The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, February 10, 1949, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL.THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” AT VOL. LXXII, NO. 11,116 JUNEAU, ALASKA, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1949 MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CENTS Statehood Bill Hearing Date Set for March 3 ADM. ZEUSLER, TAKES ISSUE WITH RIVERS Steamship—E)écufive De- dlares Atforney General's | Statements Inconsistent { SEATTLE, Feb. 10. — (® — The Alaska Steamship Company denles | a reported asseriion by Alaska At- torney Gen. Ralph Rivers that the company did not ask “proper Alas- ka authorities” for an opinion on the new Territorial income tax law. F. A. Zeusler, executive assistant to the president, issued a statement declaring that Rivers’ asserted charge was “not consistent with the contents of the law, nor with the/ substance of the communications had with his office.” Zeusler's statement outlined an exchange of messages between the] company, its agents, various terri- torial officials and the Attorney General himself, concluding: “We were under the impression that Attorney General Rivers wasi the proper Alaska authority. So! far we have been unsuccessful m' obtaining a definite decision from him. . . . Under the circumstances we have been obliged to comply with the clear letter of the law rather than subject ourselves to the penalties prescriced for lack of “observance, and we, shall con-} tinue to do so until ¢ is proper s Mn i STARTING LABORIOUS TASK in deep highway snows. Puzzle: Can You Locate (ar! drift of snow at Rim Forest, near Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino Mountains, Ed Fisher appears to have his hands full. Catherine Slater (left) and Jane Rising are lending moral assistance as is Dalamatian dog standing atop car. 'ON VESSELS - IS PROPOSED i Alaska vessel owners would be - |given the alternative of paying a net tonnage tax, at the rate' of $4 | per registered ton, instead of 10 Imills on “true valuation,” under the provisions of an amendment to the General Property Tax Bill of- jlered in the Senate this morning |by Senator Victor C. Rivers. Fisherman BEd J. Krause, repre- senting the Juneau Vessel Owners | Association, was called to testify on the measure. Krause said that fishermen had suggested the net tonnage tax, but at a $2 a ton rate. “Oregon doesn't tax boats at all and the rate in Washington is llower than what we would have to pay under this Bill,” Krause said. | | “Washington doesn’t collect a gas, i 'tax from boats, either,” he added. {“We could register our toats down i "\hvre and still fish up here.” | HOBSON'S CHOICE | “The $4 a ton rate merely gives |us a Hobson’s choice and might force us to register our boats in (the States,” Krause told the sena- tors. “We know We will have to pay Jtaxes but we want a reasonable {rate.” Questioned by Senator Steve Mc- {Cutcheon on the average tonfiage of boats in the Alaska fiSiWng fleet, Krause estimateq it at 20 to 125 tons, ’ i He said that his own boat meas- ’@vma}} OF DIGGING HIS CAR out of a Pole marks car’s location authority for doing otherwise.” ! The controversy .arose after: SURVIVOROF. tested withholding of Alaska taxes from their wages by the steamship line. A Federal court case to test| e T LTI o v L MLV PR B affects merchant seamen is pend- ing in Seattle. cosus ool WEATHER REPORT (U. S. WEATHER BUREAU This data is for 24-hour pe- riod ending 6:30 a.m. PST. In Juneau— Maximum, 19; minimum, 11. At Airport— Maximum, 19; minimum, 7. FORECAST (Juneau and Vicinity) Fair and colder tonight and Friday; increasing cloudi- ness Friday afternoon. Cold- est tonight near 5 degrees. Strong gusty northeasterly winds. PRECIPITATION (Past 24 hours ending 7:30 a.m. today In Juneau — .08 inches; since Feb. 1, .18 inches; since July 1, 89.54 inches. At Airport — .21 inches; since Feb. 1, .44 inches; since July 1, 56.93 inches. | i ! ‘Majority ommmitjee Is Unenthusiastic About Controversial Measure In the first legislative ver the administration-sponsored liquor control bill, the House yes- terday scotched an attempt to kill the controversial bill. It all came in a as Chairman | velopment | Beltz, Nome Democrat, reported the {measure to the floor from the Pub- surprise de- William lic Welfare Committee. —Seven Imembers signed the report “with- lout recommendation” — including Ithe three women members—and ,one, Rep. C. A. Pollard, Third Di- ,vision Democrat, signed it “do i pass. s Reps. Frank Angerman and Glen Franklin, Fairbanks Democrats, spearheaded a determined move to kill the bill in its tracks. Anger- {man tried to get unanimous con- High School Principal Leslie|sent to move it up to second read- Avrit and Coach Dade Nickel, on-ing under suspension of the rules the sick list, have been absent from {m the hope of getting it into posi- classes for the past several days. The Washington! Merry-Go- Round| By DREW PEARSON I (Copyright, 1949, by Bell Syndicate, Inc.) e e 20 3 23 3 20 TEACHERS ILL (Continued on Page Five) TWO T0 HANG, SLAYING OF M. K. GANDHI msHINGTON— Dixiecrat Gov- ernor J. Strom Thurmond, who was | cold-shouldered by President Tru-j man at the inauguration, has now been snubbed again—this time by 2 Vice President Barkley . . . Invited | (By The Assoclated Press) % to address a meeting of South| Two obscure Hindu journalists Carolina mayors this week, Barkley |WeTe sentenced today to hang for was ail set to accept. But at the the slaying of Mohandas K. Gan- last minute Thurmond, a Gover- ,dhi. They are Narayan Godse, edi- nor, decided to attend the Mayors' jtor of a small Poona newspaper, meeting and also asked Barkley to fand Uarayan Apte, its publisher. be his guest at the | Five of the eight defendants got Governor’s | Mansion . . . This put the VP on {life sentences for conspiring to the spot. So the other day on the {assassinate the Senate floor, Barkley beckoned the | Spiritual leader two South Carolina Senators, Bur- | net Maybank and Olin Johnston.! up to the Vice President’s rostrum, | Delhi courtroom after the sentenc- ing, the accused began shouting, explained confidentially that he! wouldn't stay with Thurmond but '’ didn’t want to create an incident. | "We Will conquer Pakistan. Lohg The best solution, Barkley decid-live Hindustan.” They then broke ed, was not to go to Columbia at into loud laughter. all, | Thus climaxed an eight-month- ecretary Ma . long trial, during which Godse blxsn is worrl::l :::; a 1::? :‘x‘x’d confessed he killed Gandhi “pure- (Continued on Page Four) on January 30, 0;19 defendant was acquitted. Led from the heavily guarded asked to be executed. FIRST ATTACK flurry - lures 12 tons net and that it is an iold vessel. The vessel, he said, cost ;him $6000 but is worth $10,000 to- {day. , “Tomorrow or next year it may +be worth only $4000 because of the i fluetuation : of < boat values,” ke laes, Floods = ! The average fishing vessel in Al- 9 1 ! TONNAGETAX | oto. ;flska today is worth $15,000, Krause ac. . .ier.timated in answer to a question !irom Senator John Butrovich, : { Senator Charles D. Jones was «writing an amendment to set the tonnage tax rate at $2 when the CARDINAL'S CONVICTION | {Warm Rain Cuts Info Seri- ous Situation-Highways Blocked-Water Deep (By The Associated Press) Floods and snowslides dotted the Pacific Northwest today as warm :lain cut into the deep snowbanks lof the Inland Empire and sent | streams over their banks in,south- | eastern Washington and western | | Oregon. | One man was buried for half an {hour in a snowslide which wrecked | his home in the Coeur d'Alene | mining district of northern Idaho. | DENOUNCED Truman Sa;s_Decision Is Black Spot in History of 78-year-old Hindu | ly fer the benefit of humanity” and industrials 17241, rails 48.94, util- _ Other slides in the steep moun- |tains of the Coeur d’Alenes cut oft | the water supply in Kellogg, Idaho, {shut off power for an hour at |the famous Sunshine Mine and, | damaged the Spokane-Idaho Mine. ; | Two Milwaukee trains were !caught between slides in the Cas- cades today, and those of other !roads were running hours behind | schedule. i | Rotary snow plows were fighting |to free the Milwaukee trains. They |are the streamliner Olympian Hia< |watha and the Columbian, both idue at Seattle yesterday morn- |ing. | Three southeast Washington Hungary-Other Issues WASHINGTON, Feb, 10—# President Truman today denounced the conviction of Cardinal Minds- zenty as “infamous.” He saic it would go down as one of the black spots in Hungary's history. Mr. Truman termed the tribunad that tried Mindszenty a kangaroo court instead of a People's Court, as Hungary called it. He added that Hungary is a police state and the pecple are never responsible for their government in that kind of a setup. PROPERTY TAX OVERHAULED BY SENATORS Personal Propérty Exemp- tions Dropped to $200- Incentive Clause Is In The Senate sharply knocked down personal property exemptions in the General Property Property Tax yesterday afternoon, exéempted homesteads until patent issued but refused to exempt mining pro- perty. The “industrial incentive clause,” drafted by the Taxation Committee after a conference with officials of the Ketchikan Pulp and Pape Company, gave the senators som: trouble when it came on the floor| for inclusion in the BIIL \ The incentive clause, designed to encourage new industry, or at least| prevent discouragement, was fin-| ally adopted but only with the understanding that it would be| open for further amendment. Two features of the mcenuve'j If the people had their way, he added, Hungary would not have that kind of government. The term kangaroo court usually means a mock trial or one where princi- ples of law and justice are ignored. The President expressed his views ssponse to questions at a news On other subjects, he towns were flooded as trouble rode {into the Northwest on the warm- |ing weather. | Washington's two major cross- state highways were blocked by |slides in Snoqualmie and Stevens JPasses. The state highway depart- i | ment reported “new slides are oc- Jin xe curring all the time.” founterence. | Prescott, Waitsburg and Touch- |58id: : S [et, all in southeast Washin Ageelo, B | wérs bhttitng fiodg. Smd“;:fi:: 1. He is opposed to disclosing price kept homes in nearhy Dayton fair- |how many atomic bombs this coun- Water was two feet deep in Pres- |2 matter not for public discussion. |cott and the road to Walla Walla, |Chairman David Lillenthal of the { —teo—— ]golicau,\' denied to him yesterday, “0 reports that he (Iilienthal) (K QUOTATIONS |nc: ‘o 2. Standby price control power ing quotation of Alaska Juneau just as necessary now as when he mine stock today is 3%, American |first asked for them. He would not | A |Wright 8%, International Harvest- trend in commodity mar- jer 25, Kennecott 46%, New York yots. U. 8. Steel 71%, Pound $4.03%. | But when asked if new taxes Sales today were 980,000 shares. would be advisable if a recession ly dry but water ran in the streets.|try has on hand. He sald it is |20 miles to the south, was cut off. | Atomic Energy Commission cate- ‘he sa has favored making this informa- NEW YORK, Feb. 10.—(P—Clos- {and $4,000,000,000 of new taxes are |Can 86%, Anaconda 32, Curtiss- comment on the recent downward Central 10%, Northern Pacific 15, New Taxes Liable Averages today are as follows: geveloped, he replied they would clause came in for attack during! the afternoon session. Senator E. B. Collins, Fairtanks Republican, objected to giving the Territorial Tax Commissioner sole power to set the terms, within| limits jmposed by the Bill, for tax| moratoriums allowed to new indus-| trial concerns, without provision for | appeal. “ TEN-YEAR LIMIT The Bill imposes a 10-year limit,| but the Tax Commissioner, under the wording of the clause, could grant a moratorium on any por-| tion of the taxes on plants “for the secret it wanted most—assurance sults and discover'es in e purpose of manufacturing or pro- that Japan would not jump Russia. with guided wasuvaron, ren. 10—w— | Air Force General Believes The Army warned today that rem- nants of a fabulous Russian spy ring that operated in Japan with perhaps the greatest daring and success in history may be at work in world capitals “at this very mo- ment.” There is that fleeting hint at a present-day menace in the story of an espionage network so bold it slipped from the Japanese cabinet and German embassy in Tokyo sec- ets that helped change the course of the war. And there is another hint in a suggestion that the operator who tapped out cocded messages on a secret radio might now be busy in| some other country. The Army snipped out parts of 1 32,000-word report on the ring that Gen. Douglas MacArthur sént sver ‘from Tokyo. It gave “se- curity reasons.” Some members of the House Un- American Activities Committee are interested. Two Are Hung The now-it-can-be-told parts of the report unfold an amazing tale centering around: Richard Sorge, & German Com- | munist and master spy. Ozaki Hozumi, his second in com- | mand and a Japanese traitor. (Both Sorge and Hozumi hanged.) Agnes Smedley, American author, accused of still being a Soviet-spy. She denies it. This “Case Study in Interna- tiona]l Espionage in the Far East” reads like an Oriental serial from Hollywood. It even has the crime- doesn’'t-pay ending with' a novel were | twist : The man vho unknowingly be- trayed the spy chain now is one pan’s top Communists. Smashed By Accident The report says that: The Japanese smashed the ring almost by accident, just before Pearl Harbor in 1941. By then it had picked off the In Grip of Blizzard s Soda Springs (left) and Beacon Hill (right), ski resorts in the High Sicre, just west of Donner Summit, were gripped in another blizzard with 60-mile-an-hour winds reported sweeping through Donner Pass. Picture was made before highway crews had cleared parking areas ai the two resorts, transcontinental railroad (S. P.) are in background. (® Wireph IHistory of Spy ilihg Has Hollywood Twist; -~ |Is Revealed ty Army - WA_@IEST& Tracks of a RUSSIANS MAY HAVE Soviets Engaged in Arctic Maneuvers FAIRBANKS, Alaska, Feb, 10— An Air Force general says the ans across the Bering Straits jin Eiberia are very likely (ducting Arctic tests similar to United States experiments with iguided missiles and warplanes now junder way in Alas | “That is the expressed opinion of | | | | 12 Ru con- VOTE MAY BE TAKENINONE DAY, BELIEF "Chairman R;(fien, of Sub- . committee, Says Hear- | ings Shofld Be Short WASHINGTON, Feb. 10.—®— | The House Territories subcommit- tee today tentatively set March 3 for consideration of legislation to - | erant statehood to Hawail and | Alaska. | Chairman Redden (D-NC) told | subcommittee members he does not 1 believe prolonged hearings are nec- essary in view of extensive testi- mony presented to congressional committees in the past. | He said he believed both bills . might be brought to a vote by the subcommittee in one day. i The two bills will not be consid- |ered jointly, he added, and the [Hawaii measure will be taken up 1 first. | Redden directed that subcommit- ,tee members study records of state- ‘hood hearings and reports of the {80th Congress, | He told reporters he will let Dele- igates Bartlett (D-Alaska) and Farringten (R-Hawail) decide what | witnesses, if any, are needed to itebtify March 3, when committee {members, he sald, may decide iwhether they wish to hear any others. | Redden told the subcommittee |action must be taken at meetings ‘March 3, 4 or 7, or postponed until the next scheduled meetings on March 28. | —————— Cannets Gel No Exemption, ‘Wage, Hours | | The House repeated n its short session this morning the same (wage-hour act that held the center inf the stage yesterday afternoon. | The words were different, but ithe actors were the same and the inet result was the same: NO spe- i 1 1 | |Maj. Gen. William E. Kepner, chief cial work week concession to the of the Air Forces air proving|canned salmon operators. ground command. House members voted again, 14 Kepner left Ladd Field last night,to 10, against glving the salmon after a week of observing units of |industry the same exemption from his command on temporary duty'the strict 40-hour week formula {here as part of the most extensive |that it gets under the Federal fair air-ground cold weather tests inilabor standards act because of un- Air Force history. Kepner, who was Air Force boss (of the historic atomic bom: “op- |eration crossroads” at Bikini, called tests here so far “preliminary ex- |ploration” inf performance of {latest model planes and guided missiles, some being of as yet highly secret types. | NO ANSWER YET “We expect no comprehensive janswer to all our questions on the ibasis of one year's exper'menta- {tion,” he said in an interview ! He added that although he'd been |here Lut a week it had been long ienough to appreciate the immeas- lurabie advantage of observing the |effects of temperatures down to 40 {degrees below zero on equipment heretofore tested only in satz arctic” laboratories at his Elgin Base, Fla., headquarters. “It’s obviously impossible to put of |Planes and missiles through tricks | |in an enormous hangar where arc |tic conditions must be manufac tured. We are learning many facts lin tests possible only in Alaska,” he |said. i BUZZ BOMBS TRIED Although reticent on specific re- v tests les here, which miss cessing products not manufactured| That let the Reds rush tmopslulrendy include. launching Ameri- or processed in Alaska on the ef-}across Siberia to halt the Germnn;canued buzz tombs, or V-1's, he fective date hereof and for which; plants have not already been es-! tablished in Alaska.” “This section gives the emire_ power to one man to decide whether | or not new industry is to be en-|in America were In the ring, one'in frigid arctic tundr couraged,” Senator Collins charged. He asserted that the matter could | become political and that one new ! Japanese-American negotiations in | drive on Moscow. Iniormation from the ring was icf “incalculable” value and cost al- lin producing most nothing. Three Japanese who used to live at the top level. The ring knew the trend of Force had ad- critical point” ll-weather” war- |planes capable of takng off from 1blazing desert sands and landing without im- | pairment of efficiency or mechani- cal operation Kepner declined declared the Air \vanced beyond to admit the industrial plant might bring pres-{the critical summer and fall of lera df “push button wartare” was sure to prevent another plant com- 1941, It had an “in” with Japan's just around the corner, but he ing in. Premier Konoe, ities 34.05. (Continued on Page Five) e 2) ) (Continued on P: 3 lagrevd with many mlitary theor- !certaimlea of weather and salmon | runs. Arguments of “fair play” and “Lig profits” were tossed freely in the half hour debate over Rep. {Marcus Jensen's proposed amend- ment. The issue came up again on a motion by Rep. Frank G. Johnson, Republican from Kake, for recon- |sideration of his vote against the |amendmem yesterday. The proposed amendment did not mention the salmon industry spe- cifically but provided for any op- erations which are exempt under lthe Federal act. It was acknow- ledged during the debate that only the salmon canning industry was involved in the issue in a major way. Johnson cautioned agalnst “ar- bitrary and drastic” action which might make it difficult for the canneries to operate in any period except one with present inflation- jary prices. Johnson said, “I carry no brief {for the %almon industry,” but “we know some canneries are not op- erating and salmon runs have gone ldown at the same time. Such ex- emptions as this are made in Washington state, and we are making more far-reaching conces- sions than this in an attempt to get new industries” under the pro- ‘perty tax bill. AGAINST EXEMPTIONS Rep. Alfred Owen Jr., Anchorage Democrat, and Frank Angerman, Fairbanks Democrat, led the ar- guments against the exemption. Owen declared “it won't force the lindustry to the wall.” He proceed- ed to cite profit reports of can- ning firms ranging from 13 percent to 47 percent. He contended the actual increased costs to canneries | 1 1 (Continued on Page Two) i (Continued on Page 2) (Continued on Page Six)