m NOME NUGGET
_OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PfiESS
VOL. Lax No. 134_NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1957 Per Copy—15^
Young Democrats Adopt
Resolution Denouncing
Racial Segregation
RENO, Nev., I®—The nation’s
Young Democrats ended their
convention here in the early hours
yesterday with the election of
Nelson Lancione of Columbus,
Ohio, as the new president.
Cne resolution adopted by the j
group demanded “vigorous en- j
forcement” of laws governing;
civil rights, saying that racial
discrimination is “a disgrace,
whether in Little Rock, Ark., or
Levittown, Pa.
A resolution calling for the rec
ognition of Red China was re
jected.
Two Children Die of
Powdered, Milk Poisoning
TEHRAN, Iran, —Two chil
dren died today after drinking
powdered milk which had deteri
orated and 207 others were hos
pitalized. Several of the children 1
are seriously ill.
All of the children attended a
Jewish charity kindergarten.
Two Young Girls
Suffocate in Freezer
VICKSBURG, Miss., te—Two
school-age sisters suffocated yes
terday inside a large home freezer
on the back porch of their home. J
The victims were Janice Louise '
Vandevender, 7, and Anita Marie,
6, daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Oli- j
ver O. Vandevender.
The girls were gathering pecans
in the yard and their older broth-,
er, 14, was watching television
when the parents left to visit rel
atives a short distance away.
Unable to find the girls when
they returned, the parents called
police. Almost before the search
ing party was well under way,
Officer Ed Reed saw the freezer,
walked over, and opened it.
Two Teen-Agers
Jailed for Mixing
Race, Sex, Drink
FORT WAYNE, Ind., UP>—Two
17-year-old high school students,
a Negro goy and a white girl,
have been given penal terms on
charges of delinquency after ad
mitting sex and drinking activity.
Judge William H. Schannen
sentenced the boy, James Bowie,
to six months on the state penal
farm, and the girl, Barbara Baker,
to the Indiana girls’ school for an
indeterminate term.
The two were arrested* last
week outside a Fort Wayne youth
center after creating a distur
bance in a parked oar.
Police said the pair admitted
having sexual relations at least
20 times since the beginning of
school last September and also
engaging in drinking parties in
Bowie’s home. The girl, an at- j
tractive blonde, said her mother
had tried to stop their dating.
Fort Wayne juvenile authorities
said dancing of mixed groups is j
common in several local youth i
centers, and that they know of j
at least 40 white girls and .10
Negro boys in the city who go
on interracial dates and other
white boys who are dating Negro
girls, they added.
Alaska Produced
$9,025,000 Worth
Of Gold in 1954
WASHINGTON, UB—A final re
port from the Census Bureau Sat
urday covering gold production
in 1954 (three years ago) showed
Alaska shipped $9,025,000 worth
of gold, almost all of it from plac
er operations. Alaska is tabulated
separately from the States.
The report showed the gold
rush has slowed to a walk in the
United States.
Production of the metal totaled
only $34,400,000 compared with
$1'21 million in 1939.
South Dakota’s output also was
declining, to $19 million as com
pared with $21,700,000 in 1939.
This was all lode gold.
California’s shipments of $8,
300,000 were $4,800,000 of placer
gold and $3,500,000 of lode gold.
Colorado was the third state,
with shipments valued at- $3,300,
000 compared with $15,700,000 15
years earlier.
Other golql -producing states, and
the value of their gold shipments
as reported by the census for the
year 1954 were:
Oregon and Washington com
bined, $1,700,000; Nevada, $1,
500,000; Idaho, $340,000; Montana,
5151,000; and Arizona, New Mex
co, Utah'and Wyoming combined,
577,000.
Space Dog
Presumed Dead
MOSCOW, UP>—There was gen
eral agreement in Moscow today
that Laika, the space-traveling
dog, is dead. But there was noth
ing official to prove it.
The most widely believed ex
planation was that the dog’s last
meal contained poison to kill her
quickly without pain.
An earlier announcement said
Sputnik II carried rations for the
dog for eight days. A communique
yesterday stated that biological
and medical observations from
the satellite had been concluded
successfully.
| Bright Object Seen This
Morning Over Nome
By Olaf Halverson
This morning at 6:45 a.m. I was
| looking at the stars and constel
lations. While looking at Regulus
in the constellation Leo, I sud
denly beheld a bright round ob
ject moving rapidly across the
sky from the southwest to the
northeast. It had the brilliance of
the star Regulus but all of a sud
den it *took on the brilliance of
Jupiter. I think it was Sputnik II.
Ten Minn. Hunters
Die in First Two Days
Of Deer Season
MINNEAPOLIS, UP)—Ten hunt
ers died in Minnesota during the
first two days of the state’s deer
season, which opened Saturday.
The fatalities included four vic
tims of gunshot wounds and six
men who died of heart attacks
while hunting deer. Several other
hunters were wounded.
One of the men who died of
wounds was hunting ducks and
pheasants.
Crew Members Aboard
Missing PAA Clipper
PALO ALTO, Calif., (£>—The
wife of Gordon H. Brown, pilot of
the Pan American plane pre
sumed down in the Pacific, se
cluded herself today with their
children in the family home here.
In a final word to reporters be
fore going inside, Mrs. Brown
said her husband had been flying
for 15 years.
The Browns have five chidren:
Edward 19, Minty 18, Cynthia 8,
Gordon Jr. 5, and Nancy 2.
Other crew members, all of
California:
First Officer William P. Wy
gant, Sausalito.
Second Officer W. A. Forten
berry, Santa Clara.
Engineer A. Pinatara, Belmont.
Purser Eugene Hesthwait, of
| Felton.
j Stewardess Yvonne Alexander,
! San Francisco.
Stewardess Marie McGrath, of
Burlingame.
Flight Supervisor Jack King,
1 South San Francisco.
HOPE OF RESCUING
44 ABOARD MISSING
PAA CLIPPER FADES
Flares Seen Were
Probably Shooting Stars
HONOLULU, W)—Hope of res
cuing any of the 44 persons miss
ing since Friday night on a van
ished Pan American Stratocruiser
in the Pacific virtually flickered
out today.
Three flares sighted last night
were probably “shooting stars or
from other search aircraft,” a
Coast Guard spokesman said, j
They were flight flares and that’s j
always kind of doubtful” as a dis- I
tress signal.
Investigation of the flares con- j
tinued after daybreak as part of a j
gigantic search operation covering !
172,440 square miles of the ocean.
But no trace of the missing
plane, “Romance of the Skies,”
had been found at daylight today,
more than 2Vt days after last
word from the big flying Clipper.
Additional search aircraft flew
out from Oahu Island at daylight
to join the Pacific’s greatest air
sea rescue mission.
Planes, helicopters, submarines,
the aircraft carrier Philippine Sea
and a small fleet of Coast Guard
Vessels searched the ocean’s
swells for traces of the plane after
a series of possible clues faded
All scheduled airline flight re
sumed following their course be
tween Honolulu and San Fran
cisco. They had been circling the
area where the Stratocruiser was
last reported.
Navy planes reported seeing
two flares—one 540 miles west of
the missing plane’s last reported
position, the second slightly west
of the first.
An Air Force plane sighted a
third flare some 340 miles west of
the Ran American airliner’s last j
reported position. It was de
scribed as white.
U.S. Missile Expert Von Braun Gives Explanation
Why America Is Behind Russia in Race Into Space
(Editor’s Note—Speaking for
the first time since the Rus
sians started shooting up satel
lites, a top U.S. missiles expert,
director of the development op
erations division of the Army’s
Redstone arsenal, answers ques- •
tions in the minds of many
Americans.)
(By The Associated Press»
(International Copyright 1957)
How can the United States
catch up with Russia’s lead in the
race into space?
In the opinion of Dr. Wemher
Von Braun, neither a project like
the Manhattan, which developed
the A-bomb during World War II,
nor the spending of great sums
of money would help much at
this time.
But science could use a great
deal more money in basic re
search and in some allied fields
where there is no current need of
a crash program, Dr. Von Braun
said in an exclusive question and
answer article for the Associated
Press.
Dr. Von Braun’s explanation of
why the U.S. trails Russia was
this:
‘T'here was no ballistic missile
development program in the
United States between 1945 and
1951 because there was no ob
vious need for it, no interest for
it, and no money for it. And it
will be hard to catch up now on
those lost six years.”
The scientist headed up devel
opment of the German V-2 rocket
which battered London during
the war. In recent years, he has
I been in charge of Army research
which has led to the Jupiter-C,
| designated last week to carry an
attempt to dislocate or combine
American satellite into space.
Army scientists have said un
officially the Jupiter could have
sent a satellite into its orbit be
fore the Russians shot off their
first one early in October, had
the administration given it per
mission.
Until last week, getting a satel
lite aloft has been solely in the
sphere of the Navy’s Vanguard
project.
Answering a question as to whe
ther a Manhattan-type crash pro
gram would help overcome Rus
sia’s lead, Dr Von Braun said:
“In the missile field ... we
have practically all the facilities
we can intelligently use. Several
projects are handled by several
teams, each of which is in a dif
ferent geographic location. Any
(Continued dn Page Two)
Plane’s Last Message
Heard 5:04 P.M. Friday
The four-engine Clipper was
midway across the 2,400-mile ex
panse, unbroken by islands, when
it was heard from last. That was
5:04 p.m. PST Friday, when the
plane’s captain, Gordon H. Brown,
radioed a routine position report.
Not another word was heard
from the plane, which carried 36
passengers and a crew of eight.
The Boeing Stratocruiser could
float indefinitely if it alighted
without damage to her hull.
Capt. Brown’s last message said
he was 1,028 miles east of Hono
lulu, or about 85 miles west of
ocean station November, a Coast
Guard designation for the midway
point where a cutter is stationed.
Capt. Brown radioed his posi
tion as 29” 20' N. Lat., 141* SS'
W. Long.
The passengers were bound for
Honolulu, Tokyo, Hong Kong and
Rangoon.
Among the passengers were H.
Lee Clark, 36, Dow Chemical Co
executive, his wife, their two
small sons and two little adopted
j Japanese-American daughters.
| Stationed in Tokyo, the Clarks
| had vacationed in Midland, Mich.
Also aboard were Robert Alex
ander, 38, of Los Antos, Calif., a
Pan American co-pilot, his wife,
and a daughter.
Other passengers included a
State Department official, a
French air ace of World War II,
the wife of an Army colonel, and
two Japanese executives of a big
oil company.
Fliers consider the San Fran
cisco - Honolulu run one of the
safest flights in the world. Every
month hundreds of commercial
and military planes cross the
ocean between the mainland and
Hawaii. Only four persons have
lost their lives in previous peace
time flights.
Pan American said Saturday it
has flown 9,085,000,000 revenue
passenger miles without a fatality.
Last June PAA was awarded
the National Safety Council
Award for its outstanding safety
record.
Hitchhiker Pays Back
Debt After 12 Years
MINTURN, Ark., M—Until the
letter came Friday, Rudy Jones
had forgotten about the hitch
hiker he picked up a couple of
days before Christmas 12 years
ago.
The youth told Jones he was a
medical student headed home for
the holidays, and that his billfold
had been stolen in the Little Rock
railroad station.
Jones lent the youth all the
money he had with him—$7—and
sent him on his way.
The lei was from the one
time hitchn. ter, now Dr. R. A.
Bello of Milwaukee. He said he
had finally found Jone’s address.
He enclosed $10 with his thanks.