THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE
“ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME”
VOL. LXXVI., NO. 11,740
JUNEAU, ALASKA, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1951
MLMHKU ASSOCIATED PRESS
PRICE TEN CENTS
' ‘ Operation Killer ’ ’ Started by A llics in Korea
GRAND IGLOO
IN SESSION
HERE TODAY
The business meeting of the
Grand Igloo, Pioneers of Alaska,
was opened in the Odd Fellows Hall
in Juneau this morning at 10 o'clock
and was to continue during the
afternoon.
Called to order by Grand Presi
dent John Reck, some 35 delegates
from all parts of the Territory re
ceived several reports and com
munications which were to be acted
upon during the afternoon.
Grand Secretary Dora M. Sweeney
of Juneau reported that the 12
Igloos and six Auxiliaries of the
Pioneers now have 1,807 members.
Delegates attending the 38th ses
sion of the Grand Igloo are: Gerrit
Snider, Anchorage: Otto Koppen.
C. C. Carlson and Dr. Will H. Chase
of Cordova; George W Gasser, John
Butrovich, George J. Miscovich,
Alden L. Wilbur. Jr., Robert E. Shel
don, James E. Barrack and Andrew
Nerland, Fairbanks.
A. Polet, Howard Lyng and Ed
ward Anderson, Nome; Mrs. Fannie
Phillips, Cordova; Vida Rich, Flor
ence Thornton, Amelia Gundersen,
Dale B. De Armond, Christine Han
sen, Eugene Bugden, Larry Thorn
ton, Peter F. Gilmore and R. N. De
Armond, Ketchikan.
LaDessa Nordale, Fairbanks; Anita
Garnick, Anna Bedding. Dorothy
Russell, Irene McKinley, Silva Zen
ger, Dora M. Sweeney, J. S. Mac
Kinnon, Felix Gray, N. B. Cook,
Alfred Zenger and Henry Roden,
Juneau.
Opens With Banquet
The Grand Igloo session opened
last evening when 150 delegates
and members of the Juneau Igloo i
and the Juneau Auxiliary gathered I
at the Odd Fellows Hall for a din
nor, followed by an initiation cere
mony and the Memorial Service of
the order.
The regular business session of j
the Grand Iglco was opened by
Grand President John Reck of
Juneau, who named the fallowing
committees:
Credentials—E. B. Collins of
of Fairbanks, R. N. De Armond of
Sitka, Felix Gray of Juneau.
Resolutions—Howard Lyng, Nome,
George Miscovich. Fairbanks; C. C.
Carlson, Cordova; Larry Thorn
ton, Ketchikan; Norman C. Cook.
Juneau.
Nominations—Andrew Nerland
and James E. Barrack, Fairbanks;
Lewis MacDonald and J. S. Mac
Kinnon, Juneau;, Gerrit Sn;der
Anchorage; Will H. Chase, Cor
dova; Ed Anderson and Tony Polet,
Nome.
Auditing—Fred Barragar and
Tony Polet.
Initiation
Four new members—Mr. and Mrs.
Herman Porter, John Maranovich
and Oscar Oberg were initiated in
a candle-light ceremony conducted
by Anita Garnick, president; Flo
rence Thornton, vice-president; Sil
va Zenger, chaplain; Vida Rich,
(Continued on Page Eight)
The Washington
Merry - Go - Round
By DREW PEARSON
(Copyright, 1951, oy Bell Syndicate, Inc.
'm-rrr __
ff ASHINGTON—'The bitter row
over labor participation in the mo
bilization picture boils down partl>
to a clash with Gen. Lucius Clay,
former military governor of Ger
many, now right-hand man to de
fense mobolization czar Charles E
Wilson. ^There is also a lot of
peeve against Harry S. Truman per
sonally.
Clay, a hard-hitting, hard-work
ing army officer, accustomed to
giving and taking orders was con
tinually clashing with civilians
when he served as right-hand man
to war mobilizer Jimmy Byrnes in
World War II. Later, while in Ger
many, he established what is prob
ably a record for any American
official. He cabled his resignation
to the State Department as Mili
tary Governor of Germany three
times in one day.
Illustrative oi Clay's difficulties
with labor leaders is one backstage
indicent Involving the appointment
of a manpower commissioner.
President Truman had telephoned I
(Continued on Page Four; j
Madrfhur at Wonju Front
Gen. Douglas MacArthur (center) strides up a road on the Wonju
front in Centra! Korea during a front line visit with Lieut. Gen.
Mathew Kidgway (left), 8th Army Commander, and Lieut. Gen.
Edward Almond, 10th Corps Commander. After his visit General
MacArthur said he would not “arbitrarily execute authority to re
cross the 38th parallel” and that Premier Stalin's “Comrades will have
to do a lot better than they have yet done to prove him a prophet.”
OP) Wirephoto via radio from Tokyo.
Tiger With a Big Bile
Imaginative tank men in Korea ailded to the formidable aspect of
their M-46 by painting it with a ferocious tiger face. Warrior
artists (left to right, below) Pfc. Doyle Boone, Purcell, Okla.; and
Cp.!. David Lees, Pittsburgh, Penn. Atop tank (left to right) are:
Cpl. Thomas Merritt, Mineral Wells, Tax.; Sgt. Callen Burris, Tish
omingo, Okla.; and Cpl. Robert Faulkner, Bowie, Texas. OP) Wirephoto.
35 ARMORED
SOVIET DIV.
GER. POLAND
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22—UPI—'The
The Soviet Union now has a fully
armored or mechanized force of
35 divisions in Efast Germany and
Poland alone, the State Department
says, and has restored East Ger
many railways which would serve
as supply lines from Russia in the
event of war.
Additionally, the State Depart
ment report based on “current intel
ligence” said, the East German
Communist party on fan. 13 began
a large scale pur v of Ps ranks
aimed at elimin..f.*g weal; links.
The Department’s Office of Pub
lic Affairs gave this information in
an official publication yesterday
picturing the background of recent
Soviet pressures on Germany.
The report came just when the
Big Four powers appeared to be
nearing agreement on plans for a
"peace” conference. It is not known
whether Russia really wants a Big
Four meeting. Unless the powers
can agree on discussing basic dif
ferences other than Germany there
would be little point in meeting,
it said.
WRITERS’ MEETING
Herb Hilscher will speak at the
Juneau Creative Writers’ meeting
in the City Council Chambers next
Monday evening at 7:30 o’clock,
Dora Sweeney, secretary, announced
today.
ARMY SAYS SOME
GUARD, RESERVE
WILL BE CALLED
WASHINGTON, Fea. 22—UPI—'The
Array said today it will call some
additional National Guard and or
gnized reserve units of company
and battalion size to active duty.
Maj. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor,
Army planning a.nd training chief,
issued a statement today in Which
he said also that "there are no pre
sent plans to call up additional
National Guard divisions,” but "we
will call up guard and reserve units
of less titan divisional size as
needed.”
Taylor appeared with his state
ment at a Pentagon news confer
ence. for the declared purpose of
"clarifying” what he called some
published misconceptions about
what he said yesterday on present
plans for the National Guard and
Reserves.
SIMMER MOVEMENTS
Freighter Square Knot from Seat
tle in port and sails tomorrow a.m.
for Haines and Skagway.
Earanof scheduled to sail from
Seattle 4 p.m. Friday.
Princess Norah scheduled to sail
from Vancouver Feb. 28.
Denali from westward scheduled
to arrive Sunday southbound.
SITKA VISITOR
Doran Baughn of Sitka is re
gistered at the Baranof Hotel.
FROM KLAWOCK
Mrs. Helen Keene oi Klawock is
here to attend an AFL conference.
She is stopping at the Baranof
Hotel
RFC OFFICIAL
DENIES WAS
PRESSURIZED
WASHINGTON. Feb. 22. — MV
William E. Willett, a member of
the Reconstruction Finance Cor
poration Board, swore to Senate
investigators today he “never con
sciously yielded" to influence in
his decisions on RFC loans.
"I want to point out that every
one in government service is oc
casionally subject to influence and
probably on occasion to improper
influence,” he told a Senate Bank
ing Subcommittee.
“But I have never consciously
yielded to such influence in any
respect."
Willett denied specifically’ that
Donald Dawson, a White House
aide, or E. Merl Young, whose wife
is a White House stenographer, can
or do influence him.
The Banking Subcommittee,
headed'by Senator Fulbright <D
Ark), said in a report to the Senate
earlier this month that Willett and
some other RFC directors had been
influence by Dawson and Young.
President Truman called the report
asinine. The subcommittee then
ordered the present hearings,
frankly as a rebuttal to the Presi
dent.
Young swore he has never re
ceived a fee or commission in con
nection with any RFC loan. He
denied under oath testimony by
Ross Bohannon, a Texas lawyer,
that Young once asked him for a
$85,000 fee to “be influential" with
the RFC.
“One of these two men is a liar,”
stormed Senator Tobey (R-NH),
participating In the hearings.
PROBE IN
CHARGES IN
RFC LOANS
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 —(>P>—
A Kaiser-Frazier Corp. vice presi
dent testified today his firm was
told it could get easier terms on a
big government loan if it hired Wil
liam M. Boyle, Jr., Democratic Na
tional chairman, as counsel.
Chad Calhoun, the Kaiser-Frazier
executive gave his testimony to Sen
ate investigators as A second-hand
account of a suggestion he said
was made to Edgar Kaiser, the
company’s head.
The suggestion, as Calhoun re
ported it, came from Rex Jacobs,
a Detroit industrialist, at a time
the Kaiser-Frazier firm was hav
ing difficulty obtaining a govern
J ment loan to finance its automo
bile manufacturing.
Investigating Charges
The subcommittee is investigating
charges of political favoritism and
influence in the making of Recon
struction Finance Corporation (R
FC) loans.
Earlier, a director of the RFC.
admitted giving a special break to
the loan application of a personal
friend who recently became an RFC
director himself.
William E. Willett, the director,
told the committee he departed from
the usual procedure "as a personal
favor” to C. Edward Rowe, the loan
applicant who subsequently was
named to the RFC board last Sep
teniber.
Another Deal
Willett .said he personnaly assign
ed the RFC examiner who made the
recommendations on a $300,000 loan
the RFC board made last April 10
to the Harrington and Richard
Arms Co., of Worcester, Mass., of
which Rowe was principal owner.
When Senator Douglas iD-Ilii
asked Willett if he had not “de
parted from the usual procedure”
in personally assigning the exam
iner. Willett answered:
“Yes, sir ... it is very unusual
... X did it as a personal favor
to Judge Rowe. Judge Rowe has
been a personal friend of mine for
years."
Willett maintained the loan to
Rowe’s arms company was a good'
one. He pointed out it has been
j repaid in full.
Leonard O. Olsen of Ketchikan is
! at the Baranof Hotel.
After This John Was Worried
With six lovely French models around him, Pfc. John Ahmann of Eyota, Minn, said worriedly: “I’ll have
to phone back home to explain all this.” Almann and five other GIs from Walter Reed Hospital, Wash
ington, 1). C„ had dates with the girls including a party at the French Embassy, a play and a midnight
supper. The models are (left to right) Nicole Touchdrd, Juin Eliot, Josellc Fargas, Mile. Tanya, Suzanne
Dadclle and Danielle Chevron, (ffl Wirephoto.
HELP ALASKA
FIRST. STATES
IDA.SENATOR
BOISE. Idaho, Feb. 22 —W—Sen.
Herman Welker (R-Idaho> told the
Idaho Legislature today he was not
going to vote to send billions of
dollars abroad until “our fir.ft line
of defense—Alaska” has been pro
vided for.
Addressing a joint session of the
Idaho Legislature after a recent
tour of Alaska, the Idaho junior
senator said he found “a mandate
to the United States to make liv
ing conditions better for our troops
in the Alaskan theater."
At another part of his speech
Senator Welker said “Thn Ameri
can boy will see to it that if Joe
Stalin should ever make an aggres
sive move, we’ll blow him off the
face of the earth.”
He dwelt at length on the "truly
shocking” living conditions he said
he found in Alaska and the hard
ships under which troops live and
work in that theater.
"I was the first U. S. Senator to
visit that theater in the winter
time when the temperatures were
52 degrees below zero,” he said.
He added that he was "not an iso
lationist — I don’t know what the
word means.
"I am aware that we can’t turn
our backs on the free world, 01
Allies.”
FORMER iUMEAU
BOY IS INDICTED,
SERIOUS CHARGE
SAN FRANCISCO, Feta. 22.—Wl—
William B. K Clark, 22, was in
dicted by the Federal Grand Jury
Tuesday on charges he embezzled
$1,300 in silver coins from the
Northern Counties Bank at Marys
ville, Calif.
A native of Juneau, Alaska, he
is under arrest at Gainsville, Ga.,
after being the object of nation
wide search since his disappear
ance from his bank job January 10
Using the name “Jon O. Nygaard"
he got a job as clerk in the bank
November 1 after deserting from
the U. S. Air Force at Brooks Field,
Tex., officers say.
EMERGENCY CHlGNIK
The Coast Guard cutter Bitter
sweet, stationed at Kodiak, was pro
ceeding through gale force winds
and high seas toward Chignik to
evacuate Clark Cropter, 35. it was
learned from 17th CG headquarters
here today. Cropter was believed
to be suffering from an acute attack
of appendicitis. The cutter is due
to arrive in Chignik tomorrow.
MORE (OMBA1
POWER NEEDE!
MILITARY IS RE
NO PEARL HAR
By FRANK W. VAILE
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 —(/B—
The Senate Armed Services Pre
paredness Subcommittee said today
all-out war with Russia would force
this country te abandon certain iso
lated areas of Alaska,
i It gave assurance however, that
(“critical areas can ' e held.”
The subcommi! .ee said it appears
“reasonable to assume that little
could be done to protect the Seward
Peninsula area from either bomb
ing or actual invasion if the Rus
sians so desired.” It was the only
specific reference made by the sen
ators to areas within either cate
gory.
A 120-page report prepared by
the subcommittee three-man Alaska
Task Force stated:
Realistic Plan
“The military in Alaska, within
the limit of the forces made avail
able ... is embarked upon a
realistic plan for the defense of
the Territory.”
But, the senators added, there i,
j need for additional combat and
| -.ervice troops and more airpower.
“Service troops," the report con
tinued, “are inadequate to properly
support the forces in the area plus
the remaining increments of the
authorized establishment. They are
nowhere near adequate to support
an increased effort in the event of
the emergency movemnt of troops
to Alaska.
Military Alert
The Task Force, headed by Sen
ator Hunt (D-Wyo) and includin’;
Senators Morse fR-Ore) and Sal
tonstall (R-Mass), has been study
ing the Alaska program since last
fall. It spent six days in the Terri
tory and conducted other studie
here.
Declaring it found the military
establishment alert and ready for
any eventuality, the Task Force as
certed that "if the present state of
alertness and vigilance is main
tained, there can be no Pearl Har
bor in Alaska."
Despite this, however, the report
stated that the defense program
was crippled by numerous factors.
Housing Bottleneck
"Housing appears to be the big
bottleneck,” Hunt explained. “The
little bottlenecks within the big one
are a scarcity of labor, unreason
ably high costs of construction and
transportation, outrageous costs of
living, and a strangling amount of
governmental red tape upon which
the whole program exists."
Citing 47 Individual steps which
f, SERVICE, AIR
5 IN ALASKA;
PORTED ALERT;
BOR IS FEARED
the Task Force found to be re
quired between the initiation of a
project and the contract award.
Hunt said:
Red Tape Dangerous
“Red tape along with Red Russia
can be a dangerous foe."
The Task Force reported:
Family quarters for military per
sonnel are sufficient to meet only
17 per cent of the total require
ments. Accommodations for bach
elor officers and unmarried enlist
ed personnel fill only 35 and 45
per cent, respectively, of the need.
Military or civilian personnel
renting quarters off base pay "as
high as $80 per month for a one
room shack without bath, watir or
refrlgeratlo!'.”
tost-Plus Syster
The sr-./.e shortage exls1 in pow
er and ’..eating plants, Hospitals,
hangars, runways, roads and “all
necessary requirements of a bal
anced defense program.”
The report placed the blame for
| high construction costs in part
I upon the Army's use of a cost-plus
| fixed-fee basis to award construc
tion contracts. It said that since J
abandonment of that procedure Ir
mid-1049. houses which had cost it
i ihe vicinity of $28,625 plus govern
ment-supplied materials have beer
built for approximately .$11,975 pirn i
materials.
No .Military Reserves
The Task Force said it found !<■ ;
than 1.000 of the Territory’s approx
imate 126,000 population to be par
ticipating in the National Guard
and various military reserve pro
grams. and urged that the Defense
Department develop a properly eo
, ordinated program and take im
mediate steps to put it into oper
ation.
It recommended a high priority
for construction projects at the
military port of Whittier. Port fa
cilities at Seward should be main
tained'"at no less than present op
erating capacity.” Deck in the lat
ter terminal should be repaired.
Railroad Phase
The rail connection between Sew
ard and Portage, which the Alaska
Railroad has indicated it would
like to abandon, should not be dis
continued without the prior ap
proval of Congress, the report as
erted.
The Task Force also proposed
that the Alaska Railroad be per
mitted to credit into its accounts
tlie cost of services rendered purely
l (Continued on Page Fight)
I
ALLIES IN
BIG SMASH,
NEW FRONT
Aim to Kill, Maim or Cap
ture All Reds in Mired
Mountains, Valleys
By Associated Press
Allied forcer, smashed northward
today on a 60-mlle rainswept front
aiming to kill, maim or capture all
Reds in the mired mountains and
valleys of Central Korea.
Advances in this new offensive—
“operation killer” — ranged up to
12 miles on the East-Central sector
and up to Ti on the Central Valley,
north of Wonju.
Resistance was spotty most of the
day but was stiffening at dusk as
Allied spearheads neared the main
forces of the dug-in Chinese and
North Korean Reds. An estimated
40 000 Reds are south of Parallel 38.
The Allied objective is to wipe
them out.
Weather Rotten
Gen. MacArthur announced the
new offensive today. An Army
spokesman called it "a vital phase
of the Korean campaign.” First
resistance was spotty, with the
greatest obstacle, poor weather —
rain, mud, snow, and .fog. The
Chinese and North Korean Troops
fought and ran, some of them in
panic.
American, British, Australian,
New Zealand and South Korean
troops teamed up on the ground in
the killer drive. In the air planes
of the U. S. Air Force, Marine, Navy,
! from Australia and South Africa
found holes in the clouds and plast
ered Red targets.
Arc at Front
The front was an arc from near
Yangpong, 27 miles eust-southeast
of Seoul, to Pyongchang, on the
East-Central sector. The biggest
Red force was dug in the mountains
about six miles north of Wonju,
25 miles west of Pyongchang.
AP Correspondent Stan Swinton
said a big battle appeared in the
offing for Hoengsong, 10 miles north
of Wonju. The Allies were applying
a pinrher move on the town.
Formosa Issue
Informed sources in Tokyo de
clared that the prospect of using
Chinese Nationalist troops in Korea
remains a live issue. The inform
ants said this had no connection
with the visit to Formosa of Vice
Adm. Arthur D. Struble, U. 8. 7th
Fleet commander.
But on Formosa itself the Chi
nese Nationalists were afraid the
Reds might do a little invading of
their own. Air raid tests were held
throughout Northern Formosa in
preparation for repelling a Red in
vasion of the last fortress of Chiang
Kai-Shek feared with the coming
of favorable weather.
ATOMIC-POWERED
FLIGHT GETTING
CLOSE, IS REPORT
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 —(iff—The
•overnment's efforts to build an
atomic-powered airplane passed to
day from the sliderule to the draft
ing board stage.
Yet to be undertaken is the actual
construction of an atomic engine
and then the aircraft itself.
That is what the Air Force and
Atomic Energy Commission meant
today in announcing the comple
tion of their "NEPA” project.
“NEPA" stands for nuclear energy
for propulsion of aircraft.
The first phase of the project
was devoted almost exclusively to
mathematical computations and
theoretical possibilities. It required
more than four years.
There has been no word on how
long the next phases might take.
However. Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg,
Air Force Chief of Staff, has said
atomic-powered flight is Closer than
most people realize.
A joint Air Force-AEC statement
today on the conclusion of the
"NEPA" phase said "other projects
being supported by the Air Force
and j.he AEC in the field of nuclear
power flights will be continued."
SITKA VISITOR
Frank T. Calvin of Sitka is re
gistered at the Baranof Hotel,