OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE
63rd Year No. 32
NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 1962
Per Copy 15i
Gov. Egan Creates Division of
Highways by Executive Order
JUNEAU </P> — Gov. Wm. Egan f
yesterday signed an executive
order which makes the State Di
vision of Highways a full-fledged
department.
Sam Johnson, present Director
of the Highways Division, be
comes Commissioner of the State
Department of Highways. His ap
pointment is subject to legisla
tive approval.
Egan said that steps necessary
to carry out the order would be
gin immediately and would con
tinue “as rapidly as possible.”
He said that reorganization
would be effective no later than
June 30, 1963.
The action came approximately
two weeks after a special Senate
Highways Investigating Commit
tee completed a month-long hear
Jllg.
The committee is expected to
announce its findings within the
next few days.
Johnson was appointed High
ways Division Director Jan. 25.
the same day that Gov. Egan dis
missed Thurman Sherard as chief
of the state’s highway program.
Since Sherard’s dismissal, sev
eral top highway personnel have
resigned, including A. G. Gardner,
who, as Asst. State Director of
Highways for Operations, was
Alaska’s No. 2 highway engineer.
The governor’s executive order
assigned to the new department
“the duties, powers and respon
sibilities involved in the construc
tion, maintenance and operation
of all state highways, roads,
bridges, traffic signs and signals,
and other like facilities; and in
the supervision and maintenance
of all state equipment, including
automotive and mechanical equip
ment used in the exercise of such
duties.”
Egan said that the question of
making the State Highways Di
vision a separate full-scale de
partment had been discussed with
Public Works Commissioner Rich
ard Downing “on several occa
sions during the past 18 months.”
Egan said Downing would con
tinue to serve as Commissioner of
Public Works, administering the
programs of the Divisions of Avia
tion, (Marine Transportation,
Waters and Harbors, Buildings,
Communications and other non
highway related functions of the
department.
He praised Downing as “one of
the outstanding public servants <
of this administration.”
In his letter to the legislature,
Egan said:
"Admittedly, in establishing
Alaska’s highway organization,
and its performance, mistakes
have been made — mistakes in
personnel and in other normal ad
justments and growing pains.
“We are correcting the error as
it becomes known.”
“We are correcting error as it
becomes known.”
MRS. NELSON ROCKEFELLER
GETS A. "QUICKIE" DIVORCE
RENO — Mrs. Nelsn Rocke
feller divorced the New York
Governor today in proceedings
that took little more than 10
minutes. .
Mrs. Rockefeller, 54, filed the
action to end her 01-year mar
riage the day after completing
legal residence permitting her to
obtain a quickie divorce.
Attorney Wm. Woodburn had
conferred with a district court
judge in Reno yesterday fa pre
ition for the
SENATE VIEWS ON NEW
HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT
DIVIDE ON PARTISAN LINE
JUNEAU UP — Gov. Egan’s
executive order of yesterday, set
ting up the Division of Highways
as a full-fledged department, got
a thorough airing in the Senate
today.
Sen. John Coghill touched off
a discussion which lasted almost
an hour when he described Egan’s
action as an “abuse of the state
constitution.”
“I don’t deny he had the right
to issue the order creating the
Highways Department,” Coghill
said after asking for the special
privilege of the floor,” but he
should not have taken this step
while the legislature was in ses
sion.”
Coghill said the same thing
could have been accomplished by
the passage of one of two bills
now pending before the legisla
ture.
Sen. Lester Bronson told the
Senate that Coghill’s remarks
amounted to an uwarranted at
tack on the governor.
“This is nothing but sour
grapes by the minority party,”
Bronson said.
Sen. Howard Pollock said he
also thought it ‘“curious that he
(Egan) didn’t ask the Senate to
pass SB79, introduced by Sen.
Vance Phillips and myself (both
Anchorage Republicans), which
would have accomplished the
same thing.”
Sen. R. J. McNealy, who is
chairman of the special Highways
investigating Committee, said it
was his feeling that “if, as a re
sult of this investigation, we can
get a few miles of roads, I think
the time was well spent.”
SEW. HOPSON WITHDRAWS
POLAR BEAR BILL
JUNEAU tff* — A Mil which
would have set the non-resident
fee for polar bear tags at $1,500,
instead of $150 was withdrawn
by its author, Sen. Eben Hopson
of Barrow, today. *
Hopson said the bill had served
its purpose in pointing up a
serious problem along the Arctic
Coast, where hunters shoot polar
bear and leave them because they
are not of trophy size.
Hopson said he planned to sub
mit a resolution asking the Leg
islative Council to make a com
plete study of the problem and
to report its findings to the 1963
Legislature.
PATTERSON - LISTON
SIGN FOR TITLE FIGHT
NEW YORK W — Champion
Floyd Patterson and challenger
Sonny Liston signed today for a
15-round heavyweight title fight
this summer, the date and site to
be fixed later. The bout is ex
pected to be staged in New York’s
Yankee Stadium in mid-June.
The bout is expected to be the
richest of all-time, with gate re
ciepts and ancillary rights likely
to gross between $5,000,000 and
$6,000,000.
Under terms of the agreement,
Liston, the No. 1 challenger from
Philadelphia, i» guaranteed $200,
000. He will receive I2\b per cent
of the live gate and also 12 Vfe per
cent of the ancillary proceeds,
which will include dosed theater
television. Patterson will receive
45 per cent of the live cate, 55
per cent of the rest
Two Ill-Fated
Flights Blamed on
Possible Sabotage
BURBANK, Calif. UP) — Striking i
coincidences and unexplained cir- 1
cumstances in the ill-fated flights ]
of two big planes taking Ameri- '
can military help to Communist- 1
threatened South Viet Nam led •
the owner of the plaines today to
raise these possibilities:
1. Sabotage of one or both
planes.
2. Possible kidnaping of one
of the craft missing with 107
persons aboard, mostly trained ■
American jungle troops.
But the Flying Tiger line stress
ed it has no evidence of either
possibility and they are strictly
in the realm of wild guesses. Co
incidence was not ruled out.
One plane, carrying secret
military cargo, crashed and burn
ed while landing in the Aleutians,
killing one man. The other is
missing out of Guam.
The identical four-engine 1049A
Super Constellations both left
Travis Air Force Base, Calif., at
9:45 pan., PST, Wednesday. Both
were bound for Saigon on flights
| for the Defense Department. Both
mysteriously hit trouble a few
hours later, though they’d taken1
different routes.
The Federal Aviation Authority
and Civil Aeronautics Board
opened investigations.
Company officials are puzzled
by failure to receive any radio
distress signal from the vanished
plane which was flying at 18,000
feet in relatively good weather
when last heard from after leav
ing Guam.
“The first thing an over-ocean
captain does when he has trouble
is to grab his microphone and give
his position so he’ll stand a chance
of rescue,” an airline spokes
man said. “At 18,000 feet, he
would normally have had ample
time to do this if he was physi-,
cally able.”
He noted that before the recent
crash of a plane flying at 5,000
feet, the pilot radioed distress sig
nals successfully.
CAB Grants Alaska Airlines
Permission to Operate Cargo
Service to Air Force Bases
WASHINGTON M — The Civil
Aeronautics Board authorized
Alaska Airlines to operate cargo
service on a flag-stop or demand
basis to McChord Air Force Base,
Wn., and Eielson and Elmendorf
Air Force Bases, Alaska, for six
months.
The carrier operates between
Seattle, Fairbanks and Anchor
age, but does not have authority
to serve the three air bases near
those cities.
The Board said the temporary
authority would result in sub
stantial convenience to the federal
government and would permit
only a minor diversion of the air
line’s existing all-cargo flights for
a limited period.
The Board also said it will not
permit the airline to avoid the
mandatory stop at Fairbanks on
flights between McChord and El
mendorf.
58 New Zealand Brides
AUCKLAND, New Zealand W
—U.S. Navy men stationed at Ant
arctica advance headquarters in
Christchurch have taken home 58
New Zealand brides since wind
ing up activities at the base this
season. A large number of the
Navy men and their brides left
for the United States by air to
day.
Titan 2 Passes ;
Maiden Test Flight 1
n
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. UP) —
The most powerful United States
military rocket ever flown, the
towering Titan 2, successfully
passed its maiden test flight to
day, streaking to a South Atlantic
target more than 5,000 miles
away.
The success, announced by the
Air Force, bolstered Defense De
partment hopes of fully developing
the blockbuster weapon in about
a year and gave tremendous boost
to future U.S. manned and un
manned space exploration plans.
Titan 2 is ticketed as the
launching vehicle for several
space programs, including the
two-man Gemini space capsule
and the Dynasoar manned bomb
er.
The Air Force anouncement
said the vehicle met all test ob
jectives on the 30-minute flight.
New liquid propellants which
produce no flame powered the
two-stage projectile. Only a faint
glow fashioned by streams of hot
gasses flowed from the base of
the projectile as it streaked across
j the sky.
Report Russians are Deporting
Invalids and Pregnant Women
MOSCOW m — The official
journal Sovietskaya Justizia com
plains that invalids and pregnant
women are being deported—pre
sumably to such places as Siberia.
The journal charged that some
courts, particularly in the Lenin
grad area, are carrying out the
deportations by distorting a law
calling for the deportation of
people who refuse honest labor.
Channel Light of Mt. Edgecumbe
Is Winner of Publication Contest
NEW YORK UP) — The Channel
Light, student publication of the
Mount Edgecumbe School, Mt.
Edgecumbe, Alaska, was named
as a winner Thursday in the an
nual publications contest among
the nation’s schools and colleges.
. The Channel Light was given
one of the three “first place” rat
ings in the class of offset news
magazines of senior high schools,
the Columbia Scholastic Press
Assn, announced.
More than 1,700 entries in all
were received in the 38th annual
contest from 47 states and three
foreign countries.
DR. MILO FRITZ FILES
CANDIDACY FOR GOVERNOR
JUNEAU — Dr. Milo Fritz 1
of Anchorage has become the fifth
person to file his declaration of
candidacy for the office of gov
ernor, Secretary of State Hugh
Wade said today.
Fritz joins Verne O. Martin, an
Anchorage attorney, on the Re
publican side of the primary elec
tion ballot.
The three Democratic candi
dates who have already filed are
David Newton Boyer of Anchor
Point, attorney Warren A. Taylor
of Fairbanks and attorney John
L. Rader of Anchorage.
WEATHER OUTLOOK
Cloudy with light snow and
fog. Low tonight 0, high tomor
row 18. In the last 24 hours: High
of 3, low of -15. Max. wind 24
mph from NE. Sunrise at 6:17
a.m., sunset at 6:05 p.m. Temps,
a year ago today: High of -13,
low of -31. Extremes on this date
since 1907: High of 33 in 1926,
low of -26 in 3959.
In Nenana it was cloudy with
a temp, of 9 above.
Khrushchev
Threatens U.S.
With Global Rocket
By Preslon Grover
MOSCOW UPS—Premier Khrush
chev announced today the Soviet
Union has put a new space ve
hicle in orbit. At the same time
he threatened the United States
with what he called a “global
rocket,” invulnerable to anti
missile defenses.
The Soviet leader said all Amer
ican efforts to interdict the new
weapon, as he described it, would
be in vain.
“The time has passed when the
Americans can feel defended from
the consequences of war,” he said.
Khrushchev made the an
nouncement concerning a global
rocket in these words:
“The situation is now changing
further. Our scientists and engi
neers have created a new inter
continental rocket which they
call global: This rocket is invul
nerable to anti-missile weapons.’*
“The new global rockets can
fly around the world in any di
rection and strike a blow at any
set target,” he said, adding that
its precision had been borne out
by the flights of Soviet space
ships.
The system of radio location
' and warning facilities created by
1 the United States had lost their
importance, he said, because the
u “rockets can fly to the United
e States territory from quite a dif
ferent direction than that on
e which these facilities are in
stalled.
He made his remarks in the
course of an election rally, pre
liminary to Sunday’s voting in the
Soviet Union. Earlier at the rally
1 he had announced orbiting of a
new space vehicle.
There was no announcement
whether a man or other living
being was aboard.
Khrushchev made his state
ment about the “global rocket” to
reinforce his views on the cur
rent disarmament negotiations at
Geneva. Referring to Western
proposals for an effective control
system, he said “we will never
agree to this.”
A control system, he argued,
would be nothing but an espionage
—than the West.”
Scientific instruments can de
:ect nuclear tests anywhere in the
vorld, even underground, he con
inued. He said the West is not
elling the truth if it argues that
mderground explosions cannot be
letected.
Near the end of a talk of an
lour and 37 minutes, Khrushchev
said the Soviet Union will resume
;esting of nuclear weapons if the
Jnited States starts atmospheric
tests.
President Kennedy has an
nounced plans for U.S. atmo
spheric tests next month in the
Pacific unless an agreement on
barring of tests is reached.
Khrushchev boasted that the So
viet Union has better means of
delivering nuclear bombs —
“mighty intercontinental rockets
—than does the West.
He added that in these days
men would have to be insane to
begin a nuclear war.
He said there are some signs
that the international atmosphere
is improving but “the situation
still remains complicated and
tense.”
This is so, he continued, be
cause the Western powers hate
the idea of giving up their weap
ons.