m NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
62nd Year No. 33 NOME, ALASKA, MONDAY, MARCH 20, 1961_Per Copy 15^
Bounty Bill
Starts Another
Battle in the House
JUNEAU UP) — Another battle
of the bounty broke out in the
House Saturday afternoon over a
bill which would permit the pay
ment of bounties on wolves,
wolverines, coyotes and hair seals
only to residents of the State of
Alaska.
The fuss began after Rep.
John Nusunginya of Barrow in
troduced and pushed through an
amendment which would permit
payment of the $3 bounty on hair
seals to seals taken in all coastal
waters of Alaska.
Under the present law, boun
ties are paid only on hair seals
taken in southern coastal waters
east of the 152nd meridian, Bris
tol Bay, and between Cape New
enham and Cape Kruzenstern.
Nusunginya said that all resi
dents of the state should have
equal rights to receive bounties
on predators.
Rep. Harold Hansen of Cor
dova, who had asked the Re
sources Committee to introduce
the bill, said that Nusunginya’s
amendment had “turned the bill
into a great big welfare program.”
“This would permit the bounty
on seals to be paid where no ma
jor fisheries are involved,” Han
sen said. “They’ll be shooting
seals and buying ham for $3 a can
—and the state will just be out
another $100,000.”
Rep. Morgan Reed of Skagway
asked Nusunginya if killing hair
seals for bounties along the Arctic
Ocean wouldn’t be endangering
the natives’ food supply and
source of fat and oil.
Nusunginya said that in the
spring thousands of seals appear
along the Arctic Coast — “but
we don’t shoot them because
they’re too lean.”
“Great,” said Rep. Jim Bink
ley of Fairbanks. “You wait until
they get all fattened up on the
salmon and then you shoot them.”
“That makes about as much
sense as the bounty system does
as it now stands.”
Rep. Forbes Baker of Fairbanks
said he felt the Legislature had
“no right in the predator rontrol
business.
“I hope that by next year the
Legislature has enough brains to
give the bounty system back to
the Department of Fish and
Game, where it belongs.”
Federal Highway Aid
Will be Dropped From
183 Miles of Local Roads
Among the Secondary “B”
Routes proposed by the Depart
ment of Public Works to be drop
ped from the Federal Aid High
way system are the following
in this area:
Tin City-Goodwin; Lost River
U. S. Tin; Shovel Creek Road;
Big Hurrah; Casadepaga; Council
Ophir; Snake River and Spur;
Little Creek; Submarine; Center
Creek and Depot Spur; Osborne;
Buster Road; Bunker Hill-Kou
garok; Deering-Inmachuk; Kot
zebue; Candle Creek, which totals
approximately 183 miles of roads.
According to the report of the
State of Alaska, Department of
Public Works, the responsibility
for constructing and maintaining
that part of both secondary sys
tems located within political sub
divisions would be assumed by
the subdivision wherever possible,
thereby reducing the cost to the
state.
3% Million in
Highway Work
Being Advertised
JUNEAU UP) — T. D. Sherard,
Director of the State Highways
Division, said today more than
$3Vfc million in highway work
currently is being advertised for
construction during the coming
season.
The total of $3,547,000 covers
six separate projects and will
bring to 31 the number of active
federal aid highway projects in
progress in Alaska.
The total cost of outstanding
contracts, including those now
awaiting award, is $14 million.
Projects already under contract
cover work of 318 miles of high
way and 12 bridges, Sherard said.
An added 60.3 miles of construc
tion is included in the projects
for which bids have been asked.
Contracts range in cost from
$1,335,000 of the 4.6 mile Eagle
River to Yankee Cove Road down
to the $39,000 being spent to paint
the Gastineau Channel and Men
denhall River bridges at Juneau.
Longest of the active projects
is the 60-mile Eureka-Tanana
Road now under consultant con
tract for design; shortest is the
.2 mile Kuzitrin River bridge.
Other active projects in the
construction stage include:
Nome-Council bridge repairs,
.6 miles, $53,000; Nome-Teller
and Cripple Creek bridge, 13.9
miles, $659,000; and the Kuzitrin
River-Coffee Creek Road, 7.7
miles, $360,000.
Crimson Bears Edge
Seward Seahawks 46-45
Take Basketball Crown
JUNEAU W) — A huge crowd
greeted the Juneau-Douglas Crim
son Bears when they arrived to
day after winning the high school
basketball championship in Sew
ard Saturday night.
The Crimson Bears won over
the Seward Seahawks 46 to 45,
after trailing throughout the ball
game and taking the lead with
less than a minute to go.
In the opening contest of the
three game series, The Seward
team won, 77 to 75. In the sec
ond game, Juneau won 61 to 47.
House Votes on Consideration Giving
Board of Education Governing Powers
JUNEAU UP) — The House
voted 20 to 19 to remove a bill
from the consideration of the
State Affairs Committee which
would place the State Board of
Education as governing body of
the State Department of Educa
tion.
The bill, HB109, would give the
State Board of Education full ad
ministrative, budgetary and fis
cal powers, including authority
to hire and fire the commissioner.
It was introduced by Reps. Ed
gar Baggen and James Parsons.
The bill was given a “do pass”
recommendation by the House
Helath, Welfare and Education
Committee and referred further
to state affairs, where it has rest
ed for several weeks.
After Baggen’s motion to with
draw the bill from the State Af
fairs Committee passed, and with
a motion to refer the bill on to
the Rules Committee before the
lawmakers, Rep. John Hellenthal
demanded a call of the House.
Funeral Services Held for
Four Members of Family
Who Died in Home Fire
FAIRBANKS W — Funeral
services were held in Tanana yes
terday for four members of the
Rev. Curtis Edwards family who
died Friday when their home
caught fire.
Rev. Edwards, 33, the Episcopal
priest and two members of his
family, Curtis, 3, and Kathleen, 5,
died in the fire. Lucy, 8, died of
burns around noon Friday.
Mrs. Edwards, with burns on
approximately 30 per cent of her
body, is in critical condition in
the Alaska Native Service Hos
pital in Tanana.
Rev. Edward saved his wife
and Judy, but lost his own life
when he went back into the fire
to attempt to rescue his two
youngest children.
The Edwards family came to
Alaska in 1959 to take up their
first mission at Tanana after Ed
wards graduated from the Epis
copal Theological Seminary of the
Southwest at Austin, Tex.
He also attended Texas A and
M and the University of Texas as
well as serving in the Air Force
j as a pilot and training officer
from 1951 to 1953.
■His father D. C. Edwards of
Houston, Tex. arrived in Fair
banks yesterday and flew im
mediately to Tanana by charter
plane to be with his daughter
in-law.
Doctors are Misleading
On Health and Aged Plan
WASHINGTON W) — Secretary
of Welfare Abraham Ribicoff
says doctors are “misleading the
American people” when they label
the administration’s health care
for the aged plan as “socialized
medicine.”
Doctors are in no way involved
in the proposal to provide care
for the elderly through Social
Security, Ribicoff said Sunday in
a televised interview.
Ribicoff said the American
Medical Assn, seeks to spread the
impression that doctors would be
controlled.
And he said many individual
physicians are afraid to support
the program because the AMA
“exercises very strong sanctions
against individual doctors who
speak up their mind.”
The only absent member was
Frank Cashel of Sitka who flew
home over the weekend to be
with his ailing mother.
Meanwhile, under the call of
the House, the doors of the cham
ber were locked, no business
could be conducted, the lawmakers
waited it out at their desks.
Cashel arrived after the House
had been at ease for almost an
hour and a half.
Rep. Mark Jensen then claimed
that when the House voted to take
the bill from the State Affairs
Committee, it should automatical
ly go to the Rules Committee,
without further vote.
He was ruled out of order by
House Speaker Taylor, who said
that the original motion had been
divided without objection from
the House.
J"" v'ah'd Taylor’s rul
I m littee on Rules,
I a- "^ssed until 2
Ip* . urt er action.
NcNabb Proposes $7,200 Ceiling
On Wages Taxed for Emplyoment
Security Purposes be Removed
JUNEAU UP> — The Chairman
of the Senate Commerce and La
bor Committee proposed today
that the $7,200 ceiling on wages
that can be taxed for employment
security purposes be removed.
Sen. George McNabb submitted
the proposal in the form of a mo
tion as the upper chamber start
ed consideration of Gov. Egan’s
bill, SB30, to boost the basic em
ployment security payment from
$45 to $50 a week.
McNabb’s amendment, a two
page document, was given to the
Senate when it started considera
tion of the bill. After an argument
of some 30-50 minutes, the Sen
ate decided to hold off further
consideration until tomorrow.
McNabb’s amendment would,
among other things:
1. Remove the $7,200 ceiling
and place contributions on total
wages.
2. Base the eligibility require
ment on wages alone; a flat $500
in wages would qualify a worker
for employment security bene
fits.
3. Remove the requirement that
a person work at least five weeks
before he would become eligible
for employment security pay
ments.
Clark Gable’s Widow Gives
Birth to an 8-Pound Boy
HOLLYWOOD UP) — Clark
Gable’s widow gave birth today
to an 8-pound boy.
Both Mrs. Kay Gable and the
baby, delivered by Caesarean sec
tion, were reported in good con
dition at Hollywood Presbyterian
Hospital.
Gable, long-time hero, died in
the same hospital last Nov. 16
of a heart attack. This was his
first child and he had looked for
ward eagerly to its birth.
In a second-floor waiting room,
nervously pacing during the sur
gery, was Mrs. Gable’s 11-year
old son by a previous marriage.
“I want a brother,” he told
newsmen.
Kay watched the operation —
she had only a spinal anaesthetic
— until the baby was born.
"What a handsome bay,” she
said.
The doctor said the baby was
born with an average amount of
dark hair; and, unlike his father,
has average-size ears.
Officials Press
Investigation on
Five Babies Deaths
REGINA, Sask. UP) — Officials
pressed an investigation today
into the hospital deaths of five
infants but doubted they would
find out who caused the mixup
that poisoned the babies.
A fifth baby died Sunday at
the Grey Nuns’ Hospital from the
same toxin that killed four others
during the weekend — boracic
acid apparently brought to the
hospital formula room in a jug
marked “distilled water.” Five
more week-old infants are in fair
condition.
The odorless, colorless acid is
stored in brown jugs in the same
hospital room where distilled
water is kept in clear jugs. Some
how the acid got into a clear jug
i and this was used in preparing a
feeding formula that was given
to 10 of the hospital’s 45 babies. I
4. Set the ceiling on an indi
vidual’s basic weekly benefit
amount at one-eighty-eighth of his
total wages paid during the base
period, but not more than $50,
computed to the nearest whole
dollar.
5. Workers with dependents
would receive an additional
amount of 10 per cent of his basic
weekly benefit amount for each
dependent, not to exceed three.
6. Sets the maximum number
of weeks of benefits a person can
receive employment security pay
ments at lesser of (1) a number
equal to one-one-hundredth of his
total wages in employment paid
during his base period plus two,
rounded to the nearest whole
number, or (2) 28 weeks.
McNabb’s amendment made no
change in the variable contribu
tion rate.
He said that if his amendment
is accepted and is enacted into
law and Egan’s bill to boost the
weekly benefit period from 26 to
I 28 weeks, becomes law, the em
ployment security fund will have
annual surplus of $954,000, based
on an insured unemployment rate
of 12 per cent.
If the insured unemployment
rate is 11.5 per cent, under the
the same conditions, McNabb
said, the annual surplus would be
$1,228,000.
“We have heard so much talk
about the little people, I’d like
to point out that the amendment
removes from the act the restric
tion of employment in two quar
ters,” McNabb said.
“This will qualify more people,
the little people, for employment
security benefits. It is designed to
take in more fishermen and can
nery workers.
“It wouldn’t give them much,”
McNabb said, “but it would give
them something: Tea and beans
perhaps.”
Jack M. Garrison
Retires from
Transport Industry
SEATTLE un — Jack M. Gar
rison, who gives his age as “real
young,” announced his retirement
Saturday as vice president of Con
solidated Freightways.
Garrison has been in the trans
portation industry 20 years. He
was a pioneer in trucking of
commercial freight over the Alas
ka Highway and in ventures with
ocean carriers, has carried freight
to the Aleutians, the Bering Sea
and the Arctic Ocean.
What may have been the first
commercial trip over the Alaska
Highway was made by the Alaska
Freight Lines while Garrison was
with that firm. The shipment was
frozen meat out of Alberta.
In 1953, Garrison started Gar
rison Fast Freight, which was
sold to Consolidated Freightways
in 1957.
Garrison has been involved in
carrying supplies to the Distant
Early Warning line and other de
fense areas in Alaska since that
work was turned over to civilian
companies.
“I’m too young to quit work,”
Garrison said yesterday.
“But I don’t expect to put in
any more 17 or 18-hour days, or
the 24-hour days which went
along with the Arctic operations.”
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