m NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_
VOL. LXIII No. 13 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1961_Per Copy 15^
The Senate Delves 1
i
Further Into Audit
Committee Reports
JUNEAU, UR — The Senate
delved further today into Legis- |
lative Audit Committee reports
which were highly critical of the
bookkeeeping methods of the
State Division of Aviation.
The upper chamber, for the
second day in a row, resolved it
self into a committee of the whole
to carry out the probe.
Yesterday’s session dealt pri
marily with an Audit Committee
report which claimed that the
Division of Aviation had illegal
ly transferred $75,000 from a fis
cal 1960 appropriation back to the
1959 fiscal year.
Only once during the two hour
session did the committee touch
on a statement by Legislative Au
dit Committee chairman John
Coghill that his auditors were un
able to locate the airport con
struction revolving fund in the
division’s “inauditable” records.
Coghill’s statement, made last
week, touched off a sharp ex
change of words between the Ne
nana Republican and Democratic
Gov. Egan over the weekend,
with Egan claiming the divi
sion’s books were in order.
While Coghill claimed yester
day he had never once used a
specific figure in reference to
the amount of money which
should be in the fund, the figure
of $2 million was used in orig
inal reports of Coghill’s state
ment and in Egan’s reply.
Asked specifically if the Leg
islative Audit Committee had lo
cated the revolving fund in the
Aviation Division’s books, Cog
hill replied: “Not yet.”
The Senate, which on Monday
had voted to keep the session
secret, reversed itself and opened
the meeting to the public and
to the press.
But, whatever value yesterday’s
session might have had in bring
ing accounting method by the Di
vision of Aviation was lost when
the Senate:
1. Failed to provide for a full
transcription of remarks made
during the meeting, and
2. Failed to swear in witnesses.
AIR FORCE WILL HOLD
"OPERATION JACKRABBIT"
SAN ANTONIO, Tex. UR — The
Air Force goes into battle Satur
day against jackrabbits.
Kelly Air Force Base plans to
use a cordon of airmen to drive
the rabbits into an area at one
end of the runways area where
Air Police will dispatch them
with guns.
Officials say the rabbits have
created a hazard to takeoffs and
landings. Another menace is the
buzzards and hawks attracted by
carcasses of rabbits hit by planes.
More than 2,000 rabbits were
killed in a similar one-day cam
paign 18 months ago but rabbits,
being rabbits, have quickly taken
over again.
RED CHINA BLASTS JFK'*
STATE OF UNION MESSAGE
TOKYO tft — Red China bast
ed President Kennedy’s State of
the Union Message, contending it
was a war-mongering document
aimed at spurring economic and
cultural aggression. The attack
from the New China News Agen
cy, official organ of the Peiping
regime, was the first Red China
reaction.
Mother’s
March Tonight
O
The Explorer Scouts will sub
stitute for their mothers to
night and will give their time
from 7 until 8 o’clock for the
March of Dimes.
The Mother’s March is an an
nual part of the March of Dimes
and is the one time in the year
when everyone can participate
by having their contribution
ready for the boys during the
hour indicated. The participat
ing Explorers will be wearing
Mother’s Tags and will bring
to each home copies of the
One Minute Health Quiz and
some information on arthritis.
Be ready with your dimes or
dollars when the boys knock
on your door!
JFK Makes Plans
To Attack the
Business Slump
WASHINGTON UP! — President
Kennedy today announced plans
to attack the business slump by
lowering maximum interest rates
on FHA mortgages, paying G. I.
life insurance dividends ahead of
schedule and starting an experi
mental food stamp plan.
He also announced plans to re
move, as soon as arrangements
can be completed, restrictions
placed on dependents accompany
ing military personnel overseas.
In addition, Kennedy told his
second news conference that he
does not believe at this time that
the business setback is serious
enough to justify a tax cut.
The President said he has
directed that the maximum in
terest rate on home mortgages
insured by the Federal Housing
Administration be lowered from
5Y4 to 5Vfe per cent. This would
be a move to stimulate housing.
Kennedy discussed the business
situation after announcing that he
will scrap former President Ei
senhower’s order on military de
pendents overseas.
Kennedy said Secretary of De
fense Robert S. McNamara has
worked out arrangements for cor
responding savings of dollars
abroad. The restriction on de
pendents accompanying service
men was one of several meas
ures Eisenhower ordered to stem
the outflow of dollars.
More than 380 newsmen had
gathered for Kennedy’s second
nationally televised conference.
At the request of Mrs. Kennedy,
he announced that he and the
First Lady had received more
than 100,000 messages and con
gratulations and they were still
piling up.
They couldn’t answer them all,
Kennedy said, so he took this op
portunity to express their appre
ciation.
Kennedy also anounced that
five pilot projects would be set
up for food stamps in areas of
most chronic unemployment.
Under the usual food stamp
plan, persons on relief are given
stamps which they can use for
food purchases at grocery stores.
Kennedy did not disclose details
of the plan now being started.
WEATHER FORECAST
Continued fair. Low tonight
-5, High tomorrow 0, In the last
24 hours: High of 21, Low of 3.
Sunrise at 8:45 a. m., sunset at
3:47 p. m.
Kennedy Will Ask
Congress For
Extra Revenue
By Jack Bell
WASHINGTON W — President
Kennedy has told Democratic
leaders he will ask Congress for
additional revenue to match any
new spending requests that could
be blamed for unbalancing the
Eisenhower budget.
Kennedy has made it clear he
feels former President Eisen
hower left behind a budget that
cannot be balanced without an un
expected upturn in the nation’s
economy.
The President was represented
as being determined to make it
clear that if there is a deficit
in the year beginning July 1, the
preceding Republican Adminis
tration will have to take its share
of the blame.
Kennedy told his party chief
tains at a White House conference
yesterday he has ordered his
economic advisers to analyze pub
lished estimates that revenues
may fall $5 billion below the
$82.3-billion figure set by Eisen
hower.
As a further complication, an
upsurge of foreign aid purchases
in the summer and fall months
of 1960 — presumably to bolster
the economy — may make it
necessary for Kennedy to ask
supplemental funds to keep the
overseas pipelines from running
dry.
Faced with what he regards as
a left-over deficit, Kennedy em
phasized that he will not add to I
this by asking for additional
spending without matching rev
enue.
In this connection, he is ex
pected to renew Eisenhower’s
recommendations for postal rate
increases and a half-cent a gal
lon boost in the federal gasoline
tax.
Cuban Military Tribunal
Sentences Six Americans
To 30-Year Prison Terms
HAVANA UFi — Six American
adventurers, who faced possible
execution as conspirators against
Fidel Castro’s regime, have been
sentenced to 30 years imprison
ment.
The Americans were sentenced
yesterday, three days after their
trial before a military tribunal.
Castro himself reportedly had
been weighing the verdict.
Their sentences, the maximum
prison terms under Cuban law,
were interpreted here as the
Castro regime’s reaction to Pres
ident Kennedy’s denudation in
his State of the Union Message
Monday of Communist influence in
Cuba. Defense attorneys said
they will appeal.
LINER SANTA MARIA WILL
DOCK IN RECIFE, BRAZIL
BRASILIA, Brazil UPi — Capt.
Henrique Galvao messaged Presi
dent Quadros today that he has
decided to sail the captive Port
uguese liner Santa Maria into the
port of Recife.
Galvao, in a radiogram from
the liner lying three miles off
Recife, said:
“I trust the honorable word of
the Brazilian President.”
He expressed belief that Presi
dent Quadros would abide by in
ternational law. This, by some
interpretations, would call for
Quadros’ government to take
over the Santa Maria in behalf
of its Portuguese owners.
“Ham,” the Amiable Space Chimp
Is Reported to Be in Excellent Shape
By Alton Blakeslee
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. UP^
Ham, the amiable space chimp,
arrived home by plane today some
25 hours after pioneering a jolt
ing rocket trip a bit out of this
world.
He is due for thorough check
ups to learn if there are any
danger signals against man going
into space.
He was fished from the sea
yesterday after his rocket ride
carrying him 155 miles high and
420 miles downrange into the
South Atlantic.
The largest animal ever sent
aloft. Ham’s trip carried several
main significances:
1. It indicates manned space
flight is feasible. An American
Astronaut is scheduled this spring
to duplicate Ham’s daring flight.
2. The Soviets appear likely to
win the race to be first to orbit
a man around the earth.
3. A very slight mis-firing in
the rocket system hurling out
Ham’s capsule may well require
further tests with or without a
chimp aboard, before a man goes
up. But this also produced valu
able dividends.
5. Ham himself is reported in
excellent shape, a smart 37 pounds
of amiability.
He Shakes Hands
Plucked from the sea by a heli
copter from the USS Donner, he
shook hands with the veterin
arian greeting him when his one
ton space capsule was unlocked
three hours after launching.
His flight was one of graduated,
stops in a National Aeronautics
and Space Administration program
hopefully intended to put an
American Astronaut into several
round trips about the earth in
1961.
In a big first step, Ham twice
felt the crushing weight of in
creased gravity. Taking off, he
weighed seven times more than
on earth, and on coming down at
a 5,000-mile per hour clip into
the atmosphere was subjected to
forces 12 times normal gravity.
But, also, for about seven min
utes he felt no weight at all in
free fall as he lay strapped on a
couch within a capsule exactly
like that built to carry a man
aloft.
All this didn’t bother his senses,
judging from early analysis of in
formation radioed down to earth,
said NASA oficials. Ham had to
press levers within certain time
limits or else get an electric
shock. Partial checks so far show
he never got a shock.
Samos II Circling
The Globe; Top
Military Secret
POINT ARGUEULO. Calif. UP—
Samos II is circling the globe
every 95 minutes today on a
pioneer mission which may lead to
a whole system of United States
electronic military scouts.
The ultimate goal of the pro
gram is to be able to make de
tailed photographs of any point
on earth and thus detect a build
up by a potential foe.
The mission is so secret that
the Air Force won’t even con
firm that the satellite, launched
yesterday, will radio pictures
back to earth. The orbiting ve
hicle is equipped with cameras
to photograph ground terrain and
sensors to record electro-magnetic
radiation.
It can be made to transmit in
formation as it passes over sta
tions where data can be repro
duced, stored, integrated and in
terpreted by automatic display
equipment.
Signals from Samos II were
being picked up by tracking and
telemetry stations at Vandenberg
Air Force Base at Oahu, Hawaii
and at Kodiak, Alaska.
Rep. Stalker Would
Halt Nuclear Tests
At Cape Thompson
JUNEAU W) — A measure ask
ing that all action be halted on
a nuclear test explosion project
in the Cape Thompson area until
assurances are made as to the
safety of the people in the area
was introduced in the House to
day.
The resolution, sponsored by
Rep. Jacob Stalker of Kotzebue,
asked that the Atomic Energy
Commission give, “scientifically
based assurances” that no harm
would come as a result of the
test to the residents of the vil
lages or to the fish, game and
other resources in the area.
Chlorine Gas Terrorizes
Louisiana Community
NEW ROADS, La. UR — Eight
persons, their lungs badly seared
from chlorine gas which terror
ized the tiny farm and lumber
comunity of nearby Labarre,
fought for their lives in a hos
pital today.
Whiffs of the chlorine gas,
which escaped from a railway
tank car derailed yesterday, still
hung in the air but the area is
now considered safe.
A chemist said the ground was
saturated with chlorine and it
would “take a long time to wear
out.” The area was covered with
soda ash and liquid caustic acid
to neutralize the deadly green
gas.
Seventeen people remain hos
pitalized, eight of them in “very
critical condition.”
The victims are likely to con
tract chemical pneumonia on the
second day, doctors told news
men.
The gas killed an 11-month old
boy and sent about 100 people to
hospitals and clinics, Scores of
farm animals were killed.
Eighteen cars of a Kansas City
Southern Freight piled up on the
Louisiana and Arkansas tracks
along State Highway 1.
Officers and volunteers, real
izing chlorine gas was involved,
began warning residents to seek
high ground to escape the fumes.
GOP LISTS SEVERAL
NOMINEES FOR GOVERNOR
IN CALIFORNIA
SACRAMENTO, Calif. UR —
Republican State Chairman John
Krohbiel of Pasadena says movie
actor Ronald Reagan is a possi
ble GOP candidate for California
governor in 1962.
At a news conference yesterday
he listed other possibilities in
cluding former Gov. Goodwin
Knight and Mayor George Chris
topher of San Francisco.
He also said former Vice Pres
ident Richard M. Nixon hasn’t
been ruled out.