THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME, ALASKA
E. P. BOUCHER . Managing Editor
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Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the
post office at Nome, Alaska, under Act of March 3, 1879.
STATUS OF STATEHOOD
LEO W. O'BRIEN
Chairman of the Subcommittee
on Territorial and Insular Affairs
Because of our mutual interest
in the future and well being of
the great Territory of Alaska, I
should like to submit to you and
your readers a factual report on
the status of the bill granting
statehood to Alaska.
As you know, the first session
of the 85th Congress did not pro
duce a vote in either House or
Senate on the statehood bill, de
spite its overwhelming Commit
tee approval in each house.
Some statehood advocates have
expressed disappointment over
the “failure” to bring up state
hood legislation in either the Sen
ate or the House during 1957.
That disappointment is not justi
fied.
When the responsibility for
handling Alaska statehood legis
lation was given to me, early this
year, by Chairman Engle, of the
House Interior Committee, I re
solved to follow a line of strategy
which would lead to enactment of
a law, and not another gesture
ending in defeat and disappoint
ment.
t
I made it clear that I proposed
to separate, as widely as possible,
the questions of statehod for Al
aska and Hawaii. The “shotgun
wedding” approach of consolidat
ing the two statehood bills was a j
dismal failure in te 84th Con
gress. The ‘ merits of Alaskan
statehood were never debated AS
SUCH.
While I favor statehood for
Hawaii, I have kept that bill from
-coming to an assured favorable
vote in the subcommittee I head
so the Alaska bill could have a
free field for itself and stand or
fall on its. own merits.
The original strategy was to
bring the Alaska bill to a House
vote late in the first session of
this Congress. Careful polls in
dicated it would pass the House.
Its Senate managers agreed to
hold up .the Senate vote until
early next year, when the meas
ure would be discussed away
from the heated civil rights at
mosphere.
A few weeks ago, Speaker Sam
Rayburn advised me to hold back
the Alaska bill until next year,
promising his help in getting it
to a vote in January, and stating
that he had changed his views on
statehood for Alaska and would
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I
support the bill. That, in my
opinion, was worth an additional
25 votes.
I took full responsibility for
agreeing to the Speaker’s sugges
tion. I did so as a friend of
Alaska, and a supporter of state
hood. Developments in the final
days of the recent session proved
the soundness of the decision. A
weary House, in a negative mood,
killed many measures which
would have been approved next
year had their sponsors not been
over-eager.
I am convinced that Alaska,
right now, is closer to statehood
than it ever has been. I believe
the House will approve one by
March. I believe Alaska will be
49th state of the Union within 15
months.
If I am wrong, the responsi
bility is mine. I do want the
people of Alaska to know, how
ever, that everything I have
done has been done in the honest
belief that I was working in their
interest.
.
Explosion In Oakland
Grain Mill Causes
$100,000 Damage
OAKLAND, UPl — An explosion
ripped off the roof of the big
waterfront Albert grain mill here
Monday, gutting the sixth floor
and seriously injuring 18 work
ers, some critically.
Several workers were hurled
from the building along with
scattered windows, steel and con
crete that scattered for hundreds
of feet along the adjoining South
ern Pacific right of way.
Damage was estimated at
$100,000 by plant officials.
PAN AMERICAN AIRWAYS
Arriving Tuesday were: Mr.
and Mrs. Jim Blanning and three
children, Ash Craft, Rex Snyder,
Dade Lennon, and the following
for whom first names were not
available—Cary, Kohel, Newman,
Lyle, Garner, Lavanaway.
Departing were: A. E. Bl'atford,
O. T. Finney, H. J. Ellingsworth,
and for Seattle: Sigrid Olsen, Don
Olson, and Dr. and Mrs. J. R.
Cumming.
Presidential Press Secty.
James C. Hagerty,
Becomes Grandfather
NEWPORT, R.I., UP)—James C.
Hagerty, 48-year-old press sec
retary to President Eisenhower,
became a grandfather Tuesday.
Hagerty concluded a news con
ference with reporters at the
President’s vacation headquar
ters with the remark:
“That’s all—except that I have
a very pleasant personal an
nouncement to make.”
He then reported his son and
daughter-in-law,' Marine Lt. and
Mrs. Roger Hagerty, became the
parents of an 8-pouhd, 5-ounce
boy early Tuesday. The baby
was born at the U.S. Naval Hos
pital at Quantico, Va., where
young Hagerty, 25, is stationed.
Legion Told Red’s
Missile Program
Is Threat to U.S.
By JAMES DEVLIN
ATLANTIC CITY, N. J., UP) —
Former Defense Secretary Louis
Johnson told the American Le
gion Tuesday the United States
must meet the threat of the re
ported Russian intercontinental
missile at whatever cost.
Johnson told the opening ses
sion of the Legion’s 39th annual
convention the Russian missile
posed incalculable dangers al
though he expresesd doubt the
Russians “will at once proceed to
drop it on the United States.”
But he said they would use it
as a propaganda weapon to at
tempt to weaken Western alli
ances and to “test our resolution
and power by stirring up con
flicts in such places as the Mid
dle East.”
Legion Commander W.C. “Dan”
Daniel of Danville, Va., indicated
in his annual report opposition
to demands among some Legion
naires for pensions for veterans.
Noting that the national debt
exceeds 275 billion dollars, he
said:
“In promoting and ^advancing
our •programs of benefits and
equalization for our veterans, we
must be objective, unselfish and
conservative . . .
“Let us always remember that
veterans who have already given
so much to preserve our heritage
should not and will not sacrifice
the nation on the altar of self
interest.”
The Legion heard a report from
Harvey V. Higley administrator
of Veteran Affairs, that “the na
tion’s feelings of obligation and
gratitude toward veterans seem
to have lessened to a noticeable
degree.”
Higley called for establishment
of an official or legislative pol
icy on the care of sick and dis
abled nonservice-connection vet
erans — those whose disabilities
were not incurred in military ser
vice.
Some stretches of the 79-mile
lcng Albert Canal in Belgium run
between 40 - foot embankments
above the surrounding country.
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Phone J. E. (Dick)
MAIN 46 Miller
Station Manager
House Subcommittee Investigator
Charges ‘Flagrant Abuse of Contract’
In Morningside Sanitarium Hearing
PORTLAND, Ore., Iff) — The
Morningside Hospital supervisor
testified Monday that some men
tal patients from Alaska had been
used to remodel his home.
“It was a flagrant abuse of the
contract. It was outrageous,” said
Rep. Moss (D-Calif) when he
heard this testimony from Har
fey LaZelle, supervisor of the
Portland hospital which has taken
care of Alaska’s mental patients
under a federal contract since
1904.
LaZelle’s testimony came in the
opening day of a House subcom
mittee hearing into the operation
and financial affairs of the pri
vate hospital.
LaZelle said the decision to use
about a dozen patients to re
model his home off the hospital
grounds came after an influx of
mentally ill children from Alas
ka. He said it was decided to con
vert his old home on the hos
pital grounds to a children’s
ward. But before he could move
to new quarters, remodeling was
Emery Bourdon, 28,
Sought by Police
FAIRBANKS—The whereabouts
of Emery Andrew Bourdon, 28, is
being sought here by city police,
Police Chief Stanley Zaverl said
Monday.
Bourdon, a former resident of
Nome, has been living* in Fair
banks for some time. He has not
been seen for two months, and
police said his description match
es that of a body found Aug. 13
in the Chena River.
He is of French-Eskimo decent,
is five .feet five inches tall, has
brown eyes and black hair. Any
one knowing his whereabouts is
urged to contact city police.
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Lou Oliver
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needed, he said.
Moss repeatedly questioned
whether work performed by pa
tients was for their good or for
the hospital’s. LaZelle said it was
occupational therapy for the pa
tients.
After he testified patients had
helped to dig. a basement for a
building one winter, Moss com
mented:
“Maybe hard labor is good
therapy for mental patients, but
I haven’t heard of it yet.”
The hearing, which has not
gone into financial matters yet,
will continue. It is expected to
last through the week.
Rep. Chudoff (D-Pa) is chair
man. Also on the subcommittee
are Reps. Hoffman CR-Mich) and
Knox (R^Mich).
Chudoff said this is the reason
for the hearing:
“Virtually all the patients are
Alaskan residents who were
transported over 1,000 miles from
their homes . . . the committee
has received numerous com
plaints and allegations that these
patients have been receiving im
proper care and treatirient . . . the
subcommittee will seek to dis
cover whether the hospital has
properly discharged its obliga
tions. . . ”
The present contract between
the hospital and the territory was
put in the record. It shows the
territory pays the hospital a basic
$184 a month for each patient
from Alaska, plus certain other
sums for expenses.
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