m NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS _
VOL. LV No, 101 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 1953 Per Copy—15^
Appeals For Help
To Identify Reds
In Government
WASHINGTON, UP) — A Senate
subcommittee has appealed, to
present and former government
employes for help in learning “the
identity of the Communists who
are presumably still in govern
ment.”
The appeal came from the Sen
ate Judiciary subcommittee on in
ternal security, which during the
past year has been hunting for
Communist infiltration of gov
ernment agencies extending back
20 years. Sen. Jenner (R - Ind)
heads the group.
In a 50-page report summariz
ing what it called “interlocking
subversion in government depart
ments,” the subcommittee de
clared last night:
“The Soviet international or
ganization has carried on a suc
cessful and important penetration
of the United States government,
and this penetration has not been
fully exposed.”
The report said four or more
Soviet espionage rings among
government employes have been
described by ex-Reds and Soviet
espionage rings among govern
ment employes and “that only two
of these have been exposed.”
The report continued:
“There is a mass of evidence
and information on the hidden
Communist conspiracy in govern
ment which is still inaccessible to
the Federal Bureau of Investiga
tion and to this subcommittee be
cause persons who know the facts
of this conspiracy are not coop
erating with the security author
ities of the country.”
Interior Dept. To Buy
Little Eklutna Power Plant
ANCHORAGE, UP) — Anchorage
city officials and the U.S. Depart
ment of the Interior have signed
an agreement for sale of the city’s
Little Eklutna power project to
the government — and have de
vised a method for paying off
the deal.
Not a dollar will change hands
under the contract — which still
must be approved by the voters in
an October election. Instead of
money, the government will pay
with volts, furnishing the city
with power until Oct. 12, 1970 at
a rate equivalent to that of the
city’s current cost of power pro
duction.
The contract calls for abolition
of the Anchorage public utilities
commission and other municipal
offices now handling the utility.
Immediate transfer to the govern
ment is provided for if the voters
approve the deal.
FAIRBANKS, UP) — The touring
six senators and their party who
are taking testimony on Alaska
statehood tried to ge’t 1,100 miles
from the North Pole Friday. But
they didn’t make it.
The Barrow airport was weath
ered in. The senatorial plane
. circled around for awhile, then
returned to Fairbanks.
%
The senatorial party spent the
weekend at Mt. McKinley lodge.
It was to resume its statehood
hearings Monday at Anchorage.
Ground Crews Run Down
Clues In Search For Lost
Oil Man and His Family
KETCHIKAN, UP) — The search
for a New Mexico oil man and
four others missing on a flight to'
the States shifted to islands west
and northwest of here today after
ground parties washed out what
searchers had called their “best
clues in five days.”
The ground parties, returning
from a trip up Mt. Tamgass and
B a 1 d y Mountain near Moira
Sound on Prince of Wales Island
to investigate a plane wreckage
report, said they found nothing.
Wreckage sighted Saturday
night near Stewart, B.C., was be
lieved to be that of a plane in
which bush pilot John Peterson
of Telegraph Creek, B.C., was lost
late last week.
Both reports were checked by
searfcfcprs hunting Ellis Hall, Al
buquerque oilman, who disap
peared a week ago today after
taking off from Annettee Island
airport with his wife, two daugh
ters and 17-year-old Patrick Hib
ben, on a flight to Bellingham,
Wash.
Fugitive from Reformatory
Admits He Shot and Killed
Kansas City Priest
SOUTH BEND, Ind., UP) — A
fugitive from the Indiana Refor
matory admitted late Sunday he
shot and killed a Kansas City
Catholic priest in a river-bottom
field near Kansas City last July
16.
Police said William Jackson
Townsend, 23, signed a statement
admitting he shot the Rev. Robert
A. Hodges.
A detective quoted Townsend’s
statement as saying he shot the
priest who was dressed in non
clerical clothes when the priest
made homosexual advances to
him. Townsend said he shot the
priest with a .38 caliber revolver
he had borrowed after his escape
from the Indiana Reformatory.
Townsend was quoted as say
ing he did not realize the man
he had shot was a churchman
until he found a rosary on the
body and the name “Rev. Robert
A. Hodges” on the victim’s drivers
license.
Sec. McKay Says Eklutna Power
Project Be Completed Next Year
WASHINGTON, Iff) — Interior
Secretary McKay announced to
day the Eklutna power project
near Anchorage, will be well on
the way to completion during the
fiscal year ending next June 30.
The 30,000 kilowatt plant and
transmission lines are scheduled
for completion during the next
fiscal year, with first power de
liveries to be made late next sum
mer.
Cost of the Eklutna project was
set at $7,750,000, affording 30,000
kilowatts capacity by 1955.
Two Anchorage Teen-Age Girls
Lost, Found in Trailer Camp
ANCHORAGE, ffl-Two teen
age daughters of Fort Richardson
servicemen missing since Wednes
day morning were found late
Thursday in a Mountain View
trailer camp. They have been re
turned to their homes.
Wife Of Former
Alaska Governor
Found Murdered
CHARLESTON, W. Va., UR —
Mrs. Walter E. Clark, 59-year-old
principal owner of the Charleston
Daily Mail, was found shot to
death at her home Saturday.
Charleston’s chief of police said
“It looks like murder.”
Mrs. Clark was the widow of
Walter Eli Clark, owner and pub
lisher of the Daily Mail from 1914
until his death of a heart attack
in March of 1950. He was once
governor of Alaska.
Chief of Police Dewey Williams
announced his murder theory af
ter an investigation which lasted
several hours. He said a search
failed to turn up the weapon with
which she had been shot.
There were indications the
house had been ransacked. No
thing valuable appeared to be
missing, however.
Still asleep in his room when
the body was found was Mrs.
Clark’s young grandson, Jay Alex
ander, son of the Clarks’ only
child, Mrs. Arch J. Alexander.
Clark was a native of Ashford,
Conn. He bought the Daily Mail
in 1914 when it virtually was
bankrupt and built it into the
state’s largest afternoon daily.
The woman’s late husband,
Clark, was appointed governor of
Alaska by President Taft in 1909.
He held the post until May, 1913.
Clark had been a correspondent
for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
at Nome from 1900 to 1904, and
continued for the P.-I. as a Wash
ington, D.C., correspondent until
his Alaska appointment.
Detectives said there were in
dication Mrs. Clark had been
beaten before she was shot.
Police Up Against Blank
Wall In Mrs. Clark Murder
CHARLESTON, W.Va., UP)—In
vestigators today continued to
probe into the brutal slaying of
Mrs. Walter E. Clark, principal
owner of the Charleston Daily
Mail, who was beaten to death in
her fashionable home Friday
night.
Except for a fragment of var
nished oak wood found in a pool
of blood beside the body, police
admitted they were “up against a
blank wall” in their investigation.
A caretaker and maid found
Mrs. Clark’s body Saturday on the
floor of the big living room. An
autopsy showed she had died of
multiple skull fractures and bleed
ing caused by blows on the head.
There was no evidence of rob
bery.
SEATTLE TIMES STRIKE
IS STILL GOING ON
SEATTLE, UP)—The latest offer
from the management of the Seat
tle Times newspaper to end the
strike started July 16 was re
jected Sunday by the Tipies unit
of the Newspaper Guild.
In so doing, the unit followed
a recommendation from its nego
tiating committee. The vote was
by secret ballot and the Guild
did not make publft the division.
Spokesmen for the Times said
they did not have a statement at
this time.
Details of $40 Million 615-Mile Oil
Pipeline from Haines-to-Fairbanks
Announced By Alaska Engineers
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Shah of Iran Reports His
Treasury “Is Very Empty”
TEHRAN, Iran, OR — Official
sources announced today police
have transferred ex-Premier Mo
hammed Mossadegh from the
comfortable quarters of the Teh
ran Officer’s Club to a jail cell.
Mossadegh, clad in pajamas,
surrendered last week after a
bloody coup by supporters of
Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi
took over the government he had
refused to relinquish.
The wily and weepy old Na
tionalist leader was interned in
the plush officers club to await
trial, possibly on charges of trea
son for refusing to obey the
Shah’s order a week ago to hand
the premiership over to Gen. Fa
zollah Zahedi.
Following Mossadegh’s initial
success in balking the royal or
der to get out, the Shah and his
queen flew to a brief exile.
The Iranian ruler returned after
Zahedi last week led the royalist
coup that finally led to Mossa
degh’s downfall. But, even with
Mossadegh a prisoner, the new
Zahedi government’s troubles are
not over.
Small, scattered pro - Mossa
deghs uprising still were reported
in outlying sections of the country
and the Shah to'ld newsmen at a
palace garden party yesterday his
nation’s treasury “is very empty.”
Anchorage High School
To Get $2 Million Addition
ANCHORAGE, UP) — Patti Mac
Donald Construction Co., Satur
day was awarded the contract for
construction of an addition to the
new Anchorage high school on a
low bid of $2,480,000.
The addition includes a gymna
sium, auditorium and manual arts
shops. Construction is to' start this
year.
School board officials said they
hope the first 38-room unit now
being built by J. B. Warrack Con
struction Co., will be ready for
occupancy by Oct. 1.
Undercover Agents
Too Conspicuous
At Social Affair
WASHINGTON, CP)—1The Pen
tagon has a rear-echelon strategy
problem on its hands: how to
send an undercover man to a
party so he won’t look like an
undercover man.
It cropped up when Rep. Burr
Harrison (D-Va) wrote Secretary
of Defense Wilson he had learned
22 “plainclothesmen” from the
Army’s Criminal Investigation
Division attended a reception
given last week by Robert T.
Stevens, Secretary of the Army.
Harrison said the detectives
“were conspicuous by their pres
ence . . . creating considerable
doubt as to their fitness for under
cover assignments.”
The services normally send
plainclothesmen to' such events as
a protection to high - ranking
guests.
> ANCHORAGE, (4*)—The Alaska
District Corps of Engineers an
nounced details Saturday of the
615 - mile Haines-to-Fairbanks oil
pipeline, estimated to cost 40 mil
lion dollars.
The project will be advertised
for bids Aug. 29, with the bid
opening set for Oct. 14. It is a
complete petroleum products
pipeline system starting at Haines
and will be interior Alaska’s sup
ply line for fueling planes, trans
ports and machines at military
installations and air bases.
The general route of the line
will be by way of the Haines
cut-off and the Alaska Highway,
passing through 284 miles of
western Canada.
The work involved in the big
job includes furnishing and lay
ing of 615 miles of 8% inch
welded steel pipeline; construc
tion of an oil terminal wharf at
Haines; construction of five
pumping stations, all complete
with utilities, terminal facilities
near Fairbanks; two intermediate
take-off facilities and two tank
farms. Three of the pumping sta
tions are to be located in Canada.
The line and its 50-foot right
of-way will cross mountains, riv
ers, canyons and miles of open
land.
Much of its length will parallel
the Alaska Highway passing with
in sight of the 14,000 to 16,000
foot peaks of the St. Elias and
Wrangell Mountain ranges.
At Kluane Lake, north of
Whitehorse in Canada’s Yukon
Territory, the line will make an
8-and-one-half mile crossing of
the 290-foot deep lake.
At some major stream crossings
the pipeline will use permanent
highway bridges to ford the
streams. Long stretches of the
line must be laid on permafrost,
the permanently frozen earth of
the Arctci.
Approximately 435 miles will
be surface-laid and 180 miles
buried. The pipeline and its facil
ities is scheduled for completion
in September 1955.
Since the route crosses 284
miles of Canadian territory, nego
tiations with the Qanadian gov
ernment were necessary.
Pipeline construction in the
sub-Arctic is still a novel type of
undertaking, although there are
precedents. Early in World War
II, a group of three to six inch
lines, called the Canol Lines, was
built to tap Arctic oil fields in
Canada.
An estimated 42,000 tons of
pipe will be needed. Plans, speci
fications and bid forms will be
available to prospective bidders
on the project after the advertis
ing date of Aug. 29. The job is
open to contractors in the United
States and Canada for bidding.
Anchorage Phone Calls Now 10<£
ANCHORAGE, UP! — Inflation
has hit Anchorage telephone lines.
The city council has approved a
boost in pay phone tolls to 10
cents.