THE f
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LIV No. 120 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1952 Per Copy—15r
ROKs and Reds
In One of War's
Fiercest Battles
SEOUL, (JP)—South Korean in
fantrymen fighting with bayonets
recaptured Wednesday night, a
vital shell - cratered peak over
looking the ancient invasion route
to Seoul in a brutal battle that
has raged since Monday night.
A front line officer said the
Korean troops cut a Chinese bat
talion of 700 men down to 150 in
recapturing the crest of White
Horse Hill on the western front.
The peak — main objective of
the biggest Communist attack in a
year — has changed hands more
than a dozen times as both sides
threw tanks, artilldfry and men
into the raging battle.
Allied warplanes rocketed over
head, plastering Red lines direct
ly behind the front.
Gen. James A. Van Fleet, U.S.
Eighth Army commander, said:
“The Eighth Army has stopped
all attacks without any penetra
tion of its main battle positions.
Action has been limited to out
posts and the enemy has been
clobbered in that area.
“The troops which have parti
cipated in the current action are
as elated over the good shooting
as I am. Morale never has been
higher.”
AP correspondent said the Chi
nese were paying a terrible price.
He said they may have lost as
many as 3,000 men in the one sec
tor alone. The Reds hurled men
into battle with reckless abandon.
Dodger Pitcher Branca
Fined $200 For Heckling
Umpire In Last Game
NEW YORK, VP) — Baseball
Commissioner Ford Frick Wed
nesday fined Brooklyn pitcher
Ralph Branca $200 for heckling
Umpire Larry Goetz in the final
game of the World Series.
Goetz, the plate umpire, turned
to- the Brooklyn bench in the
eighth inning and then ejected
Branca.
The pitcher said it was a case
of mistaken identity.
“It was Rocky Nelson yelling
all the time,” said Branca, “but
I got the thumb. Nobody was
cursing. The whole bench was
hollering to Goetz to keep his eyes
on the ball, that this game meant
a lot.”
Polar Bears, Drawn By
Smell of Stored Walrus
Meat, Invade Barrow
BARROW, (/P)—The bears are
on the prowl in Barrow, which
means that winter can’t be far
away.
The smell of walrus meat in
the winter caches of dog food is
drawing the polar bears into this
northernmost American village.
Levi Griest and his wife went to
investigate the wild barking of
their dogs early Monday. They
saw two bears near a walrus car
cass. Griest and a brother got out
their guns and brought home a
thousand pounds of meat and two
'v skins.
Pilot O. W. Tosch Picks
Up Man Paddling In Raft
Near Mouth of Yukon
Bush pilot O. W. Tosch, on a
flight from Cape Romanzoff, spot
ter something unusual Monday
night off the mouth of the Yukon
River. When he discovered it was
a lone man in a five-man raft
maneuvers with crude oars, he
set his amphibian “Goose” down
along side to investigate.
The young fellow on the raft
indicated that he planned to pad
dle all the way to Nome, a dis
tance of about 150 miles. Tosch,
realizing that he could never
make it, persuaded him to get in
the plane and brought him to
Nome and turned him over to the
authorities for investigation.
The man is being held in the
Federal jail at the request of the
military and is reported to be a
deserter from an Air Force state
side field.
How he reached the mouth of
the Yukon without being detected
as well as how he reached Alaska
at all, is being withheld at this
time by the military authorities.
3 English Trains
Pile Up In Station,
Killing At Least 82
HARROW, England, (/P)-Two
collisions involving three trains
killed at least 82 persons here to
day and piled wooden coaches 50
feet high in a mass of wreckage.
Some of the dead were in the
coaches; others were mowed down
as they waited on a station plat
form.
Officials of the government-op
erated railways said the death
toll may top 120. More than 130
persons were treated at hospitals
and hundreds received first aid.
The wreck came just after 8
a.m. at the height of the morning
commuting rush. The scene was
the station of this Middlesex vil
lage 10 miles northwest of Lon
don.
First an express, running 95
minutes late from Perth, Scotland,
to London rocketed into the rear
of a stationary suburban train.
The express locomotive sheared
through the wooden coaches,
jammed with 600 passengers seat
ed and standing and blocked both
main lines.
Seconds later another express
plowed into the wreckage. Its two
locomotives leaped from the
tracks and skittered along a plat
form full of commuters waiting
for other trains, mowing them
down like a giant scythe.
Derailed coaches rode up on
each other until the topmost
smashed into a crosswalk 45 feet
above the tracks, knocking a huge
segment out of it and plummeting
pedestrians into the wreckage.
Lew Williams Elected
Mayor of Wrangell
WRANGELL (JP) — Lew Wil
liams, fired by President Truman
last year after seven years as
secretary of Alaska, was elected
mayor of Wrangell yesterday.
Williams is a Wrangell news
paper publisher. He was unop
posed on the ballot.
IkeRecalls Truman
Calls Stalin “Good
old Joe” Back in ’48
(By the Associated Press*
Gov. Stevenson turned his cam
paign artillery on Sen. Joseph
McCarthy in McCarthy’s home
state today as Gen. Eisenhower
fought back against biting criti
cism from President Truman on
foreign policy.
Eisenhower struck back at Tru
man’s accusation he once imper
illed American security when the
general said Russia wanted peace
by recalling that the President in
1948 referred to Joseph Stalin as
“Good Old Joe.”
Stevenson moved into Wiscon
sin after telling an overflow audi
ence in Detroit that McCarthy
failed to turn up a single Com
munist with “wild and reckless”
charges. He said:
“Catching real Communist
agents, like killing poisonous
snakes or tigers, is not a job for
amateurs or children, especially
noisy ones. It is a job for pro
fessionals who know their busi
nes and their adversaries.”
Today in Milwaukee he said:
“I hope the time will never
come in America when charges
are taken as the equivalent of
facts, when suspicions are con
fused with certainties and when
the voice of the accuser stills
every other voice in the land.”'
He said “pillorying of the inno
cent has caused the wise to stam
mer and the timid to retreat.”
Stevenson has chided Eisen
hower for supporting McCarthy’s
bid for re - election despite the
senator’s attack on the patriotism
of Gen. George C. Marshal, the
GOP nominee’s old friend.
Truman also' took up this line
of attack when he said Eisen
hower had betrayed his life-long
principles and his best friend by
embracing “moral pigmies” like
McCarthy.
Reporters said the President ap
peared as grim as they’d ever
seen him as he lashed out at Ei
senhower yesterday. He said:
He used to think Eisenhower
was qualified for the Presidency
but “I am now convinced that I
was absolutely wrong.”
Eisenhower drove him his slam
bang attack against the adminis
tration and the President today
as he campaigned in California,
seeking its 32 electoral votes.
It was in Eugene, Ore., last
night that he brought up the
“Good Old Joe” incident.
Regarding Truman’s comment
that the general periled the nation
by not sizing up the Russian
threat after the war, he said:
“One of the charges made by
Truman was that in 1945 I ex
pressed the hope and belief that
Russia wanted to establish a work
able friendship with us. I was
testifying for increased army
strength. I proposed that we hope
for the best and be prepared for
the worst.
“Now, I think if we had not
pursued such a policy at that time,
today in view of the chaos in
which the world exists, we would
be terribly blaming ourselves for
not having done our best. Yet
(Continued on Page Three)
B-29 Disappears Near
Kuriles and Reds Attack
Hospital Plane Near Berlin
(By the Associated Press)
Two American planes figured
today in tension-packed incidents
near the fringe of Russian-held
territories thousands of miles
apart.
The Far East Air Force re- j
ported a B-29 Superfort disap-!
peared shortly after radar picked j
up an unidentified plane ap
proaching it from the direction of
the Russian-held Kuriles.
The Superfort disappeared off
eastern Hokkaido, Japan’s north
ern-most island which is separated
by a narrow strait from the Ku
riles.
Two Soviet jet fighters fired
several machinegun bursts across
the path of a U.S. Air Force hos
pital plane in the Berlin air cor
ridor. The American ship escaped
into the clouds and reached Ber
lin unhit.
There has been considerable
friction on the air fringe of the
U.S. and Russia in the past few
years. The Berlin incident fol
lows a familiar pattern in corri
dor chronology, On frequent oc
casions since the corridor was es
tablished over Soviet territory to
give the Western powers access
to West Berlin there have been
ugy incidents.
Anchorage-Tok Telephone
Land Line Completed
For ACS Network
SEATTLE, (JP) — Another link
in the Alaska Communication Sys
tem was completed Monday when
the Anchorage-Tok land line was
completed.
The land line was built under
contract by Western Electric Com
pany with the help of other Bell
System units. The new link cov
ers 337 miles between Anchorage
and Tok Junction was additional
facilities on the existing line from
Tok Junction to Fairbanks.
The primary purpose of the line
is to increase both the number
of voice and telegraph channels
between Anchorage and Fair
banks for vital military com
munications and additionally
serves other government territor
ial and civilian users.
Rivers Ahead In Votes
For Mayor of Fairbanks
FAIRBANKS, {JP)—.Ralph Riv
ers, former attorney general of
Alaska, campaigning for mayor of
Fairbanks, held a narrow lead
over Phil Anderson Wednesday
in early incomplete returns from
Tuesday’s municipal election.
Anderson, Fairbanks business- ■
man, trailed Rivers by 54 votes
with about half the more than
1100 ballots cast in the election
counted.
Humbert Gilbert was leading
the race for city magistrate. Gil
bert once held the same position
at Sitka before coming to Fair
banks.
Three bond issues to finance a
new water system, new schools
and paving work apparently
passed by an overwhelming mar
i gin.
Korean Truce
Talks Indefinitely
Postponed
MUNSAN, (/P)—The Allies to
day indefinitely postponed Korean
armistice negotiations and bluntly
told the Reds the next move was
up to them.
The dramatic action was taken,
Gen. Mark Clark’s headquarters
said, on “higher authority.” It was
not made clear whether the high
er authority was Clark himself
or Washington.
In Washington, officials said
the “higher authority” was the
United States government, which
exercises the United Nations Com
mand in Korea. That would mean
in practical effect that the de
cision was worked out by the
State and Defense Departments
in conjunction with the White
House, it was said, and that other
Allied governments with troops in
Korea were consulted on it.
The postponement was taken
until the Communists either ac
cept an Allied proposal for settl
ing the stalemate over prisoner of
war exchange or make “a con
structive proposal of their own.”
That action came while fight
ing on the war-battered penin
sula was at its highest peak in
a year. It plunged the talks as
close to total collapse as they
have been since their start 15
months ago.
Lt. Gen. William K. Harrison,
senior Allied negotiator, told the
'Reds at Panmunjom the U. N.
Command had nothing further to
offer on the subject.
Negotiations Continue
For Release of Czech-Held
AP Reporter Wm. N. Oati?
WASHINGTON, (JP)—A United
States diplomat in Czechoslovakia
saw the imprisoned Associated
Press correspondent, William N.
Oatis, at police headquarters
Tuesday and assured him efforts
for his release “continue un
abated.”
The official, Nat B. King, was
quoted by Secretary of State Ache
son Wednesday as saying Oatis
seemed to be in about the same
physical and mental condition as
when he was last seen by Am
bassador Ellis O. Briggs.
Briggs had reported Oatis ap
parently free of illness when he
saw him last April 30.
The newsman was arrested by
the Czech Communist government
April 23, 1951 on a charge of es
pionage, was later convicted and
sentenced to a five-to-ten year
term in prison.
The United States denounced
the charge and the conviction as
false and has been negotiating for
Oatis’ release so far without an
assurance of success.
South Africa Uranium
Extraction Plant Opens
JOHANNESBURG, South Af
rica, (JP)—Prime Minister Daniel
Malan today officially opened
South Africa’s first uraninum ex
traction plane at Krugersdorp. He
predicted the process of extracting
uranium from the ore residue
from gold mines would usher in
a new economic era for the nation.