SS NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_ _
VOL. LX No. 156 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1958 Per Copy—15<*
World Looks With Hope To A
New Year Beginning Tonight
(By The Associated Press)
In New Orleans or New Delhi,
Berlin or Buffalo, Santiago or
Shanghai, tonight is the night to
forget old trouble and look with
hope to a new year.
Midnight will be greeted in
many ways by many people as it
moves around the globe ushering
in another year. Undaunted by last
year’s broken resolutions, few will
overlook an opportunity to turn
■away awhile from today’s black
headlines and hope 1959 will bring
brighter ones.
There’ll be fireworks atop Pike’s
Peak, a bonfire in Bangor, Maine,
musket fire in Cherryville, N. C.,
and somewhere in the land there
may be a chorus or two of “Auld
Lang Syne” and perhaps even
‘Show Me the Way to Go Home.”
In Tokyo, the Japanese are
planning the biggest New Year’s
celebration since the end of
World War II. They will pay off
their old debts, get their hair
fixed, take a hot bath and don
bright new kimonos to greet their
favorite holiday. It’s the end of
“the year of the rooster,” and the
beginning of “the year of the wild
boar.”
The Red Chinese have reported
big shipments of meats, cabbages,
sugar, fish, chickens and fruits for
New Year’s Day and the Chinese
Spring Festival which follows
soon after.
In Europe there’ll be the tra
ditional celebrations, not basic
ally different from American fes
tivities with similar repercussions
the day after. In Moscow it’s the
biggest holiday of the year with
gift-giving and decorations.
President Eisenhower is plan
ning to spend New Year’s Eve
quietly at home in Gettysburg,
with friends and relatives. He
plans to stay at his farm until the
end of the week.
There will be football bowl,
games in Pasadena, New Orleans,
Miami and Dallas Thursday, along
with marching bands, flower
decked floats and pretty girls.
Teamsters Intend
To Picket N. Y.
Police Stations
NEW YORK, Iff) — The Team
sters union intends to picket city
police headquarters, starting Jan
uary 12 in a drive to organize the
police into the union.
Henry Feinstein, a Teamsters
official, said the picketing would
be extended to all police installa
tions, including 80 precinct sta
tions in the city.
Feinstein said the picketing is
aimed at Police Commissioner
Stephen P. Kennedy, who opposes
unionization of the police.
“We are going to give the com
missioner a taste of the economic
force and pressure of the Teamster
union,” Feinstein said.
“His threat to fire policemen for
joining the Teamster union makes
him unfair to our union and to all
of organized labor.”
Feinstein is leading a nation
wide campaign to bring all police
men, firemen and other state,
county and municipal workers
into the union. The drive was an
nounced last month by Teamsters
president James R. Hoffa.
Feinstein, president of Team
sters Local 237, said the picket
lines will be honored by Teamster
truckers. The demonstration will
continue “until something breaks,”
he added.
Air Force
Abandons Efforts
4
At Crash Scene
WASHINGTON UP) — The Air
Force officially listed as dead
Monday the 15 men aboard a C54
transport plane which crashed
December 22 in Alaska.
Efforts to reach wreckage of the
plane high on Mt. Iliamna, 130
miles southwest of Anchorage,
were abandoned over the weekend
as too dangerous.
The snow-covered volcanic peak
will become the final resting
place of the six officers and nine
enlisted men who were making
the flight from Anchorage to
Shemya Island at the tip of the
Aleutian chain.
Missing Fairbanks
Plane Spotted
FAIRBANKS, — Wreckage
believed that of a light private
plane missing since Christmas was
spotted by an aerial searcher
Monday about 300 miles west of
here.
The plane was piloted by Floyd
Demientieff, 21, Fairbanks, who
was flying out of Ruby on the
Yukon.
The Civil Air Patrol search
pilot reported snowshoe tracks
leading away from the wreckage
toward the Indian village of Koy
ukuk, 30 miles to the south.
(Editor's Note: Lee Adams and
Bob Fennell of Nome assisted
in the search, and reported that
Dimientieff had been found
frozen to death seven miles from
the plane.)
Meanwhile, the search contin
ued for another ski-equipped light
plane missing since the holiday
with two men aboard, the pilot,
Paul Tovey, 23, and Phil Penta
cost. They hd left Minto, 40 miles
west of here, on a wolf hunt in
the rugged foothills of the Alas
kan Range.
Non-Striking Employes of
Airlines Bitterly Wish
Pilots ‘Happy New Year’
NEW YORK, UP) — A group of
nonstriking American Airlines
employes wished an ironic “Happy
New Year” today to the line’s
striking pilots.
In an advertisement in the New
York Times, addressed to the pi
lots, the nonstrikers declared:
“We hope you all have a Happy
New Year. We won’t. . . .
“It’s pretty tough for the more
than 20,000 American employes
who are facing a January 4th lay
off to look forward to in 1959.
Unfortunately, the bills don’t stop
coming for a $75-a-week agent
while you’re deciding whether or
not to accept $28,000 a year.”
) The advertisement, signecl “em
ployes of American Airlines, New
York District Reservations, Ticket
Offices and Sales,” said:
“We realize the highly skilled
requirements of your work. We
recognize your talents, we respect
your ability.”
But it said there was “no ex
cuse for a strike.”
EISENHOWER WILL PROCLAIM
ALASKA A STATE ON SATURDAY
-,-<
Statehood Is Voted No. 1 A-P Alaska
News Story of 1958 In Poll of Editors
(By The Associated Press)
On the night of Monday, June
30, the United States Senate voted
64-20 for passage of the Alaska
Statehood bill.
On that day, the 85th Congress
gave Alaska the right to join, in
equal union, the nation of which
she had been a possession for 91
years. It was midafternoon in
Alaska when the bill was passed,
and joyous celebrations erupted
throughout the Territory.
Six months later, by an even
greater majority than that re
corded in the Senate, Congres
sional approval of the Statehood
Bill was voted the number one
news story of 1958 in Alaska.
The choice — four days before
the 1959 Presidential proclama
tion that Saturday will admit
Alaska as the 49th State — came
as no surprise in the third annual
Associated Press poll of news
paper editors and radio news di
rectors.
In all, 34 different stories were
nominated by newsmen in their
individual votes on the top 10 stor
ies of the year. Only one of the
ballots cast failed to place Con
gressional approval of Statehood
at the head of the list.
Political developments that fol
lowed Congressional action fig
ured in half of the news stories
that finished among the top 20
in tabulations:
Here’s the way radio and news
paper reporters rated the other
stories of the year just ending:
2. Democratic general election
sweep.
3. August Statehood referendum
and primary election.
4. Disappearance of Clarence
Rhode.
5. Commercial fishing develop
ments, including proposed ban on
traps and threat to Bristol Bay’s
fishery.
6. Lituya Bay 'earthquake.
7. Clear missile detection con
struction <tie).
7. Arctic ice island rescue (tie).
9. Oil production begins.
10. Campaign visit of Vice
President Nixon.
First 1969 Baby
Will Receive Gifts
From Nome Stores
Under the sponsorship of the
Nome Hardware Company, and
Dorothy’s Shop, the first baby
born in Nome in 1959 will be
showered by gifts from local busi
ness houses.
Nome’s first baby of 1959, to be
eligible, must be hospital-bom,
and can arrive anytime after mid
night, December 31.
This is the first time in many
years that the New Year baby
will be honored, and from the re
sponse received, stated Hunger
ford, it promises to become an
annual event, sponsored in the
future by the merchants.
To date, gifts received include
a $10 bank account from the M
and M Bank; 'bath scales from
Nome Hardware; six month sub
scription from the Nugget; fur
booties from Polets; silver fork
and spoon set from Polar Curio;
cap ..and mitten set from M’Lord
and Lady Shop. Many more gifts
have been offered, and will be
reported in detail in Friday’s is
sue of The Nugget.
Austrian Chancellor
To Stop At Anchorage
On Flight To Japan
VIENNA, (51 — Austrian Chan
cellor Julius Raab will stop over
briefly in Anchorage, Alaska,
January 7, on his trans-polar
flight to Japan for a nine-day
official visit.
Raab and his small traveling
party are expected to stay at An
chorage little more than an hour,
a spokesman said today. „
Accompanying the jovial, cigar
smoking Raab, 67, will be Dr.
Fritz Meznik, chief of that govern
ment’s press office, Dr. Erich Hai
der, Raab’s secretary, and H. Fu
ruuchi, the Japanese ambassador
at Vienna.
Alaska Stamp
To Be Issued At
Juneau Saturday
WASHINGTON, W — The new
Alaska Statehood Commemora
tive Air Mail Stamp will go on
sale at Juneau on Saturday, Jan
uary 3, the-date of Aaska’s entry
into the Union.
The announcement today by
Postmaster General Summerfield
said the new 7-center will be
available in all the nation’s post
offices as rapidly as distribution
can be completed after the ini
tial sale at Juneau.
The stamp, executed by design
er Richard Lockwood, is in spe
cial delivery size, arranged hori
zontally. Printed in blue, it fea
tures the big dipper and the north
star of the Alaskan flag, superim
posed on a map of Alaska. The
central design is flanked by
wooded hills and snow-topped
mountains symbolic of the re
resources, scenic wonders and va
cation opportunities of the new
49th State.
The Alaska Statehood stamp
will be the first ever issued on
the actual date of admission of a
territory. The initial order for the
stamp calls for a printing of 90
million.
Young Seal Hunters
Missing Off Seward
SEWARD, U?t — Two young seal
hunters, who left Seward in a
small boat Monday afternoon,
were the object of a spreading
search Tuesday night.
Missing were Larry Huff, 18,
and George Tuthill, about 22.
Jack Dodge of the Territorial
Police said two boats had searched
the area from Day Harbor south
west to Aalik Bay without find
ing a trace of the two youths.
Dodge said the search would be
continued Wednesday and that a
small plane would toe used in the
hunt if weather permits.
> WASHINGTON, OB — The na
tion gets a new state and a new
flag Saturday.
President Eisenhower will sign
the proclamation making Alaska
the 49th State at a formal cere
mony in the White House Satur
day noon.
He will fly to Washington for
the purpose, and return later to
his Gettysburg farm for the re
mainder of the weekend.
The new state enters the union
immediately. The new flag will
become official next July 4, but
flag makers in New York said
Monday they would have a few
of the 49-star flags available as
early as next week.
The flag design will not be an
nounced until Saturday. There
was speculation it would consist
of the present 13 stripes, with 7
rows of 7 stars each is the blue
field.
The design was selected from
nearly 2,000 suggestions received
by a screening committee.,
Sidney 'Liberman, president of
Valley Forge Flag Co., says his
company will have flags ready
on Monday.
Valley Forge, one of the biggest
flag producers, sews flags. Flags
printed on cloth will take longer
to put out.
M. Lowenstein & Sons Inc., one
of the largest textile firms, has
two printing rollers poised — one
for each likely design.
“We’re ready to roll the minute
we hear,” a company spokesman
said. “Assuming the new flag Will
be one of these designs, we’ll have
cleth ready for shipment in about
three weeks.”
The new design for the stars
will not affect the proportions of
the old flag. Manufacturers can
tear out the blue field on pres
ent inventory stocks, burn it, and
substitute the new blue back
ground.
Col. W. Marston
Offers Hawaiians
Statehood Help
ANCHORAGE, UR — Col. W. R.
Marston, a longtime champion of
statehood for Alaska, said last
night he plans to leave Seattle for
Hawaii on the liner Lurline on
January 9 to help Hawaiians in
their fight for statehood.
Marston, who will be accom
panied by his wife, said some
three years ago he and other ad
vocates of Alaska statehood met
a group from Hawaii who - were
fighting for Hawaiian statehood
and the two groups pledged to
work together until statehood for
both territories had been achieved.
“Now that we are just about
a state here in Alaska, I feel honor
bound to go to Hawaii to keep
solemn commitments made three
years ago.
“If I can be of any help in get
ting statehood for Hawaii I will
do all I can.”
He said he intends to be in
Hawaii about two weeks.
WEATHER FORECAST
Fair today, cloudy tonight, and
snow Thursday. Lowest tempera
ture expected tonight -15, with
the temperature moderating to
, , . . . 5 above lo
an expected high or
morrow.