THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME, ALASKA
Telephone 443-2381 $1.50 PER MONTH
P. O. Box 610 $16.00 A YEAR
E. P. BOUCHER . Managing Editor
CLINTON GRAY . Production Manager
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the
post office at Nome, Alaska, under Act of March 3, 1879.
THIS OUGHT TO BE INTERESTING!
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Henry Ford II
Not Worried About
Reported Kidnap Plot
CARACAS, Venezuela —
Henry Ford II showed no concern
yesterday about a report Commu
nists might try to kidnap him.
The American industrialist went
on a trip to inspect his company’s
new automobile assembly plant
outside Caracas—as scheduled.
A government official said there
was no basis for the kidnap plot
reported Monday by the newspaper
El Mundo.
Leftist terrorists have been mak
ing bold attacks to embarrass the
government.
Eight masked students armed
with submachine guns seized the
director and four professors of the
Industrial Training School next to
Central University Monday night,
locked them in an office and then
fled, police said.
The seizure of the professors
came after police fired at snipers in
the industrial school across the
street from where a bus was burn
ed.
Gov. Rockefeller Hits
At Kennedy’s Public
Information Policies
ALBANY, N.Y. UP> — Gov. Nel
son Rockefeller attacked the pub
lic information policies of the Ken
nedy administration last night, de
manding to know when the Amer
ican people will be told what he
called the true situation in Cuba.
The Republican governor told
the New York State Publishers
Assn, there is a philosophy, “all
too popular in high places, that the
public cannot be told the whole
truth about the international situa
tion” because the people might
panic.
He called this concept “funda
mentally and dangerously wrong.”
It was the second assault on the
Democratic national administra
tion in two days by Rockefeller,
who is considered a likely GOP
Presidential nominee in next year’s
election.
The governor expressed “deep
concern” Monday over President
Kennedy’s decision to halt under
ground nuclear tests during nego
tiations with the Soviet Union on
a test-ban treaty and also said he
was disturbed by an “apparent
weakening” of the U.S. position on
treaty provisions.
Pilot of Ill-Fated Plane
Crash At Cape Lisburne
Enroute to Seattle
ANCHORAGE UP> — Cecil M.
Leonard, pilot of the C-46 cargo
plane which crashed into the Arctic
Ocean off Cape Lisburne late Sat
urday, was in Anchorage today
enroute to his home in Seattle.
Leonard swam from the downed
aircraft some 1,500 feet from shore.
The temperature of the water as 27
degrees.
His co-pilot, Everett A. Neilsen,
34, also of Seattle, failed to make
it to shore. His body has not been
recovered.
A. N. Thompson Jr., of Seattle,
vice president of Sky Van Airways
which owned the plane, said the
cause of the accident has not been'
determined, but it is known it was
not caused by engine failure.
Thompson said the accident and
fatality were the first by the firm
during its three-year history.
The plane crashed tail first into
the water while making its first
landing approach to the airstrip
at Cape Lisburne.
The approach to the field was
termed tricky and hazardous by an
Air Force spokesman.
Leonard and Thompson are ex
pected to heave here today for
Seattle.
Guard - Reserve Division
Would Be Sent to Alaska
In Case of Emergency
WASHINGTON Ufi — Secretary
of Defense Robert McNamara dis
closed today that the new National
Guard-Army Reserve plans calls
for two division that would be
sent to Alaska and Panama in an
emergency.
In telling the House Armed
Services Committee about the new
Guard-Reserve reorganization pro
gram, McNamara mentioned:
“The establishment of two thea
ter reinforcement divisions and
supporting forces for Alaska and
Panama.”
These divisions would be man
ned in normal times at 70 per cent
of fully authorized strength and
would be expected to be ready for
use in 4 to 12 weeks after call to
federal service.
McNamara did not say which
Guard or Reserve division would
be assigned for emergency duty
in Alaska or Panama.
Lonnie McIntosh, Federal
Narcotics Agent, Passes
SEATTLE — Lonnie McIn
tosh, 64, former chief of King
County detectives and longtime
federal narcotics agent, died here
Monday. Requiem Mass will be
held Thursday morning at St.
James Cathedral.
In his teens McIntosh was a
well known amateur boxer, later
turning professional. When he was
21, he went to Ketchikan and de
feated the Alaskan lightweight
champion.
As a result, he was offered and
accepted a position as chief of
police of Ketchikan.
In 1923 he was placed in charge
of prohibition enforcement in the
Ketchikan area, then appointed
federal narcotics officer for Alaska.
He served in many areas through
out the United States.
Mr. McIntosh was a charter
member of the Ketchikan Elks
Lodge and a member of the Alas
ka Pioneers Club.
The familiar RX mark on pre
scriptions is said to stem from the
Roman sign of Jupiter. Homan
doctors, legend saws adonted n
the hope of winning help from
their awesome chief diety in the
treatment of disease.
NOTICE
Sales Tax Returns for the quar
ter ending December 31, 1962, must
be in the City Clerk's Office by
Wednesday, January 30, 1963.
Robert F. Scott,
City Clerk
Pub: Jan. 25, 28, 30, 1963.
Secty.-Gen. U Thant Says
Test Ban Treaty Prospects
Look Brightest Now
NEW YORK OP) — Secretary
General U Thant said Tuesday
prospects of achieving a nuclear
test ban treaty are brighter now
than “at any time in my memory
or the history of the United Na
tions.”
Thant made the statement at a
news conference at U.N. headquar
ters as U.S.-British-Soviet nego
tiators switched their talks on a
test ban treaty from Washington
to New York.
In response to another question
on the possibility of Communist
China exploding a nuclear device
this year or next Thant said he
did not wish to comment since “the
United Nations is not in posses
sion of the facts.”
Even if it were, he added, it
would not be “in the public in
terest to comment in view of the
current negotiations.”
Hearing On Trainship Scheduled
WASHINGTON OP) — A hearing
on a bill to allow the foreign built
City of New Orleans to engage in
the coastwise trade between Alaska
and Washington will be held Feb.
20, Sen. Warren Magnuson, (D
Wn.), said today.
Sen. E. L. Bartlett author of the
bill, will preside at the hearing be
fore the Senate Merchant Marine
and Fisheries Subcommittee.
The bill would lift prohibition
against foreign built vessels en
gaging in the domestic trade.
Pampered Salmon
Live To a Ripe Old Age
VANCOUVER, B.C. W — Some
pampered salmon at the University
of British Columbia are living to
a ripe old age despite a scientific
theory that they should be dead, it
was disclosed Saturday.
Scientists at the university have
succeeded in maturing two vari
eties of commercial salmon, pinks
and chums, in fresh water, a uni
versity release said.
Dr. Wm. Hoar, professor of zoo
ology and fisheries, said: “I’ve
been writing for 10 years or more
that pinks and chums could not
survive indefenitely in fresh water
— now I have to eat my own
words.”
The fish, raised from eggs
gathered in 1960, survived on a
special diet of commercial trout
food fed to them three times a day
in open pools.
More East Germans Defect
BERLIN UP) — Four East Ger
man teen-agers and a 52-year-old
woman elimbed the Berlin Wall
Monday night and reached safety
in West Berlin, police reported.
Two more refugees crossed the
border between East Germany and
the West Berlin suburb of Zeh
lendorf.
Alexander
utomotive
DIAL 2532
Heuston & Betty Alexander
March of Dimes Scientists Find.
Armadillo Helpful in Twin Study
An oddball research animal that looks like a cross
between an anteater and an armored tank is causing
scientists to wonder if “identical” human twins are so
identical after all.
The nine-banded armadillo, which is a native of
Texas and points south, has several child-bearing char
acteristics that are similar to those of humans.
For this reason, Dr. Kurt
Benirschke and colleagues at
Dartmouth Medical College,
Hanover, N. H., are using ar
madillos for studies of preg
nancy and birth defects under
a National Foundation-March
of Dimes research grant.
It takes about the same
. length of time—nine months—
for baby armadillos or baby
humans to develop in the
womb. And in both species, the
placentas are structurally sim
ilar.
But a quirk of nature has
made this odd mammal even
more useful for medical re
search. It always has a litter
of four. The four baby arma
dillos come from the same egg
and are therefore always of
the same sex.
What has this to do with
human twins?
For years, scientists have be
lieved that identical twins-;
those who develop through di
vision of the same egg—are
exactly alike down to the very
last gene. They’ve assumed that
it was this genetic similarity
that permits successful trans
plants of skin or of organs
between identical twins.
If this theory were wholly
correct, it should be easy to
exchange skin grafts between
identical young of the same
armadillo litter since they all
came from a single egg.
But Dr. Benirschke and his
associates, Dr. Alastaire H.
Imre and Dr. John Anderson,
have found that such grafts
often fail to “take.”
This paradox has led them
to suspect that the answer to
graft tolerance cannot be
found solely in genetic make
up. The March of Dimes re
searchers think the key may
lie, at least in part, in the re
lationship of the embryo to
the placenta — the material
which nourishes the unborn
infant.
Each armadillo quadruplet
has its own isolated segment
of placenta. This means that
each gets a slightly different
supply of nutrients, hormones
Dr. Kurt Benirschlce, March of Dimes grantee at Dartmouth Medical
College, Hanover, N. H., studies the strange-looking armadillo.
and blood elements. While
such differences are minute,
they may be just enough to
individualize each animal’s de
velopment so he won’t accept
grafts and transplants from
his own littermate.
Human twins, on the other
hand, sometimes share a com
mon placenta—each getting ex
actly the same nutrients for
development. Thus they be
come favorable candidates for
any necessary organ exchange
or skin graft in later life.
If graft acceptance in twins
is related to their sharing—or
not sharing — the same pla
centa, some other puzzles of
pregnancy may also be a little
closer *o solution.
Why, for example, doesn’t
a pregnant animal “reject” its
own embryo, which is actually
a “foreign” substance made up
of cells vquite different from
her own?
Or does she, in some in
stances? Could such a reaction
lead to spontaneous abortion
or a defect in the offspring?
Or could it be that the ex
change of substances through
the placenta permits the moth
er to “accept” the embryo?
Does this exchange also
make it possible for some
mothers and children to toler
ate each other’s skin or organ
grafts later in life?
These are questions which
have stumped scientists for
many years. The answers,
though still to come, may
throw a bright new light on
many problems of pregnancy,
the causes of certain birth de
fects, and the success or failure
of organ transplants.
And it may be one of the
nature’s more incredible crea
tures — dasypus novemcinctus
(known familiarly as Mrs.
Armadillo) — who will help
turn the switch on this lamp
of knowledge.