NOME NUGGET
_OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LVII No. 151 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1955_Per Copy—15*
Pentagon Proposes Guided Missile
Development and Atom-Powered Ship
-<j
Negro Letter Carrier
Makes the Big Decision
On $64,000 Question
NEW YORK, Uft—A 54-year-old
letter carrier has asked for anoth
er week to make “the biggest de
cision” of his life—whether to try
for $32,000 on the $64,000 radio
TV giveaway program.
Roscoe C. Wright, of Queens,
N.Y., may either settle for the
$16,000 he has already won or try
for the next step—$32,000. Should
he answer the question correctly,
he would then have the opportun
ity to try for the CBS show’s jack
pot $64,000. Should he fail, he
would get an expensive convert
ible as a consolation.
Wright, a Negro, said on the
show last night he hopes to use
his winnings to send his 13-year
old son and his 10-year-old daugh
ter to college. He has been an
swering questions on poetry.
The letter carrier said that the
Christmas mail rush has kept him
from studying for the next ques
tion.
Ford Motor Co.
Reveals Assets
For First Time
WASHINGTON, »—The Ford
Motor Co. reported today its assets
are $2,483,010,550. It said it earned
$312,000,000 in the first nine
months of 1955 on sales amounting
to $4,042,600,000.
The compaiiy released the fig
ures, heretofore always kept se
cret, in connection with the Ford
Foundation’s proposal to sell 10,
200,000 shares of company stock
to the public.
The amount of stock to be sold
apparently was a last-minute de
cision. Previous public word had
been that about seven million
shares would be offered in this
first chance for the public to buy
into the pioneer auto firm.
Sales of the stock are expected
about Jan. 18, 1956. Guesses in fi
nancial circles as to the price have
ranged up to $75 a share.
A statement for the stock sale
set out Ford’s earnings and sales
for the period from 1946 through
last Sept. 30. Running throfigh
these figures was a reflection of
the old company’s revival and its
comeback under its present head,
Henry Ford II.
In the post-war years, the state
ment said, Ford has spent more
than $1,300,000,000 in expanding,
modernizing and replacing its fac
ilities and improving its manufac
turing and assembly processes.
The statement said the additions
to its facilities “include some” for
a proposed new passenger car line,
but gave no details.
Many factors were behind the
decision to put some Ford stock on
the market—among them that of
the ordinary stockholder’s interest
in buying products from a com
pany in which he holds shares.
It loosens somewhat the Ford
family’s tight hold on the firm.
CAR HAS DOUBLE TROUBLE
CLEVELAND Stanley Wen
gar went to a garage yesterday to
pick up his car after mechanics
repaired its smashed front end.
The car wasn’t ready. A mechanic
had taken it out to test the »sw
front end and another car had
rammed into its rear end.
> By ELTON C. FAY
WASHINGTON, UPC-The Penta
gon, proposing a big boost in its
budget next year, contemplates
spending a billion dollars for guid
ed missile development.
Secretary of Defense Wilson
told a news conference yesterday
the military will ask Congress to
approve a billion-dollar increase
in defense spending over the 34Vfe
billions currently estimated for
the present year.
The Pentagon proposes also that
Congress increase by almost two
billion dollars the amount appro
priated for defense over the $33
billions asked for the current year.
About a billion dollars of this
would go into the pipeline to pay
for weapons to be bought in later
years.
Among other new items to ap
pear in Wilson’s budget recom
mendations will be money to be
gin building the first surface ship
to be driven by atomic power. This
Navy warship, Wilson indicated,
probably will be of cruiser size
and incorporate the newest of
armaments, such as guided mis
siles.
Wilson remarked he was “not
quite ready” to discuss the overall
organization of the armed forces
in guided missile development and
production.
But he did provide a more def
inite index of what he previously
had described as a substantial ex
pansion in the missile field.
The plan is for the Defense De
partment to spend about one-third
more next year on guided missiles
than in the present year. The es
timate for such spending this year
is about $750 million. Wilson said
the shift in emphasis is from con
ventional weapons to “things we
would like to have.”
LOUISVILLE TRAFFIC WAR
LOUISVILLE, Ky., Uft—A police
study shows Louisville drivers are
damaging each other’s cars at the
rate of $1,000 an hour.
The survey covers a 24-hour
period ending Sunday morning.
Tabulations show there were 97
accidents during the period and
that the estimated damage to ve
hicles was $23,372.
Stevenson Encourages
Delegates to Alaska’s
Constitutional Convention
VALDEZ l/P>—Adlai Stevenson to
day added his voice of encourage
ment to those being received by
delegates to the Alaska Constitu
tional Convention as they observe
a holiday recess.
“My thoughts are very much
with Alaska as your Constitution
al Convention meets,” the Demo
cratic presidential nominee candi
date telegraphed William Egan,
president of the convention.
“Perhaps you will permit me,”
Stevenson continued, “to express
once again my conviction that the
rights and responsibilities of self
rule, of statehood if you please,
can give impetus to the greater
growth of which Alaska is mani
festly capable.
“Your deliberations are being
•followed closely because, as I said
when I was with you not long ago,
the future belongs to all of us or
none of us. And that includes the
warm, stout hearts and the breath
less majesty of Alaska.”
The convention hearings will be I
resumed Jan. 4.
Police Investigation of
Kotzebue Fire Deaths
Delayed by Weather
Territorial Policeman Emory
Chappie is in Nome awaiting
transportation to go to Kotzebue
to investigate the fire of last Sun
day which destroyed the Alaska
Airlines office and in which two
persons are believed to have per
ished. No planes have been able
to land at Kotzebue since Mon
day.
From information received here
it was learned that the remains
of one person were recovered,
believed to have been a pilot for
a Fairbanks air service. So far, it
is not known whether the second
person’s remains have been re
covered or identified.
SALVATION ARMY'S COINS
MEAN MERRY CHRISTMAS
LOS ANGELES, Lf'—Have you
ever wondered how many of what
kind of coins find their way^nto
the Salvation Army’s street corner
kettles at Christmas time?
Pennies lead in number here
and nickels run second, but there
are plenty of larger value.
A Salvation Army breakdown
yesterday showed by latest count:
30,748 pennies, 17,416 nickels, 16,
442 dimes, 13,798 quarters, 4,098
half dollars, 2,468 dollars bills,
97 $5 bills, 18 silver dollars, 17
$10 bills and 11 $20 bills.
“We receive some substantial
checks through the mails,” said
Lt. Col. Frank Wilmer.
The organization hopes to help
100,000 individuals and families in
this area this week.
West Pointer
Convicted of
Aiding the Reds
*FT. LEWIS, Wash., UP)—Lt. Col.
Paul V. Liles was convicted today
of aiding the enemy by making
recordings while he was a prisoner
of war in North Korea in 1950-53.
Liles, first West Pointer to be
convicted of such charges, was
found innocent of other charges in
which he was accused of making
statements disloyal to the U.S.;
leading Red indoctrination classes;
becoming a member of a so-called
PCW peace committee sponsored
by the Communists; signing sur
render appeals addressed to Unit
ed Nations troops, and refusing to
take charge of American prisoners
when he was the senior officer
present.
After announcing its decision,
the 10-man court retired to deter
mine what punishment the Bir
mingham, Ala., career soldier
shall be given. His defense counsel
said the case will be appealed “all
the way to the court of military
appeals.”
- > “I feel confident the decision
will be reversed,” the counsel said.
The counsel told reporters he
was sure the result would have
been different if Lile’s escape plan
for some 70 Americans from a
POW camp near Pyangyang had
been a success.
CORNERSTONE LAID FOR
ST. PATRICK'S IN TOKYO
TOKYO, UP)—Francis Cardinal
Spellman, Catholic archbishop of
New York, today laid the corner
stone of Japan’s first church dedi
cated to St. Patrick. He presented
$5,000 to the new church’s build
ing fund.
The cardinal plans to leave Sat
urday for his fifth Christmas in
Korea with American trops.
17 Killed in Landing Crash of
Eastern Airlines Plane in Florida
Crashes of Six Planes
Supplying DEW Line
Being Investigated
OTTAWA, —Federal Trans
port Department officials made
public today a report on investi
gations into crashes of six planes
supplying the DEW Line being
built by the 'U.S. and Canada in
the far north.
Thirteen persons were killed in
six crashes of planes operated by
Associated Airways Ltd. of Ed
monton between April 11 and Sep
tember 29. The company withdrew
from its operations on the DEW
Line project after the last crash.
The investigations put the main
blame on airline operations but
said Transport Department offi
cials were guilty of subsidiary
negligence in at least one case.
Among the six was the crash of
a two-engine Avro York plane in
a takeoff from the Edmonton air
port on May 26. The pilot and co
pilot were killed. The report on
this crash said the plane was over
loaded in view of the available
runway length.
Stevenson’s Son
In Auto Accident
ELKHART, Ind., UP)—Two Har
vard University freshmen heading
home to Chicago for Christmas
were killed in- a highway collision
today and two classmates were
badly hurt, including Adlai Stev
enson’s son, John Fell Stevenson,
19 years old.
The dead were William Stanley
N^rth III, 19, and William C. Boy
den, 19.
John Stevenson, son of the 1952
Democratic nominee for president,
was taken to a hospital in nearby
Goshen with a broken right knee
cap and severe face cuts. His con
dition was reported good.
Suffering minor injuries were
James Gilligan, 19, the fourth stu
dent, and Fred Gill, 29.
Police said the students’ car
came over the crown of a New
York Central railroad overpass 15
miles east of Elkhart just as Gill
was passing a slower truck on the
south approach.
The two students who were
killed were riding in the front seat
of the car with Stevenson, who
was driving.
State police were holding Gill
without charge.
Miss Mary Christmas
Getting Many Greetings
LAWRENCEVILLE, 111., UP>—
With the approach of Christmas, a
Lawrenceville high school teacher
gets more than her usual number
of greetings.
She is Mary Christmas, a busi
ness instructor at the high school
for the last three years.
The more than 100 students at
tending her five classes greet her
this week as “Mary Christmas,”
not Miss Christmas.
Miss Christmas, 36, said she
was named after her grandmother,
Grace and Mary. “Mary just hap
pened to come first,” she said.
ARMS PAINTED GREEN
CLEVELAND, UP)—Mrs. Loretta
Giarrizzo, 70, filed a $25,000 dam
age suit against house painter
Stanley Gonsior, 53, yesterday,
charging that’he painted her arms
green when she criticized his work
on her garage.
3 JACKSONVILLE, Fla., UPL-An
Eastern Airlines Constellation on
its way from Miami to Boston
crashed and burned on its landing
run early today, killing all 17 per
sons aboard.
It was the third air crash in
Florida in three days.
On the shattered Constellation
was the body of C. B. Thrift of
Miami, an Eastern Air Lines ac
counting employe, being shipped
to Washington D.C. for burial. The
47-year-old war veteran had died
Saturday of a hea]rt atjpck.
The plane was only a quarter of
a mile from the end of its runway
at the airport when it apparently
came in too low, hit the top of a
tree in the early morning darkness
and plunged to the ground.
The airport said visibility .was
half a mile, the ceiling 300 feet.
Its passengers apparently never
had time to try to escape for the
cabin was twisted and mashed,
trapping all inside.
Five of the dead were crew
members.
It was three hours after the 3:40
a.m. crash before firemen could
remove them from the flaming
wreckage.
LeRoy Connell, a boilermaker,
was drinking coffee when he
looked out a window of his home
in the thinly wooded, sparsely
settled area. “I saw the landing
lights go on, then there was a
sound—it might have been an ex
plosion or the sound the plane
made as it hit the tops of the
trees,” he said. “The big ship fell
but there wasn’t any fire until it
hit the ground.”
Russian Leaders
Return From Tour
Of South Asia
MOSCOW, (if)—Premier Nikolai
Bulganin and Communist Party
Secretary Nikita Khrushchev re
turned to Moscow today from their
month’s tour of India, Burma and
Afganistan and were welcomed
like conquerors.
Khrushchev told the crowd of
Soviet officials, diplomats and
Muscovites gathered at the airport
for the welcoming ceremony that
he and Bulganin had “exposed the
policies of the colonizers in Asia.”
He said colonial regimes are a
blot on mankind and declared he
would go on saying so, despite
criticism in the Western press.
Bulganin told the crowd more
and more states are adhering to
Russia’s “five principles” of peace
ful coexistence and said more per
sonal exchanges between national
leaders are needed.
Nearly all the Soviet govern
ment and Communist Party offi
cials were at the snow-covered
airfield to greet the returning
leaders. Among them were For
eign Minister Molotov, former
Premier Malenkov, and President
Voroshilov.
Cordons of fur-hatted soldiers
with earflaps turned down against
the biting wind kept the airport
crowds at a respectful distance.0
There was no welcoming roar or
cheers when Khrushchev and Bul
ganin stepped from their plane.
But men craned their nacks and
held up their womenfolk to see. A
distortion in the loudspeaker sys
tem made hearing almost impossi
ble, and the crowd began to break
up before the two finished speak
ing. _—***¥*’’