se NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL, ^X~"nTi1~NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 1958 Per Copy—15*
U.S. Now Has ‘Electronic Shield’
To Protect Supersonic Bombers .
From Any Attacking Missiles
By LIEF ERICKSON
SAN MATEO, Calif., UR — An
American supersonic bomber now
flying can surround itself with a
shield of electronics to ward off
any attacking missiles.
The automatic defense system
being built into Convair’s new
B-58 Hustler is one of the most
spectacular applications of elec
tronics in defense, President Don
G. Mitchell of Sylvania Elec
Ironic Products, Inc., said last
night.
“It has flown and it works,”
Mitchell told reporters.
The electronic shield against
guided or homing anti - aircraft
missiles clearly will increase in
important measure the attack
effectiveness of manned super
sonic bombers.
I Until ballistic missiles now de
I veloping actually are proved as
operational weapons, such man
ned aircraft as the B-58 will re
main the nation’s major war wea
pon. Ho\fc long that may be is
not certain.
Sylvania designed and devel
oped the electronic countermea
sure system for protecting the
supersonic B-58, with an announ
ced speed of 1,130 miles an hour,
against missile interception.
A report on how it works and
how it has been tested awaits
security clearance in the Penta
gon. In essence, however, the
shield system generates an elec
tro-magnetic field around the air
craft that fouls up, disrupts and
jams the guiding systems of ap
proaching missiles.
AFRS Will Operate
Around the Clock
From Anchorage
Starting Monday, AFRS will
operate out of Anchorage head
quarters over the new White
Alice hook-up, it was announced
today.
AFRS' will be on the air 24
hours a day, around the clock,
with programs planned by pro
fessionals.
Sgt. Pebble will be the only
man on duty here, and will take
care of the transmitter which will
remain in the Wallace Hotel, its
present location.
The new program schedule will
be published soon and will in
clude news broadcasts every
hour.
The present request program
will be discontinued but anyone
wishing to send in requests may
do so by addressing them to
AFRS, APO 942, Inter Alaska.
Bartlett Predicts
The Passage Of
Statehood Bill By
‘Large Majority’
WASHINGTON, UP> — Delegate
Bartlett today predicted the Al
aska statehood bill will come be
fore the House for action “within
the next five or six weeks.”
He also predicted the House
would approve the bill “by a
large majority” and would de
feat any attempt to add state
hood legislation for Hawaii to the
Alaska bill.
Bartlett declined to state on
what he based his prediction of
early House action, but presum
ably it resulted from confer
ences he has held with House
leaders.
Noting that the bill still must
■clear the House Rules Commit
tee headed by Rep. Smith (D-Va),
a statehood opponent, the Alas
kan said “This won’t be easy but
I think it can be arranged.”
Bartlett said an effort to add
Hawaii to the Alaska bill “very
likely” will be made during the
House consideration of the bill.
“The main purpose of this will
be, of course, to defeat statehood
for both territories.”
Meanwhile, Alaska’s Gov. Mike
Stepovich reported Senate Re
publican leader Knowland of
California had pledged his
“whole-hearted support for state
hood for Alaska” during a brief
meeting yesterday.
7-Hour Railroad Walk-oul
Ties Up N.Y. Central
NEW YORK, W) — A wildcat
strike against, part of the New
York Central Rairoad was called
off this morning—7 hours after
it began.
But in those 7 hours the walk
out completely stalled long dis
tance operations on the system—
one of the nation’s biggest. It
was denounced by the national
union—but it took a federal court;
order to get the men back to j
work. In the meantime — no
trains.
| U. S. and Britain Report Promising
Results from Experiments to Harness.
H-Bomb Reaction for Peaceful Use
WASHINGTON, UP) — The
United States and Britain report
ed today both have achieved
“fruitful and promising results”
in experiments aimed at harness
ing the H-bomb reaction to pro
duce industrial electric power.
But both countries, in simul
taneously ..released statements,
made it clear that any attain
ment of such an objective is
many years away.
At the same time, Chairman
Lewis I. Strauss of the U. S. At
omic Energy Commission, said
the scientific reports by the two
countries show that “certain com
parative observations which have
been published in recent weeks
about British and U.S. progress
in this field . . . have been not
only misleading but lacking in
j any foundation of fact.”
Strauss’ statement obviously re
ferred to some British press re
ports that Britain had forged
ahead of the United States in the
research several months ago but
that Strauss had exerted pressure
to delay any announcement of it
until the United States could
catch up.
Today’s scientific reports actu
ally showed that each country
had achieved a certain result
which the other had not.
The U.S. reported achievement
of temperatures higher than those
reported by the British—six mil
ion centigrade against five mil
lion. The British, on the other
hand, reported sustaining the
temperatures for a longer period
of time—for thousandths of sec
onds as compared with millionths
of a second reported by the U.S.
United Auto Workers
Vote $50 Million Strike
Fund Before Wage Talks
DETROIT, —A special con
vention of United Auto Workers
today approved a 50 million dollar
strike fund to back up the union’s
profit - sharing demands in 1958
bargaining talks.
UAW President Walter Reuther
announced the union’s general
strike program was approved by
a 99 per cent vote.
At the same time the delegates
approved a proposal to rebate
special strike dues in the event
there is no major strike this year.
In debating the strike fund
plan, some delegates insisted 50
million dollars would not be
enough.
Delegate Kenneth Turner of
the Flint, Mich., Fisher Body
plant, said “slingshots and pea
shooters aren’t sufficient. We
have to be armed with elephant
guns.”
A
Army Acknowledges Russians Have
Launched Intercontinental Missiles
WASHINGTON, UPi—The Army
acknowledged today there is no
longer any doubt the Soviets have
fired an intercontinental ballistic
missile.
“There isn’t any doubt about
the fact that the Russians have
launched and fired at least one
and possibly two long-range, that
is, intercontinental ballistic mis
siles,” Army Secretary Brucker
told the House Armed Services
Committee Tuesday. The rest of
his testimony was deleted from
published transcript.
At another point, however, the
Secretary said he thinks the U.S.
is “just about on a par” in the
development of long-range mis
siles and ahead in the general
field of shorter range guided mis
siles.
Brucker told the committee the
Army “very soon” will try to
launch a satellite with a Jupiter
C missile. He strongly implied the
Army will try to avoid publicity
on the attempt. Failure of the
Navy’s Vanguard rocket in its
first try to carry a satellite into
space touched off a roaring con
troversy as to whether too much
advance publicity aggravated the
damage to U.3. prestige.
Navy Calls Off Search
For Missing Planes
HONOLULU, UR—‘The eight-day
search for a missing weather
plane and her crew of 10 was
officially called off Thursday. The
Air Force WB-50 disappeared on
Jan. 15 while flying into the eye
of a typhoon near Guam.
The hunt for another aircraft
missing in the Pacific, a Military
Air Transport plane, was abon
doned at sundown Wednesday.
Summerfield Urges Postal Rate Hike
To Offset $700 Million Annual Deficit
Hoffa Takes Over
Teamsters Union
On Compromise
WASHINGTON, (£> — James R.
Hoffa took over as president of
the giant Teams'ters Union today
on a compromise court settlement
that wiped out charges he had
been elected by a rigged conven
tion.
Hoffa will have to work for
at least a year with a three-man
board of monitors. He is under
no obligation, under the settle
ment, to take any of their advice,
but the board must report to the
court which retained jurisdiction
over the case.
Hoffa said the Teamsters na
tional executive board will meet
here the first week in February
to decide its stand on the AFL
CIO, which has expelled the
Teamsters on corruption charges.
The federation labeled Hoffa a
corrupting influence after Senate
Rackets Committee disclosures
linked him to alleged union fund
abuses. It said the Teamsters
can’t re-enter the AFL-CIO so
long as Hoffa is in power.
Hoffa succeeds retiring presi
dent Dave Beck, himself linked
to union rackets disclosures.
30 U.S. Pacific Service
Commanders To Hold
Conference In Hawaii
HONOLULU, UP — Thirty gen
erals and admirals with com
mands ranging from the Far East
to the mid-Pacific will meet here
Jan. 27-29 to discuss defense of
the United States’ vast Pacific
Command.
All the military services will
be represented in what may be
the largest meeting of high rank
ing officers in Hawaii’s history.
The conference was called by
Adm. Felix B. Stump, command
er-in-chief, Pacific.
> WASHINGTON, UR — Post
master General Summerfield said
today that if Congress does not
raise postal rates soon it may be
necessary to ask another five bil
lion dollar increase in the na
tional -debt ceiling.
This would be in addition to
the five billion increase to 280
billion which the House passed
yesterday.
Summerfield told the Senate
Post Office Committee the postal
deficit has totaled six billion dol
lars since the end of World War
II. It is running now at a 70®
million dollar annual rate and
soon will be a billion a year if
rates are not raised, he said.
Summerfield appeared before
the committee to urge adoption
of Eisenhower’s recommendation
that the rate on all except local
letters be made 5 cents instead
of the present 3.
The President proposed this as
an amendment to a House-passed
bill, now before the Senate Com
mittee, which would boost the
letter stamp to 4 cents.
Summerfield said a split rate
on letters is feasible. He explain
ed that the 4 cent stamp would
suffice for letters originating
. within a post office district for
I delivery in that district, with the
J 5 cents applying to all others.
Walter Pierce of
College to Oppose
Delegate Bartlett
FAIRBANKS — A proponent
of commonwealth status for Alas
ka, Walter H. Pierce of College,
has announced he has sent to the
director of finance at Juneau a
declaration of candidacy to run
for delegate to Congress on the
Republican ticket.
Pierce, a 44-year-old civil en
gineer who formerly taught at
the University of Alaska, is now
employed on the Federal Electric
Qo., DEW Line project.
He is the only Republican can
didate thus far in the race. The
incumbent, E. L. Bartlett, Demo
crat, filed more than a month ago.
Chou Refused Pleas of
Three American Mothers
For Released Of Sons
KONG KONG, UP — Premier
Chou En-Lai of Red China turned
down the plea of three American
mothers for the release of their
imprisoned sons but held out the
prospect of clemency later.
Peiping radio said Chou told
the mothers, who flew to China
to see their sons, that the gov
ernment showed leniency to those
who are well behaved while serv
ing sentences.
The mothers are Mrs. Ruth
Redmond of Yonkers, N.Y., Mrs.
Jessie Fecteau of Lynn, Mass.,
and Mrs. Mary Downey of New
Britain, Conn.
Hugh Redmond, a fonher
Shanghai businessman, is serving
a life sentence in a Shanghai pri
son on a charge of spying. Rich
ard Fecteau is serving 20 years
and John Downey life, in a Piep
ing prison on spying charges.