THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME, ALASKA
Telephone: Main 125 P.O. Box 618
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
E. P. BOUCHER . Managing Editor
CLINTON GRAY . Production Manager
Entered as second class matter October 14. 1943, at the
postoffice at Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
MORE BOYS GO TO COLLEGE
Commissioner of Education Earl J. McGrath an
nounced recently that college enrollment this fall had
increased for the first time since 1949, the present en
rollment being 2,148,000. It is interesting to note that,
of this number of students, 1,387,000 were males, while
761,000 were females.
Thus, college students numbers are divided about
two boys to every girl enrolled. Another interesting
trend was reported by Commissioner McGrath. That
is the decline of students in college who are World
War II veterans. Last year’s enrollment figures showed
that 40 per cent of the total male student body was
enrolled under the GI Bill. This year, the figure fell
from 40 to 17 per cent. Thus the war classes seem to
be rapidly fading out of the picture.
The significant thing is that, despite this decline,
total enrollment figures rose for the first time in three
years. This indicates that the increasing birth rate
of the late Thirties is being felt in college and that the
country’s increase in population because of other fac
tors is also being felt.
If the economic situation remains favorable, the
tqfal enrollment in the nation’s colleges is expected
to increase steadily for the next few years.
THE CONVERTIPLANE
Aircraft designers, meeting recently, talked much
about a “convertiplane,” which could make flying
cheaper, faster and much safer. A “convertiplane” is
one whicfl will take off and land like a helicopter,
but fly like an airplane.
The Air Force now has convertiplane develop
ment contracts underway and several companies are
said to be working on Navy contracts for the same
type of aircraft. Models and design drawings of sev
eral convertiplane. types were presented at a recent
meeting of aircraft builders.
Some builders saw the possibility that large air
craft carriers might be rendered obsolete by the devel
opment of convertiplanes or similar craft. They would
not be needed, according to this school of opinion,
because every merchantship could carry its own air
craft, which take off as do helicopters. In other words,
no Ion? runways would be needed.
GROWING CLASSES OF COLLEGE FRESHMEN
NragA_ Bigger freshman classes in the 1952-53 school year _
are helping to hold U.S. college enrollments to a high
wlp® level. Dr. Raymond Walters, president of the Univer
sity of Cincinnati, estimates the percentage increase _
/■ \ in freshman enrollments over last year of men and
' .\A I women in the various types of college as shown hefe. j |
ENGINEERING
COLLEGE
| An AP Ncwtfealuret Pictogroph
(
TEACHERS’ BUSINESS AGRICULTURE ARTS AND
COLLEGE COLLEGE COLLEGE SCIENCES
* PERCENTAGE INCREASE 1951-2 TO 1952-3 s. «=>hl=!^
Procl amation
MARCH OF DIMES MONTH
JANUARY — 1953
WHEREAS, infantile paralysis
in 1952 hit our nation with tragic
force, and more than 55,000 boys
and girls and men and women
were stricken by this cruel dis
ease in the worst polio epidemic
of all time, and,
WHEREAS, the National Foun
dation for Infantile Paralysis
speedily came to the aid of the
afflicted; assuming costs of pa
tient care, and providing for the
recruitment of professional per
sonnel, as well as supplying thou
sands of vitally needed respira
tors, and,
WHEREAS, we of the Territory
of Alaska have witnessed the im
pact of polio as attested by the
156 cases reported by the United
State Public Health Service With
in Alaska with 65 of this total re
ported by the Alaska Department
of Health as having originated in
the Ketchikan - Metlakatla area
between September J6 and De
cember 3, 1952, and,
WHEREAS, by year’s end the
National Foundation was in debt
in the amount of $7,000,000 as a
result of the staggering costs of
polio in 1952, and,
WHEREAS, during the 1953
March of Dimes, January 2-31,
volunteers throughout the Terri
tory of Alaska and the nation
will call upon the American peo
ple to join the fight against polio
as never before,
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Ernest
Gruening, Governor of the Terri
tory of Alaska, do hereby pro
claim the month of January as
“March of Dimes Month,” and
urge every resident of our great
Territory to give, and give again
to this truly humanitarian cause,
in the knowledge that what we do
for our fellow man shall likewise
be rendered unto us in full mea
sure in our time of need.
IN WITNESS WUIEREOF, I
have hereunto set my hand and
caused the Seal of the Territory
of Alaska to' be affixed.
DONE at Juneau, the Capital,
this thirty-first day of December
in the year of our Lord nineteen
hundred and fifty-two.
s/ Ernest Gruening,
Governor of Alaska
Attest: s/ Burke Riley,
Secretary of Alaska.
Shell Oil Co. Plans Two
Field Parties of Geologists
In Alaska This Summer
JUNEAU — Shell Oil Company
plans to have two field parties
of geologists working in Alaska
next summer on petroleum ex
ploration, the Alaska Develop
ment Board has been advised by
company officials.
One party will operate in the
Katalla - Yakataga area and the
other on Cook Inlet. Preliminary
reconnaissance in each areas was
conducted for the company in
1952.
Shell is one of -several major
petroleum producing companies
which have begun to show inter
est in Alaska’s oil possibilities,
according to the Development
Board.
Louisville Paper Reports Desertions
From U.S. Armed Forces, To Avoid
Service in Korea, National Disgrace
Report Reds Train
50,000 Japs For
Action In Korea
TAIPEH, Formosa, UPt—Ta Tao
news agency, sponsored by the
Chinese Nationalist Ministry of
Interior, charged Tuesday that
50,000 Soviet - trained Japanese
troops were being readied for
action in Korea.
Many of the stories which the
agency distributes are based on
information which the ministry
gets from underground sources on
the Communist China mainland.
Some prove accurate.
The agency said the Japanese
were former war prisoners who
were being transferred' to Kia
musze in northeost Manchuria
after 18 months training.
Ta Tao also predicted an “un
precedented event” in Hokkaido,
northernmost of the four larger
islands of Japan. This apparently
was intended to mean th-at Hok
kaido would be invaded.
The agency — saying its infor
mation came from Manchurian
sources—said huge stocks of mili
tary supplies had been pouring
into Soviet Sakhalin Island from
Vladivostok since October.
"i-on Duplicate Receipt Books
at the Nugget
NOTICE TO PARENTS
Any children caught damaging
or trespassing or> my buildings or
property will be prosecuted to the
full extent of the law.
3 Fred Cavota
NOTICE
Anyone wanting to loan, rent
or sell a 2-burner electric plate
for the school hot lunch program,
please cal! Mrs. Jackson, Main 139
Also any volunteers who can
assist at noon with the serving
of school lunches on the civic
project during the winter months,
which is sponsored by the Beta
Sigma Phi please call Mrs. Jack
son at Main 139.
NOTICE
All parents of boys interested
in Cub Scouting and other inter
ested persons are asked to meet
at the Assembly Room of the
Nome High School Wednesday
evening al 8 p.m. for the reorgan
ization of the group. Parents of
boys who are now Cubs and those
who have boys between 8 and 11
are invited to attend.
Sgt. Lewis Fulton,
Cubmasler
r LOUISVILLE, Ky., UP) — The
Louisville Times reported Tues
day that desertions from the
armed forces of the United States
have reached “alarming propor
j tions.”
The situation has become so
i bad, the newspaper said in a
copyrighted article, that a well
informed army colonel called it
! “a national disgrace.”
It said the wave of runaways
is motivated, in a large number
J of cases, by the desires of young
men to get dishonorably dis
charged and avoid service in
Korea.
In Kentucky alone, the article
said, from 3,000 to 4,000 deserters
are tracked down each year and
other hundreds still roam the
country.
It quoted military men as say
ing the situation is proportionate,
as bad in the other 47 states. Ac
curate figures on the other states
are unavailable, however, be
cause the Defense Department
has refused to make them public.
The Times said it had learned,
however, that since the fall of
1950, the Fort Knox stockade sel
dom has contained fewer than
400 to 600 prisoners, “practically
all of them deserters and
AWOL’s.”
Richard Harwood, Times staff
writer who wrote the article, said:
“As of two months ago, at least
700 soldiers were hiding out in
Kentucky cities, on farms and in
rural communities.
“Some have deserted years ago.
Some of them live almost like
animals in caves and abandoned
coal mines. Many of them are pro
tected and hidden by relatives
| and friends.”
Nationally, Harwood wrote,
i enough facts are known to justi
! fy the estimate of soma military
men that on any given day of
the year enough able-bodied men
to make up two complete combat
divisions are classified as desert
ers or .AWOL. That indicates a
permanent force of runaways
numbering 25,000 to 30,000 men.
Some deserters boast openly to
court martial boards that their
intention was to dodge combat
duty, the Times said it was told
by trial officers.
“Parents have defended such
attitudes, according to these of-’
ffcers, and more than once con
gressmen have intervened to pre
vent the Army - from punishing
the sons of constituents,” the
article said;
Sources at the Pentagon in
Washington had no immediate
comment on the Times’ report.