rn NOME NUGGET
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OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
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VOL. LVII No. 25 _NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1955 Per Copy—15*
Edna Ferber
Visits Nome
Edna Ferber, famous for her
novels ince 19M and writer of
the Pulitzer Prize winning book
*So Big” in 1924, arrived here
today from Kotzebue.
Miss Ferber came to Alaska
early last fall but got only as
far as Fairbanks. She is now
seeing Alaska in the winter.
In addition to 21 novel she has
written several plays.
Near Hurricane Breaks
Communications on
Pacific Northwest Coast
SEATTLE, UP)—Howling winds
pounded the Oregon-Washington
coast and interior points today,
disrupting communications over
a wide area, and at one point a
gust of wind came within one
mile an hour of hurricane force
in Seattle.
It was a rough, cold preview of
March coming in like a lion from
Vancouver, B.C., in the north,
where a fast-moving Pacific
storm dumped five inches of
snow, to points in southwestern
Oregon.
In Seattle, the windstorm felled
utility poles, wires and trees and
at 6:08 a.m. gusted at 74 miles an
hour. A 75-mile-an-hour blow is
hurricane force. In the Portland
area, gusts up to 69 miles an hour
were recorded.
The storm originated in the
Alaskan panhandle Saturday.
Maj. Gen. O'Connell
Named Signal Corps Head
WASHINGTON, (A*»—President
Eisenhower today nominated Maj.
Gen. James D. O’Connell to be
chief of the Army Signal Corps.
The President asked the Senate
to promote O’Connell to the per
manent rank of major general.
His present permanent grade is
brigadier general.
O’Connell would succeed Maj.
Gen. George I. Back, whose term
as Signal Corps chief expires pn
April 30.
Array of New Bills in Territorial
Legislature, With Spotlight on
Revised Appointments Measure
JUiNJtAU, up—An array oi new
"bills continued to arrive in the
Alaska legislature as the law
makers appeared headed for a
new record in bill introductions.
The spotlight was on the intro
duction l>y House Democrats of a
revision of the controversial ap
pointments bill which brought a
veto last Monday from Governor
Heintzleman.
The new version drops the ve
toed bill’s provision for the legis
lature to take over the job of
selecting appointees after twice
rejecting names sent down by the
governor for a position. There is
no provision in the new bill to
give the legislature any appoin
tive role. It makes concessions on
several points which drew special
. criticism from the governor in
his veto message on the original.
Another major bill tossed in
Saturdaj5 would remove the dis
trict courts from carrying the re
* sponsibility of issuing and revok
ing liquor licenses.
It would create a liquor and
beverage license advisory board
. to supervise the license policing
Premier U Nu Says
Chou En-lai Willing for
Talks With U.S. Mission
RANGOON, Burma, UP)—Bur
mese Premier U Nu announced
today that Communist Premier
'Chou En-lai is willing to receive
an unofficial U.S. mission to dis
cuss the case of imprisoned Am
erican airmen and tensions be
tween the U.S. and Peiping.
Nu told newsmen he had con
veyed Chou’s approval of such a
conference to U.S. Secretary of
State Dulles. The Burmese Pre
mier declined to discuss Dulles’
reaction.
Dulles stopped off in Rangoon
Saturday for a 36-hour visit after
attending the Manila Pact confer
ence in Bangkok. He left yester
day for Laos and was due in Sai
gon later today, enroute to Manila.!
The idea for the conference be-;
tween Chou and an unofficial,
U.S. group apparently was ad-1
vanced by U Nu, who has pro- j
posed recently the five “neutral” ;
Colombo powers serve as media- 1
tors between the Chinese Reds'
and the Western powers.
Sens. Monroney, Malone
To Give Statehood Views
As Hearing Nears End
By FRANK W. VAILLE
WASHINGTON, Ufi—‘The Sen
ate Territories Subcommittee to
day hopes to wind up its hearing
on statehood for Alaska and Ha
waii.
Today’s session was called to
get the views of Sens. Monroney
<D-Okla» and Malone <R-Nev>.
Both are opposed to statehood for
either territory. Each has intro
duced alternative legislation.
Monroney would give the two
territories commonwealth status
and exemption from feaeral taxa
tion similar to that of Puerto Rico.
Malone would permit them to
elect their own governors.
Subcommittee Chairman Jack
son (D-Wash>, referring to the
commonwealth proposal, has said
he “always considered such status
to be the last step before granting
complete independence.”
To grant such status to Alaska,
he said, would embellish Russian
domestic propaganda claims to
ownership of the territory.
Brainwashed Americans Released
From Red China Prison Consider
Communism Best Possible System
HONG KONG, (A1-Two Amer
icans expelled from Red China as
spies repeated today that they
consider Communism the best
possible way of life and believe
the whole world will some day
adopt it.
The pair, Malcolm Bersohn, 29,
! of New York City, and Mrs. Adele
I Austin Rickett, 35, formerly of
| Seattle, arrived by train from
i Peiping yesterday after 3 and a
half years in jail under close de
tention.
They astonished newsmen and
U.S. consulate officials by pro
j claiming they had spied for the
| United States, deserved their
j punishment, and got “wonderful
i treatment” from their captors in
Peiping.
i The women said her husband,
which the courts now do in Alas
ka, but which judgs have ex
pressed a desire to escape, accord
ing to the bill’s sponsors.
The board would be composed
I of three territorial officers—the
j auditor, treasurer and attorney
general. They could name sub
, advisory boards to handle the job,
1 under their supervision, in the
; other parts of the territory.
The lengthy bill includes a
complete wrap-up of all existing
liquor laws into one over-all liqu
j or regulations act, and it includes
1 some other changes from the
j present law.
| One would make minors jointly
j responsible with bar operators if
' they lie about their ages or pre
; sent false documents to indicate
i they are over 21. The bill would
provide (for the bar operators to
have affidavits which they could
i call upon a young person to sign
I if they suspect his or her age.
Then the affidavit would be evi
j dence of illegal entry to the estab
(Continued on Page Two)
*0
Walter A. Rickett, is still in a
Peiping prison. The couple went
to China in 1948 as Fulbright
scholars. Bersohn, a graduate of
Harvard University who also
studied at the University of Chi
cago, had been a medical student
at the Peiping Union Medical
College.
There was no immediate offi
; cial comment from Washington
on their remarks. But newsmen
in Hong Kong, the pair’s families
back in America and some U.S.
officials credited the Red Chinese
with having done a thorough job
-of brainwashing.
Interviewed today at the Hong
Kong YWCA, both Bersohn and
Mrs. Rickett replied to most ques
tions with party-line answers.
Both said they “have not the
honor” to be Communists. Mrs.
Rickett explained: “Only the best
people can join. I am not worthy.
I have committed a crime.”
Bersohn described the Peiping
regime as “democratic because it
represents the people and is inter
ested in peace.”
Both he and the woman said
they were going home to “be
upright and honest and because
peace is endangered by the war
mongers of Wall Street and Wash
ington.”
Seattle Tuna Boat With
600 Pounds Salmon
Founders in Caribbean
PANAMA, (A*>—A U. S. Navy
patrol boat sped through choppy
Caribbean seas Saturday and
rescued a crew of 10 men after
their tuna boat, the “Tony B” of
Seattle, foundered earlier in the.
day.
The tuna clipper was owned
by Nick Bez, well-known Seattle
fish packer, and piloted by one of
his sons, John Bez.
A dinghy carrying the 10 sur
vivors was sighted by a U.S. Air
Force rescue amphibian 48 miles
northwest of the San Bias Islands
off Panama’s northeast coast.
The “Tony B,” a converted
Navy tug, was on the way from
Seattle to Ponce, in Puerto Rico,
1 with 600 tons of tuna.
I
House-Senate Deadlock Likely on
I Jobless Program as Unemployment
Commission Officials Subpoenaed
I
Lyng Memorial Asks
For Savoonga Airport
JUNEAU, UP—'The Senate ap
proved a memorial Saturday ask
ing the Aeronautics Commission
to take steps to assure construc
tion of an airport at the isolated
St. Lawrence village of Savoonga
during 1955. The memorial, by
Sen. Howard Lyng (D-Nome), said
steel matting was readily avail
able.
Two Young Brothers Die
As Big Snow Wall Falls
SITKA, UP—A 500-foot wall of
snow crashed down into the ski
bowl high on Harbor Mountain
yesterday and two young brothers
were buried and were dead when
dug out.
The two were Bruce, 13, and
Hans, 3, sons of Dr. and Mrs.
Phillip M. Moore, of Mt. Edge-;
cumbe.
Bruce Blake, U.S. Park Service!
ranger, was also covered but was I
alive when rescuers reached him.
He was brought down the moun
tainside for medical treatment.
Jordon King Engages
Schoolteacher Cousin
AMMAN, Jordon, UP—Jordon
society buzzed happily today over
the engagement of popular young
King Hussein to his pretty school
teacher cousin, Dina. The match
has been in the making for nearly
two years: •
The royal cabinet broadcast the
announcement last night four
hours after 19-year-old Hussein
returned from Cairo. Black-eyed
Princess Dina Abdul Hamid, the
monarch’s third cousin, teaches
at the city university there.
Air Force to Start
Additional Air
Service to Alaska
SEATTLE, (A*v—A Seattle avi
ation editor, William Schulze of
the Post Intelligencer, said in his
column today that the Air Force
has found transportation to Alas
ka “so vital” that it will launch
additional service within the next
few days.
That contrasts, Schulze contin
ued, with the reported plans of
the Civil Aeronautics Board to
order the elimination of one or
two of the four commercial sched
uled airline services between Se
attle and Alaska cities.
While at Ladd Air Force Base
at Fairbanks a week ago, Schulze
wrote, he was “tipped off’ that
the Military Air Transport Ser
vice will begin daily freight-only
flights soon from the McChord
Air Force Base..
“It was indicated to me that the
Air Force finds this new air
freight service necessary, in addi
tion to that provided by the four
scheduled airlines,” Schulze said.
ELIZABETH TAYLOR HAS
2nd SON ON 23rd BIRTHDAY
SANTA MONICA, Calif., W—
It’s another boy for film actress
Elizabeth / Taylor, • wife of actor
Michael Wilding.
The dark-haired actress cele
brated her 23rd birthday yester
day by giving birth by Caesarean
i section to a 5 pound, 12 ounce boy.
By JIM HUTCHESON
JUNEAU, UP)—A House- Senate
deadlock now appears inevitable,
legislative observers said today,
because of sharply conflicting
views on solution of the pressing
Alaska unemployment benefits
program.
Their forecast is that neither
branch’s proposed legislation will
be satisfactory to the o'ther. As a
result, they said, a conference
committee may have to write the
final version of the proposed law
in the session’s dying days.
Meanwhile, as both House and
Senate entered the sixth week of
their deliberations, each ope
called for a look-see at Employ
ment Security Commission rec
ords and minutes.
Both A. B. Phillips, director,
and Arthur Hedges, his assistant,
were under House subpoena to ap
pear at a 2 p.m. session and bring
minutes of their last three meet
ings with them. Each has been
under fire from Democratic ancf
labor spokesmen.
The constitutional convention
bill, including a clause on where
one might be held, will emerge j
from the House Statehood Com
mittee shortly.
Similarly, two other major bills
introduced only Saturday may hit
the House floor, leaders said. One
would put heavy new taxes on
big salmon catches, largely on
fishtrap operations, and the other
is a new version of the appoint
ments bill which Gov. Heintzle
man vetoed a week ago. It is writ
ten to meet some of his objec
tions.
The House unemployment ben
efits bill would liberalize pay
ments in some ways, tighten them
in others and would aim at Re
plenishing the depleted fund.
It would assess workers one per
cent of their earnings up to $4,800
a year—which would make a
maximum levy of $48 against a
worker—and would increase the
payment by an employer from the
present $3,000 salary limit to
$4,800. That would mean the 3
percent tax against the employer
would amount to $144 on each
employe who earns $4,800 or more
a year, instead of the present $90
payment.
Both bills would eliminate de
pendency allowances. The Senate
bill would increase unemploy
ment benefits from the present
$35 a week top to $70 a week, but
it would restrict so sharply the
number of those who could draw
benefits that a federal employ
ment security official testified re
cently it might raise a question of
whether it would conform to fed
eral government standards as an
insurance program.
Rural Development Board
A new bill to be introduced in
the Senate today proposes the
creation of an Alaska rural devel
opment board to survey the needs
of rural areas and villages and
take steps to help solve them.
Its purpose is defined in these
words: “The purpose and intent
of this act is to coordinate exist
ing programs of the territorial
government and to plan, inaugu
rate and operate additional pro
grams for the purpose of promot
ing vthe improvement of the
health, welfare, security and eco
nomic well-being of Alaskans re
(Continued on Page Two)