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University Daily Kansan
Tuesday, Dec. 11, 1962
Floating Arctic Islands Aid Weather Research
BARROW, Alaska — (UPI) — The northernmost American flag of U.S. territory waves over a drifting glacial ice station near the North Pole.
Biting sub-zero winds ripple the Stars and Stripes on a frost-covered tower on Arlis II, a floating ice island operated by the University of Alaska under contract to the U.S. Office of Naval Research.
THE ISLAND is the second manned U.S. glacial ice station and the fifth manned floating ice station in the Arctic Ocean. The first ice island, T-3, was discovered and manned in 1952. Since then it has been abandoned and manned three different times and now floats about 300 miles southwest of Arlis II.
BECAUSE IT IS so far north, the sun has not warmed Arlis II since late September and is not expected to shine again on the tiny island until sometime in March. It all depends en where the Arctic Ocean currents and the crackling winter winds move the island.
Arilis II is now swiftly approaching 85 degrees north latitude, about 300 miles from the North Pole and about 1,000 miles northwest of Barrow.
About 100 feet thick and two miles square, Arlis II was found by Arctic Research Laboratory Director Max Brewer and his chief pilot, Robert Fischer, in May 1961.
T-3, also known as Fletcher's ice island, was designated as Station Bravo during the International Geophysical Year and is still in the western hemisphere.
Glacier islands, rare in the Arctic, are thought to originate from the great icefields of Ellesmere Island. near the west coast of Greenland. The Ice Islands, covered with rock and debris from glacial scouring, match debris taken from Ellesmere
OLD TIME EXPLORERS occasionally spotted the islands, thought they were true earth islands and charted them on maps. Later explorers were surprised to find only open sea where islands were expected.
Station Alpha and Station Charley, previous Air Force stations, and Arlis I, another island, have been abandoned. All were on salt water floe ice which is not as stable as glacier ice.
Two known Russian ice stations, North Pole 10 and North Pole 11, are on floe ice according to Brewer. The Soviets first manned their ice stations in 1937 when they flew a crew to a station at the North Pole.
The purpose of the ice stations is to gain scientific and military data concerning the Arctic Ocean basin.
BUT ARLIS II and T-3, working in conjunction with nuclear submarines, are racing to close the gap. Weather work, ocean current research, ice research and studies of life in the Arctic are now being carried on at the stations.
In some respects the Soviets have had a head start.
This winter, researchers from the University of Washington, University of Southern California, University of Wisconsin, Lamont Geological Observatory, U.S. Navy Underwater Sound Laboratory and the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office are busy conducting experiments on the island.
Support for the islands is provided by the Arctic Research Laboratory so civilian and military agencies using the islands as research platforms are able to work on projects while the laboratory handles the maintenance and supply problems.
The main supply vehicle for Arlis II is an outdated Navy R4D twin-engine plane flown by Fischer and three other pilots who alternate on the flights over the pack ice.
BECAUSE THERE are no conventional navigation aids and compasses are not reliable in the Far North, navigators rely on the stars and occasional radio beacons placed at the ice stations.
Bathed in perpetual brightness in the summer and cold, steel-gray darkness in winter, temperatures on Arlis II have dipped below 50 degrees below zero.
Arlis II is a prime example of man's continuing curiosity as well as a remote research outpost of the cold war.
About 40 KU students who moved—and failed to report the change—have not received their Blue Cross-Blue Shield contracts and I-D cards.
Blue Cross Contracts Stopped by Errata
Robert Barr, Lawrence Blue Cross agent, said the contracts were mailed last week to students who signed for the program earlier this semester.
He asked that any student failing to receive a contract call his office.
KU-Y freshmen will continue plans tonight for an initial Model Senate.
Model Senate Meets Today
Members of the Model Senate will meet at 8 p.m. in the Jayhawk Room of the Kansas Union. A short general session is planned for students to sign up for the state they wish to represent.
Rick Solum, Leawood freshman and co-chairman of the Model Senate, said that only one student would represent each state. It had been thought before that two persons could represent each state, as in the U.S. Senate.
They will then hold committee meetings to elect permanent committee chairmen and plan senate bills.
The Model Senate will be a copy of the U.S. Senate it will hold sessions on Feb. 22 and 23. The four committees on the Model Senate are education, health and welfare; agriculture; civil rights and foreign relations.
U.S. Communist Party OnTrial by Government
WASHINGTON — (UPI) — After 12 years of legal wrangling, the government brought the U.S. Communist Party to trial today for defying an order to register as an agent of the Soviet Union.
The case was brought under the 1950 Subversive Activities Control Act. Both sides said they would report ready for the trial when the case is called (at 8:30 a.m. CST) in federal district court.
AS A CRIMINAL CASE, it will be heard before a jury. The Party was indicted a year ago on 12 counts of failing to register with the attorney general after the Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB) and the Supreme Court found it to be a Communist-action organization dominated and controlled by Moscow.
If convicted, the Party faces a penalty of $10,000 fine on each of the 12 counts. Payment of the fine, however, would not clear the party of future prosecution because it is subject to penalty for every day that it does not register.
NO PARTY OFFICERS or members are required to be in court for the trial. General Secretary Gus Hall and National Secretary Benjamin Davis both have been indicted for failure to register but a trial date for them has not been set. The Justice department and the SACB are proceeding against 14 other party members to require registration.
Joseph Forer, attorney for the Party, said he would base his defense on constitutional questions which have not been before the Supreme Court. Any conviction is expected to result in appeal.
No person can be sent to jail as a result of a conviction of the Party,
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but the government could move to confiscate the Party's property for non-payment of fines.
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Under the 1950 act, any organization controlled or infiltrated by the world communist movement is required to register. If the organization fails to register, responsibility to do so then reverts to its officers and its members.
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THE GOVERNMENT took the first step to require registration in 1950. The Supreme Court upheld the Registration Act in 1961, but did not rule on whether it subjects a person to self-incrimination in violation of the constitution.
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Attorneys for the Party have contended that if a person should register under the law, and no one has, he would be subject to prosecution under the Smith Act, which prohibits advocating violent overthrow of the government.
Membership of the Party has dwindled from an estimated 80,000 after World War II to 10,000 and it is now heavily infiltrated with FBI informers.
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