™s NOME NUGGET
_OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LVII No. 145 NOME. ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1955 Per Copv--l54
Bartlett Seeks To Include Alaska
In Federal Highway Ard Program
By FRANK W. VAILLE <
WASHINGTON, (^ — Delegate
Bartlett said today he plans to
seek a meeting with Gov. B.
Frank Heintzleman to see whether
agreement can be reached on leg
islation to include Alaska in the
federal aid to highways program.
Alaska is not now included al
though both Puerto Rico and Ha
waii draw benefits. Neither would
Alaska be included in any of the
bills now pending before Con
gress, although the territory
would be taxed t,o produce pro
gram financing revenues.
Territorial road needs now are
met by direct federal appropria
tion which, Bartlett said, makes
long range planning difficult
because of its year-to-year vari-1
ation. Last session these appro
priations totaled about 14 million
dollars for both construction and
maintenance.
If Alaska were included under
the present program, he said, “it
would receive aoout 22Vz million
dollars yearly for construction but
would have to assume the full
cost of maintenance.
Because he feels this mainten
ance expense would be a “shock”
to the territorial treasury, Bartlett
said he is considering a formula
under which Alaska would re
ceive a smaller construction pay
ment but would not assume the
maintenance burden.
“It’s just another example i
where we would have been better
off to haye been included in the
program right at the start,” he
explained. “That would have per
mitted us to work into it grad
ually.”
The Heintzleman meeting is but
one of several Bartlett has map
ped out since his return from four
months in Alaska.
Japanese Meteorologists
Pinpoint Latest Russian
Hydrogen Bomb Explosion
TOKYO, OP)—The Soviet Union
presumably exploded its hydrogen
bomb Nov. 22 near Lake Baikal,
Siberia, the Central Meteorologi
cal Observatory announced.
Japanese government weather
experts based, their presumption
on “abnormal pressure waves” ob
served Nov. 22 at 30 observatories
throughout Japan.
The observatory also reported
radioactivity in Japanese atmo
sphere caused by the recent Rus
sia test amounted to about one
hundredth of the amount consid
ered dangerous by U. S. atomic
authorities.
The observatory produced a de
tailed diagram of the pressure
wave curves and tentatively pin
pointed the site of the atomic ex
plosion at 1,740 miles northwest
of Japan.
THE PARTING GUESTS
EUREKA, Calif., OP) — A. Wel
come Guest, of Eureka, filed suit
for divorce yesterday from his
wife Nora Guest.
The Guests were married last
Dec. 8. Guest’s plea was extreme
cruelty.
s>
James Dean and
Jennifer Jones
Are Movies’ Best
By BOB THOMAS
HOLLYWOOD, W — The late
James Dean, emotion-torn hero of
“East of Eden” and Jennifer
Jones, Eurasian doctor of “Love
Is A Many Splendored Thing,”
have been named the top movie
performers of the year by the
first Audience Awards poll.
An estimated 15 million fans
voted “Mister Roberts” the best
picture and Peggy Lee (Pete
Kelly’s Blues) and Tab Hunter
(Battlecry and Track of the Cat)
the outstanding new personalities.
The first mass polling of movie
goers produced results that could
have important bearings on the
award of Oscars next March. Cer
tainly Dean, and perhaps Miss
Jones, loom as top contenders for
Hollywood’s premier honor, the
Academy Award.
It was a touching moment when
Grace Kelly announced the award
for Dean to the glamorous crowd
at the Beverly Hilton last night.
There was stunned silence, then
applause as the audience realized
| the loss of the brilliant actor,
killed at 24 in a highway crash
' two months ago.
After his co-star, jrnung Natalie
Wood, accepted the award, emcee
George Murphy asked the crowd
to join in a tribute to the late
actor. Tne great names and lesser
lights of Hollywood stood for a
moment of silence and there were
many wet cheeks among them.
Kotzebue Gets $312,000
For REA Power Plant
WASHINGTON, UP!—The Rural
Electrification Administration has
announced a $312,000 loan to the
Kotzebue Electric Association at
Kotzebuu, Alaska—its first loan
north of the Arctic Circle.
The native village, devoted
largely to fishing and reindeer
cessing, has no electric service
now except for small generators
owned by individual businessmen.
The association plans to install
three diesel generators and build
five miles of line to serve 228 cus
tomers. It will also serve the gov
ernment-operated village hospital
and school.
A GOOD SHOT—BUT— HE'S
GOT A HOLE IN HIS HEAD
WILMINGTON, Calif., UT!—Don
ald Troncosta is a good shot with
an air rifle and he has a hole
in his head to prove it.
He found an unexploded .22
caliber cartridge, spiked into a
tree trunk, back away and started
shooting at it with his air rifle.
He hit it, but it struck back. The
bullet nicked the 15-year-old boy
between the eyes. Doctors at Wil
mington Receiving Hospital who
closed the wound with two stitch
es observed if it had been a frac
tion of an inch either way he
might have been blinded in one
of his eyes.
Delegates Okay
Alaska’s Present
Election Setup
■FAIRBANKS, UP) —The Alaska
Constitutional Convention Com
mittee on suffrage and elections
is pretty well satisfied with the
way things are now, thank you.
The committee reported today:
“The present suffrage qualifi
cations of the 50-year-old act of
Congress should apply to the State
of Alaska with the following ex
ception—the voting age shall be
reduced to 20 and the literacy
qualifications determined by the
legislature.
It said the present Alaska
“tried and tested voting law
should be proposed.”
The committee report was the
first to be produced in the month
long deliberations of the conven
tion. It was signed by John Hell
enthal, Anchorage, the committee
chairman.
It is unlikely the recommenda
tions will be acted upon before
the delegates have a chance to
feel the pulse of the “peepul.”
Th 14 committee chairmen said
today they hope to get approval
j of a suggestion that no proposal
i be advanced beyond second read
| ing until after the late December
I recess.
(Under normal parliamentary
procedure, bills are read three
times before being voted upon for
final passage).
The suggestion, if adopted, will
give the delegates a chance to
change their minds after going
home for the 15 day recess and
hearing their constituents.
The committee chairman said
the recess should not be consid
ered a holiday but a period for
gaining perspective, staging public
hearings and learning more about
the peoples’ wants.
It also was learned that the
committee on Bill of Rights voted
to kill a proposal which would
have prohibited a closed union
shop.
No member of the committee
was favorable to the proposal,
said Miss Dorothy Awes, chair
man. Apart from the idea behind
it, she said, the members also
felt such a matter was not the
business of the constitution.
As the committee thinking now
stands, Miss Awes said, all such
matters will be left to the legis
lature.
4-Year-Old Accidendally
Discharges Shotgun
Killing His Mother
MARYSVILLE, Calif., UPI—Mrs.
Cleo Delores Cisco, 24, was killed
as she napped yesterday by a
shotgun accidentally fired by her
four-year-old son.
A sheriff said Wesley, the boy,
pulled the 12 gauge gun from a
closet while Mrs. Cisco slept on
a couch.
The tot dragged the gun toward
his mother. The charge hit her
from two-foot range.
Wilford Cisco, the father, ran
in from the back yard and rushed
his wife to a hospital | She died
there.
NWA Chamber Opp oses Consolidation
Second And Fourth Judicial Divisions
Pacific Northwest Counts
Damage From Wind Storm
SEATTLE, UPI—The coastal Pa
cific Northwest added up the costs
today of a violent wind and rain
stof-m that took three lives Tues
day and caused major damage in
wide areas of western Washing
ton and Oregon.
The storm dealt its heaviest
blow at Washington’s Puget
Sound region. Water traffic halt
ed, trees and utility poles top
pled and power lines broke as
winds with gusts up to 68 miles
an hour raked the area. The wind
damaged homes and other build
ings and accompanying heavy
rain caused minor flooding prob
lems.
Oregon’s Willamette Valley had
winds with gusts up to 57 miles
an hour and freezing rain was re
ported in the Columbia River
gorge.
GOPHER FIGHTS BACK
LAS. VEGAS, Nev., Oft—Haras
sed by a pesky gopher, farmer
Paul Thomas dropped a concus
sion bomb into the varmit’s hole.
But, he said, the gopher pushed
the bomb, with fuse burning, back
out. Thomas quickly picked it up
and hurled it away. The bomb
exploded, igniting a hay pile.
Firemen saved the house and
barn but 12 tons of hay was
destroyed. Thomas claims the
gopher still peers out the hole.
* The Northwestern Chamber of
Commerce went on record yester
day noon at their regular business'
luncheon vigorously and unani
mously opposing the proposed
constitutional committee recom
mendation that Second and Foutfo
Divisions be united and the feder
al court eliminated in northwest
ern Alaska.
Telegrams were sent to all dele
gates from this division as well as
to members of the Judiciary Com
mittee and letters to Delegate
Bartlett, Governor Heintzleman
and other officials, pointing out
the many reasons why curtailing
the development of any part of
Alaska at this time is unseemly
and placing additional handicaps
on the area of Alaska which is al
ready burdened with problems re
tarding development. Moving the
courts from the people places in
surmountable costs on justice for
the average citizen, especially due
to the overcrowded conditions on
court calendars in both the Third
and Fourth Divisions.
Alaska can grow only one way
—and that is bigger—and mem
bers of the Constitutional Conven
tion will have to have vision
erough to see that all parts of Al
aska will share in that growth,
and prepare the constitution for
the future as well as the present.
Individuals and civic organiza
tions are urged to write delegates
from other divisions as well as
those from Second Division ex
pressing their views.
Judiciary Setup for State of Alaska
As Proposed by McLaughlin Group
FAIRBANKS (£*>—The chairman*
of the Constitutional Convention’s
Judiciary Committee, George Mc
Laughlin, said Tuesday his group
is ready to present its recommen
dations to a plenary session today.
McLaughlin, of Anchorage, re
vealed in advance the contents of
a six-page set of recommendations
Soviet Lieutenant
Flees to West
BERLIN, UP)—A Soviet army
lieutenant in full uniform fled to
West Berlin and asked the United
States for political asylum, the
U.S. Army disclosed today.
The Army identified the man as
Ivan Ovchinnikov, 26, with the
rank of first lieutenant.
The Russian came to the West
on the city elevated train and got
off at the first stop in the Ameri
can sector Monday. He turned
himself in to the West Berlin rail
way police who, in turn, delivered
him to the American authorities.
He stated that his request for
asylum was based on political
reasons.”
The Russian was flown to West
Germany immediately and held
for screening by U.S. Army Intel
ligence officers.
He is the first Soviet officer to
defect to the American forces in
recent years.
which the Judiciary Committee
hopes to have written into the
constitution.
If the Judiciary Committee has
success on all 20 sections of its re
port, the judiciary setup in the
State of Alaska would be as fol
lows:
Three justices would sit on Al
aska’s supreme court. Their num
ber could be increased by law.
The superior court would be com
posed of five judges and their
number, also, could be upped by
law.
The governor would fill the
seats of the supreme court and the
superior court on nominations by
a judicial council.
The judicial council, as visual
ized by the Judicial Committee,
would be composed of three at
torneys selected by the governing
body of the organized bar (cur
rently the Alaska Bar Assn.) on
the basis of ABA representation
and three non-attorneys selected
by the governor and subject to
Senate approval.
The judicial council, in addition
to presenting nominations for
court vacancies, would conduct
studies to improve the adminis
tration of justice. Council appoint
ment would be for six years.
Three years after their appoint
ment, members of the supreme
(Continued on Page Two)
All the Brothers Were Valiant
The Greatest Sea Story Ever Filmed — Wednesday, Thursday and Friday — With Robert Taylor, Stewart danger and Ann Blyth