ssi NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS ___
62nd Year No. 96 NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 1961 Per Copy 15^
Senate Passes Bill to
Make Air Pirates Face
Possible Death Penalty
WASHINGTON (<Pt — The Sen
ate yesterday passed a bill to j
make the hijacking of airplanes
subject to a possible death pen
alty and to provide stiff penalties
for other crimes in the sky.
The Senate action came the day
after the pirating of a jet airliner
over Mexico and its forced flight
to Cuba and just a week after
the attempted hijacking of another
jet over Texas.
The bill, backed by the Ken
nedy Administration, now goes to
the House where hearings on
similar legislation have been con
ducted this week.
Before passing the measure, the
Senate adopted by voice vote
an amendment to provide that
airplane hijackers may be sen
tenced to death if a jury so directs.
The maximum penalty had been
fixed at life imprisonment, and
the minimum 20 years.
The bill also would provide
heavy penalties for other crimes
in the skies.
Congress Shouts Its
Approval of Kennedy’s
Peacetime Defense Budget
WASHINGTON \R) — Congress,
shouting its approval, has given
President Kennedy a record
peacetime defense budget, in
cluding about a billion dollars
more than he asked.
By voice votes Thursday, House
and Senate accepted a conference
committee report on the $46.6
billion appropriation bill.
The completed action came just
16 days after Kennedy asked for
an additional $3.5 billion to
strengthen conventional forces in
the face of new Communist
threats.
Congress voted an extra $525
million to develop the 2,000-mile
an-hour B-70 bomber and extra
money for stepping up National
Guard and reserve strength.
The bill also carried $207.6 mil
lion Kennedy requested for an
intensified Civil defense shelter
program.
Alaskan Congressional
Delegation Continue
Efforts to Ease Duck Laws
WASHINGTON UP> — The Alas
ka congressional delegation is
continuing its efforts to ease reg
ulations on hunting migratory
birds by Eskimos who need the
birds for food.
Aides of the delegation discus
sed the matter yesterday with
representatives of the Interior
Department, Fish and Wildlife
Service and State Department.
Rep. Ralph Rivers said it was
an information exchange session
and that there was nothing de
finite to report.
Hunting of migratory water
fowl is controlled bp the govern
ment under international treaties.
It is hoped that when the treaties
come up for revision, some pro
vision can be made for Eskimos
who hunt birds for a livelihood.
AUGUSTINE KASGNOC
AWARDED SCHOLARSHIP
SEATTLE, Wn. — A Seattle
University scholarship has been
awarded to a Nome high school
graduate for the 1961-62 academic
year.
He is Augustine Kasgnoc, son of
Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Kasgnoc of
Nome.
Kasgnoc, a graduate of Copper
Valley school, is the recipient of
a Principal’s scholarship.
I. I.S. Airlines Take
Hesitant Steps
To Protect Planes
NEW YORK (^P — The nation’s !
airlines were reported taking 1
hesitant steps today to protect j
their planes against further hi
jackings. President Kennedy an
nounced yesterday that plain
clothes Boi'der Patrolmen will
ride some airliners.
Many air line officials fear
armed guards aboard planes may
prove a greater danger than the
hijackers themselves. In four hi
jackings since May 1, the aerial
pirates have been armed but there
has been no gunfire.
But a hijacker coming up
against an armed guard might
precipitate a gun battle such as
occurred Wednesday on a Cuban
airliner over that island. A pilot,
a guard and a hijacker were kill
ed, although the plane’s passengers
escaped injury.
Another hazard in event of a
gun battle aloft is that bullets
might pierce the pressurized
cabin, causing a plane crash.
Eastern Airlines said through
a spokesman “we are taking pre
cautions but we are not disclos
ing details for obvious security
reasons.”
Pan American World Airways
let it be known that it is install
ing cross bars on cockpit doors of
planes flying Latin - American
runs.
Modifications Ordered
For X-15 Rocket Plane
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE,
Calif. Iff) — Modifications have
been ordered for an X-15 rocket
plane which lost cabin pressure
during a Navy pilot’s checkout
flight.
When cabin pressure dropped I
during Cmdr. Forrest Peterson’s
flight Thursday, his pressure suit
inflated automatically to protect
him.
The suit, ballooned out by gas
pressure, slowed Peterson’s re
actions a trifle — and he went
280 miles an hour faster and 5,000
feet higher than he had planned
because he was slow in reaching
a flap control.
The X-15 reached a speed of
2,720 mph and an altitude of 80,
000 feet in an eight-minute flight,
then landed here. It was Peter
son’s first flight in the X-15 with
a newer, more powerful rocket
engine.
The X-15’s record flights have
taken it to 3,603 mph and up
169,000 feet.
Eichmann’s Verdict
Expected in October
JERUSALEM <£> — Israeli Atty.
Gen. Gideon Hausner ended the
summation of his case against
Adolf Eichmann yesterday with
a plea for a “just and truthful”
verdict that the former Gestapo
officer “acted willingly, lustfully
and zestfully to the very end.”
Hausner did not demand the
death penalty — the maximum
provided in Israeli law under
which Eichmann is charged — be
cause the Anglo-Saxon procedure
operative in Israeli’s courts does
not permit such a demand until
the defendant is convicted.
Monday, Eichmann’s West Ger
man defense counsel, Robert Ser
vatius, will sum up his defense.
He is expected to take only one
day.
The court will then recess for
the balance of the summer. It is
expected to return its verdict in
October.
Oregon and Washington |
National Guard Units
To Train in Alaska
SALEM, Ore. (J* — Ninety
members of the Oregon and Wash
ington National Guard will train
this winter in Alaska, Maj. Gen.
Alfred Hintz said Thursday.
Hintz, Commander of the 41st
Division of the Guard units of
the two states, said the men will
train as the nucleus of a division
training team for cold weather
and mountain operations.
He said 30 commissioned offi
cers will be involved in nine weeks
of training beginning in January.
The training site will be Ft.
Greely, near Fairbanks. The win
ter temperature there falls as low
as 47 below zero.
Hintz said more than enough
Guardmen already have volun
teered for the duty.
The men will return and in
struct cold weather training pro
grams planned later for Mt. Hood
and eastern Oregon areas. This
will be primarily in snow-shoe
and ski work.
The 41st Division assignment
is to aid in Alaskan defense in
case of attack.
Miners Arrested For
Diverting Stream
State Dept, of Fish and Game
protection officers moved in Wed
nesday on a Hope mining oper
ation which has diverted waters
of Resurrection Creek and ar
rested three persons, one of them
for the third time.
A hearing will be conducted
Aug. 21 on a request by the state
for a preliminary injunction.
Arraigned in Anchorage Magis
trate’s Court were Leonard Kai
ser, arrested twice before on a
charge of diverting a stream with
out obtaining a permit, Carl
Lottsfeldt, and Spencer Gage.
Lottsfeldt and Kaiser are part
ners in the venture. Gage is em
ployed by them as a dragline op
erator.
Lottsfeldt, an Alaskan for 42
years and grand president of the
Pioneers of Alaska, was out
spokenly critical of the methods
employed by the state to close
down the operation.
Lottsfeldt said his venture had
more than $100,000 worth of
equipment at the mining site. He
said he had requested a permit to
divert the stream on July 25 and
got no reply from the state until
Aug. 5. The state denied the per
mit.
“In mining operations every
day counts — it costs money to
stand idle, he said. “I don’t know
why the state couldn’t have acted
immediately on our request for a
permit.
“Under our present law govern
ing placer mining in Alaska, we
figure we’ve got some grandfather
rights in this thing. This claim
was recorded and has been main
tained since the turn of the cen
tury.”
SUBMARINE SAVES
RUNAWAY CAR . . .
LYSEKIL, Sweden (/PI — The
Swedish submarine Baevern saved
a runaway automobile from the
waters of the North Sea Thurs
day night.
A motorist from Stockholm
parked the car on a street sloping
sharply to the docks of this little
fishing town on Sweden’s West
Coast.
After the driver left, the car
rolled down the street, through
a busy intersection and over the
embankment — to land on the
submarine moored below.
Harbor Patrol Intercepts
Two Youths in Stolen
Yacht on Way to Hawaii
SAN PEDRO, Calif. W—Charles
Thomasset strolled down the pier
at San Pedro Harbor to work on
his vaeht. the Los Amigos.
Looking up. he saw the white
hulled, $50,000 vessel churning
toward the harbor entrance.
By chance, two detectives were
investigating a boat theft at the
landing Thursday. They notified
the Coast Guard, which informed
a Harbor Patrol boat in the area.
It stopped the Los Amigos.
Aboard were two teen-age boys
who told police they were headed
for Honolulu and then the South
Pacific to become “beachcombers.”
Jan Hornsby, 16, of West Los!
Angeles, and Geof Chadwick, 15,
of Los Angeles, had no money,
no extra clothes — and no food.
They were booked on suspicion
of grand theft.
They told officers they had
stolen bicycles Wednesday and
pedaled to the harbor to take a
boat. They cased' the yacht land
ing, they said, and picked out a
vessel. But it. was gone when they
returned so they took the Los
Amigos, a 45-foot schooner.
They told investigators they
prepared for their journey by
checking out two books from the
San Pedro Library.
The titles? “Deep Sea Sailing”
and “Law for Yachtsmen.”
On their way to the police sta
tion the boys directed officers to
the place they had left the bi
cycles. But they were gone — ap
parently stolen.
“I guess nobody’s honest,” one
of the teen-agers said.
All-Girl CAP Team Wins
National Drill Contest
AIR FORCE ACADEMY. Colo
rado Springs, Colo. 1,7) — An all
girl team from Pueblo, Colo., won
the national drill team contest
of the Civil Air Patrol for the
second straight year Wednesday.
Second was Puerto Rico and
third was Hawaii.
Eleven teams of 18 members
! and a leader each competed in
the contest at the Air Force
Academy grounds.
$2.5 Billion Federal Aid to
Schools Bill Bogged Down
WASHINGTON IT) — The Sen
ate Labor and Public Welfare
Committee quickly approved to
day a bill extending for one year,
until June 30, 1962, the program
of federal aid for schools crowd
ed with children of federal em
ployes.
Introduction of the measure yes
terday by two key Democratic
senators wras regarded as signal
ing the abandonment of adminis
tration hopes for passage this
year of a general federal aid for
education measure. The $2.5 bil
lion public school bill is bogged
down in the House Rules Com
mittee.
FULL TIME LABOR DEPT.
OFFICE TO BE SET UP HERE
Sen. Lester Bronson has re
ceived word from Merrill Weir,
Director of Division of Employ
ment Security, that final approval
has been received for the estab
lishment of a full time ESC and
Labor Dept, here, replacing the
part time ESC office, which has
been here the past two years
and which is temporarily closed.
The department is now review
ing applications for the position
and anyone interested may con
tact Lester Bronson.
Cosmonaut Titov
Reviews Space
Hit'll! to Newsmen
o
MOSCOW (JC, — Soviet Cosmo
naut Gherman Titov said today
he was ejected from his space
ship at the end of his epic 25-hour
orbital flight and parachuted to
earth.
The second Soviet spaceman
told a jammed news conference
his spaceship Vostok II came dovm
separately by parachute “but if
the need had arisen, I could have
landed it myself.”
Titov said there were two land
ing systems available — either to
remain in the spaceship and para
chute down with it or to des
cend separately. He said he had
permission to use either system.
“I felt well and decided to test
the second landing system,” he
said.
The ship landed safely nearby,
he added.
Titov said after landing neither
he nor medical experts could de
tect any changes in his physical
organism.
Asked whether his spaceship
could be used on long flights, Ti
tov replied that Vostok II had
been designed for orbit flights
and could stay in orbit a long
time.
Titov spoke at a news confer
ence held at Moscow University
for more than 1,500 Soviet and
foreign newsmen, scientists and
diplomats.
Mstislav Keldysh, president of
the Soviet Academy of Sciences,
introduced the Soviet Union’s
new space hero and said his 25
hour flight had produced a wealth
of scientific information that will
be published and shared with sci
entsts all over the world.
Keldysh said foreign newsmen
will be permitted to watch
launchings of Soviet spaceships
in the future but gave no indi
cation when this would happen.
“You realize carrier rockets are
not only peaceful instruments,
and if the Americans had such
advanced carrier rockets you can
be sure they wouldn’t be showing
them either,” he said.
The Soviet academician said Ti
tov had demonstrated that a hu
man pilot is able to control his
spaceship manually, make sci
entific observations and land his
craft on any spot on earth.
Titov told the newsmen he re
garded his historic flight round
and round the earth as “something
natural,” that it did not seem like
anything extraordinary because
he had trained so thoroughly for
it.
Army Helicopters on Way
To Bolster Alaskan Defense
NORFOLK, Va. UP) — Army
helicopter units left Hampton
Roads yesterday on a 6,870-mile
journey for Anchorage, where
they will bolster Alaskan defense.
Loaded aboard the USNS Card,
a small aircraft carrier operated
by the Military Sea Transporta
tion Service, were 20 helicopters,
96 pilots and maintenance men.
This was the first time the
Transportation Corps has shipped
an entire unit with its equipment,
dependent household goods and
private automobiles aboard a sin
gle vessel.
The helicopters, disassembled
for the voyage, will be put to
gether on the carrier and flown
to their new station at Ft. Wain
wright.