IS NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LV No. 11 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 1953 Per Copy—151
Reds Defeat U.N.
Troops In Planned
“Program” Raid
By STAN CARTER
SEOUL, UP) — Allied fighter
bombers ripped into Communist
battlefront positions today after
U.N. troops took a licking on the
western Korean front in an elab
orately - planned “program” raid.
The 4^ hour raid was the
heaviest ground action of the new
year. Allied infantry, tanks, flame
throwers, artillery and planes
were thrown into the unsuccess
ful assault on Spud Hill.
High brass and correspondents
— provided in advance with a
pamphlet describing each phase
of the attack — watched from
nearby bunkers. Called “Opera
tion Smack,” it had been planned
since Jan. 19. But the Chinese
Reds were ready. They caught the
charging U. N. infantrymen in a
deadly crossfire.
Then the Allied troops tried to
burn out the Reds with flame
throwers. However, in many in
stances, the flamethrowers ran out
of fuel. AP correspondent Forrest
Edwards reported from the scene
— at the southern end of T-bone
Hill — that a hail of artillery
shells and napalm also failed to
dislodge the Communists.
One of the Allied wounded told
Edwards:
“If we could only have had
more flamethrowers we could
have burned right through them.
We were doing a good job but
suddenly there weren’t any more
flamethrowers.”
An Eighth Army spokesman de
clined to report Allied casualties
but estimated 95 Chinese were
killed.
After the raid, Fifth Air Force
l and Navy carrier planes swarmed
r over the entire front.
POPE'S HEALTH IMPROVED
VATICAN CITY, UP) — Pope
Pius XII, confined to bed by the
first major ailment since he be
came head of the Roman Catholic
Church, officially was reported
improving today.
In its second bulletin since the
pontiff took to his bed last Thurs
day, L’Osservatore Romano noted
the improvement. Other authori
tative Vatican sources say the
Pope has been suffering from
bronchial pneumonia.
MacARTHUR'S 73d BIRTHDAY
NEW YORK, UP)—Gen. Douglas
MacArthur celebrates his 73rd
birthday today.
An aide said the former Far
East commander would spend the
day working “as usual” in his
job as chairman of Remington
Rand, Inc.
GOP POLICY COMMITTEE
BACKS CHARLES E. WILSON
FOR SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
WASHINGTON, UP) —The Sen
ate Republican Po.licy Committee
Saturday threw its full weight be
hind prompt Senate confirmation
of Charles E. Wilson as Secretary
of Defense.
Sen. Knowland (R-Calif.), chair
man of the GOP strategy group,
said the nomination would be
pushed ahead of any other Senate
matters on Monday.
McKay Has Recommended
Only Governor of Hawaii
WASHINGTON, UP—Secretary
of the Interior McKay today
named Raymond Davis, an insur
ance executive, as an assistant to
the secretary and said he expects
appointments for other top jobs
in the department to start coming
out this week.
Davis, 62, has been assistant to
the president and vice president
of the General Insurance Com
pany of America. His Interior
post pays a little over $10,000 a
year.
McKay in an interview said he
had not so far recommended any
appointees to President Eisen
hower except for a man to be
governor of Hawaii.
He said his recommendation
that Gov. Ernest Gruening of
Alaska continue in office until
about April 1 had also been
agreed to.
He would not reveal his choice
for the Hawaii post.
McKay made his comments
when asked about rumors that he
had recommended a slate o'f top
Interior officials and it had*been
rejected by the White House as
having contained too many Taft
Republicans.
He said: “I have not made any
recommendations that have been
turned down by the White
House.”
‘ Uncle Mike” Jacobs,
Former Boxing Czar,
Dies of Heart Attack
MIAMI, Fla., tP) — Michael
Straus Jacobs, a fabulous figure
in boxing until his retirement six
years ago, died of a heart attack
Saturday. He was 72.
The man who organized the
Twentieth Century Sporting Club
in New York and signed up Joe
Louis for his exclusive services
died of a “coronary insuffic
iency.”
His widow, Mrs. Josephine
Jacobs, said he had “been feel
ing great right up to about 3 p.m.
Friday.”
He was attending the races at
Hialeah Park at the time, she
said.
“Uncle Mike,” who was consid
ered the absolute ruler of boxing
through his control of Joe Louis,
during the latter’s reign as heavy
weight champion, suffered a
stroke in New York six years ago.
Thereafter he gradually retired
from active participation in his
20th Century Sporting Club.
Georgia Neese Clark, 53,
Treasurer of U.S., Weds
Public Relations Man, 40
WASHINGTON, OP) — M r s .
Georgia Neese Clark, Treasurer
of the United States during the
Truman administration, was mar
ried Saturday to Washington pub
lic relations executive Andrew J.
Gray.
Mrs. Clark, 53, was a Demo
cratic National Committeewoman
from Kansas before coming to
Washington.
The 40-year-old bridegroom, a
former Boston Post reporter now
a partner in the public relations
firm of T. A. Mclnemy, Inc., said
marrying Mrs. Clark was “the
only way to make a Republican
out of her.”
Republicans, Shy
On Patronage,
Eve Postmasters
By WILLIAM F. ARBOGAST
WASHINGTON, MR—House Re
publicans, shy on patronage- for
20 years, are casting a jaundiced
eye at a law which bars them
from control of thousands of post
master jobs.
The law, enacted 15 years ago
when Democrats were calling the
shots, had the effect of giving
postmasters lifetime Civil Service
tenure. It didn’t bother the Re
publicans at the time because, as
the party out of power, they were
n’t able to reward the politically
faithful with patronage jobs.
But it’s different now that a
Republican occupies the White
House and the GOP controls Con
gress.
Normally, postmaster appoint
ments are the patronage of House
members of the dominant politi
cal party.
Postmasterships are about the
only choice of patronage House
members have, and many Repub
licans don’t like the idea of being
barred from controlling them.
Openly, Republicans aren’t say
ing what they intend to do about
it, but privately they are consid
ering repeal of the law.
One approach, GOP spokesmen
said, would be for Congress to
enact a law declaring all post
masterships vacant and ordering
new examinations to fill them.
That would give Republican ap
plicants a chance, provided * they
finished among the top three con
testants in a Civil Service exam
ination. Appointments are made
from the top three, with veter
ans having a priority.
GENS. COLLINS AND CLARK
MEET WITH VAN FLEET
SEOUL, UP) — Gen. J. Lawton
Collins, Army chief of staff, and
Gen. Mark W. Clark, United Na
tions Far East commander, ar
rived today for a meeting with
the retiring 8th Army command
er, Gen. James A. Van Fleet.
Collins said Van Fleet’s retire
ment did not necessarily mean a
change in United Nations 'policy
in Korea. He said he would meet
Van Fleet’s successor, Lt. Gen.
Maxwell D. Taylor, when Taylor
arrives in Tokyo in a few days.
Eisenhower and Gen.
Taylor Discuss Korea
WASHINGTON, (#) — President
Eisenhower discussed the Korean
military situation Saturday with
Lt. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, who
is leaving Monday to take com
mand of the Eighth Army there.
The meeting was held against a
background of speculation that
the talk would be related to the
new chief executive’s plans for
trying to end the stalemated war.
Taylor told reporters after his
conference that he will arrive in
Tokyo next Thursday.
He is taking over the command
of Gen. James A. Van Fleet, who
will retire March 31.
Asked if Korea came up at his
conference with President Eisen
hower, Taylor said that was a
“safe assumption” but declined to
elaborate.
21st Legislature Convened Today
Amid Open GOP Resentment That
Gov. Gruening Remains In Office
-<
Mystery Fire
Guts $5,600,000
Empress of Canada
LIVERPOOL, England, UPi — A
mystery fire raged through the
docked liner Empress of Canada
and left the 20,235 - ton vessel
lying on her side today, a gutted
and smoldering ruin.
A spokesman for the Canadian
Pacific Railway Co., her owner,
described the $5,600,000 ship as
a “total loss.’’
Only a dozen workmen were
aboard the Empress, which was
undergoing an annual overhaul,
when the fire broke out amidships
yesterday afternoon. All scram
bled to safety.
Police Supt. Herbert Balmer
made a preliminary investigation
of the fast-spreading blaze and
asked the British Home Office
for the assistance of scientists.
“The possibility of sabotage,” he
told reporters, “cannot be ruled
out.”
More than 200 firemen with 40
pieces of apparatus fought the
blaze, but it quickly got out of
hand and enveloped the ship’s
entire superstructure.
Flames shot high as portholes
melted and deck plates collapsed.
The yardarm of the mast cracked
off and fell across a shed on the
dock. Finally the ship began list
ing sharply from the hundreds of
tons of water poured into her and
the firemen were called ashore
to let the blaze burn itself out.
The ship could carry 700 pas
sengers and had a crew of 350.
Company officials said she had
been fully booked for the season
to carry coronation visitors be
tween America and England.
14.500 MILITARY PLANES
IS 1953 GOAL FOR U.S.
WASHINGTON, UP) — The na
tion’s aircraft industry will pro
duce 14,500 military airplanes this
year — more than 1951 and 1952
combined—Mundy I. Peale, presi
dent of Republic Aviation Corp.,
said today.
Peale said Russia still will out
produce the United States in air
planes this year, but the United
States will be far ahead in quality
of aircraft and pilots.
Leigh Robinson, Formerly
Of Nome, Dies In Seattle
Of A Heart Attack
SEATTLE, UP)—Masonic funeral
services for Leigh E. Robinson,
Jr., of Anchorage, will be held
Monday in the Harlow-Hollings
worth Chapel, Bellingham. Cre
mation will follow.
Robinson died Thursday of a
heart ailment in a Seattle hotel.
He was here on a temporary
assignment with the CAA. He was
an airways engineer in Anchor
age.
Robinson was born in Belling
ham. He attended high school in
Nome, Alaska and in Bellingham.
He received his engineering de
gree at the University of Iowa.
» By JIM HUTCHESON
JUNEAjU, UP! — Alaska’s 21st
Legislature convenes here today
with money in the bank and the
prospect of not needing any new
taxes to keep the territorial bud
get in balance.
Preliminary organization of the
House was completed vjith Rep.
George J. Miscovich of Elatt,
slated to be named speaker at
the opening session. Sen. Charles
D. Jones, Nome Republican, was
expected to be elected president
of the Senate on the first ballot.
Meantime, most of the legisla
tors had arrived Sunday, many
with their families, and a number
of them rented apartments.
The controversial property tax
drew the loudest opposition in
pre - session discussions and
spokesmen forecast that it would
be repealed, probably over Gov.
Gruening’s veto.
Many of the senators and rep
resentatives also openly expressed
resentment over Gov. Gruening’s
remaining as a “lame duck” office
holder in view of the strongly
Republican sweep last fall.
Rep. Gerrit Snider (R-Wasilla)
commented:
“We wanted to wipe out the
whole kit and kaboodle. Now it
will be hard to do our best job
with a holdover Democratic gov
ernor, with an almost 100 per cent
Republican senate and house.”
If the election of a house speak
er and senate president goes
through as expected Monday, the
governor’s message to the legis
lature may be expected any time
from Tuesday on.
In a period of rising costs and
expanding services, the budget
proposals to be laid before the
lawmakers for their consideration
during the next 60 days total up
to an all-time high.
The departments and institu
tions which were allotted less
than 18 million dollars in the gen
eral appropriations bill of the
1951 legislature are asking for a
total of 27 Vz million. One-third of
it is for support of public schools.
The lawmakers will find a con
trast to the treasury deficits and
frozen funds that faced them in
other sessions of recent years.
Tax collections above the 1951
Legislature’s calculations, even
without the court-embroiled gen
eral property tax, have left a
surplus which is expected to ex
ceed five million dollars at this
biennium’s end.
The 20th Legislature met two ,
years ago amid prophecies that
it might be the last to sit a^ a
territorial body; that statehood
might be just around the corner.
This one meets with a prospect,
instead, that it might be the last
under an appointive governor.
The session will bring the swan
song of Governor Gruening, one
of the most controversial execu
tives in the territory’s history.
It is the first solidly controlled
Republican legislature in “that
long 20 years.”