SSI NOME NUGGET
OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN ALASKA—MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS_
VOL. LVIII No. 7 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1956 Per Copy—15*
$51)0,000 Damages
In Fire Disaster
At Juneau Dock
JUNEAU, Jan. 18, UPt—An esti
mated $500,000 in damages to one
of Juneau’s major economic as
sets, the Juneau Cold Storage
Plant, was the toll exacted yes
terday in this city’s worst fire
since 1950.
The blaze, which kept firemen
on the scene until 9 a.m. this
morning, destroyed the plant’s
large fishhouse, shrimp and salm
on cannery, ice plant, gear stor
age loft and retail fish and meat
market.
All told, 36,000 feet of floor
space went up in smoke. An esti
mated $75,000 in halibut and fish
ing gear, owned by members of
the Juneau halibut fleet, also was
consumed.
The concrete fireproof addition,
built in 1940, was left undamaged.
Another concrete section, which
houses the offices of the plant
itself and those of fish brokers
Elton Engstrom and Ed Johnson,
was also undamaged. The soft
drink bottling plant also escaped.
Between 50,000 and 100,000
pounds of frozen fish, purchased
by Kpich-Shapiro Fisheries of
Chicago, was damaged by smoke,
Engstrom said.
Ship Badly Damaged
In Crash Against Leg of
Texas Tower ‘Island*
BOSTON, UP—A ship crashed
into the Texas Tower radar island
100 miles off Cape Cod, today,
suffering serious damage, but the
tall tripod structure was un
scathed. There were no casualties.
The ship was the Military Sea
Transport Service’s 5,202-ton Sag
itta, which had gone out to the
man-made “island” with fresh
water and other supplies.
While servicing the tower, her
starboard side crashed into the
structure, tearing a hole in its
hold, admitted an inrush of water
which quickly caused such a se
vere list that members of her
crew stood by lifeboats until the
ship’s pumps took control.
Opening of Katmai
National Monument
To Mining Protested
WASHINGTON, UP)—National
Park Service Director Conrad L.
Wirth has protested a bill which
would open up Katmai National
Monument in Alaska to mining.
The monument, 2V£ million
acres in size, includes the famed
Valley of 10,000 Smokes.
Wirth told a House Interior
Affairs subcommittee that while
only a few hundred people now
visit the monument each year, it
is “going to be one of the most
important attractions of Alaksa as
the years go along.”
Mining operations, he said
would tend to destroy scenic
values.
No action was taken on the bill.
Baby Born on
J
Pan Am Clipper
SAN FRANCISCO, (A*)—A Pan
American Airways Clipper turned
back from a flight to Honolulu
today after a passenger gave
birth to a daughter, two months
premature.
The Clipper, with 55 passengers
aboard, was about 200 miles out
over the Pacific when Purser Sue
M. Sargent rapped on Pilot-Capt.
Henry C. Kristofferson’s cabin
door and announced:
“One of the passengers is going
to have a baby.” With the aid of
another woman passenger, Mrs.
Robert Henderson of Nashville,
N. C., gave birth to the baby.
Back in San Francisco, a doctor
Said both mother and baby ap
peared to be in fine condition.
Mrs. Henderson’s husband, a
sergeant in the 4th Marine Divi
sion, said he was “of no help at
all.”
GEESLIN TO NOME
Area Director William H. Ol
sen announced today that Fred
Geeslin of Juneau h&s been given
a special duty assignment as as
sistant area director at Nome,
pending appointment of a per
manent area director. Geeslin has
been in government service 28
years. He is expected to come in
about a week, Olsen said.
Israel Asks Britain for Weapons;
• Syria to Get 100 Czech Tanks
Rv THE AsSOf tATFD PRESS
Arms for the Middle East be
came a matter of concern in three
countries today in the wake of
the U N. Security Council’s cen
sure of the Israeli attack on Syr
ian outposts last month.
In London, the Foreign Office
confirmed Israeli Ambassador El
iahu Elath’s statement that he
had made an urgent plea yester
day for weapons for defensive
and deterrent purposes to For
eign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd.
But, a ministry spokesman said,
it was not true that Elath told
Lloyd, as the ambassador report
ed, that the big Western powers i
are evading their obligation to j
treat Israel on an equal footing:
with the Arab states. If he had ,
done so, the spokesman said, his
accusation would have been re- j
pudiated strongly.
A government informant in Ot
tawa said an export permit for
$30,695 worth of ammunition for
Israel has been granted but has
not yet been shipped. An official
said the amount was “peanuts”
and could be shot up by the Cana
dian army in a single day of
practice. Prime Minister Louis St.
Laurent has called for a report
on all exports permits for mili
tary equipment.
A Tel Aviv newspaper said that
Syria has contracted for 100 tanks
and other weapons from Commu
nist Czechoslavakia.
In Washington, the U.S. State
Department must make a decision
on an Israeli request for Ameri
can arms made late last year.
Consideration of this request was
suspended while the Security
Council debated the Syrian charg
es against Israel.
Bombay Looting,
Shooting, Riots
in
BOMBAY, India, OP)—Looting
and shooting continued unabated
in riot torn Bombay today for the
fifth successive day. Left-wing
leaders of the demonstrators ap
pealed in vain for an end to the
violence.
Bombay State Governor Mah
tab told a meeting of leading citi
zens the wave of violence is “un
paralled in the history” of Bom
bay, India’s second largest city.
Official figures put the death
toll at more than 40 since the
riots erupted Monday in opposi
tion to a government plan to
make the city of Bombay a separ
ate state under a realignment of
state boundaries.
Authorities were besieged in
dozens of towns by demonstrators
who demanded the officials re
sign. At Poona all 50 city council
men quit after a stone-throwing
mob stormed the municipal cor
poration building.
NO SANCTUARY
COVINGTON, Ky., OP)—Snooz
ing off a booze under a judge’s
bench is a bad bet.
So said City Commissioner
Charles Rump yesterday after
finding Walter Thomberry sleep
ing beneath a judge’s desk in the
courtroom during a city council
meeting.
Thornberry was charged with
drunkenness.
No Health Hazard
Yet Produced by
Nuclear Tests
EVANSTON, 111., (/PI—Atomic
Energy Commissioner Willard F.
Libby said last night that high
energy nuclear tests have not yet
produced any significant world
wide health hazard.
He said that on the basis of
computations and actual tests “it
is possible to say unequivocably
that nuclear weapons tests as car
ried out at the present do not con
stitute a health hazard to the hu
man population—in so far as ra
diostrontium is concerned.”
He added that radiostrontium,
which is deposited in human
bones, is believed to be the most
dangerous of the radioactive sub
stances produced in a nuclear
blast.
He said that radioactivity near
the test site, however, is a “very
real”danger, to which the AEC is
paying “great attention to protect
against misadventure.”
PRISONERS' 'SALARY'
BOOSTED $2 A DAY
SAN ANTONIO, Texas, (^—In
flation may enable prisoners in
the city jail to get a boost in
“salary” for “laying out fines.”
Police Chief George Bichsel
yesterday endorsed a recommen
dation by Police Inspector E. P.
Bogasch that the $3 a day credit
allowed prisoners for sitting out
fines be increased to $5 a day.
The $3 a day allowance has
been in effect 50 years.
“Everything else has gone up,
why shouldn’t this?” asked Bo
gasch.
Senator Calls for Full-Scale Review
Of Dulles* ‘Diplomacy of the Brink’
GOP Expects to Raise
Million Dollars at Rally
For Eisenhower Tonight
NEW YORK, UP>—Republican
Party expects to raise a million
dollars at a lobster, fun and talk
“Salute to Eisenhower” rally to
night in Madison Square Garden.
It hopes for an attendance of
10,000 persons from New York
and New Jersey at $100 a ticket.
President Eisenhower will ad
dress the gathering and similar
rallies in other cities across the
nation via closed circuit TV.
The program will ge given over
largely to entertainment, includ
ing an ice show. Speech making
will be held to a minimum.
George M. Humphrey, secretary
of the Treaury, will make a 20
minute address and then the Pres
ident will speak for about 10 min
utes from Washington.
Ticket holders will be entitled
to half a cold Maine lobster, dev
iled egg, olives, salad, buttered
roll, cheese cake, grapes and or
ange juice.
Truman, Kefauver
Send Regards to
Alaska Convention
FAIRBANKS, (#>—A former
Democratic President and another
Democrat who would like to be,
sent their best regards to the
Constitutional Convention yester
day afternoon.
A letter to Victor Rivers, dele
gate and member of the Alaska
Statehood Committee, from Har
ry S. Truman said:
“I sincerely hope the Constitu
tional Convention will be a suc
cessful one. I have always been in
favor of statehood for Alaska and
I am still in favor of it. If you
have a constitution ready to pre
sent to the Congress when that
takes place, and it certainly will
some time, you will be way ahead
of things.”
Sen. Kefauver addressed a let
ter to William Egan, convention
president, and included a dig at
the Eisenhower Administration.
“With all the other friends of
Alaska statehood,” Kefauver said,
“I am deeply saddened by the
repeated failures of this adminis
tration to unequivocally support
the entry of this very wortny
group into the Union.
“However, it is my deep and
sincere belief that the convention
will write a constitution in con
formity with our American ideals
and institutions and one which
will meet the requirements and
match the aspirations of the Al
askans of the future state, and
that this noble undertaking will
convince all who now oppose
statehood to reconsider their ac
tions.”
Without directly referring to
his presidential aspirations, the
Tennessee senator said, “Regard
less of what office I may hold,
this cause which I have long em
braced will not only have ray
support, but my active support.”
' WASHINGTON Id*—Sen. Mans
field (D-Monti called today for a
full-scale congressional review of
what he described as Secretary of
State Dulles’ “diplomacy of the
brink.”
In a Senate speech, he said this
country must revise its foreign
policy to meet a Soviet diplomatic
offensive already in “high gear”
or face the loss of “countless mil
lions of our citizens and hundreds
of billions of dollars.”
Mansfield, member of the Sen
ate Foreign Relations Committee,
said the need for review is point
ed up by the Life magazine article
quoting Dulles as saying that ad
ministration policy prevented war
in Asia three times.
Democrats have been hammer
ing away at the statement, at
tributed to Dulles in the article,
that “the ability to get to the
verge without getting into war is
the necessary art.” Dulles himself
has backed away from it, saying
he would not have put it that way
for publication.
While most Senate Republicans
rallied to the support of Dulles in
the controversy over the article,
Sen. Jenner (R-Ind) criticized him
in the Senate yesterday for what
Jenner called a “soft policy” to
ward Russian expansion.
And Sen. Sparkman (D-Ala)
suggested to reporters that Presi
dent Eisenhower—who at a news
rnnforence expressed his complete
faith in Dulles—should read the
Life article.
Mansfield said “the wheels of
review” of American foreign pol
icy “have begun to turn both here
and abroad” as a result of the
article. “It is long past due,” he
said.
U'ving Cos*s Fall for
^irst Time S;nce August;
Spendable Earnings Up
WASHINGTON, UPV—1The gov
ernment reported today that liv
ing costs fell three-tenths of one
percent from November to De
cember, the first decline since
August.
Prices for food, transportation
and housing dropped, while medi
cal and personal care costs edged
upward.
The December index ol the
Bureau of Labor Statistics was
114.7 percent of the figure for the
1947-49 base period. This is a
fraction higher than in Decem
ber, 1954.
The bureau reported that aver
age gross weekly earnings, spend
able pay and wage purchasing
value of factory workers all rose
to a new record level in Decem
ber.
Spendable earnings, or gross
pay less tax deductions, rose to an
average $65.79 for the single
worker and to $73.15 for the
wo ker with three dependents.
This was about $4.50 a week
higher for each type worker than
at the end of 1954, and up to 30
cmt a week from November. In
erms of purchasing power, the
average worker was aole to buy
6 percent more with his pay dur
ing 1955 than his pay brought him
in 1954, the largest annual in
crease since World War* II.