THE
NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
64 th Year No. 26
NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1963
Per Copy 15C
GOPs Reject
Engstrom Jr.’s
Nomination
JUNEAU tPI — Gov. Wm. Egan’s
appointment of Elton Engstrom Jr.,
Juneau, to fill a seat left vacant
in the Senate by the death of his
father, was rejected by Senate Re
publicans today.
The vote of the four Senate Re
publicans was 2-2, a losing tie
vote.
Voting for confirmation of young
Engstrom were Sens. John Cog
hill and Brad Phillips. Voting
against were Sens. John Butro
vich and Vance Phillips.
After the vote was announced,
Brad Phillips told the Senate that
the Southeast Senate District Re
publican Committee had recom
mended two more names to Egan
as potential replacements for the
late Sen. Engstrom.
They were A. W. Boddy and
Linn Forrest, both of Juneau and
both unsuccessful GOP candidates
for the State House of Representa
tives from Dist. No. 4 in last No
vember’s general election.
Southeast Republicans previously
had recommended Joseph McLean,
a Juneau insurance agency opera
tor and lawyer. McLean’s name re
mains before Egan.
The turndown of young Eng
strom, who was discharged from
the Army yesterday at Ft. Benning,
Ga., was the second rejection of an
Egan nomination by Senate Repub
licans, who have such rights under
the law.
They previously had rejected
Egan’s nomination of Albert White
of Juneau, a former chairman of
the Alaska Republican Central
Committee.
The elder Engstrom died, after
a brief illness, on Jan. 30, the third
day of the current legislative ses
sion.
The Senate Republicans’ rejec
tion of young Engstrom drew im
mediate criticism from Egan and
Reps. Dora Sweeney and William
Whitehead, Democrats who repre
sent the Juneau area in the House
of Representatives.
j^gctu, in ct news iciedae nctnueu
out within minutes after the re
jection of his nomination of young
Engstrom, said it was “shameful
that the people of this Senate Dis
trict are being deprived of their
rightful representation.”
As he had contended in the past,
Egan said that under state law
the governor, and only the gover
nor, has the appointing authority,
subject to the approval of the Re
publicans in the Senate.
It has been under this argument
that Egan has ignored the recom
mendation by southeast Republi
cans of McLean as the elder Eng
strom’s successor in the State Sen
ate.
Mrs. Sweeney and Whitehead
said, in a joint statement:
“It is the perogative of the ex
cutive to nominate a replacement
for Sen. Engstrom and we can’t
understand why the Republican
members of the Senate can’t agree
on the nominations.”
Mrs. Sweeney and Whitehead
both expressed concern for the lack
of full representation by the Ju
neau District in the legislature,
with the elder Engstrom’s seat
still unfilled.
“The time is rapidly approach
ing,” they said, “when bills affect
ing this area are going to be com
ing before the Senate and we need
full representation.”
The American divorce rate is
seven times what it was 100 years
ago.
Measure ^Would Make
Number ,of Changes In
State Election Code
JUNEAU (JPi — Rep. John Holm,
(R-Fbks.), introduced legislation to
day making a number of changes
in the State Election Code.
The bill, HB130, would require
the Secretary of State to store elec
tion materials, whenever not under
the immediate personal supervi
sion of election officials, in a lock
ed room, safe or strong box to
which no person other than the
election officials have a key.
The measure also would pro
hibit judges from working for more
than 12 hours without a break.
Erasures and corrections on bal
lots, under Holm’s proposal, would
invalidate only that part of the
ballot in which the erasure or
correction occurs.
In another change, the bill
would permit a candidate whose
seat might be placed in jeopardy
by a recount to have a representa
tive, including himself, present for
the recount.
It would also provide for the
return of recount cash deposits if
a recount shows a difference of
10 or less, or less than 1 per cent
of the total of votes cast for the
two candidates involved in a re
count. The percentage is now 5
per cent.
Winnings Shrink . . .
BOWIE, Md. UPl — Albert Lepore
of Pawtucket, R.I., still hasn’t
cashed his two $10 daily double
tickets for $42,492 in winnings.
When he does, he’ll find the sum
has shrunk.
A spokesman for Bowie Race
Track said $39,764 of the money
had already been picked up by
two Internal Revenue Service
agents yesterday. The sum was
high because of Lepore’s estimated
earnings for 1963.
Another $1,235 is payable to
the State of Maryland for state in
come tax. That leaves Lepore $1,293
of the $42,492 won on last Satur
day’s double.
Lepore won the original sum
by picking Mr. Tink, who paid
$49.40 for $2, in the first race Sat
urday, and Harvest Tan, who paid
$209.20 in the second.
Group of Newsmen
Were Aboard Forrestal
WASHINGTON M — A group
of newspaper excutives from Ken
tucky, Tennessee and West Vir
ginia was aboard the carrier For
restal when Soviet planes looked
it over.
The newsmen flew to Norfolk
and Little Creek, Va., today after
returning from a brief tour with
the Mediterranean fleet.
The Pentagon, asked if the pre
sence of the newsmen prompted
Secretary of Defense Robert Mc
Namara to release the news, said
the secretary didn’t know the
newsmen were aboard.
As to the reason for the timing
of the announcement, the Pentagon
spokesman said only that “the basic
reason seemed to us to be that it
was news.”
Senate Okehs Increased
Aid to Prospectors
JUNEAU iff) — The State Sen
ate gave its approval to a bill
which would increase state aid for
prospectors.
Under provisions of the meas
ure, the transportation aid limit
for prospectors would be increased
from $200 to $500 a season and
the limit for aid for clothing, food,
hardware and tools would be
boosted from $300 to $1,000 a sea
son.
Fairbanks Malemutes
Disqualified from
Basketball Tourney
ANCHORAGE <*> — The Fair
banks High School Malemutes
were disqualified from the Western
Alaska High School basketball
tournament today because of use
on an eneligible player during the
regular season. The action is un
precedented in Western Alaska
high school history.
The Malemutes, pre - tourney
favorites, yesterday defeated the
Homer Mariners, 64-42, in a first
round game. This victory is now
wiped off the books and a win
given Homer by default, Homer
now replaces Fairbanks against
Eielson tonight in a semi-final con
test.
The ruling was made by the
Control Board of the Alaska High
School Activities Assn.
The group, according to an an
nouncement by the tourney host,
West Anchorage High School Prin
cipal Les Wells, “rendered the de
cision that Lathrop High School of
Fairbanks has played an ineligible
player during the 1962-63 season
and therefore was ineligible to en
ter the tournament.”
The player in question, 18-year
old star senior guard Eric Duncan,'
had attended school more than
eight semesters, the legal maximum
allowed students participating in
sports competition.
A transfer student from New
York, Duncan was ruled to have
been in his fifth year of school
during the past season. He played
in a majority of Malemute games
Red China Claims Russia
Is Jamming Its Airwaves
TOKYO UP) — Red China dared
the Soviet Union today to let
Peking beam its side of ideological
dispute with Moscow to the rest of
the Communist world.
Peking accused Moscow of jam
ming Red China’s broadcasts to
prevent Communist bloc countries
from hearing Mao Tze-Tung’s side
of the argument. It called the fol
lowers of Soviet Premier Khrush
chev cowardly as mice.
The new propaganda barrage
aimed at the Kremlin was distri
buted by the New China news
agency. It quoted from an article
in Red Flag, theoretical journal of
the Chinese Communist party.
Red Flag pointed out that the
Chinese Communists last week had
published the anti-Peking views of
Khrushchev, the Communist party
newspaper Pravda and the Pre
mier’s French supporters in his
quarrel with the Chinese.
“Cowardly as mice,” Red Flag
continued, “they are scared to
death, they dare not let the people
of their own countries see our
articles for themselves and have
endeavored to impose a water-tight
embargo. They are even using a
powerful station to jam our broad
casts to prevent people from lis
tening.”
Telstar Fails to Respond
NEW YORK UP) — The Telstar
communications satellite has failed
to respond to commands from the
earth for the past week, the Bell
Telephone Laboratories announced
yesterday.
The satellite, sent into space last
July, had stopped functioning pre
viously in November but was re
stored to operation Jan. 3.
Telstar is the space “switch
board” that relays messages, photos
and television from continent to
continent.
Bell said the present malfunc
tion resembles the earlier trouble.
$1.5 Million Loan to
Alaska Pacific Lumber Co.
WASHINGTON UD — Approval
of a $1.5 million loan to help the
Alaska Pacific Lumber Co., Port
land, Ore., expand and re-equip
its sawmill near Wrangell, was an
nounced by the Area Redevelop
ment Administration yesterday.
The project is expected to create
250 new jobs, the Alaska congres
sional delegation was told. Lumber
from the mill is to be taken by
Japanese ships to markets in Japan.
Also contributing to the project,
to cost an estimated $2,350,000, will
be the lumber company and the
Wrangell Development Co., a local
non-profit organization.
The delegation also announced
award of a $13,375 Bureau of Land
Management contract to D. R.
Neal, of Douglas, to furnish radio
equipment to be used by the bu
reau in surveying and fire control
operations.
Grog Shops In Sweden
Are Running Low on Stock
STOCKHOLM, Sweden UP) — A
storm is threatening Sweden’s
grog shops, and many of the
Swedes are storming them.
Some 370 foreman at the State
Liquor Monopoly are on strike
over the way their bosses figure
vacation benefits.
Swedes are crowding the liquoi
1 stores to buy what they can whit
I they can. But they can t get much
and they won’t get it for long.
A rationing system has been im
posed — one bottle of hard liquor
plus one bottle of wine per custo
mer, as long as present stocks last.
Business boomed for Stockholm’s
“after hours” bootleggers despite a
sharp rise in black market liquor
prices. But the illegal purveyors—
who normally sell you a bottle
when the state store is closed—
know that their chances of replen
ishing their dwindling stocks are
slight.
A few Stockholm restaurants
started rationing the “snaps” which
many diners consider an essential j
part of their meal. Two shots is
the maximum.
Beer, produced and distributed
by private breweries not affected
by the strike, will be available as
usual. The normal consumption of
1
One Newspaper In
New York Will Publish
NEW YORK W — Publishers,
following the decision of one news
paper to resume publication, re
newed negotiations today with the
striking printers in the city’s 84
day press blackout.
Eight other publishers vowed to
stand firm despite the decision of
the New York Post to start print
ing again on Monday.
The Post was one of five news
papers not struck when Local 6
of the AFL-CIO International
Typographical Union walked out
of four others last Dec. 8 in a
contract dispute.
The five newspapers closed vol
untarily at that time in a one
struck, all-struck policy.
Dorothy Schiff, Post publisher,
rpsicmpH vpctprHav frr»m +V->o
ueei ui oweueu ib among me low
est in Europe.
Expenditure Per Pupil
In Alaska Schools
Estimated at $620
WASHINGTON LPI — A National
Education Assn, survey shows that
personal income per school age
child in 1961 was $10,795 in Alas
ka. It also said the estimated ex
penditure for public elementary
and secondary schools per pupil
per average daily attendance for
the current school years is $620
in Alaska.
The NEA said the purchasing
power of the dollar in the two
largest Alaskan cities is about 74
cents as compared with 20 large
cities covered by the Consumer
Price Index of the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics. It said the income
per school age child on an ad
justed basis would be $8,096 and
the adjusted figure for current ex
penditures would be $465.
Alaska was one of four states
listed as having fewer than 100,000
pupils in public school. The others
were Wyoming, Delaware and
Vermont.
Stewardess Is
Decapitated By
Plane’s Propeller
BOSTON tiP — An off-duty air
line stewardess, rushing to catch
a flight to Newark, N.J., was killed
last night when she ran into a
whirling propeller of a four-engine
DC-7 plane at Logan Internation
al Airport.
Witnesses said the stewardess,
Miss Barbara Hill, 30, rushed from
the end of a loading platform and
ran toward the plane, about to
take off.
One airport employe said he
saw “only a whir of colors” when
the girl ran into the plane’s No. 1
propeller, the farthest out on the
left wing.
It was hours before officials were
able to positively identify the de
capitated, badly-mangled body,
through fingerprints.
Two attendants tried to stop the
5- foot 6-inch brunette when she
started toward the plane.
But she apparently failed to hear
their cries and a moment later as
witnesses watched, horror struck,
she ran into the propeller.
The girl was clad in a leopard
skin coat and wore a kerchief over
i her ears. Police theorized the ker
chief combined with the noise
1 of the plane’s engines, all four of
1 which were running, may have
1 prevented Miss Hill from hearing
1 the warning shouts.
icMguuu ycbiviuay iruiii me Jruu
lishers Assn, of New York City
and said she was reopening her
newspaper because “the strike has
gone long enough.”
Mrs. Schiff said the printers
were returning to the Post under
terms of their old contract, with
a new contract to be reached later.
The publishers and printers re
newed negotiations. Mayor Robert
Wagner sat in as mediator.
NOME UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
LAST WEEK WAS 51.6 PCT.
JUNEAU — Labor Commis
sioner Gil Johnson said Thursday
the state’s insured unemployment
rate for the week ending Feb. 23
was 17.6 per cent, up from the
17.1 rate of the previous week.
The insured unemployment rate
by area included Anchorage, 18.2
per cent; Fairbanks, 16.1; Juneau,
15.6; Ketchikan, 15.0; Nome, 51.6;
Petersburg, 28.3; and Sitka, 7.0.
Propose Amendment
JUNEAU — A resolution,
HR15, proposing an amendment to
the U.S. Constitution prohibiting
the federal government to engage
in any business or industry, except
as specified in the Constitution,
was introduced in the House today.