22 NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA —MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LX No. 62 NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, MAY 23, 1958 _Per Copy—15^
8 Missiles Explode
In Accident 4That
Couldn’t Happen’
MIDDLETOWN, N. J., UPi — In
vestigators combed a Nike base
near here today in an effort to
learn what caused eight fully
armed missiles to blow up in a
furious »mushroom of fire and
death.
The explosion yesterday killed
10 persons and scattered explo
sive warheads across a wide
area of the countryside.
The disaster, described by a
general as an accident that “could
not happen but did,” was set off
by a single missile that exploded.
A split-second chain reaction
turned the entire area into a
flaming pit of destruction that
one eyewitness called “horrible
beyond belief.”
Mangled bodies and human
fragments lay strewn about
where a moment before men had
stood. The disintegration of the
victims made it difficult to es
tablish the death toll of 10.
Three others were injured, one
seriously.
The dead included six soldiers
and four civilians.
The missiles, known as the
Ajax type, exploded while a team
of experts was working on them.
They were to be replaced next
year by Hercules missiles capa
ble of carrying atomic warheads.
Each of the Ajax missiles car
ried three conventional warheads
of explosives and shrapnel. Most
of the explosive devices were
accounted for, but some had
still not been located today.
12 Children Perish
In Fire Which Razes
B. C. Indian Hospital
WILLIAMS LAKE, B. C. UP)—
Twelve small children perished
and a number of persons were
injured last night when flames
leveled an Indian reservation
hospital.
The fire was touched off by
two unexplained explosion. Res
cuers were virtually helpless
from lack of firefighting equip
ment in the vicinity.
The hospital was located on
the Anahim Indian Reserve in
British Columbia's wild Caraboo
country.
An undetermined number of
persons, including the supervisor
of the Roman Catholic hospital,
were injured in the blaze, which
flashed through the frame build
ing at about 5:30., PDT.
The supervisor, Sister Mary
of the Cross, 25, was burned se-!
verely on the hands and face
when she tried to force her way
into the burning building in a
valiant but unsuccessful attempt
to rescue the doomed children.
Only one child was rescued.
Alaska Steam President,
D. E. Skinner, Named
Seattle Man of the Year
SEATTLE, UP) — The president
of the Alaska Steamship Co.,
D. E. (Ned) Skinner, was selec
ted as Puget Sound’s eighth an
nual maritime man of the year
last night.
Skinner received the Fred W
Geibel Memorial Award from
Don Venables, president of the
Maritime Press Assn., at the An
nual Maritime Day Man of the
Year Banquet sponsored by the
Puget Sound Maritime Press
Assn.
Jap Fishing Will
Cut Bristol Bay
To Two Days
WASHINGTON, UP) — Rep.
Thomas M. Pelly (R-Wash) said
yesterday the State Department
has informed him its fishery con
servation talks with Japan failed
to produce sufficient results to
relieve the strain on the Alaskan
red salmon run this year.
Therefore, he said, it has be
come necessary for the Interior
Department to impose additional
restrictions on American fisher
men to safeguard the runs of
Alaskan salmon.
Pelly said also he is urging
quick adoption of his bill to ban
the import of salmon, almost
entirely from Japan, which are
caught under conditions not
available to American fishermen.
Additional restrictions on U. S.
fishermen, Pelly said, would re
duce red salmon fishing activities
in the Bristol Bay area of Alaska
to no more than two days a week
and this might be subject to
additional reductions. Original
ly a 2Vz day fishing week was
prescribed for U. S. fishermen.
Pelly said Japanese fishermen
are not bound by the restric
tions and are permitted to fish
seven days a week, 24 hours a
day.
George Johansen, head of the
Alaska Fishery Union and an ad
viser to Pelly, said U. S. gov
ernment figures show that last
year Japan caught 6,000,000 red
salmon out of the Bristol Bay
area and that 1,200,000 of these
were immature. This compared
with an American catch of
5,200,000 legal-size fish.
“In effect,” Pelly said, “Ameri
can conservation is working for
the benefit of the Japanese fish
ermen so long as Japan does
not recognize the principle of
abstention.”
Dodgers Still
Having Trouble
Finding Stadium
LOS ANGELES, — A threat
by the National League president
to shift the Dddgers from Los
Angeles unless voters approve a
stadium site next month brought
this reaction: >
A bluff, say some critics of the
Dodgers’ land deal with the city.
Straight talk, say others favor
ing the Chavez Ravine site.
Straddling the fence was Dod
ger president Walter O’Malley,
who said:
“We have our hands full now
with many problems—on and
off the field. This presents an
other.”
The ultimatum was delivered
Thursday in Cincinnati by presi
dent Warren C. Giles, of the
National League. He told sports
writers that if Los Angeles voters
turn down the Dodger contract
June 3 “it will be my personal
recommendation to our league
that we take immediate steps to
study ways and means of relo
cating the franchise in another
city.”
The Dodgers moved this year
from Brooklyn after the Los
Angeles City Council approved a
contract providing acreage for a
stadium in Chavez Ravine.
City Councilman John Holland,
who led the fight to submit the
contract to the voters, termed
Giles’ statement:
“The last desperate threat of
a frightened group of greedy
men.”
World Champion
Blanket Tossing
Slated For Sept. 1
The blanket-tossing champion
ship of the world appears to be
| in the offing for T$ome this fall
| —at least it’s in the planning
I stage. The idea is the brain
child of the Tourist Committee
of the NWA Chamber of Com
merce.
The plan is to ask the various
northern villages—Barrow, Wain
wright, Pt. Hope, Kivalina, Kot
zebue, Gambell and Savoonga—
to hold elimination contests and
have the winners compete here
on Labor Day, September 1.
A novel feature of the plan, and
to conform to the world champ
ionship qualification, is to in
vite Greenland and Siberian Es
kimos to the contest.
John McNees, tour director for
Wien Airlines, left Wednesday
for Fairbanks and Barrow to
familiarize himself with Wien’s
other tours and he will notify the
Arctic slope villages of the con
test.
A blanket-tossing contest of
this kind calls for a “real” big
blanket, on the order of the Pt.
Hope skin. This is usually
four walrus hides stitched to
gether, and is usually so large
and heavy that a ring of men
cannot handle it. Instead it^ is
strung from a ring of posts set
in the ground and the blanket
is manipulated by gangs of men
on the guy ropes.
Guardsmen To
Take Training
In The States
A spate of activity by the 1st
Scout Battalion of the Alaska
National Guard was announced
today by Major Wm. Crawford.
A group of 20 men from the
battalion are leaving today
for Ft. Ord, Calif., to take a six
month course in basic infantry
training. Lt. Bob Steele will
take the group down. From
Nome there will be Clinton Trigg,
Vernon Kugzruk, Allen Smith,
and Patrick Adsuna. There will
be one each from Savoonga, Noor
vik and Wainwright, two from
Kotzebue, three from Ft. Yu
kon, and eight men from Barrow, j
Next Monday Maj. Crawford'
will go to Juneau to attend a con- ■
ference of battalion commanders.
Sgt. Art Jessup will be leav
ing Saturday for Ft. Monmouth,
N. J., where he will take a six
month course in Radio and Sig
nal Repair.
And on June 4 three men will
go to Ft. Benning, Ga., to at
tend Officer. Candidate School.
These three will be Robert Her
man frofn Nome, John Shaeffer
from Kotzebue, and Alfred Hop
son from Barrow.
TWO FROM ANCHORAGE
PERISH IN PLANE CRASH
ANCHORAGE, UP» — An An
chorage civilian and an Elmen
dorf Air Force Base Technical
Sergeant were killed when their
small private plane crashed on
a Yentna River sandbar 80 miles
northwest of here.
Killed were George Terry of
Anchorage, the pilot, and T. Sgt.
Jesse D. Walls, attached to a
supply squadron at Elmendorf
AFB.
House Vote On Alaska Statehood Bill
Put Off By Agreement Til Wednesday
Seaton Predicts
Alaska Bill Will
Pass On 1st Vote
SEATTLE, UR — Secretary of
the Interior Seaton, en route to
Alaska, said yesterday he be
lieved that the U. S. House of
Representatives would approve
statehood for the northern terri
tory on its first vote. •
Seaton told newsmen he felt
the House’s action in voting to
bring the Alaska statehood meas
ure to the floor without waiting
for the Rules Committee to send
it on probably cost statehood
proponents about 15 or 20 votes.
“Whether we can regain part
or all of that lost voting power
remains to 'be seen,” Seaton told
a press conference.
Commenting on House Speaker
Sam Rayburn’s prediction that
only a razor’s edge marked the
vote for and against Alaska
statehood, Seaton said:
“Our own count shows a much
stronger majority for statehood.
If we can win by only .one vote
we will take that but of course
we would prefer a much larger
majority.”
Asked why, since the admin
istration was committed to state
hood, some 100 Republicans h&d
voted against bringing the meas
ure out of the House Rules Com
mittee, Seaton said:
“We don’t herd the Republi
cans around.”
Seaton is en route to College to
speak at commencement exer
cises at the University of Alaska.
Alaska Scouts To
Lead Jaycee Parade
In L. A. June 18
A singular honor was be
stowed on the 1st Scout Battal
ion of the Alaska National Guard,
when the United States Junior
Chamber o f Commerce i n
vited a detachment to lead their
parade in Los Angeles on June
18. The occasion is the Jaycees’
national convention.
Major Wm. Crawford, Com
mander of the 1st Scouts, said
today that 18 members of the
battalion from Gambell have
been chosen for the detail. Sgt.
John Bell of Nome will be in
charge of them.
Coast Guard ’Copter
Rescues Man Mired
In N. J. Mud Flats
BAYONNE, N. J., UP — The
Coast Guard, which has a proud
history of sea rescue, saved a
man’s life on land today.
A 61-year-old clam digger, An
drew Lukac of Bayonne, became
mired in the mud of New Jer
sey’s tidal flats. Rescuers tried
to free him but the mud was too
soft to get a footing. He sank
deeper.
When the mud got to his waist,
officers at the naval supply depot
nearby called the Coast Guard.
A helicopter from Floyd Bennett
Field across the bay in Brooklyn
whirled to the rescue. With
Lukac down to his armpits and
still sinking, the helicopter hov
ered at 10 feet, lowered a sling
and slowly hauled him out.
' WASHINGTON, UTl — Lack of
a quorum shut off House debate
today on Alaska statehood.
After 20 minutes of consid
eration, a point of no quorum was
raised by Rep. Clare E. Hoff
man (R-Mich).
Rep. Leo O’Brien (DJ4Y),
acting under terms of an agree
ment promptly moved to close
off consideration of the state
hood bill to prevent a quorum
call which would have identified
absent members.
Rep. Craig Hosmer (R-Calif), a
statehood opponent, entered the
debate today. He questioned
Alaska’s abillity to support state
hood.
A study of world conditions,
he said, shows that areas in eco
nomic distress “ are breeding
grounds for trouble.”
Hosmer said it isn’t easy for
him to oppose statehood for
Alaska inasmuch as a poll in his
congressional district showed sup
port for admission of the terri
tory as a state.
Rep. John R. Pillion (R-NY)
another statehood opponent, in
terrupted Hosmer to note that
only 28,266 Alaskans voted in a
recent election. He said that in
dicated a potential vote of from
70,000 to 90,000. ,
O’Brien compared Alaskan elec
tions under territorial status to
a contest in which voters can
elect only a voteless delegate to
Congress.
Gambling and Divorce
Hosmer said Alaska might
have to resort to. gambling and
easy divorce laws to support
statehood.
Sixty-five to seventy per cent
of its gross business, he said, now
depends on government spending.
Employment in private in
dustry, Hosmer said, ranges from
approximately 40,000 in the sum
mer down to 20,000 in the win
ter with some 20,000 workers
leaving the territory each fall
for lack of work.
Debate on the Alaska bill
opened today under terms of an
agreement in which the time
remaining for talk will be allot
ted to Reps. O’Brien and A. L.
Miller (R-Neb.)
O’Brien told the House time
would be divided among both
proponents and opponents of the
bill.
Agreement among House lead
ers yesterday delayed the vote,
probably until Wednesday.
The agreement, accepted with
out dissent, called for ending gen
eral debate on the bill at 1 p.m. .
Monday.
This development was believed
to have strengthened the hand of
statehood advocates. Large num
bers of congressmen, many of
them supporters of the bill, were
expected to be out of the city
today and* possibly Monday.
An end to general debate Mon
(Continued on Page Two)
THURSDAY BALL SCORES
National League
Milwaukee 9, San Francisco 3
Chicago 7, Philadelphia 4
American League
New York 5, Detroit 4
Chicago 5, Baltimore 1
Cleveland 3, Washington 1
Boston 8, Kansas City 5
Pacific Coast League
Vancouver 7, Spokane 1
Seattle 15, Phoenix 12
San Diego 3, Portland 2