NOME NUGGET
• OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. XLIX. No. 51 ~NOMET~ALASKA~~5jONDAY~APRfL 28, 1947 PER COPY — 15c
NEWS IN BRIEF
LONDON. /P)—John Crichton
Stuart, fourth marquis of 3uce.
who held a dozen titles, had as
many castles, some 120,00h acr 's
and a reputed 5240,000,000 for
tune, is dead at 65.
Death for the kilt-wearing multi
millionaire, who was not only one
of the richest men in the world but
the only British peer to enlist as a
private in World War I, came last
night after a long illness.
FRANKFURT, Germany, >JP)—
Two additional victims Saturday
brought to 16 the total number of
U. S. soldier-prisoners stricken by
a poisonous “punch” believed
made from anti-freeze in the LT. S.
army’s Mannhein stockade.
The poison liquor has claimed
five soldiers’ lives. Three others
are critically ill.
VANCOUVER, B. C„ (/P)—The
1947 pilchard season “looks like a
first-class flop for British Colum
bia,” Dr. J. L. Hart, Pacific station
biologist at Nanaimo, B. C., told
the British academy of science con
ference yesterday. He said there
has not been a successful harvest
in several years.
PORTLAND. OP)—A 42 pound. 7
ounce Chinook salmon paid off
Saturday to the tune of a five
horsepower outboard motor, a
boat, trailer and $100. Louis La
Doucher of Vancouver, Wash.,
turned in the big fish 45 minutes
before the deadline Saturday in
the 10th annual Meier-Frank and
Oregonian salmon derby. It was
caught in the Cowlitz river.
JUNEAU. f/P)—1The Alaska Na
tive Service has received word
that two children were burned to
death when fire destroyed an Es
kimo home at Point Barrow Fri
day. A third child and an adult
were reported in a serious condi
tion. Scant information on the fire
was sent here by Margaret Kirch
ner. ANS representative at the far
northern settlement.
JUNEAU, (£*) — Twenty day i
schools operated by the Alaska Na- 1
tive Service will be forced to close
-unless a cut in ANS appropriations
voted by the House is restored by
the Senate, assistant director Fred
Geeslin said yesterday. He declar-1
ed 35 teaching positions would
have to be eliminated and 1,000
native students either thrown on
the Territorial system or be left
without schooling.
FRANKFURT, Germany, (£*)—
After nearly five months of stormy >
hearings in Germany and the
United States, a military court to- J
day concluded the trial of Col. Jack
W. Durant on charges of stealing
$1,500,000 worth of jewels from
Kronberg castle and announced it
would begin deliberations on a
1 verdict tomorrow.
In the closing argument, Durant
was described by the prosecution
as “the mastermind behind this
whole foul piece of thievery”—in
connection with which two other
U. S. army officers have already
been convicted. i
Labor Situation
At A Glance
'By The Associated Press'
Another hurdle in the automo
bile industry’s wage negotiations
wss believed to have been cleared
Saturday as the basic steel indus
try generally appeared willing to
follow the principal termfc of the
U. S. Steel-CIO steelworkers, pact.
Although more than 2,300 mem
bers of one of Maryland’s five
striking telephone unions were due
back on their job? today, no signs
of a break appeared elsewhere in
negotiations toward national set
tlement of the 20-day-old strike.
Negotiators for the CIO United
automobile workers and Chrysler
were understood to have settled on
a new contract along tne line of
terms in the agreement with Gen
eral Motors corp., which provided
an increase of 11 Vi cents an hour
plus 31 a cents for six paid holidays
a year. The previous UAW-Chrys
ier contract covering 75,000 pro
duction. workers expired at mid
night Saturday.
tsetmenem cueei corp.. i oungs
town Sheet and Tube Co., and
Weirton Steel Co., also had settled
on new basic terms of about 12Vz
cents more an hour for their 96.000
employees.
Inland Steel company at Chicago
offered its 14,350 employees a
similar boost but under certain
conditions “designed to assure
union responsibility.”
With two fabricating concerns,
the Sheffield Steep corp., at Kan
sas City, and the Copperweld Steel
corp., Glassport, Pa., also agreeing
to meet the higher scales, nearly a
quarter of a million of the union’s
claimed membership of 850,000 or
more had been covered by new
contracts for the year.
Another major development was
the beginning of talks between
.John L. Lewis and the soft coal
operators tomorrow. Another mine
strike might hinge on the outcome
of the discussions.
The government arranged the
conference in an effort to obtain an
agreement on a new contract be
tween the united mine workers
and the mine owners before June
30 deadline for the return of the
mines, now government-controlled,
to private ownership.
Continued on Page Three
W. A. Boucher
Finds Seattle *Uot*
SEATTLE, <>Pi — The summery
temperature Saturday of 87 de
grees, a new late-April record here,
struck W. A. Boucred, publisher of
The Nome, Alaska. Nugget as
“pretty hot.”
The 43-year-old newspaperman,
who with only one helper, issues
an eight-page paper three times
weekly, mopped his brown, less
than 24 hours after flying from
his home city where the temper
ature had been 40 above. He drop
ped into the Associated Press bur
eau.
“I’m the farthest north and far
thest west member you serve, so I
thought it time I came in to see
where my news comes from,’ he
Boys And Girls
Week Off To A
Good Start
(By Murlin W. Day,
Starting now, things are looking
up for the kid«5 of Nome. An active
T-oop Committee, under the lead
e ship of John Hudert. and spon
sored by the Nome Rotary Club,
has begun things in a big way.
The first real need for the boys
and girls was a handilly located
and well-equipped meeting place
in Nome. This has been made pos
sible by the acquisition of the
former Drifters Club building on
Lane’s Way. Yesterday a good
sized crew of carpenters and elec
tricians took over the place. Re
sults: the renovation is well under
way.
Prospects are good that the in
terior of the building will have
been completely changed and im
proved in short order. There will
be a large reading room on the
south side of the building. The
! lager room to the north will be a
| “rumpus” room—a much-needed
facility. There will be adequate
provision made for the preparation
j and serving of meals. The building
is being re-wired for electricity.
And, the fine feature about all of
this is that the fellows who are
doing the work are becoming
younger by the minute as they an
j ticipate the good times and whole
! some fun which is in the offing.
Besides, all of the labor is being
donated!
A second and almost as great, a
; need was a suitable summer camp
(Continued on Page Eight)
Masons Hold Scottish
Rite Reunion
Climaxing a four-day session of
Scottish Rite work in the local
Masonic Temple, a dinner was
served by the North Pole Bakery
at which 34 Scottish Rite Masons
were in attendance.
Coming from Juneau by PA A
last Wednesday evening, J. W.
Leivers as acting deputy of the
supreme council, has been com
municating the degrees from the
4th to the 32r.d on a class of ten
candidates which had previously
been organized by Norvin W.
Lewis.. The work took four eve
nings and was completed last eve
ning after the dinner. A flashlight
picture was made of the entire
group after the completion of the
work.
Local Masons who took the work
were: Col. John E. Bodle, Karl F.
Dewey, Luther L. Dunbar, John
W. Fults, Benjamin F. Gillette,
Raymond T. Kays, Wheeler C.
Pratt, Lt. James G. Russell, Sgt.
Bernard C. Smith and Donald V.
Travis. Leivers is returning to
Juneau this evening.
said.
With building materials scarce,
little work has been done yet to
repair the winter storm damage on
Nome’s beach, he said. He is flying
to San Francisco for a few days
but will be back here this week
end for a district Rotary Club con
vention. He represents Nome Ro
tarians.
Marshall !lopes
Fo ' Better Soviet
l , S. Relations
WASHINGTON, </P)— President
Truman told Secretary of State
Marshall upon his return from the
M ..c-w o nference Saturday that
ha was very •v eil pleased with
what the secretary had been doing.
Interrupting a week-end cruise
i. n the Potomac to greet Marshall
at National airport, Mr. Truman
said he knows when the secretary
makes his report to the country
the people will feel pleased also.
Mashall is to make a half hour
broadcast over three of the four
major neiworKS ax z:«ju p.m.
time' today on the work of the for
eign ministers at Moscow.
Marshall told Mr Truman that
he considered the personal wel
come by the President a great hon
or to himself and members of the
American delegation.
The secretary said he and his as
sociates tried to do their best, n A
only for the United States but for
the world.
Mr. Truman and Marshall spoke
briefly for pm ws reels after Mar
shall and a goup of five advisors
stepped from the plane which
brought them from Moscow. They
left Moscow Friday morning.
Speaking into the microphone
far the newesreels, President Tru
man said: “I am most happy to re
ceive you back with us.
“I am very well pleased with
what you have been doing. I know
when you make your report to the
country the people will also be
pleased."
Marshall declined direct com
ment on the results of the confer
ence which failed to reach agree
ment on major issues.
WASHINGTON, (/P)—American
hopes for an easing in the U. S.
Soviet tensions were buoyed today
by reports that secretary of state
Marshall believes this country’s
firmness on European peace >. eaty
issues may lead Russia to give
ground.
Marshall’s view was laid before
Congressional leaders at a White
House conference in advance of
his radio report to the nation to
night on the results of the Moscow
(Continued on Page Eight*
Britain. Poland Fn
Trade Agreement
LONDON, (/P)—A board of trade
spokesman said today that Great
Britain and Poland had agreed to
sign a $232,000,000 trade agree
ment.
Poland thus would become the
first nation in the Soviet sphere to
agree to a major trade accord with
the western powers, and both Pol
ish and British sources said the
agreement had far-reaching politi
cal implications.
A well informed Polish source,
sympathetic to the Communist
dominated Polish government, said
the agreement could be interpre
ted as “a thin edge of the wedge”
coming between Poland and Rus
sia.
Major Break Due
In Phone Strike
• Tr.e Associated Press*
‘oiephone workers in Iowa
1 • a $2.5f) wage boost offered
North western Beil Tele
c. mo my today, Joseph A.
ne. pres dent of the national
federation of telephone workers,
said he expected a “major break”
in the telephone strike, “possibly
today or tomorrow.”
Th $2.50 offer was made last
night to workers in five states—
Minnesota, the Dakotas and Ne
braska, as well as Iowa.
Earlier, Henry Mayer of New
York, counsel for 18 striking un
ions, said that if accepted, the of
fer would set the pattern for settle
ment of the three-week-old na
t.onwide phone walkout.
However, Toepfcr said a $6 a
week wage increase was “the min
ium we'll consider at present.”
The union originally demanded
$12.
In Pittsburgh, Beirne told news
men he expected “a major break
soon because there have been some
favorable developments.” He did
not elaborate.
Many Injured In
Train Wrecks
ONTARIO, Calif. </P)—Sixteen
cars of the Southern Pacific’s New
Orleans-bound Argonaut passen
ger train were derailed last night
an hour and 25 minutes after it
left the Los Angeles station. Thir
ty-five passengers were reported
injured, seven or eight of them
seriously. There was no report of
fatalities.
The train left Los Angeles with
its 176 passengers, 102 of them in
Pullmans and 74 in coaches. The
wreck occurred near Guasti and
was reported making an estimated
65 miles an hour on a straight,
level stretch of track. Theer was
no immediate explanation of the
cause.
WARSAW ,Ind. (/P)—Four per
sons were hurt seriously enough to
require hospital attention as the
ten cars of the Dearbord Limited
passenger train of the Pennsylvan
it railroad left the tracks at a cross
over in the center of Warsaw this
morning. All of the 147 passengers
were shaken up.
The mast seriously hurt was
Howard Wyland, 43, crossing
watchman, whose little shanty was
destroyed. He suffered apparent
back and internal injuries.
Freezing In States
CHICAGO, (/P) — Temperatures
plummeted to below freezing early
today from northeastern Illinois
through central Indiana, central
Ohio, western Pennsylvania, most
of New York state and New Eng
land, but a rapid recovery was pre
dicted this afternoon in all but the
North Atlantic states.
Considerable frost accompanied
! the cold in the lower Great Lakes
| region, but the season has been so
I backward that not much damage .
was done.