OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
64th Year No. 47
NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1963
Per Copy 151
Kennedy Denies Any Promises That
U.S. Would Launch Invasion of Cuba
WASHINGTON UP! — President
Kennedy denied today that anyone
in the US. government “ever in
formed” Cuban exile leader Jose
Miro Cardona that the United
States would launch an invasion
of Cuba.
While rejecting Miro Cardona’s
charge that Kennedy had made
such a promise and reneged, Ken
nedy also appealed for coopera
tion from Miro Cardona and all
other Cubans.
He said bluntly, however, that
“we must maintain control of our
policy here in Washington, and
we intend to do that.”
Kennedy discussed the Cuban
situation in reply to questions
after addressing a luncheon meet
ing of the American Society of
Newspaper Editors. Most of the
questions put up for comment con
cerned Cuba.
The President said there is a
basic difference of interest be
tween Cuban exiles and the United
States in one respect. The Cubans
feel “the only way they can re
turn to their homeland is by mili
tary action of the United States.”
But the Washington government,
he said, is conscious of its obliga
tion to many countries all over
the world.
Kennedy said that, under condi
tions as they exist today, the use
of blockade or invasion against
Cuba would be a mistake. He add
ed he did not know what the fu
ture would bring, but he emphatic
ally ruled out military action un
der present circumstances.
He said he could not indicate the
exact role by which freedom
would be returned to Cuba, but
he said he was confident it would
return, and meanwhile the United
States had taken many actions to
“restrain Communisum” in this
hemisphere, to keep Cuba’s regime
under surveillance, and to iso
late Cuba.
Specifically on the question of
charges made against him by
Miro Cardona, who resigned yes
terday as chairman of the Cuban
Revolutionary Council, Kennedy
said: “Obviously nobody in the
United States government ever in
formed Mr. Cardona, or anyone
else, that we would launch an in
vasion.”
In his address before accepting
questions, the President argued
that a $5 billion cut in his budget
would cost a million jobs and
offset all the benefits from a pio
posed tax cut. At the same time,
he said he wasn’t saying that fed
Exile Leader Says JFK
Gave Castro “Immunity”
MIAMI, Fla. W — Dr. Jose Miro
Cardona, stepping down as leader
of Cubans in exile, charges that
President Kennedy has give Fidel
Castro “absolute immunity in the
execution of Khrushchev’s sinister
designs.”
In a 6,500-word resignation let
ter that split the Cuban Revolu
tionary Council apart, Miro ac
cused Kennedy of backing out
on a promise of a second invasion
and of “liquidating” the struggle
for Cuba.
And he warned that the Soviet
Premier, “day by day, will increase
his army of local Communists” m
the Western Hemisphere until a
“terrifying catastrophe” develops.
In support of Miro and his stand,
nine members of the 16-man coun
cil quit during a 4-hour session
that followed Miro’s departure.
oral spending is desirable just for
the sake of spending, or that econ
omy efforts should stop.
But, in words aimed obviously
at Republican critics who have
been calling for reductions of up
to $15 billion in his $100 billion
budget, Kenendy said.
“But I am saying that carefully
screened and selected federal ex
penditure programs can play a
useful role, both singly and in
Combination; that to cut $5 billion
to $10 billion from the proposed
budget would harm both the na
tion and the typical neighborhood
in it; and that the right way to
a balanced budget is to seek first
a balanced economy. The tax cuts
I have proposed, and the level of
expenditures I have proposed, may
have been carefully fitted to
gether with that chief objective in
mind.”
For the most part, the speech
dealt with economics at home.
Kennedy drew a picture of a typi
cal American community he called
“Random Village,” and told at
length how it is affected by ac
tivities of the federal government.
But the President also referred
at the outset to the Cuban inva
sion fiasco of two years ago and
the handling of the Cuban crisis
of last October, and he said that
(Continued on Page 3)
Sub Thresher Reported
To Have Had Malfunctions
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. UP) — A
Navy court of inquiry has received
a list of more than a dozen mal
functions that plagued the nuclear
submarine Thresher before she
went on sea trials April 10 and
was lost with 129 men aboard.
Lt. Raymond McCoole told the
court yesterday the heavy load of
corrective work robbed the crew
of sufficient training in disaster
procedures.
McCoole emphasized, however,
that all the work was completed
properly and the Thresher was in
excellent condition when she put
out to sea on her final voyage.
While the court continued its
investigation of the tragedy at
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard where
the Thresher was built, an ocean
ographic vessel, Atlantis II, took
on scientific equipment at Woods
Hole, Mass., and prepared to re
turn Saturday to its search for
the remains of the submarine.
The Boston Globe published a
report yesterday that the Thresher
had been found but it was quickly
denied by officials at Woods Hole
and the Navy in Washington.
The court resumed hearings to
day, its opening proceeding behind
closed doors, to hear testimony
on classified information.
301ST DIVORCE CASE
WILL BE HIS OWN
OMAHA, Neb. — Attorney
Walter Nielsen, 53, who has tried
more than 300 divorce cases in 30
years, had still an other client
today.
Nielsen filed a divorce petition
charging extreme cruelty on be
half of Vesta Nielsen, 51, against
himself.
The attorney said he will re
present his wife “just as though
she were a complete stranger.
We’ve been as far apart from each
other as the astronauts are from
the moon.” ’
Nielsen, who said he’ll also re
present himself, will not contest
the divorce.
Famed Circus
Aerialist Falls 50
Feet to Her Death
OMAHA, Neb. I/P — Yetta Gro
tofent, 42, of the famed circus
aerialist family, The Wallendas,
died in a 50-foot fall from her slen
der pole at a Shrine Circus per
formance last night.
She had reached the climax of
her solo act and was swaying back
and forth in a wide arc when, as
the pole was on a back swing,
Yetta suddenly tumbled backward
and plummeted to her death as
4,666 spectators watched in awed
silence.
She was the third member of
the troupe to die in a fall in the
last 16 months.
Dieter Scheep, 23, and Richard
Faughnan, 29, were killed in De
troit on Jan. 30, 1962, in a high
wire accident involving seven
members of the troupe.
Yetta was not a member of that
act.
In Portland, Maine, he brother
in-law, Karl Wallenda, 58, head
of the troupe, wept as he said
of Yetta’s death:
“It’s like a nightmare. I can’t
believe it.’
Fellow performers said Yetta
had been nervous since the circus
opened here Monday. They said
her apparatus had been damaged
last week in Florida and temporary
repairs had been made.
Yetta fell face upward until she
hit a guide rope 15 feet above the
sawdust floor.
The impact spun her around and
she hit the floor spread-eagled
and face downward. She never ut
tered a sound as she fell.
Among the first to reach the
stricken woman was her husband,
Arthur, who had rigged the ropes
for her act and was standing about
50 feet from where she landed, i
He was given sedatives after the
accident.
Circus performers said the dead
woman was born Henrietta
Kreis in Germany and that with
her sister, Helen, she came to the
United States and joined the Wal
lenda troupe. Helen married Karl
Wallenda.
De Gaulle Says France
Will Go It Alone In Field
Of Nuclear Weapons
PARIS (/P> — President Charles
De Gaulle declared tonight that
the survival of France in the nu
clear age requires a purely French
national atomic force.
In a nationwide radio-television
address, the president reaffirmed
his intention, spelled out in his
Jan. 14 news conference, to go it
alone in the field of nuclear weap
ons.
He said French armament would
be coordinated with allied defenses
in the North Atlantic Treaty Or
ganization! NATO> and especially
with American atomic power, but
would not be handed over to
others.
The President said a strictly
French nuclear deterrent is neces
sary to forestall enemy attacks on
French soil in a possible inter
continental conflict.
WEATHER OUTLOOK
Continued cloudy with light
snow. Litlte change in tempera
ture. In the last 24 hours: High
of 34, low of 23. Max. wind 16
mph from the east. Sunrise at
4:19 a.m., sunset at 7:49 p.m.
Temps, a year ago today: High of
28, low of 9.
Boeing Workers at
Wichita Reject Contract
WICHITA, Kan. UP> — Over
whelming rejection of a new Boe
ing Co. contract offer by its
Whichita employes today appar
ently spelled a union-wide turn
down of the proposal.
The Wichita rejection, by a vote
of 3,927 to 298, was a reversal of
the approval given the proposal
at Boeing’s other installations
where the vote was 8,415 for it
and 5,663 against.
The total vote as reported by
union officials was 9,590 against
accepting the contract and 3,713
for.
Vito Mazzacano, union coordi
nator at Wichita, emphasized that
this was a vote on the proposed
contract and not a strike vote.
Mr. Magoo the Mongoose
Receives a Full Pardon
DULUTH, Minn. UP — Mr. Ma
goo, the mongoose, is receiving a
full pardon and -thus can continue
as the furry favorite of Duluth
Zoo visitors as long as he lives.
Because of a law banning him1
from the United States, Magoo
had been slated for the heave-ho
May 1 by the Department of In
terior.
But Interior Secretary Stewart
Udall said yesterday that Magoo’s
visitor’s visa was being extended
indefinitely.
The mongoose, a snake fighter
in India, is also a prolific repro
ducer and can become a ravaging
menace. But there’s no mate for
Magoo and hence no danger.
Magoo was the gift of a visiting
sailor last fall. When it was ruled
he’d have to go, Magoo became
such an attraction there was a
public outcry against his possible
destruction — or deportation to
his native India.
Pair Survive Plane
Crash in Northern B.C.
FORT NELSON, B.C. 0P> — “It
would have been a heck of a long
walk and we wouldn’t have known
where we were going, anyway,’’ a
happy American said today after
he and another man were rescued
from the scene of a northern B.C.
plane crash.
Merton Attwooa or sancipoini,
Idaho, and pilot Leslie Peterson of
Spokane, were rescued Thursday
after spending a night in the wilds
80 miles southeast of Fort Nelson.
A compass failure drew them
off course on a 200-mile flight
from Fort St. John, B.C., to Fort
Nelson Wednesday and they were
forced to make an emergency
landing when the plane’s fuel sup
ply ran low.
The plane flipped over during
the landing but neither man was
injured.
Attwood, 56, who owned the
single - engine Aeronca, said the
plane was well equipped with em
ergency equipment and enough
food to “last two or three weeks.”
Walrus Collectors Here
Carlton Ray, of the famous New
York Aquarium, is here again for
the fourth time to select walrus
for the aquarium and is enroute
to St. Lawrence Island where he
hopes to get young walrus when
they start moving north.
Mr. Ray, who first came here in
1958 for walrus, is accompanied by
Charles Young. They hope to also
catch some bearded seal to add to
their New York collection.
Kennedy Won’t
Roll Back Wave of
Steel Price Hikes
WASHINGTON UH — President
Kennedy indicated today he will
not attempt to roll back the wave
of selective steel price increases,
saying he felt the companies had
behaved with “some restraint.”
Kennedy told the American So
ciety of Newspaper Editors that
he now hopes the steel-using in
dustries — especially automobile
producers — and the labor unions
also will exercise restraint to pre
vent inflation.
In a question-answer session
following his address to the society,
Kennedy said the administration
estimates the price boost will
amount to about a one per cent
increase in overall steel prices.
This would just about restore
the decline in steel prices result
ing from slack demand since 1959,
Kennedy said.
The President said he was more
concerned over the possible psy
chological effect than over the
actual economic impact, because
of the possibility that the price
boost might stimulate additional
wage demands which could con
Stribute to an inflationary rise in
:ost.
Republic Corp. Rescinds
Price Hike on Steel Plates
CLEVELAND UPi — Republic
Steel Corp. said today it has re
scinded its price increase of $4.50
a ton on steel plates, which was
among the selective price hikes
by the firm Monday.
Other increases — averaging
$4.34 a ton on some carbon steel
products — announced by the na
i tion’s third largest steel producer
remain in effect, Republic said.
A company spokesman said the
increase on plates was rescinded
in order to strengthen the firm’s
competitive position in that field.
He pointed out other major pro
ducers of steel plates did not in
clude that product in their selec
tive price hikes announced later
“and obviously we couldn’t sell
many plates at a $4.50 increase.’’
Frank Harris Elected
New GOP Chairman
FAIRBANKS (JP> — Anchorage
businessman Frank Harris was
elected chairman of the Alaskan
Republican party this morning in
a special session of the GOP State
Central Committee now being held
here.
Harris, co-owner of a dry clean
ing business in Anchorage, has been
active in the Alaska Republican
party since the early 1940’s.
Elected finance chairman of the
party was Bob Davenny of Fair
banks.
Harris as chairman replaces
George Cooper of Fairbanks, who
resigned because of business rea
sons.
Walter Hickel of Anchorage had
been mentioned as the replace
ment for Harris but in a state
ment made after Harris’ election,
Hickel said: “At no time have I
ever considered taking the state
chairmanship post as it is impos
sible to hold two jobs.” Hickel is
National Committeeman for the
Republicans in Alaska.
The special session started here
yesterday and is expected to wind
up this afternoon.