m NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LXII No. 27 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 1960Per Copy 151
Close Vote Foreseen In Senate On
Two Controversial ESC Measures]
JUNEAU, UP)—A close vote was
expected in the Alaska Senate to
day in the first floor test of senti
ment on the controversial issue of
employment security.
Speculation was that the vote
could go either way, by some such
margin as 11 to 9.
At issue was which of two em
ployment security bills to accept.
One bill calls for a taxable
wage base of $7,200, on which
contributions to the employment
fund would be collected. The
measure is backed by Gov. Egan,
who last year vetoed a jobless in
surance bill.
The other bill would levy a
jobless benefit insurance tax on
total wages. It was written by
Sen. George McNabb, chairman of
the Commerce and Labor Com
mittee and endorsed by the com
mittee membership. Unlike the
governor’s bill, it calls for in
creased benefits and a tax on to
tal wages.
Under the present law, employ
ers pay 2.7 per cent of each em
ploye’s earnings, up to a ceiling
of $4,200 in wages, making a max
imum of $113.40 for each worker.
Employes pay one half of one per
cent of their earnings, up to a
maximum of $21.
The prepent maximum benefit
allowance is $70 a week for 26
weeks.
The Governor’s bill would, pro
vided the tax rate is unchanged,
increase employer contributions to
$194.40 and the employe payment j
to $36.
Both bills call for a variable!
tax rate, ranging from 1.5 per
cent to 4 per cent for employers
and from .3 per cent to .9 per
cent for employes.
Under the present law, $4,800,
000 is paid into the fund each
year. The fund operates at an an
nual deficit of $1,400,000.
Egan’s bill anticipates revenue
of $6,200,000 a year and a sur
plus of $400,000 annually. Pay
ments to workers who leave Al
aska would be lowered from $25
a week to $15 a week.
McNabb has said his bill would
bring $7,200,000 into the fund
this year and 7 million dollars a
year thereafter. He claims the
surplus would be $600,000 in 1960
and $400,000 thereafter.
The committee proposal would
boost benefits to a maximum of
$78 a week for a 26-week period,
provide more liberal eligibility
requirements to extend coverage
to workers now exempt and re
tain the $25 weekly interstate
payments.
The employment security issue
reached the floor of the Senate
much earlier in the session than
it did in 1959. It was the 44th day
of the 1959 session before a bill
on the subject was introduced in
the Senate and the 72nd day be
fore floor action began on a com
mittee substitute for the original
measure. Final passage came on
the day before adjournment.
Wholesale Purchase of
Fishing Licenses Outlawed
In 13th Bill Signed by Gov.
JUNEAU, (fff — Wholesale pur
chase of commercial fishing li
censes is outlawed under a bill
signed yesterday by Gov. Egan.
The bill puts the sale of licenses
on a one to a customer basis. Each
purchaser will be required to be
personally involved in the fish
ing activity covered by the per
mit.
The new law is designed to pre
vent outside fishing operators
from buying a number of licenses
in advance and then assigning
them to contract fishermen.
The Governor also approved a
bill pro rating among Alaska
cities the cost of state adminis
tration of the Federal Social Se
curity program.
The bills were the 13th and
14th to be signed into law since
the legislature convened.
Mother of Three Convicted
Of Murdering Husband
For $24,000 Insurance
CHICAGO, I/P) —A 35-year-old
mother of three, crying hysteric
ally, was carried in a chair out
of Criminal Court yesterday after
she was sentenced to 60 years in
prison for murder.
Mary Saisi was convicted of
plotting with her lover the mur
der of her husband, Peter, 34, an
insurance agent, to collect $24,000
in insurance.
The principal witness against
her was Richard Lansing, 23, who
pleaded guilty to shooting Saisi
and was sentenced to life impri
sonment. Lansing, who described
himself as Mrs. Saisi’s lover, testi
fied they plotted the fatal shoot
ing of Saisi to share the insur
ance. Saisi was fatally shot in his
west side home Oct. 27, 1958.
Would Regulate
Use of “Alaska”
In Firm Names
JUNEAU, UP) —Firms with the
words “Alaska” or “Alaskan” in
their trade names would have to
have their principal offices in Al
aska in order to get a state busi
ness license under a bill intro
duced in the House yesterday.
Firms which have used the
words as part of their names for
three years prior to enactment of
the bill would be permitted to
continue using them for 10 years.
“We would hope that during
the 10-year period the firms so
affected would be induced to
move their main offices to Alas
ka,” said Rep. James Fisher.
Firms affected would include
Alaska Steamship Co., Alaska
Airlines and the Alaska Pulp and
Lumber Co.
In the Senate, a bill calling for
regulation of clinical laboratories
was withdrawn. The bill was in
troduced at the request of the
Governor’s Office, but Sen. James
Nolan said the State Department
of Health and Welfare had ag
reed it needed more study.
Krushchev In India; May
Carry Word from Chou
CALCUTTA, UR — Nikita
Khrushchev arrived in Calcutta
yesterday for more talks with
Prime Minister Nehru and U Nu
of Burma amid speculation that
the Soviet Premier might be bring
ing some word from Peiping on
the India-China border dispute.
Khrushchev flew from Jakarta
for an overnight stay en route to
Afghanistan, last stop on his
South Asian tour. Nehru arrived
half an hour earlier from New
Delhi to meet the Soviet leader
for the second time in less than
three weeks.
Water Power
Potential Alaska’s
Greatest Asset
WASHINGTON, Iff)—The water
power potential of Alaska is
enormous and constitutes one of
the state’s most valuable re
sources, an Interior Department
report concludes.
The report estimates the prime
power potential at 168 sites in Al
aska as somewhat over 13 million
kilowatts. This led Sen. Robert
Kerr, chairman of a special com
mittee on national water re
sources to comment:
‘This is a very large percent
age of the total hydroelectric pow
er resources of the United States.”
The potential, Kerr added, “af
fords possibly our only opportun
ity for development of the magni
tude of some of the multimillion
kilowatt plants now under con
struction in the Soviet Union . . .”
“Probably the most significant
conclusion that can be drawn
from the report,” Kerr said, “is
that we know very little indeed
of the extent and magnitude of
the magnificent water and water
related resources of Alaska.”
Irrigation in Alaska is still in
its infancy, but the report sug
gests that eventually some 50,000
acres may be irrigated, Kerr said.
As to the state’s wildlife re
sources, Kerr said these “repre
sent a greater per capita wealth
than the wildlife resources of any
other state.”
Four major problems of devel
opment of good water supplies in
the new state are mentioned in
the report. They concern freezing
conditions and permafrost north
of the Alaska Range; quality of
water; presence of impervious
rocks limiting the availability of
groundwater, and difficulties of
waste disposal during winter
months.
San Francisco Chief Collides With
Two Trailer Oil Rig In Fiery Blast
BAKERSFIELD, Calif., UP) — A
swift Sante Fe passenger train
and a two-trailer oil rig collided
last night with a mighty blast of
oil that set jackknifed coaches
afire and shriveled the locomo
tive.
A Sante Fe spokesman said at
least 12 persons were killed —
two of them still unidentified. The
known dead included seven pas
sengers, the train engineer and
fireman, and the oil rig driver.
Hospitals treated 68 injured and
of these, 45 remained hospitalized.
The San Francisco Chief No. 2,
carrying 76 passengers, had left
San Francisco at 11:15 a.m. and
was rolling through lush cotton
and alfalfa farmland about seven
miles west of this oil-well city 100
miles northwest of Los Angeles.
The time was 5:10 p.m.; the speed
a brakeman said, about 75 mph.
the visibility fair—a clouded sun
set.
Investigators said the oil rig
driver apparently had ignored a
reflectorized warning sign at the
railroad crosing. They said he had
paused only momentarily — but
did not make a full stop—before
drivng his cargo of more than
7,000 gallons of crude oil onto the
tracks.
Witnesses told the investigators
the driver seemed to turn his ve
hicle in a direction parallel to the
tracks at the train bore down on
him. Then he fled the cab.
The rear oil trailer wrapped
around the locomotive and ex
ploded with a thunderous erup
tion seen four miles away.
The train veered crazily on, its
four diesel units aflame, its for
ward trucks knocked off the
tracks by the tremendous impact.
Flame from the initial explo
sion swept back the length of the
train, but only forward cars in
the tangled jumble caught fire.
The first three of the four diesel
units were charred to blackened
rubble.
Eleven hundred feet of track
were torn up, some of it twisted
into grotesque loops around the
shattered cars.
Engineer L. A. Snyder and Fire
man A. H. Braley, both of Fresno,
were cremated in their cab.
Eyewitness John Holland said
the oil rig driver, John Garrett,
left his imperiled vehicle on the
tracks, jumped and ran. When the
train hit and fire exploded, flames
spewed over the running Garrett,
who dashed into an irrigation
ditch .He was burned to a crisp.
Hours after the crash debris
was stil burning. Smoke was so
dense before dark fell that cars
two miles away needed lights to
drive.
Most of the dead and severely
injured were in the first three
cars. Two cars were welded to
gether by the tremendous heat.
The scene was one of twisted
metal, smoke, ankle-deep oil, cars
compressed like accordions.
Ike Gets Bearhug Greeting
By President of Uruguay
By STANFORD BRADSHAW
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, UPl —
President Eisenhower arrived in
Uruguay today and was greeted
with an abrazo. It was the first
time he had received that tradi
ditional Latin American bearhug
on his South American tour.
The gesture of affection was
made by Benito Nardone, Presi
dent of the governing council of
this smallest of the South Ameri
can republics, as Eisenhower step
ped from his plane.
About 1,000 persons, standing
on a terrace of Carrasco airport
terminal, looked on. The day was
beautiful and the temperature a
comfortable 71.
Eisenhower hailed Uruguayans
as champions of democratic prin
ciples and declared their insti
tutions have won the applause “of
every American, school children
and adults alike.”
The United States, he said,
treasures its partnership with
Uruguay and other Latin Ameri
can countries and “wants this
partnership to be a model of mu
tually helpful cooperation among
sovereign states, some large, some
small.”
Nardone praised the President
as a crusader for American bro
therhood and friendship.
Eisenhower flew here from
Santiago, Chile, after previously
visiting Brazil and Argentina. He
winds up his 10-day round of vi
sits tomorrow when he takes off
for Puerto Rico.
Lent Begins Today
NEW YORK, UP) — The peni
tential season of Lent begins
today for Christians around the
world. Easter Sunday, April 17,
will end the traditional 40-day
period of self-discipline and self
denial. Sundays are excluded
from the Lenten observance.
More Than 3,000
Are Killed In
Morocco ’quake
By STEPHEN O. HUGHES
AGADIR, Morocco, UFi—Stun
ned survivors streamed from
earthquake-ravaged Agadir today.
A Red Cross official estimated the
toll at more than 3,000 dead and
more than 5,000 injured.
The grim casualty prediction—
2,000 more dead than the initial
Moroccan government estimate—
was made by Dr. Albert A. Rain
hard, who flew to Agadir from
International Red Cross head
quarters in Geneva. The U.S. Air
Force, making these estimates
public, said they were conser
vative.
Pleading cries rose from the
rubble of Agadir, and rescue
workers probed the ruins for un
found survivors and bodies.
A massive airlift was in pro
gress, carrying the injured north
ward to hospitals in other African
cities.
Europe, America and North Af
rica mobilized aid for the Atlan
tic coast resort shattered Mon
day night by two earthquakes and
a tidal wave.
Roads leading north were lined
wth dazed Moroccans quitting
their ruined homes.
While airlift planes droned in
and out on their missions of
mercy, Moroccan, French and
American military trucks rolled
into the disaster area in increas
ing numbers.
Water and gas mains were
broken and empty. There was no
electricity except from the emer
gency military generators which
powered floodlights for round
the-clock digging for bodies and
survivors.
It was reported in Rabat that
King Mohammed V had decided
to raze the few remaining build
ings — all cracked or suffering
other damage — and completely
rebuild the city.
Two Rescued, Two
Still Missing On
Arctic Ice Floe
ANCHORAGE, W) — “I never
thought we had a chance. It seem
ed one chance in 10 million the
rescue plane could make it."
Gordon M. Eastman of Omak,
Wash., told yesterday of how he
and Anchorage flier Warren
Johnson spent three days and
nights on thin ice in the Chukchi
Sea.
Their plane plunged through
an ice floe after running out of
gasoline as they were returning
from a polar bear hunt last Fri
day.
They scrambled onto the ice
just before the plane sank. Then
they watched as a plane with
their two hunting companions
aboard, also out of fuel, landed
on another ice floe.
The second plane also sank.
The Air Force put four planes and
a helicopter into the search yes
terday for its two occupants.
Bush pilot Nelson Walker re
ported receiving a radio message
yesterday from one of the men,
pilot Leroy Holen of Anchorage.
With Holen was George Bau
man of Nevada, Mo.
Eastman and Johnson were
spotted from the r.ir and flown
to Kotzebue Mond y. Both were
hospitalized for rostbite, but
Eastman was released from the
hospital yesterday.