2SS NOME NUGGET
GIJDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LXI No. 1 NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 1959 Per Copy—15^
Ike Approves
49-Star Flag
GETTYSBURG, Pa., UP) — Pres
ident Eisenhower gave final ap
proval today to a new 49-star
American flag. But the design,
with a 49th star for Alaska, still
was kept secret.
The approval was given at a
meeting of the President and
four Army Quartermaster Corps
representatives at Eisenhower’s
Gettysburg farm.
The new flag will be unveiled
at a White House ceremony at
noon tomorrow. At the same time,
the President will issue a procla
mation making Alaska a state.
The new state enters the union
immediately. The new flag will
become official next July 4, but
flag makers in New York say
they will have a few of the 49
star flags available as early as
next week.
There was speculation the new'
flag would consist of the present
13 stripes, with 7 rows of 7 stars
each in the blue field.
The design was picked from
nearly 2,000 suggestions received
by a screening committee.
Six In Family Killed
In Illinois Plane Crash
PONTIAC, 111., UP) — Six mem
bers of an Indiana family were
killed Thursday in the crash of
the single-engine plane in which
they were returning from a Cali
fornia vacation. They were about
200 miles from their home in La
Porte.
The plane plunged into a farm
field about seven miles west of
Pontiac. The victims were William
O. Kellems, 34, a plastering con
tractor who was piloting the
craft, his wife, Mary Louise, 28,
and their four children.
Midwest Feels Icy
Grip of Cold Wave
(By The Associated Press)
A wave of Arctic air rolled
across the* northern plains into
the Midwest today.
The intense cold flowed from
a massive mound of Arctic air
in the Yukon, where temperatures
were 50 below zero.
The Weather Bureau in Chi
cago said a dozen Central states
are in the path of the cold wave.
The forward edge was expected
to reach a line extending from the
upper Michigan southwestward to
northwestern Oklahoma during
the day.
Caught in His Own
Cash Drawer . . .
LOUISVILLE, Ky., UPt—Barten
der Gene Bruce started to fix the
cash register and got into a fix
instead.
The cash drawer stuck. Bruce
put his hand inside a door on the
side of the register to open the
drawer.
Some of the cogs grabbed his
hand and held on — for three
hours.
County police tried a cutting
toi c. When that got too hot for
Bruce, they used a crowbar.
Bruce is all right, but the
ister is in bad shape. ’
Social Security
Program Sound,
Says Council
WASHINGTON, UP) — A special
advisory council has completed a
year-long study of the nation’s so
cial security program and found it
in good financial shape.
A new schedule of taxes voted
by Congress last year “makes ade
quate provision for meeting both
short-range and long-range costs,”
the 13-member group said in a
report made public Thursday.
The tax on both employers and
employes provides insurance ben
efits for elderly persons, survivors
of workers and disabled em
ployes. Effective Thursday, both
the tax rate and the amount of sal
ary on which it is paid were in
creased.
Other increases already in the
law provide for further tax in
creases in 1960, 1963, 1966 and
1969. The council said that under
present conditions, the scheduled
1969 increase may not be needed.
The advisory group was com
posed of business and union lead
ers and experts in the fields of
finance, insurance and economics.
Congress directed that it be named
to study the soundness of the
social security system.
Gambler Suffers
Tongue-Cutting
SAN DIEGO, Calif., UP) — A
gambler with a severed tongue had
no connection with the slaying of
Tony Mirabile, say police.
When Robert Womach, 25, was
brought to a hospital Thursday
with lVfe inches of his tongue cut
off, police thought there might
be a tie-in between the injury to
the Las Vegas card dealer and the
shooting of Mirabile, wealth tav
ern owner with suspected under
world connections.
But Womach told them his
tongue was cut off by a woman
in Tijuana who robbed him of
$60. He refused to give further
details.
Pilot Students Are Now
Allowed International
Training Flights
WASHINGTON, UP) — Student
pilots in Alaska have been author
ized by the Civil Aeronautics
Board to engage in international
flights for training purposes, ef
fective February 3.
The board said it ws removing
its restriction on student flights
out of the Haines, Gustavus and
Juneau airports to permit trainees
to make the safer flights to White
horse, Y. T.
The alternative for cross-coun
try training, the board said, would
be flights to Annette Islnd “along
a route which is impracticable for
cross-country training because of
treacherous winds, sudden weath
er changes, and terrain which
provides virtually no accessibility
for a successful forced landing.”
LADY MECHANICS
NEW HAVEN, Conn., (ff) — City
high school authorities report
adult classes in auto mechanics
for women are so popular they
i are setting up advanced courses.
Senate Battle
Due For Curbs
To Filibuster
By JOHN H. AVERILL
WASHINGTON, OP) — Foes of
the Senate’s filibuster rule con
tend that those who want it re
tained would bind the Senate to
a system “enacted by men long
since dead or retired.”
A bipartisan Senate group ex
pressed this idea Thursday in a
brief designed to lay the legal
groundwork for their fight to curb
filibusters when Congress con
venes next Wednesday.
The group said: “The sugges
tion that rules enacted by men
long since dead or retired from
public life should prevent the ma
jority of the Senate of the 86th
Congress from adopting its own
rules is contrary to the very spirit
This was a reference to argu
ments by opponents of a rule
change that since only one-third
of the Senate membership is elec
ted every two years the Senate
is a continuing body with rules
carrying over from one Congress
to the next.
This argument is a major key
to success or failure of the pend
ing fight to water down Senate
Rule 22 which requires the vote
of two-thirds of the entire mem
bership to halt prolonged debate
and bring an issue to a vote.
Once the Senate is in session a
proposal to change the rules is
subject itself to unlimited debate
and thus can be doomed from the
start.
The brief was submitted to Vice
President Richard M. Nixon, the
Senate’s presiding officer, by Sen
ators Paul Douglas CD-Ill.), Hu
bert Humphrey (D-Minn.), Jacob
Javits (R-NY), and Clifford Case
(R-NJ).
They said they wanted to pro
vide Nixon with their major legal
arguments in the event he is
called on to give the ruling.
Los Alamos Worker
Killed By Radiation
LOS ALAMOS, N. M., UFi — A
medical expert says a technician
killed by radiation in a Los Ala
mos atomic laboratory died from
damage to his central nervous
sustem.
He also says it may have been
the first death of that type out
side of war.
Dr. Thomas Shipman, head of
the health division of the Los Ala
mos Scientific Laboratory, says
it was more than damage to the
bone marrow-blood forming sys
tem that caused the death.
Cecil W. Kelley, 38, who had
worked in the atomic laboratory
about 11 years, died Thursday, 36
hours after an accident.
He was preparing a process to
extract plutonium and said all he
recalled was a flash as he started
a stir operation in a tank.
Shipman said he believes that
“outside of warfare, this may be
the first death” of this type.
“I think it is, other than the
bomb casualties in Japan,” he
said. These were the deaths caused
by the atomic bombing on Naga
saki and Hiroshima, which ended
World War II.
Batista Flees Cuba As Castro Forces
Take Over Island Country’s Capitol
HAVANA, U?) — Advance
spearheads of Fidel Castro’s revo
lutionary forces entered Havana
today.
Truckloads of bearded guerrilla
fighters relied into the city over
the main central highway from
the eastern provinces of Matanzas
and Las Villas and sped along
the Malencon Sea Boulevard to
ward the former military head
quarters of deposed President Ba
tista.
Two Provisional Presidents
As the Castro forces advanced,
Cuba’s 6,300,000 war-weary people
had two provisional presidents.
Neither occupied the chair va
cated by dictator Fulgencio Ba
tista, who fled in the darkness of
the new year morning Thursday.
The streets of Havana were
tense and alive with expectation.
The triumphant Castro partisans,
who had seemed to emerge armed
from nowhere Thursday to take
over control of the capital, kept a
tight lid on the situation to pre
vent pent-up public emotion from
creating a chaotic situation.
Youthful, bearded Castro early
today proclaimed ex-judge Man
uel iUrrutia of Oriente Province
as provisional president of the re
public with his temporary gov
ernment in Castro’s native San
tiago de Cuba. Castro apparently
intends momentarily to move the
government to Havana.
In this capital sits the last ves
tige of a shell of government
named by the junta which Batis
ta left behind when he fled the
country early New Year’s Day. But
the government had no control
over either the army or the police
who now get their orders from
Statehood Program
11 A. M. Tomorrow
A formal Statehood Ceremony
will be held tomorrow at 11
a.m. in the new Federal Court
Room, with members of sev
eral local organizations partici
pating.
The public is asked to parti
cipate by thesir presence at
this historic occasion.
Guatemalan Planes Fire
On Mexican Fishermen
MEXICO CITY, [Bh — Mexico’s
ambassador to Guatemala has
been ordered to protest orally
against an attack on Mexican
fishing boats by Guatemalan
planes.
A crisis between the two coun
tries appeared to be building up.
The Guatemalan government an
nounced Wednesday its planes had
gunned three fishing boats tres
passing in Guatemala’s territorial
waters.
COLD HAULING
FAIRBANKS, (JPi — As the mer
cury in Fairbanks hovered at a
record 47 degrees for the date, Ted
Barbera, manager of the Alaska
Freight Lines, was called on yes
terday to handle a somewht un
usual cargo . . . seven tons of dry
ice.
rebel leaders.
The Castro troops entering Ha
vana were unopposed.
A final showdown obviously is
near. Cstro announced today he
would not accept what he called
a coup d-etat arranged by Ba
tista. Thus he rejects the provi
sional government which purports
to be headed by Supreme Court
Justice Carlos Piedra.
Castro claimed Major General
Eulogio Cantillo, who headed the
junta left by Batista, had 'betrayed
the revolution’s leadership by let
ting the chief figures of the Batista
government escape from the
country.
While Castro’s success in his
25-month-old rebellion seemed
close to complete, he still must
bring his oft-proclaimed choice to
Havana and install him in the
presidential palace.
General Strike
The country will remain in a
state of paralysis from a general
strike ordered by Castro until
Urrutia takes over in Havana.
Castro’s supporters controlled
all communications and every ra
dio broadcast referred to Urrutia
as “provisional President of
Cuba.”
Former President Carlos Prio
Cecarras, an exile in Miami since
Batista ousted him by military
coup in 1952, arrived menwhile
in Havana. Prio has supported
Castro’s revolt from exile. He and
all other revolutionry organiza
tions recently agreed to ccept Ur
rutia as provisional president.
There was little doubt this is
land republic would accept Urru
tia, a former jud^e, about 56 years
old, who long has been Castro’s
choice to succeed Batista until free
elections can be held.
Castro called a general strike
across Cuba until Urrutia was in
stalled. The strike seemed 100 per
cent effective, thus removing any
question of remnants from the Ba
tista regime trying to run the
country.
Until Urritia takes over in Ha
vana, Castro’s announcements
from Santiago provided the only
framework of government. Castro
supporters held Havana under
tight control — virtually martial
law — today after victory cele
brations Thursday led to violence.
Castro, a lawyer who has been
a rebel for more than a third of
his 32 years, outlined his plat
form in 1955.
Property Confiscation
It included the nationalization of
U. S.-financed and operated utili
ties, splitting up American-owned
sugar estates among the peasants,
confiscation of all properties ac
quired through corrupt govern
ment and breaking the hold of
some big businessmen on Cuba’s
economy.
The bearded guerrilla warrior
has denied Batista charges that
he is a Communist or is Commu
nist-influenced. Castro says his
goal is to end corruption, estao
lish democracy and help the small
man among the 6,310,000 people
of this Pennsylvania-sized island.