zs NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LX No. 144 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1958 Per Copy—15c*
Investigators Look
For Cause Chicago
School Inferno
CHICAGO, iff)—Citizens shocked
by Chicago’s worst school fire
came forward today with offers
of blood and money. Ninety per
sons lost their lives in the dis
aster.
The cash — for the families of
the 87 youngsters killed or in
jured in the blaze — flowed in
at the rate of $1,000 an hour.
There was a heavy response for
donations of blood needed in the
care of children who suffered
bums.
“It’s tremendous — I’ve never
seen anything like it,” said Wil
liam Bilbo, technical director of
the Chicago Blood Donor Service.
Contributions to Our Lady of
the Angels fund, the cash pool
that bears the name of the school
hit by a flash fire Monday,
topped $30,000 within the first
24 hours.
Biggest gift thus far was ij>10,000
from the Chicago Newspaper Pub
lishers Association.
Investigators strove to learn
the cause of the blaze that killed
the children and three of their
teaching nuns.
Investigators agree the fire
started at the foot of a wooden
stairwell in the northeast corner
of the school.
They continued a round of ques
tioning of all who could offer any
information as to how the fire
started.
One police arson expert theor
ized a cigarette flipped careless
ly into a pile of trash, a waste
basket or papers may have sparked
the blaze. A schoolboy sneaking
a smoke was one possibility, he
said.
Uncontrolled Fire
Threatens Malibu
Film Colony
MALIBU BEACH, Calif., UP) —
A wind-lashed fire has cut an
eight-mile-wade swath from the
mountains to the sea here but a
massed (battery of pumpers, vir
tually one to a house, today
checked a threat to the film col
ony.
Elsewhere, flames 100 feet high
roared on unchecked.
The blaze, driven by 50 m.j.h.
winds, has destroyed an esti
mated 36 homes.
Hundreds of residents have
fled the area.
The fire, perhaps set by an ar
sonist, burst out yesterday on the
brush and oak-studded inland
slopes of the Santa Monica moun
tains. The winds quickly whipped
it over the crest of the hills and
down canyons to the sea.
The Pacific Highway, U. S. 101,
was blocked on either side of the
fire zone.
The Malibu Beach film colony
is on the ocean side of the high
way. The flames jumped across
the highway but the intensive ef
forts of firemen and their pump
ers and residents with garden
hoses checked the threat.
Firemen battled to keep the
blaze out of Malibu Canyon, but
lost the fight just before dawn
when flames 100 feet high roared
over the top of the last ridge and
bore down on the homes half a
mile below.
The fire has already destroyed
several expensive homes, among
them the $50,000 Hilltop House of
actor Lew Ayres.
Almost-Complete
Returns For 2nd Div.
' Returns from 33 out of 34 pre
cincts have been received and
the absentee ballots were counted
I yesterday, giving the following
unofficial totals todate:
For Governor—Egan 1645, But
rovich 1142.
For U. S. Senator — Bartlett
23-14; Robertson 521.
Term B—Gruening 1812, Stepo
vich 1125.
For U.S. Congress—Rivers 1692.
Benson 1159.
For State Senator — Bronson
1623, Johnson 1159.
For State Senator—Beltz 2141,
Frazier 690. •
For Senator — McNees 1077,
Jones 673.
For Senator—Hopson 569, Bul
lock 530.
For Representatives —Blodgett
827, Fagerstrom 760, Gray 584,
Martin 529;
Nusunginya 316;
Curtis (R) 395, Lincoln 383.
Axel Johnson 199.
There were write-in votes for
Don Hungerford, John Walters,
Mike Walsh, Peter Lee, Frank
Degnan and Earl Towner. One
vote for each.
One vote each write-in for rep
resentative of District 23, Jerome
Trigg and Pearse Walsh; 6 votes
for Ed Burnell, Barrow; one each
for representatives in District 24,
Jack Emil, Ted Hunter of Hooper
Bay and Arnold Akers of Fortuna
Ledge.
Absentee ballots are to be
counted in the next day or so.
Democratic Advisory
Committee to Draw New
Policy Statement Sunday
WASHINGTON, UPt — The Dem
ocratic Advisory Council will
meet here next Sunday to draw
up a policy statement on “the
Democratic task in the next two
years.”
The 24-member group includes
former President Harry Truman
and Adlai Stevenson, among
others. An announcement today
said most of the members were
expected to be on hand for the
meeting.
The council was formed after
the 1956 election with the stated
mission of developing and push
ing party programs between na
tional conventions.
Its meeting Sunday will come
just one month before the 86th
Congress convenes with greatly
increased Democratic control of
both House and Senate.
Airmail Subsidies
Expected To Total
$61 Million in 1959
WASHINGTON, UP) — The Civil
Aeronautics Board estimated to
day that airpiail subsidies in the
next fiscal year will total $61,
786,000.
That would be an increase of
$10,455,000 over the current year’s
subsidy total.
In addition, the airlines will re
ceive in the fiscal year starting
July 1, 1959, an estimated $77,
806,000 to compensate them for
the actual cost of carrying the
mail.
The board noted that the air
lines serving Alaska have re
quired from five to eight million
dollars annually in subsidy for the
past six or seven years.
But it said smaller payments
may be possible in the future be
cause of possible realignment of
services and possible reduction in
the number of airlines operating
between the mainland and Alaska.
Estimated subsidy payments
include:
Alaska Air Lines, $1,301,000;
Pacific Northern, $1,432,000.
Intra-Alaska — Alaska Air
Lines, $1,068,000; Northern Con
solidated, $630,000; Pacific North
ern, $590,000; Wien, $950,000.
Stepovich To Return
To Private Law Practice
PORTLAND, UP — Alaska Gov
ernor Mike Stepovich. here on a
vacation trip, had one explana
tion for his defeat in 'Alaska’s
U. S. Senate election last week:
“Too many Democrats.”
Stepovich said he would not ac
cept a federal appointment if one
were offered, and that he was
planning to resume his law prac
tice in Fairbanks.
Stepovich, elected to the Terri
torial House of Representatives
in 1950 and the Territorial Senate
in 1952 and 1956, became gover
nor of Alaska in 1957.
Stepovich said he thought the
Republicans could stage a come
back in Alaska, particularly if
more younger Republicans took an
interest in government.
WEATHER FORECAST
Snow and blowing snow and
blizzard conditions this afternoon
and tonight. Easterly winds 35 to
50 miles per hour. Occasional
snow and blowing snow on Thurs
day, with winds 20 to 30 miles per
hour. Low tonight 15; high to
morrow 20.
African Villager Wins Britain’s Highest
Award For Bare-Hand Battle with Lion
LONDON, UP) — An African
villager who battled a lion with
his hands to save a mother and
child, last night was accorded the
George Medal — Britain’s high
est honor for civilian heroes.
The exploit of Lilani Daka, a
villager of Masaka, Northern Rho
desia, was set out in Britain’s
official Chronical of Awards, the
London Gazette. This is the offi
cial account:
Daka woke in the night to hear
the screams of a woman mingled
with the roar of a lion. He
grabbed his muzzle loading gun
and dashed out.
In a neighboring hut he found
a woman and her 2-year-old
daughter cowering before a full
grown lion that was trying to
carry off the child.
Daka raised his gun and pulled
the trigger. The weapon was not
loaded.
He flung it down and charged
the lion, springing onto its back
and pounding its ribs with his
fists. The snarling beast tried to
claw him off.
Daka’s son arrived to find his
father still wrestling with the
lion. As he clung to the mane,
Daka yelled to the boy to bring
cartridges.
The boy picked up his father’s
gun and scurried off, collected
cartridges and ran back, loading
on the way.
When he got to the hut Daka
mauled on the arm, shoulder and
leg, was hauling at the lion’s tail
to keep it away from the child
and its mother.
Daka’s son shot the lion dead.
Space Agency to Launch at Least
A Dozen “Discoverer” Satellites
From Its New California Base
WASHINGTON, CD—The United
States will begin firing a series
of big satellites from the new Van
denberg Base in California in the
next few weeks. Some of them
will carry mice and monkeys.
The Defense Department’s ad
vanced research projects agency
announced today that the “Pro
ject Discoverer” program will try
to put up a l,300^pound device
in its first launching attempt
“late this year or early next year.”
At least a dozen satellite launch
ings will be attempted, as fast as
one a month, Roy Johnson, ARPA
director, told newsmen.
Johnson also said that an at
tempt will be made next year to
recover a capsule from a satellite,
bringing it back through the at
mosphere.
He said that the program, for
the present, does not include
sending up a man.
The satellites launched from
Vandenberg will be aimed in a
southerly direction over the Pa
cific Ocean. Their orbit would be
around the world over the North
and South Poles.
The first Discoverer vehicle will
be a two-stage rocket. The booster
will be a Thor IRBM produced by
Douglas Aircraft Co.
The second stage, the announce
ment said, is a new vehicle pro
duced by the Lockheed Aircraft
Corp. and powered by a Bell
Hustler engine.
This' latter engine is a liquid
fuel rocket.
“The first Discoverer-launched
satellites are expected to weigh
approximately 1,300 pounds,” the
announcement said. “This in
includes the weight of the second
stage vehicle which will orbit as
an integral part of the satellite
after burnout.”
Johnson was asked if bigger
boosters will be used later for
even larger satellites. Proposals
have been made to use the Atlas
intercontinental missile as a
booster.
He said that with the Atlas it
might be possible to put up a sat
ellite weighing 10,000 pounds or
more, using new high-energy
fuel.
With a rocket cluster booster,
! it would be possible to send up
; satellites weighing “thousands
' andr thousands of pounds.”
Army Unveils
Juno III, Its
New Moon Probe
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., IS) —
The Army unveiled its huge moon
rocket — Juno II — yesterday
when the service tower was rolled
back as part of the preparations
for a launching expected within
a week.
The powerful rocket, very sim
ilar in appearance to the Jupiter
C that fired three Explorer sat
ellites into orbit, will be used for
the Army’s first attempt to probe
far into outer space.
When the tower was rolled
away the base of the Army’s high
ly touted Jupiter intermediate
range ballistic missile was seen.
The top of the rocket was cov
ered, however.
For the moon shot, the Jupiter
will be used as a first-stage boos
ter rocket in place of the smaller
Redstone missile which gave the
big lift to the Jupiter-C satellite
vehicle.
The Army moon missile is ex
pected to be a four-stage rocket
using clusters of small, solid fuel
Sergeant rockets ip the upper
stages. Its job will be to push a
30-pound satellite payload perhaps
farther into space than any pre
vious man-made object.
Its name will be Juno II. The
first Juno was a Jupiter test ve
hicle fired more than a year ago
in one of the early nose cone re
entry experiments with the 1,500
mile ballistic missile.
The rocket will be aimed toward
the vicinity of the mon, but Dr.
Wernher von Braun, Army mis
sile iesearch chief, said recent-1
ly the chances of hitting the moon I
or orbiting around it are slim.
EXPLOSIVE CHRISTMAS . . .
ALBUQUERQUE, N. M., UP) —
Some unidentified youngster sent
a letter asking Santa for this:
“Four or five caps for my dyna
mite.”
GOP and Demo.
Disagree on Cause
Of Nov. 4 Upset
NEW YORK, m — The chair
men of the Republican and Demo
cratic national committees today
gave the nation’s busines leaders
their explanations of the Demo
cratic sweep in the November 4
elections. Needless to say, they
disagreed.
GOP National Chairman Meade
Alcorn 'blamed his party’s poor
showing on a combination of fac
tors, mainly in the downturn in
employment and general business
activity. He contended the Repub
licans still have the “'better pro
duct to sell,” but “we lack the
sales force.”
His Democratic counterpart,
Paul M. Butler, said the results
were a “ringing repudiation of
the Eisenhower Administration
and its failure to provide ag
gressive full-time and forward
looking leadership in the areas of
economic growth, employment,
cost of living, labor legislation,
education, defense, human rights
and foreign policy.”
In the elections last month, the
Republicans lost 13 Senate seats,
a net of 47 House seats, and a net
of 5 governorships.
Territory Issues
Construction Bonds For
U. of A. and Armories
SEATTLE, (£1 — Grande and
.Co., Inc., head a syndicate which
has been awarded $537,000 Terri
tory of Alaska General Obliga
tion Bonds, proceeds of which are
to be used for construction of
dormitories and other buildings
at the University of Alaska. Net
effective cost to the Territory is
3Vi> percent.
Another issue of $1,040,000 has
been awarded the Florida Na
tional Bank, Jacksonville, at an
effective net cost to the Territory
of 3V4 percent. Proceeds will fi
nance construction of armories.