£21 NOME NUGGET
___OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_
VOL. L. No. 4 NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 1948PER COPY — 15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
BULLETIN
WASHINGTON. (/P)—A Senate
committee investigating grain
speculation is going to look into
trading 'activities of Henry Mor
genthau. Jr., former secretary ol
the treasury. Senator Ferguson
(R.-Mich.) said yesterday.
WASHINGTON, (/P) — Charles
Michelson, 79, newspaperman and
former publicity director of the
Democratic national committtee,
died yesterday. He had been ill
and confined for months to his
apartment where he died.
Michelson, veteran politi c a 1
writer, took over as Democratic
press agent in 1929 and held the
post for 13 years. In 1940 he pro
moted a third term for Franklin
D. Roosevelt—the first ever given
a President.
NEW ORLEANS, (/P) — Four
armed and unmasked men held up
the mid-city branch of the Hiber
nia National Bank shortly after
8:30 a.m. today and escaped with
practically all the cash in the in
stitution's vaults, estimated at
$100,000.00.
Forcing their way into the bank
30 minutes before opening time
as employees began arriving, the
four men herded some 22 or 25 of
them into locker rooms while
forcing the manager to open the
vault. The daring robbery took
place at one of the city's busy in
tersections in broad daylight. It
was the first bank robbery in New
Orleans in years.
WASHINGTON, (A*) — Brig.
Gen. Stanley L. Scott will become
commanding general of the army
in Alaska next month.
The army department said yes
terday Scott’s appointment com
pletes a unified command system
for the Alaska area. The overall
chief is Lt. Gen. Nathan F. Twin
ing with Maj. Gen. Joseph H. At
kinson the air commander and
Rear Adm. X. A. Daubin the sea
commander.
NEW YORK, (/P> — The same
bune said the team of Herbert
Brownell, Jr., former Republican
national chairman. J. Russell
Sprague, national committeeman
for New York, and Edwin F. Jae
ckle, Erie County Republican
leader and former state chairman,
were working for Dewey’s nom
ination this year.
triumvirate who conducted Gov
ernor Thomas E. Dewey’s cam
paign for the Presidency in 1944
will handle his “national inter
est£" during this Presidential elec
tion year, two New York newspa
jers reported today. Both the New
York Times and the Herald Tri-j
RIO DE JANEIRO, (/P)—Police
fought yesterday with Commun
ists attempting to publish an edi
tion of their newspaper in the
wake of Congressional action
withdrawing the last vestige of
legality from the Brazilian Com
munist party.
Four Communists were wound
ed. Police broke into the printing
plant, using tear gas bombs and
machine guns, when workers re
* fused to halt presses printing an
edition covering the action by the
chamber of deputies last night
Scenes at Wreck of “Clobbered Turkey”
An Army B-29. the 'Clobbered Turkey," wrecked when it crashed into a low hill in the barren,
frigid wastes 90 miles north of Nome. Six of the survivors of the wreck were rescued by pilots Frank
Whaley and Bill Munz. One body of a three-man paratroop team, who jumped to the aid of the
wrecked fliers, has been recovered. An intensive plane and dog-team search is being carried on to lo
cate the two remaining paratroopers, and the pilot and navigator of the stricken plane, who left the
scene of the wreck to walk to the village of Shishmaref to secure aid. Hope for the safety of the miss
ing four has been virtually abandoned. —Richter Photos
Swiss Newspapers'
Query Stalin Death
BERN Switzerland, (/P) — Two
Bern newspapers speculated yes
terday that Prime Minister Stalin
was dead. The Soviet embassy in
London said there was nothing to
the rumor. *
Der Bund headlined its story
“Stalin Dead?” in one edition, but
changed this later to “About Sta
lin.” This newspaper has good ac
cess to government sources in the
Swiss capital. It said reports of
Stalin’s death had been the sub-'
ject of conversations in the feder-,
al council, chief executive author- j
ity of Switzerland.
“There is a serious background
to these reports,” Der Bund said.
It called the rumor “The topic of
the day in Moscow.” How it
learned this was not clear. No
Bern newspaper has a Moscow
correspondent.
stripping Brazilian Communists,
the largest Communist party in
the western hemisphere, of all
elective posts.
ANCHORAGE, </P)—A hearing
into the DC-3 plane crash near
the Yakutat airport which killed
13 persons Nov. 27 will open here
Jan. 15, Fred Powell, chief of the
regional safety bureau of the civil
aeronautics board announced yes-!
terday. A preliminary investiga-J
tion has already been made at
Portland, Ore.
Storm Lashes
Russian Ship Off
Japanese Coast
_
TOKYO, (A>)—Fifty foot waves
lashed the disabled Russian ship
Dvina off northeast Japan yester
day, but her condition was re
garded as improved and officials
considered towing the vessel and
her 780 passengers to safety.
Three rescue ships were stand
ing by and six others were hurry
ing toward the leaking vessel,
which had been pounded by mas
sive waves 24 hours. The heavy
seas prevented any attempt to re
move the passengers during a day
long American directed rescue ef
fort.
Standing by the stricken ship
at nightfall were a Russian patrol
boat, the tanker Yoko Maru and;
the freighter Taihoku Maru, the
latter two Japanese manned. A
second Russian ship was reported
two hours distant and six Amer
ican controlled but Japanese-;
manned vessels were enroute to
lend assistance.
The Far East air force reported
that a rescue plane would circle
the Dvina throughout the night. |
Naval authorities sfid her aitua- (
tion was “considerably improved”
and that it might be possible to
tow the Dvina to shore.
TOKYO, (/P)—The heavily-list
ing Russian ship Dvina and its 70
(Continued on Page Four)
Partition Commis
sion Gets To Work
LAKE SUCCESS (/P>—After a
six-week interim during which
violence and bloodshed have
swept across Palestine, the United
Nations will get down to work
today on carrying out the general
assembly’s decision to partition
the Holy Land into Jewish and
Arab nations by Oct. 1.
At 11 a.m. today secretary-gen
eral Trygve Lie opened the first
meeting of the five-nation Pales
tine partition commission set up
by the assembly in New York Nov.
29, when the plan to split Pales
tine was finally approved. The
commission will elect officers and
plunge into the task of working
out methods for carving up the
Holy Land in the face of violent
Arab opposition.
Members of the commission are
Dr. Karel Lisicky of Czechoslova
kia, Raul Diez de Medina of Bo
livia, Per Federspeil of Denmark,
Dr. Eduardo Morgan of Panama,
and Vicente J. Francisco of the
Philippines.
The commission also was ex
pected to seek early conferences
with the Jewish agency for Pales
tine and the Arab higher com
mittee. Moshe Shertok, considered
a possible choice for foreign min
ister of the new Jewish nation,
will represent the agency.
LAKE SUCCESS, (/P>—Trygve
(Continued on Page Five)
Truman Favors
Statehood For
Alaska, Hawaii
WASHINGTON, (/P)—President
Truman in his message to Con
gress Wednesday on the “state of
the union’’ said he favored admis
sion of two new states to the
Union—Alaska and Hawaii.
“I believe that the time has
come,’’ he said, "for Alaska and
Hawaii to be admitted to the
Union as States.”
The President made his recom
mendation in the first section of
his speech dealing with civil
rights.
“Our first goal,” he said, "is to
secure fully the essential human
rights of our ctitzens.”
| A hearing was conducted on the
Alaska statehood bill last session
by a Congressional committee but
1 its report has not been made.
I Senatorial reaction to the state
! hood recommendation of the Pres
I ident was mixed and indicated a
desire for more information on
1 the Territories before deciding on
i the issue.
Comments of other Senators:
Hoey <D.-N. C.>—“I am not at
' present in favor of statehood for
the Territories. I am more inclined
, to favor it for Alaska than Ha
' waii. I do not believe Hawaii is
ready lor statehood now.”
Johnson (D.-Colo.)—"I am in
favor of Alaska."
Ball (R.-Minn.)—"I am pretty
i strongly inclined to support state
I hood for both Territories.”
Knowland (R.-Calif.)—“I com
mend the President’s recommen
| dation of statehood for Hawaii. I
t favor its earliest consideration in
the Senate.”
Robertson (R.-Wyo.) — “I am
not in favor of statehood for Alas
ka. I have an open mind on Ha
waii.”
Ecton (iR.-Mont.)—“I don’t know
much about Hawaii. I feel that the
development of Alaska would pro
ceed to a much greater extent if
we give Alaska statehood.”
«
Urges Parties Join
In Support Of
Foreign Aid Bill
WASHINGTON, (/P)—A Repub
lican and a Democrat urged today
that Congress put party differ
ences aside and join in support of
a European recovery program.
Senator Hatch, the Democrat,
carried his proposal further with
an appeal for joint action on leg
islation to curb inflation.
Senator Smith, Hatch’s Repub
lican colleague on the Senate for
eign relations committee, called
for a “non-political” settlement of
the administration-GOP argument
over who shall operate the Mar
shall plan for European recovery.
In a speech prepared for Senate
delivery, Hatch proposed that the
Republican and Democratic policy
committees be invited to sit with
the foreign relations committee to
consider President Truman’s pro
posal for a program of economic
aid for Europe expected to cost
$6,800,000,000 in the first IS
months.