• \
m NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LIX No. 14 NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1957 Per Copy—15*
Appalachian Floods Cause Millions
Of Dollars Damage; At Least 13
Dead; Hundreds Evacuate Homes
By the Associated Press
The toll of death and destruc
tion mounted today as new heavy
rains fed one of the worst floods
in the history of the Appalachian
Mountains region and carried the
threat deeper into the South.
Thirteen were dead in Ken
tucky, West Virgina and Virginia
—first to be struck when flood
waters rolled out of the moun
tains four days ago.
Broader Tax Base Needed
President Eisenhower declared
Proposal Would Enable
Skilled Military People
To Be Paid for Ability
WASHINGTON, UP)—The De
fense Department is considering
proposals that would enable
skilled and dedicated military
people to be paid more for ability,
regardless of length of service.
Present premium pay for length
of service would be dropped, but
provisions would be included to
prevent a pay cut for anyone now
in service. •
The propsals were made by a
committee appointed by Secre
tary of Defense Wilson to devise
additional ways to encourage
good men to join and stay in the
armed forces.
The proposed new system would
encourage the services to weed
out men with poor or mediocre
ability who would otherwise try
to stay in “soft spots in the ser
vices and be content to let the
passage of years bring them auto
matic pay increases.
portions of Kentucky and West
Virginia a disaster area as dam
ages ran into millions of dollars.
Virginia Gov. Thomas B. Stan
ley also requested disaster desig
nation for six southwest coun
ties where 2,000 were homeless
and 18,000 knocked out of their
jobs by the floods.
Gen. Alfred M. Gruenther,
president of the American Red
Cross, said it was allocating half
a million dollars for flood relief
in three states.
New Flood Warnings
But even as already devastated
' areas began the Herculean task
| of getting back to normal, new
j flood warnings were raised in
[ Tennessee, western North Caro
lina and northeast Georgia.
Heavy rains continued to pound
east Tennessee from Chattanooka
to Knoxville. Two hundred fam
ilies fled their homes at Sevier
ville, 26 miles southeast of Knox
ville, as water from the little Pig
eon River rose to two and three
feet deep in the center of town.
Kentucky Areas Devastated
The devastated area in Ken
tucky followed the course of the
Kentucky, Big Sandy and Cum
berland Rivers. Among the hard
est hit in Kentucky were Hazard
and Pikeville.
Pikeville suffered the worst
flood in its history and Fire Chief
Charles Smith said, “If we get
any more flood water, I don’t
know what we’ll do.”
Damages at Hazard alone were
estimated at over $5 million.
ACTING GOV. HENDRICKSON
GIVES STERN FINANCE MESSAGE
TO ALASKA LEGISLATURE
JUNEAU tff>—Acting Gov. Wai
no Hendrickson spoke dollars and
cents today in a stern and historic
message to a joint session of the
Alaska Legislature.
Returning before the 23rd Leg
islature which he had convened
Monday in his duties as secretary
of Alaska, the 60-year-old Hen
drickson said “the -eyes of Wash
ington are, as never before, fo
cused upon Alaska and upon our
actions here."
In his 4,200-word message, he
urged the territory’s '16 senators
and 24 representatives to provide
for Alaska's development without
resort to new taxes.
More People and Industires
Hendrickson, who became the
only acting governor in Alaska’s
history to deliver the biennial
message to the Legislature, sug
gested instead “a broader tax
base for collecting revenue—more
people and more productive in
dustries.”
‘*We cannot attract population
and industries by erecting high
tax barriers,” Hendrickson said,
"and I recommend that you care
fully study our laws with regard
to tax incentives for new indus
trial enterprises.”
No Major New Industries
Henderson pointed to the con
tinued growth of the territory,
but added: “We must . . . face the
fact that during the past bienni
um not a single major industrial
installation has commenced oper
ations in Alaska.”
He reported that the territory
has a surplus in the treasury—
“but the picture is not as bright
as it was two years ago.” At the
end of 1954, he said, thore was a
net cash balance of just under
$5 million in the general fund.
“By the end of 1956 this balance
had dropped to just slightly over
three million dollars.”
Unbalance in Finance
This “unbalance in our terri
torial finance,” the acting gov
ernor said, came at a time when
Alaska’s “tax revenues reached
the highest levels in history.”
The increase in revenues was
due, he said, “almost entirely to
the increased tax rates imposed
by the 1955 Legislature.”
111,1
7 Die as Airliner, Jet Collide
-<
Man Picks Up Phone,
Is Killed by Short Circuit
Sixty Miles Away
WASSILA, Alaska —A fallen
power line near Anchorage yes
terday caused the death of a man
60 miles away.
The power line vnas hit by a
broken cable from a cement silo,
and telephone circuits operated
by the Alaska Railroad were
short-circuited.
Before electrical controls could
be shut off, a section gang labor
er for the railroad—36-year-old
John Dutchman—picked up a
telephone at Wassiia, 60 miles
from the fallen line. He died in
stantly.
Scouts Collect
$157 in Evening’s
‘March on Polio’
The Explorer Scouts met with
wonderful response last evening
when they made theiir “March on
Polio.” At seven o’clock Mr. Art
Craft drove the boys to their sec
tion of town and one hour later
every home had been contacted.
The boys and the amounts they
brought in are:
Johnny Herman, $18.50; Robert
Esenituk, $58.25; Gilbert Komak,
$14.30; team of David Barber and
Fritz Chambers, $15.70; team of
Lee Oman and Billy Muller,
$17.45; team of Grant Doyle and
Taylor Moto, $32.98.
Tfie total contributions brought
in by the Scouts was $157j18.
Envelopes were left where no
one was at home. Contributions
may be placed in these envelopes
and brought tf> the N.C. Cat Shop,
Carrie McLain’s office, or call
Mary Andersen and she will ar
range to pick them up.
The containers in business
houses will be collected Monday,
thus ending Nome’s‘drive for the
March of Dimes. The total col
lected to date is $262.73.
Some word of praise should
be made for the business-like way
the boys went about dividing the
city into sections, getting right to
work and taking pride in their
part of the drive. Mr. Craft de
serves thanks for his part as does
Mary Andersen, who planned the
project.
Turkey Suffering From
Winter Cold Spell
ISTANBUL, UR—Winter’s grip
choked communications and
brought death yesterday to at
least four persons in Turkey’s
frigid highlands.
In the city of Mala ya in south
eastern Anatolia, water mains
were frozen by temperatures that
fell to 22 degrees below zero.
A raging fire in the city’s cen
tral business district destroyed 30
shops, causing an estimated mil
lion dollars damage.
Wolf packs roaming thru Ma
latya attacked and lulled scores
of dogs. One man was found
frozen to death.
Airliner Crashes Into School Yard,
Killing Two Boys; Jet Survivor Jumps
VAN NUYS, Calif., (/P)—A- collision-crippled air
liner smashed into a crowded schoolyard yesterday,
scattering its deadly debris like shrapnel. Seven per
sons died, two of them children.
, The injured numbered 78.
Shocked citizens today sought some curb on plane
testing over such populous areas as this sprawling San
TITO’S VISIT
TO AMERICA
CALLED OFF
BELGRADE UPi—Yugoslavia to
day announced that President
Tito, “for the time being” will
not visit the United States.
In making this anoun cement, a
government spokesman, Branko
Draskovic, disclosed for the first
time officially that th£ govern
ments of the U.S. and Yugoslavia
had agreed on a Tito visit to
Washington, D.C.
But it’s off now, said Drasko
vic, because of “the conditions
and atmosphere” in the United
States. These conditions, he said,
make it appear “the time for
such a visit is not as yet ripe.”
This clearly referred to out
spoken opposition in Congress to
a Tito visit. One congressman,
Sep. O’Konski (R-Wis) threat
ened to resign if Tito came to
Washington. Others, such as Sen.
Douglas '(D-II1), threatened to
boycott any Tito speech before
Congress. A bipartisan group of
House leaders urged the Eisen
hower Administration not to in
vite, the Yugoslav President.
PAA Asks Again
For Direct Route
To Far East
WASHINGTON (JTi—Pan Amer
ican World Airways today asked
the Civil Aeronautics Board for a
review of its request for access to
Seattle and Portland in competi
tion with Northwest Airlines on
the direct great circle route to
the F^r East.
Pan American contended that
the age of “pure jet commercial
transportation” which it will start
in less than three years “demands
the discontinuance of restrictions
on the U.S. transpacific service.”
“The intercontinental jets that
make ponds out of oceans would
be wasted on island-hopping,”
PAA said. “This would deprive
the public and the government of
the efficient services the airline
is capable of.”
The jet is expected to operate
nonstop between Tokyo and Se
attle but the 800 to 1,200 added
miles to California would prevent
nonstop operations.
Pan American described its
present course via mid-Pacific is
lands as “an antiquated route
pattern . . . 1,000 miles longer for
California and 2fi000 miles or
more for the rest of the U.S.”
'Fernando Valley.
The four-engine craft on
its final test flight, collid
ed at 20,000 feet with a jet
fighter, also being tested.
The transport came down in a
screaming dive, disintegrating <as
it fell.
A blazing wing section ex
ploded over the athletic field at
Pacoima Junior High School,
where nearly 100 seventh grade
boys in gym clothes were exer
cising.
The plane’s flying fragments
cut them down " as they ran. Two
of them were hurt fatally. The
four men in the transport also
were killed, as was the pilot of
the fighter plane.
Hospitals said 28 persons were
admitted, al^ but one of them
students.
Two other schools, a church and
scores of residences for blocks
around were damaged by bits and
pieces of the plane as it burst like
a fiery bomb over the residential
•area 20 miles northwest of Los
Angeles.
The collision and its terrify
ing results had repercussions in
Washington, D.C., where south
ern California House members
united in a demand for an in
vestigation. They said that they
would seek to prevent future
test flights over populous areas.
City and school officials joined
in condemning the practice.
Hundreds of persons in the
sprawling Los Angeles basin saw
the two stricken planes as they
made their spectacular plunge
(Continued on Page Two)
Convict Leaves
$10,000 Estate to
Fellow Lifer
FLORENCE, Ariz. Tom Sis
son, who was the oldest inmate in'
the state prison when he died last
week at 86, left an estate of al
most $10,000. He willed the mon
ey to a fellow prisoner.
Former Warden Alya Weaver,
the executor of Sisson’s estate,
said yesterday the money was
saved by “Old Tom” from a pen
sion he earned as a U.S. Army
Indian scout in the 1880s.
Sisson was sentenced to a life
term in 1918 for his part in the
murder of three officers who at
tempted to arrest Tom and John
Powers in a mountain hideaway
for World War I draft dodging.
But John Powers, who inherits
the $10,000, won’t go rushing out
to spend it. He’s in for life, too.