NOME NUGGET
_OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS__
VOL. LVI No. 42 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7, 1954 Per Copy—15<*
-----—— —— 1111 — - — — ■ — ■ — ——— » y —- —" „ -
340 Ballots Cast
In City Election
The biggest single vote east in
yesterday’s municipal election
was for Pearse Walsh who re
ceived 307 votes for the one-vear
term on the Utility Board. A to
tal of 340 votes were cast, an in
crease of 77 votes over last year’s
city election.
The surprise of the balloting
was the tie cast in the proposed
ratification of an ordinance to
vacate Third Ave. between West
B Street and Division Street as
a public thoroughfare.
Following are the votes cast for
each candidate:
For Mayor—Steve Andersen, 284.
For Councilmen (one-year term)
James Walsh — 235
Rita Harper — 105
Chas. M. Reader — 84
Fred M. Bockman — 73
Thomas Tungwenuk — 69
Robert K. Herman — 57
For ' Councilmen (two-year term)
Rose Silverman — 233
Ernie Gustafson — 208
Bob Lewis — 208
Keith Hedreen — 191
For City Clerk—
Carrie M. McLain — 217
Albert “Vic” Hansen — 116
For City Treasurer—
Byron G. Reed — 254
For School Board —
William J. Barber — 280
For Utility Board—
One-Year Term—
Pearse Walsh — 307
Two-Year Term—
Nels Swanberg, Jr. — 216
Clinton Gray — 100
Three-Year Term—
Dewey Goodrich — 2:80
Four-Year Term—
William T. Haley — 268
Five-Year Term—
Thomas Martin — 190
Lester Bronson — 118
Ratification Ordinance No. 363—
For — 143
Against — 143
Air Force Nurse Convicted
Unpremeditated Murder
Of Her New-Born Baby
ANCHORAGE, UPi — Lt. Eliza
beth J. Gibson, 25-year-old un
married Air Force nurse, has been
convicted of the unpremeditated
murder of her new-born infant
and sentenced to 13 years im
prisonment at hard labor, Air
Force officials anounced Tuesday.
The conviction and sentence by
general court-martial ocurred last
Friday after a secret trial which
started March 13
In addition to the prison sen
tence, the nurse was sentenced to
dishonorable discharge and for
feiture of all pay and allowances.
Air Force officials consistently
have refused to make public Lt.
Gibson’s home town or other in
formation about her. She was
transferred' to Elmendorf last
November from a Texas base.
The infant’s body was discov
ered after the mother requested
medical aid last Jan. 8 after she
had given birth to the child un
assisted. A post mortem revealed
the infant had died by strangula
tion, military officials said.
The record of the trial and the
sentence still are subject to re
view by higher military authori
ties.
Ordinance INo. 363
To he Re-presented
For Ratification
Mayor Stove Andersen made a
statement today in regard to the
tie vote cast in yesterday’s city
election on the ratification of
City Ordinance No'. 363. Mayor
Anderson's statement follows:
"Obviously . . . there is a tragic
misunderstanding of its purposes
and intent. The only reason your
city government presented this
ordinance to the people for rati
fication was to make adequate
space for the proposed school
addition which you voted for by
an overwhelming majority.
"It is not the intent of this
ordinance to deny anyone access
to their property or to deny right
of-way for fire protection.
"If we the people of Nome are
to make sure our children and
the future children of Nome are
fo have adequate school facilities,
this ordinance must be passed be
fore we can secure federal aid for
the school addition project. This
ordinance must be presented to
the people again as soon as pos
sible for ratification.
If your city government has
erred in presenting the ordinance
to the people of Nome we will do
everything we can to show its
true intent.
"This ordinance must be passed
or the school project, in which
you have invested your money
and which is so vitally needed,
will fail. Let's not lose our school
addition now, when it is so close
to becoming a reality, because of
misunderstandings."
3rd Div. Statehood Group
Back Nome’s Stand
Against Partition Proposal
The following wire addressed to
Mike Walsh and Jim von der
Heydt was received from Barrie
White Jr., of the Operation State
hood group at Anchorage:
"Everyone here likewise shock
ed by the asinine pariilion sug
gestion. We are 100 per cent with :
you to the finish. Many protest !
wires have been sent to Speaker
Martin plus a hundred to Presi- i
dent Eisenhower."
McKay Appoints Board
To Survey F & W S
WASHINGTON, IA — Secretary
of the Interior McKay Tuesday
named a five-man committee to
survey the Fish and Wildlife Ser
vice as a part of the departmental
reorganization started last year.
The members: James Turnbull,
Seattle, vice president of the
western division of Monsanto
Chemical Co.; Ross Leffier, Pitts
burgh, vice president of United
States Steel Corp.; and chairman
of the Pennsylvania State Game
Commission; John D. Pennekamp,
Miami, associate editor of the Mi
ami Herald; John D. Bennett,
assistant director of the depart
ment’s technical review staff; and
M. George Goodrick, of the de
partment’s division of manage
ment research.
McKay said the survey will de
termine what is being done in the
service, whether it is being ac
complished in an efficient man
ner, and whether there are other
means of accomplishing the work
more effectively.
Fall of Southeast .Asia To Communists
Will Have Incalculable Consequences
To Free World Says Pres. Eisenhower
Constitutionality
Of Liquor Laws
To Be Argued
ANCHORAGE, U?)—Arguments
in the Third District Court on the
constitutionality of the Alaska
liquor laws was postponed in
definitely yesterday by Judge J.
L. McCarrey.
The judge announced the post
ponement as the hearing was
scheduled to' reopen. He said Ev- I
ander Smith, attorney for one of '
the groups involved, had been
called to the States by the death
of Smith’s father.
The liquor law challenge was
instituted by John Manders, at
torney, in a hearing on the license
applications of five Spenard firms
previously denied license to op
erate.
Ed Merdes, assistant attorney
general o'f Alaska, now is in An
chorage prepared to intervene in
the case when the hearing re
sumes. The territory contends the
laws are valid.
Manders contends the issuance
of liquor licenses is a “ministerial
rather than judicial action” and
therefore outside the court’s au
thority .
• WASHINGTON, ufl — President
Eisenhower indicated today the
United States has already con
structed H-bombs as powerful as
there would ever be any reason
to build. And he said he has no
fear that Russia will build a big
ger one.
The President touched briefly
on the H-bomb during a news
conference at which he also said
the free world cannot afford fur
ther losses to the Communists in
Asia.
The consequences for the free
world, he declared, would be in
calculable if the Communists
should overrun Indochina and
southeast Asia.
The President said this country
is talking with other nations
about the Indochina situation but
he declined to say what may be
contemplated to prevent conquest
of that area by the Reds.
As to the hydrogen bomb, the
President said specifically that he
knows of no military require
ments which could lead the
United States into production of
an even bigger H-bomb than the
ones exploded in the Pacific test
ing area last month.
He also said at this time he
knows of no possibility of direct
(Continued cm Page Two)
President Sees Some Advantages
In Dividing Alaska For Statehood
U. of A. President
Warns Against
Carving Up Alaska
FAIRBANKS, (IP)—Dr. Ernest N. i
Patty, president of the University )
of Alaska, has issued a warning
against the plan to “carve up Al
aska as a compromise on state
hood.”
“These remote areas such as the
Alaska Peninsula and the drain
age areas north and south of the
Brooks Range in the Arctic are
our great potential areas of pet
roleum,” Patty said here.
Patty, former dean of the
School of Mines at the University
and a mining engineer, said there
is good reason to expect the
marine sediments which underlie
these areas to' contain commercial
oil sands. If this is true, he said,
they would enrich the proposed
new state of Alaska.
In the meantime, he felt, they
are sparsely populated and the
administration would not be ex
pensive.
Sen. Butler and his committee
have written a practical and
workable statehood bill,” he said
“The Senate has just passed this
bill by a substantial majority and
if the House members are as well
informed, there is no reason they
shouldn’t follow the Senate in this
vital question.
“The bill is generous and sets
up proper safeguards. I have care
fully studied the Senate bill and
heartily endorse it and I am con
fident most Alaskans feel the
same way.”
Patty’s statement is in conform
ity with a recent action taken by
the Board of Regents of the Uni
versity in which they endorsed
statehood.
WASHINGTON, UP) — President
Eisenhower at his press confer
ence today reiterated that he has
felt all along that Alaska is not
yet ready for statehood.
But he said he would have to
take a new look at the matter if
a Senate-approved bill to bring
both Alaska and Hawaii into the
union at the same time is finally
approved by Congress.
The House has passed a bill
which would admit only Hawaii.
As for the suggestion by Gov.
Heintzleman of Alaska that only
the developed, populated area of
the territory be made a state, the
President said he would have to
study that idea further.
He added, however, that there
would seem to be some advan
tages in statehood for other than
what he called the outlying areas
of the present territory.
He said if Congress finally votes
statehood for both Hawaii and Al
aska he will want to think a long
time before deciding whether to
veto1 the measure.
The President told a news con
ference his opposition to bring
ing Alaska into the union might
be modified if it was decided to
give statehood only to' the popu
lated region of that territory.
Asked if he would veto a bill
granting statehood to both, the
President said he never makes
predictions on things of that kind.
He added he would have to study
a long time in order to reach a
correct decision.
Then a reporter mentioned the
proposal that only the populated
part of the vast territory of Al
aska be admitted to statehood at
this time.
Eisenhower said, without com
mitting himself, that this poses a
different situation and that, if the
remoter reaches of Alaska such
as the Bering Strait region were
excluded from the bill, he would
look at it with an entirely differ
ent attitude.
ALASKA SPLIT?
I_I
AP Photo
The shaded area in this map of Alaska shows the
part which Gov. B. Frank Heinlzleman has proposed for
immediate statehood as a compromise in the congres
sional dispute over the Alaska-Hawaii statehood issue,
this would leave about half of Alaska (indicated by white
portions in map) in territorial status. Heinlzleman
advanced the suggestion in Washington. D.C., Saturday.