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OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
64th Year No. 45
NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, APRIL 15, 1963
Per Copy 15£
Arguments in Federal Court This Week
May See Overturn of Executive Orders
Outlawing Private Ownership of Gold
By WHITNEY SHOEMAKER
WASHINGTON M — Govern
ment officials are knocking down
any notion that a federal court
decision last year reopens the pos
sibility of turning in dollars for
gold.
They make the same point in
connection with a case scheduled
for argument in Federal Court at
Los Angeles this week.
Their position is that no matter
how Judge Harry Westover rules
—whether it’s still or no longer a
criminal offense—it still will be
illegal to own gold except for in
dustrial or commercial purposes.
Some economists and bankers
advocate return to a strict gold
coin standard, under which the
government would have to redeem
currency with gold on demand.
They say this power in the hands
of the public would serve as a
brake on what they regard as
loose fiscal and credit policies by
the government and banking in
stitutions.
The United States has operated
on a modified gold standard since
1934 on the theory that gold at a
fixed price supports a sound dol
lar in a resourceful monetary
system.
The 1934 Gold Reserve Act bans
private ownership of gold. Any
one lacking a Treasury license
must forfeit his gold to the gov
ernment and pay a penalty of two
times its value.
This is the prevailing civil law.
It was not disturbed by last year’s
ruling. Nor is it threatened in the
new case. Both court disputes
center on a presidential order is
sued by Franklin D. Roosevelt in
1933. FDR made it a crime to own
gold. Violators may be fined up
to $10,000, imprisoned for 10 years.
This was the order struck down
by Judge William Mathes, also in
Federal Court at Los Angeles, in
1962. Mathes said the legal basis
for it, the proclaimed depression
18-Year-Old Youth
Admits Slaying Woman
RENO, Nev. UP — Thomas Lee
Bean, 18, a gangling 6-foot high
school youth, admits, says Dist.
Atty. Wm. Raggio, killing blonde
Sonja McCaskie, 24-year-old sec
retary and ski instructor, raping
her and cutting up her body.
Booked by police for murder,
Bean is under watch in the Reno
jail’s psychiatric cell.
Raggio said Bean admitted the
dismemberment slaying after he
was brought to the police station
for questioning Saturday.
A pawned camera owned by
Miss McCaskie, with Bean’s name
on the slip, led him into the police
investigation.
Raggio said Bean lived with his
father and a brother, 17, only
seven blocks from Miss McCas
kie’s home but he was not ac
quainted with her.
Bean was arrested in Salt Lake
City when he was 16 for an as
sault upon a 15-year-old neighbor
girl, authorities said. The youth
served about eight months in the
Nevada State Reformatory at Elko.
VOTE “YES”
POLLS OPEN 8:00 A.M. TO 6 P.M.
ON NOME LIGHT AND POWER BONDS
“PROGRESS FOR NOME”
emergency, no longer exists. He
dismissed a criminal indictment
charging men named James Brid
dle and Harold Mitchell with pos
session gold.
The government now charges
two other men, Harry Brouwer
and Robert Sheldon Pike, with the
same offense. It argues the Korean
war emergency proclaimed by for
mer President Harry Truman vali
dates criminal proceedings.
Judge Westover’s ruling also
could affect orders by former Pre
sident Eisenhower and President
Kennedy forbidding U.S. cititzens
to own gold overseas, including
rare coins.
Even more significantly, a de
cision against the government
might sink the foundation for such
other executive orders as the
trade embargo on Red China and
North Korea. For this reason, the
government wants to see validity
of the executive orders upheld,
quite apart from their application
to criminal actions against holders
of gold.
As far as gold is concerned, a
Treasury spokesman said the gov
ernment would lose an enforce
ment weapon if criminal penalties
were elminated but emphasized
the prohibition in the 1934 act
would remain. And conspiracy to
violate civil law would remain a
crime.
Kennedys Expecting
PALM BEACH, Fla. UP) — The
White House announced today that
Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy is ex
pecting a baby in the last half of
August.
Pierre Salinger, White House
press secretary, said that on the
advice of her physicians she will
cancel all her official activities.
This means the First Lady, who
has two children — 5-year-old
Caroline and 2-year-old John Jr.
— will not accompany President
Kennedy on his state visit to Italy
in June.
Mrs. Kennedy, it is understood,
will spend the summer on Cape
Cod and remain in Palm Beach
after the President returns to
Washington on Wednesday.
The First Lady will have her
baby in Washington.
Two Newspaper Men
Fined on Contempt Charge
PHILADELPHIA UPt—Two Phil
adelphia Bulletin executives were
sentenced today to five days in
jail each and fined $1,000 on con
tempt charges for refusing to give
a grand jury information about
sources of stories concerning al
leged wrongdoing at City Hall.
The jail sentences were stayed
and the two men—president Robt.
Taylor and City Editor Earl Selby
— were released on $1,000 bond
each pending appeal to the State
Supreme Court.
Judge Bernard Kelley of Com
mon Pleas Court, who had found
them guilty after a hearing, gave
them an opportunity in court to
day to purge themselves.
Billie Sol Estes Sentenced
To 15 Years In Prison
EL PASO, Tex. (JP>—Bankrupt
Billie Sol Estes was sentenced to
day to 15 years in prison for mail
fraud and conspiracy in manipu
lating fertilizer tank mortgages
worth $24 million.
US. Dist. Judge R. E. Thoma
son described the one-time mil
lionaire financier as perpetrator
of “one of the most gigantic
swindles in the history of our
country.”
Estes received the sentence with
his usual impassiveness. He did
move his lips slightly when the
judge castigated his conduct as a
swindler.
Estes, whose financial empire of
fertilizer tanks, grain storage and
cotton allotments collapsed a year
ago, was given an eight-year pri
son term last November on state
charges growing out of his fer
tilizer tank mortgages.
Anchorage Woman
Found Beaten to Death
ANCHORAGE OP) — An An
chorage woman was fatally beaten
in her apartment and a 48-year-old
truck driver - longshoreman was
charged with manslaughter today.
Police identified the victim as
June Eli, also known as June
Maxine Fanning. Her body was
found on a bed in the apartment
yesterday.
Officers said the body wa«
covered with cuts and bruises. Ar
autopsy report said she died o
a ruptured liver.
I The manslaughter charge was
filed against Nicholas Wm. Samoff,
who was ordered held without
bail pending arraignment.
Samoff admitted being in the
apartment earlier in the weekend
but denied the slaying.
Needed a Flushing . . .
SAN FRANCISCO — Mail
carrier Noel Volz, 32, broke into
city hall Sunday and turned on
fire hoses on all four floors.
In a half-hour he had created
rivers running up to four inches
deep and had sent water cascad
ing down an elevator shaft to the
basement. Police said he broke a
dozen windows, overturned lobby
displays, stripped trees in City
Hall Plaza and threw the limbs
into the fountain pool.
Volz told newsmen he chose
Easter because, “If anything, it’s
the proper time. I’ve been want
ing to do this for a long time. I
thought City Hall needed a flush
ing out.”
He was booked on charges of
suspicion of burglary, resisting ar
rest, assaulting a police officer and
malicious mischief.
Keep Your Dogs
Tied Up Tonight
The Jaycees are on the march
tonight, visiting homes through
out the community urging all resi
dents who are qualified voters to
go to the polls in tomorrow’s elec
tion and vote for the new power
plant. They ask that dogs be kept
tied tonight so that the marchers
will not be bitten during the civic
project, stated Bob Harwood.
Price Increase By
Third Steel Co.
Is Announced
WASHINGTON W — A third
steel company announced selective
price increases today as a congres
sional committee made ready to
inquire into steel prices, profits
and production problems.
Republic Steel Corp., the na
tion’s third largest producer, said
in Cleveland it is increasing by an
average of $5.34 a ton prices of
carbon steel products.
President Kennedy, spending an
Easter vacation in Palm Beach,
Fla., was understood to be keep
ing in touch by telephone with
economic advisers in Washington
who are studying the implications
of the price increase announced
Sunday by Lukens.
Sen. Paul Douglas, D-Ill., chair
man of the Senate-House Econ
omic Coumittee, said in Washing
ton the committee’s inquiry was
spurred by price increases an
nounced first by Wheeling and
followed by Lukens.
Kennedy, anxious to head off
any steel industry rush to boost
prices, held a series of telephone
conferences Sunday.
The Wall Street Journal said
today: “The nation’s big steel pro
ducers, convinced President Ken
nedy will tolerate selective prio
increases, are expected soon t
seek their first substantial pric
> relief since mid-1958.”
i
“B-Girl” Measure
Dies in the House
In Closing Hours
JUNEAU <£) — One of the last
acts of the House before ad
journment Saturday was to kill a
bill which would close loopholes
in the laws pertaining to so-called
“B-Girls.”
The action came when the
lower chamber refused on two
separate roll call votes to concur
in a Senate amendment to the
bill, SCSHB198.
The measure also would have
permitted cocktail waitresses to
work in bars where no regular
meals are served.
The Senate had passed the bill
late Thursday after tacking on an
amendment which would have pro
hibited under-cover payments such
as rebates and shares to females
for soliciting drinks.
The lower chamber first refused
by a vote of 18-21 to concur with
the Senate amendment.
Then, just before the final ad
journment of this session of the
legislature, it refused to rescind
I its action in not going along with
I the Senate by a vote of 19-17. A
rescinding action requires a ma
jority of the House, or 21 votes.
WEATHER FORECAST
Continued fair with little change
i I in temperature.
31 In tiie past 24 hours: highest
e 1 temp. 10, lowest -12. Sunrise at
14:29 am., sunset at 7:27 pm
Labor Spokesman Critical of Alaska
Senate But State Chamber Thinks
Legislature Was Fair to Business
JUNEAU — A spokesman
for labor was highly critical to
day of the legislative session which
ended Saturday, but the State
Chamber of Commerce said Alas
ka’s business community received
fair treatment.
Lew Dischner, legislative repre
sentative for the Teamsters Union,
saved most of his barbs for the 1
State Senate.
“First of all,” Dischner said, “I .
believe that as far as considering
the problems of Alaska’s wage
earners and small businessmen,
that this session has as bad a rec
ord as the infamous 1953 session
of the territorial legislature, but
for different reasons.
This session found the governor
of Alaska introducing many fine
pieces of social legislation, which
were overdue, and championing
them.
“Most of the legislation intro
duced in the House by either the
governor or labor was passed by
the House, only to be either quiet
ly killed in committee in the Sen
ate or have the substance elimin
ated by Senate Committee substi
tutes or amendments.
“Some of the best legislation
was killed outright on the floor
of the Senate by a coalition of
the conservatives of both parties.”
Dischner said the members of the
Senate, in their “refusal to recog
nize our employment security
problems, have brought upon
themselves the problem of a major
overhaul of the ESC program in
1964, and, because 1964 is an elec
tion year, this work will be push
ed with the utmost vigor by many,
many groups.”
Don Dickey, general manager of
the State Chamber, commented:
“Alaska’s business community
was generally treated fairly by
this legislature.
“The dilemma and deadlock that
developed around this year’s bud
get indicate that an improved
method of adopting this important
document must be developed.”
Dickey said the State Senate’s
defeat of a bill which would have
boosted the maximum basic em
ployment security benefit amount
from $45 to $50 a week was “heart
ening to Alaskans.”
“This defeat demonstrated that
a growing number of legislators
recognize that any additional bene
fits at the time when our state
still owes the federal government
milions for repayment of past loans
would place a great hardship on
the economy and act as a possible
deterrent to the attraction of in
vestment capital.
“It seems strange, though, that
business, the major source of the
state's income, must count its bless
ings not in legislative gains, but
merely in its success in prevent
ing the passage of measures that
would add to the present high cost
of conducting business in Alaska.
“However, as we all know, this
is only the first half of the third
state legislature, for the second
session next year will determine
what gains or losses business can
truly claim.”