m NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LV NO. 154 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1953 Per Copy—15r
Senator Sparkman Attacks Plan
That Would Grant Statehood
To Hawaii But Not To Alaska
WASHINGTON, WV—Sen. Spark-<
man (D-Ala) said Saturday he will
attack the reasoning of Republi
can leaders who would delay
statehood for Alaska, but grant it
to Hawaii.
Sparkman told reporters he will
support a move to grant statehood
to both, despite plans of the Re
publican leadership to press only
for the admission of Hawaii.
“It would be a very serious
mistake to offer statehood to either
without offering it to the other,”
Sparkman said. “I can’t but f&el
that it’s a political thing to want
to admit one without the other.
Alaska is deserving of statehood.”
Sen. Hugh Butler (R-Neb),
chairman of the Senate Interior
Committee which handles state
hood legislation, contends pending
proposals to admit Alaska are
unworkable because they would
leave more than 90 percent of its
area under federal ownership and
exempt from state taxation and
administration. He has announced,
however, he will vote to admit
Hawaii.
Sparkman said he will attack
the argument that pending legis
lation would leave too much of
Alaska under federal ownership.
“There’s no reason why the
federal government should keep
that land forever,” he said. “It
could be opened up, a portion at
a time, for home-steading and so
forth. It’s a situation that time
could cure, with Congress provid
ing for the orderly development
of Alaska.”
He said he considers Alaska “is
of untold value to us from the
standpoint of defense and secur
ity” and is ready for admission.
Film Producer
Defies Censors
Of Breen Office
HOLLYWOOD, lJFl — Howard
Hughes’ latest defiance of the
film industry’s censors Monday
brought open rebellion from his
most famous star, Jane Russell.
Tuesday in St. Louis, RKO will
premier “French Line,” which
has been refused a seal of ap
proval by filmdom’s self-censor
ing Breen office.
The movie was reportedly turn
ed down because off “some glaring
breast shots” of Miss Russell and
a dance by her “that will certain
ly bring the cops to any theater
where it is shown.”
Hughes, who operates RKO,
brought his publicity guns into
action to promote the picture.
His campaign was hampered by
Miss Russell’s statement that she
thought the Breen office was
right.
Miss Russell and the rest of
Hollywood saw the latest Hughes
action as a repeat of his maneuver
with “The Outlaw,” her first mo
tion picture. Then an independ
ent producer, Hughes defied the
Breen office by releasing the pic
ture without a seal in certain
cities.
H soon shelved the picture, and
later released it again after mak
ing certain cuts.
Parents To Take TWo
Headed Baby Home As
Soon As He Is Able
INDIANAPOLIS, UP) — Mrs.
Margaret Hartley took her first
look at her two-headed baby son
Sunday and decided to take him
home when he can be released
from Riley hospital.
The 27-year-old mother and her
husband, Cecil, 44, have three
daughters, all normal, in their
small home on a backroad near
Petersburg, Ind. They range in
age from 2 to 5.
The Hartleys came to Indian
apolis to see the baby and were
admitted to his room alone. They
showed no emotion when they
came out in a short time. The
baby’s condition remains satisfac
tory.
The hospital indicated the baby,
bom by Caesarean section Dec. 13
at Washington, Ind., may be re
leased soon. Examinations have
been completed, doctors said, but
periodic oxygen treatments have
been given because blood circula
tion hasn’t been normal on the
left side.
Each of the baby’s heads is set
squarely on a pair of shoulders,
set at the normal shoulder posi
tion on each side of the single
body. The baby has four arms.
Three-Day Christmas
Holiday Death Toll 681
(By the Associated Phess'
Christmas holiday deaths took
a toll of 681 lives tout sputtered in
the final hours of the three-day
weekend choking off possibilities
of new records.
Leading the death parade for
the 78 - hour weekend beginning
Thursday 6 p.m. and ending Sun
day midnight were 495 traffic
fatalities. Another 76 persons died
in fires and miscellaneous acci
dents caused 110 deaths.
By early Sunday the traffic toll
was moving at a rate of seven
deaths an hour and experts feared
the final figure would exceed the
three-day record of 545 deaths set
in 1950 and possibly that of 1952
when 556 traffic deaths resulted
in a four-day period.
Marlene Given 400-lb.
Birthday Cake—Her 49th
LAS VEGAS, Nev., Iff)-—Glam
orous grandma Marlene Dietrich
had a birthday party last night, in
keeping with the fabulous way
they do things in this gambling
resort town.
The management of the Sahara
Hotel, where Miss Dietrich is
making her first night club ap
pearances, to packed houses, pre
sented her with a birthday cake,
and what a cake! It weighed 400
pounds. Two crates of eggs were
used in it. It was topped toy a
two-foot white sugar replica of
Miss Dietrich’s famous legs.
Miss Dietrich, smilingly grate
ful, said she would give the cake
to the Ellis Air Force Base rest
camp near here. Oh, yes, her age?
Film records list it at 49.
Eisenhower Orders
Reduction Ground
Forces In Korea
AUGUST, Ga., W — President
Eisenhower Saturday ordered a
progressive reduction of U. S.
ground forces in Korea and an
nounced that two Army divisions
will be returned to this country
soon “as an initial step.”
In a statement issued at his va
cation headquarters here, Eisen
hower declared:
“The fighting in Korea was
ended by an armistice which has
now been in effect five months.
We do not need as much ground
strength there now as when there
was fighting. That is the more
true because of the capabilities of
the Republic of Korea forces
which were substantially built up
during the war.
“Also our growing national air
power poses greater mobility and
greater striking force than ever
before.
“Accordingly I have directed
that the United States ground
forces in Korea be progressively
reduced as circumstances war
rant. As an initia step, two Army
divisions will soon be withdrawn
and returned to the United
States.”
Rhee Voices Displeasure
Over Withdrawal Of U.S.
Troops From Korea
SEOUL, GP — South Korea’s
president and foreign minister
conferred privately Monday on
U.S. plans to pull two divisions
out at Korea, an authoritative
source said.
Syngman Rhee has voiced his
displeasure over the proposed
troop withdrawal.
President Eisenhower’s Satur
day announcement brought cheers
from most American soldiers here,
and there was enthusiastic specu
lation as to which divisions would
leave Korea.
Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, 8th
Army commander, warned that
soldiers with considerable time
left to serve in Korea will be
transferred to other units. Their
places will be filled by men whose
tours of duty are virtually com
plete.
The Armed Forces Radio Ser
vice Monday broadcast hourly a
statement telling 8th Army troops,
in effect, not to get excited.
There were seven American
divisions and part of an eighth in
Korea at the time of the armistice
and there has been no announce
ment that any had been with
drawn.
What To Do With 22,000
Korean War Prisoners
After January 22nd
PANMUNJOM, (51 — A three
member majority of the Neutral
Nations Repatriation Commission
today turned back to the tJ.N. and
Communist Commands the ques
tion of what to do with more than
22,000 war prisoners who have
refused to go home.
An Indian Command spokes
man said that if the two com
mands reach no agreement by
Jan. 22 “we do not appear to
have any legal right to hold them
(the prisoners).”
Gouzenko Recommends Governments
Offer Inducements For Red Spies In
U. S. and Canada to Quit Communism
j ---<
Two Senate Sleuths
Return With Data From
Alaska Investigations
WASHINGTON, W—'Two Sen
ate sleuths have returned from
Alaska with briefcases full of data
for twin investigations planned
into allegations of waste and im
proper security precautions in the
territory.
The two, Carmine Bellino and
Herbert Hawkins, members of the
staff of the Senate Investigations
! subcommittee who made the
study, declined to discuss their
mission with reporters. But re
ports from Alaska said they had
spent weeks studying security
matters, housing problem aspects
and the reasons behind federal aid
extended to some privately-owned
mining properties there.
McCarthy himself has said his
subcommittee was looking into
“conditions” in Alaska, but has
declined to elaborate before re
ceiving detailed reports from
Bellino and Hawkins.
Bellino’s original announced
assignment was to check on what
McCarthy termed “alleged waste”
in a wide field of government
spending in Alaska.
Soviets Propose
Later Date For
Big 4 Meeting
MOSCOW, MV-Informed West
ern sources reported Saturday the
Soviet Union has rejected the pro
posed Jan. 4 date for a meeting of
the Big Four foreign ministers in
Berlin and proposed instead
Jan. 25 or later.
Western diplomatic sources said
the Soviets stated there were “ad
ministrative difficulties” in the
way of the Jan. 4 date proposed
by the West on Dec. 8.
The Soviet counterproposal was
given in notes delivered to the
U.S., British and French ambas
sadors in Moscow at noon.
The sources added the Soviets
also appeared to object to the
Western proposal that the Berlin
conference be held in the former
Allied Control Authority Building,
in the American sector of the div
ided city.
It was reported the Russians
proposed instead that the four
high commissioners in Germany
confer in advance on an alternate
site.
The Soviets, however, are still
willing to meet in Berlin, which
was originally their suggestion.
They had previously agreed to the
idea of a four-power conference
but did not specify a date.
The Soviet note, coming only
Saturday, gives the West short
notice for altering the Jan. 4 plan.
It was believed here that the delay
in the Russian reply might have
.been caused by uncertainty over
the recent prolonged French pres
idential election.
t> WASHINGTON, MV--Igor Gou- ,
zenko, whose testimony cracked
a Soviet spy ring in Canada, says
| he thinks there may be hundreds
of Red agents operating in the
United States.
And he recommended, in a
copyrighted interview with the
magazine U.S. News and World
Report made public Monday, that
the government “make it worth
while for some of them to quit
and come out with their docu
ments.”
That is what Gouzenko himself
did in 1945. He was then a code
clerk in the Russian embassy in
Ottawa. He smuggled out docu
ments which led to the cracking
of an atomic espionage ring.
Gouzenko, asked to. estimate
how many Soviet agents might
be working in the United States
now, replied:
“I think it might run into hun
dreds. As some indication, they
spend several million dollars in
telegrams alone.”
Many of these agents, he said,
work through rings, perhaps with
embassy contacts, and others are
“agent residents (who) would
work independently and have di
rect contact with Moscow by
radio.”
Among both types, Gouzenko
said, “There are some who learn
to like the way people are treated
in the United States and Canada.”
He said there are Russians who,
if assured fair treatment, would
break with Communism as he did.
He advocated a five-point pro
: gram to encourage such defections
among Red agents. It would in
clude (1) prompt U.S. or Canadian
citizenship, (2) lifelong protection,
(3) material security, (4) help in
finding employment, and (5) for
mal acknowledgement “that his
service . . . entitled him all assist
ance and help.”
Gouzenko was asked to give his
appraisal of the work of Sen. Mc
Carthy, chairman of the Senate
Investigations subcommittee and
for years a controversial figure
because of his searches for Com
munists in government.
“I think he is doing a good
job,” Gouzenko said, “But he
would do a much better job, ob
viously, if he had documentary
evidence. But in his job he is
doing the right thing because he
is bringing into the open many
things which many people are
trying to use as excuses and pre
texts . . .
“I think we should help to
make his work better than it is.”
Two Forest Fires In L.A. Area
LOS ANGELES, UP—Two forest
fires whipped by strong winds
blowing from the desert raged out
of control today, causing evacua
tion ctf at least 400 homes in a
half dozen communities.
The wind lashed a 75-mile area
from San Bernardino to the San
Fernando Valley, knocking down
trees and power lines and tempor
arily closing some highways be
cause of the dust.