SSI NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LIX No. 34 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 1957 Per Copy—15.^
Hendrickson Sends
13 Persons to Te
By WILLIAM J. TOBIN
JUNEAU, UP> — Acting Gov.
Waino Hendrickson sent the nom
inations of 13 persons to territorial
boards, commissions and depart
ments yesterday.
These are to fill vacancies ex
isting since the Legislature on
two other occasions rejected nom
inations to the posts.
The 23rd session now has two
days in which to meet in joint
session to act on the nominations.
Heading the list of nominations
was Hendrickson’s selection of
Republican Karl F. Dewey to a
new 4-year term as territorial
tax commissioner.
The other major nomination
that came down from the gover
Hendrickson Signs
Barber Exam Bill
JUNEAU, (j— Acting Gov.
Waino Hendrickson has signed a
bill creating a board of barber
examiners, but he says the bill
is something less than razor sharp.
Under terms of the new act,
there will be appointed a board
of barber examiners.
It will control the licensing of
barbers within a '25-mile radius of
any community of more than 1,000
persons.
Hendrickson said that wuold
apply to a small community with
in 25 miles of a town of 1,000 —
but separate from it by water, an
island or a mountain range.
The governor proposed the next
Legislature make the law read
“within 25 miles by road.”
Nuclear Snooper Bill
The so-called nuclear “snooper”
bill has been approved by Hen
drickson. The bill designates the
Department of Health as the col
lection agency for any radiation
information which may be made
available by the government. The
nuclear snooper phrase was tagged
on the bill during debate in the
House more than a month ago.
The acting governer also signed
a bill which limits income tax
exemptions for person who work
in Alaska only part of the year.
Previously, workers had been
able to claim a full year’s exemp
tion for only a few months of res
idency in the territory.
Now the exemptions will cover
only the actual period of Alaska
employment.
No Hiding Place for Americans
In Major War, Says Russian Official
LONDON, Ifl) — Russia’s de
fense minister says any major
new war would leave no hiding
place and that the United States
would not “be able, as formerly,
to sit it out over the ocean and
avoid destructive and deadly
blows.”
Quoted by Moscow Radio today,
Marshal Georgi Zhukov warned
that Russia would use atomic and
hydrogen bombs as its “main
striking force” if such a conflict
broke out. He said such weapons
increasingly will replace the con
ventional armaments and declared
it is a mistake to suppose they
would not be used simply because
they can “mutually destroy both
sides.”
“In organizing their military
bases in Europe and other parts
of the world and in supplying
certain capitalist countries with
atomic weapons,” Zhukov said,
“the American imperialists ob
viously calculate that in case of
war in Europe or Asia they will
be able, as formerly, to sit it out
over the ocean and avoid destruc
tive and deadly blows. Such cal
culations are only too naive. . . .
“There is no place in the world
where the aggressor could find
shelter. The Soviet Air Force is
able to strike shattering blows at
any enemy no matter where he is
or where he is hiding.”
The broadcast said Zhukov’s
statement was made last Friday at
a Soviet army conference in
Moscow.
5 Nominations for
:rritorial Boards
nor’s ofice today was the resub
mission of the n^ime of Kenneth
McKee for an appointment to the
Employment Security Commis
sion.
The acting governor also sub
mitted the name of one person
who previously was rejected for
appointment to another board.
Hendrickson nominated Mrs.
Emily Boucher of Nome to the
Board of Library Service.
Hendrickson also nominated a
Seward woman, Mrs. Patricia Wil
liams, to the Board of Juvenile
Institutions, for an interim term
ending this June and for a full
term ending June 30, 1962.
Also on the list of nominations
were Robert Race to the Board of
Pharmacy, for a term ending
March 31, 1962, and Richard M.
Hardcastle to the Alaska Insur
ance Commission for a term end
nig June 30, 1961.
Other nominations included:
Howard D. Stabler of Juneau
and Mrs. Audry Bayer of Nome
to the Alaska Board of Health for
terms ending in January, 1961.
Earle Hunter of Juneau to the
Board of Police Commissioners, for
an interim term ending this June
28, and for a full term ending
June 28, 1961.
House Continues
Statehood Hearing
WASHINGTON, UP) — The House
Territories Subcommittee today
takes another bite of Alaska
statehood testimony.
Still striving to complete a
hearing on the Alaska bill before
taking up its Hawaiian counter
part April 8, Chairman O’Brien
(D-N. Y.) scheduled a partial ses
sion to follow a meeting of the
full House Interior Committee,
for further questioning.
The hearing, which began March
11, originally was scheduled to
last two days. It later was ex
panded to a full week and now
has passed that mark.
Highlight of the hearing so far
was the recommendation from
Secretary of the Interior Fred
A. Seaton that Alaska be given
immediate statehood with author
ity reserved to the President to
set up military reservations in the
area north and west of the Porcu
pine, Yukon and Kuskokwim
Rivers.
Sen. Neuberger Says
GOP Power Struggle Is
Causing Governor Delay
JUNEAU, (j?P>—No Republican
official within or without the
1 Legislature would comment yes
terday on a statement by Sen. Neu
berger (D-Ore.’ about the nation
al administration’s failure to ap
point a governor for Alaska.
Neuberger said Alaska still has
an acting governor because of “9
raw, naked bitter struggle for
power in the Republican Party
within the territory.”
Several GOP leaders, asked for
comment, declined to be quoted di
rectly. But one dismissed Neu
berger’s remarks with the com
ment: “It just ain’t so.”
‘Human Failure’
Blamed for Blast
That Took 4 Lives
TACOMA, {JPi — A safety ex
pert blamed “human failure” yes
terday for a dynamite explosion
i that took four lives at a powder
plant 18 miles southeast of here.
The blast at the Olin Mathieson
Chemical Corp. Tuesday obliter
ated a building where the four
victims were working, shook win
dows in downtown Tacoma and
touched off “earthquake” reports
at Seattle, 40 miles to the north.
After visiting the plant and
questioning workers, Ed Sorger,
chief of the safety division of the
State Department fo Labor and
Industries, said the company ob
served all precautions and safety
regulations and the explosion ap
parently resulted from “human
failure.”
“Something .slipped up some
where along the line,” Sorger
said. “There was no chance of
mechanical failure.”
Extension Asked
For Reduction of
Defense Workers
By JACK BELL
WASHINGTON, (/» — Sen. Byrd
(D-Va.) called on Secretary of De
fense Wilson today to expand and
extend on a world-wide basis a
proposed 12 per cent cut in De
fense Department office workers
in the Washington area.
Sens. Hickenlooper (R-Iowa)
j and Mansfield (D-Mont.) joined
Byrd in applauding Wilson’s an
nouncement yesterday that he
had told the Army, Navy and Air
Force to eliminate 6,414 military
and civilian jobs here in the year
beginning July 1.
Wilson s;aid he will order sim
ilar cuts in many defense head
quarters — but not in combat
units — at home and abroad. Byrd
said this was “encouraging” but
he urged Wilson to order across
the board cuts at American in
stallations all around the world.
“There would be quite substan
tial budget saving if this could be
made to apply to the entire de
fense establishment,” Byrd said.
“The federal government’s annual
civilian payroll runs about 10
billion dollars and roughly half of
; it is for the Defense Department.
“I think Secretary Wilson could
apply a 12 per cent cut at most
of these headquarters and bases
without losing any efficiency,” he
continued and estimated an across
the board cut would save about
620 million dollars a year.
Patient Dies After Examination;
_ t
Doctor Tried for Manslaughter
JUNEAU, —Witnesses testi
fied yesterday of frantic efforts
to save the life of a patient who
went into convulsions and died
after an examination at a U. S.
Public Health Service hospital. |
The testimony came from prose
cution witnesses in the second day j
of the manslaughter trial of Dr.
Edward K. Distler, a 37-year-oid
surgeon and physician from Cald
well, Idaho.
The doctor is charged with neg
ligent homicide in the 1954 death
of Clarence Weaver, who was
employed as a painter at the Mt.
Edgecombe Medical Center at
Sitka. He faces a maximum pen- |
alty of 20 years in prison if con- j
victed.
'Wanion Indifference'
Dr. Distler is accused in the '
eight-count indictment of ad
ministering an excessive amount
of cocaine and of “wanton in
difference” to Weaver during the
course of a painful systoscopic
examination.
A registered nurse who was;
present during the examination,!
Mrs. Margaret Anderson, testified
Dr. Distler used force “jabbing”
a metal sound through Weaver’s
urethra.
She told the seven men and
five women on the jury in U. S.
District Court today that the 40
400-Pound Devilfish
Jumps Into Cruiser,
Breaks Woman’s Arm
FORT MYERS, Fla., Wl — Mrs.
Fred Carlsen is recovering from a
broken arm received when a 400
pound leopard ray devilfish
jumped into a cruiser in the Gulf
of Mexico.
Mrs. Carlsen was fishing Sun
day with her husband and four
friends off Punia Rassa when the
big devilfish, apparently trying
to snare three sucker fish attached
to its underside, slammed into
the boat.
The impact of the big fish
broke the engine box to splinters
and bent the steering column and
gear shift.
The fish thrashed wildly in the
bottom of the boat. It was brought
ashore at Punia Rassa where four
rifle bullets killed it.
year-old Weaver was moaning and
groaning and thrashing around”
on the examination table.
William Goodwin of Tacoma,
Wash., who handled all the cross
examination for the defense,
brought out in his questioning that
Weaver went into convulsions less
than a minute after the cocaine
was administered, and that he
was carried into an operating room
where efforts to revive him failed.
Dr. Benjamin McBrayer, now
clinical director at the Mt. Edge
combe Hospital, testified he was
acting medical officer in charge
at the time of Weaver’s death.
He said he was called to the
operating room and testified he
asked Dr. Distler what has hap
pened.
He quoted Dr. Distler as saying
cocaine had been applied to the
urethra. The defense objected
when Dr. McBrayer said one of
the nurses in the room told him
the cocaine was not applied —
that it was injected.
“In your medical opinion,”
Goodwin asked, “when you en
tered that room, was there any
thing — beyond the power of God
— that could have brought that
man back?”
“No, there was not,” Dr. Mc
Brayer answered.
U. S. Attorney Roger G. Con
nor’s last witness of the day was
Dr. Phillip Moore, former chief
surgeon at Mt. Edgecombe and:
now a consultant to the hospital.
Dr. Moore explained that a cys
toscope examination is an exami
ination of the bladder, and he
described the various medical
terms and the physical parts of
the body relating to such an ex
amination.
ONE WAY TO HAVE YOUR*
INCOME TAX FIGURED OUT
DENVER, UPi — “I’ve forgotten
my glasses,” said the timid man
at the Internal Revenue Service
office. “Would you help me?”
The willing agent filled out the
entire return with the help of
frequent information from the tax
payer. With the forip completed,
the agent pointed to a dotted line
and said: “Sign here.”
The taxpayer smiled triumph
antly, pulled a pair of glasses
from his pocket and signed.
No Hope Seen for Re-Establishment
Of Land Office in Nome at This Time
By RUTH McLEAN
At the weekly meeting of the
NWA Chamber of Commerce a
letter forwarded by Sen. Neal W.
Foster from the Assistant Secre
tary of the Interior was reed to
the members. The letter advised
that there was no hope of the re
establishment of the land office
in Nome at this time. The Depart
ment of the Interior still feels
that there is not enough business
to maintain an office here. If, in
the future, there is an increased
activity, the matter will be
promptly reconsidered, the assis
tant secretary stated.
Russell Hermann brought a bill
pending in the Territorial Legis
lature to the attention of the
Chamber, which proposes to levy
a tax on the number of fathom
feet of net owned by any person
or company. This could work a
hardship on the economy of the
lower Yukon area where some
200 to 300 people are hired by
the two small fisheries at Kwiguk
and Alakanuk: The additional tax
could wipe out the profit for the
two companies and cause them
to cease operations. The Chamber
sent telegrams to the Second Di
vision legislators protesting the
passing of the bill.
The balance of the business
period consisted of a preliminary
discussion of possible FHA home
loans in the Nome area. Jerry
Manning of the M & M Bank is
endeavoring to promote such loans
and would like to talk to any
persons interested in building a
new home. It is not impossible
to have a small subdivision of fine
homes in Nome without waiting
for the water and sewage system.
Community response will deter
mine how soon this can be real
ized, Mr. Manning stated.
*