OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
64th Year No. 30
NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, MARCH 11, 1963
Per Copy 15£
Senate GOPs Reject Gov. Egan’s
Fourth Nomination of William Feero
JUNEAU UP) — Gov. Wm. Egan’s
nomination of William Feero, a
Skagway hotel and restaurant
operator, to fill a vacancy in the
State Senate, was rejected by the
four remaining Republicans in the
upper chamber today.
The GOP senators, in a joint
letter to Egan, suggested that the
governor meet with them “in an
effort to resolve this stalemate.”
Egan advised the four Repub
licans, Sen. Brad Phillips, Vance
Phillips, John Coghill and John
Butrovich, that he would be happy
to meet with them.
Egan made the comment in a
letter to Brad Phillips, Republi
can minority leader in the upper
chamber.
Feero was the fourth person
nominated by Egan for the va
cancy created by the death of Sen.
Elton Engstrom, (R-Juneau), to be
turned down by the remaining
Senate Republicans.
Under law, they have the right
to approve or disapprove Egan’s
nomination.
Previously turned down were
Albert White, Elton Engstrom Jr.,
and Mrs. Wilma Rhodes, all of
Juneau.
After the 4-0 vote of Senate Re
publicans which junked Egan’s
nomination of Feero, Brad Phil
lips read to the Senate a letter
which he had delivered to Egan,
personally, this morning.
Signed by all four Senate Re
publicans, it said:
“It has become quite obvious
to everyone max me iunem ucau
lock over filing the Senate vacancy
is not in the best public interest.
“I am sure you must agree that
the law clearly sets forth a dual
responsibility in the resolution of
this problem. On this point there
should be no argument. The gov
ernor is charged with the respon
sibility of making the appointment
and the Republican members of
the Senate in this case are charged
with the responsibility of confir
mation. The law does not say that
either party in this dispute should
subordinate his rights or respon
sibilities.
“We feel that as responsible
public officials we must find an
early solution to this stalemate so
that the people of Alaska, and
particularly the people of Senate
Dist. D, can have full legislative
representation during these last
and most important days of the
legislature. Resolution of this prob
lem can only take place through
effective communication.
“Therefore, the four Republican
senators respectfully suggest that
a meeting take place between your
self and us in an effort to re
Sen. Dirksen Agrees
WASHINGTON UP) — Senate Re
publican leader Everett Dirksen
of Illinois says he agrees with
President Kennedy that a full
blockade of Cuba would amount
to an act of war and “I don’t want
to go to war.”
But there could be a selective
blockade, Dirksen said, a selective
quarantine of some kind and that
would be the end of Fidel Castro.
The GOP leader said he had in
mind blocking shipments of Soviet
oil to Cuba in Soviet ships—if it
could be done in such a way as
not to constitute an act of war.
“If you shut off oil to Cuba it
would strangle her economy,”
Dirksen said.
solve this stalemate. If you feel
that such a meeting can be produc
tive, we are ready and willing to
discuss this matter and will look
forward to your invitation.”
Egan, in a news release handed
out within a minute or two of
the time the vote of Senate Re
publicans on Feero’s nomination
was taken, said:
“Rejection of the Republican
Senate members of my appoint
ment of William Feero of Skag
way is a further affront to the
citizens of Senate Dist. D who are
entitled to full representation in
their State Senate.
“Mr. Feero is an outstanding
citizen, a life-long supporter of
the Republican party and one
whose progressive philosophies are
compatible with the views and con
victions of the late senator whose
seat in the State Senate remains
vacant.
“The Republican minority leader
(Brad Phillips) has never once in
dicated a desire to have the
four Republican senators sit down
with me and discuss qualifica
tions of the numerous Republicans
of this area who have been sug
gested to me as being capable of
filling the vacancy. My office has
been and will continue to be open
for discussion with the senators
on this subject.”
Egan did not elaborate on his
comment that the Republicans had
not contacted him in regard to a
meeting on the subject.
(Continued on Page 5)
Kennedy Says
U nemploy ment
Is No. 1 Problem
WASHINGTON (JP> — President
Kennedy’s administration sent its
first annual manpower inventory
to Congress today with word that
a nation as rich as America should
be ashamed to tolerate six per cent
unemployment.
Kennedy reported that unem
ployment is “our No. 1 economic
problem,” a situation wasting lives
and unrealized production that
could materially increase the na
tion’s living standards and its
ability to resist foreign tyranny.
Secretary of Labor Willard
Wirtz submitted a thick report on
manpower resources accompany
ing Kennedy’s own message to
Capitol Hill. Wirtz, meeting news
men at the White House, said he
had already used such words as
intolerable, inexcusable and out
rageous to describe the heavy un
employment levels.
Both the President and Labor
Secretary urged quick action on
Kennedy’s tax cut proposals and
other programs to get the economy
moving faster.
Latest government data shows
4.9 million unemployed out of a
work force of 66.3 million, or a sea
sonally adjusted unemployment
rate of 6.1 per cent, the highest
since late 1961.
Kennedy said in a statement that
for too long now “we have con
tented ourselves with pious state
ments about the waste of our
human resources.
“With the issuance of this re
port,” the President said, “we
have committed ourselves to a na
tional policy designed to provide
all Americans with the opportunity
develop and use their talents and
energies to the maximum of which
they are capable.”
Fulbright said his own “real I
suspicion” about the disarma
ment negotiations is that they are!
“diverting our and your attention”
from areas where the United
States might improve relations
with Russia and other countries.
He referred to trade, human re
lations and more fundamental
things that he said are being ne
glected.
Sen. Hubert Humphrey, (D
Minn.), also criticized the conduct
of the Geneva talks which he re
cently attended as an observer.
He said two days after a news
paper story reported the U.S. had
shaved its demands on Russia to
seven on-site inspections, the State
Department confirmed it was true.
“My mission had been to go
around and tell the allies and neu
trals it wasn’t true,” Humphrey de
clared. “It made us look like
comedians. I don’t know how in the
devil you are going to conduct ne
gotiations under these circum
stances.”
Poet-Prophet-Boxer
Cassius Clay Meets
Doug Jones Wednesday
By the Associated Press
Poet-prophet-boxer Cassius Clay
takes another step that he hopes
will make him the youngest ever
to win the heavyweight title Wed
nesday night when he boxes tough
Doug Jones in a 10-round fight in
New York’s Madison Square Gar
den.
The important heavyweight
match, soliloquized by Clay’s
poetry, his prophecy that Jones
“must fall in six,” later changed
to four, has gained more notoriety
than a unique tripleheader title
card in Los Angeles on Saturday
night |
Welterweight champion Emile
Griffith meets Luis Rodriguez in
the opening fight at Dodger Sta
dium.
In other title fights, feather
weight champion Davy Moore of
Columbus, Ohio, faces Sugar Ra
mos of Cuba and Mexico’s Battling
Torres goes against Roberto Cruz
of the Philippines for the vacant
junior welterweight crown.
ed Wednesday after trying for 1
more than an hour to find a way 1
out of a snowstorm which sudden- 1
ly closed in around him while he’
was on an 80-mile flight from
Flat to McGrath.
Although he reversed his course
in trying to get out of the storm,
the pilot said it was “the grand
daddy of them all and I just
couldn’t find a way out, so I
parked it.”
While on the ground, the pilot
maintained radio contact with the
Northern Consolidated Airlines
station at McGrath and several
other radio operators in the area.
His plane burned up enough fuel
on the ground, Sheldon said, to
have flown about 75 minutes.
Whenever he was sending radio
messages, he started Iris engine to
keep his batteries operable. Shel
don said he finally ran out of gas
yesterday as rescue planes circled
overhead.
Jacking up the tail of his plane
to permit gas to run from the very
bottom of the tank, Sheldon was
able to start the plane and radio
and “talk” them into position over
head.
While on the ground, Sheldon
tramped out a 3,000-foot long take
off strip with snowshoes, split open
a gas can to be used as a reflector,
chopped six cords of wood for
signal fires and fixed one of his
plane’s two radios.
He had occasion to use of his
handiwork as he attempted to sig
nal airplanes with the reflector and
fires (unsuccessfully) and con
tacted the search planes via radio.
He discovered a short circuit which
immobilized his very high fre
quency radio and drew power
away from his other set, a high
frequency long-range model.
The takeoff strip proved very
satisfactory, Sheldon said.
WEATHER OUTLOOK
Mostly cloudy with increasing
easterly winds 20-30 mph. Low
tonight -10, high tomorrow 10. In
the last 24 hours: High of 2, low
of -12. Max. wind 16 mph from
ENE. Sunrise at 6:35 am., sunset
at 5:50 pm. Temps, a year ago to
day: High of 21, low of
t
Rusk Says Test
Ban Made Difficult
By "Public Debate’
WASHINGTON UP) — Secretary
of State Dean Rusk said today
negotiations for a nuclear test ban
with Soviet Russia are made more
difficult by “public debate” in this
country over U.S. proposals.
At the same tme, he told the
Senate Foreign Relations Commit
tee, under sometimes critical ques
tioning, that at the present “there
is no indication of serious progress
in these negotiations.”
But the United States is pursuing
them in the hope of reaching at
least a first step which would
“put a ceiling on the arms race,”
Rusk said.
Republicans and some Demo
crats have been critical of U.S.
willingness to accept only seven
on-site inspections a year on So
viet soil and other U.S. conces
sions aimed at getting Russia to
agree to a treaty.
Chairman Wm. Fulbright, (D
Ark.), in sharp tones, told Rusk
i the negotiations have become a
subject of partisan debate because
of administration efforts to nego
tiate an agreement in the open.
“I disagree with the procedure,”
Fulbright told him. “It is a very
poor procedure you have follow
ed.”
Don Sheldon Safe
After Being Down
For Five Days
ANCHORAGE M — Bush pilot
Don Sheldon is safely at home in
Talkeetna today after five days on
the ground 25 miles northwest of
Sleetmute, in the McGrath area.
Sheldon returned to Talkeetna
yesterday by way of McGrath
after he was air-dropped fuel from
an Alaskan Air Command C-54.
His position had been fixed Satur
day afternoon through the unusual
use of a sonic boom technique
from an Air Force F-102.
Flying on instruments only, ac
cording to Sheldon, a U.S. Coast
Guard plane and the jet coordi
dated efforts to that Sheldon timed
the period he heard the sonic boom
in making a pass over the area.
Maintaining radio contact with
the planes, Sheldon’s position was
fixed automatically so that on the
next pass in the area, the jet
came directly over Sheldon.
Sheldon, who is one of Alaska’s
most famous bush pilots and has
played key roles in many rescue
missions, said he was “very im
pressed with the use of the sonic
boom method of fixing the downed
plane’s position.”
“That’s a real accomplishment,”
he said.
Sheldon today said he had land
congressional backing for its Dyna
Soar, now officially called the
X-20, and for its so-far frustrated
ambitions for a big-scale military
I space program.
But if McNamara should decide
against the Dyna-Soar, it is un
likely congressional outcries will
budge him.
The Dyna-Soar, whose name
comes from the term “dynamic
soaring,” is a winged craft whose
pilot would control his return from
orbit, then maneuver through the
atmosphere to land at an airport,
much like a conventional aircraft.
Gale Force Winds
Buffet Anchorage Area
ANCHORAGE CP> — Winds of
gale force buffeted the Greater
Anchorage area early Sunday and.
caused widespread damage..
The U.S. Weather Bureau at
Anchorage International Airport
recorded a velocity of 58 miles per
hour before 7 a.m.
Small planes at the airport, at
the seaplane base at Lake Wood
and at the city-owned Merrill
Field were in danger. Security
police at International said sev
eral planes had already been dam
aged.
Business signs, many of them
the expensive neon type, were
blown down as the southerly
winds bore down on the city. Many
windows were blown out and rub
bish barrels sailed down city
streets right behind the trash.
There were no reports of any
ury.
some power lines were down m
•al areas, but there was no gen
ii outage. ,. .
A utility line in a section
,urban Spenard was ripped
ay by sheets of aluminum which
w from the roof of a nearby
A large section of roof from one
the city’s largest supermarkets
s torn away.
All air traffic in and out of
chorage was delayed.
In California there are more
than 2,500 ways that a driver can
juality for a traffic ticket.
Air Force Faces
Possible Loss
Of Dyna-Soar
WASHINGTON W — The Air
Force faces possible loss or severe
cutback of another of its cherish
ed projects—the manned space
glider called Dyna-Soar.
Secretary of Defense Robert S.
McNamara reportedly has strong
doubts the space glider program
is worth the additional $500 mil
lion it would take to complete it.
McNamara and his scientists ap
parently believe the Dyna-Soar
would duplicate work done by
the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration’s two-man
Gemini orbital flights. Gemini, in
which the Air Force has a minor
share, is closer to flight than is
Dyna-Soar.
The Defense Secretary has set
in motion a review of the Dyna
Soar project and has told the Air
Force, in effect, to try to justify
moving ahead with it.
Death or major curtailment of
the manned space glider would
hand the Air Force its third
serious defeat within the past year.
The others came on McNamara’s
refusal to permit full develop
ment of the 2,000-mph RS-70 plane
and junking of the bomber-launch
ed Sky bolt missile.
The Air Force has significant