The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, February 13, 1946, Page 1

THE LIBRARY GF CONGRESS SERIAL RECORD MAKR 271946 3 o THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE - “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE' TIME” VOL. LXVL, NO. 10,193 SECRETARY OF INTERIOR ICKES RESIG JUNEAU, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1946 _ MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTS Rescue Crews Remove Passengers from Stricken Liner Small boats from an Army pewer barge (right) ply to wr after Yukon went aground at Johnstone Eay, Alaska. Wirephoto from Army Air Forces) Some of Waves batter the broken wreckage of the S. | | march commander, was so relieved | Company, owner of the Yukon, de- oy age of forepart of liner Yuken (left) in conducting rescue of the 496 passengers he passengers weee removed from the ill-flated vessel by breeches buoy. (AP HOMMA IS PLEASED AT BEING SHOT Feared Ign;)m Death on Gallows - Sleeps Going fo Prison MANILA, Fcb. 13.—Lt. Gen. Ma- sasharn Homma, Bataan death on learning that he would be shot instead of hanged that he relaxed and slept during the ride to prison where he awaits execution. He had feared ignoble death on the gallows, like that decreed for | Lt. Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita, re- Vuk »n which broke in two affer running aground. Some passengers were rescued by breeches buoy. (AP Wirenhete from Army Air Corps) Portion of the passengers aboard the Yukon stand on deck of battered ship before removal of the 496 passengers had been completed. (AP Wirephoto from Army Air Corps) ~ ‘The Wravs;hingfiron‘ Merry- Go-Roun By DREW PEARSON | ' WASHINGTON—New York state * | Demccrats are hopping mad at Jim Farley for “muscling in” on Car- dinal-designate Spellman’s trip to | Rome. | } It's no secvet that Farley is run- ! ning like a jackrabbit for Governor :oi New York. He hopes to blow | Senator Jim Mead's gubernatorial | candidacy sky-high again this year | | just as he did in 1942, despite the | fact that President Truman, Post- | master General Bob Hannegan, | Senator Wagner, and other top- flight Democrat politicians are | supporting Mead. 4 { | PFarley, however, hopes to upset |the White House machine, win the | eovernorship himself, and name the | Democrat caondidate for president (in 48, with himself as possible | nominee for vice president. | | R n Farley’s enemies are sim- |mering is because the former | Postmaster General has created the | impresston he was invited by Spell- man to make the trip to Rome. | The fact is that Farley- asked to at- tend, thus putting the hierarchy lon the spot. Farley isn’t even trav- cling in the same plane with Spell- | man | What has made the situation even | more touchy is the faet that Mrs, ‘f-‘arley is m;‘cumpanying her hus- {ban to Romc. Bess Farley, who so hated politics and FDR during the | Roosevelt administration, will be the only woman in the party. . . 1 | A fact that has created consider- |able eyebrow raising among Cath- (Continued on Page Four) ported Maj. Larrs Hodgin, Twin Falls, Ida., the military police of- ficer who rode with Homma from Manila to Luzon prison camp No. 1. SLAPS HIGH JUSTICES MANILA, Feb. 13 the Allied prosecution staff for Japanese war crimes trials—Joseph B. Keenan—has taken issue with the dissenting opinion expressed by | Frank | Supreme Court Justices Murphy and Wiley Rutledge in the Homma war crimes case. Keenan has termed the opinion “offensive to say the least.” Murphy and Rutledge had con- | tended in their dissent that the Hommu case might iead to what they called a “procession of judi- cial lynchings without due process of law.” In a six-to-two decision, the Su- preme Court rejected an appedl of Lieutenant General Homma for a review of his death sentence. Elforl;lbm GM SIrike_gonlinuing DETROIT, Feb. 13.—Federal ef- forts to end the General Motors strike are being carried on in sep- arate meetings of a special gov- ernment mediator. The meetings followed the break- down of joint conferences between management and the CIO's United Auto Workers Union after the re- jection of a company offer of 18 and one-half cents an hour’ in- crease. To speed the settlement efforts of the Federal mediator, James F. Dewey, a National La- bor Relations Board hearing was postponed for one day. PRI kS e DIVORCE DECREES Three additional decrees of di- vorce were granted heré in U. S. District Court, at the afternoon sessiun Monday, to: Jack B. Smith of Ketchikan from Georgie V. Smith; to Louise Wat- ikins, from Willie Lea Watkins and | |to Edgar Garnick, Juneau from Coast Guard Investigation Board,!| Virginia Bessie Garnick. ~The chief of | Masaharu SURVIVORS OF YUKON WRECK REACH SOUTH Arrive in Seatfle by Steam- er, Plane-Investiga- | tion to Be Starfed SEATTLE, Feb, 13.—By sea flndl air the vivors of two Alaska shipw s were homeward bound todav as the Coast Guard prepar- the loss of the liner Yukon. today with 192 survivors from the Yukon end the Denali was on the | way from Seward with 16 more. | Seven survivers arrived last night | by airplane (In Washington, Delegate Bartlett | sald the Bureau of Marine Inspec- tion of the Coast Guard would' open “earings today in Seattle on' the loss of the Yukon, with the ar- ! rival of the Alaska. ! At ‘the same time, Bartlett said,’ ithe Coast Guard had agreed to ‘send a remesentative to Seward {and Anchorage immediately to take' i testimony of the survivors. i | As soon as the work is completed | in Seattle, he said, the board plans {to 2o to Anchorage and Seward to! | finish its investigation.) | | Meanwhile, the 39 crew members | |and officers of the refrigerator ship | Crown Reefer, which was lost after striking a rock at Amchitka Island | |Jan. 27, were on the way to San| | Pedro, Calif,, on the Elk Basin. One body has been recovered and Iwm‘-v'wns are unaccounted for in the wreck of the Yukon, which ran aground in Johnstone Bay Sunday | night, Feb. 2 ten hours after sail- | ing from Seward. i | 108§ BORNE BY WSA i | SEA'TTLE. Feb. 13—Loss of the | Seattle-Alaskc passenger ship Yu- kon will be berne by the War Ship- ! pinz Acministration, which had the | | vessel under bare-boat charter, it! was learned today. | Officials of the Alaska Steamship |sary ship,” and placed her value at $1,200,000. & | With more than 4,000 ships and | the average cost of insurance about $75,000 a year for each vessel, the! War Shipping Administration car; ries its own insurance on the fleet. | | However, insurance on passengers, and eargo usually is placed with commercial companies, | { scribed the vessel as “a very neces- | i { ‘ ni Shortage i Officials of the Alaska Steamship | Company said they would be short | a passenger ship by April, when | business shows an increase, as a| result of the loss of the Yukon. | The Columbia, which made one trip between San Francisco and| Honolulu, is returning to the Se-' attle-Alaska cervice, sailing from (this port today. ‘The Aleutian of Steamship Company, which also has been operating between San | Francisco ana Honolulu, will make | one more trip in this route before jreturn to the Seattle-Alaska ser-| i vice. INVESTIGATION IN ALASKA WASHINGTON, Feb. 13. — The Coast Guard has agreed to send a representative to Seward and An-! chorage immediately to take testi- | mony of the survivors of the Yu-: kon, Alaska’s Delegate Bartlett said today. ‘The Bureau of Marine Inspection of the Coast Guard, begins investi- gation of the accident today in Se- attle where the steamship Alaska is due to arrive, As soon as work is completed in Seattle the Board plans to go to Anchorage and Seward to finish its investigation. * At Anchorage, Mayor John Man- ders sald he had wired President | Truman, Delegate Bartlett, the War Shipping Administration and the Coast Guard at Washington asking | that hearings into responsibility for the wreck be held either there! or at Seward. His wife was one of | the 1escued passengers from the Yuko, ENSIGN TO W KETCHIKAN, Feb. 13. — Ens. James 8. Cooper of the Coast| Ciurd is leaving for Anchorage and Seward immediately to take deposi-| {tions in the investigation of the Yukon wreck, Como. Norman H.; Le announced today. His findings will be sent to the i the Alaska preparing to convene in Seattle, Three Yanks Beaten, Then Burned Alive Details of Degrading Pa- rade, Torture Revealed at Shanghai Trial SHANGHAI, Feb. 13.—Maj. Gen.| WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 ASecre-: ICKES GIVES 'HIS REASONS, RESIGNATION | lenged His Veracity 1 in Pauley Case \Mnsuwku Kaburagi said in a signed tary of Interior Hurold.l‘. Ickes re- tary of Interior ;:Declares President Chal-| OLD CABINET OFFICIAL IS ~ OUT AT LAST Truman Beats Old Cur- ' mudgeon fo Punch Mak- ing Announcement il WASHINGTON, gbb 13 —Secre- arold L. Ickes statement today that the humilat- signed today with an assertion that has resigned and President Tru- to foree Chiang Kai-shek bombing near that city. Kaburagi, one of the 18 Japa- nese on trial here for the crema- tion alive of the three Yanks, ad- mitted in the statement that he as Chief of Staff, and Lt. Gen. Tadayoshi Sano, commander of the 34th army, approved the degrading parade “to arouse public opinion.” He contended that Sano, who died of ulcers in Japan last summer, stated that American bombing close to Hankow had reached such intensity that a parade of three Yank fliers would incite the pop- ulace to such a degree that Chiank would ask the United States to halt the bombing. Some of the crowd of tens of thousands attracted to the parade beat the fliers with sticks. The three Americans, survivors of a damaged bomber, were cremated that night alive and twitching after a beating with small fire logs, pre- vious witnesses said. B ARGENTINA GAVE HELP TO NAZIS .'Blue Bookfiveals Com- plicity with Late Enemy in World War Il WASHINGTON, Feb. State Argentine lenders as supporters of Nazi Germany, hastened a fresh crisis today in the already badly strained relations between the United States and Argentina. Whether a formal break. in dip- lomatic ties will result remained an open question. Secretary of State Byrnes told reporters the United States does not intend tc follow up its “blue book” attack on the mflitary rulers of Buenos Aires with any single nation action against Argentina. But af least two members of the Senatc Foreign Relations Commit- tee indicated they expect further diplomatic steps eventually. May Curtail Relations Dispatches from the Argentine capital disclcced that at least part of the blue bock indictment had been published here, and these dis- patches speculated on the likelihood of curtailed relations. Col. Juan Peron, Argentina's strong man and current presiden- tial candidate, refrained in a cam- paigr speech last night from men- tion of the “blue book” which in- cluded assertions that the Nazis had been allowed to set up in Ar- gentina “a complete duplicate of the economic structure for war” which they had in Germany. Gets Wrathy However, Peron did asseil U. 8. 13. — The Assistant Secretary of State Spru-' ille Braden for what he called “in- solent intervention” in Argentina's affairs. It is no secret at the State De- partment that the big hope behind the 131-pag: “blue book” is that it will exert an unfavorable effect on Peron’s _presidential aspirations in the coming national elections on Feb. 24. i The “blue book” was made up in large part of Nazi documents cap- tured by the American Army in Germany. These documents, the State Depar‘ment said, furnish “proof positive” of Argentine “com- plicity with the énemy.” Aggressive Power Discussing the charge that the Germans had been ‘permitted to build “a complete duplicate of the (Cu;t nued on Pam!’Twa) Departments blast at key racity after telling him to be “as gentle as you can with Ed | Te old-line New Dealer and self- {styled ‘“curmudgeon” stepped out of the cabinet after 13 years' ser- vice as a direct result of the con- troversy over Mr. Truman's nomi- nation of Edwin W. Pauley, Cali fornia oil man, to be Undersecre- tary of the Navy | “Raw” Froposition ! Ickes has testified Pauley made him the “rawest” kind of proposi- tion involving funds for the Demo- cratic campaign and Mr. Truman has said Ickes could be mistaken. In a blistering, 2,000 word let- ter, Ickes told Mr. Truman he had spoken the truth about Pauley be- fore a Senate committee, had no apologies and asserted the Presi- dent had no right to pass judg- ment on his veracity. Shortly after the White House made the first announcement of the resignation, Ickes released the text of his letter and added details at a news conference in response to reporters’ questions. | Truman Informed ! He sald Mr. Truman knew in ad= vance that he would oppose Pauley’s nomination at the Naval Affairs committee hearing but never once asked his reasons “although I gave him opportuniti At Ickes related, he informed Mr. Tru- man that he had been asked to, testify. He asserted the President told him, “You must tell the truth, lof course.” Then Ickes quoted the President as saying: “Be as gentle as you can with Ed Pauley.” “I said, ‘T will)” Ickes told re- porters, When a reporter asked whether he will work against Truman in 1948 if the latter is a Presidential candidate, Ickes replied flatly “No." He said he could conceive of cer- tain conditions under which he could support him, adding a lot (would depend on the character of ,Mr. Truman's opponent. | Position Unienabie ! Ickes wrote in the letter that Mr. Truman had made his position as a cabinet member “untenable” by siding with Pauley against him. “I cannot stay on when you, in effect, have expressed lack of con- fidence in me,” Ickes told the Pres- ident. In Capitol Hill speculations about the identity of Ickes' successor the names most frequently mentioned included those- of Rep. Harry R. “Shepard (D-Calif), Sen. O'Mahoney (D-Wyo), Senator McFarland (D- Ariz), former Senator Worth Clark, ' Idaho Democrat, and Gov. Robert Kerr of Oklahoma. Ickes asked to be relieved March |31, but President Truman made the resignation effective Friday, Febru- ary 15. The President’s letter of acceptance was not made public. | The President designated Oscar L. Chapman, a Coloradoan who has Iserved 13 years as an assistant sec- retary, to take over Ickes' duties !pending the appointment of a per- martent secretary. / i R l | STOCK QUOTATIONS | NEW YORK, Feb. 13—Closing quotation of Alaska Juneau mine | stock today is 10%, American Can 96%, Anaconda 47%, Curtiss- Wright 10% International Harvest- er 944, Jones-Laughlin 49%, Ken- necott 54%, New York Central 31%, Northern Pacific 31%, United Corporation 5%, U. S, Steel 91%, | Pound $4.03%. Sales today were 1,680,000 shares. Dow, Jones averages today are as follows: industrials 198.74, rails 64.81, utilities 39.72. B ROCK FALLS, Il — The 300 {block on Fourth Avenue in this town has several double claims to fame. Residing there are four sets of twins—three pairs of boys, ranging in age from eight months (to eight years, and a twosome of girls 11 years old. last week’s cabinet meeting,’ /ing parade of three American fliers President Truman had challenged ., hag accepted the resignation ed to launch an investigation into |in Hankow, Dec. 16, 1944, was de- his ve i i e | signed The Alaska was due in Seattle to ask the United States to halt Pauley effective February 15, next Fri- day. | President Truman immediately |designated Osecar L. Chapman !As,‘smnt Secretary for the past 13 ijcnrs, to be the Acting Secretary |until Ickes' successor has been ap- i pointed. | White rouse Press Secretary Charles G. Ross told a news con- |ference that Ickes resignmation was |received by Mr. Truman at 3: p. m. yesterday and that a letter of acceptance was going forwaid \to Ickes. Ross declined to make public the (text of the letters at this time. Beats Ickes To Punch Ross’ announcement was made just an hour before a special press |conference at which Ickes was ex- pected to discuss the resignation. | Ross would not comment on questions whether Ickes resigned as the outgrowth of his testimony, con- cerning Edwin W. Pauley, Mr, Tru- man's nominee for Undersecretary of the Navy. Asked whether Pauley's nomina- tion would be wif WD 88 & 16~ Ross sald “Not to my knowledge.” He gave the same reply to ques- tions whether Pauley had asked the withdrawal of his nomination Out on February 156 As everybody in Washington pre- dicted, Ickes has resigned. The old curmudgeon, as he calls himself, will leave government ser- vice on February 15 — after bel ‘in the cabinet since (the firs Roosevelt administration in 1933, Ickes had scheduled a sp news conference for 11:30 a. m. Eastern Time, but President Tru- tman Leat him to the punch by an- Jnnunclna acceptance of the resig- /nation an hour before Ickes' ap- pointment with the press corps. i i Leaves With Record 1 Ickes will leave his office as !Secretary of the Interior on Friday .after setting a record for tenure and performance. And, characteris- itically, the irascible Ickes will go ;out with a chip on his shoulder— (his usual l4-carat variety. . But his friends say that it isn't !such a bad chip; for he carries it las much to defend his friends as to lambast his foes—and he admits ihis enemies are plentiful. | Ickes, who iabeled himseif “the ;old curmudgeon,” once said: “I've known for a long time that I'm not loved with the fervor to which I'm entitled. If a man worked hard 'at it, he couldn't get a bigger list of enemies than 1.” Stinging Repartee Ickes, a former newspaper man and lawyer, reached the big time |when he became Secretary of the |Interior under the late President | Roosevelt. Ickes was in charge of the Public Works Administration— lone of the big programs designed !to prime business pumps. In this | job, where he was in charge of al- {lotments of billions of dollars, he gained the name of Honest Harold. | But most of all he was known for |his stinging repartee amd epithets jin the many fight he courted — !battles which made him a five-star !show in national politics. | Who Is Chapman The newly designated Acting Sec- retary of the Interior Department, Oscar Chapman, held the post of Assistant Secretary for 13 years— a record for tenure in the so-called little cabinet. When Chapman was appointed in 1933, he was 36 years old and was called the baby of the Little Cabinet. Chapman has long been identi- fied with Colorado politics and has been fidentified with the liberal faction of the Democratic party. Tn the last Rocsevelt presidential cam- |paign, ke served as campaign 'manager in the western states, Chapman is a natlve of Halifax county, Virginia, and is a veteran of World War One. S e The design used on the shoulder pateh of the 76th Infantry Division is a medieval symbol for the oldest son of a family.