Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 49, Number 297, Decatur, Adams County, 18 December 1951 — Page 1

Vol. XLIX. No. 297.

REDS HAND OVER LIST OF WAR PRISONERS 4 ■ ■ ' ■ I ' \ T • ' i ' ’ > . I

Heavy Fall Os Snow In City, .Adams County All Rural Schools V Closed; Highways Reported Drifting Decaturltes, like much of the rest of the nation, are getting prepared for a white Christmas. Most Os them, as were other Adame county people, were assuming they would be “dug out” by then. ‘ For that seemed the order of the day: to dig out of the drifts that wouldn’t cooperate. For once the ' ♦now was shoveled away, fresh s dow,* aggravated by a pretty stiff breeze, replaced the old; and the shoveler was back where he start* ed a moment before. So w'ent the report of the county highway department. It was reported there that “county highways are in bad shape,” and officials warned people not to venture * cut unless “absolutely essential.” Every piece of,equipment of the department is in use today, reported the department, attempting to clear pathways wherever possible. But the men readily admit it is a difficult task. “We send a plow through, but as soon as we open a place it is drifted closed.” The same report was forthcoming from the city street dpartment ■ x which' has had its equipment in ’ use for 24 hours, but for the most part to no avail. Motorists were finding maneuvering a bit slow today/and pedestrians were confining their journeys out-doors to only necessary trpe. Three minor accidents were investigated by—Cße police department, 'All of them d,ue to the sliding conditions of the streets. One occurred on .Thirteenth street and the Nickel Plate railroad crossing j vhen a car driven by Donald Burinegraff, 703 Elm street, slid into a Nickel Plate train; damage to the car was estimated at 3250. Another occurred when cars driven by Alice Roth, 310 Winchester. and Dale Worthman, Craigville, collided at Tenth and Mon-' roe.as the latter vehicle slid into the Roith car which was stalled in its attempt to make left hand turn, jtc/tal damage was 3410. The tbird mishap was investigated at< Thirteenth and Monroe where cars driven by Frank Arnold, route 2/and Robert Nelson, 217 South Seventh street, collided. Total damage was 365. , Schools Closed i »;j HI Meyer, official weather observer, said today that 5.32 inches of snow fell during the 24-hour period ending, at 8 a. m. This on top of the two inches that fell the previous 24 hours. , All county schools were closed p today because of the drifting snow And the impossibility of school i buses to reach certain homed. - Berne and Decatur schools, however, remained opened. While winter was making a serious effort to assert its) power,/it didn’t deter a large number qf shoppers In Decatur Monday eyeniug, the first night the stores regained open. According to Walter Ford, secy retary of the Chamber of Commerce, the schedule will be retained tonight, “and every night, whatever the weather.” Decatur’s merchants spent the day combatting the sidewalk’s snow, making sorties to the front of their stores to clear the walks only to see them become laden, with snow again. J Despite the inclement weather, it was business as usual. And there probably isn’t a youngster in the county isn’t delighted by the whole ; t’hing. There just never seems? to be enough snow for them. / Perhaps aty of them will be happy to learn that the? weather; man thinks it’s not only going to get colder tonight, with more i snow flurries Wednesday. / Good fellows Club Previously reported <316.88 ' First State Bank r _ 25.00 Mr. A Mrs. LE- Clase 10.00 Arnold's Lumber Yard L... 10.00 Mrs. Fred Patterson - 1.00 A Goodfellow 5.G0 - Total 3866.83

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS CO UNTV ? ■ _ . L_L_ dj L. ...JA ■ ' ' ' ' - ■ ■ ■I- ’ — 1 - l : \ —— ——

11 Reappointed I Floyd Acker L Acker Reappointed Street Commissioner I Mayor Reappoints j Floyd Acker Today ' Street commissioner Floyd Acker rtaday was reappointed to that position "by Mayor John M. Doan, effective January L when Acker Will be completing four years ; at' the helm of the department. Acker was one of Mayor Doan’s early appointees tour? years ago /when the official family was namTo date the appointees have been completed except for electric light and power and water department superintendents. 1 The street department commissioner is a former cement block and burial vault manufacturer, long associated with his father and brother in the Acker CemeiU Works in this city. He sold his Interest in thp concern in 1945. J Acker resides on Mercer avenue and owns other properties throughout the city, including an apartment house which he operates. ; During Acker’s regime, the daily Struggle was to “keep after” -the city’s and seWers, says the commissioner, and this program is being continued. “We’re getting the streets in pretty good shape," he remarked recently, "and we’re going to keep them that way.” . He noted that the future program calls for considerably more imfptbvements to the city’s streets, but admitted the largest task will be to maintain the streets in their present condition. | ’One drawback to the Decatur ■street department in the city, though, ia the prominence of state highways through the city. Their disrepair oh occasions brings down life wrath of motorists —on city ofjffeials. Actually, Acker points out, such state and federal highways are Site maintenance concern of the I (While Acker has not named any of hte assistants in the department, is assumed that it will remain Substantially the same as present. ;—L i Lorena Longenberger Pies Monday Night R Former Resident Os hr Monroe Dies Monday i'/Mrs. Lorena May Longenberger, &4, former Monroe resident, died At 8:05 o’clock Monday night at tier home, 1503 Crescent avenue, port Wayne, after a four-month 11b pess of carcinoma. p/She was born in Adams county |!iiay 31, 1887, a daughter of David And Martha Pogue-Leisure, and was married to Rolla Longenberger in 1908. The family moved to Fort Swayne 19 years ago. pMrs. Longenberger was a member of the Crescent Avenue Evanfeelical United Brethren church. /Surviving are her husband; one daughter. Mrs. Gene Frank of ElySa, O.; one grandchild; and three glsters, Mrs. Ben Shirk of Fort IVayne, Mrs. Otto Longenberger of Son roe and Mrs. Clarence Davis of a/ton, O. One brother preceded in death. V Funeral services will be conductid at 1:30 p m. Wednesday at the Crescent Avenue - E.U.B. church, the R«v. Hunter Colpitts officiating, burial will be in the Decatur cemetery. The body will be removed ifpm the Jahn funeral home to the residence, where friends may call kfter 6 o’clock this evening.

Northern Half 01 U.S.Lashed By Snow, Cold No Sign Os Relief . Is Seen By Weather Bureau In Chicago By United Press A series of wind-driven snowstorms and bitter cold waves lashed the northern half of the nation todays piling snow into glanT drifts. Several persons frose to death. At least 181 deaths were blamed directly or indirectly on the bad weather that began last Friday. . Fifty-three persons died on slippery or vision-clouded highways. Seventy-eight dropped dead of heart attacks. Sixteen persons died of exposure or freezing and 34 in fires or miscellaneous mishaps. ; The weather bureau at Chicago said it saw no sign of relief from the pattern of alternating snowstorms and cold waves rol|ing from west to east over northern states. ; 1 Temperatures moderated in the midwest today as a new snow invaded lowa and crept eastward. But forecasters said another cold' snap would hit tonight, to be followed by more snow tomorrow and then another —even more se-vere-cold wave Thursday. Snowplows were fighting to keep roads and streets open. Schools were closing and a few businesses called a halt tor the duration. High winds broke a bayge loose from Its towboat to the Ohio river and sent 150 new automobiles to the river bottom near Golconda. El. The oars, valued at about $315,000, sank into 35 feet of water. New York City, catching the tsg end of a storm that hit the midwest yesterday, was sheathed with ice from a freezing rain that disrupted airlines operations, halted milk and bakery deliveries at ? suburban White Plains, stalled public buses on Staten Island, 'lowed subways, and . rendered driving hazardous over a wide surrounding area. n / Many trucks, cars and school buses were abandoned 'by their drivers on roads leading into the metropolis. One of the cold waves, sweeping eastward "plunged teinperaturps to (Torn Tn Sfx) Former Manager Os Fort Wayne GE Dies Fred S. Hunting Is Taken By Death Fu\neral services for Fred S. Hunting, 84, Fort Wayne banker and a former manager of the Fogt Wayne General Electric company, will be held Thursday at 3 p. m. at Plymouth Congregational church. Burial will be in Lindenwood cemetery. f\Mr. Hunting was manager of Fort Wayne G. E. works wheh the Decatur G. E. plant was established here in 1920. The committee of local business men, headed by J. H. .Heller, newspaper publisher, conferred with him in completing uiany of the details in the location of the industry in Decatur. ’ ' : Ms, Hunting’s death occurred Monday in a Cincinnati hospital, 'fcld resided at the Alms hotel in that city. He had been in ill health fur the last six months, Mr. Hunting began his career with the General Electric company in 1888, When the business was then known as the Fort Wayne jenny Electric company. He remained with the company through its various stages of organization for 34 years. He became general manager of the Fort Wavne works in 1916, a place he held until 19i22 when he became president of the Rnhhfns and Myers conrosnv in Springfield. He retired from active business In 1927 end moved to Los Csi. He returned to Fort In 1933 and was elected nresident of the Fort Wavne National hank. He retired from active banklnv business in 1947 and was named chairman of the board of directors of the Fort Wayne bank.

Decatur, Indiana, Tuesday, Pecember 18, T 951.

Believed Assigned Cleanup MaM|iMriiiMlll■■■ < / - .♦ jU* s X- v 1 JI A WITH PRESIDENT TRUMAN reported completing his blue-print for an anti-corruption drive to purge his administration of “wrongdoers,” New York Federal Judge Thomas J*. Murphy (above) is said to have been given authority to put the plans into faction. Shown with his wife and their pet poodle in their New York home, the famed prosecutor of Alger Hiss and later N. Y. police commissioner had two conferences with Nto- Truman in Washington last Saturday. ' , ; I — «— — —..-4

UN Armistice f And Military Heads Confer Retach Agreement On Future Conduct Os Warfare In Korea Bth Army Headquarters, Korea. Dec. 18—(UP)—- Top United Nations. military and armistice officers agreed at a meeting today on future conduct of the Korean war in the light of Communist stalling at the truce table. Supreme U.N.. commander Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway, who presided at the secret conference, said afterward that' the military and truce delegations had reached “complete .accord.” The decisions were not disclosed. But it was known the big question was whether to extend the trial 30day truce deadline, which expires, in nine days, or reopen the “shooting war” with a "persuader oftensive.” Present weje Gen. James A. Van Fleet, commander of the Bth army,: Vice Admiral C. Turner Joy, head of the, U.N. truce delegation, and other top officers. The’ meeting was held in the truce delegation's apple orchard headquarters at Munsan before the Communists handed over to the allies a list Os allied prisoners. i . " But the Communist reversal on this point left much to be accomplished if a truce is to be reached within 30 days. The enemy concession was not. expected to alter basicaly the \ decisions reached at Munsan. \ . An Bth army communique reported ground action along the 145-mile battlefront stil was confined mainly to patrol action. The Communists launched two minor probing attacks against advanced Turkish positions south of Pyonggang on the central front, bdt both were repulsed without low of ground. A. U.N? patrol fought a sin-hour engagement with two platoons farther east in a sector, southwest of Kumsong. An Bth army briefing officer reported that U.N. troops killed 1,98$ Communist troops, wounded 1,081 and captured 58 in limited fighting last week. I Fifth air force fighters under orders shoot all Unmarked vehicles kept a watch on the highway between Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, and Kaesong, headof the enemy truce delegation. However, none .was sighted. j City Council Will Meet This Evening Mayor John M. Doan, city officials and councilmen, who originally planned lo journey to Indianapolis and the municipal league meeting today, instead will meet in regular council session tonight The council meeting, lb anticipation of the Indianapolis trip was moved back to Wednesday, but returned to its regular time when the weather outlook forbade the trip. It is the last regularly* scheduled meeting of the year: the special, wind-up meeting will be held December 27. I■ F • \ . -r. 1 ■■ ' /'.r

—~w ; — —r— r- ———— 14 Inches Os Snow Clog Slate Traffic New Cold Blast Is Moving In Steadily Indianapolis, Dec. 18 —(tTP)-r Snow up te 1* inches in depth hid the Indiana countryside today and clogged traffic as a hew cold blast moved, steadily toward the state. Snow overnight blocked many secondary roads and slowed traffic to a 2(Vmlle-amhQur crawl on main highways, state police reported. Tijere was 14 inches reported on tl>e gro«Bd in the Donee park, Ligonier and Putnamvllle state police districts and Goshen had 12 indbes. Authorities reported all highways in hazardous condition with packed snpw and ice. Adding to the hazard was a mixture of rain and sleet Which authorities said was falling in some; central and southern areas. The’ temperatures hung near the freezing point in the south and fell no lower than the 20’s In the north early today, but weathermen said it was Jqst a “lull” before the storm. They Baid temperatures would remain almost static today then fall this evening toward expected lows from five to 10 above zero in the north and 10 to 15 in the south. Deaths blamed at least in part on the weather, meanwhile, reached 20. Fifteen-year-old Ollie, McCabe, Anderson, became the fifth traffic victim of the cold when his bicycle was hit by a truck yesterday. Authorities said the l truck driver told them he was blinded by the snow. At Indianapolis, a construction worker was believed killed by carbon monoxide poisoning as he worked in the basement of a new church. Police said Ben Covington, 51, apparently, was overcome [by times from a portable heater used to heat the Wing where he wae laying a concrete floor yesterday. Another worker was revived. Authorities reported freezing rate tn the Putnamvllle area ,aS dawn broke It was raining along the Ohio river in southeastern Indiana,, and a mixture of sleet and rain was reported at Princeton. Elsewhere, snow was reported 11 (Tur® To Pace Five) ■ - ..J-..— ' Press Breakdown | > Delays Printing Os Daily Democrat The Daily Democrat was late in being distributed Monday night. Because of mechanical difficulty the Goss Comet press which prints the newspaper was out of orddr. The pews forms were) taken to> Bluffton where, through! the courtesy of Roger Swaim, publisher of the Bluffton News-Banner, the papers were printed and returned to Decatur. • I Every carrier reported by Bp.m and while several hours late, all local papers were distributed Monday night in a blinding snow. Because of the many ‘ telephone calls’; received at the Daily Democrat office, we know that Decatur citizens mlSs their home-town paper when it is late and we are sure the city subscribers join with the Democrat staff in | thanking the Bluffton News-Baftner for making Monday's publication possible.! : . ML ■ • (

Only 3,198 Americans On List, Far Short O£ Total Officially Lost \ | ;.. ' j '■ '.'■" '■ - ' ■ ' ' -■ ; • ■

- Reports Gen. Deqn i Is Alive In Prison Camp; Missing Since ■ July 20 of 1950 I Panmpnjom, Korea, Dec. | (UP)—M»j- G«n. William F. Dean, last seen “fighting like, a tiger” against Communist tanks in the battleemoke around Taejon, July 20, 1950, te alive in a Communist prison camp, a Communist newsman today. “Big Bill” Dean, 52, commander of the U.S. 24th division was awarded the first congressional medal of honor of the Korean vat after he disappeared] while fighting with a forwara bazooka unit at Taejon. His last words to a command post before he disappeared were: “I just got me a tank.” Alan Winnington, correspondent for the London Daily Worker, said today Dean’s name was on a list of allied wA- prisoners held by the Communist* which was handed U.N. truce negotiators here. Dean officially was listed as mW' ing in action, and probably wounded, July 22, 1950. / . The tall tough red-halre general was seen directing stragglers-and i helping wounded to safety just be- . fore a Übmmuniit knockout drive overran the forward anti-tank position where he was fighting. Dean had knocked out a tank ’ stogiehanded a little .before be was 1 captured After a 75-mta recoilless f rifle had failed to hit a Communist i tank in tour tries, Dean crawled forward and lobbed a handgrenade into an ■> open hatch. i Then under heavy fire he crawled back and organized bazooka teams which knocked out tliree more ; tanks. Then the unit was overrun and cut off. > I , Dean’s interpreter, wounded in ' the shoulder ih the fighting, said he last saw Dean “fighting like a tiger.” Brig. Gen. Pearson Menoher, assistant division commander of the 24 th said his chiefs aim was to tablet the heaviest possible casualties ]on the Communsts. ] After the 24th division retook (Ttrra To Pace Five) C.C. Bulletin Does I . Not Reveal Lay-off Severe Employment Drop Ngt Reported The November Chamber of Com- . merce business barometer on emi pldyment in six of the city’s industries does not show the extent , of the industrial lay-off that has been going oh here for the past 60 tiays. The i industrial payroll drop- ; ped to[ $257,901,. compared to 1 $476,2201 in 1950 and <483,497 for : last October. * .Walter Ford, executive secretary of the Chamber, said that current figures bn the actual lay-off were not furnished for last month. The November employment is listed at 1,506, combated with 1,680 for the same month in 1950: “The employment status is not that rosy,”; Ford commented “but without the correct number, one guess is az good ■ as another,” he said. A fewl hundred employes have i been laid-off at the General Elec- 1 - trie plant in the past 60 days. A ' number of former employes of the i Wayne Novelty company, which was 1 destroyed by fire, are unemployed. • More than 250 unemployed workt ers registered with the dlstirct em- > ployment agent at the city hall last I monh. It is believed this number has increased, rather than declined, a local authority coml mented. The barometer shows that five 1 building permits totaling 312,500 ! were issued in November. A year • ago the same number of permits /totaled 325,185. i Carloadings in-and-out of Decatur were 1,490 tor November comI pared to 2,819 a year ago. ; There- were 49 births/ and 11 • deaths reported in November, the • population , increase being 22 over a year ago! : ; 7 i! I V' ■■ !• ■

Seek To Avert Steel Strike Threat Jan. 1 Federal Mediation Chief Calls Parley To Prevent Strike Washington, ( Dec, 18—(UP) — mediation chief Cyrus 8Ching today summoned t!ve<of 10 steel companies and the CIO Steelworkers to wee ting here Thursday in an effort to avert a strike threatened for New Year’s day. i ' f Union president Philip Murray gave notice yesterday that 650,000 basic steel workers are ready to walk out Jan. 1 unless the industry demands for wage boosts j: averaging cents an hour. Ching said he called the Thursday m€te tings to the hope of breaking a stalemate in negotiations that have been going on in Pittsburgh. He said the welfare “demands" that the government use all its facilities to assist the (parties “in a speedy resolution of tpls dispute.” “Any curtailment of operations to this key Industry will seriously affect our national economy and have a direct and critical impact on our defense effort,” the mediator saiq. He added that the possibility of a strike ’Ts a matter of concern to the people of the|Unitcd ■' ’ /'.-•/■ I’• The 10 steel companies ed to Washington, produce 70 percent of the nation’s i steel, Ching said. : * Ready To Walk Pittsburgh, Pa., Dec. 18 —XUP) — Negotiators sweated totay to work out an agreement withir two weeks to avert a strike by (150,000 CIO Steelworkers called for Jan. 1. The New Year’s walkout seemed inevitable with both the United Steelworkers (Ci O) and the Steel Industry refusing! to budge from their stand in the dispute wbich<£enters around a union demand for a 15-cent-an hour and upward wgge increase. CIO president Philip Murray, also head ofi the USW, said yesterday he and his wage policy committee could not act on a government pro ; posal and the matter, would have.to be settled at a special convention. ' But the union made it possible to call the strike by scheduling the special convention on Jan. 3. “Any government , intervention would have to be considered by the 2,500 delegates,” said. “We still hope and believe that such a strike can be averted if, even at this late date] the industry will get down to business and bar(Tura To Page Five) Stores Open Nights During Entire Y/eek Christmas Music Continues Nightly , *, r > While the weather! today is reminiscent of the weekend following Thanksgiving last year, though not nearly as severe in the amoqnt of fallen snow, it is not proving an. impediment to scheduled activities. A large crowd was downtown Monday night, shopping and listening to the choirs of the Bethany Evangelical United Brethren church and -toe First 'Methodist church, who sang in the court house corridors. u 'Loudspeakers were employed,-to •end the music not only th-bnghout the business district, but also into hearby homes. The same method will be employed tonight wheii the choirs of the ChUrch of the Nazarene and the Union Chapel Evangelical United Brethren church will Bing. The first choir program is j scheduled for 6:45, the second at 7:30 p.m. Stores will ope* until 9 p.m. t F q /’• 1 .. ' . ' /V'

Price Five Cents

12,795 Americans On Pentagon's Official List, Far More Than Coriimunists Reveal / Panmunjom, Korea, Wednesday, Dec. 19-—(UP)—The Communists handed the United Nations yesterday. the names of .3,198 American and 8,361 other allied prisoners they hold. . / \ J A B-26 bombing plane was alerted to fly the names to .supreme allied headquarters in Tokyo tor im- ! mediate publication. • ■ But the plane was fogged in at ■ Kimpo, the airport near Seoul, and it was said offlMMly that it would > not, be able to take* off before $ ' a.Dh today (sp.m. Tuesday CST). k The 3,198 Americans on the pri- • soner list are dl( who are accounted ? for out of 12,795 listed Officially by ] the pentagon, as missing in action ' since the \KoreaJn war started June ' 25, 1950. ] • (The, defense department in 1 Washington said that of the total of | 12,795 listed as misslrijg since the. war started, 175 are now known to be prisoners, 186 are knowp to ! had died patter being captured, 1,392’ ! originally reported missing have • retained to duty, and 11,042 are ! currently carped on the rolls as 1 still missing.) ’/ A Red correspondent here said that among the Americans 5 held prisoner was the outstanding r Amtrtcan hero of the Korean war,- r I Maj; tten. William F. Dean, who I had-last been seen, pistol in hand, rF fighting igainst hopeless odds with I I men of his 24th division at Kaesong h July 23. 1950. T. . ' ' ‘ The • Reds . disclosed that the ailed prisoners are held in 11 camps In northwest Korea and that the ■ Americans are all in camps Nos, ; 1,2, 3 and 5 near the Yalu river border of North Korea and Communist Chinese Manchuria. As they prepared to ma|te public : jibe list of names of the Americans ’ still alive in enemy hands, the UN 1 command warned that there might be mistakes. In names /was - merely a first step —the signing of ! an armistice, and the formal ex>1 change of prisoners of both sides is still to come unless negotiations • break down. ( ' The total of AmeNcans was at least 2,000 fewer than predicted. It a tended to substantiate the estimate of supreme commander Gun. Matthew B. Ridgway that nearly 6,000 American troops had die in Communist hands. j / [ The Communists handed over the ; list of* prisoners in the olive-drab truce tent here after a surprising reversal of position. They had stubbornly refused to give the. hames befdre details of an exchange had been worked out. , The Red newspaper correspondent who said Dean still lived said also that among (the prisoners wks Associated Press correspondentphotographer Frank Noel, one of five allied war correspondents missing in action. Y . ' f / . - INDIANA WEATHER Clearing with a cold wave thia afternoon and tonight. Snow flurries continuing near < Lake Michigan untß late tonight. Wednesday increasing t cloudiness With slowly rising • temperatures and snow again overapreadlbO at*** In aftirnoon or night. Low tonight 5 below to 5 above, high Wednesday 15 to \2O north, 2025 south. Diminishing winds tonight. I

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