Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 43, Number 46, Decatur, Adams County, 23 February 1945 — Page 1

lustWintheWai Else Is Chores!

/AIIII. No. 46.

BLUES OPEN BIG PUSH ON WESTERN FRONT

i urkey Declares War On A xis

lares War Result Os led Note irkish Assembly |tes Unanimous bproval Os Act ton. Feb. 23— ('UP)—'Turkey L] war on Germany and Jalay as a result of a note from e three serving notice on Issociated nations” to take [step by March 1 or forfeit It the San Francisco conferLnkara radio reported that fkirih national assembly had Unanimous approval of the Lent decision t<> declare war tearing of the big three deLrached at the Crimea conI not. couched in clearcut [told the associated nations [declaration of war was esI to any voice in the peace pee. lia protect to the blunt tone [ultimatum, the Tnrkisu parI ostentatiously dated its decp of war for March I—the1 —the E. keted with Turkey as the Ited nations were Egypt, Icefchile, Paraguay, Ecuador, [Uruguay, and Venezuela, appeared to be about to folk y in the declaration. Icefa* been without diplomatic [s with Germany since the [ion of Denmark in 1940. lx of the latin American nafeted by the turks have de[war on Germany within the Io weeks apparently as a re- [ the notice. lai quarters in London conI the urkish list of nine na- | to which the notes were [Turks broadcast a lengthy kt ion of tjieir action, tinged rony. ilt indicated their rete to give way under a big Bid declare war. since they want a voice in lure of the Dardanelles and inese islands off their coast, Ivernment decided that the kion was essential. k>tiua. was omitted from the [countries t ow.hich the noth [s went. Inquiries here aibout Status of the Argentines ft th eansiwer, ‘‘ask the state pent in Washington.” j— o ion County Jail ty Dies In Blast inapolis, Frf>. 23—(UP) —>A I county jail trusty was killI four other men were burnlay when cleaning solvent ere using exploded. The accijeurred at the county garage, ry Wright, 19, Indianapolis, I a hospital after being blind- : suffering burns over his enWy. He had been jailed on s of drunkenness and maliIrespasßing. Another trusty, t Joiner, 40, Indianapolis, was : severely, and hospital atts eaid his condition was crierloo Men Held llack Market im, Ind., Fell). 23 — (UP) — Morrison, 43. Waterloo, was I 11,000 bond today after beHrged with receiving stolen *ison was implicated in the narket activities 'by a confesNoel Writtenhouse, who was d in Tiffin, 0., on a larceny I Allegedly Writtenhouse selew tires under false applicable claimed in his confession 9 sold the tires to Morrison. ■— o mperature reading IOCRAT THERMOMETER >a. m .' - 31 >•- m — 31 I 31 P- m : 31 z WEATHER jrtly cloudy sand a little lr tonight. Saturday fair

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT

Pre-Induction Group Ordered Wednesday The Adame county selective service board announced today that a group of men has been ordered to report next Wednesday, February, for pre-induction physical examinations. Official word has not yet been received on the contingents sent this week, one for preinduction examinations, and the other for active induction. —o Yankee Forces Tighten Hold On Philippines Important Island Seized, Open Ship Lane For Manila Manila, Feb. 23 —(UP) —American forces strengthened their hold in the Philippines today and gained control of strategic San Bernarjino strait with the seizure of Capul island off southeastern Luzon. Occupation of the tiny but important island, lying midway between Luzon and Samar, opened the direct shipping lane from the United States to the great harbor in Manila Bay. Veteran jungle fighters of the America! division which' fought on Guadalcanal and Bougainville, swarmed over Capul island Wednesday against light opposition, a communique said. The island is at the western end of San Bernardino strait, where the Japanese fleet units were routed disastrously by American warships supporting the landings on Leyte last October. i While the troops were cleaning up the island, other American forces engaged the Japanese in southern Manila in vicious battles that raged from building to building around the beseiged Intramuros section. At the same time, units of the 11th airborne division swept southward along the west coast of Laguna Bay, southeast of the capital, and surprised a Japanese garrison of 500 men at Mabato Point. The enemy forces attempted to flee across the bay in barges but were caught off shore by a murderous crossfire of American (Turn To Page 5, Column 4) o U. S. Is Pledged To Seek Lasling Peace Put All Resources To Building Peace Mexico City. Feb. 23. — (UP) — The United States was pledged jtoday to throw all of its resources into building a peace which will make it possible for men everywhere to live in "freedom from fear and want.” Attention was focused on economic solidarity of the western hemisphere in addresses by Mexican Foreign Minister Ezequiel Padilla and U. S. Secretary of State Edward R. SteTHnius, Jr., last night at the second plenary session of the interAmerican conference. Padilla called upon the conference to take “practical” steps to end the “misery, abandonment and indifference” in which the masses of people in Latin America find themselves. Stettinius, after outlining a fivepoint U. S. foreign policy, announced that his government would sponsor and support measures to raise the standard of living throughout the hemisphere. Referring to the Atlantic charters pledge to seek freedom from fear and want, Stettinius said: "1 can assure you that the United States does not regard this as a rhetorical assertion of vague intentions. We regard it as necessity if the United Ntions are to build a peace tlwt will endure.” (Turn To i. Column 3)

The Yanks Go Marching In—The Siegfried Line Mjpwww"-’ . 111,11 111), —■ - " will" hW ' .v . • . . Mhiiiir 1 «■ B M liny J A. " -MF INFANTRYMEN of the 90th division pass the concrete dragon teeth of the Siegfried line in Habschied, •Germany, as they move up to join U. S. troops on the front line. This is a U. S. army signal corps photo. ,

Republicans To Take Liquor Board Control Hotly-Contested Bill Near House Passage •Indianapolis, Felb. 23 —(U'P) — Barring senate amendments, rhe Repulblican administration’s liquor law modification bill stood a good chance today of becoming law with a semi-local option clause and a section allowing servicemen under 21 to ibuy alcoholic beverages. The Indiana house of representatives was ready t<> receive the measure for final consideration after approving it with numerous amendments on second reading yesterday. iDespite a hotly-contested, three and one-half, hour “battle of amendments” on the house floor, Repulblicans who took opposite views on controversial phases of the (bill were expected to unite for passage. The bill then would go to the senate. (Democrats were expected to vote solidly against the measure, if only because of a section abolishing the present 'State alcoholic beverage board and creating a new one. Republicans would take over control even though the board remained structurally bi-partisan, because of a clause giving the governor appointed chairman double voting privileges in case of ties. •More-than 40 amendments were offered during the long session, but fewer than one-fourth of them were accepted. Democrats offered most of the proposals. Rep. Glenn R. Slenker, R., Monticello, put across the major amendment, to give county alcoholic beverage boards the right to set tavern closing hours for their own areas. The bill also set a 9 A. M. opening hour, three hours later than at present. iSlenker's proposal was a compromise measure to forces at odds over the closing time. Proposals had ranged from 9 p. m. to 1 a. m. but amendment would force the county boards t o designate any closing hour between 10 p. m. and midnight. ■This gave no quarter to Lake county, whose Democratic delegation begged ton- a one-hour extension from the midnight “curfew.” The amended bill restores drinking at bans without the necessity of being seated, allows dancing in taverns when separate rooms are provided from the barroom, legalizes liquor buying by minors in uniform unless their superior officers rule otherwise. It also adds memorial day to the list of “dry” .holidays. State excise taxes would be double, or $2 a gallon on liquor, and double or eight cents a gallon on beer. Beer wholesaler permits issued before April 1, 1945 would be cancelled. Republicans then would be in a position to take control of the (Turn To Fag'e 2, Column 4)

ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY

Decatur, Indiana, Fri day, February 23,1945.

Charles E. Hocker To Serve On Federal Jury Charles E. Hocker has been named a member of the federal petit jury 'which will convene in South Bend next /Monday. iMr. Hocker received the official summons to appear in Judge Luther M. .Swygert’s court today and stated that he would serve on the jury. o 22 Are Feared Dead In Crash Os Plane Airliner Crashes Today In Virginia Bristol, Va., Feb. 23.—(UP)—American airlines announced today that a missing New York-to-Los Angeles plane carrying 19 passengers and a crew of three had been found four miles southwest of Rural Retreat, Va., about 50 miles northeast of here. It was feared the 19 passengers and three crew members had been killed. State troopers 'were scaling the wooded mountainside toward the wreckage. The plane was sighted about noon, some 10 hours after it had last reported by radio over Pulaski, Va., 30 miles to the northeast. The entire area is rugged and mountainous with white top towering upward nearly to 6,000 feet. Search planes from Bristol and Washington flew over the area, and state patrolmen led a ground "search. The liner left New York at 8:30 CWT last night and departed from Washington at 11:15. The crew consisted of Capt. (Turn To Page 5. Column 6)

Lenten Meditation (Rev. D. H. Pellett, Union Chapel, United Brethren Church) “THE FULFILLMENT OF HOPE” Why art thou cast down O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.—Ps. 42:5. The Psalmist was a man of wide experience. David was the youngest of a large family; officially, the least in his fathers house; yet God chose him for the highest office of the nation. It was in the palace of the king that his simple childlike faith found its supreme test. Human frailties failed, but the deeply imbedded hope of his soul lived on. In this Psalm we find this great man reaching out after the Almighty. The way seems densely dark, yet he is still reaching in hope. His spirit, he confesses is downcast, but he has not given up hope. A careful study of verses five and eleven will disclose that David has found full assurance in the latter verse. These two verses are identical except for six words. Particularly two words in the last clause are important. In verse five he says, "For I shall praise him who is the health of my countenance, and then he adds, “and my God.” Hope has grown into a reality and expresses itself in full assurance. A marginal rendering of this closing statement puts it thus, “His presence is my salvation.” An honest search in hope is certain to reveal Him who is qur salvation.

Allied Planes Keep Up Record Attacks German Transport System is Pounded London, Fell). 23— (UP)— Nearly 2,000 planes of the. eighth air force struck deep into southeastern GerImany, today, bom'hing the Nazi transport system for the second day. Following the Pattern of yesterday’s record bombardment of the German rail net work, a powerful force of heavy bonUbers and fighters smashed at albout a score of rail yards and other targets from Leipzig southward beyond Neurnberg. ■Upward of 1.350 flying fortresses and lilberators escorted by more than 650 Mustang and Thunderbolt fighters were thrown into the attack. 'Among the targets of the day light assault, the eighth air force’s llith straight day of the aerial ofmensive, were rail yards at Craisseirn, Kitzingen, Ansbach, Neumarkt and Treuchlingen. all in the area between Leipzig and South of Nuernberg. •The 'RAF capped yesterday’s massive offensive with 'block-buster raids on Berlin, Bremen and Erfurt iby fleets of swift Mosquito bombers during the night. One night raider was lost. Warplanes from all the air forces in the (European theater made up the greatest air fleet in history for daylight attacks yesterday on every primary and secondary railway line in western Germany, as well as other railways, canals and highways in Australia, Italy, yugoslavia, HolInd and Denmaik. (Turn To Page 5, Column 4)

Nazis Report Grand-Scale Offensive Is Launched By Two, Three Allied Armies

Schannen Selected For Special Judge Judge William H. Schannen of Fort Wayne has 'been named as tinspecial judge to hear the reckless homicide charge and other cases filed against Gerald Grand&taff. Judge Schannen has not yet qualified for the poet and consequently the case has not been set on the court’s calendar. o Marines Seize Mt. Suribachi On Iwo Island Americans Suffer Heavy Casualties In Island Battle Guam, Feb. 23— (UP,)— U. S. marines stormed and captured the 554-foot summit of fortified Mt. Suribachi today, winning gun emplacements commanding all Iwo. The 28th regiment hoisted the stars and stripes over gun-brist-ling Mt. Suribachi, an extinct volcano and highest peak on Iwo. at 10:35 a. m. (7:35 p. m. Thursday, CWT), Admiral Chester W. Nimitz announced in a brief communique It was the biggest American success of the five-day-old invasion. The victory at the southern tip of Iwo came as other marines wqre slugging it out in bitter bayonet and grenade fighting with desperate counter-attacking Japanese on the approaches to the second of the tiny island’s airfields nearly three miles to the north. Three Americans fell dead or wounded every two minutes during the first 58 hours of battle on Iwo, Nimitz announced, but. the marines were killing two Japanese for every American killed. Some 5,372 marines were killed. wounded or missing through 6 p. in. Wednesday, 58 hours after H-hour, Nimitz said. He estimated the dead at 644, wounded at 4,168 and missing at 560. A majority of the missing probably (Turn To Page 2. Column 3) —o — Allies Continuing Italy Front Push Two More Important Peaks Are Captured Rome, Feb. 23 — (UP) —Brazilian and American troops of the fifth army smashed through stiff German resistance to capture two more important Apennine peaks and one village, headquarters said today. Headquarters said the recently launched push in the Mount Belvedere sector continued in generally fair weather. The Brazilians seized Mount Castello, three miles northeast of Mount Belvedere, and advance, ■’ another mile to capture the village of Abetala, two miles west of the Pistoia-Bologna highway. The advance was made against an elaborate trench system from which the Germans launched counterattacks all along the Belvedere sector. The American troops scaled and captured 3,500 foot Mount Della Torraccia, two and a half miles northeast of Mount Belvedere, despite fierce fire from Germans entrenched on the heights. North and northwest of Mount, Belvedere the Germans launched a series of sharp counterattacks, using 60 to 80 men in each attempt. The Americans repulsed the efforts to dislodge them and tightened their hold on the peak captured three Gays ago.

Stalin Tells Soviet Troops Victory 'Near' Red Army Virtually Clears Big Stretch Os Neisse River 'London. Feib. 23—(UP) —The Red army virtually completed the clearing of a 60’inile stretch of the Neisse river on the southeastern approaches to Berlin today, spurred iby Marshal Stalin’s proclamation that 'final victory was “near.” Some 1,150,000 German troops were killed or captured in the first 40 days of file Soviet winter offensive, Stalin announced in a special order of the day commemorating the 27th anniversiary of the Red army today. The 'bag—averaging 28,750 Nazis a day—'boosted the number of German troops killed or captured in three years and eight months of the war on the eastern front to 9,740,000 by Soviet account. “The Red army. . .together withthe anmies of our Allies is successfully completing the rout of the German Fascist army." Stalin proclaimed. “Complete victory over the Germans now is already near.” Marshal Ivan S. Konev’s second Ukrainian army was setting the stage for the climatic assault on Berlin by hurling the last Germans back across the Niesse river southeast of the capital in furious battles, (Moscow dispatches said Konev was preparing to smash across the Neisse on a broad front with the dou'ble objective of reducing Dresden, 52 miles ahead of his spearheads, and flanking Berlin from the (Turn To Paga 5, Column 4) 0 Books Are Closed On Hook, Rankin Battle Michigan Solon In Apology To House Washington, Feb. 23 —(UP) — The house closed its books*today on the bloodless battle between Reps. John E. Rankin, D., Miss., and Frank E. Hook, D, Mich. Hook apologized to the house, Rankin offered his regrets, and members turned their attention back to matters of state. Rankin and Hook pawed at each other yesterday after an exchange of name-calling. Rankin said Hook was associated with communists; Hook said Rankin was a liar. Their statements to the house closed an incident which for a time threatened to turn into a floor battle over which, if either, congressman should be censured or expelled. Before the heat of battle had died down yesterday, there had been talk of motions to expel. This later turned into talk of motions merely to censure. After the house convened today, Rep. E. E. Cox, D., Ga., tipped off what finally happened by announcing to the house what he would do if he were either of the fighters. "When I offend,”. he said, “I apologize, fully and completely.” Hook was on his feet next. He read a two-page apology. He asked forgiveness on the grounds that he was “unduly aroused, not so much because I personally was attacked” but because of Rankin’s reflections upon his constituents. While the house applauded Hook. Rankin walked to the well. He desired “merely” to make a statement. “If I were to apologize to anyone, I would apologize for the disturbance caused to members of the house,” he said. i

Buy War Savings Bonds And Stamps

Price Four Cents.

Allied Headquarters Clamps Blackout On News Os Battle On West War Fronts Paris, Feb. 23— (UP) —Berlin reported that two and perhaps three Allied armies launched a grand-scale offensive before Cologne today, forced the Roer river line at six or more points on a 40-mile front, and locked with the German army in the pay-off battle of western Europe. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s headquarters clamped a blackout on all news of the great battle that the German high command said was swaying back across the Rhineland 20 miles or less from Cologne. But accounts broadcast from Berlin said Allied tank and infantry divisions were streaming across the shattered Roer line behind an earth-shaking aerial and artillery barrage. The American ninth army was out in front of the big push, striking on a 20-mile belt of the offensive linfe between I/nnich and Dueren. Units of the I'. S. first army joined in the attack along the headwaters of the Roer below Duren, and Berlin reports of heavy Allied thrusts from the -Roermond sector to the north Indicated -that, the British second army also was on the march. Nazi spokesmen said the ninth army won footholds on the east, bank of the Roer opposite Niederau and Kreuzau, three ami four miles below Dueren. Other assault spearheads broke across the river one and five miles norfhwest of Duren at Birkesdort and Seigersdorf. The fifth crossing was made at Gevenich. 14 miles above Dueren and two miles east of Linnich, and a sixtli two miles farther to the northwest at Korrenzig. Thousands of Allied guns, massed huh to hub behind the Roer. touched off the offensive long before dawn with a drumfire barrage that, raked the German lines for three hours before the doughboys moved out, enemy accounts said, The bombardment swelled through the morning hours and Berlin admitted the German defenders were fighting desperately from broken and smoldering fortifications torn open by the shelling. In the first few hours of the attack, one enemy commentator said, between 60.000 and 100,060 Allied shells rained down on the German front line positions and supporting communications. Swarms of Allied fighter bombers ranged ahead of the attacking ground troops. One force bombed and strafed a big concentration of trains and motor vehicles caught in Grevenbroich, 15 miles northeast of Linnich and one of the main road and rail feeder points west of Cologne. Simultaneously, the U. S. eighth air force hurled a great fleet of almost 2,000 bombers and fighters against a score of railroad yards and other targets in southeastern Germany! It was the second great daylight strike at the enemy's vast, network q£ communications deep inside the Reich. First reports indicated that scarcely a railway line in central and western Germany was operating today. Berlin spokesmen said German fighter-bombers were raking the) Advancing American troops around Dueren, where the Yanks were trying to seal off the town by linking up their bridgeheads to the north and south. O — Randolph County Farmwife Indicted Winvhestw. Ind.. Feb. 23 —(UP) —(Mrs. Maggie Deeds. 75. Randolph county farmwife, has been indicted on a charge of voluntary manslaughter in connection with the fatal beating of her husiltand. Millard. 82, during a quarrel Feb. 11, The indictment was returned yesterday. She was held in the couniy jail in default of $5,060 bond after being arraigned earlier. Mrs. Deeds pleaded not guilty to the charge.