"The All-Alaska Weekly"
NATIONAL EDITORIAL
5^]lA#c6TlgN
I.T.U.
I.P.U.
INCORPORATED
FAIRBANKS, ALASKA
“For the cause that lacks assistance; for the wrong that needs resistance
for the future in the distance, and the good that we can do."
Home Owned. Controlled, and Editeu. Jessen’s Weekly was established Jan. 22, 1942.
Published every week at Fairbanks, Alaska; Post Office Box 970. Entered at the Post
Office at Fairbanks, Alaska, as second class matter under the Act of March 3. 1879.
E. F. JESSEN, Publisher; RICHARD J. GREUEL. Editor; E. J. SANDBECK. Business
Manager; MELINDA THOMAS. Office Manager; PAUL (IP) LIEN. Advertising
Manager; HAROLD MANSUR. Mechanical Superintendent; AL NOSKOFF. Press
Foreman. Editorial Department, Phone GL 2-2511; Advertising Department, Phone
GL 6-5292; Business and Job Printing Departments, Phone GL 6-5192.
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I EDITORIAL I
Let's Bury The Hatchet.. .
It is about time for the Fairbanks City Council to
end its feud with the Fairbanks Independent School District.
Relations between the Council and the School District have
been "strained" for several years now ... to put it mildly.
This writer has not always agreed with the actions of
the School District in the past, but in the controversy of
recent years, the City Council must shoulder the majority
of the blame. Often times, the actions of the Council and
its spokesmen have been downright childish.
Invariably, when dealing with the School District,
the Council has acted in a capricious manner, apparently
disinterested in the merits or facts concerning the issue
under discussion.
It is abput time for the Fairbanks City Council to
“grow up" Concerning its dealings with so vital a
subject as education. It is quite obvious the Council's
habit of grabbing figures out of “thin air" is not the
wisest course to follow when the education of our
children is at stake.
In the recent school budget hassle, it appears the
Council was more interested in setting a 19.9 mill tax levy
than in the facts concerning the school budget. Such ai7
attitude is not a healthy one.
With the tremendous burden of local taxation already
heaped upon all of us, the relatively paltry difference
at stake in the school budget dispute deserved more than
a disinterested "brush off" from the Council majority.
It is hard work to be a City Council member ... or
a member of the School Board, for that matter. The hard
work is largely unrewarding, in most instances.
This writer has great respect and admiration for any
one willing to run for public office, especially at the back
breaking local level. That is why it is so disheartening to
see our Council and School Board almost constantly fight
ing each other, instead of the real problems each body
faces.
It just seems to be such a tremendous waste of
energy to play the old political game of “scape-goat"
when so many important things are at stake. Let us
hope one day soon, the Council and the School Board
will sit down and bury the hatchet.
Only then will government on the local level start
moving ahead again.
• • •
Careless Bicycle Riding
There seem to be more people riding bicycles in the
Fairbanks area this summer than ever before. Bike riding
is a wonderful sport.
BUT . . . this writer has noticed that a number of
"grown-up" riders have been doing their bike riding in a
foolish and careless manner. Automobile drivers in this
area are not used to such tomfoolery.
Those who ride bikes, both young and old alik^,
should exercise a little more caution. The same goes for
auto drivers. Unless everyone becomes more careful, some
one is apt to be killed in a needless accident.
Let's all be safety conscious during these balmy sum
mer days.
Caught In
The Sluicebox
(Continued from Page 1)
reprinted all there flood stories
over agin.
Wal, all the polaticiuns is
gittin warmed up real good now.
Alaska is shore in pore shape,
ain’t it? Sometimes, when I git
to lissenin to them speeches I
iigger we was the best off jist
before ole Cap Barnette landed
his boat here.
See where Auditin’ Jack Cog
hill don’t belong to the John
Birch society. (Them candidates
is gittin jist like the news-min
er an their ATNT stories.) In
fact, Jack may start a new fad.
We likes to see the campaign
git fired up, so the BUCK
WHEAT PARTY has whomped
up a few sample DON’T speech
es, what the candidates is free
to use. These DON’T speeches is
guaranteed to git space in any
paper what prints ATNT stor
ies.
SPEECH NO. 1: “Fellow Al- j
\ askuns, an also ladies an gents. ,
It is a grate honer to be here j
today. An furthermore, of all
the candidates what is runnin
for office, I leant you to know
that I DON^T belong to the
commanist conspiracy.”
(Dick Nixon used that one the
first time he run for the Senute, j
an it worked real good.)
SPEECH NO. 2: “Hi there'
folks, (this is a TV speech, an j
is therefore informal) howdy, I
this here is my cocker spaniul,
Dominoes, an I want you to
know that I DON’T accept slush
funds unless they is frum rich |
peepul I has done favers for. j
(Dick Nixon used that one
the first time he run for vice
president, an it worked real
good.)
Speakin about politicks, both j
republicun an democrat, the
other day the united States
health an welfare boys come
out with the jigger that there is
five millyun mentally retarded
Americuns! (Is that all?)
Say, the boys down in Juneau
is jist about sold out of there
big ecanomic report. Sales was
goin slow til everbody found
out about them fertility tables
ole Buck wrote up last week, an
since then the report has bin
sellin better’n the Kinsey re
port.
In fact, here is a late flash
what jist come in over the wire
. . . BOSTON, Mass. — The Rog
ers-Cooley economic report,
“Alaska’s Population and Econ
omy” has just been banned in
these parts.
WHOOPS . . . here comes an
other flash . . . NEW YORK —
The Rogers-Cooley report on
Alaska Fertility has just climb
ed aboard the Best Seller list.
5,000,000 Americans hav re
quested copies ; . .
Wal, Jerry Sheldon is leavin
the news-minus soon to join Al
bro gregory down at the Ketchi
kan fish wrapper. (That’s the
Democrat words for . Daily
News.) They has both bin in
vited to join the CLUB.
Wal, you is probably wonder
in what the CLUB is. It is the
“I usta work for the News-Min
er club” an there is members to
it all over Alaska. (In fact, there
is apt to be a few more mem
bers to the club . . . SOON.)
See they has got a new editer
over there. We all wishes him
good luck.
The Demacrats was worried
for awhile, but they kin breathe
easier now that there is a new
editer. They alwuz gits the most
votes where there is a new edi
ter on the job over there.
Boy, soon the Dawson gold
rush will start all over agin.
They are havin a big festival
over there an the town will real
ly be jumpin. It starts in July.
Boy, its bin so hot lately I
! think I’ll jist mosey down to
the river bank an git tired
watchin them birds gatherin up
nest buildin materiul . , .
?
criw Washington
Merry-Go-Round
ly DREW PEARSON
Business leaders feel they have Kennedy on the run;
antitrust prosecution slowing down; AT & T gets big com
munications bonanza.
WASHINGTON — Business lead-7
ers, some of them having met re
cently with President Kennedy, now
feel that they have him on the run.
'they have confided to associates
that the slap-down he gave the
steel industry six weeks ago has.
been reversed, and that JFK is so
worried over the stock market that
they nave him eating out of their
hand.
"It's a rout,” said one prominent
industrialist.
Business -eaders may have under
estimated Kennedy. Nevertheless,
the factors on which they base their
conclusions should be noted. They
are: ,
1. The proposed Kennedy tax cut
on big bracket incomes of 91 per
cent down to 62 per cent.
2. The administration’s admission
that a cut in corporate and income
taxes is in the works for next year.
This is something business could
never pet out of Eisenhower.
3. News that Kennedy has told
Sen. Harry Byrd, chairman of the
Senate Finance committee, that he
would compromise on dividend
withholding taxes for this year.
4 Kennedy concessions on the
Medicare bill as outlined to the
ways and means committee by Sec
retary Ribicoff this week.
5. The rug-pulling on Sen. Ke
fauver’s drug bill, which gave the
drug industry almost everything it
wanted to keep the price of drugs
high.
I
miuirusi biww-uuwu
6. The slowing down of antitrust
prosecution to a walk. There have
been no big cases under Kennedy
such as the electrical manufacturers
which were initiated and prosecut
ed under Eisenhower. Also, word
has now got out to business cir
cles that the indictments against
U.S. Steel and Bethlehem, an
nounced immediately after the steel j
price crisis, were started by Rob- '
ert Bicks, Ike's antitrust man. In
fact, JFK tried to stop the indict
ments but couldn’t. They had pro
gressed too far, thanks to the push
given them under Eisenhower.
7. Big business contracts — AT&T,
General Electric, and other bell
wethers of business are now getting
the contracts they want regardless
of their past antitrust records.
Ralph Cordiner of General Elec
tric, who was ousted by Secretary
of Commerce Hodges as chairman of
the Business Advisory Council af
ter three GE executives went to
jail and GE was fined nearly $1,000,
000, is now quite cocky about de
fense contracts. Recently he was
quoted as having laid down the law
that “GE must get Apollo and no
excuses.”
While GE didn’t get the Apollo
capsule contract (North American
got it instead.), GE did get another
multibillion contract to land a man
on the moon. Inside industry, this
was considered quite a consolation
from Kennedy in view of the recent
jail sentences given GE executives.
Biggest Bonanza
Eiggest bonanza the Kennedy ad
ministration has handed to big bus
iness is the communications capsule
contract to AT&T. This would nev
ei have made such favorable head
way in Congress without the push
given it by the White House.
Most senators considering the
AT&T contract don’t know’ that as
early as July 28, 1961, with the Ken
nedy administration only seven
months old, it gave AT&T the in
side track for the unprecedented
communications satellite by agree
ing to launch two satellites for the
company.
This was a concession no other
company ever got from any admin
istration. It permitted AT&T to use
government facilities at Cape Ca
naveral, plus two Thor-Delta rock
et launchers built after years of ex
pensive experimentation, plus the
use of government-trained launch
ing crews, plus tracking facilities
in the southern Atlantic, worked out
by special treaty with Great Brit
ain and Brazil.
Though it was announced that
AT&T would pay back the National
Aeronautics and Space Administra
tion, the terms of the repayment
were not announced, and obviously
the cost of repayment will be very
difficult to figure.
This favor of AT&T just came
naturally, however, for the deputy
director of NASA who ok’d the con
tract, Dr. Joseph F. Shea, used to
work for AT&T.
These are some of the quiet little
favors which the Kennedy adminis
tration has done for business which
make some business leaders feel
they now have the upper hand with
the young President, even if he did
smack them down in the steel price
dispute.
Behind the Scenes
Speaker John McCormack, meet
ing at the White House during the
bitter battle between his nephew
and the youngest Kennedy, never
mentioned the contest. Nor did the
President. White House aides pay
tribute to 100 per cent cooperation
from the speaker all during the
Kennedy-McCormack fracas . . .
The planned Republican deal in
California is that Nixon will sup
port Joe Shell, his Republican pri
mary opponent, against Sen. Clair
Engle. Democrat, in 1964. Engle
started out as a whirlwind senator,
recently has been limping. Inside
the Senate commerce committee he's
become a backer of American Tel
and Tel. . . . Clark Thompson, the
socialist congressman from Texas,
is married into one of the wealth
iest families in Texas and lives in
one of the swankier homes in Wash
ington — right next to the home of
the Vatican’s delegate. But inside
the ways and means committee he’s
helping to block Medicare which
would help pay the doctors’ bill of
millions of oldsters not so fortunate
as Thompson . . . Tom Curtis, the
GOP congressman from Missouri
who poses as a liberal, has shown
his true colors inside the ways and
means committee, where he’s a key
blocker of Medicare.
NEW ZEALAND BEEF
A shipload of New Zealand beef
was discharged recently at Anchor
age.
MASONIC TEMPLE
Masonic Temple, 809 First Ave. Dial GL 2*2836
Tanana Lodge No. 162 F&AM
Stated Communication, July 11, 8 P.M.
Elmer A. Lanstra Worshipful Master
Forbes L. Baker, Secretary
Midnight Sun Chapter No. 6, O.E.S.
Second Friday of Each Month
Pearl Scherer, Worthy Matron
Mary Helen Chaddon, Secretary