™E NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LV No. 129 NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1953 Per Copy—15^
President Designates Two Alaska
Regions As Disaster Areas And
Directs Start of Relief Measures
WASHINGTON, UP) — President 1
Eisenhower designated two Alas
ka regions, hard hit by a bad sal
mon fishing season, as major dis
aster areas Friday and directed
that relief measures be taken.
He acted on a plea received
from Alaska Gov. B. Frank Heint
zleman.
James Hagerty, White House
press secretary, announced the
President had notified Heintzle
man, who is in Washington, that
he is instructing the director of
Civil Defense to take remedial
steps as soon as possible.
No specific sum was earmarked
for the aid, Hagerty said.
Heintzleman has reported that
in northwestern Alaska direct re
lief appears to be the only way
to prevent starvation this winter.
About 1,600 families are affect
ed in the territory, it was stated.
In the other disaster area,
southeastern Alaska, the White
House said that public works
projects appear to be appropriate
and they are being considered.
Gov. Heintzleman’s assistant,
Bob De Armond, explained at
Seattle that the disaster aid label
ed for “northwestern Alaska” is
actually for the Bristol Bay region
and adjacent areas which were so
hard hit by the poor fishing
season.
De Armond was in Seattle to
day making arrangements for
t shipping food north. He said it
should start moving toward the
docks next week.
Secretary McKay has instruct
ed the Alaska Railroad to haul
the supplies without charge.
De Armond said a program of
log cutting for the Ketchikan -
pulp mill already is getting under
way, and the Forest Service set
up special cutting areas near
villages.
He also said the Fish and Wild
life Service has promised to open
Bristol Bay area streams to com
mercial fishing for Dolly Varden
trout, which prey on tiny salmon,
in the hope a small market can
be developed for them.
GEN. RIDGWAY TO VISIT
ELMENDORF SATURDAY
ANCHORAGE, OS’) — Gen. Mat
thew Ridgway, Army Chief of
Staff who has been touring Korea,
is due here either today ot Sat
urday for a weekend visit, Lt.
Gen. Joseph Atkinson, command
er of the Alaska Defense Com
mand, announced.
Ridgway is due to inspect de
fenses at Ft. Richardson and El
mendorf Air Force base before
leaving for Washington, Gen. At
kinson said.
For Glory. Maybe?
HONG KONG, iff)—'The Shang
hai publisher of a book on chicken
raising has been reprimanded by
the Chinese Reds because the
book said the aim of raising chick
ens is to make money, an inde
pendent China newspaper report
ed Thursday.
>
I
Anti-Red Korean
POWs Agree To
Meet Interviewers
PANMUNJOM, UP)— Communist
diplomats called an American
proposal for setting up the Korean
peace conference “absurd ... a
trick . . . absolutely unaccept
able” Friday and pushed pre
liminary talks deeper into dead
lock.
Although the Red refusal was
less caustic than usual, they made
it clear their answer was no to
U,S. ambassador Arthur Dean’s
plan to fix a time and place for
the conference now and talk
about its composition later.
Unruffled by the Red rejection,
Dean agreed to a Communist re
quest that he think over their
view.
Meanwhile, stubborn, anti-Red
Korean war prisoners broke an
other longer deadlock by agree
ing to listen to Communist efforts
to persuade them to come home.
Lt. Gen. K. S. Thimayya, In
dian chairman of the Prisoner Re
patriation Commission, said the
first 500 of 7,800 Koreans will
meet Red interviewers Saturday,
ending a two-week holdout that
threatened the entire Commun
ist persuasion program.
The Korean decision was a per
sonal triumph for Thimayya, who
met patiently with POW leaders
day after day, talking them into
hearing the Communist represen
tatives.
Tax Refunds On
Cost-of-Living Pay
May Cost 68 Million
WASHINGTON, UP)—An Inter
nal Revenue Service ruling that
cost-of-living differentials paid
to government employes in Alas
ka, Hawaii and Puerto Rico are
not taxable could cost the govern
ment as much as 68 million dol
lars in refunds, an attorney said
Friday.
The estimate was made by Rob
ert Weston, Washington counsel
for a group of Civil Aeronautics
Administration employes in the
three regions.
Weston, who was retained by
the employes to fight the tax last
year, said he had been told by
Civil Service officials that the
ruling will affect about 43,000
government workers. The annual
saving to each he said is estimated
at about $400—or slightly more
than 17 million a year.
The Internal Revenue Service
ruling, announced Tuesday, pro
vides for refunds if claims are
brought within the statutory limit
of three years from the time the
tax was paid.
Weston said many employes
had pending—prior to the ruling
—claims for refunds on taxes as
far back as 1949, when the differ
ential was initiated.
$29 Million Haines
Pipeline Contract
Awarded 3 Firms
ANCHORAGE, 0P>—The Alaska
District Army Engineers announ
ced Thursday the award of a
$29,001,287.50 contract for the
construction of a fuel pipeline in
Alaska.
Three firms joined in submit
ting the low bid for the work.
They were Williams Brothers Co.,
Tulsa, Okla.; McLoughlin, Inc.,
Great Falls, Mont.; and Marwell
t
Construction Co., Vancouver, B.C.
Part of the line will go through
Canadian territory under an
agreement with the Canadian
government. The job is scheduled
for completion by September,
1955.
Details of the project are:
The work will start within 30
days, with the winter months
being used to clear right of way
and string pipe along the frozen
route.
The job involves supplying and
laying 621 miles of 8% inch
seamless steel pipe, construction
of a wharf at Haines, building
five pumping stations (three in
Canada) and building a complete
terminal near Fairbanks and two
tank farms.
The pipeline with its right-of
way crosses mountains, canyons,
rivers and miles of swampy open
land. Much of the route parallels
the Alaska Highway under the
shadow of the towering St. Elias
and Wrangell Mountain ranges.
Six miles it skirts Canada’s
290-foot deep Kluane Lake. The
route will run from the mild win
ters of southeastern Alaska to the
frigid Yukon Territory and inter
ior Alaska much of it over per
petually frozen subsoil.
Parents of Lansing Quads
Are Married Four Days
After Children Are Bom
LANSING, Mich., Iff) — The
Trollman quadruplets born four
days ago had a father and new
first and last names Friday. And
their bride-of-a-day mother sigh
ed: “I’m really happy for the first
time in months.”
Brief Lutheran rites united Mrs.
June Trollman, divorcee - mother
of the quads, and George W. Van
Alstine, 34, a Lansing auto ser
viceman Thursday.
Van Alstine’s ex-wife signed a
waiver to permit the ceremony,
since his 60-day waiting period
after a divorce would not expire
until Sunday. The bride and her
first husband were divorced in
1944.
Van Alstine told newsmen he
was the father of the quads, add
ing: “I wanted to marry June a
long time ago but we had a little
misunderstanding and it never
came off.”
The couple picked names for
the four babies immediately after
the ceremony. The first name
they chose was John David, for
the one who died Wednesday. The
other three, bom late Monday,
were named in order of their
birth: Ronald Ray, Donald Dee,
Ruth Ann.
New North Star Grill To Be
Built As Soon As Possible
19 Perish In Crash of
British DC-6 Airliner
Near San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO, UR — “The
only survivors here are rescuers.”
That’s how Coast Guard Chief
Wilson Jennings described by
radio the grim scene 25 miles
south of here Thursday where a
British Commonwealth Pacific
Airlines DC-6 crashed and burned
—killing all 19 aboard.
Among the 11 passengers were
William Kapell, 31, brilliant New
York concert pianist returning
from an Australian tour, and a 7
year old Australian boy.
Two of the eight crew members
were hostesses.
The ship was only two minutes
from San Francisco Airport on
its transpacific journey from Syd
ney, Australia, via Honolulu. It
crashed into fog-shrouded, 2,400
foot King’s Mountain, disinte
grated and burned.
Seventeen charred and dismem
bered bodies were recovered.
All aboard were British, except
Kapell.
Cause of the crash has not been
determined.
Veteran pilot Bruce Dixon had
checked by radio with the control
tower at San Francisco Airport
just before the crash, but there
was no indication* of impending
tragedy.
Frank Costello, Released
From Prison, Speeds Off
In Cadillac with Chauffeur
DETROIT, UP—Gambler Frank
Costello became a free man yes
terday after serving out a federal
prison term for contempt of the
U.S. government.
The 59 - year - old New York
rackets operator, convicted for
defying Senate crime investiga
tors, was freed from the federal
correctional institution at Milan,
35 miles west of here upon com
pleting aproximately a year of an
18 months sentence.
But freedom for Costello may
be limited. The government is
trying to deport him to his native
Sicily as undesirable. It wants
to take away his citizenship.
He also faces both criminal and
civil actions for alleged evasion
of more than $200,000 in taxes,
reputedly on income from gambl
ing channels.
With his wife Loretta and an
unidentified male companion,
Costello sped from the prison in
a chauffeur-driven Cadillac.
Radarman Killed In Crash Of
Anchorage-Based Scorpion Jet
ANCHORAGE, (SI — An Air
Force F-89 Scorpion jet fighter
interceptor crashed about 50 miles
northeast of here Thursday killing
one of the two crewmen aboard.
Capt. Ralph L. Ethridge, 30, La
Junta, Colo., the pilot parachuted
to safety after radioing Elmen
dorf Air Force base that he was
having trouble with the plane. He
said he and his radar observer
were parachuting but the observ
er’s body was found in the wreck
age.
%
> Disaster struck quick and hot
about 5:30 Thursday morning
when a fire of undetermined ori
gin destroyed the North Star Grill
and Bakery.
It is reported that the building
had been unoccupied for about an
hour that morning when the at
tendant at the Q Cab saw fire
and turned in the alarm. By that
time the flames' were breaking
out on the south side of the build
ing and through the roof.
By about 7 a.m., an hour a half
later, the building was complete
ly destroyed, including the new
dining room which had been un
der construction all summer by
Bill Gillis and which was due to
open some time in December.
The city fire department as
well as the crew from Nome
Field isolated the flames so that
the adjoining buildings—the N.C.
Store on the east and the law
office of Jim von "der Heydt on
the west—were not damaged.
Ernie Gustafson said yesterady
that arrangements have already
been made to open a bakery in
the Leslie Store building, as his
flour and other bakery supplies
were not lost as they were stored
elsewhere.
He also said the North Star
Bakery and Grill was insured and
that he and his partner,. Bob Ren
shaw, would be building a mod
ern establishment on their lot as
soon as possible.
Yesterday crews pumped out
over two feet of water from the
new concrete basement and sal
vaged the canned goods and other
perishable food supplies which
had been stored there.
Until the bakery gets under way
bread is being flown in from
Anchorage and Fairbanks by local
stores.
Contractor Bill Gillis is report
ed to have lost many valuable
tools and much equipment that
had been placed in the new addi
tion for the purpose of starting
the inside finishing of the dining
room. Other workers lost their
tools also. '
Fire Chief W. W. Laws ex
pressed appreciation to the wom
en who supplied hot coffee to the
fire fighters.
Atom Spy Harry Gold
Links U.N. Announcer
With Soviet Ring
NEW YORK, UP)—A Senate In
ternal Security subcommittee
counsel said Friday that atom spy
Harry Gold has linked a former
American radio announcer for
the Russian U.N. section with a
Soviet spy ring.
The subcommittee counsel, Rob
ert Morris, said the announcer is
Alexander Svenchansky, 44, who
was dismissed from the United
Nations staff for refusing to say if
he had ever been a member of
the Communist party.
Morris said Gold gave a sworn
affidavit about Svenchansky in
federal penitentiary, Lewisburg,
Pa., where he is serving a 30-year
prison term as a con-conspirator
of Julius Rosenberg, the executed
atom spy.