THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
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CLINTON GRAY . Production Manager
Entered at second class matter October 14, 1943, at the
post office at Nome, Alaska, under Act of March 3, 1879.
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NO DENOMINATIONAL BOUNDRIES
New York Firm Submits
Low Bid to Purchase Bonds
From Development Corp.
JUNEAU LP — The A. P. Kelley
Co., Inc., of New York submitted
the lone bid received Tuesday for
purchasing a total of $9 million
in bonds from the State Develop
ment Corp.
The corporation’s board of di
lectors immediately accepted the
Kelley bid.
The New York firm offered a
net interest rate of 3.837 per cent
on $7.5 million in Class A Bonds
offered by the Development Corp.
and a net interest rate of 4.80 per
cent on $1.5 million in Class B
Bonds.
The total interest cost to the
Development Corp. over the 20
year life of the Class A Bonds will
be $2,648,150. Interest cost on the
Class B Bonds will be $1,440,000.
The State Development Corp.
will use the money received to
make loans for the improvement
of existing businesses and for the
development of new business
enterprises.
Weather Bureau Predicts
Doubling of Strontium 90
WASHINGTON U!) — A Weather
Bureau fallout expert says meas
urements through May point to a
doubling worldwide levels of stron
tium 90 this year.
The amount of the bone-destroy
ing radioactive material that
reaches earth, Dr. Lester Machta
told the Senate-House Atomic En
ergy Committee Monday, depends
greatly on rainfall. Because the
east has more rain than the west
ern part of* the country it has
larger amounts of strontium 90,
he said.
Another witness, Dr. Paul Tomp
kins, executive director of the
Federal Radiation Council, said
there is no indication that fall
out from nuclear weapons tests
has reached a level harmful to hu
man live.
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U.S. Drafts Stiff
Protest to Ecuador
WASHINGTON UP — The United
States drafted a stiff protest today
against fines imposed by Ecuador
on two U.S. tuna boats charged
with fishing illegally in Ecuador
ian waters. *
Asst. Secretary of State Edwin
Martin called in Ecuadorian Am
bassador Dr. Naftali Ponce-Miran
da this morning in an effort to get
full information on what had hap
pened. State Department officials
said there were also conferences
with the Ecuadorian government
at Quito.
A State Department spokesman
said that in view of the United
States there was no legal basis for
Ecuador’s action against the fish
ing boats White Star and Ranger,
operating out of San Diego, Calif.
Ecuador has asserted control
over water extending 200 miles
from its coast. The United States
recognizes only a three-mile limit.
A whole fleet of tuna boats was
involved in the incident last week
when Ecuadorian authorities seized
and took into port the two vessels
which Tuesday were fined a total
of $26,272.
— -
Will Thwart Chinese Aggression
WASHINGTON W — President
Kennedy and India’s President
Sarve - palli Radhakrishnan de
clared Tuesday that the two na
tions will “thwart the designs of
Chinese aggression against the In
dian subcontinent.”
In their joint communique mark
ing tht end of the Radhakrishnan’s
two days of talks here, the two
Presidents said the safeguarding of
India’s freedom, independence and
territorial integrity is vital to all
the world.
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“Great Debate” Poses a Question of
Life or Death for Millions of Americans
By Raymond Crowley
WASHINGTON — A great de
bate posing a question of life or
death for millions of Americans
is proceeding on Capitol Hill be
fore an audience averaging 35 per
sons, some of them dozing.
The scene is the hearing room
of the House Armed Services
Committee, a room so imposing
that big artillery shells are used
for doorsteps.
The question:
Should the federal government
press forward with a plan to pro
vide public fallout shelters for all
Americans, equipped with every
thing from survival biscuits to
chemical toilets?
The talk drones on about multi
megaton nuclear monsters able to
dig a hole 350 feet deep in solid
granite; about millions being in
cinerated or suffocated and about
other millions emerging to try to
rebuild civilization in a poisoned1
wasteland.
For the moment, the world is in
a lull between crises, and the pub
lic interest in the hearing appears
to be tepid, to say the least.
But two tragic facts quickly take
shape:
1. From the day in 1939 when
Albert Eisenstein alerted Franklin
D. Roosevelt to the war potential
of atomic energy, it took the United
States only six years to produce
the atomic bomb and drop the first
one on Hiroshima.
2. But now, 18 years after Hiro
shima, the United States has no
civil defense worthy of the name.
Much of it is on paper, and niuch
of the rest is confused.
This is acknowledged on all
hands—despite the fact that since
1950 the federal government has
spent a billion dollars or more on
civil defense. The exact figure is
in dispute.
The Kennedy administration is
asking $300 million for the next
fiscal year. The controversial item
in this total is $175 million to
help fix shelter space in non-profit
institutions, like schools, hospitals
and jails. The hope is that this
will make profit institutions
shelter-conscious too, and will get
more citizens interested in build
ing home shelters.
First witness before the sub
committee headed by Rep. Edward
Hebert, (D-La.), was Philip Kelle
her, subcommittee counsel. He’s a
long - time government lawyer,
father of six, and has no home
shelter, though “I’ve been think
ing of it.”
He read what everybody called
a masterly paper summing up all
the objections raised by anti
shelter authorities.
They included such questions as:
Is it American to become ob
sessed with burrowing in the
ground?
Would not shelters induce a false
sense of security, diverting the
people’s energies from the quest
for peace?
Even if there were shelters for
everyone, might not the Soviet
Union circumvent this defense by
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exploding big nuclear bombs in
the air rather than on the ground?
Kelleher quoted Dr. Alexander
Langsdorf Jr., atomic physicist, on
what would happen then:
“From an airburst you would
get a massive firestorm which
might set all Chicago on fire. Con
crete fallout shelters would turn
into ovens, cooking the people in
side. If they don’t burn, they would
probably suffocate, because all the
oxygen would be consumed.”
Kelleher said blandly that his
paper was “slanted,” raising all
possible objections for the admin
istration to knock down if it could.
Next up was Stewart Pittman,
assistant Secretary of Defense for
Civil Defense. He is a non-ora
torical lawyer. He also has no home
shelter. However, he has stashed
away supplies in a corner of his
basement, and Mrs. Pittman has
spotted a shelter in a nearby apart
ment house to which she will take
the children in case of emergency.
Pittman and other Defense De
partment men have been working
on a plan w’hereby possible shelter
for 70 million people has been lo
cated in existing buildings, caves,
mines and tunnels. He estimates
that spaces for 10 million people
have been stocked with emergency
supplies and that 50 million will
be stocked by fall.
Pittman received a jolt just be
fore the hearing. His carefully
knit plans began to unravel in
the northwest corner of the coun
try. Portland, Ore., resigned from
participation in civil defense. Some
city fathers held that the whole
thing was useless in the nuclear
age—that there was no subsititute
of peace. The Oregon legislature
also developed an aversion to
spending more state funds on the
joint federal-state-city program.
Pittman, who hopes to bring
Portland back into the fold, is
pressing on with his program. The
stakes, he told Congress, “are too
high to ignore any practical meas
ures.”
On the question about burrow
ing in the ground, he asked: Since
when have American soldiers
thought it wrong to seek shelter
in foxholes in order to live and
fight again? Anyway, he said, 70
per cent of the shelters would not
be underground, but in the inner
cores of tall buildings.
The administration plan is the
best buy, he said, it is no panacaea
but a low-cost insurance that could
save the lives of millions outside
the big blast areas.
Rep. Chet Hollifield, (D-Calif.),
an atomic specialist, went to bat
for the administration plan too.
He pleaded for shelters “to stop
the gamma rays from piercing hu
man flesh and destroying it.”
Rep. Charles Chamberlain, (R
t __
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Kennedy Urged to Send
Representative to Ecuador
WASHINGTON W — A bi
partisan group of West Coast sen
ators and House members urged
President Kennedy Tuesday to send
a special representative to Ecua
dor to counsel American tuna
fishermen under arrest.
'In a telegram, the congressmen
expressed concern that a means
be found to remove the seized
fishing vessels to safety “without
forfeiture of the rights of our fish
ermen or prejudice of the prin
ciples for which they seek recog
nition.”
Two vessels were seized by the
Ecuadorian navy on charges of in
fringing on territorial waters,
which Ecuador claims extend 200
miles off shore.
“We believe that it is impera
tive that a special representative
from the White House or the De
partment of State be dispatched
immediately to Ecuador to person
ally advise our fishermen of the
government’s concern, inasmuch as
they are cut off from normal com
munication,” the telegram said.
It was signed by Sens. Clair
Engle, .Thomas Kuchel, Warren
Magnuson, Henry Jackson, and
Reps. Lionel Van Deerlin, and Bob
Wilson.
Mich.), kept asking embarrassing
questions. Is Congress setting a
proper example? He wanted to
know. .,
“If the siren went off now,”
he asked Hollifield, “Do you know
of any emergency supplies under
the capitol dome? Do you know
of a shelter where there is a tin
of K Rations, or even a bandaid?”
Sorrowfully, Hollifield said that
he did not; that “we stand unpro
tected today.”
Pittman explained that he is
ready to move the supplies in as
soon as Congress leaders and the
capitol architect complete plans to
receive them.
It turned out that the manage
ment of a nearby hotel, where
politicos queu up for drinks and
lunch, has got the jump on
Congress. The hotel has a fine
supply of federal emergency sup
plies in a storeroom near its sub
terranean garage.
And a brunette in the man
ager’s office is a connoisseur of
survival biscuits.
“They taste fine,” she said.
“Just like animal crackers. The
only drawback is, they are fatten
ing.”
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