zss NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS___
VOL. LXI No. 77 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, JUNE 2% 1959_Per Copy—151
EISENHOWER SIGNS CONTROVERSIAL BILL
EXTENDING FEDERAL AIRPORT AID PROGRAM
WASHINGTON, UP! — President
Eisenhower today signed a com
promise two-year extension of
federal aid for airport develop
ment, providing for more spend
ing than he recommended.
The President called on Cong
ress to take prompt “corrective
action” regarding one feature of
the new law. The measure, Eisen
hower said, treats Alaska — now
a state — as a territory. He said
it thus would be entitled to less
than half the funds it should re
ceive as a state.
The President did not mention
Hawaii, which also will become a
state during the next year.
Under the law, Alaska would
get $1,350,000 and Hawaii $750,
000 in each of the two years. Alas
ka would have to match only on a
25-75 basis, with Washington pay
ing three-fourths. But Hawaii
Georgia Resort
Engulfed in Flame
From Butane Blast
By PERRY MULLEN
MELDRIM, Ga., UP> — Disaster
teams stepped up operations at the
swirling Ogeechee River today,
searching for more victims of a
freak butane gas explosion on a
Seaboard Air Line freight train.
Seventeen known dead have
been counted since the mid-after
noon blast yesterday sent a blan
ket of flame over some 175 persons
in a recreation area below a river
trestle the train was crossing.
Many more were injured in the
fiery catastrophe and Savannah
hospitals still had 13 persons re
ceiving treatment.
^Two tanker cars became gigan
tic flame-throwers, spewing blaz
ing butane over the fun-seekers in
the area below the 30-foot wooden
trestle.
The railroad said the explosion
of one butane tanker set off a
second loaded with 10,000 gallons
of the cooking and heating fuel.
The blast turned the Ogeechee
river bank into blackened ruins
several hundred yards from the
trestle. It caught some of the vic
tims in the water, others on the
bank. Children seared by the
flames floundered in the river
or ran screaming from the spot.
Most of the 124 cars in the Sea
board Air Line Railroad freight
had cleared the 30-foot-high tres
tle before the crash. None fell in
the water, but several piled up on
the bank and burned through the
night.
Ike Signs Order For U.S.
Employes July 4 Holiday
WASHINGTON, UPi — President
Eisenhower last week signed an
executive order assuring most fed
eral employes a three-day holiday
over the Fourth of July weekend.
Specifically, the order gives gov
ernment workers the day off on
July 3, a Friday.
It applies to all federal em
ployes except those required to
i stay on the job because of national
security or for certain other reas
ons. Those workers will be given
compensatory time off later in
the year.
•
would have to match 50-50.
The measure had been cut down
by Congress to 126 million dollars
in the face of a veto threat raised
during the debate. The extension
is for 63 million dollars a year.
Democrats had fought for a cost
lier and longer program and some
of them complained they had to
accept the smaller outlay “with
a loaded veto pen at our heads.”
The House originally voted for
a four-year 297 million dollar ex
tension and the Senate a four
year 465-million-dollar bill. Eisen
hower had proposed a four-year,
200-million dollar extension of the
airport program.
The bill contains language bar
ring the use of federal funds for
terminal facilities, bars, commer
cial shops, cocktail lounges and
similar additions unless the pro
gram administrator holds they are
essential.
Canadians - U. S. Still
Search for Missing Plane
VANCOUVER, B. C., UPt — An
18-plane Carladian-U. S. search
team Sunday failed to find any
trace of a light plane missing on
a flight from Vancouver to Alaska.
Missing is owner-pilot J. Van
Valkenburn, of Ketchikan, the
only man aboard.
The search started again today
at dawn.
Search and rescue officials in
Vancouver said the fleet has
scoured the entire route and sur
rounding territory, some of it four
times.
Hawaii Democrats Jubilant Over High
Vote Leads In First State Primaries
By ROBERT TUCKMAN
HONOLULU, Iff) — Democrats
jubilantly claimed today their
heavy vote in Hawaii’s primary
means victory for them in the
islands’ first state elections next
month.
They contended that the big
Democratic vote was the forerun
ner of a sweep that would send
three of their fold to Congress and
elect a Democratic Governor and
Legislature.
Republicans were quick to an
swer that GOP candidates ran
unopposed in the nominating pri
mary Saturday while Democrats
engaged in vote-drawing con
tests. They said the Democratic
out-pouring was expected.
Some GOP leaders nevertheless
conceded that the party would be
the underdog in the Aloha State’s
first election July 28.
Both parties turned to cam
paigning in the wake of the pri
mary and a simultaneous state
hood plebiscite in which Hawai
ians voted approval of statehood
by a whopping 17 to 1 margin.
The 132,938 yes votes so
dwarfed the 7,854 votes against
statehood that it exceeded even
the most optimistic predictions.
Japanese and Chinese Candidates
The primary voting produced
three candidates of Japanese or
Chinese ancestry out of the six
nominated for Hawaii’s two Senate
seats and one in the House of Rep
resentatives. At least one of the
trio appears certain to go to
Congress.
Democrats nominated Frank F.
Fasi, 38, territorial senator, and
former Hawaii Governor Oren E.
Steelworkers Delay
Strike Two Weeks
NEW YORK, UP) — Steelworkers
President David J. McDonald said
today the extension of work con
tracts for two more weeks should
spur the steel industry to “some
negotiating statesmanship.”
He made the comment after the
union’s 35-man 'executive board
and 171-member wage-policy com
mittee met and approved the post
ponement of a strike deadline for
two weeks, until midnight July 14.
Industry and union negotiators
previously had agreed to the post
ponement at the behest of Presi
dent Eisenhower, thus averting a
likely strike which had been set
for tomorrow night.
“We are attempting to give in
dustry an opportunity to show
some negotiating statesmanship,”
McDonald told a news conference.
The industry position against
granting any labor cost increases
still stands. This was made clear
in a statement by R. Conrad Coo
per, chief industry negotiator.
SUNDAY RESULTS
■ American League
Cleveland 5-1, Boston 5-0.
Chicago 9-4, New York 2-2.
Detroit 7, Baltimore 2.
Washington 7, Kansas City 3.
National League
St. Louis 9-11, Cincinnati 7-8.
Milwaukee 2, Chicago 1.
San Francisco 6, Philadelphia 0.
Los Angeles 9, Pittsburgh 4.
Pacific Coast League
San Diego 6, Vancouver 1.
Phoenix 7-4, Seattle 2-5.
Sacramento 2-1, Portland 1-0.
Long, 70, for the Senate.
Hiram L. Fong, 52, a wealthy
businessman of Chinese descent,
ran unopposed for the Republican
nomination arid drew 42,396 votes.
He will oppose Fasi for one Sen
ate seat.
Long registered 61,625 votes to
overwhelm two Democratic aspi
rants in the nominating contest.
His Republican opponent for the
other Senate seat will be Japanese
American Wilfred C. Tsukiyama,
62, veteran territorial senator
who garnered 40,700 votes run
ning unopposed in the primary.
For Hawaii’s lone House seat,
Democrats nominated territorial
Senator Daniel K. Inouye, 34, a
decorated war veteran and lawyer
who lost an arm serving with the
famed “go for broke” all-Nisei
regimental combat team in World
War II.
Inouye received 50,787 votes to
outdistance another Japanese
American, Mrs. Patsy Takemoto
Mink, 31, who trailed with 21,802.
Inouye will be opposed by Re
publican Charles H. Silva, Hawaii
Department of Institutions direc
tor, who collected 38,515 votes run
ning unopposed for the Repub
lican nomination.
The Democratic camp drew
much of its optimism from the
showing of John A. Burns, Dele
gate to Congress, in winning the
party nomination for Governor.
Bums, 59, amassed 69,152 votes
to 7,828 for Edward J. Hitchcock.
His vote total was well ahead of
the 49,431 received by Eisenhower
appointed Governor William F.
Quinn running unopposed for the
Republican nomination.
Dr. Edward Teller Tells N. W. Alaskans
Cheaper Mining May Result from Blast
Dr. Edward Teller, noted nu
clear physicist and director of the
proposed atomic blast to create a
harbor at Cape Thompson, arrived
here Sunday morning and' spoke
briefly at an impromptu lunch
eon yesterday.
“The Japanese people were the
first to suffer by atomic blast; how
wonderful it would be if they
might be the first to benefit from
the harbor at Cape Thompson,”1
stated Dr. Teller. He explained j
that this proposed blast weuld pro- |
duce a harbor making it possible
to mine the rich known deposits
of coal along the far north
ern "Arctic coastal area. Japan has
great need for coal which is now
being shipped to them from the
eastern coast of the United States
and is investigating the possibli
ties of obtaining coal from some
part of Alaska.
Will Hasten Peacetime Atoms
Dr. Teller, who is professor of
physics at the University of Cali
fornia at Berkeley, and associate j
director of the Lawrence Radia
tion Laboratory at Livermore, ex
plained that the results of this
first peace-time experiment, if
completed, would do much to has
ten the use of atomic energy in
other commercial ventures. Of par
ticular interest to this part of
Alaska would be the use of this
method in mining, where the re
moval of the overburden might be
not only quickened but much more
economical than the present thaw
ing method. Dr. Teller expressed
an interest in the iron ore depos
its west of Nome, which, accord
ing to Charles Jones, goes to the
depth of 1,000 feet.
A round figure of 10 cents per
cubic yard, given by Dr. Teller
for a large commercial project,
Family Mass
Murder Laid To
Canadian Soil
STETTLER, Alta., W) — The
mass slaying of a father, mother
and their five children came to
light with discovery Sunday of
the seven battered bodies at this
quiet central Alberta town. Rob
ert Raymond Cook, 22, son of the
slain man, was charged with mur
der.
The victims were Raymond
Cook, 53, a garage mechanic; his
wife, Daisy Mae, 37, and their
three sons and two daughters
ranging in age from 9 to 3.
Police found a blood-stained
shotgun stuffed under a mattress
in the Cook’s neatly kept green
and white house, but the bodies
were so badly battered investi
gators could not tell whether the
victims had been shot before they
were clubbed.
The bodies were found in the
garage under a pile of old tires,
boxes, blankets and other articles.
The discovery shocked this town
of 3,000, eighty miles southeast of
Edmonton.
Police went to the home to in
form the father that Robert Ray
mond had been arrested Saturday
on a charge involving the father’s
car. When neighbors told police
none of the Cooks had been seen
since Thursday, the officers en
tered the house and found blood
stains on the floor and mattresses.
might be possible, and a price
lower than that was predicted for
peacetime use of atomic energy
when the system really gets under
way.
Dr. Teller studied in Germany,
and received his doctorate from
the University of Leipzig in 1930.
His main scientific contributions
are in the fields of chemical phys
ics and nuclear physics. Known
as the “Father of the Atom
Bomb,” Dr. Teller has^ received
many awards, among which are
the Albert Einstein Award and
the Joseph Priestly Memorial
Award from Dicknson College in
Pennsylvania.
Mrs. Teller accompanied her
husband and they are enroute to
Cape Thompson at the Ogotoruk
Creek campsite for the first time.
With them are Rod Southwick,
public relations representative of
the Plowshare program and sup
port co-ordinator of the Lawrence
Radiation Laboratory, and Clifford
Bacigalupi, who arrived here Sat
urday and met with interested
persons in the U. S. Court Rom
where they explained Operation
Chariot and answered many
questions.
Bacigalupi explained that the
experimental data collected this
summer by biologists, geologists,
the U. S, Weather Bureau, Fish,
and Wildlife, Arctic Health Re
search, General Electric Co., and
representatives of other groups,
will be carefully studied until
January, and if the project meets
with the approval of the Atomic
Energy Commission at that time,
more studies will continue next
summer. At that time construction
and preparation programs will be
inaugurated, so that the blast may
be made in the spring of 1961.
Springtime Is Best
, Bacigalupi stated that to date
the studies indicate that early
springtime will be the best time
for blasting of the harbor. For it’s
at'this time the biological, weather
and control conditions are the
most favorable, he said.
This summer there will be
about 75 persons at the camp. The
research will start sometime this
week and will taper off about the
first of October. There will be
necessary housing constructed and
an airstrip for the landing of the
twin Beech aircraft which will
be used by the party.
Core holes will be drilled for
a distance of about 1,000 feet, for
analysis.
Five holes will be made for the
actual blast, and will be drilled
36 inches in diameter and about
500 feet deep.
As for fallout, there will be
some, staled Rod Southwick, but
mostly underground and will soon
be dissipated, so that the harbor
may safely be used six months
atfer the blast.
Questions concerning the de
struction of fish were put to the
officials. They answered that the
blast increases the .abundance of
fish, as it has proven in the South
Pacific.
Anyone having questions con
cerning the project are urged to
write to Rod Southwick, in care
of the,Atomic Energy Commission,
San Francisco, Calif., or to James
Sugden, project officer, Operation
Chariot, Kotzebue. Queries may
also be left at The Nugget office
for forwarding.