NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS _
VOL. LV NO. 53 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, MAY 4, 1953 ,r Per Copy—
Accused G.I.s Deny
They Are Tainted
By Communism
PHOENIXVILLE. Pa., 'Ten
gaunt, tight-lipped men stepped
into1 the public spotlight at Valley
Forge military hospital to deny
they had been tainted by Com
munism while prisoners of war
in Korea.
They were bitter — and they
made it plain they felt they had
reason to be.
The stage for their tense drama
was set yesterday at the hospital
her^ — a short drive from the
Revolutionary War memorial park
that gave the hospital its name. It
had its origin in the cirmcum
stances surrounding their flight
home after release by their Red
captors.
While the 10—and 10 companions
— were enroute from Tokyo- by
plane last Thursday, an Air Force
spokesman said the Pentagon had
ordered a veil of secrecy thrown
around the flight “because of the
position taken by the Army and
others that these men may have
been misled under conditions of
duress and hardship during the
period of their captivity.”
Cpl. James L. Ball, 21, of Bell
burn, W. Va., said: “This Red
label makes us feel like criminals.
We are all completely innocent.”
Some of the staff officers at the
hospital seemed as militantly con
fused by the situations as the men
themselves.
“I don’t know where this idea
started,’ ’said one army doctor,
“but there’s one thing for sure—
we’re not running a damned
laundromat here.”
Cpl. Robert H. Hickox, 23, of
Syracuse, N.Y., who was serving
with the 65th Engineers when cap
tured Nov. 27, 1950, said he con
sidered the suggestion he or any
other member of the group was
Red-tainted “an insult.”
“It didn’t make homecoming
any better,” he said.
Nine Drown As Overladen
Rowboat Capsizes
HELENA, Mont., Iff) — A little
green boat, bought only hours be
fore with borrowed money for a
celebration outing, last night flip
ped nine of its 10 occupants into
watery graves. Eight of the bodies
were recovered today. •
The screams of a mother, whose
Helena family was wiped out,
brought two boys, and a girl onto
the remote scene thinking the
screams those of a cougar. The
trio rowed out^into the darkness
and rescued the mother, Mrs.
Billie Akins, 38. She had clung to
the side of the upturned boat more
than two hours.
Her father-inlaw, John Akins,
70, had also held on in the frigid
muddy waters until shortly before
the rescue. She said she saw the
body of his wife go by earlier.
Otherwise, she said, when the
boat collapsed, she never again
saw her husband, Edward, 35, a
smelter worker; her five children,
and a neightbor, Edward Burns,
47, a Helena mechanic.
The sheriff said the boat, pow
ered by the neighbor’s outboard
motor, was clearly overloaded by
the 10 persons.
Allies Nominate Pakistan
Neutral Caretaker For
Reds Unwilling Go Home
PANMUNJOM, UP) —The Allies
nominated Pakistan today as a
neutral caretaker for war prison
ers who • won’t go home, and
warned the apparently surprised
Reds: Time is “fast running out”
in the Korean truce talks.
Although Pakistan was one of
four Asian nations listed by the
Reds as acceptable neutrals, the
Communists sat mum.
Without even mentioning the
Allied choice the Reds asked and
received a recess until 11 a.m.
tomorrow, probably to consult
higher echelon Red officials.
The Communists Saturday sug
gested Pakistan, Burma, India
and Indonesia as acceptable hosts
for the 48,000 Red prisoners who
won’t go home.
Pakistan was the third nation
nominated by the United Nations.
First was Switzerland, which the
Reds opposed. Then Sweden. The
Communists insisted on an Asian
nation.
Estranged Mother Kills
Four Young Children By
Carbon Monoxide Fumes
MAHWAH, N.J., UP)—A 29-year
old woman, estranged from her
ex - football husband, killed her
four young children by carbon
monoxide poisoning yesterday in
the garage of their fashionable
home.
In an apparent change of mind,
she pulled some of the youngsters
from the family station wagon,
but not in time to save them,
police said.
“Why didn’t it kill me, why
didn’t it kill me?” moaned Mrs.
Carol MacDonald when police
found her in the living room of
her home.
She apparently tried to take her
own life and had left six suicide
notes. However, police said there
was no evidence that she actually
tried to kill herself.
Mrs. MacDonald and her 32
year-old husband, Kenneth, have
been separated since February,
when he filed a divorce suit
charging her with adultery with a
Brooklyn, N.Y., psychiatrist.
MacDonald is a former star
football player at Rutgers Uni
versity.
Jesse Stubbs and Quacco
Arrive at Destination
FAIRBANKS, —Jesse Stubbs,
who- plans to build a memorial to
Will Rogers and Wiley Post, has
reached the spot in northern Al
aska where the famous humorist
and his aviator friend crashed 18
years ago.
It took Stubbs two days to
make the 12 mile trip from Bar
row, by dog team, using an ani
mal borrowed from the Eskimos
and his own pet, Quacco.
Stubbs merely left his supplies
and returned to Barrow. He said
a sm^ll memorial placed at the
site previously is badly weather
ed and was difficult to locate.
While waiting for snow and ice
to thaw enough to permit a start
on his memorial, Stubbs said he
would spend the time hunting
' whales with the Eskimos.
. - I
Chamber to Fete
California Travel
Agents Wednesday
A capacity crowd of business
men of Nome is expected to at
tend the banquet for California
tour agents Wednesday evening at
the Bering Sea Club, it is re
ported.
This group of 18 agents are the
persons who sell tours the year
around and are coming to find out
what Nome has to offer the tour
ist. An unusual program with
several novel features is being
planned for their entertainment
by a committee of the Nome Vis
itors Association. It is promised
that the program will be dis
tinctively Alaskan and very
unique.
All business and other men who
have not been contacted and who
desire to attend the Wednesday
night dinner and entertainment
are asked to make their reserva
tions before noon Wednesday,
with A1 Branson at Wiens or with
George Goshaw.
U. S. NAVY FLATTENS
RED SUPPLY AREAS
SEOUL, W) — The American
Navy’s big guns and bombs burn
ed or flattened 228 Communist
buildings on the Korean north
east coast Sunday in one of its
heaviest blows of the war.
Two carriers, the Princeton and
the Valley Forge, hurled scores of
planes into the attack on supply
areas around Hungnam and Ham
hung.
The 45,000-ton battleship New
Jersey stood off shore and pound
ed the area with its 16-inch guns.
She was credited with destroying
23 buildings and damaging eight.
ST. LOUIS, tPI—Fred M. Saigh,
former St. Louis Cardinals owner,
surrendered Monday to a U.S.
deputy marshal to begin a 15
month prison term for income tax
evasion.
W L Pet.
New York .10 5 .706
Cleveland .10 5 .667
Philadelphia .10 7 .588
Boston . 9 7 .563
Chicago .10 8 .556
St. Louis . 8 9 .471
Washington . 6 12 .333
Detroit . 3 15 .167
. National League
Brooklyn ..'.11 5 .668
Philadelphia .11 5 .668
St. Louis . 7 5 .583
Milwaukee . 7 6 .538
Pittsburgh . 8 9 .471
Chicago . 5 7 .417
New York . 5 10 .333
Cincinnati . 2 9 .182
Coast League
Seattle . 24 10 .706
Los Angeles ....23 12 .657
Hollywood .21 14 .600
Portland . 17 15 .531
San Diego .13 20 .394
San Francisco .13 21 .382
Oakland .11 22 .333
- /
Alaska TB Death Rate
Seven Times That of U.S.
WASHINGTON, (TP)—Dr. C. Earl
Albrecht, Alaska Health Commis
sioner, has told a House Appropri
ation subcommittee that Alaska’s
death rate from tuberculosis is
seven times greater than in the
United States.
He said Alaska’s tuberculosis
death rate is 181 per 100,000 per
sons, compared with 26 in the U.S.
Supporting an appropriation re
quest for public health work in
Alaska, Albrecht urged that
grants be maintained at about
$700,000 annually.
He said federal appropriations
for the work have been decreas
ing for several years while the
territorial legislature has been
forced to increase its health funds.
The federal cuts, he declared
“have resulted in the elimination
of urgently needed programs: all
of the mobile marine units have
been tied up and 41 personnel,
including physiciahs, dentists,
nurses . . . have had to be laid
off . . . tuberculosis X-ray fol
lowups and surveys and vaccin
ation had to be curtailed.”
Bandleader Artie Shaw
Testifies He Had Never
Been a Communist
NEW YORK, (TP) — Bandleader
Artie Shaw told House Investigat
ors today that so far as he knew
he never had been a Communist
—although he had attended meet
ings conducted by Hollywood
Reds.
Shaw was the first witness be
fore the House Committee on un
American activities as it launched
a new probe into possible Com
munist infiltration into the en
tertainment industry.
About 45 persons, many of
them prominent in the theatrical
and other entertainment fields,
are reported under subpoena to
testify at the hearings here.
Under questioning, Shaw said
that “to the best of my knowl
edge I have never been a mem
ber of the Communist party.
In 1946, he said, a man—whose
name he did not know—asked
him if he wanted to join the
party, and the said said he had
been told by friends they thought
“I would be a good Communist.”
Shaw said he told the man “I
■didn’t know” about his possibil
ities for such affiliation.
Wrangell Legislators Not In
Fawr of Special Session
WRANGELL, (51 — Wrangell’s
two members of ' the territorial
Senate are in agreement that any
immediate call of a special legis
lative session would be pre
mature.
Sens. Doris Barnes, Republican
and James Nolan, Democrat,
made the comments regarding the
poll of legislators’ sentiment being
taken by Gov. Heintzleman.
They said a session might be
warranted after Congress acts on
appropriations and other legisla
tion affecting Alaska.
BERLIN, (51 — Two East Zone
Germans ran into West Berlin
early Monday under a hail of
rifle and pistol fire from Com
munist frontier sentries.
The pair, a trucker and a book
keeper was not hit.
Rapid Growth
Aggravates Alaska
Housing,Sanitation
WASHINGTON, UP) — Alaska’s
growth is aggravating its sanita
tion and housing problems to a
point “without parallel in any
other defense, boom area, even
during World War II,” reports Dr.
Jack C. Haldeman, assistant chief
of the Federal Security’s Agency’s
Bureau of State Services.
He so' told a House Appropria
tions subcommittee in support of
original budget requests totaling
$1,107,500 for disease and sani
tation investigations and control
in Alaska. The figure since has
been trimmed to $1,082,000.
Now in progress, he said, are
studies to determine the relation
of low temperatures to nutritional
deficiencies, effects of freezing on
living tissue — “so important in
finding answers to the problems
.of frostbite and trenchfoot;” dis
tribution patterns of disease types;
methods of insect control for low
temperature areas; existence and
potential danger to 'man of cer
tain animal-borne diseases; and
means to prevent freezing of
water distribution and sewage
disposal systems.
The doctors said the Arctic
Health Research Center at An
chorage also has verified earlier
beliefs that tuberculosis was a
leading cause of death in Alaska.
In the Yukon Delta region, 90
per cent of Eskimo children in the
5-8 bracket were found to be
tuberculin sensitive — “the high
est such rate reported anywhere
in the world.” Among Eskimo and
Indian children in interior Alaska
the rate was 65 per cent, and
only 22 per cent in southeast Al
aska. Among white children in
the territory, the rate is substan
tially lower.
Pretty Model Disappointed
In Love, Threatens To
Jump Off 140-ft. Tower
SANTA MONICA, Calif., UP)—A
pretty model kept hundreds of on
lookers in suspense by perching
atop a 140-foot water tower for
seven hours and threatening to
jump to her death.
Instead, she climbed down, sun
burned from 80-degree weather,
after her GI boy friend climbed
an iron ladder and talked to her
for more than an hour yesterday.
Dark - haired Mrs. Theresa
(Terry) C. McKinney, 20, divorced
mother of two small boys, climbed
the tower at 7:45 a.m. Apparently
she was upset by a broken ro
mance.
She was booked for disturbing
the peace.
Cpl. Robert Berman said he had
been going with Mrs. McKinney .
but added he and his mother told
her last night it would be better
if they didn’t see each other any
more. Berman, 21, is from Los
Angeles.
He wouldn't say what they talk
ed about on the tower.
“I just kept talking endlessly to
her,” he said. “I don’t know if
this will make any difference be
tween us. It’s problematical . if
I’ll ever see Terry again.”