THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
- NOME, ALASKA
Telephone Main 125 $1.50 PER MONTH
P.O. Box 618 $16.00 A YEAR
E. P. BOUCHER . Managing Editor
CLINTON GRAY . Production Manager
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the
post office at Nome, Alaska, under Act of March 3. 1879.
RIGHT UNDER HIS VERY NOSE
Four, Please For Resources
ACCORDING TO THE TDM BULLETIN of the De
partment of Mines in Juneau the proposed De
partment of Natural Resources with a commissioner
appointed by Governor Egan, is also to have three
regional divisions: Southeastern, South-central, and
Northern. Each region is to have an office (Juneau,
Anchorage, and Fairbanks).
Subdivisions under this department are admin
istrative, Agriculture, Fish and Farm, Forests and
Parks, Lands, Minerals, and Information.
Some of these subdivisions do not apply to North
western Alaska but mineral development and lands
should have representation in this area.
We couldn’t develop properly with control in far
away Washington. We’ve crossed that hazard and
with our full citizenship, urge that the four parts of
the new state as provided in the Constitution and
voted on by the people of Alaska, be taken into con
sideration when it comes to the economic levelopment
of the state.
Governor of Virginia
Extends “Official
Welcome” To Alaska
RICHMOND, Va., UR — Gov
ernor Lindsay Almond Jr. Satur
day extended “official welcome”
from the “mother of states” to
Alaska as a member of the union.
“In recognition of Alaska’s
statehood, I have directed that
the United States flag with its
49 stars be flown over Virginia’s
capitol as quickly as is feasible,”
said Almond in a brief statement.
Apparently this would be July
4 or later, since an old resolution
of Congress bars use of the new
flag prior to that date.
The governor added:
“I wish for Alaska success and
happiness in Statehood. I hope
sincerely its citizens will enjoy
and profit from the benefits of its
new status and will guard zeal
ously those rights guaranteed it
under the matchless Constitution
of the United States.
“I call upon the citizens of Vir
ginia to take note of this historic
event and to join me in extending
our warm and sincere greetings
to Alaska.”
Alaskans Present
Tokens of Appreciation
To The Eisenhowers
WASHINGTON, UP) — Grateful
Alaskans presented President and
Mrs. Eisenhower with several
tokens of appreciation prior to
the signing Saturday of the proc
lamation admitting Alaska to
statehood.
Waino E. Hendrickson, acting
Territorial Governor, gave the
President a blue fringed silk and
rayon Alaska flag as a gift from
the new state.
To Mrs. Eisenhower, as a per
sonal gift from Mrs. Hendrickson,
the territorial official presented a
small gold charm with the Alas
ka flag inlaid in blue enamel.
Robert G. Atwood, Anchorage
publisher and chairman of the
Alaska Statehood Commission,
gave the President one of the 105
mm. shells fired in a 49-shell sa
lute by the Army in Anchorage
when the statehood bill passed
the Senate last June 30.
Accompanying the engraved
shell was a collection of Alaskan
minerals, including a bottle of oil
from Alaska’s first oil Veil.
PRESIDENT SIGNS ALASKA
STATEHOOD BILL JANUARY 3
WASHINGTON, W — President
Eisenhower Saturday proudly pro
claimed statehood for vast Alaska
and then unfurled the new United
States flag of 13 stripes and 49
stars.
Federal and Alaskan officials
watched as Eisenhower performed
the two separate acts in the White
House cabinet room.
The new flag, which doesn’t
become official until next July 4,
will have seven staggered rows
of seven stars each.
At the brief ceremony, Eisen
hower signed the Alaskan state
hood proclamation and the flag
order: “Dwight D. Eisenhower,
3 January, 1959.” He used six pens
on each document and handed
some of them out as souvenirs.
In his brief remarks, Eisen
hower said he was highly priv
ileged to welcome Alaska as
the 49th state. He recalled that
it had been almost a half cen
tury since the 47th and 48th were
admitted.
Eisenhower said it gave him a
feeling of grtification to welcome
Alaska into the union. He con
gratulated the Alaskan delegation
to Congress.
Then Eisenhower unfurled the
new flag as it stood in its stan
dard. It had been provided by
the Army Quartermaster Corps.
Three flags provided a bright
background on the otherwise plain
setting — the new 49-star flag, the
present American flag and the
blue Presidential banner.
House Speaker Sam Rayburn,
who attended the ceremonies,
commented later that he thought
it was a “very beautiful flag.”
Eisenhower interrupted a holi
day at his Gettysburg, Pa., farm
for the ceremony. He flew here
by helicopter early Saturday
morning, and planned to return
there later in the day.
With the stroke of a pen, Eisen
hower took the final step which
shoves the boundaries of the
United States 1,500 miles to the
west, within 55 miles of the Rus
sian mainland. Only three miles
separate Russian-held Big Dio
mede Island in the Bering Strait
from Little Diomede Island, a
part of the new U. S. state.
Admission of Alaska culminates
a 42-year statehood drive and
brings into the union a resource
rich region more than twice the
size of Texas. It is nearly one
fifth as large as the other 48
states combined.
Alaska is the first non-contig
tious state and the first to join
the union since 1912 when New
: Mfexico and Arizona were ad
|
mitted.
All except three chairs had
been removed from the Cabinet
Room to make room for camera
men.
Grouped about Eisenhower were
Vice President Nixon, Speaker of
the House Sam Rayburn (D-Tex)
Secretary of the Interior Fred A.
Seaton, and six Alaskan officials
and former officials.
The Alaskans were:
Senators-elect E. L. Bartlett and
Ernest Gruening and Representa
tive-elect Ralph J. Rivers, all
Democrats; Robert Atwood of
Anchorage, chairman of the Alas
kan Statehood Committee; Waino
Hendrickson, who has been acting
Governor, and Mike Stepovich, a
former Governor.
With an estimated 212,000 popu
lation — smallest of any state —
Alaska also will add a new ingre
dient to the nation’s politics. In
1960, Alaskans for the first time
will cast three electorial votes for
President.
Politically, the new state gov
ernment will be solidly Demo
cratic from Governor William A.
Egan — the only elected state of
ficial — through the three-mem
ber Congressional delegation. Only
a smattering of Republicans made
their way into the State Legisla
ture in the November elections.
Still unanswered is the dura
tion of the terms which Bartlett,
for 14 years Alaska’s voteless dele
gate in the House, and Gruening,
a former appointive Governor,
will serve in the Senate. This will
be determined, probably next
Wednesday, when the two partici
pate in a Senate ceremony. Each
will draw from a box containing
three slips of paper marked to
denote a term of two, four or six
years.
Alaska’s quest for statehood has
gone on since 1916 — nearly half
the period it has spent under the
United States flag since its pur
chase from Russia in 1867 for
$7,200,000.
To reach its goal, Alaska had to
beat back the arguments of law
makers that it was not financially
capable of handling statehood,
that its separation by Canada from
the other 48 states would weaken
the union, and that giving its
small population two Senate seats
would dilute the vote of larger
states.
In granting statehood, Congress
gave Alaska the right to select 103
million acres of its area as a tax
base for financing its state gov
ernment.
It also granted to the Presi
dent the right at any time to set
aside military defense areas in
that portion of Alaska north and
west of the Porcupine, Yukon and
Kuskokwim Rivers.
Congress also withheld from the
new State the right to adminis
ter its fisheries and wildlife re
source until the State Legislature
acts in a manner to assure its
management in the broad national
interest.
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