m NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LXI No. 107 ' NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1959_Per Copy—154
No Progress Made
In Negotiating
Costly Steel Strike
j
NEW YORK, 0P»—'The nation’s
top mediator today termed nego
tiations in the 57-day-old steel
strike “the oddest kind of bar
gaining I’ve ever seen.”
His comment came after Presi
- dent Eisenhower had called the
talks “half-hearted.”
- Joseph F. Finnegan, director of
the Federal Mediation and Con
ciliation Service, has worked to
bring a new contract agreement
in the industry-paralyzing situa
tion but so far there has been
little or no progress.
Finnegan said 'both industry
and Steelworkers Union represen
tatives admitted as late as Thurs-'
day that “They were right where
they were when they started.”
Eisenhower Tuesday appealed
for an all-out effort to end"-the
strike—longest of its kind in the
nation’s history.
Asked if he felt the President’s
statement would step up the ne
gotiations, Finnegan said:
“Sometimes it jars people loose
from their ideas—but only if they
want to bargain and compro
mise.”
Finnegan then went on to say
he doubted that the joint meet
ings could be called bargaining
sessions.
Piece of High-Flying
707 Jet Falls and Strikes
Los Angeles Housewife
LOS ANGELES, UP>— A house
wife was hit on the head and
knocked unconscious Monday
night by a metal wing section
from a jet airliner.
Gilbert Gessler told sheriff’s
deputies he discovered his wife,
Evelyn, 28, unconscious in the
yard of their home in suburban
Lennox. She was taken to a hos
pital where her condition was de
scribed as satisfactory.
Civil Aeronautics Board offi
cials identified the section as
coming from an American Air
lines Boeing 707 jet. The jet, car
rying 87 passengers, landed safe
ly. Officials said an eight-foot
section of the flap is still missing.
Miss American Pageant
Has 54 Comely Aspirants
ATLANTIC CITY, N. J., UPT—
A beauty-laden motorcade along
this resort’s famed boardwalk of
ficially launched the 1960 Miss
• America Pageant last night.
Perched on the backs of con
vertibles and atop floats were 54
young women, eyed appreciative
ly by a crowd of 150,000 and a
nationwide television audience.
The contestants represent ev
ery state in the union, Canada,
and the cities of New York, Chi
cago and Washington. They were
accompanied by the present Miss
America, Mary Ann Mobley of
Brand, Miss.
Earlier in the day, the girls
posed in swim suits near a pool.
Picture-takers, professional and
otherwise, had a field day.
Wants Ike Take Mr. K. to Church
WASHINGTON. W— Sen. Olin
D. Johnston (D-SO wants Presi
dent Eisenhower to take Soviet
Premier Khrushchev to church
during his visit here.
“It is never too late for any
sinner to repenj,” Johnston said
Tuesday.
U.N. Fact-Finding Group
To Make On-the-Spot
Inquiry of Laos Trouble
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y., UP) —
The U.N.’s new fact-finding group
began drafting plans yesterday
for an Urgent on-the-spot inquiry
into the situation in troubled
Laos.
The four nation subcommittee
called a private meeting less than
12 hours after the Security Coun
cil brushed aside an attempted
Soviet veto and decided to ar
range a U.N. investigation.
The four nations are Italy, Ar
gentina, Japan and Tunisia.
The Council’s resolution creat
ing the subcommittee was spon
sored by the United States, Brit
ain and France.
The plan was adopted by a
vote of 10 to 1, with the Soviet
Union casting the lone dissent.
Evidence That Reds
Support Laos Rebels
WASHINGTON, UP) —There is
almost conclusive evidence the at
tacks in Laos are getting support
from Communist North Viet Nam,
Sen. Fulbright (D-Ark) says.
Fulbright, chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Com
mittee, spoke Tuesday after the
committee got a 90-minute brief
ing from J. Graham Parsons, As
sistant Secretary of State for Far
Eastern Affairs.
Billion-Dollar Gas
Tax Bill Goes to
The President
WASHINGTON, (41—1The House
sent to President Eisenhower to
day a bill increasing the federal
gasoline tax a cent a gallon Oct. 1.
The money will go toward fin
ancing the interstate highway
program.
The bill will add a billion dol
lars to motorists’ gasoline bills
for the next 21 months by rais
ing the federal gasoline tax to
four cents a gallon until July 1,
1961.
The extra tax is designed to
help overcome a deficit current
ly existing in funds for construc
tion of the 41,000-mile interstate
network.
Although the emergency finan
cing bill did not entirely meet
Eisenhower’s specifications, it was
expected to be signed to keep the
road building program rolling.
\ -
Forest Fire Burns Part
Of Deadwood, Historic
Gold Rush Town
DEADWOOD, S.D., 141—A for
est fire skipped across this his
toric gold rush town yesterday—
burning an estimated dozen
homes and four businesses.
The same shifting winds that
turned the fire into town helped
minimize damage by lofting the
blaze into tree tops and produc
ing a scattered pattern of fires.
Deadwood’s 3,500 residents
were evacuated but some were
trickling back today.
An estimated 2,000 fighters
were digging a wide line several
miles ahead of the fire, sacrific
ing the timber in between to try
to stop it there.
Deadwood, where Wild Bill
Hickok and Calamity Jane are
buried, is a popular Western tour
ist attraction. Many of the old
frame buildings date from gold
rush days.
*
Soviets Call For
China and India
To Settle Trouble
LONDON, UP!—The Soviet Union
issued a call today for Red China
and India to settle their frontier
disputes “in the interests of both
countries.”
The call came in a statement
by the offical Soviet news agency
Tass, and broadcast by radio
Moscow.
The statement said Western re
ports of incidents on the Indian
Chinese frontier were calculated
to stir up tension before Soviet
Premier Khrushchev’s visit to the
United States.
This was the first major Mos
cow statement on the dispute be
tween China and India. The
Kremlin apparently has been
caught between two fires — its
alliance with the Peiping Com
munists and its long and costly
attempts to woo India.
A Tass statement issued in this
way is a device frequently em
ployed by the Soviet Union to
bring pressure on other govern
ments without getting the Krem
lin involved in public diplomatic
dealings.
Would-be Red
Wants to Leave
Russia for Home
By A. I. GOLDBERG
MOSCOW, UP) — A New York
metal worker who applied for
Soviet citizenship 10 days ago
says he already is homesick for
the United States and wants to
go home.
Nicholas Petrulli, 38, of Valley
Stream, N.Y., appealed to the U.S.
embassy last night to give him
back the American citizenship he
renounced.
“I don’t have any family here,
I haven’t made any new friends,
I don’t have a job or money an<J
would have to learn a new lan
guage,” he told newsmen.
Petrulli said he has cabled his
brother in Valley Stream for
money to pay his Moscow hotel
bills.
He already has his plane ticket
home. He held on to the round
trip ticket he had on his $965 tour
that brought him to Moscow on
Aug. 11.
Petrulli handed his passport to
the U.S. embassy last Thursday
with a signed statement renounc
ing his American citizenship.
He had already written the So
viet Parliament asking for Soviet
citizenship but got no reply. He
said then he felt “economically
and morally at home in the So
viet Union.”
In Los Angeles, Petrulli’s div
orced wife, Helen, said she was
“glad he changed his mind.” She
offered to take him back. They
have a 4-year-old daughter.
Good Salmon Pack
Predicted Next Year
SEATTLE, (j?>—Alaska’s salmon
pack will revive next year, the
Alaska regional director of the
Bureau of Commercial Fisheries
predicted yesterday.
Director John Gharrett blamed
this year’s disappointing catch—
the worst in Alaska’s history—on
the convergence of poor salmon
cycles throughout the 49th state.
Gharrett forecast:
“Next year we’ll have a good
catch, considerably better.
Mercury Astronaut
Capsule Recovered
After Space Flight
CAPE CANAVERAL, UP — A
space capsule like the one a Mer
cury astronaut will ride in orbit
was blasted hundreds of miles out
across the Atlantic today and
quickly recovered intact. Space
experts said main research ob
jectives were met despite a mech
anical mishap that shortened the :
flight.
The bottle-shaped steel cham- [
her was hoisted aloft from this j
missile test center at 2:19 a.m. by
a huge Atlas rocket, the vehicle
chosen for the first manned
flights. Instead of a man, how
ever, it carried only instruments.
All went well on the launching
itself but when the powerful first
stage burned out after 2 min
utes and 4-0 seconds it failed to
disengage and fall away as plan
ned.
The resulting drag cut the flight
short of the 100 miles altitude and
2,000-mile distance planned, but
telemetry signals came back for
12 of the expected 20 minutes, in
dicating that much of the planned
range had been achieved.
Then signals were heard from
the chamber itself, afloat on the
water several hundred miles
north of Barbados, and the cham
ber was quickly located by plane
and retrieved by a Navy vessel.
Near Record Labor
Day Traffic Toll
(By The Associated Press)
Traffic accidents during the 3
day Labor Day holiday cost the
nation a near record toll in hu
man lives.
More than 430 dead were
counted Monday.
The all-time record number of
traffic deaths for a Labor Day
weekend is 461—set in 1951.
The National Safety Council had
estimated 450 traffic deaths
would occur this year from 6 p.m.
Friday to Monday midnight. Last
year 420 traffic death occurred
during the holiday observance.
The toll from all causes:
Traffic . 431
Boating . 28
Non-boating drownings.... 60
Miscellaneous . 84
Total . 603
Entire Senate May
Make Junket
To Hawaii
WASHINGTON, UP) —A junket
to surpass all junkets—a free trip
to Hawaii for the whole Senate—
is getting enthusiastic considera
tion from some senators.
The taxpayers would foot the
bill under terms of a resolution
drafted by Senate Republican
leader Everett Dirksen. It calls
for an outlay of $200,000 to cover
members’ expenses on the trip.
Gov. William F. Quinn of Ha
waii cabled the invitation for all
the senators to take part in a
Thanksgiving celebration for the
50th state. The Senate Republican
Policy Committee received it yes
terday with “hilarity and exuber
ance of spirit,” Dirksen reported.
If the trip materializes, Dirk
sen said he doesn’t expect sen
ators would be required to bother
turning in expense accounts. *
Th GOP leader added that from
Hawaii “it isn’t very far around
to Alaska” and some senators
might want to go there too.
Negotiators Reacli
Agreement In
Carpenter Strike
FAIRBANKS, UPt — An agree
ment designed to end Alaska’s 11
week-old carpenters strike was
announced by union and construc
tion industry negotiators last
night.
The agreement provides for
wage increases of 78 cents an
hour over a three year period.
An immediate 30-cent increase,
retroactive to March 15, an ad
ditional 25 cents March 15, 1960
and another 23 cents March 15,
1961 are provided in the proposed
contract. Journeymen carpenters
now receive $4.25 an hour.
Work on virtually all construc
tion except some defense proj
ects was halted when the strike
began June 27. ,
The agreement, reached with
the aid of Federal Mediator Albin
Peterson, is subject to ratifica
tion by members of the Carpen
ters Union and members of the
Alaska Chapter of the Associated
General Contractors, the em
ployer group.
Compromise,
Controversy
Slows Congress
WASHINGTON, UP) — Compro
mise and controversy prevailed
today as a harassed and bicker
ing Congress snailed its way to
ward a seemingly-ever-retreating
adjournment, date.
Inter - party compromises pro
mising progress on such issues as
housing were countered by con
troversy threatening delays on
such matters as civil rights and
enforcement of the Senate’s rules.
Senate Democratic leader Lyn
don Johnson, who has been con
sistently bearish on plans of other
leaders to quit Saturday, fixed
the early part of next week as
a more likely date.
He said that, if Congress still
is in session, it will be up to the
State Department to decide whe
ther Soviet Premier Khrushchev,
who arrives Tuesday, should be
asked tec address it.
“We always invite anybody they
ask us to,” he said. Previously
GOP leaders had said President
Eisenhower is keeping hands off
this touchy situation.
Proceeding cautiously around a
series of rules roadblocks' set up
by Sen. Wayne Morse, the Senate
moved toward action today on a
compromise housing bill. Demo
crats were assured President Ei
senhower would sign it despite
vetoes of two previous measures
in this field.
Congress Tuesday whipped
through a $1,185,309,093 public
work appropriation bill in a form
the President still doesn’t like.
Republicans said it may be vetoed
as its predecessor was.
Father Tom Buried
Tuesday at Fairbanks
FAIRBANKS, UP>—Alaska paid
her last respects to Father Tom
Cunningham Tuesday.
The Most Rev. Francis D. Glee
son, Bishop of northern Alaska,
presided at a pontifical requiem
high mass for the Arctic priest.
Father Cunningham, 53, died of
a heart attack at his Point Bar
row cabin last Thursday after 25
years of service to a parish em
bracing all of Arctic Alaska.