NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_
VOL. LVI No. 95 NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 1954 Per Copy—15?
Japan, 9 Years After Surrender,
Is Tied Militarily With West
While Reds Woo Her From East
By JIM BECKER <
TOKYO, UP) — Nine years ago
Japan surrendered. Today the
dazed, defeated nation of 1945
has been spectacularly rebuilt and
is tied economically and' militar
ily to its former enemy, the
United States.
While the scars of a devastating
war have been almost entirely
erased, the island empire is al
most broke. The United States is
gravely concerned. Relations with
the United States are delicate.
Nine years ago' this Sunday,
Emperor Hirohito broadcast Jap
an’s surrender in a quavering,
high-pitched voice. Japan was
shattered, humbled. The vast em
pire had collapsed like a soap
bubble.
More than 40 of Japan’s cities
were wrecked, two by atomic
bombs. Millions of Japanese in
rags roamed in apathy in the
ruins.
Nine-Year Miracle
If the handful of U.S. soldiers
who landed gingerly a few days
later could have jumped the years
and seen the Japan of 1954 they
would have called it a miracle.
Japanese walking the streets or
working on farms and in the fish
ing villages look well fed and
healthy. Stores are crammed with
attractive goods.
But the properous facade hides
a deep economic illness inevitable
in a population shorn of its over
seas conquests and forced to sup
port a population half as large as
that of the United States on four
home islands wjiose total area is
about that, of California.
Japan must trade to live. It is
spending twice as much as it
earns. Substantial aid probably
must come from the United States
to see Japan through the next few
years. The State Department in
Washington labors over the prob
lem.
Austerity Program I
Prime Minister Yoshida’s pro
American administration has
adopted a tight austerity pro
gram to force Japan to live within
its income. This austerity has
(Continued on Page Three)
Bitter Clashes Occur
Between Police and
Bavarian Metal Workers
FRANKFURT, Germany, Iff)—
Bitter clashes between police and
striking Bavarian metal workers
continued today—the fifth day of
the walkout affecting 220,000 em
ployes.
Other Bavarian centers report
ed peaceful picketing, but in Mu
nich brawls broke out when hun
dreds of police tried to protect
nonstrikers. Many persons were
injured. ,
At the big Seimens electrical
plant, 300 club-wielding police
tangled with 1,000 pickets who
vainly tried to prevent 5,000 non
strikers from going on the job.
Company officials said that the
number of strikers was dwindling.
The union stuck to its claim
that the majority were still out.
Russia Agrees to Meeting
To Discuss Austrian
Independence Treaty
LONDON, — The Soviet
Union agreed today to a Big Four
meeting with Austria. But the
Russians called for more discus
sion of the deadlocked Austrian
independence treaty rather than
Austria’s proposal for an easing
of occupation controls.
Austria in a note July 22 pro
posed that the four occupying
nations, since they could not ag
ree on an independence treaty,
join the Vienna government in a
“committee of five” to consider
“easing of the occupation re
gime.”
In a reply broadcast by Moscow
radio, the Soviets said a meeting
on these terms “could not ensure
attainment of the agreement on
a state treaty.”
The Russians agreed to join
Uie United States, Britain arjd
France—with Austria participat
ing—in talks at the ambassadorial
level on “remaining questions re
lating to the draft of a state
treaty and other questions con
nected with conclusion of this
treaty.”
Search Under Way For
Fiendish Slayer Of
Pretty 17-Year-Old
TOLEDO, Ohio., 17PI — Sheriff’s
deputies searched a lonely woods
west of here for clues to the
identity of a fiend who dragged a
pretty high school girl from her
bicycle and then, beat, raped and
killed her.
The bloody and nearly nude
body of auburn-tressed Mary Jo
lene Freiss, 17, was found in the
woods by three terrified women
relatives yesterday after she fail
ed to return from a ride to get
the mail.
She had been cruelly beaten
and stabbed twice in the chest
and her hands were stained with
blood, apparently when she
scratched her slayer with her fin
gernails. Her body bore several
sets of teeth marks, a deputy sher
iff said.
Three Bandits Escape
With $160,000 After
Cleaning Out Bank Vault
CAMP SPRINGS, Md., UR —
Three ' bandits “cleaned out” the
vault of the Andrews Air Force
Base branch bank today, escaping
with an estimated $160,000.
A stunned official of the par
ent First National Bank of South
ern Maryland said there was
about $160,000 in the vault and
“they cleaned it out.”
The bandits, all Negroes, en
tered the branch bank located 10
miles southeast of the capitol in
adjacent Washington just a little
after the bank opened at 9 a.m.
They quickly herded the four
employes, two of them women,
into the vault and locked them in
after picking up the money.
Uncontrolled Fire
_ i
Threatens Big
Delta Army Base
FAIRBANKS, UP) — An uncon
trolled forest fire threatened
homes and chased buffalo in a
vast area just south of the Big
Delta junction on the Alaska
Highway Thursday.
More than 200 firefighters suc
ceeded in preventing destruction
of homes and other installations
in the area.
The flames are burning in buf
falo grazing range land and many
of the big animals transplanted
to Alaska several years ago fled
ahead of the fire.
All available men from the
Army base at Big Delta, many
civilians residing in the area and
the 27th Division of forestry fire
fighters were battling the lire. The
blaze broke out Tuesday in the
Jarvis Creek area, southwest of
Big Delta.
The fire was about 15 miles
long and a mile* wide Thursday
on both sides of the Alaska
Highway.
The fire jumped the highway
eight miles south of Delta Junc
tion Wednesday. Traffic was tied
up as motorists hesitated to drive
along a highway lined with
flames on each side.
The flames posed a definite
threat to installations of the
Army Arctic Training Center at
Big Delta, as well as Big Delta
homes.
Smoke was intense in the fire
vicinity. Some smoke drifted as
far north as Fairbanks, 100 miles
away.
Senate Will Pay
Defense Counsel
For McCarthy
WASHINGTON, LP—Sen. Mc
Carthy won today in his appeal
ofr the Senate to pay the salary
for the Senate to pay the salary
a forthcoming new investigation
of his official conduct.
Sen. Watkins (R-Utah), chair
man of the special committee that
will conduct hearings on a cen
sure move aimed at McCarthy,
announced the decision. He said
the Wisconsin senator will be al
lowed to' select the lawyer.
The development came as mem
bers of the subcommittee which
investigated McCarthy’s bitter
row with high Army officials said
they hoped to release their report
by next Wednesday or Thursday.
Sen. Mundt (R-SD) told report
ers the subcommittee’s seven
members met behind closed doors
yesterday, and that he found
unexpected areas of agreement
among them—“much more than I
had dared to hope.”
Watkins said the House often
provides counsel for a member in
volved in an election contest, and
that he believes there also is some
Senate precedent in contests
against the seating of an elected
senator.
The Senate Wednesday voted
Watkin’s committee a $30,000
fund to finance its inquiry, and
Watkins said the committee was
“in agreement” that part of the
money should be spent to hire a
lawyer to be named by McCarthy.
Rural Rehabilitation Program
For Second Division Discussed
At Forum Meeting With Benson
Eisenhower Signs New
‘Abstension’ North Pacific
Fisheries Treaty
WASHINGTON, UP) — President
Eisenhower Thursday signed a
bill giving effect to a fishery
treaty signed by the United
States, Canada and Japan.
The “International Convention
of the High • Seas of the North
Pacific Ocean” was signed at
Tokyo in 1952. Its goal is pre
servation of the fisheries of the
North Pacific through coopera
tion of the three countries.
The North Pacific Convention
goes further than many other
fishery treaties: it introduces a
new principle of abstension into
international conservation prac
tice.
Japan has agreed not to' fish for
salmon, halibut and herring in
certain waters off the coasts of
North America and Canada will
abstain from salmon fishing in
certain waters of the Bering Sea.
Five Convicts Still At
Large After Daring Escape
NORFOLK, Mass., UP) — Five
dangerous convicts who broke out
of the state prison colony last
night after overpowering six
guards and taking one of them
as hostage successfully eluded a
wide manhunt today.
This was the second break out
of the high-walled and steel
barred prison for four of the
men in the past three months.
The escapees were said to have
taken as hostage prison guard
Walter F. DeAdder, 29, of Law
rence, in whose car the conviJts
escaped toward Rhode Island and
Connecticut.
The men were identified as:
James L. Scharm, 37, serving 6
to 8 years for robbery; Wm. J.
Couture, 40, serving 14 to 17
years for the shooting of a Bos
ton storekeeper; Martin F. Feen
ey, 38, 12 to 15 years for a 1949
bank robbery; Richard Lavoie, 40,
6 to 10 years for breaking and en
tering and larceny; Russell T.
Halliday, 26, 12 to 15 years for
shooting a policeman during a
drug store holdup.
The men boldly walked out of
the prison’s main gate last night
under daring circumstances.
Halliday suddenly produced a
revolver as two guards entered
his cell after he had created a
disturbance. He forced them to
open the cells and was joined by
the other four. They marched to
the main gate and forced the
guard to open it, threatening to
shoot him.
GOANS PRAY TO HALT
THREAT OF INVASION
NOVA GOA, Portuguese India,
UP) — Some 7,000 Goans trudged
six miles through heavy mon
soon rains today to pray to St.
Francis Xavier — their patron
Saint—ta halt the threat of in
vasion from India.
> Henry A. Benson, territorial
commissioner of labor, held an
open meeting Thursday afternoon
at the Federal Building for the
purpose of discussing the needs of
employment for the rural areas of
Alaska.
Benson stated that with con
struction tapering off, less fishing
in the Kuskokwim area and the
higher cost of living the rural
areas are the first to feel the
lessening of employment.
Mayor Steffen Andersen, in re
sponse to a query from Benson,
stated that next year Nome ex
pects a better season than the
present season, as there will be
work available with the construc
tion of a new school, new ACS
headquarters east of the Miners
and Merchants Bank, possibly a
new federal building, and in
creased payroll with the U.S.
Smelting Co. and construction of
a new dredge.
No Employment In Villages
Mrs. Harold Salisbury of the
Territorial Welfare Department
forecast that the outlook for the
villages in the area was not. so
bright and the chances for em
ployment practically non-existant.
Some construction she noted at
Shishmaref, Selawik, Kaltag and
Kotzebue but little labor was re
quired as the buildings are pre
fabricated and the labor limited.
Lawrence Williams of the ANS
reported that skilled labor is
needed for the most part on the
new school buildings under con
struction and local labor was di
vided up so that most everyone
got a chance to work a little.
He also stated that there would
be construction next year at
Wales and King Island, according
to present plans.
Among the suggestions offered
for necessary developments were
better housing, sanitation and
water improvements, as most of
the rural areas needed these. In
addition, Williams reported that
“King Island would like a landing
field.”
Each Village Must Solve Problem
Benson cautioned that a new
situation must be met in making
these suggestions for employment
and meeting the problems, that
the present system of welfare
programs with federal aid was
(Continued cm Page Two)
Senate Committee Okays
House Bill Providing For
Alaska’s Mentally 111
WASHINGTON, Iff)—’The Sen
ate Interior Committee has ap
proved, with amendments, a
House-passed bill providing for
the hospitalization and care of
the mentally ill in Alaska.
The purpose of the legislation
is to establish an integrated mod
ern program, under the adminis
tration of the territorial govern
ment of Alaska.
The Senate amendment pro
vides that the territory pay costs
of hospitalization and treatments
on all new patients committed to
hospitals.