22 NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LVI No. 116 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, OCTOBER^ 4, 1954 Per Copy—15^
Mother Wipes Out
Family of 2 Sons,
Husband and Self
OAKLAND, Calif., UPl — A
middle-aged mother’s terrifying
fear of a failing memory was
blamed for a 10-hour nightmare
in which she methodically wiped
out her entire family, including
two teen-age sons, with a .22
rifle.
Police said Mrs. Olive Losser,
kindergarten teacher, short and
killed her two sons, Donald, 19,
and Richard, 17, yesterday morn
ing with a .22 caliber rifle. Then
she sat for 10 hours in the living
room of her fashionable East Oak
land home waiting . . .
At dusk, her husband, Milan
Losser, 52, prosperous manager of
an appliance company, opened the
front door. The rifle barked again.
Losser, fell, fatally wounded in
the head.
Mrs. Losser, a final bullet saved
for herself, dashed out front to
the street and fired it into her
own head.
Stunned neighbors, who later
edscribed the Lossers as “a fine
family who never quarreled,”
summoned police.
Inside the house, police found
an open case of .22 cartridges and
seven rambling, incoherent notes,
scrawled in pencil on cheap paper.
Only one gave a clue. It said:
“I can’t teach. Something is
wrong with my memory. I don’t
know what else to do . . .”
On The
Political Scene
(By the Associated Press)
Vice President Nixon says the
Republicans will win the Nov. 2
election “going away” and Na
tional Chairman Leonard Hall
now sees the GOP “firmly on the
high road.”
Both men have emphasized in
recent weeks that the Republicans
must “run scared” to retain con
trol of Congress.
However, neither Nixon nor
Hall, in their latest statements,
signalled any letup in the GOP
campaign, and another top Repub
lican — House leader Charles A.
Halleck—called for even greater
efforts.
Halleck to'ld newsmen in Den
ver yesterday that he hopes Presi
dent Eisenhower will schedule
more fighting campaign talks to
give the Republican cause a boost.
Addressinga Democratic rally
in Detroit Saturday, Adlai Steven
son said “the most disturbing as
pect of the GOP economic record
in these past months is not just
that we have slipped backward
but . . . failure to show genuine,
human concern over it.”
The CIO’s legislative depart
ment reported yesterday that in
its view GOP members of Con
gress voted wrong and Demo
cratic members voted right about
three-fourths of the time in the
last two years.
The report, based on voting on
29 “showdown” issues, said it
will take “at least a few dozen
replacements in Congress next
year to make sure that the dam
age that has been done will be
repaired.”
Civil Service Committee
Abolishes 17,5000 Useless
Defense Dept. Jobs
WASHINGTON, UP) — Some
17,500 Defense Department jo'bs
have been abolished in the past
nine months as useless, the House
Civil Service Committee said yes
terday, and the action will save
95 million dollars yearly.
The committed made public a
preliminary report on its cam
paign, waged by a subcommittee
headed by Rep. Corbett (R-Pa),
against the practice of assigning
both uniformed and civilian per
sonnel to the same job.
It said most of the job reduc
tion thus far has resulted from
a job reappraisal in the Air Force,
and that “a much larger addition
al saving” is expected when the
Army and Navy report fully on
their efforts.
Fairbanks Police Dept.
Flareup Comes Into Open
Before Election Tuesday
FAIRBANKS, (IP)—A Fairbanks
police department flareup came
into the open over the weekend
as a prelude to tomorrow’s city
election.
Chief of Police Stanley Zaverl
announced the dismissal of Detec
tive Sgt. Claude Manker, and said
Manker and a city councilman
had told him Friday night that he
and the city manager would be
out of a job after Tuesday’s elec
tion.
He said they objected stren
uously to an investigation the
chief had been making into Man
ker’s activities. He also said police
force members had been ap
proached by Manker and asked
how they would stand when he
(Manker) was named police chief.
In the original announcement of
the dismissal, Chief Zaverl stated
only that Manker had not been
performing his duties along the
lines of policy set forth by the
city manager and city council.
In elaborating, the chief said
the dismissal action was taken
because the situation had become
intolerable and that he thought
the situation should be put before
voters before the election.
MUNICH FESTIVAL PASSES
INTO FOAMY HISTORY
MUNICH, Germany, WV-Head
ache^ were a penny a dozen here
today as another October festival
passed into foamy history.
This year the 16 - day festival
saw a half million gallons of beer
tilted down thirsty throats. The
revelers ate 16 barbecued oxen,
100,000 roasted chickens and no
body knows just hc/w many sau
sages.
DALLAS, UP)—Things got warm
when they burned the mortgage
on the Eagle Ford Baptist Church
yesterday.
Seconds before the Rev. W. L.
Harrod lighted the match under
the mortgage, the air condition
ing system burned out. This left
the congregation sweltering.
Announced Harrod:
“Satan just didn’t want us to
get comfortable in here.”
He was answered by a loud
“Amen” from the audience.
American Brothers
Seek Political
Asylum In East
BERLIN, Iff) — Two American
brothers who vanished myster
iously from West Berlin early last
month presented themselves at a
Communist news conference to
day and said they had asked pol
itical asylum in East Germany.
The men are William Henry
Starr, 30, an electrician, and
James Starr, 31, an oil worker,
both formerly of Westville, N.J.
The brothers were presented at
a specially-called press confer
ence in East Berlin which provid
ed the first indication of their
whereabouts since West Berliners
reported they saw the East Ger
man highway patrol arrest them
Sept. 7 on the Autobahn.
James Starr, speaking for the
pair, told correspondents they de
fected because they “disagreed
with the ruling clique in the
United States” and its policy.
“If we had dared to say this
in West Berlin, we would have
been arrested and brought back
to the United States to face trial
there,” he said. “We love America
and the American people and will
not return as long as America is
governed by this clique.”
Mother Says Brothers Are
Better Off Behind Curtain
WESTVILLE, N.J., <ff) — The
mother of two American brothers
who vanished from West Berlin
early last month and turned up
on the Communist side of the iron
curtain Monday said she’s “flab
bergasted” to learn of their ac
tion.
But, Mrs. Grace Starr said “If
htey didn’t appreciate this coun
try $ guess they are better off
where they are now.”
McCarthy Will Stress His
Fight Against Communism
In Censure Defense
WASHINGTON, UPt—Sen. Mc
Carthy seemed certain today to
put stress on his “fight against
Communism” as a cornerstone of
his Senate defense against a move
to censure him for his conduct.
The Wisconsin Republican hit
on this theme time and again
during a radio-TV interview last
night — his first personal reply
since a special Senate committee
a week ago recommended his cen
sure.
And he predicted the Senate
"definitely” won’t vote for cen
sure when it meets to take up
the issue Nov. 8, provided the
legislators consider the facts and
the setting of “dangerous prece
dent.” But the vote will go against
him, he said, if senators base
their judgment on politics.
McCarthy also listed President
Eisenhower and the Democratic
national committee as vote-swing
ing factors, without saying what
he thought either would do for
or against him.
NOTICE
The N.C. Store will be closed
Tuesday 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon
in memory of our fellow worker
Edward Dalilak.
Dewey Goodrich.
Dulles Returns From
European Conferences
In Jubilant Mood
WASHINGTON, UP)— Secretary
of State Dulles, returning from
London in an evidently jubilant
mood, said today the agreements
reached there give the Atlantic
Community a “hard core of Eu
ropean unity.”
Dulles said in a statement on
his arrival at the airport, “the
United States will, I hope, co
operate with the resul,t because
to do so will be very much in
our national interest.”
Dulles said the agreement un
der which Western Germany will
rearm as a member of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization
means that the federal republic’s
sovereignty will be restored, “and
beginning today the Allied high
commissioners will forego the
exercise of most of their occupa
tion duties.”
Fraser River Produced
More Salmon This Year
Than All Other Rivers
VANCOUVER, B. C„ UP) — The
mighty, rejuvinated Fraser River
produced more salmon this year
than all the rivers of Alaska com
bined.
It is the first time in history
that the rivers of British Colum
bia have ever topped the vast
northern territory’s production,
oven when harvests from second
ary rivers such as the Nass and
Skeena were included.
Total Fraser River sockeye pack
for both Canadian and American
fishermen is expected to be more
than 900,000 cases this year com
pared with an estimated 750,000
cases for Alaska.
Principally responsible for the
remarkable Fraser triumph is the
huge Adams River sockeqe run
which yielded 9,500,000 fish.
A long-range conservation pro
gram by the International Pacific
Salmon Fisheries Commission has
vastly increased Fraser sockeye
production while Alaska catches
have declined steadily for the past
decade.
Mrs. Ola Reeves Becomes
First Woman To Manage
Employment ServiceOffice
FAIRBANKS, UP) — Mrs. Ola
Reeves has become manager of
•the Fairbanks office of the U.S.
Employment Service, the first
time a woman has 'held such a
high post with the service in the
territory’s history.
She succeeds Merrill Weir, who
moves to the central office of the
Employment Security Commission
in Juneau.
In another change, Dickerson
Regan, Fairbanks, has been ap
pointed the commission’s first at
torney.
Mrs. Reeves has lived in Fair
banks three years. Previously she
was with the employment service
four years in Fitchburg, Mass.
Roman Catholic Churchman Dies
VATICAN CITY, UP)—Francesco
Cardinal Borgongini Duca, Roman
Catholic apostolic nuncio to Italy,
died suddenly today of a heart
attack. He was 70.
Heavy Earthquake
Rocks Anchorage
Sunday Morning
ANCHORAGE, (if)—'Tall build
ings rocked and rolled and resi
dents fled to the streets in their
night clothes early Sunday in an
earthquake seismologists said
woould have caused disaster if
the epicenter was in a populated
area.
No casualties were reported,
however.
The tremor, recorded at 1:18
a.m. shook a 1,000 square mile
area of the Alaska mainland but
was felt most severely in a tri
angular area 80 to 100 miles west
and south of here.
It cracked biulding walls and
shattered windows at Anchorage,
Seward, Valdez and Homer and
was felt at Fairbanks, Cordova,
Kodiak and Yakutat. Some resi
dents of Anchorage’s two 14-story
apartment biuldings fled to the
street in their night clothes.
Seismologists at the University
of Washington in Seattle estimat
ed the force of the quake at 8 in
the scale of 12—just short of dis
aster intensity. They placed the
epicenter in the “Alaska Trench”
o'ff the Alaska Peninsula.
Concrete building walls cracked
plaster showered down, plate
glass windows popped and mer
chandise toppled from shelves
here. Broken electric wires flash
ed and crackled in the night, but
set no fires.
Firemen were roused from their
beds, however, when the jolt
shortcircuited the department’s
switchboard, sounding emergency
bells and snapping on all lights.
Four miles outside the business
district, engineers at radio station
KFQD said “the building and
equipment could not have stood
much more.” The station’s strong
ly-guyed tower whipped and
swayed, and a parked car rolled
50 feet.
Motorists driving cars at the
time of the quake said it felt
“like moving along on flat tires.”
Printer. 85. StiU Working
After 61 Year* On The Job
CINCINNATI, UP) — Charles E.
Mayers celebrated his 85th birth
day yesterday by working his
usual stint as a printer for the
Cincinnati Enquirer.
“Retire? Not me,” he told a
reporter. “People who settle down
don’t last very long.”
Mayers started working for the
paper in 1893.
Nenana Telephone Subscribers
Get Long-Distance Service
NENANA, UP) — Nenana tele
phone subscribers can now put
through long-distance calls to any
points which have telephone ser
vice anywhere.
The Army Signal Corps and
Alaska Communication System
worked out the improved tele
phone and telegraph service for
the one-time hub of interior Al
aska riverboat transportation.
Previously, all such phone calls
had to be placed through the
Alaska Railroad station at Ne
nana.