THE
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LV NO. 143_NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1953__Per Copy—154
Maj. K. D. Swisher
New Commander
Of Nome Field
The Chamber of Commerce of
ficially welcomed the new Nome
Field commander, Major K. D.
Swisher, at their noon luncheon
yesterday.
Major Swisher stated that the
base personnel will abide by the
rules and laws of the community
and asked for like cooperation
from the citizens of Nome.
He was particularly interested
in securing constructive entertain
ment for the airmen between the
ages of 18 and 21. He said that a
curfew has been established, a
basketball court set up and plans
are under way for the making of
a skating rink on the base to
which the community will also
have access.
Major Swisher said he hoped to
meet with the pastors of local
churches for their cooperation in
programs for servicemen. Special
passes will be issued to service
men who are eligible for liquor
so there will not no question as
to which ones are of the right
age.
A round table discussion fol
lowed and Boyd Harwood was
appointed as chairman of a Social
Relations committee to work with
the Major.
Mayor Cites Need of
Increased School Appropriation
Mayor Andersen reported on
the new school and asked the co
operation of the Chamber to in
crease the present appropriation
of $500,000 which is less than the
amount set up by the A.P.W. as
needed for the new school. The
Mayor stated that the city had
sent protests to Gov. Heintzleman,
Delegate Bartlett and explained
the impracticability of drawing up
plans for two construction sea
sons instead of the one now plan
ned.
The Chamber indicated they
would take immediate steps to
back the City in this important
issue.
Aga Kahn Says Hard
Times Prevent Getting
His Weight In Platinum
CANNES, France, (51—The Aga
Kahn, who is the leader of a
Moslem sect as well as a worldly
sportsman, said Wednesday he
won’t get his weight in platinum
next year. Some of 'his followers
have fallen upon hard times.
The five million members of the
Aga Kahn’s Imamee Ismaili sect
have kept the old eastern custom
of showing their devotion by
weighing him in gold or precious
gems.
Next year will be the Aga
Kahn's platinum jubilee and he
said he would go to Karachi early
in 1954 to celebrate.
“I will get on a scale and be
weighed,” he said, “but it is un
likely that I will be given my
weight in platinum. Certain states,
less rich than others, haven’t been
able to furinsh their share of the
platinum. Because of this, the
ceremony will be of a symbolic
nature.”
The Aga now weighs 210
pounds.
President Backs
Dulles’ Criticism
Of Sen. McCarthy
WASHINGTON, UP) — President
Eisenhower said today he doubts
whether taxes next year can cur
should be raised above the present
level.
Eisenhower made the statement
in reply to questions at a news
conference at which he also sup
ported Secretary of State Dulles
in statements Dulles issued yes
terday in criticism of Sen. Mc
Carthy in the field of foreign
policy.
On the big domestic problem of
taxes and government finances
generally, Eisenhower said that
what the administration can do
to' bring the budget near to bal
ance is to eliminate duplication
and improve efficiency generally.
He said his officials are taking
a number of steps toward this
end and added he is prepared to
take credit in advance for them.
Eisenhower declined to specu
late on the prospects for a meet
ing of western powers with repre
sentatives of the Soviet Union.
Asked about such prospects on the
basis of the latest Russian note,
the President replied it is a matter
which needs much study and one
on which he wouldn’t want to
make a real guess.
He said that under prevailing
circumstances the question of
whether Communist China should
be admitted to the United Nations
is not open to negotiations any
where. That was in reply to a
question whether the matter
might be discussed at the Big
Three Bermuda conference open
ing Friday. He said he would
leave for Bermuda at 8 a.m. EST
Friday.
North Pole Post Office
Authorized For New York
WASHINGTON, UP) — A new
post office, North Pole, N.Y., has
been authorized by Postmaster
General Summerfield.
The fourth class office will be
located in a rural area between
Lake Placid and Wilmington, N.
Y., where a gift making industry
exists.
Postal officials said the new
post office is intended primarily
to serve this industry, but they
speculated it will share in some
of the novelty holiday mailings
which annually pour through
Santa Claus, Ind., and Christmas,
Fla.
Two Carpenters Killed
On Ketchikan Mill Project
KETCHIKAN, UP)—Two carpen
ters were killed yesterday in a
100-foot fall from a tower at the
Ketchikan Pulp Co. construction
project here.
They were Eddie O’Janengn, 39,
whose mother lives at Almwood,
Minn., and Edwin Mohr, 38, of
Everett, Wash.
Fellow workmen said one of
the men loosened a truss on scaf
folding on a silo tower, thinking
upper trusses would hold, but it
gave way.
It brought to four the number
of fatalities on the project.
Veteran Senator
Holds Hearings On
Korean Atrocities
WASHINGTON, UP)—Sen. Potter
(R-Mich) began a hearing on Com
muhist atrocities in Korea today
with a statement that a Red Chi
nese nurse “cut off the toes of a
G.I. with a pair of garden shears,
without benefit of anesthesia” and
wrapped the wounds in newspa
pers.
Potter said this was a sample of
the beast-like acts which U.S. sol
diers, who. were victims or eye
witnesses of Korean atrocities,
would tell about at three days of
Senate subcommittee hearings.
He said the testimony would
make “a liar” out of Andrei Vish
insky, Soviet Russia’s spokesman,
who told the United Nations As
sembly yesterday that the atrooi
ties charges were lies and propa
ganda.
Gen. Matthew M. Ridgway, for
mer commander in Korea and
now Army chief of staff, was
called as first witness, and former
prisoners of war were on hand to
be heard later.
Potter, who is conducting the
inquiry alone, challenged Tass,
official Soviet news agency, to at
tend and cover the inquiry. Tass
holds two cards admitting report
ers to congressional activities.
The Michigan senator, a leg
less veteran of World War II, is
in charge, representing the Senate
Investigations subcommittee.
Potter said the testimony to be
heard here was not included in
the thick volume of documents
Lodge supplied to 60 U.N. mem
bers early this week.
Men Sought For Looting
Safe of Anchorage Theater
ANCHORAGE, WV—Police here
were searching for two men who
early Monday burned open a safe
at the Denali Theater and escaped
with about $4,000, the weekend re
ceipts, after shooting the janitor.
The janitor, 62-year-old Roy
Johnson, weak from loss of blood,
staggered in a dazed condition into
a bar next to the theater and re
ported the burglary.
City police revealed Tuesday
that the safecrackers shot and
apparently thought they had kill
ed Johnson.
At the hospital it was found
that the bullet entered the back
of his neck and denting a bone
at the base1 of his skull, police
said. v
Johnson is still in a dazed condi
tion at Providence Hospital but is
reported recovering steadily.
1954 WILL BE BIG YEAR
FOR ALASKA CONSTRUCTION
ANCHORAGE, (B—The Army’s
Alaska District Engineer, Col. L.
H. Foote, says 1954 will be a
-big year for military construction
in the territory, especially for the
Anchorage area.
The colonel told the Anchorage
Chamber of Commerce the Alaska
program includes $202,000,000
worth of work still to be com
pleted. Of this figure, the Anchor
age, Whittier and Kenai areas will
-have about $80,000,000 in defense
construction under way, he said.
Un-American Activities Committee
Taking Testimony On Communist
Infiltration Of Strategic Calif. Area
-«
Anchorage Exchanges
Little Eklutna Plant For
Power From New Project
WASHINGTON, (£> —Secretary
of the Interior McKay today an
nounced the signing of a contract
with Anchorage, Alaska, under
which the Reclamation Bureau
will supply the city with electric
power from the Eklutna power
project, now under construction.
Under the law authorizing the
project, such a contract had to be'
consummated by Dec. 1 or con
struction had to be halted.
Reclamation Commissioner W.
A. Dexheimer said the contract,
approved by Anchorage voters,
provides the city will transfer to
the bureau title to its Little Eklut
na hydro-electric plant, thereby
relinquishing its right to Eklutna
water.
Power is expected to become
available from the federal hydro
electric plant late in the fall of
1954.
The city is to received 16,000,
000 kilowatts of firm power from
the bureau project. It will be
given monthly credits on its elec
tric bill until Oct. 12, 1978, the
date on which its license from the
FPC would have expired, as pay
ment for its plant.
Former Dock Racketeers
Force One-Day Work
Stoppage on N.Y. Docks
NEW YORK, Iff) — Longshore
men went back to work on the
New Ycrrk waterfront today after
a one-day work stoppage led by
opponents of a new law aimed at
dock racketeering.
Operations were reported nor
mal on the “luxury liner” and
other piers idled yesterday. “I
think the honest longshoreman
has won,” commented a spokes
man for the newly established
New York-New Jersey Waterfront
Commission.
The hiring of longshoremen now
is done through centers super
vised by the commission as
against the old system whereby
union hiring bosses decided who
would work.
The commission hires only
those men to whom it has issued
work permits. It has denied per
mits to those with serious crim
inal records—among them a num
ber of old hiring bosses.
These former bosses set up
picket lines yesterday and the
men with permits declined to
cross through them.
But this “last stand” against the
Commission collapsed overnight.
Nixon And Parly. Meet Some
Of India's Poorest Farmers
NEW DELHI, India, Iff) — ILS.
Vice President Richard Nixon and
his party visited the dusty, parch
ed Punjab Wednesday and met
some of the poorest farmers they
have seen in their Asiatic tour.
But the residents of three mud
villages they called at gave the
Americans a friendly greeting of
salaams, music and marigold gar
lands.
> SAN FRANCISCO, UP) —Ignor
ing threats of Harry Bridges’
Longshoremen for a stop - work
protest march on its hearing, the
House Un - American Activities
Committee Wednesday continued
taking testimony that Communists
are trying to infiltrate this strate
gic area.
Chairman Velde said the prob
ers would turn to Communist act
ivity in the East Bay area—Oak
land, Berkley —site of important
military bases and the University
of California’s atomic research
laboratories.
Bridges’ International Long
shoremen’s and Warehousemen’s
Union ordered a stop work meet
ing at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at city
hall—site of the hearings—after
a friendly witness identified sev
eral Bridges aides as one-time
Communists. Forty ships stand to
be tied up.
The committee also heard the
first of several witnesses who
are expected to refuse to testify
on constitutional grounds. He was
Donald N. Wheeler, of Sequim,
Wash., wartime OSS agent named
by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover
in Senate hearings as a member
of a Red spy ring with Harry
Dexter White and others.
Wheeler refused to tell whether
he is a Soviet agent, whether he
knew White, his employment
since 1938 or his present occupa
tion—even when directed to do so.
Velde dismissed the polite but
firm witness with the comment:
“This . . . refusal would only
lead any reasonable man to con
clude you must be engaged in
some nefarious, some criminal,
activity at the present time . . .
This certainly does point up the
need for additional security legis
lation.”
Several ILWIU officials were
labelled Communists by Louis
Rosser, 47, Los Angeles, who call
ed himself a disillusioned ex-Red.
He graphically outlined 11 years
of Red plotting 1933-1944.
“If people think they’re dealing
with frustrated men and women,
they’re wrong,” Rosser said of the
Communists. “They are dealing
with people -who have pledged to
build a Soviet America.”
Bodies Of Mother, Infant
Found In Automobile
45 Feet Under Water
ANCHORAGE, W—1The bodies
of a 24-year-old Moose Pass moth
er and her 17-month-old daughter,
missing since Thanksgiving, have
been found in an automobile 45
feet under water in Trail Lake,
about 100 miles south of here.
Ed Estes, operator of1 a store
and gas station at Moose Pass,
found the spot two miles south of
Moose Pass where the car had
broken through the ice. The mem
bers of a 50-man party which had
been searching for the missing
mother and daughter said the wo
man apparently was trying to turn
around on the highway when the
car skidded onto the ice and
crashed through.