m NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL. LVII No. 136 ' NOME. ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1955 Per Copy—15*
Adlai Stevenson
Says He’ll Run
Run Again In ’56
CHICAGO Uf)—Adlai E. Steven
son said Tuesday “I shall be a
candidate for the Democratic
nomination for president next
year.”
Stevenson, his party’s 1952 can
didate for president, issued a
statement saying:
“I shall do all I can to persuade
my party to entrust that immense
responsibility tome again because:
“First, I believe it important for
the Democratic Party to resume
the executive direction of our na
tional affairs;
“Second, I am assured that my
candidacy would be welcomed by
representative people in and out
of my party throughout the coun
try;
“Third, I believe any citizen
should make whatever contribu
tion he can to the search for a
safer, saner world.”
Stevenson said today it would
be foolish to say the people would
not fake into account the survival
chances of a presidential candi
date, but he will not make health
an issue in his campaign.
Announcing that he will enter
the March 20 Minnesota presiden
tial primary, Stevenson answered
a wide range of questions at a
mammoth news conference.
One of these questions con
cerned the health of President
Eisenhower and of Sen. Lyndon
B. Johnson of Texas, the Senate
Democratic leader. Both men suf
fered heart attacks in recent
months. Stevenson said he hopes
and prays Johnson’s “misfortunes
in no way limits his future activi
ties or his usefulness.”
“And the same goes for anyone
else, especially the President of
the United States,” he declared.
Sen. Johnson has been repre
sented as working for a wide-open
Democratic nominating conven
tion, a circumstance that has con
vinced some friends of Stevenson
that the Texas senator may not be
in Stevenson’s corner at that con
vention. Johnson is considered in
some quarters as a possible candi
date for the nomination.
Delegate and Mrs.
Bartlett Here
Until Friday
Delegate and Mrs. Bob Bartlett
arrived today from Fairbanks
where they have been attending
the opening of the Constitutional
Convention. They plan to remain
here until Friday. This is Mrs.
Bartlett’s first visit to Nome.
While here they will be enter
tained by friends and meet with
civic groups to discuss problems
of this area.
President Langsam of the N.W.
Alaska Chamber of Commerce has
arranged for members of the
Chamber and Nome City Council
to meet with Mr. and Mrs. Bart
lett informally Thursday after
noon from 4 until 6 at the resi
dence of Mr. and Mrs. G. R. Jack
son.
At the opening of the Consti
tutional Convention Delegate
Bartlett gave an address in which
he compared Alaska’s convention
with that of the framing of the
national Constitution in 1787. He
said:
“In your individual capacities
as delegates and in your collec
tive capacity as a convention* you
are charged with the writing of a
document and the establishment
of a state government which will,
insofar as fallible human beings
are capable, be in the interests of
all the people of Alaska. This isj
the challenge which confronts!
you; this is the challenge you must
meet; here you are, each and
every one of you, marked out by
destiny not only to confront the
judgment of your peers, your
fellow citizens, but to have your
names inscribed forever in Alaska
history.
“The answer to the many prob
lems and issues which face you
will be forged in the tradition of
American democratic government.
These answers are seldom of the
type which are obvious, or which
are all black or all white. The is
sues which face a democratic
people are only occasionally sus
ceptible of solutions satisfactory
to each and every one of the citi
zens of a statd?’
Grueiiing, Roden, Metcalf File Suit
Against Empire for 1952 Article
KETCHIKAN, WV—“I was ter
ribly shocked, deeply disturbed,
and felt as if a piledriver had hit
me on the head,” former Gov. Er
nest Gruening said yesterday in
describing his feelings after read
the Juneau Empire of Sept. 25,
1952.
The issue in question carried a
news story and an editorial which
discussed the special Chilkoot Fer
ry fund established by the Terri
torial Board of Road Commission
ers. The two items are the basis
of a $400,000 libel suit brought
against the Empire by Gruening,
Henry Roden, former territorial
treasurer, and Frank Metcalfe,
former territorial highway engi
neer.
Gruening testified the story cli
maxed a campaign waged against
his administration over a period
of years. Articles and editorials
dating back to Nov. 1946 were
submitted in support of this claim.
"The former governor said his
name was deleted deliberately
from news stories in the Empire
and he was referred to only as
“governor of Alaska.”
He was cross-examined at length
by H. L. Faulkner, counsel for the
newspaper, who tried to show that
the Empire’s criticism of Gruen
ing resulted from disapproval of
politics rather than personal ani
mosity.
Under questioning by Faulkner,
Gruening said the ferry fund was
set up in a special bank account
to expedite immediate payment of
crewmen. He denied it was a “pri
vate” bank account, although
funds were disbursed solely by
R. E. Coughlin, ferry purser.
Gruening said he did not know
whether bond was required of
Coughlin, whether a shortage in
the fund was revealed in a 1952
audit of territorial funds by a Se
attle auditing firm, or whether
Coughlin issued checks to “cash,”
as s ated in the Empire.
The reading of a long deposi
tion from E. J. Small, a former
Empire newsman, was started af
ter the former governor left the
witness s.and.
Czech-Born Contestant
Wins $16,000 by Knowing
American History
NEW YORK, WV-Czech-born
Steven Frolich, a Princeton, N.J.,
seed dealer, has*won $16,000 by
answering another question in his
American history category on
“The $64,000 Question,” CBS tele
vision and radio show.
On the show last night he
named the parts of the United
States purchased from France in
1803, Spain in 1819, Mexico in
1853, Russia in 1867, and Denmark
in 1917.
Naming the Presidents in office
at the time, he rattled off Louisi
ana, Florida, the Gadsden Pur
chase, Alaska, and the Virgin Is
lands.
A blonde psychologist, Dr. Joyce
Brothers of New York, won $8,000
in her boxing category by giving
the ring names of four heavy
weight champions after she was
given Hheir real names.
Theyx were Rocco Magchegiano
(Rocky Marciano), Arnold Ray
mond Cream (Jersey Joe Walcott),
Joseph Paul Zukauskas (Jack
Sharkey), and Noah Brusso (Tom
my Burns.).
MOVIE DIRECTOR DIES
HOLLYWOOD, UP—Movie Di
rector Lloyd Bacon, who turned
out such hits as “The Singing
Fool,” and “The French Line,” is
dead at 65 of a cerebral hemor
rhage. He had been ill more than
a year. He died in St. Joseph’s
hospital in nearby Burbank.
Northwest Chamber of Commerce
Protests ‘Inadequacy’ of Nome’s
Sales Tax in Letter to Council
The Northwestern Alaska Cham
ber of Commerce, protesting the
“inadequacy” of Nome’s city sales
tax, has sent the following letter,
dated October 28, 1955, to Mayor
Steffen Andersen and the Nome
City Council. The letter is signed
by the Chamber president, Dr.
Fred Langsam.
“We wish to point out the inad
equacy of our present sales tax. Its
discrimination against local busi
nessmen, and its unfairness to
taxpayers of Nome who purchase
locally. To say nothing of the
much needed taxes lost to the
City of Nome.
“While the present sales tax is
an easy and successful method of
raising taxes for operating the
City of Nome, it has loopholes
whereby the city loses many tax
dollars each year and places an
undue share of the tax burden on
part of the taxpayers of Nome. It
forces on the individual who
wishes to purchase in Nome an
additional two percent that he
would not have to pay if he pur
chased his supplies outside the
City of Nome.
“It is paradoxical that the indi
vidual who does not have the
funds to send “outside” for his
winter supplies is forced to pay
this tax to maintain our schools,
roads and pay city employees’ sal
aries, while the individual who is
fortunate enough to have suffi
cient funds can send “outside” for
his supplies and does not have to
pay this tax, while they enjoy the
benefits of our schools, roads, and
full protection of the Fire and
Police Department.
“It discriminates against the
local businessman competing
against stateside firms, as he is
forced to collect two percent above
the regular price, which the “out
side” firm does not have to do.
For instance, a Nome firm selling
a $3,000 automobile here in Nome
would be forced to charge $60
more than a stateside auto com
pany that does not contribute one
iota to the welfare of the commu
nity. By the same token, a Nome
business house would have to col
lect an additional $20 on every
$1,000 worth of merchandise he
would sell in competition with
“outside” firms.
“We urge this august body to
study our present sales tax and
find a remedy to plug the loop
holes, whether it be amending our
present sales tax or writing a new
consumers tax, so that each citi
zen will pay his just, proportion
ate share of the cost of city gov
ernment and the Nome business
man will be on the same competi
tive basis as stateside firms.
Dulles Closes Big Four Conference
With Attack on Soviet’s Resistance
To Free Elections in East Germany
GENEVA Uft—Secretary of State*
Dulles told the final session of the
Geneva conference today that So
viet Premier Nikolai Bulganin
apparently had sent Foreign Min
ister Molotov here “with orders
not to discuss seriously” the re
unification of Germany.
Dulles blamed Soviet resistance
to reuniting Germany through
free elections on fear that such an
action would threaten Moscow’s
hold on the Communist satellite
countries of eastern Europe.
Dulles spoke after the Big Four
agreed without argument to break
up the present conference without
any specific time or place for an
other meeting.
They did this by accepting a
communique which they agreed
to issue later today. It was a very
brief document registering by im
plication the total failure of the
meeting to provide solutions or
make substantial progress on any
of the great East-West issues and
particularly on Germany.
The communique was described
as reporting only that the foreign
ministers had met as their chiefs
directed them to at the summit
conference in July, that they had
covered their assigned problems
in their discussions, that they
would now report back to their
chiefs and that they would rec
ommend that the future course of
their discussions be settled thru
diplomatic channels.
Dulles, who is to report to Pres
ident Eisenhower tomorrow, said
the President has “closely fol
lowed this conference on a day-to
day basis.
Eisenhower, he went on, “will
> Continued on Page Five'
>
Troops Training
For Long Trek to
Alaskan Exercise
FORT LEWIS, (tf>—In prepara
tion for next January’s 3,000-mile
trek to Alaska over the Alcan
highway, more than 1,000 Fort
Lewis soldiers started three weeks
of cold weather training on the
snowy slopes of the Cascade
Mountains east of here.
With mukluks, fur-topped par
kas and glaring white snow suits,
a battalion combat team from the
5th Infantry Regiment set up tem
porary training quarters at the
former Ranger Creek CCC camp.
Task force commander, Lt. Col.
Donald M. Callahan of St. Paul,
Minn., said the training is to pre
pare the troops for Exercise
Moosehom, an operation designed
to test the feasibility of reinforc
ing Alaska defense by moving
men over the Alcan Highway.
The troops will follow the Alcan
Highway to Fort Richardson, be
ginning Jan. 4. The 3,000-mile trip
is expected to take 18 days, with
maintenance stops planned at
Dawson Creek and Whitehorse on
the Canadian Yukon.
Calahan said the exercise will
train soldiers to survive anc fight
in temperatures that may plum
met as low as 50 or 60 degrees
below zero. •
He said “the dreaded wind chill
of the arctic ‘Willi-Waw’ adds real
danger to the paper threat posed
by the mythical enemy the troops
will battle in a firefight climaxing
the maneuver.”
Dulles Report to U.S.
On Geneva Conference
Expected This Friday
GETTYSBURG, Pa., UPV—1The
White House announced today it
has requested radio and television
time for Secretary of State Dulles
to report to the American people
on the Geneva conference after
his talks here with President Eis
enhower tomorrow and Friday.
Press Secretary Hagerty said he
expects Dulles to deliver his re
port on the new deadlock between
East and West Friday night from
Washington.
The announcement came as the
President, kept indoors by* cold
and rain, dictated letters and read
at his country home.
Because of the weather, Eisen
hower dropped plans to open up
shop in his new downtown Gettys
burg office today.
Tomorrow shapes up as the
busiest day for the President, in
terms of official business, since
his Sept. 24 heart attack.
Besides a conference with Sec
retary of Commerce Weeks, he
will see Budget Director Rowland
Hughes and take a personal hand
in charting the government’s
spending course for the next fiscal
year. Then at 4 p.m. Dulles is due
in with a report on Geneva.
Army Engineers to Spend
Over $100 Million on
Alaska, Pacific Northwest
PORTLAND, W)—Army Engi
neers said Tuesday that they will
spend more than $100 million in
public works in the Pacific North
west and Alaska in the current
fiscal year ending next June.
The Engineers said about half
of it is yet to be spent on jobs for
which bids will be opened in the
next seven months.
These jobs were listed for Al
aska: one million dollars in four
harbor projects at Metlakatla, Pe
tersburg, Seward and Wrangell.