^fy/lUetinty Hu @4&M' i&jfcUuui
vol. a MO. 40
KODIAK, ALASKA, OCTOBER 5, 1957
PRICE 16 CENTS
Statehood
Next Year
“Prospects for Statehood for
ATaska were never brighter,”
according to Alaska’s delegate to
Congress, “Bob” Bartlett, when he
addressed a group of businessmen,
fisheries officials, and officers
from the Naval Station, at a lunch
eon held at the Town Club for
members of t!>> Congressional
Committee conducting a fisheries
hearing here.
Bartlett gave as his reasons the
powerful backing of the admini
stration for Statehood. He stated
Fred Seaton, now Secretary of the
Interior, has supported Statehood
for Alaska, since he first became
a Senator. He further stated State
hood has the back’ng of Sam Ray
burn, and other high officials. Bart
lett predicted Statehood in 1958.
The two members of the Con
gressional committee, Willard Cur
tain and John M. Drury spoke
briefly.
Among those present at the
luncheon were the Commandant
of the 17th Naval District, Admir
al Ira Hobbs. Capt. R. B. Jacoby,
©apt Tighe, Commander, Bob Mc
Haffie, Will Troyer, Jack Hinckcl,
leon Johnson, Merrill Coon, Ben
Kraft, Dick Berg, Emil Knudsen,
George Comelilus, John Cushing,
0.K. Kincaid. O. A. Torgerson,
Harold Booth, Bob Simon, Roy
KkkCy, Pete Markovich, Sig Di
tree, Bud Metzgar, Dr. A. Holmes
Johnson, Bill Poland, Dr. John
Owen.
Bishop Gordon
To Arrive On
Base Today
Episcopal Bishop of Alaska,
William J. Gordon, Jr., will arrive
today from Fairbanks. He will be
accompanied by Lt. Gordon Ross,
Chaplains Corps, the Episcopalian
chaplain from Elmendorf Air
Force Base, Anchorage.
An Episcopal service of Holy
Omrnurion will be celebrated at
eight o’clock tomorrow morning et
the Naval Station Chapel Annex.
Coffee will be served following the
service.
Bishop Gordon will be the guest
speaker at the Protestant Chapel
Service in the Billikin Theatre at
eleven o’clock. The sacraments of
baptism and confirmation will he
administered at 3 pm, and the
Bishop will be at the Chapel Annex
at 2 pm for interviews with candi
dates for confirmation.
Cmdr. H.W, Buckingham, Naval
Station Chaplain, will sign visi
ter's passes for town people wish
ing to attend the service.
A reception will be tendered
Bishop Gordon and Chaplain Ross
by Episcopalians at the Chapel
Annex at 4:30 pm.
Launches Satellite
The launching of an earth sate
elite by Russia was reported by
Tags News Agency this afternoon.
It is spherical in shape and is
traveling around the world at
13,000 miles per hour.
RCA reported receiving im
pulses from the ship. ;
. Reconi Poll At City Election ,
Coon Mayor, Yes For Nuns
Kodiak Municipal election day
(toded for the clerks and judges at
3:00 Wednesday morning when the
notes of 800 people on five issues
kad been counted. It was a record
poD for Kodiak and when voting
dosed at City Hall 8 p.m. Tuesday,
' i line-up of last minute voters had
to be turned away.
A total of 474 people voted on
the election to city council. Suc
cessful candidate for Mayor was
Merrill Coon who polled 245 votes
against 198 votes cast for his op
ponent, Jim Brightman.
Top number of 350 votes for
councilman were cast for Bill
Worth. Also elected to council
were Blacke Patterson, 328; De
Witt W. Fields. 289; Carl Huer,
273; Dick Berg, 259; Bob Spencer,
322.
Unsuccessful candidate, I.O. Gil
breath, polled 108 votes.
Patterson and Fields will serve
on council for a throe year term.
Serving for two year terms are
Worth and Huer. Berg and Spen
e^r will serve for one year.
Nick Frost remains City Magi
gtrate by more than a 2—1 major
fty. He was written in with 26S
votes against candidate Karl Arm
strong who polled 127 votes. Frosl
will serve as magistrate for a twe
year term.
Jarvela was elected to the board
•f the. Independent School
Votes cast were 471.
Ob proposition number l th«
* W ‘
electorate decided by a vote of 404
for and 73 against that the City
should sell 4345 square feet of land
to Basil dark for $3,000.00.
On proposition number 2, 401
votes for and 64 against gave the
city the green light to sell a por
tion of the. city dock to King Crab,
Ire. for the sum of $25,000.00.
The largest number of votes cfast
were on the public opinion poll on
the transferring of the title of
Griffin Memorial Hospital. Total
votes cast by both residents and
non-residents were 783. An over
whelming majority of 495 gave the
opinion that the title of the hospit
al should be turned over to the
Grey Nuns. Against the proposal
were 289.
The results of the public opinion
poll will be sent to the Territorial
Department of Health, with whom
the ultimate decision on the trans
fer of the title rests.
It has not yet been determined
how many of the total votes were
cast by non-residents.
A special council meeting is to
be held Monday, October 7, for ex
amination of all ballot papers.
Bazaar Today
The Aleutian Homes Circle is
holding a bazaar today, Saturday,
October 5A at .Kodiak Motors. The
bazaar will 'start a 19 a"m, and con
tinue until ail goods are sold.
-V
Fishermen Testify
At One Day Hearing
Fishermen here vigorously op
posed Section 4 ofi the proposed
H.R. 8459, in testimony presented
before the Congressional Commit
tee hearing on Fisheries. It was
criticized as not flexible enough.
Fishermen particularly took excap
tion to the clau e which reads “it
shal^be unlawful.to fsh for,
take or kill any salmon-- • .with
in five hundred yards of the mouth
ot any such creek, stream, or river
which the United States has juris
diction, excepting the Karluk, Yu
kon. Ugashik, and Kuskokwim Riv
er”
v “Tiny” Cichoski, fisherman here,
in a lengthy testimony pronounced
the 500 yard barrier “ridiculous”.
Cichoski said he thought the fish
were being allowed to overspawn.
“These fish do nobody any good,”
he said, “They never come back.”
Asked as to how overspawning
can to prevented he said that
when FWS have enough fish for
escapement purposes, they should
open up the fishing. “Why a closed
season?” he asked. “Why not fish
ing all year round.” “Would there
be any fish?” lie waa asked. He satt
he didn’t know since it was illegal
to fish he hadn’t tried it.
Several of the fishermen voiced
the opinion the commercial fish
eries should be turned over to the
Territory. y ,
'Territorial Senator A1 Owen
testified before the committe, and
opposed Section 4. also. "The geo
graphy of the land makes it im
practical to arbitarily set a fixed
distance from shore.” he'said. On
escapement, he said it.was just as
had to fcavetoo much escapement
as insufficient. He said he thought
the matter of fixing a barrier
be left to the agent in the area.
"He knows the area, and the auth
ority should be delegated to him,”
Owen said.
The Senator also brought up the
subject of predator birds, who kill
fish before they go to spawn.
“Some*meaps has to be devised to
keep these birds away from the
streams while the fish are spawn
ing.” he said. Touching on the sub
ject of subsurface resources, Sena
tor Owen thought there should be
a lessening of land withdrawals.
‘‘The wise thing is to permjt entry
on this land for development of
subsurface resources/’ he said. .
Pete Deveau, former manager of
Island Seafoods here, was parti
cularly vehment in his denuncia
tion of the government policy of
allowing Japanese crab to be dump
Social Security
Officer To Visit
The Social Security Officer from
Anchorage, E.C. Cummins, will be
in Kodiak Monday, October 14 to
help anyone with any problems re
garding social security benefits.
Mr. Cummins will be at the
Kodiak Hotel during the day for
interviews.
The week of October 6 to 12 has
been .proclaimed National - Fire
Prevention Week throughout the
St»HMad Alaska. OBSERVE IT.
ed on the market. The tariff is not
hi^h enough, he said. Deveau
stated the plight of the fisherman
and canneries is bad at present,
“We had an excellent season, last
winter, he said. Prospects now
are ver>; dim. ,T: - market is flood
ed, due mostly to Jap competi
tion. he said. “We pay $ll a case
to fishermen for crab,” he said.
“The Jap canners total cost, includ
ing labor is $11. He can lay the crab
down in Boston for $16 a case, and
with the tariff the cost is $19.”
Deveau went on to say the Jap
anese fisherman is using illegal
means to catch crab, according to
our laws. “This makes it unfair,”
he said. He was referring to . the
use of tangTe nets, thus catching
both the males and females. De
veau also said he thought some
consideration should te given sani
tation in the Japanese canneries.
“We are inspected for sanitation
and our workers for 1 ealth reasons.
Why not the Japanese?”
Wages too, he said, do not com
pare. “The Japanese worker earns
55 cents a day,” he said. “In bur
cannery, every worker is given a
new pair of rubber gloves at the
start of a shift. These alone cost
36 cents.” Deveau thought the
tariff should be raised to at least 8
dollars a case.
Harry Lindgren, president of
the Alaska Fishermens Union also
testified.
3 Found Guilty
At Trial Ay Jury
A six man jury on Saturday Sep
tember 28 found 4Iiree fishermen
guilty of possessing an illegal
beach seine,
John Larsen, Alexis Chichenoff
and John L. Larsen were charged
with three counts but were found
guilty of only one. The other two
counts were possession of more
than one le&al limit of fishing gear
and the possession of a commercial
fishing seine not properly register
ed 30 days prior to the opening of
the fishing season.
The U. S. Commissioner sen
tenced the skipper, John Larsen,
to a fine of $250, with a suspended
fine of $150. He was also sentenced
to five days in jail. This was his
second offense.
Alexis Chichenoff and John L.
Larsen were each fined $150 with
$100 suspended fines and 5 days
suspended jail sentences
Also scheduled to appear before
the jury were Dennis Khagin, Red
Pestrikoff and Frank Noya, charg
ed with possessing an illegal beach
seine.
They changed their plea of not
guilty to guilty and were sentenced
by the U. S. Commissioner. Dennis
Knagin was fined $200 with $100
suspended fine and 10 days sus
pended jail sentence; Red Pestri
koff and Frank Noya were both
fined $100 with $50 suspended fine
and 5 days suspended sentence.
Serving on the jury were CJar-;
ence Selig, Robert Von Scheele,
Eunice Nesetii, Howard Carpenter,
XteUy Rohweiv Eloda Metigar. _
' .T".
Along The
Waterfront
A good turnout of fishermen and
interested persons attended the
fisheries hearings last Thursday.
Some good points were iput across.
The case for the crab industry wa$
hand’od very well by Pete Deveau.
Japanese competition,, according to
liii^Js hitting the industry the
hardest. Tiny Chicoski told the
£Qipmit'oe “We furnish the mone^
They (the Japanese government*)
in;turn subsidize ffco fishermen so
that they can compete with us.”
The latter’s statement that sal
mon fishing should be allowed all
the year around, ojmed up a new
avenue of thought for the commit
tee. Except for escapement
periods, Tiny advocated year
round commercial fishing. The
thought is startling but may have
some merit.
The king crab will start coming
in next week. ‘ Everything jlsset^at
King Crab Inc. and the boats will
leave Monday. Bob Resoff, who has
been in Seattle oh a business trip,
is expectod back Monday or Tues
day tb get things underway.
A1 Anderson’s boat “Alf Jim’* is
having some impairs made to her
down at Alvine’s.
Sand Point Center
Takes Over From'
MS Hygiene
Juneau, Sept. 27, 1957 - The M/S
Hygiene, first and last of the
Alaska Department of Health
floating clinics serving remote
coastal communities, was taken
out of service at the end of its
summer operation in the Aleutian
area and is now in Juneau being
stripped of its clinical equipment
and gear.
Captain Ben See is scheduled to
head the 114-foot vessel for Seattle
this week end where it will be
tied up at Lake Union dock for
disposal by the Territorial Depart
ment of finance, according to t>r.
Charles R. Hayman, acting com
missioner of health.
He said a land-based nursing
service station at Sand Point will
furnish health services to the
Aleutian area where the Hygiene
has been operating the past. few
years. Improved air services and
other facilities now provide more
economical and efficient means of
furnishing health services than
were available when the Health
department initiated work of the
floating health centers in 1945, he
said.
The Hygiene’s two sister float
ing health centers, the M/V
Health and the M/V Yukoa
Health, were taken out of service
in 1952. Offering chest X-rays and
general health services, the health
ships traveled to outlying points
along Alaska’s ragged coast lines
where frequently their patients
had never befoio seen a doctor or
nurse.
Sopranos are heeded for the lo
cal production of the Messiah.
Come along-4© the next-rehearsal v ~