NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_
VOL. LVI No. 128 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1954 Per Copy—15^
New Line Plans to
Start Ship Service
Seattle ■ SE Alaska
SEATTLE, liTt—The newly in
corporated Alaska Merchant Line
announced plans Friday to build
two 2,000-ton ships for general
cargo and passenger service be
tween Seattle and southeastern
Alaska.
Capt. Niels P. Thomsen, presi
dent, said in a statement issued
here service may start before 1956.
“After over 2Vi years of trans
porting our own merchandise to
and from southeastern Alaska,
we know that with properly de
signed special-purpose vessels we
can conduct an efficient, profit
able shipping service,” Captain
Thomsen said. t
“Now, with the formation of
Alaska Merchant Line, the last
step in the building of a line
owned and operated by the people
it serves is to become a reality.”
The merchants association has
operated a charter fleet of small
boats to supply its own coopera
tive members since 1952. However
it has not used vessels anywhere
near the size of the planned new
ships and has not attempted gen
eral cargo service.
Capt. Thomsen said the ships
are expected, to cost more than
three million dollars. Each will
have accommodations for 12 pas
sengers between Seattle and
Ketchikan and for 16 passengers
on shorter runs between Alaska
ports.
IS MEN RESCUE
PONY IN TREE
MEVAGISSEY, England, UP)—It
took 15 men to' get a local pony
out of a tree here yesterday.
The pony slipped and fell into
the top branches while grazing on
the edge of a small cliff. The ani
mal was not hurt.
Bathtub Sailor Again
Starts on Trip to Alaska
PORT ANGELES, Wash., UP)—
Roy Bergo chugged toward Port
Angeles today in the outboard
motor-powered bathtub in which
he hopes to travel from Edmonds,
Wash., to Alaska.
Bergo, 50-year-old former state
reformatory - guard who set out
from Edmonds last Tuesday,
stopped at Washington Harbor 18
miles east of here Sunday night
after an uneventful trip from
Port Townsend, Wash.
If Bergo’s luck holds until he
reaches Port Angeles, his next
stretch is across the 20-mile
Strait of Juan de Fuca, where rip
tides may test the pontoon
equipped craft.
Russia Claims First
Parachute Jump at Pole
LONDON, UP)—Russia claimed
another first last night—the first
parachute jump in history in the
North Pole area.
Moscow Radio said the polar
jump 'was made by master of
sport Andrei Medvedev with the
purpose of finding a landing area
for a group of scientists. Medve
dev, incidentally, means bear.
Widespread Search On
For Navy Plane With 42
Missing in Atlantic
NEW YORK, (#)—'The Navy
threw 200 planes and 25 surface
craft into a wide-ranging search
today for a big Navy transport
aircraft missing over the Atlantic
with 42 persons aboard. It had
not been heard from since late
Saturday on a flight from Mary
land to Africa via the Azores.
Planes from England, the Euro
pean continent, North Africa and
the United States joined in a
needle-in-the-ocean hunt.
The missing plane carried 21
passengers, including two women,
wives of U.S. officers, and five
children. There were 21 crewmen
aboard because the big ship was
carrying an extra complete crew
to the Azores to pick up another
plane.
Nixon Revises Speech
To Answer Stevenson’s
Attack on Eisenhower
SEATTLE, (tfi—An anonymous
telephone call, which said that
poisoned food had been delivered
to Vice President Nixon’s hotel
room here Saturday night, ap
peared to have been the work of
a crank.
Nothing has turned up so far in
laboratory tests of the food made
by a Seattle firm.
The Vice President and his par
ty have flown to Denver and Nix
on said there he planned to revise
his nationally telecast address
tonight to strike back again at
Adlai Stevenson. He listened to
Stevenson’s New York broadcast
address a few minutes after the
“poison scare" incident here Sat
urday night and took notes on it.
At Denver, he told newsmen
yesterday the Democratic presi
dential candidate of two years ago
had made “one of the most vicious
attacks through innuendo' on Pres
ident Eisenhower that I have ever
heard.”
In his New York speech, Ste
venson said President Eisenhower
had adopted material which “has
been standard Communist pro
cedure for years . . . .the proposi
tion that our prosperity has been
achieved in the past only at the
price of war and bloodshed.”
Auto Racer’s Death
Leaves Future of Famed
Speedway in Doubt
INDIANAPOLIS, UP)—The plane
crash death Saturday of automo
bile- racing’s immortal Wilbur
Shaw left the future of the Indi
anapolis motor speedway in doubt
today.
“I’ve been so broken up about
it, I don’t know what we’ll do,”
said Anton J. (Tony) Hudman,
o'wner of the speedway.
Shaw, three-time winner of the
500-mile Memorial Day race in
his 20 years of professional racing
and president and manager of the
speedway since World War II,
was killed with two associates
when their plane crashed in a
cornfield near Decatur, Ind., dur
ing a light snowfall.
The other victims were Ernest
R. Roose, 41, official artist for the
speedway, and Ray Grimes, 40, of
Greenfield, Ind., pilot of the plane.
Patty Lists Simple
Solutions To
Alaska’s Problems
SEATTLE, L/PI—Alaskans were
described by Dr. Ernest N. Patty,
the territory’s university presi
dent, Saturday night as “hopping
mad” over failure of the last Con
gress to pass what he called a
“very workable statehood bill.”
He also said attainment of the
territory’s “destiny” could be ac
celerated “if we can make our
government at Washington com
prehend there are simple solu
tions to some Of our problems.”
The educator, who first went to
Alaska in 1922, stopped off here
on a trip to Washington, D.C.,
to address the Seattle chapter of
the American Assn, of University
Women. The A.AjU.W.’s theme
for the year is “New Frontiers.”
In explanation of what he called
“simple solutions,” Dr. Patty listed
what he called his suggestions, as:
“1. Give large blocks of land to
the territory now, so it will be in
a stronger position to insist upon
statehood.
“2. Give the territory' 90 per
cent of all money received from
oil and gas leases and royalties
produced in Alaska.
“3. Rejuvenate the mining in
dustry.
“I have urged for years that
we should adopt the incentive
system that Canada devised to
make her mining industry expand
so fabulously,” he said. “In Can
ada a new mine is exempt from
income taxes for 3Vi years. It is
as simple as that.”
In conclusion, Dr. Patty said he
believes the Dept, of Interior is
“now alert to some of these reme
dies” and that “some progressive
ideas” will be presented to the
next Congress.
Dr. Patty will attend a meeting
of land grant colleges in the east.
American Indian Proving
He Can Handle Firewater
As Well As Anybody Else
WASHINGTON, WV-The Amer
ican Indian is proving he can
handle firewater as well as any
body else.
So says William B^nge, chief of
the Indian Affairs Bureau’s Law
and Order Branch. He was asked
in an interview whether Indian
crimes had increased as a result
of a 1953 law authorizing the sale
of liquor to the wards of the fed
eral government.
“The incidence of crime on res
ervations which can be attributed
to intemperate use of intoxicants
is no greater today than before
the law was passed 14 months
ago,” Benge said.
Inevitably, Benge said, the In
dians indulged in some heavy
drinking immediately after the
law was passed, just as the whites
did when Prohibition was re
pealed.
This caused a sharp increase in
crime in towns near ’ some reser
vations, particularly in the Nava
ho country in the Southwest,
Benge said. But, he added, the
trend headed downward after the
Indians got used to the idea that
they could buy liquor.
Fisherman and Wife
Found Dead, Apparently
Murder - Suicide Case
PETERSBURG, UP)—Loren John
son, 40, fisherman, was found shot
to death Sunday with a pistol
lying near his body. His wife,
Charlotte, 35, had been killed
with the same weapon.
Investigating officers said the
case was apparently one of mur
der and suicide and called an in
quest today. No motive was
known.
Johnson owned the fishing
seiner Black Hawk. One son, Ned,
is in the Army and two other |
teen-age children, Tommy and
Patricia, survive.
Nationalist-Held Islands
Bombed by Communists,
Killing 5 and Wounding 9
TAIPEH, Formosa, UP)—Nine
Russian-built bombers under jet
fighter escort today bombed the
Nationalist Twchen Islands 200
miles north of Formosa for the
first time, official advices said.
The defense ministry said one
of the raiders was shot down,
presumably by ground fire.
Official reports from the islands
—believed by some td be marked
for Communist invasion—said the
twin-engine bombers came over
at noon, dropping bombs which
killed five persons and wounded
nine.
These reports said the bombers
were accompanied by jet- and
propellor-driven fighters. The
propeller escorts were similar to
the Mustangs of World War II.
The jets were not described but
the Chinese Reds are known to
have Migs based in that area.
Dr. Anderson Of
Alaska Public
Dept. Visits Nome
Dr. Charles L. Anderson, who
is chief of section, section of men
tal health, Public Health Dept., at
Anchorage, arrived in Nome Fri
day from Fairbanks on Wien
Alaska Airlines.
Dr. Anderson is making a sur
vey here, looking forward to the
future health of this district.
Tomorrow he will speak to the
Home Arts Club, member of the
Federation of Women’s Clubs, at
the home of Mrs. Fred Bockman.
The Territory of Alaska is very
fortunate to have a man of Dr.
Anderson’s calibre in charge of
its mental health program. In his
two years in Alaska he has insti
tuted a very progressive program
under the direction of Dr. Al
brecht, who is in charge of all
U.S. Public Health Dept, activities
in the territory.
However, the territory will lose
Dr. Anderson next summer, as he
has accepted the Chair of Psychi
atry at the College of Medical
Evangelists in Los Angeles and
must report for duty there on or
about that time. *
While in Nome Dr. Anderson
visited with Dr. Fred Langsam at
the MMM Hospital and expressed
his appreciation of the splendid
work Dr. Langsam has been car
rying on for the residents of the
Second Division.
Eisenhower and
Stevenson Appeal
For Their Parties
WASHINGTON, Uft—Control of
Congress appeared to be hanging
in a narrow balance today as
President Eisenhower and Adlai
E. Stevenson prepared to wind up
a blistering campaign with ap
peals for the voters to turn out in
force tomorrow.
Republicans were regarded na
tionally as fighting an uphill bat
tle to retain their present slender
control of the Senate and House,
won two years ago. Demcrats ju
bilantly were claiming they would
sweep both into their camp and
take over up to a half dozen GOP
governorships.
But there remained an air of
uncertainty about all of the pre
balloting forecasts. It was gener
ated by disputes over the effect
tiveness of strenuous last-minute
campaigning by Eisenhower and
the depth of penetration of what
the Democrats called “Red smear”
charges against some of their
candidates.
Tonight Eisenhower beams a
TV-radio appeal to the voters to
march to the polls. Nixon is to
speak from Denver.
Stevenson speaks by radio from
Chicago tonight.
Four Vessels Damaged
In Collisions During Big
Atlantic Maneuvers
NORFOLK, Va., UP)—A destroy
er rammed a submarine and two
other destroyers banged into each
other yesterday during submarine
warfare exercises in the pro-dawn
darkness off Norfolk.
None was hurt seriously but the
four vessels limped into port with
extensive damage. The two colli
sions occurred in heavy seas less
than an hour and a half apart
some 27 miles out in the Atlantic.
The ships were engaged in the
largest postwar maneuvers of the
Atlantic fleet. More than 200 ships
are taking part in the operation.
BOY SCOUTS' BUILDING
VANISHES FROM SITE
EDGWARE, England, UP)—Boy
Scouts of Edgware Troop 4 re
ported today that somebody has
stolen their headquarters.
The building, a prefabricated
structure 27 feet long and 20 feet
wide, vanished from its site Sat
urday night.
Queen Elizabeth Awarded
Honorary Degree From
Columbia University
NEW YORK, UD—Britain’s
Queen Mother Elizabeth no^r
holds high academic honors from
Columbia University—an institu
tion chartered just 200 years ago
by another royal Britisher, King
George II.
The Queen Mother was one of
48 distinguished persons to re
ceive honorary degrees from Col
umbia in an impressive academic
ceremony in the huge Cathedral
of St. John the Divine (Episcopal)
yesterday.
Hter Doctor of Laws citation de
scribed her as “a gifted musician,
accomplished linguist and under
standing student of the arts. . . .”