22 NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LXII No. 153 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1960_Per Copy 15f
Navy Says City
Firemen Bungled
On Constellation
NEW YORK (yPI — A Navy wit
ness testified today that Navy
men could have extinguished the
fatal fire aboard the Aircraft
Carrier Constellation in half an
hour except for interference by
city firemen.
The witness, John F. Rutledge,
a chief machinist’s mate, also hit
back at charges of messy house
keeping aboard the carrier and
said the city firemen appeared
to lack experience in ship fires.
Rutledge testified before a
Naval Court of Inquiry investi
gating the disastrous fire Dec. 19
at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The
fire claimed the lives of 49 work
men and did $75-million damage
to the $275-million ship.
City Fire Commissioner Edward
Cavanagh Jr. testified yesterday
that the ship was in such sloppy
condition he could have “ordered
work stopped and the premises
cleaned up” if it had been a civil
ian project.
Rutledge said that shortly after
the fire broke out aboard the
carrier, he organized a fire-fight
ing and rescue detail of 26 men
equipped with special equipment
and oxygen tanks.
Rutledge said the detail moved
aboard the Constellation and “we
were doing fine until we were
ordered off the ship because of
lack of hard hats.”
He said “a New York City fire
chief” gave the order to get out
on the ground that falling debris
made the use of hard hats es
sential.
Rutledge contended that, at that
time, his men could have ex
tinguished the fire in half an
hour with a fog type spray they
were using.
Rutledge testified that the city
firemen used a steady stream of
water rather than the Navy
technique of fog spray for fight
ing ship fires.
He said it “appeared obvious”
to him that the city firemen had
no experience in fighting such
fires.
“Messy, deplorable and sloppy,
were Cavanagh’s words to char
acterize the housekeeping aboard
the ship. Evidences of this, he
said, were 42 minor fires that pre
ceded the disaster.
He called the ship a “fully
loaded bomb which needed only
ignition” and said he was sur
prised the tragedy hadn’t occurred
earlier.
Previous witnesses testified
that the housekeeping and fire
prevention practices on the Con
stellation were better than aver
age for Navy ships.
WEATHER FORECAST
Cloudy with occasional snow
and drifting snow. Easterly winds
25 mph. Expected low tonight 15,
high tomorrow 30.
In the last 24 hours high temp,
of 32, low temp, of 16. Sunrise at
10:03 a. m., sunset at 2:04 p. m.
High temp, a year ago today
7, low temp. -13. Extremes on
this date since 1907: High of 38
in 1925, low of -34 in 1957.
Africans Disapprove
Of French Atom Tests
LONDON, (JV—Alarm and dis
approval of France’s third atomic
test sounded today in African na
tions and elsewhere around the
world. Nigeria was especially
concerned.
A government minister in La
gos conferred witji French am
bassador Raymond Offroy. The
press in that new African nation
asked that French assets in Ni
geria be frozen, the French em
bassy be closed and all French
goods be banned.
Nigeria had protested after
France’s second test and Ghana
temporarily froze French assets
at that time.
At a noisy news conference,
Offroy shouted that not one hu
man being died because of the
atom tests. He said the tests were
to give France an atom bomb and
bring riches and water to the
desert eventually through atomic
energy.
Offroy said the Nigerian bor
der is more than 900 miles from
Tuesday’s test site at Reggan.
Then he pointed out that U.S.
atomic tests in Nevada were 250
miles from Los Angeles.
Northwest Resumes
Limited Jet Service
ST. PAUL, Minn. I/P) — North
west Orient Airlines announced
today it would resume limited jet
service Saturday.
The line has provided no such
service since Oct. 11 when flight
engineers went on strike.
The dispute, over makeup of
crews on jet planes, has not been
settled.
In a statement, the airline said
it was resuming jet service “in
order to continue to be able to
meet its obligations to employes
and the public.”
Jet service will be resumed
with one round trip a day from
Seattle to Miami by way of Chi
cago. Each crew will include a
pilot, a co-pilot and supervisory
pilot who lias been trained and
is qualified to man the fight en
gineer’s position.
A spokesman said NWA had
no immediate plans to reassign
the jets to the Seattle-Tokyo or
Seattle-Portland-Honolulu run.
Bob Hope Returns From
12th Christmas Tour
Of Overseas Bases
HOLLYWOOD, UP) —Bob Hope
returned today from a Christmas
tour of Caribbean bases and told
newsmen he got his biggest laugh
while entertaining servicemen at
the Navy’s Guantanamo base in
Cuba.
“I told them, ‘Here you don’t
have to say friend or foe, just
reach out and feel their chin.’
They loved that one,” Hope said.
Hope, on his 12 th annual
Christmas tour of overseas bases,
was accompanied by a troupe in
cluding Zsa Zsa Gabor, Janis
Paige, Jerry Colonna and Andy
Williams.
The ski-nosed comic said:
“You’re not allowed to go out
of the gates (at Gauntanamo, sub
ject of a heated dispute between
the Castro regime and the United
States) and beards (extremely
popular among Castro militia
men) are not allowed to be worn.”
Student Day Held at
Chamber of Commerce
Yesterday was Student Day at
the Chamber of Commerce with
the following students as guests
of the day:
From the University of Alaska,
Robert Summers, senior in civil
engineering; Fritz Chambers,
sophomore in electrical engineer
ing; Harry Johnsen, freshman in
music; Rod Boucher, freshman in
electrical engineering; and Diane
Lee, sophomore in music.
From the Alaska Methodist Uni
versity, Ray Arnold, freshman in
liberal arts; from CPS, and trans
ferring to a California school for
his senior year in engineering;
Charles Fagerstrom; Alice Glavin
ovich second year student in den
tal studies at the Seattle Uni
versity; and Myrtle Chambers,
high school senior at the Uni
versity High in Los Angeles,
Calif.
In the field of education present
also were Anne Walsh, Home
Economics teacher from Fair
banks who told of a tradition at
Lathrop School of the serving of
a Christmas dinner to all of the
students. This was accomplished
in one hour this year she stated.
Also in the teaching field was
Arthur Nagozruk, the first Eski
mo to graduate in education from
the U of Alaska in 1949 who is
here from Buckland where he has
been teaching. He expressed his
desire to assist the Chamber in
any way that could help the Eski
mo young people to get a better
education.
Tito Critical of Western
Powers But Will Receive
$200 Million Credit
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia —
President Tito, who sharply
criticized the Western Powers
Monday, will get a $200-million
credit from the U. S. and seven
other Western nations to reform
Yugislavia’s currency exchange
rates and liberalize foreign trade.
Tito attacked the West Mon
day for “lack of efforts toward
rapproachment and readiness to
renew contacts with the other
side.” He told Parliament Yugo
slavia and other Communist
countries have identical attitudes
on major world questions.
His Finance Minister, Nikola
Mincev, told Parliament yesterday
$100 million of the credit will
come from the United States. The
other $100 million will be pro
vided by Austria, Italy, England,
France, Switzerland, The Nether
lands, and West German banks.
NEVER TOO OLD
TO STAND TRIAL
BOSTON UP) — Industrialist
Bernard Goldfine was taken into
custody by U. S. Marshals under
Federal Court order today after
several hours of delaying tactics
in a Boston hotel.
The Federal Court seeks to de
termine the competency of the
70-year-old manufacturer to stand
trial on charges he evaded nearly
$800,000 in income taxes.
Deputy marshals rapped on
Goldfine’s door at 9:45 a. m. and
said they came to take him into
custody. It was not until 2:22 p. m.
that Goldfine emerged in the
custody of marshals and started
on his way to the U. S. Public
Service Hospital.
Canadian Dollar Declines
To 100.6 Cents, ’60’s Low
NEW YORK if) — The value
ol the Canadian dollar in U. S.
money declined to another 1960
low yesterday. The closing quo
tation on the foreign exchange
was 100.6093 cents.
At the end of the previous
business day, Friday, the Can
adian dollar was worth 101.0468
cents in U. S. money. The new
low since the Canadian dollar
was revalued in 1952 was 100.00
cents early that year.
The value in terms of U. S.
money has declined steadily since
early August. Last Wednesday the
premium was cut 51/64th of a
cent, the largest single day drop
this year until yesterday.
The premium was up 105.3281
cents on March 1 this year.
Much, Much Talk
NEW YORK — The American
Telephone & Telegraph Co., to
day presented statistics to show
that U. S. telephone owners are
making more and more calls.
The annual summary of “the
world’s telephones” showed every
man woman and child in the U. S.
had an average of 496 telephone
conversations in 1959. A year
earlier the total was 472.4.
An AT & T spokesman said that
some of the increase was due to
the inclusion of figures for
Hawaii and Alaska in the U. S.
total for the first time.
In 1938 the total was 222 per
person.
In 1958 Alaska ranked first in
the world with 609 phone con
versations per person. Hawaii was
second with 536.
Canada, third last year with
511, was No. 1. this year with
530 conversations per person. Ice
land was next with 508 and the
U. S. ranked third.
For the entire world there
were 60.8 conversations per per
son compared with 57.7 the pre
vious year.
LOSE CONTACT WITH
DISCOVERER XIX
NEW BOSTON, N. H. WV-The
Air Force Statellite Tracking
Station here has lost contact with
Discoverer XIX.
Col. Nicholas Polio, operations
officer, said the satellite lost its
transmitting power Christmas
day.
The satellite was launched Dec.
20 from Vandenberg Air Force
Base, Calif., in a Polar orbit to
measure heat radiation.
Although its radio is not trans
mitting, the satellite is not “lost.”
HERE ARE THE BOWL ODDS
In case you’re interested, here
are the odds quoted on the coming
football games:
In the Rose Bowl—Minnesota
by 7 points over Washington.
In the Sugar Bowl—Missis
sippi by 10 over Rice.
In the Cotton Bowl—Arkansas
by 7 over Duke.
In the Orange Bowl—Missouri
by 6 and one-half over Navy.
In the Gator Bowl—Florida by
one-half point over Baylor.
In the Sun Bowl—New Mexico
State by 6 and one-half over
Utah State.
In the East-West Game—East
by 5 over the West.
Holiday Traffic
Claims 488 Lives
CHICAGO UP) — The nation’s
traffic accidents during the 78
hour Christmas weekend killed
488 persons—an average of one
about every 10 minutes.
The final toll was below the
pre-holiday estimate of 510 made
by the National Safety Council.
It was the lowest for a 3-day
Christmas holiday since 1949
when 413 traffic deaths were re
ported and compared to last
year’s Christmas weekend total
of 493 fatalities.
The Council said this year’s
total compared with an expecta
tion of as many as 350 on a non
holiday weekend of comparable
length at this time of year. An
Associated Press survey for a
78-hour weekend period earlier
this month showed 293 traffic
fatalities.
The Council has estimated 340
persons may be killed in motor
vehicle accidents during the New
Year holiday weekend, also a 78
hour period, from 6 p. m. Friday
to midnight Monday (local time).
Equality Before the Law
For All Men Will One
Day Be Attained
NORTH PROVIDENCE, R. 1. UP)
— President Eisenhower says the
goal of equality before the law
for all men “will be one day at
tained.”
In a letter to James Gabrielle,
whose family attempted to break
a white boycott of an integrated
New Orleans school, the Presi
dent said:
“Our nation must continue her
steady advance toward equality
before the law for all men, and
each one of us must do his share
to make certain that we have a
government of laws, not of men.
If all of us will, like yourself and
your family, stand up to be count
ed in the cause of human dignity,
even though personal sacrifice
be involved, these goals will one
day be attained.”
Mrs. Gabrielle braved the white
boycott to take her daughter
Yolanda, 6, to school but threats
and unpleasantness finally forced
the family to come north to join
Rhode Island relatives.
Would Have Restored Ike's
Army Grade Truman States
NEW YORK UP) — Former Pres
ident Harry S. Truman said to
day he had planned to restore
President Eisenhower to five
star army grade had he been de
feated in the 1952 election.
He made the remark to news
men who accompanied him on his
usual morning stroll in 12-degree
weather.
Eisenhower resigned from the
military upon entering politics
eight years ago. There have been
reports of a move in Congress
to restore his grade as General
of the Army when he leaves the
White House.
Half. Million Expected
To Witness Inauguration
WASHINGTON UP) — At least
half a million persons are ex
pected to witness the Inaugura
tion of President-elect John F.
Kennedy and other inaugural
events on Jan. 20, the Inaugural
Committee reported today.
THE PUBLIC IS INVITED to a Republican-sponsored dinner Wednesday, Die. 28 at 6:30 p.m. in the Seaview Room. I
Featured will be Sen. Brad Phillips of Anchorage and Rep. C. M. Binkley of Fairbanks. Open discussion on matters to come before
the Legislature: Boroughs, Schools, City Government, etc. Reservations may be made at the North Star Grill at $2.50 per plate.