RUSSIANS PRODUCE
SPACE INFORMATION
NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. UP)
— Space is the hobby of Arthur
Saul, 19, of New Westminster so
he wrote to the Soviet Union for
pictures of the far side of the
moon. He also wrote to the Mount
Palomar, Calif., observatory for
photographs of other astronomi
cal bodies.
Within a month he received
from the Soviets three photos of
the moon’s other side, a letter
from the Astronomical Council of
the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences
and a book of information on the
moon.
Then an envelope came from
California.
It contained a catalogue giving
prices of various pictures and in
formation.
S SCIENCE IN
YOUR
Private Industry Carries the Ball
The average life span of Americans is getting longer and longer. Bach
in 1940 the life expectancy of a newborn infant in the United States
was 63 years. Today it is close to 70 years. In the past 20 years we im
proved life expectancy as much as in the previous 90 years.
Why are many of us living so much longer than our grandparents?
rrobably because more of us are ■>
better fed, better clothed, better
housed and—most important
better medicated.
Certainly, the tremendous vic
tories won in the war against
disease can be credited to the great
advances medical science has made
in the past few years. And some
of the biggest guns in that battle
have been the antibiotics—the
wonder drugs.
Recent discoveries have provided
our doctors with a disease-fighting
arsenal of marvelous power and
efficiency. Indeed, about three
fourths of all prescriptions written
today call for drugs that were un
known a decade ago.
Millions of Americans are alive
today because modern drugs were
available to rescue them from the
deadly clutches of pneumonia, tu
berculosis, influenza and other
killers. Antibiotics have saved thou
sands of mothers who once would
have died in childbirth. And thou
sands of babies who would have
succumbed before their first birth
day are growing up well and strong
because the new antibiotics got
them through their infection-ridden
first year.
American private industry has
taken a significant part in the fight
for health. In 1958, for example,
our pharmaceutical companies
spent $170,000,000 in research. In
1959, they upped that figure to
$190,000,000. That’s close to five
times the total spent on all medical
research in 1940 by industry, gov
ernment, universities, hospitals and
foundations.
Almost all or the important anti
biotics produced commercially in
the United States since World War
II were discovered and developed
through private industry. They in
clude all the "broad-spectrum”
antibiotics, those that are effective
against a wide variety of diseases.
U. S. pharmaceutical firms not
only spend millions in a continuous
search for new discoveries, they
also have accepted a self-imposed
obligation to help our medical
schools train physicians and con
duct research.
In 1958 alone, the pharmaceuti
cal industry allocated more than
$20,500,000 in grants to medical
schools throughout the nation. In
addition, the Drug and Pharma
ceutical Division since 1953 has
contributed more than $1,250,000
in cash to the National Fund for
Medical Education.
Perhaps the most wonderful dis
covery of all—a drug that can lick
cancer—may come out of a recently
organized nationwide effort. Richly
experienced in finding useful new
drugs amidst a multitude of com
pounds, the most important phar
maceutical firms are now playirfl
a major role in the National Cancer
Chemotherapy Screening Program.
They are helping to sift through
40,000 chemicals a year in a mag
nificent joint endeavor to find new
ways to attack cancer.
MORE NEW BOOKS
AUTOGRAPHED COPIES OF . . .
“CAPTAIN BILLY MOORE”
by pioneer Dr. Wm. Chase
“FOOL’S GOLD”
by Ted Jordon
NEW EDITION OF . . .
“ALASKA FISHES AND ANIMALS”
by Dufresne
TWO NEW CHILDREN’S TITLES . . .
“VICTORY AT BEAR COVE”
by Pederson
“PIONEER OF ALASKA SKIES”
(on Ben Eielson) by Edna Walker
^ESKm^RTVCRAFT^
Supreme Court
Justice Denies
Chessman Plea
WASHINGTON, (41 — Justice
Black Saturday denied death-cell
author Caryl Chessman another
stay of execution so he could
make his 14th appeal to the U. S.
Supreme Court.
This means Chessman still faces
his next Friday date with Cali
fornia’s San Quentin Prison gas
chamber.
A. L. Wirin, a lawyer for the
American Civil Liberties Union,
last Tuesday mailed Black the
request for a stay of execution.
He said then he would ask for a
certificate of probable cause of
appeal — a preliminary to a
formal appeal to the whole nine
man court.
Chessman was sentenced to
death in 1948 for kidnaping, rob
bery and perverted sexual as
saults against two women. He has
been in death row nearly 12
years and has escaped seven
earlier execution dates through
various legal moves.
Justice Black’s statement said:
“Finding no substantial federal
question presented by his record,
the application for certificate of
probable cause and stay of exe
cution is denied.”
A new appeal by Chessman,
however, will be considered by
the Ninth Circuit U. S. Court of
appeals today. It will act on a
plea that the court set aside last
Monday’s decision by Chief
Judge Richard H. Chambers, who
rejected an appeal by Chessman
from a lower court ruling.
Positions Open For Young
Men With State Police
JUNEAU — Interested young
men able to meet the require
ments for the State Police, are
invited to write to the Department
of Public Safety, Division of
State Police, Box 2719, Juneau,
and request an application form,
states a bulletin recently circu
lated from that office.
The bulletin goes on to list the
prerequisites:
Applicants must be physically
fit. A physical examination will
be required prior to apointment.
Aplicants must be at least 23
years of age on the date of exam
ination. Thirty-five is the max
imum age for police applicants.
Height should be not less than
5 feet, 10 inches; weight not less
than 165 pounds, otherwise pro
portional to height.
Good moral character is re
quired, as determined by a back
ground investigation which will
be conducted by the Department.
Experience is not required. The
Department will train all ac
cepted applicants.
The applicant must be a citizen
of the United States, and a high
school diploma or evquilvalent is
required. College training is pre
ferred.
Each applicant must satisfac
torily pass the written, oral and
physical examinations conducted
by the Department. These exam
inations are administered at least
once each year in the principal
cities of Alaska. The examination
will not be administered outside
the State.
ADMITTED TO HOSPITAL
Wm. Oquillok Jr. and Russell
Hardy. Discharged — Marcus
Bockman, Whitney West.
^^VWV'/VVVVVWVVVVVVV’VV
I K.K. I
| Public Library |
5 Open J
$ Friday*—7:30 to 9:00 P.M. 2
5 t
< Saturdays—2:30 to 4:00 P.M. \
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MUSHIN’ THRU WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON, UFi — Certain*
Alaska veterans would be re
lieved of paying back to the gov
ernment money received during
on-the-farm training under pro
posals by the state’s congressional
delegation.
Sens. E. L. Bartlett and Ernest
Gruening are co-sponsors of a re
lief bill in the Senate and Rep.
Ralph Rivers has prepared a sim
ilar bill for introduction in the
House.
The measures would relieve
veterans who received subsistence
allowances while taking on-the
farm training from repaying these
sums even though they took off
farm employment while in train
ing. Veterans who had not repaid
the allowance would be relieved
of liability and those who have
paid would receive refunds.
• • •
The Alaska delegation in Con
gress is also trying to do some
thing for the hard-pressed gold
mining industry by pushing for
an increase in the price of gold
or a change in marketing policies.
The price of gold, at $35 an
ounce, has remained unchanged
since 1934 while other prices have
risen. This has caused mines to
shut down and more will follow if
something isn’t done Bartlett said.
Among proposals for solving the
problem are: raising the price to
$70 an ounce, putting gold on a
free market, letting gold used for
art and industrial purposes find
its own market level.
Bartlett has introduced a free
market bill and Rivers is ready to
offer a measure to authorize min
ers to sell newly mined gold at
the best price available directly to
art and industrial users and pro
hibit the Treasury from making
any more such sales.
This bill, he said, “should re
sult in an improved return to the
gold miners, without changing the
treasury price or the existing
basis for settling international
trade balances.”
However, because of Treasury
opposition to raising the price of
gold, Rivers said he sees little
hope for legislation to change the
situation at this time.
* * »
A request that a Deputy U. S.
Marshal be retained at Ketchikan
is being considered by the Justice
Department at the request of
Bartlett and others.
Under the change from terri
torial status to statehood, many
federal law enforcement functions
were taken over by the state. This
has resulted in revamping the
Marshal’s office, including the
loss of two deputies at Ketchikan.
Bartlett has told the Justice
Department Ketchikan is the cen
ter of the fishing industry in Al
aska and that without a marshal
there, legal procedures will be
hampered.
Bartlett said he was told no
decision can be made until the
new federal district court is oper
►
ating in Alaska but that the de
partment is looking into the Ket
chikan situation.
• * *
Speaking of the court situation
in Alaska, the nomination of Wal
ter H. Hodge for district judge is
hanging in the Senate Judiciary
Committee.
Sen. James Eastland, chairman,
has been ill. There has been no
action on the nomination since a
subcommittee held a hearing at
which no opposition was voiced.
It is still assumed that the nom
ination will go before the Senate
in due course but just when ac
tion will come is indefinite.
A committee spokesman said a
meeting is tentatively scheduled
for Feb. 16 and that the nomin
ation might come up then.
Tongass Tribe Carved
Lincoln Totem to Honor
End of Their Slavery
JUNEAU, UP) — When Abra
ham Lincoln issued the emanci
pation proclamation he probably
wasn’t thinking of Alaska, but be
cause of it the Tongass Indians
carved the Lincoln Totem.
Sen. John Coghill told the story
in a Lincoln Day speech to the
Senate.
A group of Tongass Indians,
part of the famed Tlingit tribe,
were held as slaves by the Kluk
wantan tribe on Tongass Island.
In 1868, a year after the United
States purchased Alaska from the
Russians, a Coast Guard custom
station was established on Ton
gass Island, the slaves fled to the
station for refuge and were
granted asylum.
Secretary of State William H.
Seward later visited the station
and told the Indians they, too, had
been freed bp the Emancipation
Proclamation.
In gratitude the Tongass carved
the totem pole atop which
perched a figure of President
Lincoln, stove pipe hat and all.
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