62nd Year No. 47_NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 1961 Per Copy 15tf
Rev .Carl Opsahl
Bible Teacher to Speak
Here Week of April 23-27
Rev. Carl Opsahl is a member
of the Commission of Evangelism
of the American Lutheran Church.
He is much in demand as a Bible
teacher and youth councellor. He
will be in Nome from April 23
through April 27 conducting a
series of special preaching serv
ices in Our Savior’s Lutheran
Church.
Rev. Opsahl is a native of Avo
ca, Minn. Two years of his aca
demic training was received al
Rockford High School and this
course was completed at Spokane
College, where he also finished
junior college work. His college
training was completed at St
Olaf College. Through Bible con
ferences held by the Lutheran
Bible Institute, the challenge to
a life of Christian service brought
him to spend a year of study at
this institute.
After his graduation from
Luther Theological Seminary,
four years were spent serving a
Home Mission Field at Lewiston,
Mont. Pastor Opsahl has also
served a parish at Jewell, Iowa,
and one at Halstad, Minn., from
where he came to join the Evan
gelism staff. Before entering the
seminary he spent three years as
a teacher at Spokane College.
He also served as an Army
Chaplain during World War II,
spending 27 months on overseas
duty.
Pastor Opsahl will be speaking
on “Life’s Great Questions” each
evening at 7:30 at Our Savior’s
Lutheran Church.
Italian and British
Embassy Telephones
Go “Out of Order”
MIAMI, Fla. W) — Telephones
of the Italian and British Embas
sies suddenly went “out of order”
today when reporters tried to
question officials of the embas
sies about conditions in Cuba.
Both embassies were reached
by telephone without difficulty.
When a call was placed to the
Italian Embassy by the Miami
Bureau of the Associated Press,
the embassy answered. When the
reporter began to ask questions
the line went dead.
Asked if the connection was still
holding, the Havana operator re
plied “the number has gone out
of order.”
The experience was similar in
a call for the British Embassy
suddenly, as the questions start
ed, there was a busy signal. The
Havana operator came on the
line. She said:
“I have verified the call. The
line has gone out of order.”
Toimci! Accepts
$80,000 Budget,
15 Mill Tax Rate
Wednesday evening was the last
night of the meetings held by the
Board of Equalization at which
time the proposed budget for the
school for 1961-1962 year was pre
sented. The budget calls for a
23 per cent increase to $80,082.25
compared to $62,579.50 last year.
The enrollment and budget sur
' vey for the next ten years shows
the need of 22 additional teach
ers for 357 additional students
with a need at that time of 45
more classrooms. For this coming
year 12 additional classrooms are
needed.
In Superinendent Potter’s re
port to the city he shows how
this estimate is arrived at with
20.3 per cent paid locally; 68.2
per cent paid by the state; 8 per
cent in Johnson-O’Malley funds
and 3.5 per cent by Public Law
874 or a grand total for next
year of $349,409.
Two other matters came before
the Board of Equalization on
changes in tax assessment. The
change requested by Cecil Chunn
was denied insomuch that the
community is to be re-assessed.
The request to exempt the resi
dence of the doctor from taxation
was denied on the recommenda
tion of the city attorney that the
property does not qualify for ex
emption under state law.
The tax rate was left at 15
mills due to the fact that a reas
sessment is planned next year.
Reports Say Castro
Incapacitated . . .
MIAMI, Fla. (iP) — Cuba Prem
ier Fidel Castro has been inca
pacitated either physically or
mentally — probably the latter—
by rebel plane bombings on Mon
day, it was reported by two or
ganizations concerned with Cu
ban affairs.
The report was made by Wen
dell Rollason, director of the In
ter American Affairs Commission
of Miami, a private group.
He said the information was
gathered by sources of his own
organization and those of the
Democratic Revolutionary Front,
one of the major anti-Castro or
ganizations.
“There have been many ques
tions as to the whereabouts of Cas
tro,” Rollason said at a news con
ference. “Castro has been inca
pacitated by bombings. He is out
of circulation with a mental or
physcial collapse. We have good
reason to believe the former is
the case.
“They are trying to get him
back on his feet. But he has not
been able physically or mentally
—whatever the case—to appear
in public.”
Rollason said that the bombing
which incapacitated Castro took
place at Lagunne Del Tesoro,
where there seemed to have been
a concentration of Castro’s troops.
Thought for Today . . .
We should be careful to get out
of an experience only the wisdom
that is in it — and stop there;
lest we be like the cat that sits
down on a hot stove lid. She will
never sit down on a hot stove
lid again — and that is well; but
also she will never sit down on
a cold one any more — Mark
Twain.
Rebels Rolclird
Invasion - Did Not
Have Air Support
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba W
—A bitter underground source
charged today anti - Castro ele
ments botched their invasion by
not providing proper air support
and by failing to seize local radio
stations and rally the masses.
The invaders made no effort
to capture local radio stations,
he said, and this, coupled with
mass arrests, left the people who
might have risen against the Cas
tro regime leaderless and be
wildered. Rebels who managed
to hole up in Oriente Province
are complaing their air support
was too little and too old, he
added.
“They were trying to furnish
air cover with B-26s,” the source
j said, “which did not have a chance
against the T-33 jets.”
The Castro regime is known
to have a number of these Ameri
i can-made trainers, which, how
| ever slow they may be compared
j to modern jets, are far superior
to World War II B-26s.
No evidence has yet reached
j this U. S. Naval Base in Eastern
Cuba that Castro forces used Rus
sian-made Mig jet fighters against
the invaders.
The government radio in Santi
ago asserted the United States was
afraid to aid the invaders because
of the Soviet Union’s military
might.
“The United States does no1
j dare intervene because of the
vastly superior forces of the
USSR, which has equipment much
j more modern than that possessed
| by the Yankees,” said the radio.
Underground sources in this
eastern end of Cuba were bitter
j about the defeat of the counter
| revolutionaries, comparing it to
I the Russian blood bath in Hun
j gary in 1958.
—
Reports Say Thousands
Of Lives Lost In
Invasion Fighting
(Editor’s Note—This dispatch
from Havana is based upon re
ports from John Bland, corres
pondent of Reuters News Agency
in the Cuban capital. Correspond
ents of the Associated Press in
Havana have so far been unable
to operate there.)
HAVANA UP) — Unconfirmed
reports reaching Havana today tell
of thousands of lives lost in the
invasion fighting in Matanzas
Province alone.
A “complete statement” on the
battle against anti-Castro forces
promised by the government is
still awaited, and the fate of Sat
urday’s landings in Oriente and
Pinar Del Rio Provinces was un
known.
The atmosphere in Havana,
apparently also in provincial
cities, is one of tension under
lying a surface calm.
There was no overt jubilation
in the streets here when the Cas
tro regime announced victory
early yesterday.
The man in the street appeared
to be in a daze, feeling out of
touch with news of the fighting.
A series of small parades
watched by small crowds wound
through Havana’s old town be
through Havana’s old town before
dawn, but there was no music.
For the most part the informal
parades consisted of horn-tooting
trucks filled with soldiers or mili
tia waving Cuban flags.
Egan Strikes Out at Opponents
Of $3.6 Million Tax Program . . .
ANCHORAGE UP) — The 1961
session of the Legislature would
have had to slash a major portion
of the state’s road program and
cut services sharply if it had not
raised taxes, Gov. Egan said last
night.
Striking out at opponents of the '
$3.6 million tax program drafted
by the Democratic leadership in j
the closing days of the session,
Egan said without the tax boost
the state would have been faced
with an operating deficit of $11.5
million in fiscal 1963.
“Can you imagine how many
dollars in taxes would have been
; necessary next year if we had
not acted this year to fill the
gap?” Egan said.
“I will tell you — taxes high
enough virtually to break the back
of every working man and busi
j ness man in Alaska.”
The state’s chief executive said
! state assumption of the entire
road program and normal growth
and development would bring on
the gap between income and the
money needed to maintain serv
ices at their current levels.
Egan said that he, as a life
long politician, knew that tax in
creases were never accepted with
: “warm popular approval.”
“But knowing what lay ahead,
j knowing what could be done to
: prevent it, I gave my full sup
1 port to the measures that were
| finally enacted.”
The Legislature boosted the
taxes on cigarettes, highway gas
oline, liquor, motor vehicle
licenses and individual net in
come.
i “To those who would have
j postponed this decision I say it
is easy to be brave from a dis
tance. It is easy to put off un
pleasant chores,” Egan said,
i “But the easy way is not always
the right way.
“The revenue measures enacted I
earlier this month will not fill j
the entire gap we will face next
year. But we estimate that with
the new revenue measures, with
some favorable land sales, and
land leasing planned for next
month, and later this year,
with some growth in existing in
French Claim
Gagarin Did Not
Make First Flight
PARIS UP) — A French radio
correspondent just returned from
Moscow today revived the claim
that Yuri Gagarin was the sec
ond man to make a space flight
and the first Russian to do so
was now unconscious in a Mos
cow hospital.
The report was broadcast by
Edouard Bobrovski, correspondent
for the French National Radio
and Television. He did not give
the source of his information.
He said the first man in space
was the son of noted aircraft
designer Serge Ilyushin. The first
space man is now “absolutely un
conscious” in a Moscow hospital,
Bobrovski said.
Bobrovski’s account was smiliar |
to a report carried by the Com- :
munist London Daily Worker the !
night before Gagarin’s flight was
announced. The Soviet press and
radio ridiculed Western specula
tion that the story of Gagarin’s
flight might have been faked.
dustries, we will be out of the
woods and the gap will be
bridged.”
The governor said that the .tax
increases passed by the 1961 Leg
islature were the first new levies
to be enacted since Alaska as
sumed statehood.
“We have been able to hold the
line on expenses for two rea
sons:
“One. we have made the most
stringent economies possible in
administration of your state
government, and two, we have
had the benefit of federal transi
tional grants wisely appropriated
by Congress to tide us over the
rocky first years.”
He said claims the fiscal 1962
budget is loaded with fat are un
; founded.
: Egan, who hasn’t signed the
budget bill yet, defied opponents
of the state spending program to
“speak up now before it’s too
late and tell me, in detail, where
they believe cuts in the budget
should be made.”
Egan has until May 1 to sign the
budget bill.
The chief executive said he was
“confident the people of Alaska,
upon hearing the full story of
why the tax increases were neces
sary, will recognize and support
the program.
Gov. Egan Won't
iMake Any Plans for
His Political Future
ANCHORAGE — Gov. Egan
last night declared he won’t make
any plans for his political future
j until after the 1962 legislative
i session is completed,
i The governor’s post will be up
for grabs in the November, 1962
! election. Some reports indicated
Egan will seek re-election, others
that he may shoot for a U. S.
Senate seat and still others that
he may drop out of politics for
at least some time.
But Egan, who has been making
the rounds of clubs and various
groups here in the true political
style, said he is just attempting
to “get around and inform the
people” what the administration
is doing.
“I’ve been too busy to really
think about future plans,” he
stated.
Egan also said he expects the
budget to be the major legislative
battleground through fiscal 1964.
After that he sees improvement
in the state’s financial picture.
The reason for his prediction
of better financial health is an
ticipated increased oil lease reve
nues from higher per-acre de
velopment of timber and mineral
resources among other items.
THE WEATHER
Snow and blowing snow with
easterly winds 25-35 mph changing
to southerly and decreasing 10
15 mph this afternoon. Rain with
mixed snow tonight. Low tonight
25-30, high tomorrow 30-38. In the
last 24 hours as of 7:00 a. m. to
day: Piecip. .28 inch. High temp,
of 19, low of 4. Maximum wind
39 mph from the east. Sunrise
at 4:07 a. m., sunset at 7:56 p. m.
Temperatures a year ago today:
High of 14, low of -3. Extremes
on this date since 1907: High of
42 in 1940, low of -20 in 1924.
In Nenana today it was cloudy
and had a temperature of 24.