THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
NOME, ALASKA
Telephone Main 125 $1.50 PER MONTH
P.O. Box 610 $16.00 A YEAR
E. P. BOUCHER . Managing Editor
CLINTON GRAY . Production Manager
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the
post office at Nome. Alaska, under Act o^ March 3. 1879.
Subscribers not receiving their paper by 5:30 p.m. cal',
Main 125 for special delivery. After 5:30 call Black 102.
WAIT TILL THINGS START WARMING UP
Ready With Dimes
F’S TIME FOR THE annual Mother’s March of
Dimes, and this year again the Explorer Scouts
of Post 766 are taking'over the task for their mothers,
and will canvass the town.
So have your light on, and your dimes or dollars
ready on Thursday evening from 7 o’clock until 9,
so that the volunteers may complete their project as
readily as possible.
The chances are that sometime next summer the
alarming news will be published of another child being
stricken here with polio; or another child born with
birth defects; or another adult rendered helpless with
arthritis.
Be glad that you gave a share of the funds that
make possible the care for those stricken, and funds
for continued study to eliminate such suffering.
The City’s Power-Rate Problem
TDNIGHT’S MEETING of the City Council will be
a very important one, for various plans will be
heard concerning the Power and Light Utilities rates.
In 1954, the people of this community voted to
'buy a privately-owned business, with the belief that
under city man&gement the rates could be lowered
somewhat, to relieve the high cost of living.
Recently, new rates were put into effect, which
has caused hardship on those using a large amount of
power, which includes business houses, the hospital,
and other institutions.
Some change must be made to alleviate this con
dition, and to fulfill the purpose for which the City
went into the power business. There are radical plans
and some very conservative plans being aired, some
of which will be voiced tonight.'
Any compromise should bring relief for the heavy
power users and still provide funds to meet the neces
sary obligations of the company.
’Dozers Raise Dikes To
Stem Advancing Lava
On Hawaii Island
HONOLULU, IjP) — Bulldozer's
are raising the dikes which Sun
day turned the flow of lava from
Kilauea volcano back to its orig
inal channel.
The lava-filled lake back of the
dikes brimmed over Saturday on
the Island of Hawaii and de
stroyed four buildings with the
help of falling red-hot cinders
the size of softballs.
The villages of Kapoho and
Koae, evacuated before the 12
day eruption began, have lost five
homes, a church and a community
center. Damage is estimated, un
officially at four million dollars. :
GLUE POT
Soda Fountain
CIGARS, CIGARETS
TOBACCO
CANDY
FRESH ICE CREAM
EVERY DAY
Airliner Circles Pittsburgh
Airport 2lA Hours With
Faulty Landing Gear
PITTSBURGH, UPl — An East
ernAirlines four-engine plane
landed safely at Greater Pitts
burgh Airport Saturday after 2Vfe
tension filled hours of circling
with apparent landing gear
trouble.
. Passengers aloft and anxious
relatives and friends on the
ground prayed while disaster pre
cautions were made. A long run
way covered with an inch of snow
was sprayed with foam.
“If anyone ever tells you there’s
such a thing as an atheist, don't
believe him,” said John Astrov,
27-year-old Weirton, W. Va., res
ident, who was one of the first
passengers to leave the ship.
There were 27 passengers and
five crew members aboard when
the tension began a few minutes
before a scheduled landing in the
darkness about 6 a.m. The plane
landed at 8:35 in clear weather.
PIOYEER
W A T E R
DELIVERY
MAIN 14
Pure Natural Water -
_
Ship Construction
Stalled by East
Coast Strike
QUINCY, Mass., W — Work
on a billion dollars worth of ship
construction — including -three nu
clear powered vessels — halted
Saturday as a strike by Bethle
hem Steel Co. shipbuilders spread
along the East Coast.
More than 17,000 workers at
nine Bethlehem plants were ex
pected to be affected by the walk
out, which began Friday at Ho
boken, N. J., and jumped to West
Milton, N. Y., and Quincy Sat
urday. Some 12,250 employes al
ready were involved in the dis
i pute.
Minor violence occurred at the
Quincy plant shortly after mid
! night Friday when two newsmen
attempted to enter the yard to
talk with supervisory employes.
Pickets pushed the newsmen back
through a gate and tore up notes
taken by one reporter. Peaceful
picketing then resumed.
The union’s contract with Beth
lehem expired July 31. A union
spokesman said the basic griev
ances are seniority and call-in
pay. Wage increases had not been
discussed, he said.
NOME SANITARY
SERVICE
Phone Main 1
P. o. Box 460
Medical Check-Up of Newborn
Done in First Minute of Life
The first 60 seconds for
the newborn infant can be
the most crucial moment in
its life. It is at this fleeting
instant of time that doctors
or nurses in hospital deliv
ery rooms must determine
clinically whether the child
is normally healthy or seri
ously ill.
In the latter case, since ill
babies can fail with split-sec
ond rapidity at this point,
treatment mu^t begin at once.
Since speed is essential, the
need for a simple, quick meth
od of clinical evaluation is
obvious.
Dr. Virginia Apgar, chief of
the division of congenital mal
formations of The National
Foundation, parent organiza
tion -of the New March of
Dimes, began in 1952 to devel
op just such a method. What
■ she invented is a mathematical
approach now being used in
hospitals in the United States
and abroad. It js called the
“Apgar Score.” It can be done
in five seconds or less.
Dr. Apgar, former professor
of anesthesiology at Columbia
University’s College of Physi
cians and Surgeons, recently
joined The National Founda
tion to take a leading role in its
attack on birth defects, the na
tion’s biggest unmet childhood
medical problem. Together
with arthritis and polio, two
other major cripplers, birth de
fects is a target for the New
March of Dimes in 1960.
Starts at 55 Seconds
The “Apgar Score” is a kind
of medical “countdown.” It is
started when the baby is 55 sec
onds old and completed when
it is 60 seconds or sooner. It in
volves determining the rate of
the heart beat, the respiratory
effort, muscle tone, reflexes
and skin color. A catheter and
a stethoscope are the only in
struments needed.
In the evaluation, the heart
rate is recorded as “absent,”
“slow” or “normal” (100 per
minute and over). Respiratory
effort can be “absent,” “slow
and irregular” or “good”—
which usually means the baby
is in full cry. Muscle tone is
marked “limp,” “some flexing
of extremities” or ‘in active
normal motion.”
For checking reflexes, the
catheter tickles the inside of
the nose, or the feet are
Dr. Virginia Apgar is shown here doing the "Apgar Score" on a
newborn infant. It is a five-second evaluation method to determine
whether the baby is a normal, healthy child or seriously ill. Dr.
Apgar is chief of the division of congenital malformations (birth
defects) for The National Foundation, parent organization of the
New March of Dimes.
brushed quickly. Both methods
are valid. The first method pro
duces no response at all, a
grimace of the features, or a
sudden cough or sneeze. The
second produces no response,
some increase in breathing, or
a healthy yell. Color of the
skin ranges from pale blue,
through pink with blue ex
tremities, to pink all over.
“10” is Perfect
On the “Apgar Score" an in
fant can score from zero to 10
in these tests. A score of zero,
one or two is given for each
sign observed. Thus, 10 indi
cates a baby in perfect condi
tion, zero a very sick one. If
the total score is four or less,
resuscitation is begun at once
either mechanically or by
mouth. It is a tribute to modern
medicine and surgery, as well
as to the “Apgar Score,” that
70 per cent of babies with a
score of zero—meaning that
there is not even a heart beat—
are saved.
Dr. Apgar developed her
method at the Sloane Hospital
for Women in New York,
where a total of 25,000 babies
were given the test. About 70
per cent scored between eight
and 10; 24 per cent between
three and seven; and only six
per cent between zero and two.
1 in 16 Hit by Defect
Significant birth defects oc
cur in one out of every 16 in
fants, or a total of 250,000 each
year, Dr. Apgar points out. She
states that these congenital
malformations generally devel
op during the first 12 weeks of
pregnancy and usually in the
first eight weeks. “After gight
weeks there is little chance of
faulty developments," she says.
Knowing that birth defects
are a common cause of worry
among prospective mothers. Dr.
Apgar strives to banish a num
ber of "old wives tales” asso
ciated with the subject.
She insists, for instance, that
there is no evidence that “an
emotional upset” during preg
nancy has any effect on the de
velopment of the unborn baby.
German measles caught by the
mother during pregnancy were
once thought to cause abnormal
infants without exception. Now
it is estimated that this hap
pens only in about 30 Der cent
of cases.