The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, December 20, 1949, Page 1

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE “ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME” VOL. LXXIV., NO. 11,381 ARMISTICE PROPOSED, ATOMICS LAKE SUCCESS, Dec. 20—(P— Carlos P. Romulo, President of the United Nations Assembly, today proposed a temporary armistice in the production and use df atomic weapons. Romulo said his proposal was made in the hope of halting a costly race between the United| States and Russia ' for atomic supremacy. He stressed that his plan was intended only as an interim measure to give more time for the working out of a permanent | atomic control plan. The Philippine diplomat handed his proposal to Gen. A. G. L. Mc- Naughton of Canada shortly before his secret meeting of the six per- manent members of the U.N. Atomic Energy Commission. Mc- Naughton is this month’s chairman of the six conferees, which also include representatives of the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China. The conferees, after a brief meeting, adjourned until Jan. 19. Romulo’s proposals followed closely those set forth in an appeal by him Nov. 3, but this time they were offered as a concrete plan. TRAITOR IS SENTENCED WASHINGTON, Dec. 20—®— Herbert John Burgman, former American Embassy clerk in Ber- lin, was sentenced today to six to! 20 years in prison as a traitor. ! Burgman, 53, was convicted Nt)-l vember 15 of treason for his war- time broadcasts over the Nazi radio. He is a native of Hokah, Minn. The maximum penalty could have been death. The minimum for ‘treason is five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Burgman was the eighth Amen-i can convicted of treason in World| War IL Seven others ‘Have been| charged with betraying their coun- try. . Burgman admitted during his tive-week trial that he made broad- casts over the German shortwave radio station “Debunk” under the| alias of “Joe Scanlon.” He insisted, however, he had teen forced to do so because of fear of the Nazi Gestapo. MIKE ESTEPP HERE ON SCHOOL VACATION starts tomorrow with the shortest; After his first semester as a student in Glenlyon Preparatory School, Victoria, B. C., Michael Es- tepp arrived on the Princess Norah for Christmas vacation with his mother, Mrs. Lois Estepp. Mike: plans to sail January 3, retur'mgl to school. The Washington| JUNEAU, ALASKA, TUESD AY, DECEMBER 20, 1949 MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRES SS PRICE TEN CENTS Jr., Billy Cocleman Beavers, (abeve), 10-months-old, innocent- ly plays with the business end of his mother’s electric iron cord shortly after he was brought home from an Atlanta, Ga., hospital. Several hours earlier he had been playing with the same cord and, baby-like, stuck it in his mouth, when WHAM! he was knocked out —mama had forgotten to pull the other end from the recepticle. He regained consciousness at the hos- pital, was treated for burns and shock and dismissed. (P Wire- photo. Seallle"s "H;rd" Winfer Puzzles Alaskanfl)ld! Huh! SEATTLE, Dec. 20—(®—While Seattle residents shivered in the coldest weather of the season, a former Alaska newsman set them straight today on some of the cold | facts of life. Even his 4-year-old daughter added a pointed thrust at what the local citizenry regards seriously as a hard touch of winter. Georg N. Meyers, formerly of the Fairbanks News-Miner, who drew the assignment to write the day’s weather story for The Seattle Times couldn’t take it seriously. “What is there to say atout the weather, except that the tempera- ture was a tepid 17 degrees at the coldest spot (the Seattle-Tacoma airport) and that what the almanac refers to academically as winter of the year? “Why, it was this cold back in Fairbanks 65 days ago. And the frost started nipping the pumpkin at two degrees below the freezing point 94 days ago. For that mat- ter, the mercury plummeted (as the professional weather-story writers like to say) to 6 degrees be- low zero 35 days ago. “As for this shortest-day-of-the- HISS REPEATS TESTIMONY IN PERJURY CASE NEW YORK, Dec. 20—(P—Alger Hill testified today that he defended America’s right to aid the Western Allies in the early days of World War Two—a time when the Hitler- Stalin non-aggression pact was in force. i Hiss said in his second perjury trial that he voluntarily prepared a memorandum on Sept. 26, 1939, which said this country could help Hitler's foes without violating neu- trality laws. Later Hiss also denied that he Whittaker ~Chambers after saw 1936. i He had denied previously that he ever took secret papers from the ‘;Stn!e Department and gave them to Chambers for relay to a pre- war Soviet spy ring. Thus the handsome, 45-year-old defendant repeated the statements which led a Federal Grand Jury to indict him cn two counts of per- jury. The Grand Jury charged that he was lying about both matters. Testifying for the second day, Hiss made a point-by-point denial of Chambers’ story that he and his family were close friends of the Hiss family within a framework of Communist intrigue. Wheat Crop | Repo_rl Made WASHINGTON, Dec. 20—(®— The Agriculture Department pre- dicted today a 1950 winter wheat crop of 884,658,000 bushels. This is 17,010,000 bushels less than this year’s winter wheat crop of 901,668,000 bushels. The estimate compares also with the 1948 winter | Wheat crop of 1,007,863,000 bushels !and a ten-year (1938-48) average | of 726,558,000. ! No forecast was given for spring ) wheat inasmuch as it will not be | planted until next spring. But assuming a spring crop of the goal of around 200,000,000 bushels, the s entire 1950 production would be 1,084,658,000 bushels. By comparison, the total produc- tion of wheat this year was 1,146,~ 060,000 bushels. JUNEAU SCHOOLS TO CLOSE FOR 2 WEEKS Students of Juneau schools will bégin their Christmas holidays 1 when schools are dismissed at 2 p.m. tomorrow, Sterling S. Sears, Superintendent of Schools, an- nounced today. It ‘will be a two-week vacation ifor the students, with classes be- ginning again Wednesday, January 4, he said. TRUMAN IS BACKHOMEIN - WASHINGTON WASHINGTON, Dec. 20— (B —i President Truman, with weeks of hard work ahead of him, is back home. His plane, the Independence, landed at National Airport about 12:30 p.m., after a three hour, 46 minute flight from Key West, A large crowd, including several Cabinet members and other gov- ernment officials, turned outl greet him. He waved cheerfully as he started to leave the plane. He was in fighting trim—except for the wlstline—to do battle in Congress for his “Fair Deal” and stump for it in the 1950 Con- | gressional elections. 70 RED CANDLES FOR JOE'S BIRTHDAY, PLUS MILLION GIFTS By ALVIN J. STEINKOPF LONDON, Dec. 20— (M- The greatest giveaway jackpot program in history is on today, with Rus- sia’s Joseph Stalin on the receiving E end. | Stalin, overlord of world Com- munism, hits the jackpot tomorrow when he reaches the age of 70. How much the take in birthday presents in worth is anybody’s | guess. Tons and tons of gifts—so many that not in centuries could‘ one man use them up—have de-j| scended on Moscow from the Com- | munist world. | % Reports reaching London through the Soviet monitor and other chan- nels indicate that there will bej more than 1,000,000 parcels bear- ing the tag: “Happy birthday dear ccmrade.” Besides, there will be a veritable flood of big crates containing thé more unwieldy gifts—all the way from motorcycles to airplanes. Take an average figure of $5 per gift—that would be cheap for al birthday gift for Stalin—and the| jackpot is worth more than $5,- 000,000. Shoes, socks, neckties, choice foods, wines, spirits, toys, dolls, | books, automobiles, horses, motor- | cycles, airplanes, locomotives and even whole factories are among the| many carloads of presents converg-! ing upon Moscow from the far territories of the U.S.S.R. With: the gifts come all sorts of} honors, pledges of special work, i affirmations of loyalty and devo- tion, endearing greetings in tbe; familiar Communist pattern. Long freight trains hauled the gifts into Moscow. There were 70 cars—one for each birthday—from | Communist East Germany. ILLINOIS FIRE - o 4 | Ilse Derinlowska, 28, Hamburg, Germany, (left), who described herself as “endowed with a bosom like Jane Russell and legs like Betty Grable,” already has 400 offers for the “good American husband” she seeks. She wrote the mayor of Gettysburg, 8. D.., and sent this picture of herself. Prospects in five States have contacted the mayor. The bundle of proposals have been forwarded to Ilse. The best features of two of America’s motion picture queens are illustrated to evaluate the Gérman girl's boast. The gams, (center), of course, are Betty Grable’s and Jane Russell (right), looks irresistible despite that gun. ®» Wirephoto. N. Y. MAYOR WEDS TODAY STUART, Fla, Dec. 20—P— Mayor William O'Dwyer of New York and radiant Elizabeth Sloan Simpson were married today in a simple ceremony in St. Joseph's Catholic Church and 20 minutes Jater sailed away on an §8-day _Jachting honeymoon. Nature painted a brilliant rain- ! pow in the sky as they entered the church for the ceremony. A sky- writing airplane drew a 6-mile-high heart above the yacht Almar II as they sailed on ‘the mahogany- decked boat. Three hundred persons jammed the little wooden Army surplus cnurch, Four hundred others formed an overflow crowd outside, and an additional 200 shouted and waved a farewell at the dock as they s‘d‘l‘]Cd away. The bride, 33, wore blue. Her dark navy blue suit was trimmed with darker blue velvet. O'Dwyer, 59, was clad in a blue doutlebreasted suit with gray tie and black shoe: MINERS SCHEDULED TO WORK ONLY TWO DAYS NEXT 2 WEEKS| CLAIMS 2 MORE | year dodge, the sun is supposed to Merry = Go e Round {1ise here at 7:5¢ o'clock tomorrow Bv DREW PEARSON lmornlng and set at 4:20 in the af- BANS TRAVEL IN ternoon. iCopyrignt. 1949, by Bell Syndicate. Inc.) (Ed. Note—This is the third in Pearson’s series of columns on ‘ tax evasion—a question of import- ance to every taxpayer who has to pay more as a result of defici- encies by others.) ASHINGTON—It is not often that Treasury agents turn up 2 tax fraud case against a big cor- poration. This is partly because most big corporations have their books audited by reputable firms, but also because it is almost im- possible for the T-Men to scrutin- ize carefully the complicated books of the big corporations. The Internal Revenue Bureau is so understaffed——thanks largely to the recent GOP 80th Congress— that it is impossible for its agents to take enough time to go through all corporate books. Recently, however, Treasury agents stumbled into what they considered an airtight tax fraud case against the Mid-Continent Pet- roleum Corporation in Tulsa, Okla. The case was considered so air- tight that there was not the slight- est doubt, they thought, about crim- inal prosecution. However, the wire- pullers got busy and the criminal aspects of the Mid-Continent case are now on ice. The oil company will not have to pay a tax bill of $6,000,000 plus 50 percent penalty, as recommended by the T-Men. Instead, honest tax- payers will have to make up the difference. The reason the Treasury’s case “(Continued on Page Four) “Call that short? “In Fairbanks tomorrow, even the bankers will need " flashlights to find their way to and from the job. The sun, if it makes it, will break surface at four minutes be- fore 10 o'clock and vanish at 38 minutes after 1 o'clock. “At high noon, a schoolboy's shadow will stretch over the snow drifts longer than the Lake Wash- ington floating bridge. * “My 4-year-old dgughter is con- vinced that her parents are per- petrating a hoax on her. ‘How can it be Christmas when it isn't even winter?’ she keeps asking.” STOCK QUOTATIONS NEW YORK, Dec. 20—Closing quotation of Alaskar Juneau mine stock today is 3%, American Can 100%, - Anaconda 28%, Curtiss- Wright 7%, International Harvester 28%, Kennecott 50%, New York Central 10%, Northern Pacific 127%, U. S. Steel 25%, Pound $2.80. Sales today were 1,000,300 shares. Averages today are as follows: industrials 197.22, rails 5098, util- ities 40.70. ® 00000000 . TIDE TABLZD . . DECEMBER 21 . ® High tide 3:05 am., 163 ft. o ® Low tide L] ® High tide . : Low tide 9:23 p.m., -281t. e . ® 00606000 0 0 0 | HUNGARY AFTER AMERICAN ARREST | WASHINGTON; Dec. 20—P—The| | United States today banned travel lby Americans to Communist-con- trolled Hungary. The action was taken because of the arrest last month of Robert A. Vogeler, an official of the Interna- tional Telephone and Telegraph Corp., and the detention of other Americans in Hungary. The State Department announced | the ban in a sharp note of protest to Hungary against the arrest of Vogeler . Son, Heir Born To Vanderbilts NEW YORK, Dec. 20—/—A son and heir was born early today to the Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilts— the first male addition to the Van- derbilt clan in a number of years. The wife of the Millponacre sportsman gave birth shortly after midnight at Le Roy Sanitarium. The mother is the former Jeanne Murray, cousin of Mrs. Henry Ford, 2nd, and daughter of the late John F. Muray, stock exchange firm head. The couple was married Oct. 13, 1945. In the Blue mountains of Wash- ington, searchers have found no trace of an 18-year-old elk hunter, Donald McDonald, who has been missing since last Thursday. LIVES IN FAMILY EMMETT, Ill. Dec. 20—(#—Death took its sixth and seventh victims a farmer Clarence Bethway’s family of 14 today. As sorrowing townspeople gave aid in the Christmas week calamity, 80-year-old grandma Louise, @& heroine of yesterday's fire, suc- cumbed with a granddaughter, Mary Lou, 13. i Both the elderly woman and the child died of burns. Five other children, ranging in age from 3 to 11, were burned to death when trapped in an upstairs bedroom in a pre-dawn blaze which destroyed the family home. | Grandma Louise Bethway was burned while rescuing one child. There were 11 children in the fam- ily. MYSTERY BLAZE NEAR FAIRBANKS FAIRBANKS, Alaska, Dec. 20— (M—A mystery fire razed the pad- locked Green Lantern roadhouse Sunday night. The resort had been closed since Federal authorities put a lock on it in October after abate- ment proceedings. The loss was estimated around $25,000. H HOLIDAY GUEST Mrs. J. C. Warner of Blaine, Wash., has arrived to spend the Christmas holidays with her son, Jack Warner, and his family at their home on Glacier Highway. Warner owns and operates the Ju- neau Marine Company, R o i TN PITTSBURGH, Dec. 20—(P--Dis- trict Presidents of the United Mine Workers said the nation’s 480,000 codl miners had recelved orders to work only two days on each of the next two weeks. John Busarello, President of UMC District Five, and James Mark, District Two head, said the miners would work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays only because ot the Christmas and New Year holi- days. The country’s miners currently are working three days a week on the orders of UMW President John L. Lewis. Mark said he had signed seven central Pennsylvania coal operators to contracts in the past ie!v days Stop P;ess! Scoop! News Flash Tells Arrival of Winfer! Few cases of shock are expected in Alaska due to impact of the news that winter will arrive in the world tomorrow. Astronomical calculations, straight from the calendar and the almanac, can be counted on to make news annually on December 21. Autumn will be over tomorrow, folks, at 8:24 p.m. Pacific Stan- dard Time. Comes at that moment the winter solstice. The North Pole will pe tilted 23 degrees, 27 minutes away from the sun. On the shortest day of 1949, the sun is scheduled to rise in these parts at 9:45 am., and set at 4:07 pm. However, there is scarcely a min- ute’s difference in the length of the sun's visitation for several days et this time of year. 400wSeek Her Hai ‘Snow-Loaded Planes \Will Grant Boy's Wish For ""White Christmas” CALEXICO, Calif., Dec. 20—M— Some small toy here is going to ! have an “impossible” Christmas | wish come true. ! On Christmas Eve it will snow on this California-Mexican border town for the first time since 1932. And all because of a leiter to Santa Claus. The post office received the note which the boy, who didn’'t sign his name, told Santa how good he had been all year and how sad he was that he ‘couldn't play in the snow at Christmastime, like northern boys. All he wanted this Christmas was & snowstorm. The post office passed the letter on to the Chamber of Commerce. So, starting at 3 pm. Saturday, planes of the Border Flying Service will take off and, using crop-cust- city. Snow will be freighted in from California mountain areas. i Santa Claus himself—plus a few Lelpers—will load it into the piancs. RADIO SILENCE OBSCURES SEARCH FOR BROWNFIELD ANCHORAGE, Dec. 20—®—Bad weather which halted flying and silenced radio communication ob- ing ejectors, drop snow over the‘ d | | | | | i 4 1CY WEATHER HITS SEVERAL | PARTS OF US. ciated Press) Wintry weather spread an icy finger over the central. Rocky Mountain states and headed into the upper Missouri valley today. The Eastern and Southeastern parts of the country had compara- tively mild temperatures. The mercury dropped to sub-zero levels throughout most of Montana and parts of North Dakota and Wyoming today. In Montana, it dipped to 20 below zero at Havre; 19 kelow at Lewistown and —18 at Custer. Williston, N.D., reported a low of —10 and it was —5 at Lan- der, Wyo. Snow fell throughout most of the cold belt and strong winds piled drift§ on many roads. Ice-glazed highways and streets in many areas slowed travel. | IMMUNITY N | GUBITCHEV CASE NEW YORK, Dec. 20—(P—The Soviet Government in a statement |m Federal Court today formally claimed diplomatic immunity for' scured today whether a four-man|ygjenyin Gubitchev, Russian citi- EX-COMMIE TESTIFYING FOR BRIDGES SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 20—(P— A witness in the Harry Bridges’ perjury trial said today it might be possible for a labor union leader to follow Communist party policy without being “technically a member.” The government witness, Paul Crouch, an admitted ex-Communist, made the statement under cross- examination by Vincent Hallinan, attorney for the Australian-born CIO longshore leader. Hallinan appeared happy at hav- ing brought out this point in his defense of Bridges, who is charged with perjury in testifying at his 1945 naturalization hearing that he was never a member of the Com= munist party. The matter came up in connee- tion with a purported Communist party resolution calling on capital, lubor and everybody in the nation to help .overthrow fascism, Crouch said'he himself framed the resqlution which was read be- fore the 1941 California CIO Coun- cil by Bridges and Philip Connelly, California CIO leader of some years ago. Earlier, Hallinan succeeded in getting & purported list of 1938 Communist party leaders’ names before the jury. But Federal Judge George B. Harris told the jury not to consider the list as binding or in evidence, adding that it was doubtful as to its admissibility. Hallinan used the list to point out that none of the names on it were those of “Rossi, Durgan or Dorgan,” names which witnesses have testified Bridges used as aliases in party councils, MUSHER IS T0 LEAVE WHITEHORSE AFTER HUNGRY, COLD TREK WHITEHORSE, Y. T. Dec. 20—(® Cecil (Mush) Moore was to pull out today for Dawson Creek, B. C.— another 900 miles farther along the trail on his dogsled jaunt from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Lewiston, Me. Moore expects to reach Dawson Creek around Jan. 15. He has been on the trail since Nov, 14 cover-’ ing the 600 miles here from Fair- banks. Dirty, tired, hungry and cold, Moore arrived here Sunday after- noon after a 40-mile trek in 43- RUSSIA ASKS { degree-below-zero weather, He had | nothing but praise for his dogs, des- pite having to keep constant watch aver the high-strung huskies. “Once a coyote jumped out in front of them about 100 feet away,” Moore recalled. “They took off after him and if I had let them 1go they would have wrecked the sled. All I could do was to throw the sled on its side and they couldn’t drag any more, “I shot a willow grouse one eve= o ey trail crew of the Tenth Rescue Squadron had been able to reach a canvas shelter believed to belong to Pilot Francis Brownfield. The Anchorage pilot, whose par- ents live at Sequim, Wash., has been missing since Sept. 5. The trail crew had been ex- pected to reach the canvas shelter on Big Kizoma Creek sometime Sunday. The shelter had been spot- ted from the air earlier. Denali from Seattle in port and scheduled ‘to sail westward at 4 o'clock. B Baranof scheduled to sail from Seattle Saturday. Princess Norah scheduled to sail from Vancouver December 28. e o o o e o 3 WEATHER REPORT (This data is for 24-hour pe- riod ending 7:30 am. PST.) In Juneau—Maximum 34; minimum 19. At Airport—Maximum 33; minimum 20. FORECAST (Junesu and Vicinity) Mostly cloudy and colder tonight and Wednesday. Gusty northeasterly winds. Lowest temperature tonight about 26. Highest Wednesday near 28. PRECIPITATION (Past 24 nours ending 7:30 &.m. today City of Juneau—1.17 inches; since Dec. 1—443 inches; since July 1—53.31 inches. At Airport—.35 inches; since Dec. 1171 inches; since July 1—34.83 inches, © o 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 \ L) zen facing trial on spy charges. |ning and when it fell out of tree U. S. Judge Sylvester R. Ryan,|a) 10 dogs got there before me. I e {and Mr. John St. Martin of Skag- |preslding at a pre-trial hearing|pag no grouse for dinner and had for Gubitchev and Judith Coplon, described the statement as without precedent in his memory in crim- inal procedure. The statement was rcad to the court by Lev. S. Tolokonnikov, first secretary of the Soviet Embassy in Washington, after Gubitchev’s law- yer had completed his argument on the immunity claim. It was signed by Alexander S. Panyushkin, the Russian Ambas- sador, PROMINENT COUPLE i WEDDED AT SKAGWAY ‘ SKAGWAY, Alaska, Dec. 18— (Special to Empire—Mrs. Kay Reed way were married Saturday eve- ning, December 17, at 8 o'clock at the Presbyterian Manse by Mrs. Mary McCann, U. S. Commissioner. The Rev. John Dodge and Mrs. Dodge were the witnesses. | Open House was held at the St. {Martin residence at Eleventh and Main Sunday evening. Mr. St. Martin is anh engineer with the White Pass and Yukon Railroad. Both he and Mrs. St. Martin have lived in Skagway a |number of years, WHITE HOLLY LEAVES | The Coast Guard Cutter White Icy Straits and Ketchikan at 4 Juneau Sunday evening with the trolier 31A464 in tow. trouble breaking up a dog fight and untangling the harness. “It was 38 below on morning and my hair was frozen to the edge of the sleeping bag because of the vapor from my breath. Maybe 1 should be drinking anti-freeze.” Moore is making the grueling trip with a large cargo of mail with special stamps to raise money for a children’s fund of his home town Lions Club, 4 Sanfa Claus? You Beicha MEDFORD, Mass., Dec. 20—(P— The voice of Santa Claus boomed from a rooftop. “What do you mean I'm not real?” A little tyke in the crowd gaz- ing up at the spotlighted Santa winced. He had been telling his little friends “he ain’t real—all he does is stand there.” The voice called out again: “Johnny Willlams, why do you tell your little friends such things. Of course Santa is real and he'll come to visit good boys.” That was the clincher. Johnny Holly departed from Juneau for |Willlams now is a firm believer. The voice was that of Alderman am. today. The cutter arrived in|George F. Callahan thrown from his lving room through a loud speaker rigged to Santa, o R i