as NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LIX No. 100 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1957 Per Copy—15^
HEARINGS OPEN SEPTMBER 16
ON ALASKA HEALTH CONTRACT
WITH MORNINGSIDE HOSPITAL
JUNEAU, WP>—A congressional
subcommittee has scheduled pub
lic hearings opening Sept. 16 on
Alaska’s health contract' with
Morningside Hospital.
The governor’s office said yes
terday it had been informed the
Morningside Hospital hearings
would be held at Portland, Ore.,
with the committee scheduled to
open additional hearings here on
Sept. 23 on the Alaska Native
Service.
The hospital at Portland cares
for Alaska mental patients on a
contract basis. Earlier this year
several congressmen called for an
investigation of a report by the
controller general’s office which
questioned the charges made by
the institution.
ANS Hearing Sept. 23-24
The hearings on the native ser
vice have been scheduled here
Sept. 23-24.
The congressmen will examine
the administration of the Alaska
loan program under Wheeler
Howard Act funds, which provide
for support of native industries.
The 1957 Territorial Senate
unanirfiously passed a resolution
asking for a congressional inves
tigation of the Wheeler-Hoard act
administration by the native ser
vice.
Alaska is scheduled to continue
using the facilities of Morning
side Hospital at Portland until a
major mental health hospital and
other treatment centers can be
built in the territory.
Hospital for Anchorage
Alaska has been fully respon
sible for the administration of
mental care since July 1. The U.S.
Public Health Service already has
approved construction of a $6 mil
lion hospital at Anchorage. But
no date has been set for the start
of the building program.
The town council of Valdez has
proposed the mental treatment
contract with Morningside be
cancelled immediately. It propos
es the mental patients now at
Morningside be transferred to
Valdez until the territory’s own
treatment centers have been con
structed.
Valdez Mayor William Pettit
said the city’s vacant—but virtu
ally new—hospital and its 48-unit
Harborview Apartments could
handle temporary care for Alas
ka’s mentally ill.
The hospital, completed two
years ago but closed later when
the community was unable to
support it, has 15 beds.
Robert Stevenson
Is New Territorial
Tax Commissioner
JUNEAU (J*>—Robert D. Steven
son was named territorial tax
commissioner today in the first
major appointment of the new
administration of Gov. Stepovich.
Stevenson, a 37-year-old ac
countant who has lived in Juneau
for eight years, succeeds Karl F.
Dewey in this important Alaska
government post.
Dewey, former Nome business
man before his appointment to
tax commissioner by former Gov.
Heintzleman, earlier had sought
endorsement from the GOP Cen
tral Committee for appointment
to governor.
The new commissioner, a dep
uty under Dewey, has headed the
tax department since Dewey was
stricken by a heart attack in Feb
ruary.
Stevenson’s appointment to the
$12,000-a-year job is subject
to confirmation by the next legis
lature. He will hold his post on
an interim basis until the 1959
lawmakers can act.
Princess Margaret, 27, Gets Much
Advice On Getting a Husband
By EDDIE GILMORE
LONDON (51—Princess Margar
et became 27 today with no pros
pective husband in sight but with
plenty of advice that it’s not too
late to hope.
Completely recovered from a
cold, the pretty princess celebrat
ed her birthday at a castle in the
highlands orf Scotland.
But here in London, advisers
to the lovelorn in the newspapers
chorused feminine advice to the
most eligible girl in the world
that 27 is not too old to abandon
hope.
One lady writer pointed out
that a former occupant of Prin
cess Margaret’s Clarence House
home—Princess Patricia of Con
naught—didn’t ankle down the
aisle until she was 33. Then it
was with a commoner.
Another lady writer put it thus:
“Several of our own royal la
dies married later than was once
customy. The Dutchess of Glou
cester was 33, the Duchess of
Kent 27, and the late Queen mar
ried when she was a month away
from her 27th birthday.”
Still another, comforting Mar
garet with the observation that
English girls age very slowly,
volunteered this philosophy:
“In the mild, merciful mists of
England where happily—unlike
the Mediterranean countries—
there is no brazen sunshine to
make a woman mature at 15 and
an old crone -at 30, the late 20s
are often a time when a woman
is at her best.”
There can be little doubt about
Margaret’s beauty and charm at
27. She has a pair of fluttery blue
eyes, long lashes, a movie star’s
figure, talent, humor and a cheer
ful heart. Also, she’s rich in her
own right.
COST OF LIVING
SURVEY IS BEING
MADE HERE
Gertrude Finch, representative
of Joe Ward and Associates of
Seattle, is in town making a cost
of-living survey for the Alaska
Resources Development Board.
Last year her company conducted
a survey in southeastern, western
and interior Alaska, showing
comparative living costs.
The survey includes cost of
food, rent and other necessities.
She will be interviewing mer
chants and purveyors of services
in the community.
6th Fleet Ready
In Mediterranean
WASHINGTON, UP)—’The Navy
reported today most of the 6th
Fleet is carrying out long planned
maneuvers in the western Medi
terranean but is ready if neces
sary to change course eastward.
The location of the fleet was
disclosed in response to inquiries
concerning possible moves in con
nection with the developments in
Syria in the eastern Mediterra
nean area.
The striking force of the 6th
Fleet is built around'two aircraft
carriers, the Franklin D. Roose
velt and the Randolph. The fleet
has twc^ cruisers and a number of
destroyers and supporting vessels.
REDS’ AIM IN SYRIA
IS SOVIET CONTROL,
SAYS EISENHOWER
Syria Claims U.S.
Plotted Assassinations
By Angelo Nalale
DAMASCUS, Syria, Iff)—Syria’s
new army chief of staff says that
“gangsters made in America”
plotted to kill’him and other Syr
ian military leaders.
The alleged mass assassination
plan, Maj. Gen. Afif Bizry told
Western newsmen yesterday, was
part of a plot Syria has charged
the U.S. directed against the gov
ernment of Syria.
The military chief leveled the
charge shortly after Syria in
structed its U.N. delegation to in
form the Security Council that
the United States had ^conspired
to overthrow President Shukri
Kuwatly’s regime in a “serious
threat to Middle East peace.”
The State Department rejected
the Syrian charge, declaring U.S.
policy is “just precisely the oppo
site of that.”
Relations between Syria and
the U.S. have been sagging stead
ily and reached a new low with
Syria’s latest accusation.
No Action Justified
In Middle East Program
By Marvin L. Arrowsmifh
WASHINGTON, Iff)—P resident
Eisenhower said today the ulti
mate aim of the pro-Communist
bid for power in Syria is Soviet
control of the country.
He told a news conference,
however, the U. S. government
does not know how far the proc
ess has gone. And, he added, this
is not now one of those cases
which would justify any kind of
action under his Middle East pro
gram adopted early this year.
That program provides for U.S.
economic aid and use of Ameri
can armed force if needed and
invited, to head off Red aggres
sion in the Middle East.
Old Pattern With Soviets
The pattern of what is happen
ing in Syria, he said, is an Old one
with the Soviets. First they offer
economic and military aid, • he
continued; then they penetrate
the receiving country with their
! agents, and they find stooges to
take over the country for them.
How far this process has gone
in Syria, Eisenhower said, he does
not know.
Asked specifically whether he
considers this a deliberate Soviet
effort to take over the strategic
ally located Middle East country,
Eisenhower replied:
Appeal to Nationalism
He thinks that is the ultimate
aim of what is happening. The
aim is kept under cover, of course,
as the situation develops. The So
viets appeal to the spirit of na
tionalism. When they finally get
hold of the situation, then the
people find their country is being
run from somewhere else.
Several times Eisenhower de
clined to equate Syrian rule at
the moment with rule by inter
national Communism. . Once he
told a questioner that one should
always give his enemy a line of
retreat if possible. This implied
that Eisenhower hopes or thinks
the situation is not beyond recall
from the American point of view.
41 American. Youths
Presumed in Red China
Enroute to Peiping
MOSCOW —Forty-one Amer
ican youths who left Moscow on
Aug. 14 for a tour of Red China
were slated to cross into Chinese
territory yesterday aboard the
Trans-Siberian Express.
Officials in charge of ehe World
Youth Festival here said they had
no word from the party which is
scheduled to reach Peiping to
morrow.
Since few messages filter back
from the train once it leaves Mos
cow, no word is expected from the
Americans who defied a State De
partment ban to go to Red China.
Simons’ 19-Mile Ascent in Balloon
Pushes Development of Manned
Missile Flights to Outer Space
By BILL CHEVALIER
FARGO, N.D., IP)—Major David
G. Simons, back from a balloon
flight to a region where the stars
don’t twinkle at night and the
daytime sky is purple-black, to
day slept off his vigil with outer
space.
Simons, a nervy Pennsylvanian
with a yen for the unknown,
brought his huge plastic bag to
earth in a flax field on the border
between North and South Dakota
yesterday after an unprecedented
32-hour flight to the top of the
atmosphere.
The long ride took Simons, a
34-year-old father of four, to alti
tudes over 100,000 feet—19 miles
—in the sky.
Upon landing, Simons cut loose
the gondola and the balloon bil
lowed up again to an altitude of
about 1,500 feet. It landed three
miles to the west, where souvenir
hunters later tore it to pieces.
Radar trackers estimated the
balloon carried Simons to a rec
ord-breaking 102,000-foot level. If
confirmed by later calibration of
instruments in the balloon, this
would be 6,000 feet higher than
Capt. Joseph Kittinger rose in
June while testing the equipment
which Simons used.
Next step in the Air Force’s
projected conquest of space will
be a four- or five-man balloon
trip to similar altitudes in a large
gondola. ,
Simon’s boss, Col. John P.
Stapp of rocket sled fame, said he
would present the idea to the Air
Force soon. Stapp said Simon’s
flight proved “it is safe' for man
to fly to outer space.”
Information gained, he said,
will push forward future manned
missile flights into the hostile re
gions explored for the first time.
Disarmament Bulletin
PARIS, (#>—The Western allies
today decided to propose a two
year suspension of nuclear tests
as part of an overall disarmament
plan.
This was the key point of a
new plan which Britain, France,
Canada and the United States
circulated to their NATO allies
here today.
Other NATO members will re
port their views on it to a special
session of the NATO council next
Monday.
FOR SAFE KEEPING
JACKSON, Mich., UR—A new
item has gone on sale at the store
for inmates at Southern Michigan
Prison.
Padlocks with two keys are
now available. The only catch—
one key must be turned over to
the guard.