hs NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LVI NO. 64 —- NQME, ALASKA; FRIDAY, MAY 28, 1954 ‘ Per Copy—L5i
Deadlocked Over
Labeling Specific
Work as Seasonal
ANCHORAGE, UP) — Alaska’s
Employment Security Commis
sion deadlocked last night on the
issue of labeling specific types of
employment in the territory as
seasonal.
The effect is to leave the terri
tory’s payments of jobless bene
fits unchanged. Millions of dol
lars in annual payments are at
stake. Most workers will remain
eligible for unemployment pay
ments, for the number of weeks
set forth in the law, regardless of
what time of year they become
jobless.
The vote of the commission, on
which there are two industry and
two labor representatives, was 2-2.
One of the big issues has been
over the construction industry.
In every recent session of the
Legislature there has been crit
icism of the provision which al
lows construction workers to re
turn to the States and draw job
less benefits after working dur
ing the several months of the
main construction season in Al
aska.
The commission was empower
ed by the 1953 Legislature to de
signate employment by specific
employers as “seasonal.” The sal
mon industry was the only one
that then was listed officially as
seasonal.
The issue came to a head re
cently when Judge George Folta
of Juneau ruled that there was no
legal justification for a commis
sion official to decree the salmon
industry to be seasonal and not
to put the construction industry
in the same class. He ruled that
construction actually was season
al in Alaska.
A rapidly dwindling Unemploy
ment Compensation fund will face
the next session of the Legisla
ture. Payments at a rate of more
than a million dollars a month
have been paid out this year. The
fund still has about 4Vfe million
dollars in it.
THURSDAY BALL SCORES
American League
Detroit 7, Baltimore 1
Washington 7, New York 3
National League
Philadelphia 11, Brooklyn 5
Chicago 7, St. Louis 3
Pacific Coast League
Lo's Angeles 1-7, Portland 0-4
Seattle 7, San Francisco 4
Hollywood 4, San Diego 2
Oakland 7, Sacramento 4
PIUS X CANONIZED
VATICAN CITY, UP) — More
than 400 bishops from many parts
of the world assembled today for
the canonization cd Pius X, the
258th pontif of the Roman Cath
olic Church and the 6th in 1,800
years to become a saint.
Government To
Start Buying
Domestic Minerals
WASHINGTON, UP)—Big - scale
government buying of domestic
metals and minerals may start by
mid-June under President Eisen
hower’s orders to build a “long
term” stockpile for national se
curity.
Government officials said yes
terday the Office of Defense Mo
bilization will issue a directive
shortly to the General Service Ad
ministration specifying the types
of tonnages of materials to be
purchased.
Early estimates indicate the
■program might cost as much as
two billion dollars. It is consid
ered as much a pump-primer for
the sagging metal industries as
a defense measure.
Zinc and lead, as the two’ metals
hardest hit economically, will get
priority. Eisenhower indicated
that 35 or 40 metals in all would
be purchased.
The White House statement said
preference should be given to
newly mined metals and minerals
“of domestic origin.” Congress
members from the mining states,
while almost unanimously of the
view that further measures would
be needed to keep the industry
healthy, acclaimed the plan as a
tonic for the mining areas.
Three B-36s Make Good
Will Flight To South
American Countries
FORT WORTH, Tex., UP—'Three
of the United States’ vaunted
long-range atom bomb carriers—
B-36 bombing planes—were back
in their nests at Carswell Air
Fore Base here today, a roundtrip
flight to Central America ended.
The first of the three giant
planes landed at Carswell at 8:08
p.m. last night, a few minutes
more than 17 hours after they had
taken off in weather that threat
ened tornadoes.
The flight, coming within days
after the United States charged
that iron curtain countries were
shipping arms to Guatemala, was
classified by the Air Force as a
“routine good will mission.”
The planes flew over four cities
in Nicaragua at low altitude,
Managua, Grenada, Leon and
Matagalpa and then turned their
long noses homeward.
Experts Meet To Untangle
Indochina Peace Proposals
GENEVA, UP—A group of ex
perts met for two hours today in
an attempt to disentangle the con
flicting proposals for an Indo
china cease fire, but were report
ed to have reached no agreement.
The committee of experts, set
up yesterday after the nine-party
Indochina parley bogged down in
a mass of peace plans, decided to
meet again tomorrow.
Five Seniors
Graduate From
Nome High School
Graduation exercises were held
last evening in the Nome School
auditorium which was decorated
in tones of blue and canopied with
color.
The address of the evening was
given by the Honorable Walter H.
Hodge, U.S. district judge, who
likened the Class of 1954 to the
Yukon and MacKenzie Rivers,
which start together but whose
paths deviate. “Their courses may
vary but their objectives remain
the same,” he said.
He told the graduates that edu
cation was not a substitute for
labor and work but a tool, and
that the will to work is the most
necessary factor of success. He
cautioned the students not to be
over-confident, as that became de
ceit, and to always temper what
ever they did with humility.
He stressed the virtues of tem
perence, prudence, fortitude and
justice and most of all the im
portance of Truth.
Diplomas were given by Super
intendent Angell to Geraldine Fa
gerstrom, Lola R. Ost, LeRoy P.
Reader, Gordon A. Swanberg, and
Nancy M. Tripp.
Eighth grade graduates were:
Elva Ahmasuk, Bessie M. Au
kon, Douglas Cabinboy, Agnes
Dimick, Virginia Doyle, Thomas
R. Drake, Suzanne K. Fagerstrom,
Ruth GlavinoVich, Charlene J.
Hudgins, Lorene Larsen. Gloria J.
Mogg, Richard Nershak Jr., Anna
Peterson, Gabriel Okitkon Jr.,
Robert J. Russell, Elizabeth Sa
vok, Thomas C. Smith, Rebt Tun
gwenuk, Francis Walker Jr., and
Gladys M. Walker.
* * *
A very high percentage of stu
dents—over 10 percent—were nei
(Continued on Page Two)
Reds Continue To Pound
French Union Garrison
HANOI, Indochina, UP) — Viet
minh mole squads burrowed
closer to the battered Red River
delta post of Yen Phu today as
rebel mortars continued to pound
the little French Union garrison.
Following the same tactics that
won them Dien Bien Phu, the
rebels kept the thinly - manned
defenses pinned down with mor
tar and machine - gun fire while
the attackers dug in around the
mid-caked fortress, only 30 miles
south of Hanoi.
The French Union defenders
lobbed mortar shells at the en
circling rebels as fast as they
could load and fire.
As at Dien Bien Phu, the Viet
minh are expected to strike with
overwhelming thousands when
the rebel command believes the
post is sufficiently “softened up.”
Some 12 Vietminh battalions al
ready have raked Yen Php for
two weeks.
95 Men Killed
In Bennington
Explosion Disaster
QUONSET, Rhode Island, UP)—
The death toll mounted today in
the explosion disaster of the air
craft carrier Bennington as addi
tional critically burned seamen
succumbed at Newport Naval
Hospital.
The number of dead stood at 95
Friday morning.
Nearly 40 are in critical condi
tion.
Chief of naval operation Adm.
Robert B. Carney surveyed the
battered carrier yesterday and
said he found “freakish and
unique” effects of the explosions
and fire. But he added that there
is “no basis” for assuming they
may have been caused by sabo
tage.
Pressed for details on the un
usual effects left by the blasts, he
said he saw “fabrics and struc
tural objects near one another,
some showing (effects of) heat
and other no heat at all.”
In other places, he said, there
was evidence of “tremendous
pressures and other signs of com
plete vacuums.”
The admiral said the Benning
ton explosions were “the worst
I have seen in all my naval ser
vice.”
Administration Disputes
McCarthy’s Claim Usurp
Executive Powers
WASHINGTON, UP)—The Eisen
hower administration today dir
' ectly disputed the declaration by
Sen. McCarthy that it is the duty
of federal workers to report to
Congress what they may know of
Communism, treason or other
crimes.
In a statement issued at the
White House Atty. Gen. Brownell
said the Constitution give the ex
ecutive branch of the government
the “sole and fundamental” re
sponsibility for enforcement of
laws and presidential orders, in
cluding those to protect the na
tion’s security.
“That responsibility,” Brownell
said, “can’t be usurped by any
individual who may seek to set
himself above the laws of our
land or to override orders of the
President of the United States to
federal employes of the execu
tive branch of the government.”
Told of the statement, McCar
thy said at the capitol he is going
to continue to get information
from within the 'government
wherever he can, and protect the
sources of that information.
STORES CLOSED MONDAY
Business houses, Territorial and
Federal offices including the Post
Office will be closed on Monday,
May 31, Memorial Day. There will
be no paper issued that day.
Rescuers Unable
Reach Injured Man
On Mt. McKinley
FAIRBANKS, UP) — Deep crev
ases have slowed to a cautious,
inch-by-inch advance the desper
ate attempt of a rescue party to
find an injured climber on North
America’s highest peak.
Four men were landed Wednes
day by helicopter at the 5,000
foot level of 20,300-foot Mt. Mc
Kinley to seek out a tiny speck
of a tent a mile higher on the ice
clothed mountain.
A plane dropped a radio to the
searchers yesterday and they re
ported they had gained only a
thousand feet of altitude in 24
hours. The helicopter landed four
more expert climbers at the 5,000
foot level.
The' tent held George Argus,
who was injured so seriously 12
days ago in a fall that he cannot
use his legs. The fall killed one
of his companions and the others
left him in the tent with a six
day food supply while they went
for help.
The toiling rescue party radioed
they probably could not reach him
for four or five days—and he will
be out of food in three or four.
None of the search planes aid
ing in the quest has yet been
able to locate the tent.
The leader of the advance party
is Dr. John McCall, 31-year-old
University of Alaska glacier ex
pert. The reinforcements landed
yesterday ■yj/ere headed by Col.
Edmund Mueller of the Army’s
Arctic Training Center at Big
Delta.
A radio' report later said Muel
ler’s party, which was landed at
a more advantageous point, had
overtaken and passed the first
group.
But the weather was worsening.
The wind was increasing and
blowing snow hampered the
climbers. Clouds shrouded the
upper part of the peak.
Geological Survey To
Re-Open Radioactivity
Lab At College, Alaska
WASHINGTON, UP) — Secretary
of the Interior McKay announced
today that as an aid to uranium
prospectors the Geological Survey
next Tuesday will re - open its
radioactivity testing laboratory at
College, Alaska.
The laboratory is located in
space made available by the Uni
versity of Alaska. It will be open
during the summer field season
and will determine free of charge
the radioactivity of any samples
submitted by the public.
McKay also said the Survey this
summer will continue its recon
naisance studies aimed at locat
ing uranium-bearing mineral de
posits in Alaska. This program
was begun in 1945 for the Atomic
Energy Commissoin.
Nome Merchants
vs.
Alaska All-Stars
HIGH SCHOOL GYM, 8 P.M.