OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LXI No. 154 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, DECEMBER 28^1959Per Copy—15<f
Presidential Board
Seeks Answer to
t
Steel Impasse
WASHINGTON, UP) — President
Eisenhower’s inquiry board went
into separate huddles today with
the deadlocked steel labor dispu
tants.
The three-man panel headed by
George W. Taylor conferred first
with representatives of the United
Steelworkers Union and sched
uled a separate meeting later with
industry negotiators.
George Meany, AFL-CIO presi
dent, was due to testify at the
hearing in behalf of the Steel
workers Union.
The negotiations entered a new
phase in an atmosphere of rising
tension and thickening gloom.
Joseph F. Finnegan, chief fed
eral mediator, said negotiations
Sunday between top industry and
United Steelworkers bargaining
teams produced “zero” results.
There were reports that some
of the scores of individual com
pany negotiations staged simul
taneously Sunday were getting
results worse than zero. A few
negotiators emerged to tell re
porters that relations seemed to
be deteriorating instead of im
proving.
Governor Egan Proclaims
January 4 Admission Day
JUNEAU — In line with
State law, Governor Egan last
week declared Monday, January
4, a legal holiday in observance
of the first anniversary of Alaska’s
admission as a State.
The first session of the State
Legislature designated January 3,
1960, as “Admission Day,” to
commemmorate the event. Be
cause the day falls on Sunday, it
comes under State law extending
the observance of such days to
Monday.
In noting that January 3 marks
“the first anniversary of Alaska’s
formal admission to full sover
eignty as one of the United States
of America” and fulfillment of a
desire long held by Alaskans, the
Governor called upon Alaskans to
observe the day “by rededicating
themselves to the goal of full de
velopment of Alaska in the com
mon good.”
Nome-Born Edgecumbe
Waitress Dies at 31
SEATTLE, IP) — Mrs. Virginia
Bokelman, 31, died Saturday at
the U. S. Public Health Service
Hospital.
Mrs. Bokelman was born in
Nome, and came to Seattle three
years ago from Mount Edgecumbe,
where she worked as a waitress.
She was the wife of Frank Bokel
man, a retired U. S. Army en
listed man.
Also surviving are a daughter,
Carol Ann Morris of Homer, and
two brothers and a sister.
MONKEYSHINES
DETROIT, UP) — “A monkey
just walked into my house, sat
down in the kitchen and ate my
breakfast,” a suburban Roseville
housewife told police.
“Now he’s locked in the bed
room. For heaven’s sake, come
and get him,” she pleaded over
the telephone.
The monk had strolled over
from a neighbor’s house after es
caping from its cage.
Holiday Weekend Death
Total Under Expectations
(By The Associated Press)
The nation’s three-day Christ
mas holiday apparently cost sub
stantially less in traffic deaths
this year than in comparable
Christmas weekends of recent
years.
The total — under 500, as de
layed reports of fatalities between
6 p.m., Thursday, and Sunday
midnight, are tabulated — was
roughly 15 per cent less than the
609 lives claimed in 1955, and
smaller than the 523 of 1953.
Like this year’s holiday, those
of 1955 and 1953 also were three
day observances.
The National Safety Council,
which had estimated before the
holiday that 530 deaths might be
expected, pointed out that the
current toll came with 71 million
cars in operating condition — 25
per cent more than in 1953 and
12 per cent more than in 1955.
The weather played an impor
tant part an this season’s accident
death toll, safety experts said.
Millions of homeward bound
holiday motorists added to the
driving hazards. Law enforcement
agencies maintained full shifts
around the clock to press enforce
ment of traffic regulations.
Harbor Tug Fire
Imperils Coast
Town in N. Calif.
ORESCENT CITY, Calif., UPi —
For three hours it was touch and
go in this north coast harbor
town.
A tug boat exploded next to a
barge loaded with 800,000 gallons
of high octane gasoline.
When the peril ended Sunday,
one man was missing and be
lieved dead, another was burned.
Four were pitched into the bay
by the force of the morning blast.
The downtown district of Cres
cent City, a community of 2,750,
was evacuated. Fishing boats, tied
up during the holidays, lifted
anchor.
The blast had the force of an
earthquake in the waterfront
area. It was felt as far away as
Brookings, Ore., 30 miles to the
north.
The missing man was Gordon
McCallen, 23, of Seattle, a deck
hand on the tug Celilo. The vessel
belonged to the Upper Columbia
River Towing Co., Portland, Ore.,
and had just arrived from San
Francisco with the gasoline-laden
barge.
Hospitalized with burns was
Lawrence Hanson, 31, of Ports
town, Wash.
Hanson said gas from the 97
foot barge spilled and “was
sucked into the engine room
through a ventilator. The engine
room filled with gasoline vapor.
“The diesel engines ran wild.”
A Coast Guard cutter pumped
water on the tug while the entire
Crescent City Fire Department —
plus volunteers — fought shore
side fires and flash fires aboard
the highly volatile barge.
NEVADA TYCOON DEAD
RENO, Nev., UP> — George
Wingfield, a cowboy and roulette
dealer who became Nevada’s
most influential tycoon, died
Christmas night at the age of 83.
Death came to the banker,
hotelman, mining investor and
political figure after an undis
closed but lengthy ailment.
DeLuxe Empire
Builder Dumped
Into Puget Sound
SEATTLE, iffi — Two massive
earth slides in the space of 20
minutes pushed part of a crack
13-car passenger train into Puget
Sound 12 miles north of here
yesterday.
Ten persons — six of them
crew members — were injured,
none seriously.
The Great Northern Railway’s
Empire Builder, bound for Chi
cago with 188 passengers, was
about 30 minutes out of Seattle
When the first slide struck. It de
railed a four-unit diesel locomo
tive.
Twenty minutes later, with
help already on the scene, another
slide again slammed into the die
sel units.
It carried the diesel units and
a baggage-mail car out into the
Sound.
Strung out along the tracks
were six other cars, all derailed
but still standing upright. Four
Pullman cars and a diner stayed
on the tracks.
Coast Guard vessels based here
had reached the scene before the
second- slide struck. Four train
crewmembers ran for their lives
and managed to scramble into a
Coast Guard boat only seconds
before the earth, mud and debris
rumbled across the tracks.
George Bayer Appointed
Clerk of Superior Court
Hubert Gilbert, Judge of the
Northwestern District Superior
Court, has announced the ap
pointment of George Bayer as
Clerk of the Superior Court, ef
fective upon the transfer of the
court system to the State of Alas
ka. He will also act as deputy
magistrate in the absence of the
district magistrate for this area.
George Bayer has been with the
U. S. Marshall’s office for the past
17 years, and is a member of the
Nome School Board and resides
here with his wife and two chil
dren.
i
More than Game At Stake
In Rose Bowl on Jan. 1
WASHINGTON, UP) — A Wash
ington salmon and Wisconsin
cheese will be riding on the out
come of the Rose Bowl football
game.
Representative Russell Mack
(R-Wash) bet Representative Mel
vin Laird (R-Wis) a 24-pound
salmon against a 12-pound long
horn cheese on the New Year’s
Day game between the Washing
ton Huskies and Wisconsin Bad
gers.
Mack said the wager was made
when the two “fell into a terrific
argument” over the merits of the
two teams as they returned from
the White House where they left
cranberries for the President
recently.
“My salmon is so big that I’m
really offering you odds of two
to one, but I don’t mind because
I don’t think you have a chance
to win,” Mack, a former Washing
ton student, told Laird:
The Wisconsin graduate replied:
“The Badgers have been wait
ing to redeem their Rose Bowl
record since their loss in 1953,
and I have full confidence I’ll be
receiving a Washington salmon
soon.”
GOP Concentrates; Demos Solidify --
Rockefeller ‘Definitely’ Will Not Run
By RAY CROWLTY
WASHINGTON, UP) — Both
major parties strove today to cap
italize on a stunning political sur
prise — Governor Nelson Rocke
feller’s withdrawal from the race
for the Republican Presidential
nomination.
Republicans pictured the GOP
as a unified party, one which re
frains from rending itself apart
in brawling convention contests
— a party which can now devote
all its energies to electing Vice
President Richard Nixon to the
Presidency.
Democrats depicted the GOP as
controlled by old pro conserva
tives, who do not give “progres
sives” like the New York Gov
ernor a look-in. There was even
talk — notably by Senator Lyn
don Johnson of Texas — of draft
ing Rockefeller for a high post
under “the Democratic President
to be elected next November.”
Neither party had much to say
in public about the problems
posed for it by Rockefeller’s “def
inite and final” announcement
that he would not be a candidate
in 1960 for the Presidential nom
ination, and would not accept the
Vice Presidential spot.
Like Solved Mystery
One big poser for the Repub
licans was how to pump any
drama into their convention open
ing in Chicago next July 25. It
will be like a mystery novel of
which every reader knows the
ending. Nothing now sighted on
! the political horizon can prevent
a first ballot nomination for
Nixon. The* only suspense lies
in the choice of his running mate.
And if political custom holds,
Nixon and not the delegates will
make that choice. He said Sun
day that it was too early to talk
about the 1960 ticket.
The White House declined com
ment o n Rockefeller’s with
drawal.
How to Fight Nixon
For the Democrats — with their
small army of aspirants who show
no sign of withdrawing — the
problem is how to pick the best
man to take on Nixon without rip
ping the party seams by fights
over religion, North-South issues
and other matters.
t^hen they meet in Los An
geles July 11, the Democrats will
be laboring under no uncertainty
as to whom they must prepare
to fight. It will be Nixon, a ver
satile campaigner who can take
a high-level stance or slug it out
with the roughest.
Just how this will affect the
Democrats’ choice of a nominee
is up in the air. Backers of each
of the actual or potential candi
dates — they include Senator
John Kennedy (Mass), Senator
Hubert Humphrey (Minn\ Sen
ator Stuart Symington (Mo),
Johnson, California’s Governor
Pat Brown, and Adlai E. Steven
son — can be counted upon to
argue that their man is just the
one to beat Nixon.
The guessing about Nixon’s
running mate covered a wide
scope. Names mentioned included:
Secretary of Labor James Mit
chell, Representative Charles A.
Halleck of Indiana, Republican '
Leader in the House; Attorney
General William Rogers; Secre
tary of the Interior Fred Seaton,
Senator Kenneth B. Keating (NY),
Senator Hugh Scott (Pa), and
Governors Cecil Underwood (W.
Va), Christopher Del Sesto (RI),
and William Quinn (Hawaii).
Kodiak Reservoir Fails
In Collapse of Footings
KODIAK, UP) — Residents here
continued boiling water Monday
following collapse of the earth
footings of the city’s reservoir.
Two fire trucks were pressed
into service after the Christmas
night collapse to pump water
from a nearby lake until a sys
tem can be devised to carry lar
ger amounts of water. Because of
possible contamination, all drink
ing and cooking water must be
boiled. *
Two engineers, one from Se
attle and one from Juneau, were
expected to arrive today to assess
the damage. What caused the res
ervoir to give way has not been
determined but there wgs specu
lation it might have been loosened
by an earthquake.
‘No Woman Is Safe’ With
Maniac Loose in England
BIRMINGHAM, England, UP) — j
Police seeking the maniac killer
who beheaded a girl with a kitch
en knife warned today that “no
woman in Britain is safe.”
Since last Wednesday night,
when the headless body of 29
year-old Sidney Stephanie Baird
was found in a YWCA hostel, the
biggest manhunt in the history
of Britain’s industrial midlands
has steadily built up.
Police toured the city with
loudspeaker cars appealing for
clues, flashed messages on movie
screens and broadcast to football
crowds.
Johansson Will Take On
Patterson Again in June
STOCKHOLM, UP> — World
Heavyweight Champion Ingemar
Johansson agreed today to meet
Floyd Patterson in New York
next June. The agreement was
reached after a conference with
a group of New York promoters.
Roy Cohn, head of the New
York group which flew here, said
he preferred the Polo Grounds
over Yankee Stadium for the re
match.
Humbert Fugazy, veteran pro
moter, told newsmen that the
fight should yield a gate of at
least 114 million dollars.
Cohn and Johansson’s adviser,
Edwin Ahlquist, said in concert,
“We are in agreement in prin
ciple.”
Cohn added that his group
would now apply to the New York
State Athletic Commission for
permission to hold the world title
fight. Ahlquist said that once this
permission is granted the remain
der of the problem is only a
detail.
Quemoys Pounded By Red
Shells on Christmas Day
TAIPEI, Formosa, UP) — Red
China’s gun batteries lobbed 53
shells at the Quemoy Islands on
Christmas Day, Nationalist
Chinese authorities reported. The
Communists do such shooting on
odd-numbered days. Saturday
they stilled their guns for he 207th
consecutive even-numbered day.