=s NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LIX No. 96 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 1957Per Copy—15^
Air Force Family of Five
Killed in Collision
Which Took Seven Lives
LIVERMORE, Calif., UR—An
entire Air Force family was killed
in a head-on collision six miles
east of here which claimed seven
lives.
Terry Fischer, 9, died Saturday
in a hospital. The rest of her fam
ily, Lt. Col. Clarence E. Fischer,
39, a squadron commander at
Castle AFB, Calif., his wife Fae,
33, 10-year-old son Ray, and Kit
ty, 18 minths, were killed instant
ly Friday night.
The other car was driven by
Paul F. Lockett, 40, of Hayward,
Calif. He and his wife, Pauline,
28, were killed.
Man Kills Self, %
Three Others in
Dynamite Blast
YREKA, Calif. UR—A part-time
gold miner just out of jail on a
wife-beating charge, sought to
blast his spouse out of existence
yesterday. He ended by blowing
himself to bits and killing his son,
daughter, and son-in-law with a
homemade dynamite bomb.
Wilbur Smith, 47, died instantly
as his 16-year-old son, Ted, his
daughter, Mrs. Charlotte Sturgis,
20, and her husband, Doug, 25,
sdught to wrest the bomb from
him. They too died in the blast
that rocked this mountain town
and the countryside.
Sheriff George Banich said that
Smith had been released Thurs
day from jail, where he had
served a term for disturbing the
peace and wife-beating that be
gan with his arrest July 14.
Banich said Smith had vowed
to “get Clara,’’ his wife, 45. She
was inside the house and not ip
jured in the explosion.
A neighbor, Patrica Swickard,
15, told sheriff’s officers she saw
Smith arrive outside the house.
She said the Sturgises and young
Ted went outside and argued
with him, then tried to take some
thing from him.
The blast followed, hurling
pieces of Smith’s body as far as
200 feet from the driveway where
•he had been standing. The scene
was littered with broken bodies
and smouldering bits of clothing
when police arrived with firemen.
Mrs. Smith was hospitalized for
shock and hysteria.
New Lutheran Church
Is in Final Stages
Of Outside Work
The new Lutheran Church be
ing constructed on B Street near
the Methodist Hospital was de
layed pending arrival of roofing
material on the second boat but is
now in its final stages of outside
work and it is hoped that within
two weeks’ work will be under
way inside the building.
According to Rev. Thomas A.
Knudson, it is hoped to be able
to hold services in the new build
ing in the later part of September.
Gordon Duffseth of Fairbanks
is the contractor.
U.S. Employment
Reaches All-Time
High of 67,200,000
WASHINGTON (#—The nation’s
employment rose to an all-time
high of 67,200,000 for July, the
government announced today.
The increase of 700,000 workers
over the June total was attribut
ed mainly to the continued hiring
of young people in summer jobs
and a slight increase in farm
work. The joint report was made
by Secretary of Commerce Weeks
and Secretary of Labor Mitchell.
This monthly rise in the labor
total was described as “one of the
largest on record for this time
of year.”
Some moderate job reductions
were reported among adult work
ers in educational services and in
manufacturing, a normal occur
rence in July.
Unemployment for the month
was 3,000,000, a drop of '300,000,
caused by the employment of stu
dents and graduates who had
been listed as job seekers on the
previous month’s record.
Employment in non-agricultur
al fields,* including domestics, the
self-employed and unpaid family
workers, was up 500,000 for a
total of 59,400,000.
Nuclear Test Shot
Delayed 15th Time
ATOMIC TEST SITE, Nev., UP)
—The nuclear test shot scheduled
to have gone off his morning has
been postponed another 24 hours.
It is the 15th time the blast has
been delayed.
The Atomic Energy Commis
sion said the early morning wind
pattern was unacceptable today.
A • meeting was called for this
afternoon to determine if the be
low normal tower shot can be
fired at 5 a.m. tomorrow.
Dave Back Sr. and Son
Are Guests at Party With
Wife of Sen. Kennedy
GREENWICH, Conn., U*—Dave
Beck Sr. and his son, Dave Beck
Jr., labor leaders under fire of
the Senate Labor Rackets Com
mittee, were guests Saturday eve
ning at a party which was also
attended by Mrs. Robert T. Ken
nedy, wife of the chief counsel
for the rackets committee.
Kennedy himself was absent.
The party was given at the
Vineyard Lane home of Mr. and
Mrs. George Skakel Jr., in honor
of Mrs. Kennedy, who is Skakel’s
; sister.
A photographer who took pic
i ture at the party quoted Beck Jr.
| as saying of Kennedy, “Altho our
policies differ, socially we get
along famously.”
Beck and his son were indicted
last month by a grand jury at
Seattle on charges of grand lar
cency of union funds.
76 PERSONS DIE IN CRASH IN
CANADA S WORST AIR DISASTER
ISSOUDUN, Que. OFV—'The fuse
lage of a wrecked Canadian air
liner began sinking slowly into a
deep, watery swamp today, com
plicating the task for an investi
gating team and the searchers
going after the bodies of the 79
dead.
The four-engine DC-4 plunged
into the swamp during a summer
thunderstorm yesterday 15 miles
south of Quebec city. The death
toll made it Canada’s worst air
disaster. There were no survivors.
Available evidence pointed to
lightning as one possible cause of
the midafternon tragedy. The
chartered airliner was carrying
veterans and their families back
to Canada from a vacation with
their folks in Britain.
The main portion of the plane’s
, passenger section, the fuselage,
j was believed stuck in a 25-foot
. water-filled hole.
Major Pumping Operation.
Deputy Transport Minister John
Baldwin said in Ottawa that a
I major pumping operation may be
! necessary to clear the way for a
! three-man investigating team.
Baldwin said Quebec officials
have been ordered to spare no
j expense in bringing out the air
liner’s wreckage.
Debris Widely Scattered
The boggy crash scene was
sealed off from photographers
and souvenir hunters. Bits of
i bodies, clothing, personal papers
j and charred remains of the plane
J were spread far and wide.
The toll of 33 men, 41 women
! and five children, including six
crew members, surpassed Cana
da’s previous casualty high of 62
perons aboard a plane that dis
I appeared last December in the
Rockies. It wasn’t found #until
! May.
Vacation Trip
i Many of the men were former
British servicemen who had
moved to Ontario. They had tak
en their families for a one-month
visit to their former homes.
The pilot was 37-year-old Nor
man Ramsay of Montreal, whose
flying license had once been sus
I pended on a charge of negligence
i in a plane crash.
Cause of Crash Not Known
The Canadian Air Lines Pilots’
Assn, said pilot’s fatigue was re
sponsible for that non-fatal crash.
Maritime officials described him
as a “good, well-trained pilot.”
Maritime officials said they had
absolutely no idea of what had
caused the plane to crash.
Persons who waded thru the
ankle-deep mud to the scene said
the plane might have hit nose
first and somersaulted. Each mo
tor dug a 15-foot hole which soon
filled with water but the bulk of
the wreckage had been pitched
about 500 feet farther in the line
of impact.
One twisted propeller was dis
covered about a quarter of a mile
away.
Annual Boy Scout Finance Drive
Launched Here This Morning
Steve Andersen, chairman of
the annual Boy Scout drive, urged
the citizens of Nome to keep in
mind the aims and purpose of
Scouting and what Scouting has
meant to the city of Nome during
the past year at the finance kick
off breakfast this morning.
In continuing, Mr. Andersen
stated, “Let us, in training our
Scouts, keep the higher aims in
the forefront, not let ourselves be
too absorbed in the steps. Don’t
let the technical outweigh the
moral. Field efficiency, back
woodmanship, camping, hiking,
good turns, Jamboree comrade
ships are all means, not the end.
The end is Character—Character
with a purpose—and that pur
pose, that the next generation de
velop the higher realization of
service, the active service of love
and duty to God and neighbor.
“Scouting is education—educa
tion in high ideals, in self-reli
ance, in sense of duty, in forti
tude, in self-respect, and regard
for others,” continued Mayor An
dersen.
“Scouting is for all boys, re.
gardless of race or creed, rich or
poor,” Mr. Andersen stated. “It is
up to us, the citizens of Nome, to
see that the Scouting program
continues in Nome. Each one of us
has a financial obligation to the
Scouting program. A hundred
years from now it will make little
difference to the world what kind
of a car I drive today, or the
house I lived in, or how much
money I had in the bank. How
ever, Nome, Alaska, and the
world, will be a better place to
live in because today I was im
portant in the life of a boy.
“So invest wisely in the future
of our city and country; invest
your money in something that
will give returns far and beyond
your fondest dreams—invest in
the future, invest in our boys,
with your dollars, by backing the
Boy Scouts.”
Mr. Andersen stated: “You may
give your contribution to any of
the Rotarian workers or bring it
to me.”
Juneau’s 87-Decree Heat
Equals 34-Year Record
JUNEAU, UP)—A 34-year heat
record was equalled in downtown
Juneau Friday when the tempera
ture reached 87 degrees.
The mercury at the Juneau air
port also set a new August record
for the U.S. Weather Bureau sta
tion there, hitting 83, and sur
passing the 82.3 degree mark- set
Thursday.
The all-time high at the airport
station is 84.2, set July 15, 1956.
Rescue Attempts Abandoned for
Three Trapped on Swiss Alp
GRINDELWALD, Switzerland, |
(IP—The huge rescue operation
for a group of Alpinists trapped
on the north wall of the Eiger
Mountain was officially aban
doned today.
The only survivor among the
four climbers, Claudio Corti, of
Lecco, Italy, arrived at the Eiger
Glaciar funicular station on a
stretcher at 4 p.m. He was taken
to Interlaken Hospital by special
train.
The 90 volunteers from seven
nations who took part in the res
cue operation were ordered off
the mountain by rescue chief Pe
ter Frei, who said the three other
members of the group were un
doubtedly dead.
The four climbers have been on
the mountain since Aug. 3, and
became trapped on the steep face
two or three days after they' be
gan the climb.
Blizzards halted rescue opera
tions yesterday afternoon and to
day after Corti had been lifted
1,200 feet to the summit by an
Alpinist swinging at the end of a
winoh-operated cable.
“To go down the wall in this
much snow would be suicidal
folly that would help no one,” a
guide said.
“No lives will be risked in or
der to bring dead men down from
the north wall,” Frei told a tense
group of guides and alpinists at
the glacier station.
Air and telescope observations
of the other Italian trapped on
the wall left no doubt that he
died of exhaustion and exposure
during the night. He had been in
jured by a rock fall earlier and
remained suspended at the end of
a rope some 300 feet below the
other three since Thursday.
He was seen hanging face down
—covered by snow and motion
less all day.
The two German members of
the group, aged 27 and 26, appar
ently left the ledge they shared
with Corti early Sunday morning
in a desperate attempt to make
their own way to the top.
All trace of them has been lost.
It was assumed they fell to their
deaths into an unknown crevasse
lower down the cliff.
Billy Graham Tells
Crowd of 18,500
Evil Results of Sin
NEW YORK, UP)—Evangelist
Billy Graham, opening a week
long series of semfons devoted to
juvenile delinquency, said last
night that sin, produces “bore
dom, mischief, gang war—all
kinds of things.”
Conceding the importance of
slums and family trouble in con
tributing to juvenile crime, Billy
Graham de-^ared: “The trouble
is deeper than environment. The
trouble is deeper than parents.”
Addressing an audience of 18,
500 at Madison Square Garden,
Graham urged youth to shun lust
and dedicate themselves to Christ.
About 40 percent of the audience
was estimated to be under the
age of 25.