"News oj oAmencds Last Frontier”
L. 4 NO. 36
PRICE 16 CENTB
_
KODIAK, ALASKA JANUARY 20, 1945
PA Head Speaks
t Rotary, School;
leets With Groups
Mrs. Mildred Hermann, Ter
orial OPA director, outlined
j organization and work of
s OPA in a speech given at
i Rotary Club Tuesday.
Explaining that the OPA, one
the few government agencies
sated by an act of Congress,
sides taking care of rationing
the Territory for the War
oduction Board, and super
ling taxi operations for the
See of Defense Transportation,
d been faced with the gigantic
ik of controlling prices on 8
llion commodities and 14 and
half million dwelling unit
its.
With 79 per cent of the Alas
OPA staff being chosen from
askans familiar with Territor
problems, Mrs. Hermann said
it the OP A, without precedent
guide it, had naturally made
stakes but that they were cor
jted as soon as the mistakes
re shown.
Many people are concerned
th possibility that the OPA
ght become a permanent gov
iment regulation, Mrs. Her
oin said, but that she felt its
rk would be done after a post
.r period of adjustment. The
ik of inflation in the last war
ne in the 20 months following
' war when prices zoomed to
lew high. At that time two
hs of industry was converted
war and now three-fourths
industry is so converted,
; said, which should indicate
11 enough the greater need for
iontrol in the next post-war
iod.
3f the post-war control she
d “I hope it will not be too
g, I hope it will not be too
istic and hope for the full co
iratiou of everyone.”
Hter the Rotary meeting
s. Hermann met with city
mcil members at the OPA Of
! and explained the Office of
fense Transportation regula
a which requires, in purchase
i taxi business, that the entire
• business must be transferred
tnake transfer of taxi business
;nses effective.
File same afternoon she met
h local meat dealers to dis
s the specific prices on meat,
i said her office had investi
ed protests of meat dealers
1 had decided adjustments
ed for were unwarranted. She
i the decision was now in the
ids of the Washington office,
ich can accept or reject the
lean office decision.
in Thursday Mrs. Hermann
•ke to the high school and 8th
de on the subject of inflation
S. Oscar Breedman Dies From Burns
Received In Store Fire; Services Held
Simon Oscar Breedman, 74,
died at 3:32 am at the Griffin
Memorial hospital last Sunday
as the result of burns received
in a fire at the Breedman liquor
store the day before.
Mr. Breedman a week before
had been found lying across his
bed in his apartment over the
store and had been taken to the
hospital where he was treated
for a nervous breakdown com
plicated by an old hear: ail
meat. He was fully recovered
last Friday and late Saturday
morning was released.
He went to the store and
started fires in the oil stove in
in the store part and in a back
room. During the afternoon
friends dropped in to see him
and he conferied with R H
Chadwick, National Grocery
representative and deputy U S
Marshal Paul Herring, about his
business. He also made arrange
ments with Mrs. William
Wright to go to work for him at
the store the next morning.
He was having trouble with
his back stove and when Mr.
Curtain Fire Doused
The fire department was call
ed at 5:20 pm yesterday when a
keiosene lamp on a stand in an
upstairs bedroom at the Ecf
Cohen residence behmd the Sun
beam hotel caught fire to a cur
itain. Wind from the partially
open window blew the curtain
into the lamp.
Mrs. Cohen ran uostairs and
extinguished it with a pan of
water.
Chadwick left him a few minutes
to get his mail as he requested,
he returned to find Mr. Breed
man covered with soot. He had
thrown kerosene from a bottle in
to the stove and it had flared out.
Friends report that he had done
the same thing just a few weeks
before.
Mr. Chadwick then warned
him to leave the stove alone and
left to go to his home for a few
minutes. Mrs. Wright left short
ly afterward and went into the
Ship’s Tavern. She said she had
just started to drink a coke
when someone ran in and said
Breedman’s was afire.
Those who got there first ran to
the front door and opened it to
be met by an appalling rush c
| thick, black oil smoke.
1 A soldier ran to the side door
in back and said he saw Breed
man through the smoke, with
his clothes aflame. He ran in and
grabbed him but he said Brted
man muttered something inco
herent about “burning” and
broke away toward an inside
stairway. The soldier was forced
back out by the smoke and
(lames. Tim Gilmore and Ole
Olsen then ran to the back door.
They went in and Bieedman had
fallen on the floor and they suc
ceeded in getting him out He
was carried into the Ship’s where
a blanket and towels were used
to extinguish his still burningj
clothes. He was then cariied to a
ear and rushed to the hospital
by James Marts
The fire in the building spread;
quickly and in minutes large
flames rolled out the upper win
dows. The alarm was sounded at
3:35 and the firemen went to
work with hoses from the from
and back downstairs and up the
front stairs that have a separate
entrance. They quickly had the
fire under control and a few min
utes before 4 it was completely
out. The frame building is locat
ed in the center of Kodiak's
largest business block, in which
all the buildings are of wood. Al
though flames from windows
damaged the sides of Breedman’s,
the Ship’s Tavern about 4 feet
away on one side and the even
closer Model Cafe building on
the other were both undamaged.
Damage to the liquor stock,
estimated at a 60 per cent loss,
was covered by insurance. The
t building, owned by Sally Pear!
Santa Monica, California, was
• al«o insured.
Mr. Breedman lived through
the night at ttie hospital. Dr. A.
Holmes Johnson, the attending
physician, said the immediate
cause of his death was shock, in
duced by third degree burns on
bis head and over almost half
his body.
Funeral services were held at
the Community Baptist church
Wednesday at ‘<s:30 pm with
Hev Gregory Morony officiat
(continued on page 91
Father Dies
Mr Charles Nettle received
word this Monday of the death
of his father, Mr. Edward Nettle,
in Seattle.
Along The Luzon Invasion Coast
-
President’s Ball
Committees Busy;
Dominoes To Play
Plans were taking shape this
week for what promises to be
one of the finest President’s
Birthday Balls ever to be held
in Kodiak.
Committee chairmen, named
by the dance chairman, Mrs. O.
A. Torgerson, held their first
meeting this week and outlined
plans for the dance. Chairmen
are: Stan Nelson, floor chairman;
tickets and advertising, Pat
Cannon; finance, Emil Knudsen;
deeoration, Walt SipDerel.
A Seabee dance orchestra, the
"Dominoes” has already been
secured to furnish the music and
dancing hours have been set
from 9 to 1 the evening of Tues
day, January 30, at Blinn’s hall.
Tickets are to be S2 a couple.
Fifty per cent of the proceeds
of the dance will go to the Na
tional Fund tor Infantile Paraly
sis. In the past the other 50 jser
cent has been given to the Ter
ritory, but this year it will be
kept and used right in Kodiak.
At a meeting this week it was
decided unanimously to assign
the funds direct to Kodiak’s pub
lic health nurse, Marion Curtis,
to be earmaraed for child wel
fare work, a vital necessity in
this community.
Bristol Bay Gill
Netters Curtailed
Beattie (^) — The Federal
Fish and Wildlife service will
curtail fishing this year ia the
Bristol Bay area, limiting to 212
the number of gill net boats per
mitted m the Naknek-Kvichak
district, and 82 in the Nashagak
area.
The decision is a conservation
measure. Figures given for both
areas are slightly beJow the
number of boats allowed to oper
ate in them in the cycle year of
1940.
The new restrictions may re
sult in Bristol Bay district oper
ators in adopting the concentra
tion plan, a spokesman for the
service said.
All Mirror readers are interest
ed in the whereabouts and activi
| ties of servicemen from this area,
or with relatives in this area.
The Mirror would appreciate
submission of such items concern
ing transfers changes in rank,
| interesting letters and other
items.
Shoreline near the town of
San Fabian in the southeast sec
tor of Lingayen Ou!f on Luzon
in the Philippines lies in this
pre-war aerial photo.