norwegian and Swedish radio
system, Lie said the tone of
speeches in the U.N. this year had
been more moderate than usual.
Lie’s text dealt in general terms.
It did not mention Russia’s
charges in Paris that the United
States is supporting saboteur
spies against the Soviet bloc or
American delegation characteriz
ation of the charges as Russian
| “spy mania” and of Foreign Min
ister Vishinsky as “an old goat.”
Lie, a Norwegian, is here for
Christmas vacation.
Three Small Girls Bum
To Death In WTichita
WICHITA, Kas., (/P) — Three
small girls burned to death and
: eight other members of a Negro
family were injured when fire de
stroyed their four-room home late
Christmas night.
Burned fatally were Maybelle
Todd, 6; Mary Lee Todd, 5, and
Emma Lee Todd, 3.
The parents, Mr. and Mrs.
Willie Todd, and three children
suffered second and third degree
burns. Three other children es
caped with minor injuries.
Senate Committee Accuses* Army Of
Inexcusable and Indefeasible Waste
WASHINGTON, (/P) — A Sen-1
ate subcomittee has accused the
army of “inexcusable and inde
fensible waste” by “endlessly re
peating training cycles” for some
units.
A report by the group said that
while these units are “marking
time” some other units are being
trained at camps where there is
not enotigh space for field work.
“The nation gains no strength
merely because more and more
men wear army uniforms,” the
subcomittee said. “With our acute
national manpower shortage, any
assembly of able-bodied men into
a non-productive enterprise like
unnecessarily repeated training is
the most flagrant sort of waste.”
While rapping the army on this
and other matters, the committee
said it is clear that “no one
service is more prodigal or more
prudent than the others.”
Waste by military forces is not
intentional, the report said, but
“simply resulted from unconcern
with economy, an absence of gen
uine enthusiasm for efficiency, a
widespread lack of any real ‘cost
consciousness’.”
In a report to the Senate made
public Tuesday night, the Armed
Services subcommittee on defense
preparedness suggested that pro
motion for military officers be
based in part upon “demonstrated
ability to conserve men, money
and materials.”
The group had previously crit
icized what it termed waste by
“DOUG” SELECTED MAN OF THE YEAR
Marguerite Higgins
Charles E. Wilson
mi_
Thor Heyerdahl
DOUGLAS MacARTHUR
KffOTMm iHMil
Dr. Max Theiler
_
Mario Lanza
John Foster Dulles
Philip Murray
/• ... U.V ...
J
Leo Durocher
the air force, navy, and marines.
The report was based on staff
checks at eight army centers in
cluding Fort Lewis, Wash.
In general the army was cred
ited with a good job of feeding,
clothing, housing and medical
care of its troops.
May Ask Flogging
Penalty Betrayal
Of Public Trust
WASHINGTON, UP) — Senator
Tobey CR-NH) suggested Wednes
day that the whipping post be re
vived to punish public officials
who betray their trust.
The sharp tongued senator told
a reporter he is “thinking ser
iously” of asking Congress to im
pose the penalty of flogging for
gross misconduct in federal office.
Widespread irregularities dis
closed by a House investigation of
income tax frauds and Senate in
quiries into government lending
operations, he *said, disclose a
need for more drastic penalties.
“Let’s revive the whipping
post,” Tobey said “They’d fear
that. No punishment really can be
adequate. But this practice of ac
cepting resignations of those who
are caught in wrongdoing is child
ishly inadequate.”
Senator Kefauver (D-Tenn), in
a separate interview, called for
Congress to create a special, in
dependent commission to take
over a governmental houseclean
ing assignment which President
Truman has said he will launch
soon.
Meanwhile Senator Wiley
(R-Wis) urged a public airing of
affairs of the Alien Property
Custodian’s office, which he con
tends has been swayed by “big
money influence peddlers” in the
past.
Patti Andrews Gets
Married And Sisters
Go Along On Honeymoon
LOS ANGELES, (/P)—All three
of the singing Andrews sisters
stood together when one of them
was married yesterday and today
all three are scheduled to go on
the honeymoon trip.
Patti Andrews is the bride of
the trio’s musical director and
composer, Walter Weschler. In
the civil ceremony yesterday La
Verne and Maxine stood up with
their sister.
Weschler and the three sisters
are going to Las Vegas, Nev., to
day because the musical team is
opening an engagement there.
NEW YORK, (yP) — Northwest
Airlines, Inc., reported net in
come Wednesday of $1,816,322 or
$1.72 a share for the 11 months
ended Nov. 30 after provision of
$1,304,200 for income taxes. Op
erating revenues were $45,236,522.
In November, the compary had
operating revenues of $4,022,717
and a net loss of $50,299 com
pared with operating revenues of
$3,384,701 and a loss of $712,649
for the like month a year ago.