22£ NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LIX NO. 41 NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1957 Per Copy—15^
Wind-Blown Drifts Continue
To Plague States in Wake
Of Damaging Blizzards, Tornadoes
(By The Associated Press)
Towering drifts—minus fresh
snow—whipped across roads and
blocked travel again today in east
central Colorado and the south
east comer of Wyoming.
Winds backlashing from a storm
which dumped paralyzing snow
two days earlier churned it into
blinding ground blizzards late
yesterday.
The toll from the earlier
snowstorm, meanwhile, mount
ed to eight deaths in Colorado.
A Georgia storm killed two Ne
gro children.
A rash of violent early April
storms battered broad areas from
the Rockies to the Atlantic coast
today.
The tornado activtiy appeared
abating in southern areas after
causing widespread property dam
age and deaths.
Tennessee, Kentuck and Mis
sissippi were hardest hit by the
storms which followed earlier
tornadoes in Texas, Oklahoma
and Arkansas. Drenching rains
followed.
Twenty-one persons were killed
earlier this week in tornadoes
which struck Texas and Oklaho
ma and in blizzards in the Rockies.
Ten persons were killed in Dallas,
heaviest hit by the twisters, which
caused more than $4 million dam
age in Dallas alone. Five persons
were killed in Oklahoma.
Willow Burand Arrives
To Assume Duties as
Division’s Mines Engineer
Willow Burand of Manley Hot
Springs, who will be the Second
Division engineer for the Depart
ment of Mines arrived yesterday
to assume his new duties. He was
accompanied by Commissioner of
Mines Phil Holdsworth.
Mrs. Burand will arrive later
in the spring as she is attending
classes at the University of
Alaska.
House Appropriations Committee
Slashes 25% From Eisenhower’s
Requests for Commerce Dept. Funds
WASHINGTON Iff)—The House
Appropriations Committee today
slashed 25 percent from President
Eisenhower’s requests for new
Commerce Department funds.
The committee recommended
$653,685,060 in new appropriations
for the department and related
agencies for the fiscal year start
ing next July 1. This was $217,
827,940 less than Eisenhower re
quested.
In ordering one of its biggest
cuts of the year, the committee
apparently was mindful of what
happened on its last bill, financ
ing the Labor and Welfare De
partments. It cut $118 million
from that measure only to have
the Hcuse itself slash off an extra
$15 million. Still another $53 mil
lion tentatively cut by the House
was restored on rollcall votes
yesterday.
The only agencies for which
significant program increases over
1957 were recommended were the
Civil Aeronautics Administration,
the Census Bureau, the Patent
Office, the Public Roads Bureau,
the Civil Aeronautics Board and
the Weather Bureau.
The CAA allotment of $328 mil
lion would permit employment
of 3,350 new technicians to han
dle the steadily increasing flow of
airway traffic.
The committee said the urgency
for installing air navigation facil
ities is underscored by the in
crease in jet flying.
e>--—
Alaska Would Receive
$531,000 for Schools
Under Bill in House
WASHINGTON, UF> — Federal
j funds of more than $12 million
j would be made available for Pa
I cific Northwest and Alaska school
construction under the terms of a
i bill which received the approval
; of a House education subcommit
I tee yesterday.
| Alaska would receive $531,000,
j or $14.74 for each school-age child.
First Ship for
Nome Will Leave
Seattle June 7
SEATTLE, UPl—N i n e sailings
were scheduled today by the Alas
ka Steamship Company in north
ern waters, with four scheduled
for Bristol Bay, two for the Kus
kokwim River, and three for the
Bering Sea.
The first vessel of the year
for Nome is the steamer Ton
sina, sailing June 7. It will call
at St. Michael, Unalakleet and
Teller. The ship will then sail
for Nome, Kotzebue and St.
Michael.
Final departure of the year for
the area will be the Tonsina, sail
ing Sept. 18 for St. Michael and
i Nome.
First away will be the Motor
ship Galena, bound for Goodnews
Bay and Bethel May 23. She will
repeat the sailing Aug. 21.
The Motorship Tatalina will
sail May 24 for Port Moller, Nak
nek and Nushagak. The steamer
Fortuna will sail May 29 for Nak
j nek and July 21 for Naknek and
| Nushagak. The latter two ports
j are lined up for the Motorship
j Coastal Rambler Aug. 20.
Soviets Carry Out
Seventh A-Test
Since August
LONDON, UPi—The Russians
carried out another nuclear test
Wednesday, the British Defense
Ministry announced.
It was the seventh Soviet test
reported since last August, when
the U.S. Atomic Energy Commis
sion announced the start of a
Russian test series.
The AEC announced the sixth
explosion on March 9, saying it
| had occurred the day before.
The British announcement said
j only: “The Soviet Union carried
out another nuclear test on
Wednesday.”
Earlier this week the Russians
rejected a Japanese appeal to sus
pend test explosions. Soviet For
eign Ministry Press Chief Leonid
F. Ilyichev said that without a big
power agreement to end tests, the
Soviet Union would have to con
tinue perfecting its weapons in
the interest of its own security.
The British government also
has refused requests from the
Japanese government and the op
position Labor Party that it call
off its test soon of Britain’s first
hydrogen bomb, at Christmas Is
land in the Pacific.
The government said the tests
were necessary for the defense of
the free world, in the absence of a
disarmament agreement.
Six Persons Perish in Bar When
Ejected Customers Toss in Bomb,
Causing Fire and Catastrophe
LOS ANGELES, Iff)—A make
shift gasoline bomb turned a quiet
neighborhood bar into a funeral
pyre for at least six persons
shortly before midnight.
The coroner said six persons
died at the scene on a quiet street
in south central Los Angeles. At
least five others were injured.
Police said the bomb appar
ently was thrown thru the front
door of the Club Mecca by three
men who had been ejected earlier
when they tried to dance with one
of the cocktail bar’s regular wom
an customers. ,
,
Asst. Fire Chief R. A. Williams
said the men sloshed a bucket of ■
gasoline or some other highly in- j
flammable liquid onto the floor, |
then threw a match in after it.
“It went up like a blowtorch,”
said the bartender, Larry Fenton,
24, who escaped uninjured out the
back door.
Others weren’t that lucky. One
male customer was found on a
nearly melted corner bar stool,
dead and leaning slightly back
ward against the shattered front |
wall. Two charred bodies were!
found in one of the Cafe’s four
booths. Another was on the floor.
The only woman victim ran
screaming into the street, clothes
ablaze. She died soon after.
Inside, the small cafe was a
blackened ruin. The 20-foot-long
bar was a charred wreck. Shat
tered, blackened bottles stood in
front of a smokey, obliterated
mirror.
The three men who threw the
improvised “Molotov cocktail” es
caped in a car amidst a barrage
of gunfire from a passerby.
Art Hartner said he was driv
ing home with his wife when he
saw the bar belch flames onto the
sidewalk. “The whole place was
a wall of flames and I saw a girl
stumble out on the sidewalk,”
“She was all on fire—her hair,
her clothes, even her hose..
“I wrapped her in my coat and
tried to beat out the flames as
she cried: ‘Why did they do it?
What about my children?’ ”
Secretary Seaton
Operated On for
Back Ailment
WASHINGTON, '!£>—Secretary
of the Interior Fred Seaton under
went surgery today for the back
ailment which has incapacitated
him since February.
His condition after the two-hour
operation was reported “good”
and Seaton’s office quoted the
surgeons as predicting full recov
ery after a “relatively short”
convalescent period.
The account said the operation
disclosed a protruding cartilage in
the lower spine which put pres
sure on the sciatic nerve extend
ing into the secretary’s leg.
This resulted in what the doc
tors called “sciatic neuritis.”
Postmaster General Says Service
Must Be Cut Drastically Unless
Congress Gives Requested $47 Million
3 Children Spend
IV2 Hours Trapped
In Deserted Safe
SAN FRANCISCO, «*—'Three
children spent IV2 hours trapped
in a deserted mansion’s walk-in
safe last night before firemen
could tear open the door.
The youngsters did not say who
locked them in as they were play
ing in the partly demolished
building in Pacific Heights.
Firemen knocked the dial off
the 7 x 10-foot safe door in order
to press in an oxygen tubje. That
prevented use of the combination
which turned up soon after.
A professional safe mechanic
finally jimmied the door enough
so that firemen could pry it open.
Efforts to pierce the massive con
crete and steel walls had failed.
The three children, all members
of prominent families, were Chris
Stevenson, 11; David Rude, 15;
and William Moore, 16. Cheri’s
13-year-old sister, Cathy, sounded
the alarm when she found the
door of the tomblike vault shut.
® WASHINGTON UP)—Postmaster
General Summerfield said yester
day there will have to be drastic
curtailment of posthl services if
Congress gives his department
BULLETIN
The House Appropriations
Committee today informally ap
proved a $17 million extra ap
propriation for the Post Office
and agreed to consider next
Friday a request for $30 mil
lion more.
only $17 million of the $47 million
extra it has asked for operations
over the next three months.
The necessary cutbacks, he said,
“will very seriously penalize the
American people and the 508,000
employes of the Post Office De
partment.”
Summerfield called what he
termed “an emergency press con
ference” to discuss the action, by
a House Appropriations Commit
tee which cut his request to $17
million.
He said he was confronted with
; the “most difficult decisions a
j postmaster general has been
j called on to make,” naming it as
the necessity to decide within 48
hours how the cuts can be applied.
Summerfield outlined these
various possibilities:
An embargo on acceptance and
delivery of all third class mail ex
cept merchandise, at a saving of
$30 million for the final quarter
of the fiscal year. Third class
matter includes advertising mat
ter, samples and catalogs.
Wipe out city carrier delivery
on all kinds of mail on Saturday
at a saving of $10 million.
Close all post offices on Satur
days and stop rural mail deliveries
on that day at a savings of $4
million.
Halt money order sales at a
savings of another $4 million.
Summerfield told some 70
newsmen that it made him “heart
sick” just to list these possibilities,
as he already has done for Con
gress. He said he hopes Congress,
if it insists on cutting funds for
his department, will instruct him
where the cuts should be made.
Longshoremen’s Union
Says Deflation Is More
Threat Than Inflation
SAN FRANCISCO, iff)—Deflation
was termed a more serious threat
to the nation’s economy than in
flation in a resolution passed by
the 12th biennial convention of
the International Longshoremen’s
and Warehousemen’s Union.
A statement of national ILWU
economic policy passed yesterday
said declining business spending,
plus declining spending for hous
es and cars “could have serious
consequences.”
Earlier the 300 delegates passed
a resolution unanimously calling
for free trade with all nations—
including Red China.