The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, December 1, 1947, Page 1

“ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE OL. LXVIIL, NO. 10,747 JUNPAU AL ASKA MOND: AY, Dku'MBm ¥ 1947 MLMRI R ASSOLIATLD Pthb “PRICE TEN CENTS ALASKA AIRLINER CRASHES AT SEATTLE Men Trapped By Flames Meet Death In Fire | ISIX DEAD, 17 | | INJURED IN HOME BLAZE Wind lashé;fiaze in Phil- adelphia-Water from Hose Line Freezes PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 1 .4 Wind - lashed flames whipped tarough a dormitorv home for homeless men today killing six per- dsons and sending to hospitals 17 with critical if- i other men, some juries. | Some of the victims—many em- | ployed as street Santa Clauses—died or were hurt leaping from their | quarters as the sub-freezing weath- { er turned the water from the fire- §mcn s hoses te ice. ! Mrs. Edith Gallant, who lives 1 across the street from the dormitory I operated by the Volunteers of Am- \i erica, Inc., said she looked from her home and saw men, hopeles: § ped, at the windows. “The fire was in back of them. I knew it was going to get to them It was all too much to look at. T | turned away Fifty - one vear - old William G. Wilson, who was asleep on the sec- ond floor of the building when the ! fire began, told of staggering to a window, aiding anéther man, and stumbling down a fire escape. “We went down,” he said. “Thank God we got down. I saw some of the peor devils who were trapped at the windows. They couldn’t make it to the fire escape. When you see scmething like shat vou feel all tied up inside. But yow're thankful you're am. (EST) about 10 hours after th\ g ali The search for bodies ended at 10 blaze was first discovered. Forty persons were listed as safe or slight- to take her daughter, Bonnie Joy, NAVY MAN MeatPrice IS BLOWN 10 BITS To Spiral In Spring UP, STRIKES Drama in Chicago Courtroom Crying, “I want my baby!” Mrs. Clare Borin is restrained (right) in Chicago by a deputy after trying 7, from her estranged husband, Nathan, who holds the tearful child (center), in circuii court jllst before the judge awarded Mys. Borin tempnrar\ custody of the girl. ® Photo. SUBWAYS OF PARIS TIED Fires Shot t Info Powder Harriman Asks for Au- Flectric Power Shut Offassecesveceeee Iy Injured. e House Near Cordova- thority to Set Price Employees Walk Out- The dead were listed by police as . g o & . stanley Bush, 45: Patrick anen, 10 Leg of Victim Found Ceiling | Gas Service Crippled William Snead, 63; Michael Boyle : ‘ 59; Charles Kennev, 45 and Themas CORDOVA, Alaska, Dec. 1 P WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 -| PARIS, Dec. 1.—®—Strikes halt- Wallace, 50. Jimmy La Gassa, Navy veteran, was_ Secretary of Commerce Harriman leq the Paris subway today and R g 7 A blown to bits Saturday when he said today that a shortage of meat |jeaders of the Communist-domi- fired a rifle bullet into the powder in the spring, unless “something iS inated General Confederation of STOCK QUOTATIONS house of the Mount McKinley Mines done,” may set off another spiral of | Labor defied the government's ai- at Alganik Station, 22 miles east of | inflation ti-strike legislation. Leaders sum- here. He urged the House Banking mone, Wihkats b sotion "iids NEW YORK, Dec. 1. — Closing | o companion, Johnny Kulper, 16, Committee that the administration n;,),l::,il ?,lllk.v“\:-(}::,, ,-:.,',N. PG o quotation of Alaska Juneau mine (eiified before a coroner's inquest be given authority to impose limited tiate further toward ending the stock teday is 4, American Can 80, ypat he and La Gassa had gone to |direct controls of prices and wages nationwide walkouts if the lzg;gla_ Anaconda 35%, Curtiss-Wright 5%, Alganik in La Gassa's motorboat land to institute consumer rationing tion was enacted in the National International Harvester 87, Kenne- gaturday morning. Kulper said he jon a few items I Asgemibily cott 46%;, New York Central 12':, yemained on the boat to do some | T sl g Northern Pacific 19, U..S. Steel 7: rox’ and Lal Gaced st Be v | v It nis dp not dexesiieeciared, | . Sybways: halted SUirgy, LAtier Pound $4.03':. s0ing to take a shot the powder situation may develop n(~(m~i\u|m" noen, \\!vu.u t\'lu‘u'u; l)(l\\"l"“'d:\ s}vlul Sales today were 8000u shares. | shack to “see what would happen.” | general freeze of prices and wages ;f,,r)"”‘hd“fi’tk”“ T e R Afrages - (oday. nre '8s" follows: | nzuments aterq verfiile: blasty o Snpimide abRerimant testlc) (2 Sl L e e Industrials, 180%9; rails, 47.66; utili- ‘sodk the boat although it lay under ties, 32.97. a protectise bank more than 100 vards away. Kulper was protested that the a i trying to sell Congress Merry - Go- Round leg of the victim. | | guage upon By LUREW PEARSON |said the powder house contained ; | about 450 cases of dynamite. WASHINGTON — The last sec- - > - — | ret meeting of the Senate Republi- | can Policy Committee was one of > 'BURDICK LEAVES ON i mony, Chairman Wolcott (R.-Mich.) ministration is “a pig in the shaken by | oe s by not disclosing details of i h Sh 10]’[ the concussion but was not injured. |jegiciation it wants and how the With three trappers working in the district, Kulper searched for hi: | powers would be applied 0 Olstrict, Euiper Searched for Bls | Harriman replied that he had companion. They found only one ..., reluctant to impose his lan- : Congress but ‘if Con- An officer of the mining eompany | gress wanted it he would submit de- | tailed language for legislation. stopped at Nice, Marseille and Can- nes The Assembly, which t night approved a call of 800 men to the colors to combat the creeping paralysis induced by the strilkes, be- {came such a well of tumuit that |it suspended for two hours its consideration of the strike law. Neither the chairman nor the | speakers could be heard. With thousands stranded by the suh\m) shutdown, Paris was plag- ued by a strike at all six gas com- [DEMANDlNG "Where Are They? Cries - SHAKEUP IN GOP RANKS Airliner Crash, Seattle | | irliner Crash, Seattle SO i Senator Aiken Demands 28 ABO AR SEATITLE, Dec. 1—(M—"Where are they? Can't anyone tell me, ReSlgthOH Of Republl' i D what happened to my little boy Alld 2 | my hustand?” L can Cha"man Ree(e i Mrs. Josephine Johnson of Palm-, ; i ! «”x !\1l k'.:. ]11(‘1’ l:llr(' M]‘“ :)e"”,‘;;; B e shock of a close brush with | {WASHINGTON, Dec. 1. — - death, asked that same question of Senator Aiken (R.-Vt.) "]"““"d "“"" . nurses and orderlies as they rush- port among rank and file Republi- | ed past. : (eans todov for his pronosal that the But no one at the King County party “free itself from remlmn:n\§ Hospital could tell her o one control” and appeal to “farmers l A knew, for the rooms were crowded llabor and housewives.” { SEATTLE, Dec. 1.—®—The crew with doctors and nurses whose sole The New England lawmaker told iand passenger list of the airliner objective was to treat the badly | réporters he has received much mail’ which crashed near here yesterday injured survivors from the fiery since his demand last week that!with six crew and passenger fatal- Kk that had once been an; |GOP National Chairman Carrcll |ities, and another woman killed Alaska Airlines plane i | Reece resig @ part of a “top (“}AI! an automobile which was hit, “W the crash came everyone {bottom” party shakeup. iwas listed as follows by Alaska started rushing out,” she related “The only comulaints I had were | Alrlines: ‘T went back for my purse—I don't rom Democrats,” the gray-n: d The dead from the plane; k why—and I saw my husband r Vermont Governor d.; Mrs. Robert Stitsworth, 33, Ta- going out the back way. I never gave me the devil, saying,Kcoma, Wash., knmown as Virginia saw our little boy again. Where that if the Republicans kept Mr. :Grafton, professional singer, burn- js he? Reece in there, they could retain|ed in plane. “We were coming down to Se-| the Presidency and regain conizol| ~Gordon Johnson, 21-month-old attle to pick up a new car, and lof Congress.’ (son of Mr. and Mrs. J. E. John- t out parents in Iowa and Min- Aiken said he has nuc talked with |50 Of Palmer, both of whom were pescta. We had planned it so | Reece and does not plan to do so, |Jured. Mr. Johnson critically. longand now--oh, can’t anyone} “But,” he added, “I may have a s;;;::;”g:‘:d :::t;$~;:l:€1lltl“ iy “'111{‘ e ““h"”\ they mf? “a R statement later if things don't 0/90e "M jitelhee, Wy Tory (change. T want to see the Republi- | e R!n;. Anchorage, Alaska, dlad: iney wese, t00. busy. to call New in hospital Renton Hospital where many of lcan Party win in 1948 but to do that | Reba Monk, Santa Monica, stew- !¥% must have broader individual } orqess died in hospital management in the national party Fred Smith, Tacoma, who died (““d nuxlvvum\ll\u ive legislation in ), hospital o+ The injured crew members: Alken said his remarks were nun Capt. James E. Farris, Seattle, aimed at Senator Taft of Ohio, | {the pilot; formerly a Matson Line Chairman of the Senate's Republi- | o~ gan Francisco; injuries not can Policy Committee and an avow- !\vnouw ed candidate for his party's Presi- | dential memination - e, co-pilot, arm, Richard F. Whitting, ge, Alaska; fractured { Anchor: burns, possible internal injuries. ¢ List of Injured .! The passengers injured: * ; + WEATHER REPORT * i Arne Pleym, Los Angeles. o Temperature ror 24-Hour e| Mrs. Leslle Howe. . e Period Fnding 7:30 o'Clock o: William Randall, Nenana, Alaska . This Morning o | (also listed as Oliver Rindahl) crit- . Juneau-—Maximum, 42; e . lmllxllimul::‘x‘ ;4 P ; . B. Kelly, Seattle; condition e At Alrport—Maximum, 39; e |unsatisfactory with neck and back A i T o |injuries o [ FORECAST o) John A. Lathanan, Jr. Fairbanks, . (Juneau and Vieinity) . Ifc““"m : o ; . n(ulnl ““g ;],g],élv ‘:m,(,‘,,r :Ilc::l(x‘z Lathanan; treated and re- e tonight and Tuesday. South- e | g St % i e easterly winds occasionally o'&“‘:‘l’t-;? J. K. (Christine) Truss, i i,‘(:::" i, © 2 miles per @17y M. Koch, Snohomish, Wash,, ® (Past 24 hours ending 7:30 a.m. today) of“”'Jl route % ° PRECIPITATION o Mis. Flore. Hunfer, J R S 01 inches: | Richard Jones, Palmer, i Tl 5357 nnchos, e Mrs. ‘Selma Olsen, Ancherage . ot ' o1 inches: se | Mr. and M. Rowland Smith, S s nirek | gl BOHIEAT DeraliORRE DTe) [ AN e Gy Lo % % iSmith, an_expectant mother, hos- B SR i T A B pitalized; her husband treated and released Eugene Martin, Seattle. Zena Louise Feltrin, Anchorage. M. Greening, Anchorage and i { Baranof In Going South| Alaska Steamship’s Baranof dock- ed at Juneau at 2 o'clock this after- noon from Seward, and sailed Se- and Mrs. Ralph Tracy, Mc- Alaska - o - AIRLINES omn . the most significant in years. It wh“e pass Ge's i (0"8'"“'0“ "'R' { panies rving the suburbs. The 4 | showed that a new movement has | concern furnishing gas to Paris attle bound at 2:30 o'clock developed within the Republican 2 Narrow Gau e ot proper continued service, although Passengers arriving here from party, led by new Senators who g Charles G. Burdick, Assistant Re- ' the pressure was reported only half| Seward were Shelby Clark, Wane believe that construdiive action gional Forester of the U. S. Forest normal. Clark, Katherine Clark, Ralph: ‘ rather than destructive criticism passenger Coa(hes Service, left here yesterday via Al- Police and motorized armed forces Clark, John Comer, Mrs. Miles God- | BY (IABBI must be the future policy of the aska Coastal Airlines for a triv to opened roads in northern France kin, William Greer, Howard Lyng, GOP. g i __| Petersburg, Wrangell and Ketchi- [to struck coal’ mines, but few Aaron McCafferty, and Mrs. Shir- ok By careful interviews with the SEATTLE, Dec. 1.—(#—Two nar-ly . From Ketchikan, he will travel | miners appeared to be returning to ley Elona. WASHINGTON, Deé. 1 Senators participating in this im- Tow gauge passenger C aches have ;. paa to Seattle to attend a i work. Fights erupted at Lievin From Cordova via Seward A”’Ih(' Civil A‘vl'un:mll('\ Board Lu‘(hn‘ portant meeting, the following play- bech loaded on a freighter e, ooury cage there having to do with |when 700 miners tried, rently| Wright. i Feenpigdless Ly-play account of the closed door destined for-service on the White o4 yitioation, ltbt it el ity 3 n‘m“;‘p&*‘ W‘O;ki PRE s ok vt ot il ae o o’xdfut(l ;xvl.\xik.\ A:mul-“ III\I"[-{: nln: u‘i session can be given. {Pass and Yukon route betWeen afier finishing. his business in | - Seattle were R. J. Hartranft, Mrs, | VPO p,‘tl-“(; ‘(\“t attle, Wash. Senator John Sherman Cooper of Whitehorse and Skagway. | Seattle, Burdick will be joined by R. J. Hartranft, Monte Hartranft W‘,‘"‘_;,",‘“ e N aa whiol l sentucky, who last year won out in| Purchased from the Sumpter|yyie Bl sl Tney hope to travel plYMouTH SEDAN IS Frank A, Mosher. Mrs. Ffauk Mo e o diacon a normally Democratic state, fired Valley Railroad Company, Baker, i, yfontana for their first vacation | Mrs. Flora Wagner, Mrs, Emnfa |S1ould Dot be redilrer o feattle the first wun against the GOP Oregon, the coaches will be re-| g % oa0™ oy CFel i ™o raturn AwA Walidnam, Mcx. Sgm: Chudt, l~:mn|,‘"‘c“L e | leadership by pointing to the re- bullt at Skagway. Buses have re-'yo.o after January 1. RDED THOMA Hietela, Bonnie Woodhead, Eugene M:I“ A 'O,M"f alled 1 the cen: Reputlican gubmmoml de- pl ed coaches on the Sumpter| i Sconnnt 6 Stant, ©. H. Tice. Ray Rard, . .| . e Board also called upon the who normally ane Republican, he TER { |Eames, Roy Lee, F. W Harrin, said, had stayed away from the] FROM FT. RICHARDSON | “EAMER MOVEME“‘S Rl it dilion ateg b Uotnt e | MR U IR, gl 0 T r:'outew specified in its CAB polls. George L. Piper, John Bamberg, | |Triangle Bar and Barbez ~ Shop, R. Craig. ‘e‘:" C:l"ek B ot § “Well have the same situation and Al'T. Wilson, all of Fort Rich- | Denali, from “Seattle, due some- was awarded the Plymouth deluxe! Lt Gomdr, E. P. Chester took Wit oo R - in 1948 unless we start showing‘ill'd-‘“flv are registered at the Bars|time tomorrow. sedan at the Kiwanis dance Salux- passage for Ketchikan IL( o into "'an automobile Sunday | some results in this Congress” de- anof Hotel Princess Norah scheduled to sail day night. R 3 :duung’ :m‘ B!!emplf"d landing at ! clared Cooper. “The farmers, ‘n e e {frem Vancouver, 9 p. m. tomorrow‘ The Plymouth was awarded by WITH FOREST RVICE ‘\S\m;'lk-’l::«?wmn ah;‘mxl kll“_w jj least in my state, are not 5““5“"11‘ WITH VETS OFFICE | Baranof arrived from westward the Kiwanis Club, and proceeds e |(;'_"5‘" persons and injuring sev- 4 Wwith the record of the Republican' Mrs. Winifred Junge began work | this afternoon, and sailed south. |will be contributed both to the —Miss Janet Hodgman, of Ketchi- §“i}‘ Bastl 2% party so far. If we want to hold today in the Regional Office of the| Alaska, from Sitka and Skagway, Juneau Memorial Library Fund kan, began work today in the Re- | he Bofrgls sESn today wes _— . Territorial Department of Veterans | scheduled to arrive at 7 a. m. and for the benefits of underpriv-'gional Officé of the U. S. Forest based on b !e(ofnm"mln.mn from (Continned on Page F‘nur' Affairs tomorrow southbound ilegad children. Servios Futa, | S 'll)‘l’ugc’ Vs & | Palmer Woman, Viclim the vietims were taken. Tater she was to learn that her husband, Jonas, lay in the Renton hospital, burned, and her m, Gordon, killed in crash. was o — BRAKES CAUSES (RASHUNL)\way below, killing a blind wo- Pilot Farris Explams Trag- the |speed Lan i PLANE FROM - ANCHORAGE GOES (RASH Runs Over EnEankment af Seattle Landing - Ex- plodes, then Burns SIX OF 28 ABOARD " VICTIMS OF ACCIDENT Others Critically Injured in i Hospitals—Pilot Places Blame on Brakes "TIN—SEATTLE, Dec. ht persons are dead as i esult cf the airplane crash | at the Seattle-Tacoma airport | yesterday. The eighth person | to succumb to the burns re- ceived while trying to escape the flaming wreck is Johnan E. Johnson "of Palmer, Alaska. | Jchnson’s son also died in the wreck and his wife suffered minor burns. - the | i | SEATTLE, Dec. 1—®—The pilot of a four-engined Alaska / rlines transport plane which crashed and {burned at the Seaftle-Tacoma air- 'port blamed the crash foday on failure of the hydraulic brakes to “take the slightest hold.” Seven i']»u oons died and three others were |critically injured as a result of the (accident late yesterday. { The pilot, Capt. James E. Farris, {31, of Seattle, told Times that the DC-4 the Seattle landed at a of approximately 100 miles hour, “rolled like it was on-a 1 of ball bearings” until it ..u);vvl a 60-foot embankment at the end of the airport runway. It crashed into an automobile on the The plane was 'mnn in the car. Alaska, to flying from Anchorage, SL'RI,UQ. It had 28 persons aboard, 25 pas- edy-Tried fo Save One 155, ot “vern eoportea Woman Victim SEATTLE, Dec. 1-—/M-—Hydraulic brakes that failed to hold were blamed today by Pilot James &. Far- ris, 37, of attle, for the Alaska Airlines transport plane crash at the Seattle - Tacoma which resulted in the death of eight persons. Two cthers are in critical condition. The pilot said the bizg DC-4 com- ing in under leaden skies from An- choerage, Alas! landed at a speed of approximately 100 miles an hour. When he tried to apply the brakes, Farris said they didn’t hold. He failed in an effort to “ground-loop” the plane and it “rolled like it was on a bed of ball-bearings” until it leaped a 60-foot embankment at the end of the airport runway The transport shed into an au- tomobile on the highway below, killing a blind woman in the car Then the plane caught fire. The pilot told how he tried in vain to rescué the blind woman, but she crawled into the flames instead of away from them. “When we hit and the right wing cracked, T saw the flash of fire flected in my window,” Farris re lated. “A ftree was jammed up against the right window and Dick and T both got out the left window (Dick is the co-pilot, Richard F Whiting, 29, of Anchorage) Someone yelled ‘“There's a wom- an in the car.' The car was jammed right in front of the butt of the wing where it joins the fuselage I saw the blind woman (Mrs Stella Pearl Jones, 45, of Seattle) trving to open the right front door I dived into the auto through a rear door and reached for her “I velled at her but kept crawling under the win; and straight into the flames. Then the whole car blossomed into a blaze and I had to give up.” Farris advanced one possible son for the brake failure. He that water might have gotten into she rea- said (Continued on Page Eight) hn critical condition at ‘I‘Rentun Hospital this morning and airport yesterday | the New two were listed as unsatisfactory at Harborview County Hospital. ‘The others had been released af- I\m treatment or re recovering ‘hnm minor bruises in ithe hospital. burns Seared By Flames Twenty-six of the 28 aboard the big pl.«nv scrambled from door and em mgvncy exits or were pulled from the flames by rescuers. All, however, were seared by the gaso- line-fed flames that flashed through the fuselage. Four of the rescued died later The latest casualty was the plane's stewardess, Miss Reba Monk of Santa Monica, Calif, who was credited by survivors with having led many of the passengers to saf- ety List of Victims The other dead are: Fred Smith, Tacoma, Wash., who ldied eight hours after the crash. Leslie Howe, 33, Seattle and Spokane, Wash., a carpenter, died in the hospital. Ole Ring, Anchorage, Alaska, died of burns and injuries. Mrs. Virginia Stitsworth, 33, Ta- ma, entertainer known profes- sionally as Virginia Grafton Gordon Johnson, 21-month-old son of Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Johnson, | Palmer, Alaska | Smashes Parked Car Mrs. Pearl Stella Jones, 43, Se- |attle, blind woman trapped in the fcar which the big transport smash- ed as it careened off the field onto the intersection of the Des Moines, Wash., highway and 158th Street | Ten others of the plane’s pas- sengers and crew members were in |critical condition at Seattle and Renton hospitals. Several were jnot expected to live | Bodies of two of the dead were (not recovered until nearly four {hours after the crash, because of the intense heat emitting from the wreckage. (Continued on Five) Page