m NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS__
VOL. LVIII No. 153 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1956 Per Copy—15^
Top Soviet Economic Planning Staff
Gets Shaken Up; Original Plans
Called for Too Much Production
By HAROLD K. MILKS
MOSCOW, (*)—The Soviet gov
ernment has shaken up its top
economic planning staff after a
call from the Communist Party
Central Committee for revisions
in the nation’s new five-year
plan. The committee said the or
iginal plan called for more pro
duction than is possible with
available resources.
The committee also declared
the Soviet people must eliminate
inefficiency and bureaucracy if
they want better living condi
tions.
In the high level changes, First
Deputy Premier M. G. Pervukhin
was named chief economic plan
ner. He replaces Maxim C. Sabu
dov, another first deputy pre
mier and, like Pervukhin, a mem
ber of the Central Committee
Presidium.
(Yugoslav Communists said last
September that Pervukhin was
among the Kremlin faction op
posed to Party Boss Khrushchev’s
policy of relaxing control of the
satellites.)
There was no indication that
Saburov, who has directed Soviet
economic planning for 20 years,
was being dropped from his oth
er posts in the Soviet leadership.
Six experts in agriculture and
industry—four of them deputy
•premiers—were named to help
Pervukhin with the economic
guidance. They will make up a
super-committee as deputy chair
men of the State Economic Com
mission.
The six are Deputy Premiers
A. N. Kosygin, V. A. Malyshev,
M. V. Khrunichev, V. A. Kucer
enko, Minister of Agriculture V.
V. Matskevich, and Minister of
State Farms I. A. Benediktov.
The report from the Central
Committee came at the end of a
Eight Men Leave
The South Pole
For Trip Home
By DON GUY
McMURDO SOUND, Antarctica
of the 24 men stationed at
the bleak South Pole were flown
to this air base yesterday as the
first step on the long way home.
The men had celebrated Christ
mas at their lonely post a day
early, in anticipation of their de
parture.
One bachelor in the party, Yeo
man Robert L. Chaudoin of Long
Beach, Miss., volunteered to stay
through the winter, but the Navy
turned down his offer because all
billets for South Pole personnel
had been filled long ago. Chau
doin said life at the Pole was
“real luxurious."
Six prefabricated buildings have
been erected and the tempera -
atures were 30 to. 49 below for
weeks at a time.
Fifteen of the 16 men still at
the Pole will be flown out in fu
ture flights. Dr. Paul Siple of
Washington, D.C., will stay there
this winter.
five-day meeting and emphasized
that top priority in the Kremlin’s
planning still rfsts on heavy in
dustry. It disclosed that the sixth
Five-Year Plan had been sent
back to the Supreme Soviet (Par
liament) for revision.
The committee said the plan in
certain categories had not been
fulfilled in 1956, its first year,
but added that heavy industry as
a whole was H percent above
quota and light consumer indus
tries were 9 percent above.
The committee criticized the
economic planners, particularly
for outlining projects without ref
erence to such practical limita
tions as raw materials and sup
plies.
Florida Records
Colder Weather
Than Montana
By the Associated Press
Florida’s winter vacationland
recorded colder temperatures to
day than Montana.
Temperatures dipped below the
freezing point in crowded winter
resort areas. The mercury sagged
to 31 at Daytona Beach. It was
28 at Cross City, Fla., early this
morning.
At the same time, in Great
Falls, Mont., it was 47.
In the southern part of the
Sunshine State, Miami reported
a low of 52 and Fort Meyers 43.
The weathed bureau said a
thrust of cold, dry air sweeping
across the eastern half of the na
tion caused temperatures to tum
ble thruout the southeast.
Temperatures in the 80s con
tinued in the dry areas of south
ern California.
A pattern of generally fair
weather fell over the rest of the
nation.
A few snow flurries in scat
tered areas of the Midwest and
nortneast and fog in the north
west were the only precipitation
reported.
Scientist Tells of Experiments Supporting Theory
That Life on Earth Was Sparked by Lightning
By ALTON L. BLAKESLEE
Associated Press Science Reporter
NEW YORK, Iff) — Lightning
flashing through deadly gases of
an eerie world could have
sparked the beginning of life on
earth, a scientist said today.
The dazzling electric bolts
could have created complex
chemicals from the gases. From
these new-born chemicals came
living matter.
This theory and experiments
to support it were described in
a speech prepared for an opening
session of the American Assn.
for the Advancement of Science,
the world’s largest annual scien
tific congress.
some of the latest scientific
guesses about one of man’s most
engrossing mystery — how life
began—were presented at a con
ference held by the Association
and the New York Academy of
Science.
Scientists generally think life
began in the salty oceans. Some
how, organic or living chemicals
were formed out of inorganic or
nonliving chemicals.
Some scientists, among them
Nobel Prize winner Dr. Harold
Urey, Chicago, have suggested
that our primitive earth had an
atmosphere of poisonous gases
such as methane and ammonia,
plus water and hydrogen. Light
ning might have created the re
action which produced the chemi
cals for life to begin.
Testing 'bis, Dr. Stanley L.
Miller, biochemist of Columbia
University’s College of Physi
cians and Surgeons, exposed just
such a mixture of gases to a series
of electric discharges for a week.
The man-made “lightning” cre
ated some amino acids, the build
ing blocks that make up proteins
such as f'esh, nerve and hair.
Nine amino acids were formed
from the gases.
The electric discharges pro
duced a mixture of aldehydes
and hydrogenicyanide, Dr. Miller
said in his speech. These react to
form the amino acids.
He said it appeared the reactive
organic compounds were formed
by lightning and by ultraviolet
light in the atmosphere. Rains
carried them down into the
oceans, where they reacted to
form amino acids and other com
plex organic compounds.
Red Leaders Will
Try New Program
In Hungary
By RICHARD KASISCHKE
BUDAPEST, W!—The Hungar
ian people prolonged their Christ
has celebration today, but mem
bers of Premier Janos Kadar’s
Communist government were re
ported hard at work.
The Communists are trying to
find a program to get the still
rebellious country out of its polit
ical and economic chaos.
An informed Hungarian source
said this “new program” probab
ly will be proclaimed before New
Year’s.
He forecast, however, it will
not be anything spectacular. He
said the most that could be hoped
for would be that it might serve
as the basis for inter-party talks
to seek to bring non-Communist
parties into the present unpopular
regime.
If other parties, notably the
popular Smallholders Party,
agree to join in a new govern
ment which could command some
popular support, it would give
the Russians an opportunity to
drop Kadar as premier.
The two-day Christmas holiday
ends tonight. The expanded ob
servance, a return to an old cus
tom in many European nations,
was sanctioned by the Commu
nists this year as part of a policy
of seeking wider public backing.
Workers return tomorrow to
their jobs in factories, mines and
shops—that is, if their plants
have coal and power to produce
and if their mines are operating.
85 Persons Killed in
French-Moslem Strife
Over Christmas Holiday
ALGIERSlfft—Christmas brought
no letup to the war in Algeria
between the French and Moslem
nationalists.
A total of 85 persons were re
ported killed and 56 wounded
over the weekend and the Christ
mas holiday. The casualties in
cluded six Europeans and 14 oth
ers killed in nationalist attacks,
56 wounded, by the rebels, and 65
rebels the French said their pa
trols killed.
Christmas Weekend Traffic Deaths
Number 698—Highest Total for Any
Holiday Period in American History
17 Russian “Gangsters”
Returned to Siberia for
Stealing 264 Lbs. Gold
MOSCOW, UFi—Seventeen Rus
sians who were a little too free in
their enterprise in eastern Siber
ia’s gold fields are presumably on
their way back to Siberia today—
but not to the goldfields.
The newspaper Trud said 17
“gangsters” who ventured into
the Irkutsk region and came away
with 264 pounds of state-owned
gold from the Bodaibo fields have
been sentenced to prison.
Squirrel Tries to
Play Santa Claus,
Gets Tail Singed
CHICAGO, Uft—A squirrel, its
tail singed, scampered from a
fireplace and scooted to the top
of a gaily decorated Christmas
tree in the home of Mr. and Mrs.
Lee Brill in suburban River For
est yesterday.
The squirrel made its hasty
exit from the fireplace after Mrs.
Brill had tossed some wrappings
from presents into the fireplace
where a big log fire had blazed
Christmas Eve.
The squirrel sat on top of the
eight-foot tree and looked at the
astonished onlookers—the Brills
and the family of Brill’s nephew,
Mr. and Mrs. Dayton Gillingwa
ter and their 4-year-old daugh
ter.
Luckily for the squirrel, its
burning tail had hit the metal
mesh screen on the fireplace as it
dashed out and the impact put
out the fire.
The Brills couldn’t get the
squirrel down from the tree, so
they called police. Two police
men used a broom handle to coax
the little animal to the floor.
It was last seen running out
the front door, its brief attempt
to play Santa Claus only a pain
ful memory.
By th« Associated Press
Traffic deaths zoomed to the
highest total for any holiday per
iod in American history during
the long Christmas weekend.
Tabulations today also showed
that deaths in accidents of all
kinds also shattered previous rec
ords.
Fatalities added up to 698 in
traffic, 49 in fires, and 120 in ac
cidents of other types for a total
of 867.
The motor vehicle death toll
surpassed the old record for any
holiday period—609, set during
the three-day celebration of
Christmas last' year. It also ex
ceeded the National Safety Coun
cil’s advance prediction of 660.
The all-accident total topped
the old mark of 805 established
during a three-day observation of
Independence Day last year.
The deaths tabulated today
were caused by accidents that oc
curred during a 102-hour period
from 6 p.m. Friday to midnight
Tuesday. It was a four-day peri
od, one day longer than the 1955
holiday periods in which the for
mer records were set.
• * •
OTTOWA. Ont. UP—The Christ
mas holiday death count on Can
adian highways reached 39 today.
A Canadian press survey which
started at 6 p.m. Friday gave the
total of accidental deaths as 58.
Nine persons died in fires, four
were drowned, and another six
were killed in miscellaneous acci
dents.
The Canadian Safety Council
had predicted that 50 persons
would die in traffic accidents
during the five-day holiday which
ends at midnight tonight. A total
of 69 were killed in the four-day
holiday last year.
Church Leader
Sees Progress in
Christian Unity
FAIRBANKS, —Great prog
ress has been made in leading the
nation’s churches back into a kind
of Christian unity, Dr. Eugene
Carson Blake, president of the
National Council of Churches,
said Sunday.
Speaking at a Protestant union
service, Dr. Blake said this spirit
of unity is reflected in councils
of churches on the world, nation
al, state and community levels.
“Only a hundred years ago, Dr.
Blake said, “our forefathers were
quoting the same Bible to prove
that the benighted members of
the others’ church were going to
hell for heresy.’’
Cooperative unity, he said,
gained its impetus 'when a few
leaders of the missionary move
ment recognized that “in other
folds the same Shepherd was
gathering His sheep.”
Dr. Blake Christmas in the
Alaska Command as the spiritual
ambassador of 144,000 United
States churches to servicemen
stationed in this northern terri
tory.