Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 46, Number 14, Decatur, Adams County, 17 January 1948 — Page 1

V|l XLVL No. 14

Middle West lb Promised Sme Relief Break In Cold Snap Promised Sunday; Drought In West By United Press 'ennesee was smothered today ler a heavy blanket of snow, lifornia suffered a serious water jrtage from an intense heat and the midwest was prorelief from a severe cold that was eating up the narjEn’s critically short supply of gas and oil. where snow is a rare extent, was buried today under a llinch fall and rural areas of w’estefc Tennessee reported even more on the ground. £now fell last night in a d® »lt 200 miles wide' from Pennvania to northern Louisiana. Movements were treacherous in area and traffic slowed to ala walk. ■The storm was moving southtoward Georgia and the Ct olinas today but the Memphis bureau said it would let this afternoon. service was suspended at Memphis and Nashville. The Chicago weather bureau I pi raised that temperatures would up throughout the midwest ) I iginning tomorrow. Until then, the mercury was due to i ■ stay near zero with the intense continuing to eat up oil and BKs which was being rationed in communities. ■ A disastrous drought developed in southern California which has burned by a midwinter heat for the past week. Yesterthe sixth straight day above ■o. No rain has fallen this year. ■ Santa Barbara and Ventura, Cal., limiting water usage to that for sanitation, cooking drinking. Thousands of farms b citrus groves were forced to something they had never | before in wintertime. Catholic priests were directed to special prayers for rain. B'orestry officials said there was ■mminent danger of brush fires. I At least 12 persons died in fires • by overheated stoves in the and east. Three other per]lßons froze to death. | I Temperatures were higher today the Atlantic coast. The was rising also In Florida the $100,000,000 citrus fruit was threatened by a cold snap few days ago. | I The nation’s coldest cities at 3 today where Duluth, Minn., Grand Forks, N. D. Theremoin both towns registered 26 ? Bbelow zero. It was 21 below at I ■lnternational Falls where hundreds ■ Hos people were without fuel oil ®or their stoves and the city had iMthrown open public buildings for iHthem to use until the cold wave | I Toledo, O„ authorities ordered to reduce their natural • ■gas consumption 90 percent to in|Bsure that there would be enough JKfuel to heat private houses. An estimated 100,000 workers | S were idled in Georgia -where gas I ■ supplies were shut off to big plants as the mercury sank far • ■below freezing. They were expectIBed to begin returning to their jobs .■today and on Monday as the temfßperatures rose. I The city hospital at Macon, Ga„ II ppea to families of patients to |B bring in extra blankets. | The Northern Indiana Public | (Turn To Page 6, Column 6) | — || County Council In II Session Here Today I The county council late this [I morning was still in session at the II c °urthouse, considering additional Il appropriations of nearly SB,OOO. II Most important item was that of 11 $2,872, asked for the county ser|l 'ice officer’s post. || The amount had been dropped Il rom the 1948 budget, but at the rell Quest of several organizations, in- || eluding veterans’ grqjips, the coun- || Cl * indicated that they would proll 'ide the money in a special ap- || Ptopriation after the first of the || year. They had not acted upon the || tem at a late hour. The council II S’ 88 alS ° considerln S an amount of 1 1 ’ >®oo for a new truck and snow ■ Plow. | O I Weather I p artly cloudy and cold today, J e xcept snow flurries extreme ■ southeast this morning. Fair I I and quite cold tonight. TomorI p ow generally fair with slowly I r '«ing temperatures.

German Unrest Is Likely To Continue Sabotage Against Allies Is Expected Berlin, Jan. 17—(UP)—A 24-hour hunger protest strike of 150,000 German workers in the Ruhr was scheduled to end today but high American and British officials expected industrial unrest would continue. Gen. Lucius D. Clay said that sabotage against the western allies can be expected to Increase as part of Communist attempts to scuttle the Marshall plan and prevent organization of a strong western Germany.

“There has been sabotage and it will probably increase, but It cannot stop us,” Clay said. He disclosed he will make a report on the new economic government of western Germany to the four-power control council in Berlin at its meeting next Tuesday and then make a flying trip to Washington. The report will not cover detailed Anglo-American plans for the two-zone central administration since these are not complete. Clay said. He admitted that he expected Marshall Vassili Sokolovsky of Russia to register disapproval of the Anglo-American move. He said he could not predict how strong the protest would be or at what council meeting it would be made. Clay expressed little worry about the future and rejected in advance any Russian arguments that creation of the new economic admistratlon arguments that creation of the new economic administration in western Germany had any bearing on the four-power rule of Berlin. Clay expressed little worry about the future and rejected in advance any Russian arguments that creation of the new economic admistration in western Germany had any bearing on the four-power rule of Berlin. He said the Russians themselves had a similar central organization for their own zone with even more political powers than the AngloAmerican bizonia. Clay will fly to Washington Tuesday night after the council meeting to discuss military appropriations for the occupation. He will be accompanied by his political adviser, ambassador Robert Murphy. Clay’s wife will remain in Berlin. -- — . — Furnace Springs Leak, Office Closes Early The furnace in the Daily Democrat building sprung a leak Friday afternoon, necessitating the closing of the office at 2 o’clock Saturday afternoon. Repairmen were scheduled to work over the weekend mending the boiler and regular office hours will be resumed Monday. The Saturday issue of the Daily Democrat was published on regular schedule. o Hoagland Funeral Monday Afternoon Funeral services for Mrs. James Hoagland, who died Friday morning, will be held at 2 p.m. Monday at the Zwick funeral home, with Dr. M. O. Lester and the Rev. C. C. Conn officiating. Burial will be In tlie Decatur cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home after 2:30 o’clock this afternoon. Mrs. Mabel Liniger Reported Improved Accident Victim Is Reported As Better The condition of Mrs. Mabel Liniger, critically hurt Wednesday night in an auto-truck crash west of Decatur, was reported by the attending surgeon today to be “quite improved." Mrs. Liniger is suffering from multiple leg fractures, a head injury and other less serious injuries, sustained in the wreck which claimed the life of her husband, Frank, and seriously injured a daughter, Chloe. The condition of the daughter is also reported to be improving. Both Mrs. Liniger and her daughter are confined in the Adams county memorial hospital. Funeral services for Mr. Liniger will be held at 1:30 o’clock this afternoon at the Black funeral home and 2 o’clock at the Zion Evangelical and Reformed church. Burial will be in the Decatur cemetery. Adams post 43, American Legion, of which Mr. Liniger was a charter member, wnl be in charge of the graveside services.

President To Name Panel In Rail Dispute Railroads, Three Unions Unable To Reach Agreement Chicago, Jan. 17 —(UP)— Federal railway mediators said today that President Truman will appoint a fact-finding panel next week to avert a strike which would tie up the nation’s railroads Feb. 6. Frank P. Douglass, chairman of the board, announced yesterday that the railroads and three key operating brotherhoods were unable to settle their wage disputes. Douglas said he woud notify Mr. Truman that a national emergency exists as soon as he receives official notice of the union’s strike date. The national railway labor act provides for a 30-day period for hearings by the fact-finding board and an additional 30-day “cooling off” period before a strike can be called. Alvanley Johnston, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, said he would start mailing out strike instructions for Feb. 6 unless the president appointed the panel within a few days. “It’s up to the president now,” he said. The unions already have voted to strike if necessary to attain their demands for a 30 per cent wage increase. The two other unions involved are the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, and the Switchmen’s Union of North America. The three unions, representing 125,000 workers, asked the 30 percent wage boost, with a minimum raise of $3 a day, and many changes in working rules. Nineteen other railroadunions, including the other two operating brotherhoods, accepted a 15% cent hourly wage increase last fall. They represent 1,200,000- worker*. Douglass said that throughout the mediation efforts which began after the collapse of negotiations Nov. 24 the three unions had refused to lower their wage demands. Some tentative agreements were reached in rule changes, he said, but all the agreements hinged on settlement of the wage issue. Johnston said the railroads had failed to offer “anything substantial" at the mediation sessions.

“We do not intend to give up any of our demands,” he said. Douglass said that a union spokesman had told him that “more than 98 percent” of the membership had voted to strike, if • Turn T«, pMrfp K ('nltjirin 7i O Three Sisters Are Burned To Death Illinois Farm Home Destroyed By Fire Danville, 111., Jan. 17 —(UP) — Three sisters, five to 13 years old. were burned to death today when fire destroyed the home of John Morrow eight miles northwest of here. The dead were Morrow’s daughters Sandra 5, Gladys 9 and Marguerite 13. Third degree burns were suffered by Morrow, a 49-year-old construction worker; his wife, Hazel, 37, and a son, Leo, 8. Two other children escaped the blaze. The fire apparently was caused by an overheated kitchen stove, authorities said. It broke’ out while the family slept, and cut off an exit from one of the bedrooms. Isaac Powell, a neighbor, called the Danville fire department, but the house burned to the ground before the firemen could reach the scene. Powell drove the injured members of the family to a Danville hospital and helped extricate the charred bodies of the three girls. The children who escaped were Linda Lou, 2, and John, Jr., 15. —o — November Term Os Court Ends Today The November term of the Adams circuit court closes today after a nine weeks session. After a two weeks vacation the February term will be opened on Monday, February 2. Several cases are to be carried over from the current term to the new session.

ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY

Decatur, Indiana, Saturday, January 17, 1948

No Three ‘R’S-B-R-R-R! ■ ■ HI >9% B IB sml 1 .4 it ' .xazz. .. . . J1... ... . .... .. . ....« .. liwM MIAMI BEACH, FLA., youngsters find their school closed as the mercury makes record drop to 35 degrees.

Crop Summary Shows Diversified Farming Widely Divergent Farming In State Lafayette, Ind., Jan. 17 — Indiana’s widely diversified agriculture and what it means to the economic life of the Hoosier state is revealed in the annual crojf summary for 1947, prepared by the department of agricultural statistics of the agricultural experiment station and the U. S. department of .agriculture. Despite a generally unfavorable season, production of corn, wheat and soybean wae above average and all were above 1946 production except coriU ind oats. ■Corn, by far the largest crop in the state, totaled 191,135,000 bushels the past season, which was 18 percent less than the preceding year’s all-time high, but still two percent more than average. This production was harvested, but still two percent more than average. This production was harvested from 4,445,000 acres, which was only three percent below the previous year’s acreage. Conditions were so adverse at planting time that most of the corn was not in the ground until June 10 to 25. Frosts in the low lands of northeastern Indiana July 21, and cool weather till Aug. 1 discouraged farmers, but the growing weather of August and September was reflected in the final yield figure of 43 bushels per acre, the highest average of any of the corn belt states. Production of soybeans for beans was estimated at 28,176,000 bushels, which is the second largest crop on record and eight percent above 1946 and 73 percent above average. The yield of 18.5 bushels compares to 19 reported for the preceding year and the ten-year average yield of 17.5 bushels. Favorable harvesting weather in the fall permitted the proper handling of most of this important crop on the 1,523,000 acres devoted to it. Oats, which was another victim of the wet spring and delayed seeding, yielded 30 bushels per acre for a total production of 34, 320,000 bushels from the 1,144,000 acres seeded to this crop. This is 38 percent below the preceding year and 19 percent under the ten-year average Wheat production at 35,811,000 'Turn To Pape 5. Column 6)

EMERGENCY APPEAL TO AID IN PREVENTING A CONDITION OF HARDSHIP There exists in our state a very real shortage of fuel oil for household heating. Many hundreds of our Indiana citizens face extreme discomfort and suffering from cold this winter. This emergency is so serious and exists over such a widespread area that I feel impelled to ask that every user of fuel oil in any form immediately start on a fuel conservation program in his own home, factory, apartment, farm or business to cut down his fuel oil consumption by at least ten percent. At the present consumption rate there simply is not enough fuel oil to go around at all times and at all p’aces. Public health and comfort demand that no household in Indiana be permitted to be cold —which means that every fuel oil user will have to share with his neighbors and fellow citizens a part of the oil he would ordinarily use. Selfishness and love of personal comfort MUST b& forgotten in this critical period. No great sacrifice would be required, and adequate heating for all might be accomplished by cutting down by at least 10% the normal consumption of fuel oil by every heating unit. . RALPH F. GATES Governor, State of Indiana

BULLETIN Washington, Jan. 17—(UP) —President Truman today ordered all government departments and agencies to cut down “immediately” on the use of fuel oil, gasoline and natural gas. In the face of a fuel oil and gasoline shortage, the President said office buildings and other establishments shall not be heated above 68 degrees during working hours and not above 60 degrees during nonworking hours. This applies also to the White House. O Dewey Expecting Nomination Fight ■ «— — Three-Man Team To Conduct Campaign Washington, Jan. 17 —(UP) — Gov. Thomas E. Dewey of New York has abandoned hope for ano’her shoo-in presidential nomina‘ion and-is ready to fight for this -ear’s Republican prize. That is a general’y-held estimate here of the significance of Dewey’s Albany, N. Y., statement vesterday that he is a candidate 'or president again. Dewey said *ie would be too busy on his job ’o campaign but would accept the nomination. But he already has named a three-man team to con■’"ct his pre-convention campaign and his own strategy consistently has been toward tht nomination target. Dewev’s smashing 1946 reelec‘ion as governor of New York was s he kickoff of his current presidential campaign and all hands here are we’l aware of that. The fact that Dewey now changes his ’actics somewhat to come out in ’he open as a candidate merely is an acknowledgement that the man who wins this time will have to fight for the nomination, ’’’here won’t be any “draft” in 1948. This will be Dewey’s third shot at the White House. He lost the 1940 nomination to the late Wendell L. Willkie. Four years ago he ran away with the Republican national convention in Chicago. He won a first ballot nomination after all others withdrew. His principal opponents were Sen. John W. Bricker, R., 0., then (Turn To Page 3, Column 3)

Democratic Leader Says Congress Would Sustain Veto Os G. O. P. Tax Bill

Gandhi Tells Friends He Is On Deathbed Begs For Reunion Os Two Dominions New Delhi, Jan. 17 — (UP) — Mohandas K. Gandhi told his followers today that he was on his deathbed, and in a faltering voice begged for a reunion of the independent dominions <jf Pakistan and India. Weakening on the fifth day of his fast to bring peace to India, Gandhi barely was able to speak into a microphone for a few moments at his evening prayer meeting. He suggested that the new Moslem state of Pakistan might give up its dominion status and i ejoin India to form a single state. “If the people of Pakistan, or responsible authorities, do not run the state properly, they may lose Pakistan,” Gandhi said. “I have no hesitation in saying Pakistan will have to atone for its sins. “I do not want to bring pressure to bear upon Pakistan for a union with India. Willingly and of its own accord Pakistan should rejoin India. “Now that I am on my deathbed, I do not want to hurt anyone. But if the people of Pakistan feel hurt at what I say. even though it be the truth, I would fail in my duty if I did not say what I feel. “If I say anything untrue I may be told, and I am prepared to withdraw it. My fast is not political. It is prompted by faith. It is done to quench a flame that is consuming my soul withiij.” , , 4 _ Gandhi said he was comfortable, and that he must reject all Mos'em overtures to him to give up his fast. His plea for a united India was in keeping with his fee’ings expressed throughout his life of trying to bring harmony among the warring Hindus, Sikhs and (Turn To Page S. Column 3) O Stale Scores Friday In Robbery Trial Testifies Part Os Loot Found In Car The trial of Robert High, 27, Decatur, took a decided turn in favor of the state Friday when testimony in his robbery trial in the Allen circuit court at Fort Wayne disclosed that $250 of the $90(7 allegedly stolen from a Coesse contractor had been found. It was the first revelation by; police that they had found any of the money which High; Clara Collins, 23; George Taylor and his wife, Phyllis Taylor, had allegedly: taken from Fred Walker, after “beating him up.” Deputy sheriff Arnold Dicke of the Allen county department testified that he found $250 rolled under the seat cover of the driver's section of Taylor’s car. Mrs. Taylor, in a sworn statement to police, had previously declared that she saw High and her husband divide the money, which they purportedly took from Walker while he was lying on the ground near Waynedale the night of the offense, December 1. Two garagemen corroborated Dicke’s testimony. High and the other three persons, all of Fort Wayne, are being tried collectively on the charge of robbery. They have been held in jail, unable to furnish bond, since December 1. 0 Fuel Shortage Cuts Activities At 'Den' Deane Dorwin, supervisor of the “The Den," today announced curtailment of activities at the youth center because of the fuel shortage Effective next week, the center will be open only on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights, with the exception of any nights when there are high school basketball games in the city. The curtailed schedule will be in effect until further notice.

Report Trade On Commodity Marts Fading Little Fellows Get Out Os Markets As Names Published Washington, Jan. 17 —(UP) — The big hullabaloo over speculation apparently has the little fellows beating a nasty retreat from the nation’s commodity markets. It may be just a coincidence. But commodity exchange authority records showed today that futures trading in the “big three” commodities went into a tailspin after congress served notice it wanted to know the names of the speculators. Average daily volume of trading from Dec. 16 through Jan. 14 has been off 23 percent in corn and five percent in wheat on the big Chicago market, as compared with the period Nov. 17 through Dec. 15 covering the same number of trading days. Cotton trading during the same period has declined 32 percent on the New Orleans market and 49 percent in the New York market. It was on Dec. 15 that Sen. Styles Bridges called on secretary of agriculture Clinton P. Anderson to hand over the names of the speculators. Anderson retorted that anything he gave to congress he would give to every newspaperman in Washington. He’s been doing just that ever since. Today he published his 16th list, boosting the total number of names published, including dup’ications, to over 21.000. Today’s list contained no new names.

Other developments on the speculation front: 1. Anderson sent Bridges a ’ist of 27 agriculture department employes who admitted dealing in commodities between July 1, 1946, and December 11, 1947. The list brought to 66 the number of agriculture employes revealed to have been in the market. 2. John R. A’ison. whose name appeared Thursday on a list of Oc'oher 17-20, 1946, cotton traders, was identified at the commerce department as assistant secretary for aeronautics. The department said Alison, a former combat ace in the ChinaBurma theater, did not take his Government job until last August, months after his cotton dealings. <Turn Tn Pasrp S. Column Temperature Drops Below Zero Here Initial Sub-Zero Weather Os Winter Decatur shivered this morning in the first sub-zero temperatures of the year — and there was no prospect of any break in the cold wave before Sunday. Lowest temperature in the city was reported to be two degrees below zero about 4 o’clock this morning. By 8 o’clock the mercury in most local thermometers had climbed slowly to the zero mark, but it wasn’t expected to go much higher. In his early morning forecast: the weatherman predicted anoth-' er cold, cold night but did see hopes of slowly rising temperatures Sunday. Garages did a brisk business last night and today “thawing out” car radiators and adding to anti-freeze contents as attempted to protect their vehicles against the extreme cold. Furnaces and stoves received an extra workout last night and this morning as Decaturites attempted to “beat the cold” within their homes. Attaches of the city water department anxiously watched developments, fearing frozen water lines since the blanket of snow is gone and the low temperatures may “drive the frost down.”

Price Four Cents

Rep. Doughton Says Knutson Tax Bill, As Now Drawn Up, Will Face Defeat Washington, Jan. 17 —(UP) — Former chairman Robt. L. Doughton of the house ways and means committee predicted today that if the Knutson tax-cutting till gets to President Truman in its present form it will be vetoed and the veto sustained by congress. The North Carolina Democrat told reporters, however, that “we can hope that as it finally comes from congress” the revenue loss envisaged by the bi'l can be reduced so that the measure will stand a better chance of surviving a presidential veto. “My guess is that the Knutson bill as it is would be vetoed and the veto would be sustained,” he said. Doughton, whose views on sis--1 cal matters carry considerable weight with Republicans and I Democrats alike, refused to say definite’y whether he would vote for or against the Knutson bill. He said he has not made up his 1 mind yet. But there was no question in his mind whether taxes could be i safely reduced now. He said taxes as well as government expenditures could be cut. the views of Mr. Truman and treasury secretary John W. Snyder to the contrary notwithstanding. Snyder spent almost six hours before the ways and means committee yesterday, arguing against the Knutson bill and for Mr. Truman’s S4O per person tax credit plan. He indicated that the president would veto the Knutson proposal. The bill sponsored by chairman Harold Knutson, R„ Minn., of the ways and means committee would reduce taxes some $5,600,000,000 a year by estimate of congressional tax experts. Snyder said the loss would be about $6,300,- ! 000,000. Knutson’s bill would cut personal income taxes by from 10 to 30 percent, extend to all states the privilege of income splitting by husband and wife for tax purposes, and increase the pre'ent SSOO personal exemption to S6OO. Mr. Truman proposed to balance his credit of S4O for each ’axpayer and each dependent, by levying an excess profits tax of 75 percent on corporations. Doughton said he was impressed bv Snyder’s testimonv, but not sufficiently to be won over to the president’s plan. He said it probably would come down to a “choice between evi’s" for him. Both the house and senate were in recess until Monday, but there were these developments on Capitol Hill: Marsha'l plan— Senate Democratic leader Alben W. Barkley said he be’ieves the senate will approve the Marshall plan subiTurn T„ Pae» X Column fil O Local Man Uninjured As Train Hits Aulo Two Arrests Made By Decatur Police Two arrests and an auto-train crash were reported from the city police blotter this morning. George Squire, 74, 310 Oak street, escaped injury about 4:30 o'clock Friday afternoon when his auto was struck by a freight train at the Elm street crossing of the Pennsylvania railroad. The local man was driving east on Elm street and the freight engine was backing up onto the crossing. Damage to the Squire auto was estimated at SIOO. Officer Adrian Coffee investigated. R. T. Koch was the engineer of the train. Leo E. Borne, 19, Decatur, was arrested at 1:25 a.m. today by officer Roy Chilcote on a charge of running the traffic light at Monroe and Second streets. He will be arraigned in justice of peace court this evening. Noel Everett, Fort Wayne, route nine, was arrested about 9 a.m. today by officer Dale Death on charges of driving 65 miles per hour on Thirteenth street. He will also be arraigned before Justice Floyd B. Hunter this evening.