EE NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LVII No. 143 NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1955 Per Copy—15#
Diver Ready to Go Down
Again After Nearly
9 Hours Trapped Below
SOLOMONS, Md., (A*>—Amazing
Joe Tallarico, apparently un
harmed after being trapped nearly
nine hours in the chilly depths of
the Patuxent River, said today,
“I’m ready to go down again right
away.”
The 35-year-old Navy diver
walked last night from a decom
pression chamber where he had
spent four hours after being lifted
from the floor of the river, 120
feet down.
Tallarico was caught below
when his lines became fouled on
an anchor attached to a test mine
he had gone down to recover.
In all, he spent a harrowing 3
hours and 40 minutes below the
surface of the Naval Ordnance
Laboratory test facility located
about 70 miles southeast of Wash
ington.
Educators Meeting
Ends With Support
Of Federal Aid
WASHINGTON —A new drive
for federal school afd seemed to be
rolling ahead today in the wake
of its impressive endorsement by
the White House Conference on
Education.
As the four-day meeting ended
last night, Secretary of Welfare
Folsom told the 1,800 delegates
President Eisenhower was ready
to ask Congress for “a broadened
and improved” program of federal
aid for school construction.
A few minutes earlier, the con
ference had greeted with ringing
applause a statement that the del
egates had approved a stepped up
aid program by more than 2-1.
The leaders of the 600,000-mem
ber National Education Assn,
hailed this report and five others
as “nothing short of marvelous.”
John Muford of Mt. Vernon,
111., the NEA president, labeled
the conference “one of the great
est ever held.”
« * •
Oregon, Washington and Alaska
participants in the conference
headed home with individual re
actions, ranging from strong sup
port to “disillusioned.”
The disappointment was regis
tered by an Alaskan who said he
felt the same conclusions could
have been reached by any two
persons sitting down together for
an hour.
“Instead,” he continued, “we’ve
gassed for three days and spent
$1V£ million. Where is our sense
of values?”
The delegate asked that he not
be identified.
Other participants were more
hopeful. Nearly all expressed con
fidence the conference would re
sult in an increased national
awareness of education’s problems.
Volcano Thought Extinct
Erupting Since Oct. 22
On Kamchatka Peninsula
LONDON, (£)—Moscow radio re
ported Wednesday that the volca
no Bezymyanny in Kamchatka,
considered extinct for hundreds of
years, has been erupting for the
past five weeks.
Kamchatka is a peninsula off
the Siberian eastern coast in the
Bering Sea.
The report said the eruption be
gan Oct. 22 with the cloud of ashes
above the crater swelling to six
miles in height by the middle of
November.
Delegates Study
Provisions of
Enabling Bill
FAIRBANKS Oft—The attention
of delegates to Alaska’s Constitu
tional Convention focused yester
day on. a 1955 U.S. House of Rep
resentatives bill enabling Alaska
and Hawaii to form a state gov
ernment.
It was brought before the con
vention on a motion of W. O.
Smith of Ketchjkan that require
ments of the act be included in the
State of Alaska constitution.
Smith termed the requirements
conventional and traditionally ba
sic to the spirit of the American
way.
“Most people take them for
granted, though, and som^ people
don’t even know what they are,”
he said.
Rights and restrictions covered
by the bill include:
“The constitution of Alaska will
be republican in form. It will give
people of all races and colors the
same civil and political rights. No
law may hinder any individual
from free exercise of religion,
speech, and the right to assemble
peaceably for redress of griev
ances.
“For these and other guaran
tees, the persons comprising the
citizenship of Alaska shall dis
claim all rights to lands or prop
erty not granted to the state by
Congress.
“No jobs involving public trust
or profit shall be open to those
who advocate the overthrow by
force or violence of the state or
national government. This also
applies to persons aiding or be
longing to a party advocating
overthrow.”
Alaska Atty. Gen. J. Gerald
Williams attended the convention
Thursday at the request of dele
gates who asked his opinion on
various matters.
•
Eisenhower’s Recovery
‘Thorough and Complete’
NEW YORK, WV-White House
staff boss Sherman Adams told a
dinner meeting last night that
President Eisenhower’s recovery
from his heart attack “so far is
thorough and complete.”
The 56-year-old chief presiden
tial assistant also told his audience
that Eisenhower “will probably
live to an older age than you and
I, that is, if you are a young man
like myself.”
I
Shungnak National Guard j
Unit Searching For Fred
Johnson of Dahl Creek
Members of the Shungnak Na
tional Guard unit have been
searching for Fred Johnson of
Dahl Creek who has been missing
for some time.
They have found some tracks
and a walking stick to date, stated
Major Siegwart, commander of
the 1st Scout Battalion at Nome.
The calendar in Johnson’s cabin
is marked up until the 9th of
November, at which time he is be
lieved to have gone on a short
hunting or trapping trip.
The Guard unit searching is
under the command of Sgt. lc
Tommy Lee.
Three Indicted
In Bankruptcy of
Alaska Phone Co.
NEW YORK (AV—Three men, in
cluding a New Jersey securities
broker and a Seattle attorney,
have been indicted on charges of
defrauding some 1,400 persons in
the sale of unsecured bonds of Al
askan Telephone Co., now bank
rupt.
Named in a 36-count indictment
yesterday by a Brooklyn federal
grand jury were the Alaska Tele
phone Corp. of Seattle, Wash.; the
firm’s secretary-treasurer and its
counsel, Elton B. Jones, who at j
times has served as an acting traf
fic court judge in Seattle; Albert
J. Proctor, president ^pd general
manager of the phone company;
and Walter F. Tellier, who oper
ates Tellier and Co., Jersey City.
The indictment alleges a con
spiracy to sell worthless Alaska
Telephone Corp. securities to cov
er interest payments of equally
worthless prior issues.
The alleged fraud involves four
series of Alaska Telephone 6 per
cent debentures—unsecured bonds
—with face value of $877,500. The
first was issued in Oct. 1951, the
fourth last January.
The company operates in Sew
ard. Wrangell, Petersburg, Ne
nana, Skagway and Haines, and
has 25 employes.
Alaska Telephone now is in
bankruptcy proceedings in Seattle
Federal Court.
The indictment contends the
firm, incorporated in 1948, has lost
money every year since. The loss
es assertedly total $373,660.
At his home in Englewood, N.J.,
Tellier termed the charges ridicu
lous. In Seattle, Jones called the
indictment a “damned outrage.”
Tuberculosis in 3rd Place as Cause
*
Of Death in Alaska; Accidents No. 1
JUNEAU UP)—Tuberculosis, long
the principal cause of death in
Alaska, still is a big problem with
the native population, but has
been superseded by accidents as
the No. 1 killer.
Dr. C. Earl Albrecht, Alaska
commissioner of health, reports
that Alaska’s accidental death rate
now is about three times that in
the continental United States.
Statistics for the past five years
show accidents the leading cause
of death, heart disease second, and
tuberculosis third.
Some 47.4 percent of the fatal
accidents occurred in transporta
tion ^mishaps, with aircraft acci
dents accounting for 17.2 percent
of all accident deaths.
Motor vehicle accidents were
responsible tfor 14.4 percent of the
deaths, water transportation 13.1
percent, and railway accidents
1 percent.
Fires and drownings each ac
counted for 10.8 percent of the
deaths, falls 6.2 percent, and ex
cessive cold 1.8 percent.
Tuberculosis deaths among na
tives have dropped from 584 for
each 100,000 persons in 949 to 225
in 1954.
New cases of tuberculosis were
reported in 1954 at a rate of 371
for each 100,000 persons, com
pared with 51 for the UJS. as a
whole and 44.7 for Washington
State.
Alaska had 7,040 births last
year, almost wice the 1950 figure.
The population of the territory
is now estimated at 208,000, com
pared with 137,000 in 1950.
AFL and CIO Merge Into Single
Federation of 16,000,000 Members
By JAMES DEVLIN
NEW YORK, MV-The AFL and
CIO merged today into a single
federation of 16,000,000 members
—largest organized labor force in
the free world.
The CIO voted overwhelming
approval in its final convention
session in the Hotel New Yorker.
The AFL endorsed the merger
unanimously in its convention in
the Hotel Statler yesterday.
The combined organization, to
be known as the American Feder
ation of Labor and Congress of In
dustrial Organizations, will meet
in convention Monday in the 71st
Regiment Armory here.
The CIO stamp of endorsement
came over heated objections from
Michael J. Quill, president of the
90,000-member Transport Workers
Union, composed largely of New
York City bus and subway em
ployees.
In a rollcall vote, Quill recorded
I his union as opposed to the merg
er. The only other dissenting votes
came from Dominic Merolla, of
the Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Industrial
Council of the United Steelwork
ers, and Frank England of the
Springfield, 111. Industrial Council.
Quill argued that the merger
would place the CIO under an
AFL thumb. He charged also that
the proposed constitution of the
combined organization lacked suf
ficient safeguards against racial
discrimination, racketeering, and
inter-union raiding.
An array of other CIO leaders
took issue to Quill’s stand.
They included Walter P. Reuth
er, CIO president; David J. Mc
Donald, head of the steelworkers;
and Joseph A. Beime, president of
the communications workers.
They said that, even if there
were disagreement over the actual
wording of the constitution, the
new organization could be de
pended on to implement the words
with spirit.
S-D Day Traffic Deaths
Equal Toll on Nov. 17,
Day of No Campaign
(By the Associated Press)
The nation’s automobile traffic
deaths on safe driving (S-D) Day
equaled a comparable recent day
in which there was no concentrat
ed campaign. It far surpassed last
year’s S-D Day total of 51.
An Associated Press survey to
day showed a total of 69 deaths
yesterday, equal to the»69 traffic
deaths counted in an AP survey
on Thursday, Nov. 17, which was
made for comparison.
The National Safety Council
listed its official total at the same
time as 67.
The first observance of S-D Day
was last Dec. 15, when the toll
was 51.
Although fatalities on the high
ways were higher this year than
in 1954, it appeared that nearly
'half of the states observed S-D
Day without a single traffic death.
The survey also disclosed that
most of the major cities, including
New York, Chicago and Detroit,
had no fatalities.
Conant Says Allies Will
Stay in Berlin Until
Germany Is Reunified
BERLIN, UP)—U. S. Ambassador
James B. Conant declared today
the Western allies intend to re
main in Berlin until Germany is
reunified.
The ambassador reiterated the
Western pledge as an answer to
the new Soviet move which ap
pears designed to end occupation
status for East Berlin and include
that quarter of the city inside the
Communist East German Repub
lic.
Conant told a news conference
{hat the incident created by deten
tion of four Americans in East
Berlin on Sunday was serious.
He came here especially today
to illustrate how serious the U.S.
Government views it.
The East German Communists
declared that the four-power oc
cupation status of Berlin is now
“non-existent.” The declaration
was made by Neues Deutschland,
official newspaper of the East
German Communist Party.
Pontiac Dealer
Testifies Against
General Motors
WASHINGTON, (JV-Senate an
titrust investigators today con
fronted the top officers of General
Motors Corp. with an angry Pon
tiac dealer who accused the GM
command of making “pawns and
vassals” of its 19,000 dealers.
President Harlow H. Curtice
and Board Chairman Alfred P.
Sloan Jr. took their places at the
Judiciary subcommittee witness
table, supposing themselves to be
the first witnesses of the day.
Instead, they were forced to sit
silent while acting subcommittee
Chairman O’Mahoney (D-Wyo)
called up three complaining deal
ers summoned by subpoena.
Then, with the dealers seated
across the table from the top men
of the world’s biggest manufactur
ing organization, O’Mahoney read
into the record a letter from one
of them, M. H. Zager, for 14 years
Pontiac dealer in Albany, N.Y.,
and an employee of GM for 16
previous years.
In a “wild” race for sales, said
Yager, the GM officers have
“adopted the policies of arrogant,
selfish dictators.”
He called the GM command “a
bully of the greatest magnitude.”
In advance of the hearing, GM
gave out for release testimony in
which Curtice said the corpora
tion has prospered because it “has
been able to offer greater dollar
value in its products.” He said he
knows of no management organi
zation with higher business ethics
or stronger sense of public re
sponsibility. He claimed specific
ally a high regard for the interests
of dealers, among others.
HONOLULU, —Rear Adm.
Richard E. Byrd left by plane
Monday night for Auckland, New
Zealand, to prepare for Operation
Deep Freeze, the United States
expedition into the Antarctic. He
expects to arrive in Auckland
today.
MARRIED AND DIVORCED
SAME WOMAN SEVEN TIMES
WHITESBURG, Ky.} UPl—S am
Sexton, 60, who married and di
vorced the same woman seven
times, died at his nearby Sand
Lick Gap home Monday. His wife
was Mrs. Martha Sexton.