™i NOME NUGGET
_ OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LV No. 41 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, APRIL 6, 1953 N Per Copy—15^
Atomic Device
Exploded 5,000 Ft.
Over Yucca Flat
LAS VEGAS, Nev., UR—A high
altitude atomic bomb flashed over
the Yucca Flat proving ground
northwest of here today, while 80
planes circled nearby and two jet
drones carried mice and monkeys
into the quick-forming cloud.
The sound wave hit this resort
town, 75 miles away, with a sharp
crack reminiscent of the window
breaking early atomic tests, but
there were no reports of damage
today.
The bomb was exploded at an
altitude of more than 5,000 'feet,
the Atomic Energy Commission
announced afterwards.
The size of the cloud, which
boiled up within three minutes,
and the force of the shock felt
here gave indication that its
power may have been greater
than normal, or that the height of
the explosion increased its ef
fect.
This was borne out when the
Civil Aeronautics Administration
ordered a vast area of about
10,000 square miles—bounded by
Las Vegas, Yuma and Nogales,
Ariz., and Aubuquerque, N. M.,
—closed to air traffic above 24,000
feet for six hours after the blast.
The jet drones, each carrying
60 mice and two monkeys, pene
trated the cloud at 30,000 feet
and landed at Indian Springs Air
Base 20 minutes after the blast,
the AEC announced. It had no
immediate statement on the con
dition of the animals.
Mice and monkeys have been
used in previous tests here this
year, but results of tests with
them have not been made public.
The Air Force said earlier that
as many as 74 planes would be
in the air at the same time dur
ing one of this spring’s tests. But
it put the figure at 82 after this
morning’s blast. Among them
were 12 giant B-47 jet bombers.
Reds May Return More
POWs Than Allies Expect
By ROBERT B. TUCKMAN
MUNSAN, CP)—United Nations
liaison officers Monday proposed
a quick exchange of sick and
wounded .seven days after agree
ment is reached on procedure and
the Communists offered a plan
which might return far more Al
lied prisoners than expected.
The U.N. Command at the first
meeting of liaison officers at Pan
munjom also announced they
were ready to return prisoners
at the rate of 500 ^ day.
The number of prisoners on
both sides who would be returned
was not known. But U.N. Com
mand officers wondered if the
Communists were offering to ex
change those prisoners who are
so slightly disabled that they
would be ineligible for* repatria
tion now under' the Geneva Con
vention.
TOKYO, (51—Red China’s radio
tonight described the Communist
offer to end the fighting in Korea
as a very fair proposition and
warned that all Chinese to a man
will fight for complete victory if
the Allies “spurn” an armistice.
Three-Judge Court Will
Determine Legality of
New Immigration Act
SEATTLE, UP) — A three - judge
court will hold a hearing Monday
to determine constitutionality of
certain parts of the new McCar
ran-Walter Immigration Act.
Sitting in Seattle will -be Cir
cuit Judge Homer P. Bone and
District Judges John C. Bowen
and William J. Lindberg.
The hearing will be on a peti
tion filed for the Cannery Work
ers’ Union, Local No. 37, Inter
national Longshoremen and Ware
housemen’s Union and five indi
vidual members. The petition
challenges the constitutionality of
the portions of the act governing
travel between the United States
and Alaska.
Judge Lindberg said in a pre
liminary hearing there was some
question in his mind about whe
ther the act is constitutional. The
three-judge hearing eliminates an
appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court
of Appeals.
CONGRESS GROUP GETS
13,000 TAX SUGGESTIONS
WASHINGTON, UP) — If you
want to know about taxes, ask
the man who pays them.
On that theory, the joint Sen
ate-House committee on taxation
sent out questionnaires to every
state in the Union. Results, with
more still coming in: 13,000 sug
gestions from 5,000 individuals.
The questionnaires were in gen
eral agreement on one thing: that
taxes are too high.
Pravda Assails
High Communist
Party Official
MOSCOW, OP)—Pravda assailed
an official of the powerful Com
munist party in the murder case
against 15 Soviet doctors.
The newspaper disclosed also
that one of his former obscure
assistants was under arrest as the
culprit who actually did the fak
ing.
The government announced
Saturday that all of the doctors,
accused last January of murder
ing two Soviet leaders and plot
ting against others, had been ex
onerated and released.
The Communist party news
paper blasted Semyon D. Ignatiev,
former minister of state security,
as being guilty of “political blind
ness and gullibility” in the case.
Ignatiev was elevated March 21 to
one of the top posts in the Soviet
hierarchy—a seat on the five-man
secretariat of the Communist
party’s powerful central commit
tee.
The deputy minister of state
security placed under arrest was
identified as one Ryumin “who
directly led the investigation.”
Pravda also denounced a com
mission of medical experts in the
case for making incorrect conclu
sions in the case. The newspaper
charged the experts with support
ing “slanderous and falsified ac
cusations,” against a number of
prominent medical personalities.
It added, however, that the in
vestigation hid from the experts
some “essential aspects of the
treatment” involved.
Gruening Vetoes
Tax Reduction and
New Banking Code
JUNEAU, UFi—Governor Gruen
ing has vetoed bills for a one
percent reduction in the fish tax
of Alaska canneries and for a
new Territorial banking code.
He also vetoed a measure on
procedure for incorporating util
ity districts, on the ground that
it would make their creation too
difficult.
All the measures were passed by
both houses of the Legislature be
fore adjournment a week ago.
The vetoed salmon tax bill
would have reduced the levy
from six per cent to five per
cent of half the actual Seattle
wholesale market value.
It was the first measure passed
by either house of the Legislature
in as many years as legislative
observers could recall that would
have cut taxes on the salmon in
dustry.
The Governor said in his veto
message to the Secretary of Al
aska that “the objective of this
bill is to afford some relief for
the salmon canneries,” but that
“the additional reduction in reve
nue which the bill’s approval
would entail—approximately one
half a million dollars during the
next biennium”—is too great a
reduction. •
He cited other bills passed by
the 1953 Legislature reducing the
Territory’s tax take, which he
said would total $1,750,000 for the
biennium. He said the cuts, along
with higher costs, “made it neces
sary for the Legislature in its
closing hours to curtail drastical
ly some vital public services.”
Bodies of Two Jet Airmen,
Found Near Skwentna
ANCHORAGE, UP) — The Air
Force announced Sunday night
the bodies of a jet pilot and his
radar observer had been found
near the wreckage of their F-94B
all-weather fighter which crashed
last Tuesday.
Killed in an unsuccessful at
tempt to bail out of their crip
pled jet were the pilot, Lt. Thomas
L. Sheets of San Diego, Calif.,
and his radar observer, Lt. James
A. Sevin of St. Louis, Mo.
Sevin’s body was discovered by
search planes late Saturday three
miles north of the jet wreckage
near Skwentna, 75 miles north
west of here. Sheets’ body was
found Sunday a mile closer to
his crashed fighter.
The Air Force did not disclose
whether their parachutes failed to
open or whether they were too
near the ground to bail out suc
cussfully.
Identified as the victims of an
F-94B jet crash against a canyon
wall atop Mount Susitna last
Thursday were the pilot, Lt. Gar
vin N. Moumblow, 25, and his
radar observers, 2nd Lt. Henry J.
Habey, 23.
Still missing is 2nd Lt. George
Grove, French Creek, W. Va., who
failed to return from a training
flight last Monday.
Rail Workers Get 3-Cent
Hourly Wage Cut Due
To Falling Retail Index
WASHINGTON, W—Falling re
tail prices today clipped three
cents an hour from the pay checks
of 1,300,000 rail workers.
The government announced that
on Feb. 15 its old-style consumer
price index stood at 188.6 per cent
of the 1935-1939 average, enough
of a drop in the cost of living from
last November to assure the three
cent hourly wage reduction.
Rail wages are adjusted each
three months to correspond to
rising or falling living costs. To
day’s three cent loss is the big
gest since rail wages were first
tied to the cost of living. It
leaves employees with ten cents
in accumulated cost-of-living pay
from previous raises based on ris
ing index figures.
The three-cent pay cut means a
payroll saving for the nation’s
carriers estimated at $7,500,000 a
month. It all but wipes out a four
cent hike awarded virtually all
rail employees last month by a
government referee.
Rail wages averaged around
$1.90 an hour before today’s ad
justment.
Lower prices for food, fully re
ported when the official or new
style consumer price indexes for
January and February were an
nounced weeks ago, were mainly
responsible for the over-all de
cline in the price level.
Water Flowing
Over Ice On
Nenana River
By DON R. CLARK
NENANA, April 3 — The ice,
about a mile and a half above
Nenana, has a large hole in it
and the water is flowing on top
of the ice from there to the bluff
above and across from Nenana,
which I believe will soon cut all
that ice in the middle of the chan
nel. Also the Nenana River is
opening up along the banks and
if the weather we £re having to
day holds out the Nenana will
soon be wide open. It always cuts
across the Tanana before the ice
breaks.
The snow is really melting to
day and flowing onto the river
ice and an oldtimer today told
me that his thermometer regis
tered 85 degrees above in the
sun.
Well, anyway the ice at Nenana,
crowned with its black and white
tripod, is eagerly awaiting the TV
cameras to record this spring’s
breakup for the millions of eyes
over CBS. The oldtimers shake
their heads at such goings on. But
we really think they are just plain
puzzled over the winter weather
in relation to their ideas of when
it will break. They can’t seem to
figure out the more than four
feet thickness of ice and the rel
ative lack of surface snow..
Won’t be too long now before
a lot of people will be taking
that consolation cocktail with ab
solutely no ice cubes in it. I am
anxious to find out who the per
son or persons will be that won’t
be so particular about ice cubes.
U.N. Reports
Progress In First
Meeting with Reds
MUNSAN, UPi — United Nations
liaison officers reported “distinct
progress” with “very objective”
Reds today in their first meeting
to work out a quick exchange of
sick and wounded prisoners of
war.
If a trade goes smoothly it
could pave the way for an armis
tice in Korea.
The U.N. liaison group handed
their Communist opposite num
bers at the 48-minute session to
day a nine - point program that,
among other things, called for ex
change to begin within seven days
after agreement on procedure.
The U.N. also asked the Reds
for the number of Allied prison
ers they are willing to return.
The Reds said they would supply
the number but they took no ac
tion immediately on the U. N.
nine-point plan.
Rear Admiral John C. Daniel,
chief U.N. liaison officer, said of
today’s meeting:
“The attitude of the Commun
ists was very objective. I’d say
distinct progress was made in that
we met and exchanged views. I
feel that we have made progress.”
But the Reds raised two points
that were not fully explained.
North Korean Maj. Gen. Lee
Sang Cho said that before the
Reds supplied the number of Al
lied POWs to be returned both
sides “must establish the category
of prisoners who may be exchang
ed before an armistice.” U.N. of
ficers said he did not explain
what he meant.
The Reds also indicated they may
want some prisoners returned
to their homeland and some
sent to neutral countries. There
was no elaboration on that.
The Allies have assumed that
all disabled prisoners would be
sent back to their own countries
as a matter of course—providing
the prisoners themselves want it
that way.
Cross-Country Killer
Held For Grand Jury
CANANDAIGUO, N. Y., UR —
Fred Eugene McManus, accused
slayer of five in a cross-country
crime tour, was held today for
grand jury action on a first-degree
murder charge in the first of the
killings.
Swiftly-moving justice brought
the 18 - year - old AWOL Marine
back to New York State from
Iowa eight days after the death,
of William A. Braverman, 19
year-old Hobart College freshman.
Still near him was the 16-year
old bobby soxer he calls his wife
—Diane Marie Weggeland, a ward
of Monroe County Children's
Court.
But Ontario County officials
said there would be no more “ex
hibition” of the young man who
has given nationally-televised in
terviews.
The young unmarried couple
acted gay and carefree as author
ities returned them here by plane
Saturday from Dubuque, la.