The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, February 18, 1947, Page 1

; ] "HE DAILY ALASKA EMPIR “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL. LXVIIL, NO. 10,506 JUNEAU, ALASKA, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1947 MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRE N Alaska Shipping Plan Approved by House SENATORS OK STATE MEMORIAL Busy Com_n;filees Put Heavy Calendar Before Upper Body Tomorrow By a 10 to 5 vote, the Alaska Senate this morning passed the Statehcod Memorial-H. J. M. 1— wheh caills upon Congress to legis- late for admission of Alaska into the family of States of the Union. The five votes against passage all came from the Second and Fourth divisions, where majorities against statehood were recorded in the referendum vote at the last Gener- al Election. Voting against were Senators Cochran, Collins. Munz, Rogge and Scott. Second Division Senator D. Jones was not present when the vote was taken. The memorial will now again go before the House, for concurrence in ‘Senate amendments incorporated yesterday. Without further amend- ment today, the memorial was ad- vanced to third reading and roll call followed only brief discussion. Useless and Presumptuous In the only voiced opposition to passage, Senator O. D. Cochran de- clared the memorial “useless and presumptuous.” The opinion ex- pressed by the people of Alaska in their referendum vote will, he de- clared, accomplish all that now can be accomplished — the Legislature has no need or right to “add to or detract from” that expression by the people. Senator Don Carlos Brownell took the other view, that passing the memorial is something the Leg- islature “should do.” His fellow Third Divisioner, Gunnard Enge- breth, said he would agree with Cochran that it is not necessary for the Legislature to act, were the memorial not already before the body. He feared, however, that Sen- ate rejection of the memorial might have an adverse effect. Committees Busy Fruits of concentration upon committee duties yesterday after- noon were apparent in a flood of bills reported out to the Senate this (Continued on Page - The Was Two) hington Merry - Go- Round By DREW PLARSON ! impassioned plea —— $ST5,000F0R PLANEHUNTS VOTEDDOWN Measure fo R?muire §2,- ' 500 Bond for Policemen | | Is Passed by House The economy forces went to work {in the House of Representatives | yesterday afternoon to put down a| |bill which would have appropriat-| |ed 875,000 to finance searches for| |lost airplanes. The bill was Kkilled | |13 to 10 with one absent | Introduced by Rep. McCutcheon| A |of Anchorage, the measure would | voted by men of “Empty Inave set up the fund to be admin-/ Arms,” University of Towa re: e, i X ke to !istered by the Alaska Aeronautics) dence, the girl they'd like t : 2 s ARMFUL_ mary Lee Og- den, 18 (above), Mason City, Ia., By |down to defeat only after consid- e |erable flcor debate when it appear- | REN(E '[0 led for third reading. (oNFE Rep. McCutcheon d a letter DIS(USS plA(E .tic Prop-Bust Club of Anchor- rage, told of harrowing experiences, OF THE (HUR(H .of lost aviators and spoke of the “smug attitude of the members” Rep. Nolan pointed |there is a statute on the books » g ¥4 lto provide for searches for lost| nique Religious Discus- persons and that cnly a small por- H 3 % sion on Economic Life ipurpose was expended dwing the! adbildrs past biennium. | Rep. Egan said that there are sev-! MAX HALL ‘eral Armed Forces rescue units in! jout that the Territory spent a mil-|palian Bishop opened a unique re- !lion dollars more than it took in ligious conference today by vigor {last year and that is is “time to ously rejecting the argument that get down to business.” |churches should kzep out of econ- and Communications and it went | have fill those “arms.” |supporting the bill from the Arc- Iwho spoke of economy. i mm'BiShop and Lé—wyer Open {tion of the appropriation for that| :;Ala.vk while Rep. Laws pointed inent church layman and an Episco- | Two Bills Passed jomic life. i Two bills were passed by the At the start of the three-day |House during the afternoon sion, | “National conference on the Church Loth to amend present laws. H. B. and Economic Life’ : {58, by Rep. Ost, amends the law| 1. Charles P. Cincinnati lauthorizing ministers or priests to|lawyer who is President of Lk_w iperform marriage ceremonies by de-|Federal Council of Churches, said ifining the terms “minister” and|in a prepared speech that the Ger- {“priest,” and was passed by a 22-1|man churches obeyed Hitler's advice vote. |to mind their own business “Heav- ! H. B. 62, by Rep. McCutcheon, en and all that.” while he took care |would amend the law by requiring of ecoromics and politi but that that police officers in Alaska, ex-!conclusion wi cannot acce icept U. S. Marshals and their| 2. The Rt. Rev. Ang {deputies, be under bond of $2500;Episcopal Bishop of each. This bill was pushed into a said the churches must {third reading hy a suspension of themselves with economic life be- the rules and passed by a 19-4 vote. cause they are not caring for “di | Efforts to have the maximum embodied souls, Eut souls in bodies {monthly benefits to be paid under of flesh and blood.” |lhe old age assistance program set lat $60, as at present, or raised to argue that the church ought not to fonly $65, instead of the $75 pro- concern itself with things like labor- vided in H. B. 7, were defeated by management relations and other close margins when the bill was in €conomic questions. econd reading. The conference is designed to d_'w | Rep. Edward Anderson made an cuss economic “tension,” decide for additional | what responsibility” the churches 'funds to help the “poor pioneers have toward these “tensions” and Dunn, hington, concern PITTSBURGH, Feb. 18— A prom-. Both men’ said some Christians' LABOR BILLS ASSAILED BY RIS, GREEN | Measure Invades Lib- erty of Workers I WASHINGTON, Feb. 18. — AFL | President William Green declared i ! today enactment of restrictive labor legislation now before Congress would “produce such great indus- A | trial confusion as to undermine the | present world position of the Unit- | ed States.” | The 73-year-old head of the Am- {erican Federation of Labor told | the Senate Labor Committee the indispensable first step” in dealing with labor-management relations is to cquire a complete know- | ledge and understanding of those | basic forces and of those new cir- cumstances” which have arisen in { the past 15 IS, “The American Federation of La- bor,” he said in his prepared testi- | mony, “is prepared to cooperate with this or any other committee |in making such a study.’ President Truman has urged a similar course on Congress before it passes any long-range labor legis- ylation, | Green identified the | circumstances “our yeconomy and our great advance- ‘ment in machine production with :rvsuluns: manpower displacement; i the dislocations and adjustments j caused by the depression; the war ‘and the postwar period; and the | emergence of certain economic and 1 social truths | The APL President—first organi 1 ed labor spokesman to testify befo) j either the Senate or House Labor i Committees this year—took up one +by one the bills before the Senate | group. and anded forces ex; ¢} as A Testifies On Bills | These include the Ball-Smith- ! Taft bill to set up a Federal media- | tion board and compel a cooling-off ! period before strikes; and three I'bills by Senator Ball (R-Minn) to !bar the closed shop, outlaw indus- | try-wide collective bargaining and ! overhaul the Wagner Act. Green assailed them all. He said the compulsor; off period of the Ball bill is cooling- mith-Taft “an unjustified invasion of yan essential liberty--the right to | strike—and violates the Thirteenth | Amendment (to the Constitution) | prohibiting involuntarv servitude. Elingie | ““Second, it suggests what is com- ! pletely untrue, namely that unions !call and engage in strikes at the Says Ball - Smith - Taft! WASHINGTON — If, one Vear{ywhg, helped to open this countr; |to recommend & program of action’ drop of a hat, in a moment of ago, anyone hac told Republican{Tne dollar has lost much of its|for the Federal Council's 25 denom- heated excitement, without any con- leaders that February 1947 would.purchasing power, he said, and was inations, claiming 26,000,000 mem-{ sideration for the welfare either of aboard the of find them Senatorial leaping bandwagon reminded by Speaker Gill that there Lers, almost all of them Protestants. union members or of the general aged |als, aren’t as many dollars in the The Federal Council is Sponsor-lpuhlic and without allowing any Kenrieth McKellar, the tempestuous | Territorial Treasury as there once|ing the conference, but the con-iopuortunity for governmental agen- solon from Tennessee, they would have laughed in derision. Nevertheless, that has now hap- pened. An increasing number of Re- publican Senators, after gleefully watching McKellar carry on his one-man crusade against David Lil- ienthal as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, have now de- cided to make political capital out of a personal feud and have joined him. Irony is that only a.few months ago, many of these same Republi- cans were grousing about McKel- lar's sometimes senile Senate lead- ership, and using him as an illus- tration of why the nation must junk the allegedly decrepit Demo- cratic party. 2 In fact, it was only last spring that McKellar's mental lapses were such that he had to leave the Sen- ate for the Naval Hospital. The 77-year-old Tennessean had passed out in a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, experienced another lapse in the coffee shop of the Mayflower Hotel, and finally had to be inveigled out of the pre- siding officer’s chair in the Senate. iference in its final report will speak {only for itself. Officials expect close to 400 dele- gates, one-third of them clergymen, another third from labor unions, ! business firms and agriculture, and !the others professional people, gov- ernment officials and educators. Taft, who is presiding, said in his speech that the conference lcould ba “of great, perhaps unique, importance in its contribution to religious thinking.” He also said “we shall certainly |disagree at many points among ourselves.” were. | Amend Labor Bill | H. B. 24, to amend the law re-| (garding the powers of the Commis- sioner of Labor and detailing pro- icedure for collection of wage claims, was somewhat amended in second | reading. ¥ Two portions of the bill which | would have given the Commissioner the authority to hold hearings to satisfy himself as to the justice of any claim and to compel the pro- ductions of papers, books, accounts, records and payrolls as such hear- iings, were removed from the bill Labor Commissioner Henry Benson R Sl ‘appered before the House to ex- plain some of the features of the bill which, he said, would make | Krug Leaves, {wage collections easier. A new bill, H. B. 66, by Reps.| e i Hoopes and Meath, was introduced, and would amend the laws of] a(l lc 'lp Alaska by setting the legal rate of| jinterest at six instead of eight| | percent. ' ! LONG BEACH, Calif, Feb. 18 Rep. Robert Hoopes, whose birth-p oo secretary J. A. Krug bid iday was yesterday, was presented | o quve to the United States for a St W S Nauioo| Tl today 558 Begk the. b dog . 3 ‘ " of his air g Johnson made the presentation| gy me stop off in Honolulu | Epenn. | before going on to Tokyo for a con- | cies to attempt mediation and con- ; ciliation. ! “Unions faced with such a legis- !lative freeze will be forced, in or- ! der to avoid its harsh consequences, | rapidly to develop their differences with their employers into full-blown | formal labor disputes in order to |invoke the services of the mediation land conciliation agencies and im- | mediately to start the sixty-day i period.” —,-—— gfiovernor OK's Bill to Refer Trap Quesfion ‘The fate of fish traps is now up to the people of Alaska. House Bill 8, which provides for a referendum on abolition of fish traps in Alaska, to be on the ballot at the next General Election, has | i been approved by the Governor of The latter incident Was most em-{ Former Representative Fred Han-| o once with General MacArthur on = Alaska after having already passed barrassing. As President Pro Tem'ford of Wrangell was greeted by tiih, Gneial MRcAriigiE o0 of the Senate, McKellar was wield- | former colleagues and new members| 1 3% 1 |by both chamber of the Legislature ing the gavel one afternoon Whenland was extended the privilege of|Sands formerly controlled BVIge (o ourrent seggion. i it became obvious he did not know |the floor during his stay in Juneau. °°P°™ BBl G Notice that the Governor had what he was doing. And when ;?t‘g— = | !:;‘xned the x(i.sk(; l:mph retere;ldum sl e ill was receive egislators lc‘!am?’?o“hissef-:;:?: nla‘:x;m re- KILLED DOE—FINED ] SAI'SF'ED this 'murnln:. ik e marked: [ Bl C; THAS was. avenstad nndi —_— & Although any final action on the “When does the Senate meet, ‘ | TURO, Mass. — Here is a defla- |matter must ke taken by the Fed- Les?” brought in from Tenakee for kmxngl tionary note in an inflationaryeral government, preferably by con- a doe deer on December 21. Jack|yoriq at last. gressional legislation, it is expect- | Likens of the Game Commission| prpest small, Turo auditor, has|ed that the opinion that will be apprehended Taug who pleaded yejected a raise offered by town|expressed by Alaska voters.in 1948 guilty and was fined $60 in the|officials. His salary of $40 a year|will cutline what coursc of action U. 8. Commissioner’s Court. was enough, he said. is to, be taken. Biffle explained that the Senate was already in session, but MecKel- lar remonstrated, claiming that he (Continued on Page Four) SHORTAGE ~ OF SHIPS NOW FELT Only Four Passenger Ves- | sels for Alaska Service- | | Summer Rush Coming | | | | | | | SEATTLE, Feb. 18. — A serious shorfage of Alaska passenger ships, !ever worse than last year's, con-| fronfls the Territory as the peak| itmvl eason aporoaches. ! \ THis fact was pointed up by the!} | grounding and possible loss of the| | 88 North near Bella Bella,| IB. @, last we | Even if the North Sea proves salvageable and returns to the run | before the busy season, the passen- ‘Vgcr ship situation will be acute | unless ditional tonnage is ob- | taine amship men said toda | Right now, there are only four | Passenger ships left, not counting! Ithe North Sea, out of a prewar| yileet of about 12. Some of the old- | | timers Northland, Columbia, | |Cordova and Lakina, have been | sold; others-—the Yukon, Dellwood | jand Mount McKinley—have been | lost. The shrunken fleet now compris- | | es the anof, Aleutian, Denali and | Alaska, all ocperated by Alaska] | Steamship Company 1 | Alaska passenger ships were ’hopeh ssly swamped last year during | the spring, summer and fall months. | Hundreds of travelers were forced to wait weeks for passage north.' | A series of maritime strikes caused | mest of the delays. but even with- | out the tieups, there were not! ,engugh ships to handle the traffic.| The big problem, assuming th('i government continues its Alaskai ship operations, will be to obtain | suitable vessels for the tricky Al ska run. The report last year, : “There just aren’t any of that | type available. special construction since then. { Several converted troopships help- | ed ease the burden last year by carrying fishermen and cannery | workers - during the cann sea- | son, and possibly may be called: back into action this season. But such vessels are not practical for | regular passenger trade, and they're 100 big for the inside passage run.i Alaska ship operations, awaiting | a decision from Congress on exten- sion of government operatior have made no public announce- ment of how many passenger ships | are needed to fill the bill. i But, after the major question of extending the Maritime Commis- | sion’s control over Alas hipping | has been settled, the next problem will be to get some ships suitable for the peculiarities of the trade. CONGRESS IS ACTING i WASHINGTON, Feb. 18.—Legis-' lation designed to provide a steam- ship service to Alaska from March' 1 until June 30, 1948, is scheduled | for House action today and Senate consideration Friday. Rep. Jackson (D-Wash), an-! nounted House leaders had agreed | to permit him to call for a vote on resolution authorizing the Mar-| itime Commission to enter into. ,contracts with private steamship operators to operate the Alaska Serviee. Senator Magnuson (D-Wash), said Senate leaders had agreed to report a similar resolution to that body for action Friday. The measure authorizes the Com- mission to furnish government ships to the Alaska lines operators at | nominal charter hire and for the | government to recapture 75 percent ! of the profits of the operation. The operators would stand all losses. - Small Plane with L ' Two Aboard Now Missing, Westward ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Feb. 18.— Reports that a small plane enroute from Yakutat to Merrill Field, An- chorage, had made a forced landing north of Dutch Island, Prince Will- ilam Sound, were being investigat-| ed today by the Tenth Rescue| Squadron, the Public Relations Of-!nent guests have been invited to| FLOCK OF GEESE 1 fice, Alaska Air .Command, said to-' day. The plane. a Grumman Widgeon | |left' Yakutat Sunday noon with a| five-hour fuel supply. Two persons Jwere believed aboard. 4 There has been no | Aboriginal Rights Were Abolished by Treafy of 1867, Says Circuit Court A decisi hich will have iar reaching effect upon the ab.:iginal i rights claims to huge land and| water areas in Alaska by Alaska | Indians was handed down by the! U. S, Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco last week. Copies of the opinion, which states that any aboriginal rights which the Indians may have had were extinguished by | the Treaty of C m of 1867, were received in Juneau yesterday. | e The opinion is contained in a de- PORTLAND, Ore,, Feb. 18 *leision reversing a judgment hand- | city’s bid for Alaska trade v ed down by the U. S. District Court freight goes on a regular in Juneau in 1944, dismissing an this week with three flights a week | action against the U. S. govern- to four cities in the Territory |ment by numerous Indian claim- Ed Nye, Vice President of Globe ants in condemnation proceed- Distributors, anncunced his com- ings involving land and water occu- pany had signed a six-months con- pied by the Juneau sutport tract with American Airlines to, The Indian claimants asked the| handle the full loads on DC-4 air- court to award them a judgment craft of $80,000 for the tidelands which | The first flight will leave here they claimed they had aboriginal! Wednesd The plane will dis- | and possessory rights to. charge cargo at Anchorage, Fair-| with this case, which has been| nks, Nome and Kodiak remanded to the District Court Nye said the new contract would ' here, still remains to be settled, be in addition to freight ncw being |the Circuit Court's decision con- carried north by Alaska Airlines. cerning the extinguishment of ab-| An Alaska Airline plane left today original claims deals a severs blow with a cargo of fresh vegetables to the numerous aboriginal rights, for Anchorage, the third such ship- claims now pending | ment | 5 The Circuit Court decision notes A Portland Chamber oi Com- that the claimants base their right merce group is now in Alaska in- |, poccaesion to the lands upon the specting merchandising methods 5 claim that “ever since the year and shipping facilities for use of {1667 and from time Iimmemoria! Portland mercantile firms in sUp- prior thereto” they have been the plying the Territory. CONGRESS URGED 10 ACT AGAINST UNION MONOPOLY Break Up Big Unions, Is Advice of Industrial Spokesmen aboriginal users and occupants of the lands in question, but geos on! to say that under the Treaty of Cession of 1867 with Russia, “an' examination of that document con-| vinces us that whatever original Indian title the Tlingit Indians ma .‘ have had under Russian rule was| extinguished by the tre v ‘ The court points out that_ the United States paid an additional! $200,000 for the extinguishment of | such encumbrances in the purchase quoting a letter written by tary Seward to that effect. i ‘The court also quotes the Act of | 1884 which set up a civil govern-| WASHINGTON, Feb. 18—A rep- ment for Alaska, protecting the| resentative of one of the nation's Property rights of Indians and largest coal operators and a lawyer Whites alike in the possession of | for several industrial firms has &ny lands actually in their use or: joined in urging Congress to smash OCcupation at that time, but pro-| “union monopoly” by breaking up Viding that the terms under which big unions into little ones title could be acquired would be Rolla D. Campbell of Huntington, reserved for future legislation by| W. Va., hammered particularly at Congress. ut .iu future legisla-} John L. Lewis’ United Mine Work- tion has beer. enacted, the court| ers. He represents the Island holds. Creek Coal Co., and the Pond The only sound basis for relief! Creek Pocahontas Co which the Indians have, the opinion George B. Chistensen, member of states, is not based upon original | erators the Chicago law firm of Winston, Strawn and Shaw, which has Indian title, but the “true founda- - tion of their right is the repeated| out Congressional recognition of the oc- cupancy or possession by the In- nts prepared for dians who were on the land at the| the House Labor comunittee's hear- time the Act of 1884 was passed.” ing on general labor legislation, the -+ i i two witnesses said it is up to Con- H gress to take the same step: ainst i | against business monopolies | -se { I Take Trip: | | eral industrial clients, singled no special unit. But in statem: PAF EXECUTIVE D WIFE ARE HONORED HERE John A. Green, President of Pa- —_— | cific American Fisheries, and Mrs. WASHINGTON, Feb. 18.—Presi-| Green, who arrived in Juneau on dent Truman will leave by air on the Princess Norah and are visiting March 8 for a 15-day vacation trip | Mr, and Mrs. Archie W. Shiels until to the Caribtean are by plane and the Norah is southbound Wednes- ship, which will include stops for day were honor guests at two official receptions in Puerto Rico, luncheons at the Baranof hotel and the Virgin Islands. | today. | ~ Bt e e ot H For Mrs. Green, Mrs. Shiels was | hostess to fourteen friends in the 5' GUNS RELAIE : Terrace room of the hotel H | Seventeen men, invited to meet | Mr, Green were guests of Mr. Shiels BIRIH OF RoYAl in the Iris room | Mr. Shiels is chairman of the Du"’(H DAUGHTER executive committee of the PAF | board of directors. SPECIAL VFW MEETING AMSTERDAM, Feb, 18. — The !guns near Crown Princess Juliana’s | - !palace at Soestdifk and in Member of the Veterans of For- | center of the main Dutch cities elgn Wars have called a special thundered out a barrage at 7 a. m. | meeting for tomorrow evening to discuss matters 'pertaining to the welfare of local veterans as well as | problems concerning veterans' leg- islation. The meeting will take place in {the Jeep Club starting at 8 o'clock | would have been 101 shot { and all members are urged to attend. | Numerous civic leaders and promi- | participate in the discussions | - - VISITI FROM ' Earl Henning is among the vis-| itors listed from the States. He is a guest at the Gastineau Hotel today, awagening Hollanders to tell | them of the birth of a royal baby. | By counting the 51 shots the Dutch knew that their Crown Prin- | cess for the fourth time had given ! birth to a daughter. For a son ihere | > - \ | | SEEN FLYING NORTHWARD B. D. Stewart is responsible this harbinger of spring. He that on Sunday he flock of winging for says | northward. gees Ship Charer To Companies Has Approval U. 5. Senafe Also Expected to Act This Week on Interim Measure WASHINGTON Feb. 18.-~The House passed touay legislati n au- thorizing the Maritime Commission to contract with private steamship companies to furnish service to Alaska The measure now goes to the Senate, where it is expected to be taken up Friday Under the legislation, the Com- mission would furnish the opera- tors government-owned ships at a nominal charter hire The gov- ernment would got 75 percent of the profits of the operation. if any, and the operators would stand all losses. The government has been operat- ing an Alaskan steamship service since 1941 with the owners of the lines acting as its agents. Last year the government lost more ‘than $4,000,000 on the operation Under a law enacted at the last session of Congress, the commission would have been required to turn the ships back to the private op- in March The operators said they would not resume service to Alaska unless they received in- creased rates. The legislation passed by the House provides the Maritime Com- mission shall adjust the rates. The bill provides for private operation of the service from March 1 of this year to June 30, 1948, WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marshall told Soviet Russia today that Under Secretary Dean Acheson spoke “in line of duty” in describing Russia’s foreign policy as ggressive and expanding.” FORT ALBERNI, C. — than 70 guests scurried down fire escapes to safety early today as flames gutted the 4-story Somass Hotel. The fire apparently broke out in the furnace room sometime after midnight and spread upward rapidly. . iore WASHINGTON—The House Rules Committee voted today to ban i amendments to a resolution propos- ing a $6,000,000000 cut in Presi- dent Truman's $37,500,000,000 bud- get. WASHINGTON- The House to- day cited Gerhard Eisler for con- tempt ter hearing him described as the “supreme” Communist auth- ority in this country and “one of the most dangerous men ever to set fool on American soil.” JERUSALEM—A road mine blast- ed a truck carrying members of the British Lincolnshire Regiment on the outskirts of Jerusalem tonight and injured three soldiers, it was officially ‘announced. WASHINGTON---Hearings on bills to authorize statehood for Hawaii and Alaska have been scheduled before the House Public Lands Committee for March 7 and April 8, respectively. WASHINGTON—The Civil Aeron- autics Board has announced auth- orization for Wein Alaska Air- lines Inc, operating extensive routes in Alaska, to acquire all stock and assets of Ferguson Air- ways Inc, which has been oper- ating in the same general area SAN FRANCISCO—A series of tings is under way here and n Los Angeles in hope of settling wage negotiations between CIO oil workers and seven major oil com- panies in the west. If no agree- ment is reached, some 17,000 to 20 000 members of the CIO Oil Work- ers’ Internatienal Union have threatened to walk off their jobs tomorrow morning in California, Oregon, Washington Nevada - ESIDENT HERE PAF PRI Jack Green, President of Pacific American Fisheries, arrived in Ju- neau yesterday a visit. Mrs. Green is acco trip to Alaska. for panying him on his