VOL. LVII No, 21 NOME, ALASKA. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1955___Per Copy—1^
12,000 Alaska Job
Holders To Come
Under Civil Service
WASHINGTON, (£>—'The Civil
Service Commission announced
today that about 12,000 federal
civilian positions in Alaska will
be taken into the competitive
civil service system on Aug. 1.
This will be a major step to
ward plans announced some time
ago to extend the competitive
civil service to about 35,000 such
positions in Alaska, Guam and
foreign countries.
The commission’s 11th regional
headquarters in Seattle will have
jurisdiction over all of Alaska.
It will arrange for examina
tions and make all necessary
plans for the classification of
present employes on or after
Aug. 1. .
A branch office of the 11th
region will be established in An
chorage and boards of examiners
will be set up at other locations in
the territory.
The bulk of the 12,000 jobs af
fected are in defense, interior and
commerce departments. Incum
bents with the necessax-y service
/ who are recommended by their
employing agency and who can
meet qualification requirements
will be given their proper status
under the new federal cai’eer-con
ditional appointment system
which became effective Jan. 25.
Foster Memorial Asks
Wildlife Refuges In
Western Alaska
JUNEAU, Uft—A petition to the
federal government for opening
of wildlife refuges in western Al
aska and on some western islands
to rr\ine prospecting was intro
duced in the Senate today.
Sen. Neal Foster (D-Nome) in
troduced the memorial, addressed
to President Eisenhower, Con
gress and high department of
. ficials.
It contends that possible min
ing developments would not hurt
the game refuges and would be
a great aid to the natives on St.
Lawrence Island, Kodiak, the
Aleutians and on the Kenai Pen
insula.
Continental Defense To
Use Radar Picket Planes
Over The Atlantic Ocean
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.,
^Continental Air Defense Com
mand headquarters here announ
ced today that the first planes in
an east coast fleet of flying radar
stations will arrive March 1 at
Falmouth, Mass.
It will be the forerunner of 30
Lockheed Superconstellations to
be stationed at Otis Air Force
Base there.
The fleet of Superconstellations
.— extending the radar warning
net hundreds of miles out to sea
— will be like the fleet of over
» the-Pacific sentinels that have
been operating from McClellan
Air Force Base at Sacramento
since last spring.
The radar planes at Otis Air
Force Base, each equipped with
.3Vi tons of electronic equipment
will provide extra time for the
Atlantic seaboard to deploy jet
• interceptors in event of enemy at
tack. The air fleet will keep
watch around the clock, and it is
expected that it will cover the
entire east coast.
Tuesday’s 76 Below At
Umiat Ties For Coldest
Day Recorded In Alaska
The record for the coldest day
in the history of Alaska was tied
at 6:30 a.m. last Tuesday, Feb. 16,
when the thermometer at Umiat
registered 76 degrees below zero.
According to Weather Bureau
records, that’s it. It’s never been
colder anywhere in Alaska.
The last time 76 below was hit
was in January of 1886 in Tan
ana, on the Yukon River.
Umiat is on the Colville River,
on the arctic slopes of the Brooks
Range, 465 miles north of Fair
banks.
The residents, construction
workers on the arctic project,
had been facing an average 60
below-zero temperature for the
previous 10 days. The wind, how
ever, had been slight.
That same day in Point Barrow
it was 48 below at 4:30 a.m., with
a 15 mph wind from the south.
At Betties it was minus 43 at 9:30
a.m. on Feb. 15; Kotzebue, 44 be
low; and Galena, 43 below. Fort
Yukon, which usually suffers
worst of all, was basking in minus
23 temperatures.
| Blizzards Sweep Northern
Europe And British Isles
LONDON, (#1 — Blizzards and
snowstorms swept over northern
Europe and the British Isles to
day. Some 10 inches of snow had
fallen in Munich, West Germany’s
second biggest city, and more is
forecast. Blizzards are raging over
Sweden, with temperatures down
i around zero. Main highways are
dotted with cars which have been
abandoned in deep snowdrifts.
Heavy snow has fallen in north
ern Scotland again. This time,
Royal Navy helicopters are stand
ing by for a possible repeat of
j last month’s Operation Snowdrop
in which food was dropped to
marooned villagers.
Ireland is having its worst wea
ther of the winter, with snow,
sleet, rain and hail pounding the
| island.
_
Brrr, It’s Cold ALL Over
By the Associated Press
A howling blizzard with winds
reaching 50 miles an hour in
gusts swept over Wyoming and
northern Colorado today.
Wind-whipped snow clogged all
j major highways in Wyoming and
| bus line offices in Cheyenne re
! ported all vehicles from the west
j were being held up.
Concern was expresed over
small, isolated communities on
both slopes of the Continental Di
vide in Wyoming. State highway
patrolmen cautioned against “tra
vel of any kind,” pointing out that
driving ground blizzards might
trap drivers as high winds whip
ped the snow along the ground
in whirling waves and piled it
into huge drifts.
It was snowing in the Dakotas
as well as in the central and
northern Rockies,
The coldest spot in the nation
this morning was Pellston, Mich.,
ten below zero. The warmest spot
yesterday was Laredo, Texas,
with 81 degrees.
ESKIMO TOTS TO DENVER
FOR TREATMENT OF TB
DENVER, UPi — A military air
transport plane brought 10 Es
kimo youngsters, 9 months to 9
years old, here yesterday for
treatment of tuberculosis.
They were flown from Fair
banks. The U.S. Public Health
Service sent them for treatment
at National Jewish Hospital.
•
Dr. Anderson
Explains Mental
Health Bill to PTA
The monthly meeting of the
Nome Parent-Teachers Associa
tion met in the Nome School au
ditorium last evening with Mary
Andersen presiding.
After considerable discussion
by youth leaders the group, by
a show of hands, agreed to spon
sored youth activities in coopera
tion with the USO on Mondays,
and at the Nome School on Sat
urdays. Activities planned are to
include those not now covered
by Scouting and various church
groups.
The chairman asked for volun
teers to assist in such a program,
however, at the end of the eve
ning a complete committee to
head the activity had not been
rounded out. A request is made
that anyone interested in assist
ing to get the program going con
tact president Mary Andersen or
secretary Myrtle Chambers.
The meeting was then turned
| over to the Mental Health team of
l the Alaska Dept, of Health with
its three members, Mary Lou
Prawl, psychiatric social worker;
James Parson, psychologist, and
Dr. Charles Anderson, psychia
trist, explaining the importance
of treating the mentally ill to
prevent them from becoming pa
tients in sanitariums. A large per
centage of these cases can be
cured with proper treatment be
fore they become a burden and
expense on the taxpayers just as
is true of other types of illness.
Dr. Anderson and his associ
ates urge that citizens write to
legislators to provide ample funds
for a separate Mental Health
team to be activated at Fairbanks
and Juneau as well as the present
group at Anchorage, as they can
not possibly treat the whole of
Alaska in a satisfactory manner.
Anderson, who has been with
the health team since it was or
ganized in the territory, is tireless
in his efforts to educate the public
on the importance of the Mental
Health Bill now before Congress.
He urges everyone to write con
gressmen anywhere in the states
to lend their supoprt to give
Alaska a modern mental health
set-up and do away with the dis
graceful “trial by jury” of sick
people.
Dr. Anderson is leaving Alaska
soon to accept a teaching post
position in California.
*
SEN. WAYNE MORSE
TURNS DEMOCRAT
EUGENE Ore., IjP)—Sen. Wayne
Morse of Oregon, the erstwhile
-Republican who became an Inde
pendent in 1951, will run as a
Democrat in 1956.
He changed his registration at
his home town courthouse here
yesterday, after flying out from
Washington without announcing
his intentions.
The Democrats welcomed him
warmly. He drew cheers at a
Democratic party rally when he
announced on a statewide radio
hookup last night that he intends
to run for re - election on the
Democratic ticket.
Elected first in 1944 and again
in 1950, Morse bolted from the
Republicans in 1952, saying he no
longer could go along with party
policies. He campaigned for the
Democrats that fall, and again in
1954, when he drew much credit
for helping the Democratic new
comer, Richarl L. Neuberger, win
Oregon’s other Senate seat.
Ike Says Republicans
Ought Not Link Reds And
Democrats In Same Class
WASHINGTON, (^—President
Eisenhower says Republicans
ought not to link Communists and
Democrats in the same class when
they line up to fight their
enemies.
The President’s admonition
was delivered to the Republican
National Committee yesterday
after it unanimously haa affirmed
a subcommittee’s choice of San
Francisco as the site and Aug. 20
as the opening date for the 1956
presidential nominating conven
tion.
The committee thanked Eisen
hower for “an inspirational and
heart-warming talk” and proceed
ed to assert in a resolution offer
ed by former Sen. C. Wayland
Brooks, Illinois member:
“Thanks to him ‘Eisenhower)
and his unequalled leadership,
we approach 1956 not only deter
mined to win, but convinced that
we will win because America
wants and is determined to have
the quality of government which
Dwight D. Eisenhower and the
Republican party have given it.”
Maintaining silence on his own
plans, the President told the dele
gates not to lose their “balance
of values” in their struggle to
win elections.
“Our greatest enemy is the
Communists,” he said. “Our great
struggle today is a free world
against a dictator world. Our
greatest enemy is not the Demo
crats. We certainly know we can’t
"have better allies when we are
fighting anybody from abroad.”
The President’s cautionary re
marks appeared directed at such
GOP campaigners as Sen. McCar
thy of Wisconsin who assailed
Democrats in speeches entitled
“20 Years of Treason,” and at
others who have accused Demo
cratic officials of being soft to
ward Communism.
Hermann Field At Loss
To Explain Why He Was
Imprisoned For 5 Years
LONDON, i/P>—Hermann Field
said today he spent five years
imprisoned in a cellar in Com
munist Poland, and disclosed the
Warsaw government has paid him
$50,000 for wrongful arrest.
He insisted he is at a loss to
explain the case of the “disap
pearing Fields,” and said he was
never a Communist or “an agent
for anybody.”
“I am not a Communist and
never was one,” he said. “Over
the course of 20 years I have
occasionally agreed with some of
the policies for which the Com
munist party said it stood. For in
stance, I was very much opposed
to the rise of Hitler and was op
posed to the occupation of Czecho
slovakia by German forces.”
Four members of the Field fam
ily disappeared behind the iron
curtain in 1949. Hermann’s older
brother, Noel, a former U.S. State
Dept, official, and his wife were
released recently from a Hungar
ian prison and chose to stay in
Hungary. Noel’s adopted daughter
! Erica Wallach, has been reported
| in exile in Siberia. Hermann said
that all through the five years he
never knew Noel’s whereabouts.
He said he still holds an Ameri
can passport but has no plans to
return there.
His voice broke as he recount
ed the scene when he learned that
he was to be free. Field said that
once the Poles decided to release
him they treated him with great
kindness.
House Passes Bill
Allow Increase In
Alaska Sales Tax
By JIM HUTCHESON
JUNEAU, (#>•—Alaska’s cities,
s
already using sales taxes, would
be permitted to vote on whether
to raise them from the present
two per cent to three per cent
under a bill passed by the House
of Representatives yesterday.
Defeated Wednesday when it
failed to receive a majority vote,
the bill was reconsidered, passed
by a 16-7 vote and sent to the
Senate. Use of the sales tax ter
ritory-wide as a possible revenue
measure also was mentioned
briefly during the debate but re
ceived no serious attention.
In the upper branch, the Sen
ate also completed legislative ap
proval of a House memorial ask
ing for the transfer of control
over Alaska’s fisheries to the
Territorial Department of Fish
eries. It will now be forwarded
to President Eisenhower, con
gressional committees and the
heads of the Interior Dept, and
the Fish and Wildlife Service.
The memorial includes sharp
criticism of the statement attrib
uted to Fish and Wildlife director
John L. Farley two years ago that
federal control is maintained be
cause of “outside” fishery indus
try interests and that the industry
is of “national concern rather
than of local importance.”
Second Day of Debate
It was the second straight day
of debate in the House on the
cities’ sales tax raise proposal.
The arguments against it gen
erally were that a sales tax is
undesirable in the first place and
that two per cent is high enough.
Mention of the sales tax as a
territorial possibility entered the
debate. Rep. Hubert Gilbert <D
Fairbanks) in arguing against the
increase in the ceiling, asked:
“Why stop at three per cent?”
Then he declared he doesn’t
propose we should have a terri
torial sales tax, but, with the job
ahead, “I think we should keep
such possibilities open.”
Territorial Tax
Majority floor leader Richard
Greuel <D - Fairbanks*, on the
other hand, declared that allow
ing the cities to raise their local
sales taxes “will make it more
certain that there never, will be
a territorial sales tax, and I am
opposed to the territory ever hav
ing such a tax.”
Rep. Joseph McLean, Juneau
Republican, taunted the Demo
cratic majority with the observa
tion:
“It seems that almost every day
were are faced here with new
taxes, taxes and more taxes. I
wonder what it will be like by
the end of the session.”
Business Manager Bill
A bill proposing to create a
new and powerful post of terri
torial business manager came onto
the floor for the first time and
narrowly missed going out the
window on the first bounce. A
move was made to table it and
its author, Rep, Greuel, was bare
ly able to save it by a plea that
it at least should be given thor
ough consideration. The bill
would provide for the legislature
to name the business manager,
who in turn would name the
heads of the administrative de
partments, and they in turn to
be accountable to him.