OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_
VOL. LIV No. 102 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 1952__ Per Copy—15*
Uranium Bearing
Minerals Found
In -Wales Area
WASHINGTON, (fl»)—Secretary
of the Interior Chapman today
announced the finding of varying
amounts of the secondary ura
nium mineral Zeunerite on the
Seward Peninsula in Alaska, just
across the 36-mile wide Bering
Strait from Russian Siberia.
Geological Survey officials said
such secondary uranium miner
als could be used as a source for
uranium for atomic bombs.
Chapman said the finds were
made by the Alaskan Geology
branch of the Geological Survey
in investigations on behalf of the
Atomic Energy Commission.
A Geological Survey official
told a reporter uranium is being
sought throughout Alaska.
“Several prospects were exam
ined and varying amounts of
Zeunerite were found in these,”
Chapman said. “Although no pri
mary uranium minerals were
found, it is possible that some
occur below the zone of oxida
tion.”
The discovery was made at
Brooks Mountain on the Seward
Peninsula. The mountain is about
25 miles directly east and inland
from the point of Cape Prince of
Wales. The point of the Cape is
the nearest United States terri
tory to Siberia.
Seven Persons Perish In
Crash of British Airliner
In Mediterranean Sea
TRAPINI, Sicily, (&)—A crip
pled four-engine British airliner
plunged into the Mediterranean
early today off this West Sicilian
port but fishing boats saved 50 of
the 57 persons reported aboard
and recovered three bodies in a
dramatic night-time rescue.
The airliner, a Hermes oper
ated by the British charter firm
of Air Work, Ltd., was under
charter to the Sudanese govern
ment and was bound for Khar
toum, capital of the Anglo-Egyp
tion Sudan. Officials of the char
ter firm said all of the passen
gers were British civil servants,
employed by the Sudanese gov
ernment, and their wives and chil
dren, enroute back to the Sudan
after home leave in Britain.
Assistant Secretary of
Interior Robert McKinney
To Visit Here Tonight
A. Polet, Nome Chamber of
Commerce representative at the
All-Alaska Resources Develop
ment Conference held Thursday,
Friday, Saturday ^nd Sunday re
turned this afternoon with the in
formation that Assisant Secretary
of the Interior, Robert McKinney
and wife are due here this eve
ning for an ovemgiht stop.
Mr. McKinney represented Sec
retary Chapman at the confer
ence.
Archie Booth, who was a speak
er at the meeting, vice president,
of the National Chamber of Com
merce, is scheduled to arrive to
morrow with other Chamber offi
cers from Seattle.
Gen. Eisenhower
Hits Communists
In Government
(By the Associated Press*
Dwight D: Eisenhower said to
day the Soviet threat has put the
nation “in greater peril than at
any time in our history.” Calling
for a strong warning to the Rus
sians from the American govern
ment, he said:
“We must tell the Soviets with
cold finality that never shall we
rest content until the tidal mud
of aggressive Communism has re
ceded within its own borders.”
The Republican presidential
nominee made the statements in
a speech prepared for delivery
before fellow American Legion
naires at their national conven
tion in New York’s Madison
4
Square Garden.
His Democratic opponent, Gov.
Adlai Stevenson, was in Spring
field, 111., awaiting his turn on
the Legion rostrum. He addresses
the convention Wednesday.
Refers lo Government Curruption
Eisenhower’s Legion speech
bore a non-political tag, but some
passages a*ppeared to refer to
charges the Republicans are mak
ing against the Truman adminis
tration. For instance:
“Let us bend ourselves to end
corruption in public office, at
corruption at tvery level of gov
ernment. In world opinion and in
world effectiveness the United
States is no better, no more effi
cient, no stronger than the moral
firmness of its public officials.”
And he hit at Communists in
government:
“Although we must say it in
sadness and shame, as well as in
anger, they have succeeded in
penetrating our own ranks, even
at times into our government.”
“The assassins of character and
the promoters of witch hunts are
dangerous to our freedom at home
and to our world position of
leadership . . .”
Comments on McCarthy
Eisenhower named no names in
his speech, but at a news confer
ence on Friday, when asked about
Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy of Wis
consin, he said he would support
McCarthy for re-electiop “as a
member of the Republican organ
ization” but would not give blan
ket endorsement to anyone “who
does anything I believe to be un
American in methods or proced
ures.”
No Cabinet Commitments
Talk of possible cabinet ap
pointments nettled Stevenson. On
the heels of a rumor that some
of his associates had approaches
Sen. Estes Kefauver of Tennessee
about the office of attorney gen-,
eral, Stevenson got out a state
ment saying:
“Neither I nor any authorized
associate of mine has made com
mitments to anybody on any po
sition whatsoever ... I do not
intend to enter into such discus
sions until after the election; and
no associate of mine is authorized
to do so on my behalf.”
Army Urged Take
Action Against
Engineers Chief
WASHINGTON, f/P)—The chief
of Army Engineers today termed
“over-critical” a scorching Senate
report accusing him and other top
military men of confusion and
waste in the hurry-up building
of U.S. bases in North Africa.
The committee urged Secretary
of the Army Pace to* “take ap
propriate action” against Lt. Gen.
Lewis A. Pick, the Engineers’
chief.
Pick got out a statement today
saying “I had no responsibility in
the determination of the Air
Force requirements in North Af
rica. It was not my responibility
to direction on a crash (or rush)
program basis.”
The Armed Services Prepared
ness Investigation Committee,
said that Pick was responsible for
the building job which has cost
taxpayers 220 million dollars and
is expected eventually to total
more than double that amount.
The report said there had been
no effective check made on fraud,
kickbacks, theft and pilfering. It
said, too, that “large-scale loaf
ing, drunkeness, and failure pro
perly to attend to duty was ram
pant at least throughout the ini
tial stages of construction.”
In his statement Pick said “It is
not unusual for constructors to
experience some deficiencies in
accomplishing large military con
struction projects under extreme,
limits of time. This is what hap
pened in Morocco.”
The committee report said Pick
had not given the committee “full,
frank and comprehensive testi
mony about the project.”
Screaming Wind Plays
Tricks in B.C. Town
NANAIMO, B. C .,(£*)—A wind
which residents say screamed like
a jet fighter played violent tricks
along Nanaimo’s waterfront Fri
day but apparently did no ser
ious damage.
One waterfront resident said
the wind lifted a rowboat into *
the air and then set it down on
the beach undamaged.
John Stephenson said he was
working on a float and had to
grip the planks to keep from
being blown into the water.
Reports to police said that
along the waterfront, at least, the
“roaring whistling” sound contin
ued for about IVz minutes.
Two old sheds in a garden
facing the beach were uprooted
and smashed during the brief
blow.
SUNDAY BASEBALL SCORES
American League
New York 4—Detroit 2
Washington 9—Cleveland 8
Boston 2-12—St. Louis 1-1
Chicago 11-1—Philadelphia 7-5
National League
Brooklyn 10—St. Louis I*
Cincinnati 5-3—New York 4-6
Chicago 3-4—Philadelphia 0-14
Pittsburgh 4-3—Boston 3-5
Pacific Coast League
Portland 11-3—Los Angeles 3-2
Seattle 6-5—Oakland 2-2
Hollywood 3-6—San Diego 2-2
San Francisco 7-7—Sacramento
0-3.
Aluminum Co. of America Will
Build $400 Million Smelter Plant
On Yukon River Near Skagwav
Moscow Congress
May Be To Replace
60 Key Leaders
WASHINGTON, (/P) — Prime
Minister Stalin’s motive in calling
a formal Communist party con
gress in Moscow Oct. 5 may be
to replace 60 key Communist
leaders who have died or been
purged.
The Voice of America, official
State Department radio, hinted
that this may be Stalin’s motive
in summoning Communist bosses
together for the' first time in 13
years. It was the first thing ap
proximating any official com
ment from the State Department
on this move by Stalin.
A broadcast commenting on
Moscow’s announcement said of
the 139 full central committee
members:
“At least 26 have (in the past
13 years) died or been purged.
Another 34 have not been men
tioned in the Soviet press in the
last few years.
This indicates the high mort
ality rate — political as well as
literal—attached to membership
in the central committee.”
The Voice broadcast, a special
commentary by analyst Harry
Fleischman, was beamed to Rus
sia and Iron Curtain countries
and wss featured in nearly all
foreign broadcasts Thursday.
In commenting on the Russian
plan to abolish the Politburo, it
said “one thing can be safely pre
dicted” even when this happens:
“The Soviet Union will remain
a dictatorship, run by Josef
Stalin.”
Presbyterian Missionary
Dies After 75 Years
Of Service In Alaska
WRANGELL, </P) — Presbyter
ians of Alaska paid homage here
Saturday to Mrs. William Tama
ree, for nearly 75 years a mission
ary of the Presbyterian Church
before her death Wednesday.
Scores of persons attended the
funeral services for the woman
who had been the first female
elder of the church in the United
States after the Board of Missions
had authorized women elders.
She was 90 years old when she
died.
Mrs. Tamaree went through the
Indian uprising of 1869 when the
guns of old Fort Wrangell were
turned on the Indians after the
killing of a white man by Scut
doo an Indian of high rank.
She was commissioned a mis
sionary with her first husband,
Louis Paul, served at Klukwan,
Alaska. Her first husband died in
1886. She married William Tama
ree in 1905.
Mrs. Tamareet was bom in Vic
toria, B.C, but has been in Alaska
since she was three years old.
She would have been eligible for
a 75 year pin as a missionary in
three years.
k ANCHORAGE, (/P)—Aluminum
Company erf America’s proposed
4 0 0 million dollar aluminum
smelting project at Skagway was
hailed today by Alaska’s gover
nor as the most “important event
in the territory since its purchase
from Russia.”
Gov. Ernest Gruening told
newsmen at McKinley National
Park Saturday that Alcoa’s proj
ect, which signals the birth of a
modern new ^ity in the Taiya
Valley with an expected popula
tion of 20,000 overshadows the
three greatest events in Alaska’s
history under American owner
ship.
“The three greatest events were
Alaska’s purchase in 1867, the dis
covery of gold in 1898 and the
establishment of a pulp mill at
Ketchikan, which is now taking
place,” Gruening said.
Will Bring New Developments
Gruening likened the project to
a pebble dropped in a pond, with
“ripples of development extend
ing out from the center to bring
in new developments.”
Noting that the project, consist
ing of power and transportation
facilities and an alumnium smelt
ing plant, will employ some 4,000
workers with an annual payroll
of between 21 and 29 million dol
lars, Gruening said the project is
a recognition by private capital
that Alaska is a good place for
large investments.
Referring to the fact that Alcoa
plans an entirely private devel
opment with private capital, with
no government aid, Gruening
said:* •
Government Must Keep Out
“We must keep government out
of this entirely. The function of
government must be zero except
to stand by to be of any assist
ance to clear obstacles that may
develop, such as land problems
and road building problems.”
Robert M. McKinney, assistant
Secretary of the Interior, also had
high praise for the project.
“It is a high mark for the de
partment and a great step for the
development of Alaska and to
ward statehood,” McKinney said.
Alcoa vice president Leon Hick
man said “everybody gains” by
the project, “nobody loses. We
will take nothing from the ground
such as mineral that can be de
pleted . . . we will take nothing
from the sea, such as fish . . . ours
will be an additional economy
gain for Alaska.”
Modern Town of 20,000
Hickman outlined Alcoa’s plans
for a modern community, with
all facilities for comfortable liv
ing for a population of 20,000.
“It will be no labor camp pro
position,” he said. “We don’t want
a company town. There will be
nothing in the nature of absentee
operation for this town. People
will move in and settle down.
The manager will live there and
make all basic policy decisions.”
He said a new plant now near
ing^ completion at Wenatchee,
(Continued on Page Three)