2S NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LXI No. 21 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1959_Per Copy—15<g
4Any Berlin Shooting Will Be Started
By Communists’ Deelares Eisenhower
WASHINGTON, UPl — President
Eisenhower said emphatically to
day that if there is any shooting
over West Berlin it will be started
by the Soviet Union — and not by
the Western Allies.
The President told a news con
ference the Allies have no inten
tion of taking the first step in a
shooting war.
He was commenting on an as
sertion by Soviet Premier Khrush
chev that any attempt by the
Western Allies to shoot their way
to West Berlin would mean war.
Eisenhower said Khrushchev
must have been talking about
shooting by Communist forces to
stop the Western Allies from doing
their duty.
The President was alluding to
pledges by the Allies to maintain
their rights of communication with
West Berlin.
Eisenhower underscored his po
sition by setting forth this view
twice during the 30-minute news
conference.
On other matters, the President
said:
Dulles — He wants John Foster
Dulles to continue as Secretary of
State as long as Dulles believes he
is in shape to carry on.
Eisenhower said he has dis
cussed with no one the possibility
of replacing Dulles in the cabinet.
As he did last week, Eisenhower
AEG Still Not
Decided on Alaska
Harbor Blast
WASHINGTON, (tf>—1The Atom
ic Energy Commission still is con
sidering the use of nuclear ex
plosives to blast out a harbor, but
is looking for some place more
suitable than Alaska.
AEC Chairman John McCone
told the Senate-House atomic com
mittee yesterday there was some
question whether there would be
enough commercial use of an
Alaska harbor even if it were
excavated.
The subject came up when he
referred to the commission’s
Project Plowshare for demon
strating possible peaceful applica
tions of nuclear explosives.
McCone said a number of stu
dies were made during 1958 and
the excavation of a harbor in
Alaska was among three projects
that received preliminary con
sideration.
He said a second project, the
blasting of large masses of oil
bearing shales, is under active dis
cussion. He described the third as
“a fully contained explosion for
manufacture of radioisotopes and
generation of heat that might be
tapped for power production.”
Judge Correctly Predicts
Fatal End For Young
Chicago Hoodlum
CHICAGO, UP) — The judge told
the youth, ‘‘If you don’t mend your
ways, my boy, you’ll wind up
with your mother identifying you
on a slab in the morgue.
Chief Justice Abraham L. Mar
ovitz of criminal court, was talk
ing to Joseph Basile, 16, who had
violated probation after pleading
guilty to theft charges.
That was January 16.
Tuesday a prbation officer ap
peared before the judge. He said
Basile was shot and killed during
a holdup attempt February 10.
heaped praise on the ailing Dulles.
The President called him his clos
est friend and confidant in the
government. There is no equal,
Eisenhower said, to Dulles’ wis
dom and knowledge in the foreign
affairs field.
Budget — He doesn’t see why
the term balanced budget is be
coming a bad word.
Eisenhower made that remark
when told an unnamed Republican
senator had suggested that the
President is making a fetish of his
determination to maintain a bal
anced budget.
Observing that there is a pros
pective deficit of about 13 billion
dollars for the current year, Eisen
hower commented that the Ad
ministration has accepted that and
has been guilty of no fetish in
doing so.
As for the fiscal year starting
July 1 and the Administration’s
proposal that revenue and spend
ing be kept in balance, Eisen
hower said crisply that^if we can’t
live within our means in a time
of developing prosperity, then just
when are we going to be able to
do so.
Jobs — Sometimes it seems more
difficult to get good men to take
top government jobs for the re
maining two years of his Adminis
tration than it was for the first six
years. However, he remarked with
a smile, taking a job for two years
is not as bad as accepting one for
eight years.
And good men, the President
said, don’t hesitate to accept a
position for the remaining two
years.
General George Marshall
Suffers Second Stroke,
More Severe, Say Doctors
FT. BRAGG, N. C., (A1 — Gen
eral George C. Marshall has had
another stroke and his condition
is considered serious.
The World War II Army Chief
of Staff suffered a mild stroke
January 15 at his winter home at
nearby Pinehurst. He is 78.
An announcement today by the
Womack Army Hospital here said
the stroke suffered in the night
was more severe than the pre
vious one.
Mrs. Marshall has been a daily
visitor at the bedside of her hus
band who served after World War
II both as Secretary of State and
Secretary of Defense.
Vanguard II ‘Working Perfectly’ As
U. S. Collects Radioed Weather Data
By JOHN H. AVTRILL
WASHINGTON, 0?) — America’s
newest earth satellite streaked
through space today, flashing back
hourly data that may open a new
era in man’s ability to forecast the
weather.
Jubilant scientists at National
Aeronautics and Space Admin
istration headquarters reported
that weather monitoring equip
ment aboard the 20-inch shell was
“working perfectly.”
Among other things, the bas
ketball-size globe is designed to
spot and report cloud conditions
in an experiment designed even
tually to help forecasters predict
storms.
However, NASA officials reiter
ated that it probably will be two
weeks before electrical signals
transmitted from this satellite can
be processed and findings re-,
Gruening To Ask
For Anchorage-To
Nome Highway
Senator Ernest Gruening is
planning to submit a bill to Con
gress which will provide new high
ways in Alaska between Anchor
age and Nome and between An
chorage and Fairbanks, including
in its route Mt. McKinley National
Park.
A letter to this effect from Sen
ator Gruening was read to mem
bers of the Anchorage Chamber
of Commerce board of directors
this week.
The senator says at the present
time he is putting together a pro
gram which he plans to submit
in the near future, including:
A highway from Anchorage to
McGrath and Nome, using the
present roads through Palmer and
j Wasilla, with an extension to
I Talkeetna, thence west to Mc
| Grath, thence north from Ophir
to Poorman, where it will join
the present Poorman-Ruby road
to join Highway 97 near Ruby,
which he proposes will be con
structed westward from Fair
banks to Nome.
Rivers Nominates Alaska
Candidates for Air Force
And Naval Academies
WASHINGTON, GP — Four
nominations for the U. S. Naval
Academy and five for the Air
Force Academy have been made
by Representative Ralph J. Rivers.
There are five vacancies for
Alaskans at the Naval Academy,
but an aide explained time ran out
before a fifth applicant could be
lined up.
The five nominees for the Air
Force Academy will compete for
one opening allotted Alaska’s
congressman.
The Naval Academy nominees
are C. James Edenson, Ketchikan;
James Graham Newberry, Anchor
age; Robert Grimes Pittman, Ju
neau, and Ronald Short, Kodiak.
Nominees for the Air Force
Academy are Harry M. Britten
ham, Anchorage; Budd H. Hebert,
Haines; Peter Hoepfner, Juneau;
Dennis E. Lund, Petersburg, and
David R. Sweeney, Anchorage.
NAVY BLIMP CRASH
KILLS FOUR CREW MEN
WASHINGTON, N. C., UP) — A
Navy blimp crashed and burned
in a swamp near here early yester
day killing four of the seven crew
members. Three were injured.
ported.
By that time radio batteries
which report findings of the sat
ellite’s weather eyes, a pair of
photoelectric cells, are expected
to have gone dead.
But the satellite itself, a 21 Im
pound sphere launched Tuesday
from Cape Canaveral, Fla., may
continue to orbit through space
for at least a decade, possibly for
centuries. Not until the effects of
atmospheric drag can be observed
and calculated will a more defi
nite life span be known.
Triggered by radio signals from
ground stations, the satellite’s
tiny radio transmitter flashes back
weather data approximately once
each hour.
Latest calculations indicated the
satellite, dubbed Vanguard II,
makes a complete orbit of the
earth every 125.9 minutes.
Legislature Still Ponders Problems Of
Work Priority And Length Of Session
JUNEAU, (J1) — Decisions on
which are the “must” bills before
the Legislature, and the order in
which they should be acted on,
were expected at another meeting
of the 10-man Democratic policy
committee today.
Still undecided officially after
a two-hour session late yesterday,
however, was the dominant ques
tion of how much longer the
state’s first Legislature will meet..
This was the 24th day.
No official word was mentioned
after yesterday’s conference, but
the majority’s party leaders still
talked informally of 60 days, with
another shorter meeting ths fall.
The possibility of a split session
has been widely discussed.
Representative Peter Kalama
rides, majority floor leader in the
House, said he believed a 60-day
session would get the needed work
done and that he doubted if a
fall get-together would be needed.
But Senate President William
Beltz said it was too early yet to
decide.
Representative Richard Greuel,
chairman of the House Rules Com
mittee, was non-committal, but
said the work of the Legislature
was ahead of schedule, compared,
with the past Territorial sessions.
He- said a two-month session was
possible.
The chairman of the Senate Fi
nance Committee, Senator A1
Owen, said it would probably be
several days before the Democra
tic leaders have decided on a com
prehensive program of the work
that must be done.
Among legislation generally re
garded as “must,” which must
clear the Legislature before ad
journment, are bills for reorgani
zation of the state government, for
a start at least on a judicial sys
tem, and passage of the budget for
the new state’s first full fiscal
year.
More Than 100 Bills
Offered In First
3 Weeks of Session
JUNEAU, Iff) — Several new
proposals went before Alaska’s
lawmakers today as the number
of bills introduced passed the 100
mark.
At adjournment of the session’s
23d day yesterday, a total of 62
had been introduced in the House
and 43 in the Senate. In legisla
tive action yesterday, the House
cleared three bills for Senate ac
tion, and the Senate sent one to
the lower chamber.
One of the new bills introduced
in the Senate would require Alas
ka cities to have at least one mu
nicipal police officer. It would
also allow the state Attorney Gen
eral to make appointments where
cities failed to name policemen
themselves.
A second Senate bill would set
up a five-man commission to com
pile and index the state laws. The
Attorney General would be chair
man, and he would contract with
a law publishing firm for the ne
cessary editorial work.
Bills introduced in the House in
cluded ones to set a 50-foot limit
on the length of seine boats op
erated in Alaska’s fishing waters
and to establish a state electrical
code and a board of electrical
examiners.
In the Senate a memorial to
Congress was proposed urging the
Bureau of Labor Statistics to ex
tend its cost of living index to in
clude Alaska.
Alcoholic Water Supply ...
FRANKLINTON, N. C., Iff) —
Revenue agent Graham (Possum)
Copeland and his assistant lost no
time disposing of thousands of gal
lons of mash, beer and bootleg
whisky after raiding a big still
near here.
They dumped the whole mess
into a stream. They weren’t aware
it fed into a pond which is the
source of Franklinton’s water
supply.
Before long, water plant super
intendent, C. G.-Hight was getting
telephone calls about the curious
taste of the water. An analysis
showed a definite alcoholic con
tent.
Chemicals were thrown into the
water to overwhelm the odor and
taste.
Pan Am Protests
Alaska Airlines’
Proposed Fare Cut
WASHINGTON, UP) — Pan
American World Airways pro
tested yesterday a proposal of
Alaska Airlines to reduce fares be
tween Seattle-Portland and An
chorage.
Pan American complained to
the Civil Aeronautics Board that
the fare reduction, proposed to
take effect March 1, would be un
economic, and asked that the pro
posed new fare be suspended and
investigated.
Both airlines last June raised
the $90 fare between Seattle and
Fairbanks to $99, and eliminated
the 10 per cent discount on round
trip fares. At the same time, Alas
ka Airlines increased the fare be
tween Seattle and Anchorage, by
way of Fairbanks, from $105 to
$112.50. Under the new proposal
the Seattle-Anchorage fare would
drop back to $105.
Pan Am said the result would
be a charge of only $6 to An
chorage, on top of the Seattle
Fairbanks fare, although the local
fare for the 255-mile Fairbanks
Anchor age flight is $30.
Pan Am said existing fares are
far short of the amount needed
to enable it and Alaska to meet
operating expenses without sub
sidy.
Pan Am said on a temporary
non-subsidy mail rate it lost $1,
253,000 in the first 11 months of
1958, while the CAB twice in
creased Alaska Airlines’ subsidy
an aggregate of $432,000 in 1958
for a total mail subsidy payment
to that airline of $2,470,000.
Only AEC Scientist
Commissioner Resigns to
Further Science Study
WASHINGTON, UP) — Dr. Wil
lard F. Libby resigned from the
Atomic Energy Commission today.
He said he had to go back to
teaching and research “if I am to
remain a scientist.”
Libby, the only member of the
five-man commission with an ex
tensive scientific background,
made his resignation effective
June 30.
President Eisenhower, saying it
was a “difficult task,” to accept
the resignation, did not immedi
ately announce -a successor.