The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, December 13, 1949, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL. LXXIV., NO. 11,375 JUNEAU, ALASKA, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1949 A-.FMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS PRICE TEN CE Says Bridges wa Gen. Groves Testifies BULGARIAN RELATIONS NEAR BREAK Communisl?’;e—ss Says U.S. Minister “Lies” - Spy Plot with Tito Charged (By the Associated Press) Diplomatic relations between the United States and Communist-led Bulgaria were near the snapping point today. In Washington, Undersecretary of State James E. Webb yesterday called in Dr. Peter Voutov, top Bul- garian representative, for a stiff warning. The United States charged its Minister in Sofia has been sub- jected to a series of indignities. Articles in the Bulgarian press said‘ the U.S. State Department and Minister Donald R. Heath deliber-| ately lied in denying the Minister | had never seen Traicho Kostov,| former Vice Premier, who is the central figure in the current purge' trial. Kostov, with 10 co-defendants, is| charged with plotting to make Bul- | garia subservient to Marshal Tito! of Yugoslavia, arch-enemy of the| Soviet Union. The charges against the 11 said the plot was motivated and encouraged by British and American intelligence. U. 8. ‘SPYING’ i A newspaper article signed by the | political department of the Bul-. garian Foreign Office recently ac: cused the U.S. government of en-| . gaging in spying and subversive activity through official represen- tatives. At KRostov's trial today, defense lawyer Luben Dukmedjiev had vir-| tually nothing to say in defense! of his client. | “My task as defense lawyer lor: Traicho Kostov is quite difficult, "I he said. He praised Bulgarian authorities, who, he said “broke the hands of the traitors.” ‘The defense lawyer said there | was a gap on the bench where the: 11 alleged spies and saboteurs sat.! He said among the missing we:e. Tito and his Interior Mtnmer,, Alexander Rankovic. Dukmedjiev told the court its verdict would not only be against| the 11 defendants but against Titoists and Anglo-Americans. SEATTLE HUNTERS FOUND DROWNED NEAR STANWOOD 1 STANWOOD, Wash. Dec. 13—(#— Two missing Seattle hunters were found drowned near here today.| The two men—Richard M. Bog-| gess, 38, and Howard Marl, 42, had been sought since their overturned boat was found Sunday. The boat had a hole in the bow, and officers expressed the belief the two men were thrown overboard when the boat hit a submerged cbject, The Washington Merry - Go - Round Bv DREW PEARSON Copyright, 1949, by Bell Syndicate. Inc.) /ASHINGTON — Now that the| case of Congressman Parnell Thom- as has been disposed of, the Justice Department might take a look at another Congressman, this one al Democrat. He is Victor Wickersham of Mangum, Okla., a likable gentle- | man, with considerable skill at manipulating the Congressional payroll. Congressman Wickersham states | in his self-penned biography in the Congressional record that he was. “reared on cotton, wheat and dairy farm near Mangum, OKla,! and on wheat and poultry farm near Greensburg, Kans.” For a farm boy, the Congressman has come a long way. He now operates his own real estate business, not merely in Oklahoma, but right in the na- tion’s capital, and has one real| estate agent drawing money from the Congressional payroll. It is important to remember that Congressional payrolls are n>* paid for by a member of Congress. 'I'hey| are paid by the taxpayers, and allot- e — (Continued on Page Four) HISS CALLED | the State Department testified to- | reputation and declared The hearing room is jammed to the walls as Lt. Gen. Leslic Groves (center, holding paper) tectifies be- fcre House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, regarding wartime atomic deals with the Russians. Groves, who ran the wartime atomic bomb preject, testified that Russia got some atomic material from this country during the war, but he doesn’'t know how many shipments “because we don't No other persons identified. (P Wirephoto. know how many leaked thmugh' (OMMIE BY W. C.BULLITT NEW YORK, Dec. 13—(®—A former superior of Alger Hiss in| day a former U.S. Ambassador in 19047 had referred to Hiss as a Communist. The witness was Dr. Stanley K. Hornbeck, former Ambassador to| the Netherlands, called as a de- fense witness in the second Hiss perjury trial. Hiss once served as assistant to Hornbeck when the latter was| Political Affairs Adviser in thei State Department. Hornbeck testified his friend, William C. Bullit, former Ambas- sador to France and Russia, spoke | of Hiss as a Communist two years ago. This was the second conver- sation Hornbeck had with Bullit in which Hiss' name came up. Yesterday, Hornbeck said that in the early 1940's Bullit had told him { Hiss was a “fellow fraveler.” However, the witness upheld Hiss'! “there xs; absolutely no question” the defend- ent did not take the papers he is accused of passing to a Russiang spy ring courier. POLICE GUN STOPS GIRL, |. SPEEDY (AR DARIEN, Conn., Dec. 13—®— Police Lieut. Frank Standing said that a woman who identified her- self as Dionysia C. Skouras, 23, daughter of Spiros Skouras, Presi- dent of 20th Century Fox Film Corp., was arrested early today after she had been wounded by a police bullet fired in an attempt to step her speeding car. The wound was superficial, Standing . said and Miss Skouras had been committed to a sanitarium for observation after being booked on charges of reckless driving and driving without a license. Dr. Allan Ross, police surgeon, said Miss Skouras was nicked slightly by a bullet which passed between the|e | ring and middle fingers of her right hand. Skouras told reporters that his daughter had been “ill lately.” STOCK QUOTATIONS NEW YORK_.E 5 13—Closing quotation of Alaska Juneau mine stock today is 3, American Can 987, Anaconda 28, Curtiss-Wright 7, International Harvester 29, Ken- necott 50%, New York Central 10%, Northern Pacific 13%, U. S. Steel 26%, Pound $2.80. Sales today were 2,080,000 shares. Averages today are as follows: ities 40.50. FAITH OF HAWAHANS SHATTERED BY RECENT SHIPPING STRIKE; IS CAUSING MANY TO LEAVE ISLANDS BLACKOUT IS THREAT INLONDON, Wildciat Strike Pulled Off Against State-Owned | Power System LONDON, Dec. 13— (P — Some 1,600 workers joined a sprca(lmzl wildcat strike today against the state-owned British power system. By late afternoon 2,600 of Lon- don’s 10,000 electrical workers were idle and the sprawling city was threatened with a return to the wartime blackout, Lakor Minister George Isaacs told the House of Commons gen- eral power cuts “may be inevitable in the circumstances.” Isaac said troops, called out when the strike began yesterday, will try to main- tain essential services. Strikers, who walked out againsti the advice of union leaders in a wage dispute, threatened to spread the stoppage to all of London’s government-owned power stations, \,nless the troops were called out { the struck plants. The big blow fell today whenl 1,400 %men left their jobs at thel Barking Station—largest in Britain. ® ® o ® o ® @ 3 0 WEATHER REPORT (This data is for 24-hour pe- e riod ending 7:30 am. PST.) In Juneau—Maximum 34; minimum 30. At Airport—Maximum 32; minimum 27. FORECAST . (Ja na Vielnity) ol Cloudy with light snow -{ occasionally mixed with rain tonight and Wednesday. Lowest temperature ' tonight about 32. Highest Wednesday near 35. Southeasterly winds as high as 25 miles per hour. PRECIPITATION ® (Past 24 nours ending 7:30 a.m. today ® City of Juneau—Trace e since Dec. 1—2.79 inches; e since July 1—51.67 inches, At Airport—None At Airport—.04 inches; since Dec. 1—115 inches; ® since July 1—3425 inches. @ 50 06 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 o i | Lewis Attends | UMW Meeting for | Wage Negoliahon NEW YORK, Dec. 13—(®—Jol L. Lewis, President of the UnIWd' Mine Workers, arrived today toj participate in negotiations for al new hard coal wage contract. 1t was the first time Lewis had . . . . L] o tions, which began last week. ‘WASHINGTON, 13—P— Rep. Crawford day that the 177-day shipping tieup in Hawaii this year has “shattered Dec. | the faith of the people.” “They don't know when it will be repeated,” he told a reporter. Crawford spent a few days lni Hawaii on his return from a 30,000-mile tour-of the Pacific Is- lands. “The strike of longshoremen,” he said, “is the most terrible thing that has happened to Hawaii in| 5C years. “It is a uagic thing to find that young people think the situation is so insecure they are anxious to get back to the mainland. “Young executives, with jobs, are leaving.” v Crawford said that Harry Bridges, President of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehouse- men’s Union, has a three-way hold on the sugar business in Hawail. “He can tie up production on the Hawali docks, in the fields, and on the west coast,” he said. WARD IS NOW ON U.S. SHIP Consul, Impnsoned by Reds, Safe with Staff- Gouged by Commies (By Associated Press) A US. diplomat is homeward the hands of the Chinese Com- munist government. Angus Ward, Consul General at Mukden, is aboard the U.S. merchantman Lakeland Victory after being handed over with his staff at Tientsin. Ward said the Communists, who had held him in prison cn what the State Department said were trumped up charges, charged him $7,000 to. move his party of 20 from Mukden to Tientsin, a distance of 600 miles. The Communists also charged his party four times the normal rate for food, Ward said. In Tel Aviv, the U.S. representa- tive advised the Israeli government to avoid any inflammatory mea- sures against the United Nations plan of internationalizing Jerusa- lem. The U.N. Assembly voted Fri- +Gay to take over control of the Holy City despite strong objections from lsrul and Hashmite Jordan. STEAMER MOVEMENTS Baranof from Seattle due to ar- rive at 5 o'clock this afternoon. Princess Norah scheduled to sail from Vancouver, Wednesday, Dec. 14 | industrials 19681, rails 51.20, util- |attended a session of the negoua-' Denali scheduled- to sail from Seattle Saturday. (R-Mich) said to-| gcoi; PLANE IN (RASH IN POTOMAC {Airliner Offfadar Paih,§ Goes Down - Four Dead But 19 Survive WASHINGTON, Dec. 13—(P—A/| Capital Airliner wandered off a redar path leading into foghound National Airport last night and crashed in the mud of the Potomac River; carrying four of the 23 per- sons on Loard to their death. The 19 survivors—an amazingly | high number for a plane crash—| ty were taken to the hospital at Bol-| ling Air Force base, located nearby. | Many were badly hurt. | | Government officials laid plans| |for a prompt inquiry into the| i cause of the crash. } The dead were Mrs. William; Chertow, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Ne- ville Lassiter, a government em- vloyee who lived in Arlington, Va.; ‘rnd the pilot and co-pilot, W. J | Davis, 45, and Lloyd L. Porter, 28, hoth of Alexandria, Va. | SPEED IN RESCUE | The kodies of Davis and Porter | were recovered from the partly | surmarged wreckage hours after the crash. Navy and Air Force men who sped to the scene in crash boats | credited a number of factors for the high rescue rate. High on the hist were luck and the relative calm of the survivors—most of them servicemen going home to spend Christmas, The plane, a DC-3, arrived over Washington during what officials called one of the worst traffic days ‘m the history of National Airport. The field was blanketed by fog ‘u)d soaked by a steady rain. | Weather conditions were described Ja& “approximately minimum’"—400- | { foot 'ceiling and visibility of about ! % of a mile. The DC-3 took its place over ‘the field in a ‘“stack” of planes which at one time numbered 40 | aircraft, all waiting for a chance | to land. SWERVED — CRASHES After about an hour, the Capital Airliner started down, aided by its | own electronic equipment, and by | grand-controlled radar at the air- port. As it came down the approach,| officials related, it suddenly swerved from the radar path. { It was the first mishap Capital | bas had in 30 months. The last crash involving a Capital Airliner occurred in July, 1947, when a four- engine plane struck a mountain- i side near Leesburg, Va., killing all| 62 aboard. This time, the crash scene was {not far from the spot where the | shattered pieces of an Eastern Air- liner carried 55 to their death in the Potomac last Nov. 1, after an aerial collision with a surplus P-38 fighter plane. i 25 KILLED - IN CRASH OF PLANE KARACHI, Pakistan, Dec. 13—® —All 21 passengers and a crew of | four were reported killed in a Pakistan transport plane crash last night 45 miles north of here. | It was reported that two Pakistan Army Generals were among the passengers. The two Generals, according to officials of the Pak Air Company which operated the plane, were believed to be Maj. Gen. Sher Khan and Maj. Gen. Iftikhar. The plane, a twin-engined DC-3, | crashed in desert country. It was | first spotted by aerial searchers early this morning and rescue| parties were sent to the scene of the crash A plan to give Britain and c:m-‘ ada new atomic information is| opposed in Congress. A member of | the Senate-House Atomic Com-| mittee—Senator Edwin Johnson— gays the information might ulti- mately leak into unfriendly hands.- jon the bedroom floor with a gaping {and a Christmas wrapped gift of a Blow af Pulp D Chapman Says By VERN HAUGLAND AP Special Washington Service WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 — The| irterior Department has started | the “reservation-izing” of Alaska.| Its goal: to speed development ot the Territory. It is doing so over the protests o! the Agriculture Department and some Congressmen, Their argu- ment: setting aside large chunks of Alaska for use as Indian Reser- vations will retard rather than hasten Alaskan development. !n the final hours of his author- as Secretary of the Interior, Juhus A. Krug offered more than 3,000 square miles, in the form of three reservations, for about 900 of the Territory’s 35,000 natives. One of these would set aside 100,000 acres of Prince of Wales and Sukkwap Islands, in the Ton- National Forest of Southeast Alaska, for the 360 natives of Hyda- burg Village. AGAINST PULP HOPES Krug's sudden action came as a surprise to opponents of the reser- vation plan, and particularly to the Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service. The latter is anxious to reserve Tongass National Forest for orderly development. of an Alaska pulp-mills industry. Secretary of Agriculture Brannan two years ago told Senator Butler (R-Neb) that his department “strongly opposes the creation ot any large Indian reservation on National Forest Land in Alaska.” Brannan said each pulp mill in Alaska would involve an invest- ment of from $20,000,000 to $30,~ 000,000. Prospective invesiors would not consider such a project if any large wvea of National Forest Land were ¢ranted to the Indians, Brannop said. Brannan said the Secretary of the Interior in 1945 recognized the possessory rights of the native vil-| lages of Hydaburg, Klawak and Kake to 273,000 acres of Tongass forest land, and a year later indi- cated 1,924,000 additional acres ot Tongass land would be so recog- | nized. DISRUPT SALE “The percentage of the total com- mercial forest area which may be subject to the establishment of In- aian reservations is only one indi- cat'on of the degree to which such action might disrupt or complicate the sale of timber from.adjacent land,” Brannan said. Pointing out that Kake's claim, as reported by the Interior Depart- ment, covers a 75,000-acre shore- line strip of commercial forest land two miles wide and 75 miles long, controlling access to several times that area of National Forest land behind the strip, Brannan added: “Indian claims may be expected HEALTH DEPT. NURSEKILLED BY HUSBAND ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Dec. 13— (P—Anchorage police said today that a middle-aged construction worker and his wife were found shot to death in their home Satur- day. They listed it as a slaying and suicide. ‘The victims were Don Fulton, 45, and his wife, Ruth, 40, wellknown nurse with the Territorial Health} Department. Eight dinner guests arrived at the, Fulton home and waited an bour before they discovered tHe bodies. Mrs. Fulton was lying in the bathroom with two bullet holes in her chest. Fulton was stretched !hole in his head. Police said they believed the couple had quarreled, and Fulton shot his wife, then took his own life. A packed suitcase in the bed- room contained woman's clothing diamond encrusted wrist watch en- graved “To Don from Ruth.” A request that the bodies te sent to Rochester, Minn., was re- ceived from Mrs. Fulton’s mother, Mrs. Grace Haugsrud, who lives in ""Will Carry On”' | to cover most if not all of the un- | patented that city. evelopment; land in Southeastern Alaska.” ) In his order, Krug also reserved 2,300 square miles on the Kobuk river in Alaska for the 150 Eskimos of Shunknak and Kobuk villages, and 750 square miles of the Arctic slope for the 385 Eskimos at Bar- 10w, The proved at they can reservations must be ap- tribal elections before be established. If they| accept the lands, the natives at the same time will relinquish claims to other Alaskan areas. WOULD OPEN ‘REST’ Krug said the reservations thus would settle land-ownership differ- ences that have been hindering Alaska’s settlement. The freeing ot land outside the reservations from native claims, he said, would open the rest of Alaska to development. | Oliver La Farge, President of the Association on American Indian Affairs, said in a prepared state-| ment today: “Secretary Krug'’s action in estab- lishing three Indian reservations in! Alaska is Just and proper. | “These Indian groups have long awaited this confirmation of their rights to land and resources tradi- tionally theirs. “Now that their title s clear, there is hope that they can achieve a sound economic basis. “This is only the first step in dealing justly with the 35000 In- dians, Eskimos and Aleuts of Alaska. “A great mAny other groups still await just settlement of their rights, and we appeal again to our government, for speedy action to that end.” The Indian Reorganization Act| of 1936 gave the Secretary of the Interior authority to establish re- servations in Alaska. ICKES RESERVES In 1941 Secretary Ickes estab- lished the 870-acre Unalakleet re- servation, and in 1943 the 72,000- ccre Akutan reservation in. the Aleutians, the 1,408,000-acre Venetie on the Upper Yukon, the 35,200~ acre Karluk on Kodiak Island, the 21,200-acre Wales on the Seward Peninsula, and the 3,000-acre Dio- mede Island Reservation, Two other reservations— Shish- maref, 300 acres, and White Moun- tain, 1,200 acres—were set up but never approved by the natives. Proposals for the creation of 16 more were under consideration when the program bogged down hecause of opposition in Congress. Bills were introduced to take away the Interior Secretary’s authority to establish reservations, and to turn over all control of Alaska's natives to the Territorial government. ' At a Senate hearing, Butler, Chairman of the Senate’s Interior Committee, said he particularly ob- jected to the Venetie Reservation, which turned over 1,408,000 acres to 202 natives. “A SPECIAL PRIVILEGE" “I don't think it is necessary to set aside 2,300 square miles to give special privileges to any group to the exclusion of other people of the country, and it's a hindrance to the development of Alaska,” Butler said. Krug replied that the reserva- tions already established repre- sented less than half of one per- cent of the total land area of Alaska, and were chiefly tundra with little vegetation or other 1esources. He said that solely on the basis of economic need, without regard to the broad claims of the natives, from 5 to 10 percent of Aiaska, should be set aside in reservations for the livelihood of the Indians, Aleuts and Eskimos. He added bluntly that unless Congress terminated his authority, he would go ahead with the pro- gram, ' His successor, former Undersec- retary Oscar L. Chapman, has indi- cated he will make no major change in the policy followed by Krug— and by Ickes before Krug—despite his personal friendship with his Denver colleague, Brannan. MT. EDGECUMBE GUEST Henry A. Wolfson of Mt. Edge-| cumbe is stopping at the Baranof | Hotel. s Member Communist Part Krug's "Reservafion-izing” ng” Is PERJURY IS ALLEGED AT TRIALTODAY New Witness Gives Im- portant Testimony-Mrs. Roosevelt Involved SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 13—(P— Another professed ex-Communist testified at the Harry Bridges per- jury trial today that Bridges was a member of a key National Com= mittee of the Communist party in 1936. The witness, Manning R. John- son, a Negro now living in New York, said acout 50 members of this committee were selected at a convention at Manhattan Center, N.Y, in the summer of 1936. The committee members were picked, he said, by the “all power- ful” political bureau of the Com- munist party. National committee members were chosen, he continued, on the basis of their particular district or in- dustry, adding: “Emphasis was laid on persons in basic, strategic, mass production industries such as steel, mining, marine, packing, raillroads and so forth.” BRIDGES UNDER ALIAS Asked to name the persons at- tending the national committee meeting immediately following the convention, Johnson started off with Earl Browder. Several names were famillar, such as Willlam Schneiderman of California. Bridges 19th named. He said ,went under an alias was the Bridges “Rossl.” Johnson testified he had been a government witness in 19 or 20 trials and hearings involving Com- nuunists, ; He said he voluntarily left the party a few months after the 1939 Nazi-Soviet pact. References to a purported letter i written by Mrs. Franklin D. Roose~ velt were injected into the trial by defense counsel yesterday. Gov- ernment attorneys made strenuous objections. A witness undergoing cross examination was told the letter condemned him for allegedly mak- ing false statements during an earlier investigation of the west coast CIO longshore leader. The letter was not introduced in evidence, but Bridges' lawyers said they would seek to get it in later. The man was Kermit C. Krolek, an acknowledged ex-Communist who testified he saw Bridges pres {side at a Communist meeting in Long Beach in May, 1936. In New York, Mrs. Roosevelt denied having written the letter. COLD NIPS CROPS IN CAL. BELT LOS ANGELES, Dec. 13—®— Extensive loss to truck crops was reported today but a warming sun promised a break in a two-day cold snap. In the Imperial Valley, farmers teared the midwinter pea crop was an almost total loss from tempera- tures as low as 24 degrees, with | heavy damage to tomatoes, squask and possibly to some citrus. Last year's midwinter crop from the valley totaled 4,183 carloads, valued at $7,514,648. Otherwise, temperatures over Southern California today ran two and more degrees above yesterday, kut it was still cold enough to freeze a few car radiators, coat puddles with ice and bring out mittens and mufflers, Citrus growers said fruit which escaped loss from temperatures as low as 21 degrees in some orange belt areas early yesterday would miss further loss today. ‘The Republicans are mapping plans for the 1950 Congressional elections at a meeting in Chicago today. They have a budget of nearly two-niillion dollars on which to base their strategy. The budget was approved by the GOP finance committee yesterday.