The Daily Alaska Empire

STATEHOOD GROUP MEETS IN JUNEAU FOR FIRST SESSION
With members of the Statehood Committee arriving singly and in groups for a week now, the last group was expected to reach Juneau on flights from the north, west and south shortly before the first session at 3 o'clock this afternoon.
Rep. Warren A. Taylor of Fairbanks has been here for a week, while Judge Anthony J. Dimond, with Mrs. Dimond, and Sen. Howard Lyng arrived Saturday.
Delegate E. L. (Bob) Bartlett flew in from Washington, D.C., yesterday, and Rep. Percy Ipalook arrived from the other direction. His home is at Cape Prince of Wales.
Ipalook conferred this morning with Gov. Ernest Gruening and several department heads on a problem concerning Kotzebue.
Sen. Andrew Nerland of Fairbanks, who had sent his regrets, now was expected on today's flight, and Lee Bettinger of Kodiak, who had hoped to be here, found he could not make it. Neither can Sen. Frank Peratrovich, whose general mercantile store at Klawock is too busy a place in the fishing season—besides he is short of help.
Due from the westward today were Sen. Victor C. Rivers, Rep. Stanley McCutcheon and Publisher Robert Atwood of Anchorage, while Publisher William L. Baker of Ketchikan was expected from the south. The remaining member, Mrs. Mildred Hermann, is a resident of Juneau.
Today's session opened the first meeting of the committee appointed by Governor Gruening and confirmed by the Legislature the last day of the 1949 session, March 24.
The first meeting this afternoon was closed to press representatives.
However, the committee has chosen a secretary, who will release information about the first meeting of the committee in time for tomorrow's edition of The Empire.