Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 46, Number 20, Decatur, Adams County, 24 January 1948 — Page 1

Vol. XLVL No. 20.

Worst Cold Os Season Brings New Misery — Disrupts Industry And Brings Misery To Shortage Areas i By United Press The nation’s worst cold wave of the season disrupted industry jHKronght new misery to communities suffering fuel oil shortThe “core” of the cold spell was moving eastward and southward, out along the Atlantic and into Dixieland like a iS&e than 100.000 automobile were told to stay home fromwork Monday as the MichigangEonsolidated Gas Company cut off supplies t 0 a 'l major manufaot#rers in the Detroit area until Tuesday. Till gas-using industries at shujpdown temporarily to conserve gaswupplies as the pressure dropped in mains due to frigid weather along the Kentucky Natural Gas Company's supply lines. The number of deaths attributed directly or indirectly to the iifity cold wave soared to 104. ■■ty-four lost their lives in fires caused by over-heated stoves. 16 froze to death and two died of Two more were The mercury sank far below zero in I belt extending from the Rocky •■■r.tains to the Atlantic coast. The “sunny” southland suffered one of its worst onslaughts of fre&ing weather, sleet and snow years. the mercury standing at 25 Begrees, two fires broke out in New Orleans. One threatened structures in the old IMiich quarters. Firemen fought the!flames as one of the city’s few MMretorms in history swirled HKit them. ■he coldest city in the nation at [midnight was Land O’Lakes, Wisconsin’s traditional ice-box, the mercury stood at 33 be- ■ was 25 below at Cadillac, Milh . 18 below at Burlington, Vt., IM 17 below at Utica, N. Y. N. D., the coldest city yesterday with 41 below, registered laEy 13 below at midnight, indicating how the cold wave was movout of the midwest. My contrast, however, warmthMcustomed residents of Atlanta. Cfc., shivered in 31-degree tempera®ing, at Chattanooga, and 12 at ijpmphis. cold still had not reached dov i into the Florida peninsula <■l forecasters warned that the belt might be in for a serfrost. The mercury stood at • at Miami and 58 at Jacksonville, M. Porter, forecaster at '.'■b Chicago weather bureau, said ■c weather would moderate slightthe midwest today and toW>rrow but would turn cold again Bnorrow night. ■‘The moderation won’t amount • much, however,” he said. “Tem■ratures will stay below normal for the next five days at least.” bHe said the slightly mlfldar ■mperatures would move across country, bringing some relief to the east and south. ■Porter said temperatures would ho. rise high enough to alleviate ,#e shortages of fuel oil suffered ■ more than 150 communities in upper Mississippi area. ■ This bad news came as Gov. ■pther W. Youngdalh of Minne|Bta called on U. S. attorney gen8! Tom Clark for a grand jury of suppliers who ■ere gouging the public for high the shortage. More •Turn Tn Pau-#* ft. Column 8) ■ O-Two-Car Collision fatal To One Man I Jamestown, Ind., Jan. 24 — (UP) Oscar Kincaid, 42, Advance, was Billed in a two-car collision six Biles north of here on Ind. 532, ■•ate police said today. ■ Kincaid was a passenger in a ■ ar driven by Walter Mclntyre, 24, ■f Adyance, which collided with a ■ ar driven by Francis Blonk, 33, of ■ a ® e stown. Blonk was seriously ■hjured. — 0 WEATHER Mostly cloudy this forenoon I *ith light snow near the Ohio I river becoming partly cloudy afternoon and tonight. ■ lowly rising temperatures. I '"creasing cloudiness and I farmer tomorrow.

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT

Aged Terre Haute Man Fatally Burned Terre Haute, Ind., Jan. 24 —(UP) J rancis Pagett, 82, died yesterday of burns received when his home was destroyed by fire Wednesday. Pagett’s home was just three blocks from the home of Harold Melds, where two children were fatally burned the day before. — o Romania And Hungary Sign Defense Pad • 20-Year Military Aid, Friendship Agreement Signed Budapest, Jan. 24 — (UP) — Hungary and Romania today signed a 20-year friendship and military aid pact providing for joint military action against any attacher. The treaty committed both governments to “support and encourage all movements which aim to prevent aggression and to secure peace all over the world.” “The two governmental delegations reached complete accord on all major questions,” a formal announcement said. “The agreement represents an important factor in the maintenance of peace in the Danubian basin and the Balkans. “The delegations have determined jointly that friendship with the U. S. S. R. and other people’s democratic countries is a guarantee of their firm alliance, peaceful development and independence." The treaty was understood to follow the line of other recent Balkan agreements providing for consultation on international issues.

Negotiations had been going on three days. Premier Lajos Dinnyes signed for Hungary and premier Petru Groza for Romania. — o Decision Favors Railways Company Indianapolis, Jan. 24 — (UP) — A state supreme court decision today held that the Indianapolis railways'could keep the $1,382,000 It had held in escrow for possible refund to trolley and bus riders. The high court ruled late yesterday that yellow coupons given to patrons during a long period of controversy over fares were not redeemable. —o Man Arrested For Failure To Provide Frank Underhill, local restaurant proprietor, was apprehended yesterday and taken to Ravenna, 0., to answer to a charge of failure to provide. Ravenna authorities, with local police chief James Borders, made the arrest after a warrant was issued at the Ohio city for the local man. The Ohio officials said he had been charged with failure to provide for minor children and that they had been searching for him for some time. 0 Teachers' Institute Is Held Here Today Dr. Shirley Cooper Principal Speaker Stressing the importance of improving rural education, Dr. Shirley Cooper, assistant director of rural education in the national educational association, spoke this morning to the teachers of Adams county. Dr. Cooper, a nationally recognized authority in rural education fields, was the main speaker at this morning's session of the annual Adams county teachers inSt 'ln t lddition to an estimate? 100 faculty members of schools in the county, mostly from the townships, several township trustees and other rural leaders were in attendance at the institute. Lyman L. Hann, county school superintendent, was in charge of the event and opened the meeting. The Rev. Carey R. Moser, pastor of the First Baptist church here, delivered the invocation. A discussion period, dealing mainly with rural education and rural school building problems was to climax the morning session shortly before the noon-hour. A short discussion period may also be held this afternoon, Mr. Mann stated.

Politicians Welcome Ike Withdrawal General's Refusal To Take Nomination Abruptly Ends Boom Washington, Jan, 24 — (UP) — If President Truman and all the Republican candidates for this year’s presidential nomination would confess, all hands welcdmed Gen. Ike’s announcement that he couldn't be had for politics. "1 would not accept nomination,” Gen. Eteenhower said yesterday in a statement which tipped his boomers back on their heels. Some of them closed shop right away, but from Oregon to New Hampshire there were Ike-for-pres-ident operators who still thought the general could be drafted. They are expected to close shop pretty soon, too, because careful reading of Eisenhower’s long statement does not disclose any qualifications warranting him in accepting a nomination now. The white house apparently was pleased by Ike’s statement because it seems a lot of Democrats agreed with a lot of Republicans that the’ soldier with the big smile would have been a pretty sure bet to lick President Truman next November. Republican regulars generally didn’t want Ike in the first place. He was poison to the Dewey, Taft and Stassen people. Ike would have been tough for any of them to defeat if he really went after the GOP nomination. His departure will whoop up the pre-convention campaign considerably. Fence sitters and I-don’t-know -which-way-to-jump politicians were the most confused by Ike’s potentialities. He was an unknown political quanity, but they knew’ he would have made a sw r eet candidate. Now the politicians merely will have to choose a candidate among their fellow politicians and they are accustomed to doing that every four years.

yce's departure will take some of the color out of the presidential primary voting in the few states which will have contests this year. There probably won’t be more’than half a dozen, maybe fewer, of real significance. Wisconsin is one. Gov. Thomas E. Dewey, Harold E. Stassen and Gen. Douglas MacArthur collide there on April 6. Wisconsin long has been a vital mid-west political testing ground. Victory or defeat there sometimes can boom or bust a candidate for keeps. One of the paragraphs of Ike’s declination might have been aimed at MacArthur. Ike said he thought soldiers should stay out of politics. “It is my conviction,” he explained, “that the necessary and wise subordination of the military to civil power will be best sustained, and our people will have greater confidence that it is so sustained, (Turn To Page 5, Column 8) 0 One Rural Home Is Destroyed By Fire Gerald Geimer Home Razed Friday Night Two rural fires were reported in the community last night — one completely destroying a home and all of its contents. The newly remodeled five-room home of Gerald Geimer, two and one-half miles east on U. S. 224 was completely razed in a blaze that began shortly before 10 o’clock. Mr. and Mrs. Geimer and their young child were at a Decatur basketball game when the fire started. It was at first thought the family had perished in the blaze. Only the clothes the three were wearing were saved. The building, owned by Ernest Thieme, was burned to the ground and all of the furniture and fixtures in the five rooms were destroyed. Origin of the blaze is not definitely known, although it preseumably did not start from the stove, since the room in which it was located was one of the last to burn. The blaze may have started in a clothes closet. It was reported that the contents were not insured. It is not known whether the building was covered by insurance. Another fjje was reported at the Hubert Ehrsam home, near Pleasant Mills. There the Willshire, 0., fire department aided by neighbors with fire extinguishers from the Pleasant Mills school, battled a roof fire for some time. It was reported that the blaze was brought under control, although heavy damage was done.

ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY

Decatur, Indiana, Saturday, January 24, 1948

Anderson Upholds European Aid I MB < ■for'. ■ ' —~~~ IF" W - .xaß w 18.. A . i l Up . Bate Bft. < Mik. K -I' Ft, \ scMif B ■HbHbfT. WHILE Chairman Charles A. Eaton (left), (R), N. J., listens, Secretary of Agriculture Clinton Anderson tells the House foreign affairs committee that amount of food earmarked for western Europe under recovery program would not place any extra strain either on supplies or prices here. His statement followed ex-Presi-dent Herbert Hoover’s plea not to over-export goods and weaken United States economy.

Inventory Food In Occupation Zones Strike Os Workers Ends On Schedule Frankfurt, Jan. 24 — (UP) — Bavaria’s 1,000,000-man strike against German food conditions ended on schedule today as officials prepared to inventory all food in both the British and American zones and seize surplus hoards. i Provisions for the food inven tory and seizure of surpluses was contained in two laws passed by the bizonal economics council on demand of industrial workers in both zones, highlighted by the Bavarian 24-hour strike yesterday of 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 workers. The inventory will be carried out from house to house and farm to farm. Cases, restaurants, groceries and other places handling food will be included. Those who refuse to cooperate will be liable to three years in jail and a SIO,OOO fine. Householders will be required to list only those foods they have on hand sufficient for more than a 28-day period. The seizure provisions come under the second part of the law. This grants premiums to farmers who exceed their production quotas but also permits officials to seize food stores or livestock if quotas are produced but not actually delivered. The food laws were opposed by (Turn To Page 3, Column 2) O — Crawfordsville Girl Dies Os Injuries Crawfordsville, Ind., Jan. 24 — (UP) — Barbara Lee Patton, 20, -was dead today as a result of injuries suffered in a car and bus crash on Jan. 18. Four other persons were injured in the wreck, in which a bus crashed into the rear of the Patton car, pushing it into the path of a train. Elks Plan Annual Hunt Easter Sunday Annual Easter Egg Hunt On March 28 Despite the current cold weather, officials of the B. P. O. Elks today were able to look forward to warmer days and sunshine and make plans for the annual Easter egg hunt. The lodge will again sponsor the affair on Easter Sunday, March 28, it was announced by Hugh Holthouse, grand exalted ruler of the organization. In event of inclement weather, the event will be held indoors, Mr. Holthouse stated. Chairman of the egg hunt this year will be Joe Weber, assisted by members of a number of committees appointed from the lodge roster. Live rabbits will be awarded as prizes to children finding particularly marked eggs hidden on the Elk’s lawn. Complete details of the egg hunt, annually one of the big attractions of the community during the Easter season, will be announced at a later date.

Two Youths Killed As Train Hits Auto Coatesville, Ind.i Jan. 24 —(UP) — State police reported today that Marvin L. Miller, 17, and David L. Waiterman, 17, both of Coatesville, were killed yesterday when the car in which they were riding was struck by an east bound Pennsylvania railroad passenger train. 0 Teachers' Strike Threatens Chicago Teachers Unpaid In Almost Six Weeks Chicago, Jan. 24 — (UP) — A teachers’ strike in four Chicago high schools threatened today to spread throughout the city’s public school system unless action is taken by Tuesday to pay school employes their back salaries. The teachers have not been paid in almost six weeks. John Fewkes, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, which represents more than half of the 14,000 Instructors, set the “no pay —no school” deadline at midnight Monday. Fewkes said today he was certain that a final count on a strike vote would be in favor of the walkout. With most of the votes in, ’there was a nine-to-one margin in favor of the strike, Fewkes said. Herschel Scott, president of the Mens’ Teachers Club, another bargaining agent, said that members would go to their classrooms Monday morning, but would not teach. In effect, they will be on a sitdown strike. “We will protect school property, but we are not going to teach until we are paid,” Scott said. The city council’s finance committee tied up teachers’ salaries and precipitated the proposed strike several weeks ago when it refused to approve the 1948 budget of the board of education. In Chicago, the board of education sets up its own budget and pegs its own tax levies which then are approved by the council. The finance committee rejected the budget because it was $16,000,000 higher than last year, mainly to take care of increased teachers’ and employes’ salaries, and Increased the school tax $23,00(F,000. The board of education retaliated late yesterday by refusing to trim the budget. Councilmen answered that they would not approve it until forced to do so in court. Many students at Lane and Tilden technical high schools walked out ahead of the teachers. “If they won’t pay you, we won’t make you work,” said students at Lane, the biggest non-coeduca-tional high school in the world. The city council’s finance committee said it would meet again Monday morning for further discussions on the budget and tax levy. One member of the school board said he believed the council would change its stand “now that it has made its play to the taxpayers’ grandstand. School officials said that the pay checks have been made out and include the proposed salary increases. They cannot be disbursed, however, until the ordinance is passed. (Turn To Page 6 Column 8)

Pauley To Open Defense On Charges By Stassen Os Commodity Profits

Temperature Fails To Hit Zero Mark Temporary Relief From Cold Is Seen Decaturites learned In a vivid lesson this morning that it doesn’t take low temperatures to produce uncomfortably cold weather. Despite the fact that the zero to five below temperatures, predicted yesterday by the weatherman, did not materialize, local residents shivered this morning enroute to their labors. In comparison to forecast zero and stab-zero merdiry readings this morning, the Daily Democrat thermometer registered eight degrees above at 7 a.m. and climbed slowly toward the two-figure mark. A biting wind, augmented oc- ■ casionally by snow flurries, however, made the weather seem much colder and created a greater problem in home heating in some cases than during a zero “quiet cold.” In his early forecast today, the weatherman predicted slowly rising temperatures for today and warmer weather Sunday. To Moderate By United Press The backbone of Indiana’s worst cold wave in at least two years was broken today. Temperatures moderated slightly after hovering around the zero mark again ttist night. The weather bureau’s latest forecast said temperatures would rise slowly today and again tomorrow. But whether the relief would be more than temporary the weather bureau didn’t say. The respite came as fuel suppliers fought shortages that forced an industrial shutdown in one of the state’s biggest cities and threatened the health and comfort of thousands of Hoosiers. Coal, fuel oil and gas shortages were reported in some communities. But there were few reports of home unheated because of lack of fuel. At Evansville, industrial users of gas were asked to close today to save the fuel for home heating. Daughter Os Amish Bishop To Asylum Doctors Find Girl Mentally Deficient Goshen, Ind., Jan. 24 —(UP) — Members of the Amish community here went about their business stoically today apparently unmoved by the fact that heir 75-year-old bishop had been sentenced to the state penal farm for keeping his mentally deficient daughter chained for 10 years. The Amish said that whitebearded Samuel D. Hochstettler would remain their patriarch despite his six-month sentence at Putnamville state penal farm. Under Amish law he will be bishop until he dies. Three court-appointed doctors recommended yesterday that Hochstettler’s daughter Lucy, 41, be sent to a state asylum. They examined her in the tiny, unlighted bedroom where she had been roped and chained to a bed for the last decade. Dr. H. E. Vander Bogart said the seriousness of her “mental illness’ was not determined. “She knows her name and her age, but she was unable to answer most of our other questions,” he said. Hochstettler pleaded guilty to a charge of assault and battery. He said he began confining his daughter “when her mind went bad” 24 years ago. Miss Hochstettler had wanted to leave the Amish church when in her late teens, according to neighbors. , “I knew of no other way to care for my daughter,” Hochstettler told county judge Aldo J. Simpson. The Amish church disapproves of public mental institutions. He said he had tied Lucy with © ropes for seven years and with chains for the last three years. When sheriff Luther W. Yoder investigated a neighbor’s report, he found her chained to a filthy bed. (Turn To Page 6, Column 5)

Three Powers Plan Talks On Merging Zones Meet February 17 On Merging French And Anglo-American London, Jan. 24—(UP)—Threepower negotiations aimed at consolidating the French zone of Germany with the Anglo-American zones will begin Feb. 17, probably at Lancaster house in London, the foreign office said today. The meeting on Germany is only one of a series of swift moves designed to weld western Europe into an adhesive whole against any further westward creeping of the iron curtain. Quick response to formation of a seven-nation economic pact as a nucleus of an agreement among all 16 Marshall plan nations was indicated in a dispatch from Brussels. Belgian premier Paul-Henri Spaak said the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) countries would accept “with great satisfaction” the invitation to join Britain, France, Italy and Portugal in a new pact. Spaak said the invitation, announced by British foreign secretary Ernest Bevin in commons Thursday, “will unleash a powerful movement which, coupled with realization of the Marshall plan, will hasten European countries’ return to stability and strength.” The detailed views of the Benelux countries will be revealed shortly, Spaak said, adding that Bevin’s speech “marks” a date in the history of the world, of Europe and particularly of western Europe.” Some hitch still appeared, however. in the French plan to devalue the franc to a more realistic rating in attempts to increase French exports. The British economics minister talked until 3 a. m. today in Paris with the highest French officials and was scheduled to resume conversations before returning to London. Welcome Pact Washington, Jan. 24 —(UP) — High American officials would welcome a western European move to create a regional defense pact under the United Nations like the recently signed interAmerican defense pact of Rio De Janeiro, it was learned today. Some of these officials would even favor the United States being a member of such a pact if the western European countries wanted American participation. This was learned as the United States government gave an unprecedented endorsement to British foreign minister Ernest Bevin’s (Turn To Pago Column 4) 0 Asks Cooperation Os School Bus Drivers Arrest Made Here For Passing Bus Sheriff Herman Bowman today asked the cooperation of all school bus drivers in the campaign against motorists who violate the state law prohibiting passing of a school bus, while the latter is discharging or picking up passengers. He said that all school bus drivers have been instructed to secure license plate numbers of vehicles which violate the law and turn this number over to his department. Upon the signing of an affidavit by the driver, the offender will then be arrested and brought into court to answer to the charge. Still another arrest of this nature was reported today by the sheriff. The Rev. Frank Burger, Buchanan, Mi<|h., was arrested about 4:30 p.m. Friday one mile south of Decatur on the charge. When arraigned before justice of peace Floyd B. Hunter here, Rev. Burger pleaded guilty to the charge and was fined sls and costs, totalling $24.

Price Four Cents

Terms Charges Os 'lnside' Market Information As Just 'Poppycock' Washington, Jan. 24 —(UP) — The political slugfest between Harold E. Stassen and Edwin W. Pauley goes into round two today with the millionaire oil man set to do some phrase-fisted boxing in his own defense. Chairman Homer Ferguson, R„ Mich., of the senate speculation subcommittee said Pauley would be given “every opportunity” to answer Stassen’s charges that he made almost $1,000,000 in commodity trading “on the basis of inside information.” Throughout his nine-hour appearance before the subcommittee yesterday, Stassen refused to retract any of his charges. But Pauley denounced them as “a bunch of poppycock.” The special assistant to the secretary of army promised he would have “plenty” to say in his own defense when the hearing resumed today. Stassen, a Republican presidential aspirant, was to be present and to have a chance to question his adversary is he so desired. Round one of the Stassen-Paul-ey bout began and ended amid acrimonious charges of “politics.” At the outset. Sen. Milliard E. Tydings of Maryland—one of the two Democrats on the subcommit tee criticized Ferguson for conducting a “political hearing” on Pauley who is an intimate friend of President Truman. When the chairman gavelled the hearing to a close at 10 p. m., Sen. Henry C. Dworshak, R., Ida., was accusing Tydings and Sen. Theodore F. Green, D., R. 1., of trying to run the show. Three times during the session Pauley leaped angrily to his feet —twice to brand Stassen’s testimony a lie, and near the close to remark: “I have been sitting through this whole day of testimony, and I have never seen or heard such a bunch of poppycock in all my life.” Pauley got his first crack at Stassen shortly after the night session got underway. He submitted 21 written questions which he supplimented as the evening wore on. His first was whether Stassen accused him of trading on the basis of inside information. The former Minnesota governor replied firmly: “I do.” Much of the questioning that followed was on subjects already covered, reiterated his stand that Pauley's purchasing and selling of commodities was “synchronized” with the pattern of government buying. The Minnesotan also repeated his allegation that Pauley was one of a group of 11 persons who profited from inside information to the tune of nearly $5,000,000 since the w'ar. He has identified only one other member of that group—Ralph K. Davies, former deputy chief of the war petroleum administration. Stassen declined to name the others, five of whom, he says, held government jobs during or since the war. oNoted Catholic Authority Dies South Bend, Ind., Jan. 24 — (UP) — Rites were arranged today for the Rev. William R. Connor, former chaplain at St. Mary’s college and noted as an authority on Catholic ritual. Conner, 83, died yesterday. He spent his entire religious life on or near the University of Notre Dame campus. o— Committees Named By Berne C. Os C. Berne, Jan. 24 — The newly elected executive committee of the Berne Chamber of Commerce met this week and elected various other committees for 1948. The chairmen of these committees are as follows: program, Vilas Schindler; membership, Howard Gilliom; publicity, Simon Schwartz: grievance, E. M. Webb; citizens, David Dubach; budget. Dr. Rufus Von Gunten; retail, Ellis C. Lehman; visiting. Rev. Olin Krehbiel; industrial, G. W. Sprunger.