LIFTING THE LID
AT JUNEAU
(Contined from Page One)
lion dollars a year.
The vote was 20 to 3.
%
The other major bill adopted by
the House provides three-year
staggered terms for city council
men, gives cities the right to elect
mayors for one, two or three-year
terms and changes elections from
April to October, a week before
the general election.
Both bills go to the Senate.
Earlier, the House passed a bill
by Rep. Frank Angerman, Demo
crat, requiring employers to pay
return £osts for any laborer who
is transported into the Territory
or within the Territory for a job.
The vote was 18-6.
The Senate-adopted fishtrap
bill was the first major controver
sial taxation measure to pass bo‘h
Houses in regular session. It
brought charges that the rates
were so high the courts might hold
it invalid as confiscatory and re
buttal that the industry could well
afford to pay.
Finance committee chairman,
Sen. John G. Butrovich, Jr., es
timated it would raise $5,000,000
for the biennium, which he said
would exceed the general property
tax take.
Democratic leader Sen. Victor
C. Rivers estimated, on the other
hand, th etake would be $2,500,
060. He saicf Butrovich failed to
consider marginal traps, which
would be discontinued.
The bill raises the single trap
tax to $300, with a graduated scale
of $2,000 for each trap over 50
owned by a single firm. It also
carries a special levy for each sal
mon above 15,000 caught in a sin
gle trap, running up to 25 cents
for each above 200,000.
A report prepared by the Ter
ritorial veterans board, recom
mended that the legislature be
asked to provide an additional
$2,000,000 or the veterans’ revolv
ing fund to carry out provisions of
Alaska’s World War II veterans’
act.
Y Figures showed 3,800 veterans
have received either bonuses or
loans under the act, bu‘ it was es
timated another 2.800 were quali
fied for bonuses or loans if they
made the request.
The House passed unanimously
a bill to appropriate $1,300 for the
attorney general’s office, includ
ing a $500 bonus for his work as
legislative counsel. The bill orig
inally provided a $1,000 bonus.
Sen. E. B. Collins charged that
the fishtrap measure “means the
slaughter of the traps” before the
10-year elimination period pro-1
posed in last year’s Territorial
referendum.
Rivers argued it was a legiti
mate levy against traps which he
contended caught at low cost half
the Territory’s nearly $100,000,000
pack in 1948.
Several critics of the bill said
they would have supported it if it
only doubled the present tax, but
they couldn’t go for quadrupling
it.
Democrats voting for the bill
were Sens. Anderson, Huntley,
MacKenzie, McCutcheon, Peratro
vich, and Rivers. Republicans
against it were Butrovich, Collins,
Jones, Munz and Nerland.
A wide array of figures were
presented during debate and testi- !
mony, and Lyng once accused Riv- j
ers of “juggling figures.”
Friday, February 18, 1949
JUNEAU (/P)—A proviso forbid
ding the use of guard s m e n
“against any labor organization
or for strike-breaking in Alaska”
was tentatively added yesterday
to a House bill creating an Alaska
National Guard.
After long discussion, the House
decided to hold over actionvuntil
late today to give Lt. Col. Joseph
Alexander of the National Guard
the opportunity to answer ques
tions.
The amendment was introduced
by Rep. Frank Angerman, Demo
crat, who made several attacks
against provisions which would
allow guardsmen authority over
civilians.
He moved for indefinite post
ponement when the . bill first
reached the floor, but withdrew
the motion in the face of strong
criticism.
Reps. Stanley McCutcheon and
Alfred A. Owen Jr., Democrats,
introduced a memorial urging
Congress to require the Alaska
~anned Salmon Industry to em
ploy 50 per cent of resident fish
ermen next season and increase it
bv 10 per cent annually until 100
oer cent is achieved in 1954 and
thereafter. The memorial said
many resident fishermen had been
notified their services would not
be needed this year.
By a final vote of 14-9 the
House passed the attorney gener- ■
al’s special appropriation bill ear
lier in the day.
In debate on the national guard
bill, Angerman also tried to get
the House to strike a section al
lowing the guard commander to
order action against any group of
12 men armed with clubs or wea
pons, or 30 unarmed persons. It
CLOSES LOCOMOTIVE PLANT
DUE TO WORK SLOW-DOWN
SCHENECTADY, N. Y. (JP) —
The American Locomotive com
pany’s principal plant here is
“closed until further notice’’ be
cause the company claims, em
ployees deliberately slowed up
production fore the last two
weeks.
More than 1,100 persons nor
mally work in the Diesel locomo
tive erection shop, which the
company ordered closed Friday
night.
Anthony Barbieri, president of
local 2054, CIO steelworkers, said
the union expected to continue
meeting with the company. He de
clined further comment.
NEW DELHI, m—1The govern
ment has appointed a committee to
study the practicability of setting
up a mica marketing control
board in India. The committee al
so will work out a detailed scheme
for the efficient marketing of mi
ca, of which India nas large re
serves.
failed. He said:
“When the law gives the mili
tary the right to grab you off the
street, that’s going too far. The
army already has a good organ
ization here. Why should we set
up two armies in Alaska? If any
disorder warrants military action,
the army and navy could step in.”
The bill was held over until 2:00
p.m., today on motion of Rep.
Glen D. Franklin, Democrat.
Rep. Warren A. Taylor, Demo
crat, introduced a bill to raise the
school tax from $5 per person to
$10.50, with 44 per cent of the
funds going for salaries of uni
versities in Alaska nd 56 per cent
to public school salaries. It previ
ously passed the House in the spe
cial session.
Rep. Franklin voted “no” on fi
nal passage on the attorney gen
eral’s special appropriation bill as
predicted.
The House also passed, 16 to 8,
Angerman’s bill to prevent stand
ing in highway buses and to re
quire two doors, after the stiffest
provisions had been cut from the
bill.
As finally passed, the bill says
bus passengers don’t have to be
seated on trips within 15 miles of
a city center. Franklin moved for
the amendment today to replace
the 10-mile amendment of yester
day, arguing Juneau had a local
bus running 14 miles out.
Angerman objected vigorously
to stretching the exemption. The
bill also exempts buses now in
Alaska from the emergency door
provision.
ANCHORAGE FUR RENDEZVOUS
February 15 to 28, 1949
ALASKA CHAMPIONSHIP DOG RACES, FEB. 25, 26, 27
Prizes: 1st - $700
2nd • $350 3rd • $200 4th • $100
5th • $75 6th • $50 7th • $25
0 _t_
Interscholastic Basketball Championships—Feb. 15-19
QUEEN CONTESf RAFFLE
Prizes: 1st—4-Door Plymouth Sedan *
2nd—Bendix Comb. Radio and Record Player
3rd—“Frigidaire” Refrigerator, 7 cu. ft.
4th—Model 70 Rifle w/scope, 270 caliber
5th—Smith Corona Portable Typewriter
$200 to seller of winning ticket on 1st Prize
Bonanza Days, Parade of Industry, Style Show
Trappers and Miners Ball
SPECIAL RATES ON ALASKA JtAILROAD FOR THIS EVENT
Seppala And The
Siberian Huskie
(As told to G. F. Freudenberg
By Leonhard Seppala
One day in May, 1947
(Part IIP
When asked about his finest
dog, Sepp always gives first place
to “Togo,” the lead dog of his
team on the serum drive, whose
skeleton and hide now repose in
the Peabody Museum of Natural
His'ory at Yale University; “Sug
gen,” the leader in his first Sweep
i stakes win; “Russkie” whose name
1 derives from the fact thfit Sepp
bought him at Petropavlovsk in
Siberia; and “Scotty” a black and
white wall-eyed Siberian named
after Sepp s great rival, are otner
•favorites of his. Strangely enough,
| his most publicized dog, “Balto,”
> is not rated among his best. Sepp
says Balto’s reputation is a pro
duct of modern publicity rather
than of outstanding merit. Balto
was just a good average dog, and,
luckily for himself, was not able
to get a swelled head by reading
all his press notices. (Would that
most of our politicians were sim
ilarly handicappedft
The feat that was to bring to
Seppala the grea'est amount, of
fame, he dismisses with the re
mark that it was just an ordinary
hard run, not more perilous than
dozens of other trips he had made.
But the circumstances surround
ing it were so dramatic, and the
need so acute, that the press of
the nation took it up with its us
ual overemphasis, and a nation
hungry for news of heroic deeds
centered its attention on the men
and dogs of the Far North.
In 1925, an epidemic of diph
theria broke out in the ice bound
city of Nome. Supplies of serum
soon ran out, and none were avail
able closer than Fairbanks. In
those days, planes were unable to
fly in the bitter weather of the
Far North, and it was decided to
entrust the delivery of the serum
to a relay of dog teams, the only
possible way to ensure its deliv
ery in time. Seppala was warned
by the chairman of the Board of
Health to have his team ready to
star* for Nenana, 650 miles away,
the next day. Somewhere between
Nome and Nenana he would meet
with the relay starting out from
the latter place. As it happened a
series of relays had been arrang
ed from the other end, and Sep
pala only had to go as far as Shak
toolik before he met the serum.
But this took him back and across
, the most dangerous part of the
j trip, the wind-streaked, treacher
' ous ice hummocks of Norton
J Sound. Here the ice near the
; shore becomes frozen to the bot
tom, and southerly winds blow the
water u pover it creating danger
ous open leads that may cut an
unwary driver off from land, and
eher are other dangers as well. It
rwas between 40 and 50 degrees
below as Seppala started out on
the frozen Sound, and there was
no protection at all from the wind,
which he admits “was blowing
like hell.” These were the condi
j tions under, which the trip was
made, which he insists was just
[ an “ordinary job.” He reached an
Eskimo cabin at Isaac’s Point
safely, and was met by another
relay team. This, in turn, was met
by the final team led by Balto,
and driven by Gunnar Kansen.
This was Seppala’s “scrub” team
| as he calls it, and the one that got
mos* of the publicity,
j This, then, is his story of the
| serum drive, and in the telling of
it he Is always careful to play
Floods, Slides,
Plague Northwest
'Confined from Page One)
ville road.
Both highway and rail trans
portation across the mountains
was still halted by slides. Great
Northern and Northern Pacific
moved their Seattle-S pokane
trains via southward routes and
Milwaukee planned to do the
same.
Spilling over the highways,
flood waters isolated six com
munities in Pysht Valley 70 miles
west of Port Angeles. The town of
Pysht was being evacuated Wed
nesday night because of the flood
threat, a resident, Andy Oleson,
reported.
Winds, reaching gust velocity of
71 miles an hour roared across
eastern Washington and northern
Idaho, ripping up trees, damaging
buildings and smashing windows.
Heavy winds knocked out light
and power lines near Grays Har
bor.
Hill-rimmed Burke, Idaho,
caught another snowslide.
Seattle city light crews worked
to remove a slide which isolated a
crew of employees at the Gorge
plant on Skagit river. New Halem,
Diablo and Ross dams were iso
lated when slides piled across the
company’s railroad.
BEVERLY HILLS. Calif. (/P)—
A former shipyard worker and
prospector was jailed today as a
bomb wrecked the palatial home
of H. D. Hover, owner of Ciro’s
Restaurant, and rocked a wide
Beverly Hills residential district.
Hover and his houseboy was un
hurt.
Police chief C. H. Anderson
said the man was taken in cus
tody while lighting a fuse outside
the home of Dr. F. W. Infield of
the state industrial accident com
mission.
Although Hover said he knew
of no reason for the bombing
which wrecked his home, he is a
brother-in-law of Dr. David Wel
ler, also an accident commission
physician. Dr. Weller spends con
siderable time at the house.
Chief Anderson said a slip oi
paper found on William J. Ward.
51, of Long Beach, bore the names
of another commission doctor and
three commission officials. He
said preliminary investigation in
dicated Ward had recently been
turned down on a claim growing
out of an injury he contended was
received when he was employed
at California shipyard, San Pedro.
down any suggestion of heroism,
or g eat peril, or superhuman en
deavors. The greatest tribute we
can pay to these men and dogs >s
to say that that which others re
gard as heroism, they themselves
will always regard as merely a
part of the day’s work,* about
which too much fuss has already
been made.
At this high point in the story
of Seppala, and his Siberian hus
kies we shall make a stop. We
would like to tell you more about
them; how the fame of the serum
drive brought him to the States to
show his now famous dogs; how
he found dog sled racing in New’
England, and how he almost lost
his first race on account of a roast
of pork, and a lady in distress; his
racing in Canada and Alaska, and
how he spread the fame of the Si
berian huskie wherever he went.
But we are wary of making too
much of a good thing, and though
we are much tempted to go on we
shall end here.