Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 49, Number 301, Decatur, Adams County, 22 December 1951 — Page 1

Vol. XLIX. No. 301.

40 MEN DEAD, 75 TRAPPED BY MINE BLAST

Propose Early Exchange For 111, Wounded . ' * t’-. -T Dramatic Proposal - By United Nations Fot Wounded, Sick * r \ ■ - >. _ Pahmunjom. Korea, Dec. 22 — (UP): —Ttie United Nations proposed today an immediate exchange of seriously ill and wounded war prisoners, -possibly including Maj. Gen. William F. Dean. The Communists promised .to consider the dramatic allied proposal. and a U. N. spokesman saw a 50-50 chance that they . would accept rt. Rear Admirdl R. E. Libby, U. N. member of the prisoner subcommittee. suggested that ■ the exchange take place at once at Panmunjom without waiting for an armistice or even for agreement on a'complete exchange of war prisoners ■ • j A U. N. officer estimated that 7,000 Chinese and North Korean prisoners now in U. N. hospitals would be eligible for exchange under the proposal. The number of sick and wounded among 3,198 Americans ''and 8.361 other allied prisoners in North Korea’s prison camps was not known. \ . > However. Dean, 52-year-old commander of the U. S. 24th division. Was reported to have been wound-; ed -a& he fought beside his men at Taejon. South Korea, before his capture in, the summer of 1950. Libby said the Communists raised a •‘terrific hbwl” over the '.U.N.’s removal of 37,500 South Koreans front its list of Red war prisoners. He said the 37,500, although originally reported to the Red Cross as prisoners, had been found to be South Korean civilians impressed into the Red army -and therefore eligible for early release-. When the Communists still protested the action, Libby invited them to send a delegation to the Pusan prison camps under safe conduct to check for themselves v, hich prisoners do not wish to go to North Korea. -And if any of these people indicate a desire to return to North Korea, they would he returned at the proper time." Libby said. ‘ They (the Communists) did not indicate acceptance or refusal." Altogether, the Communists charged. 44.000 names previously reported by the U. N. to tlie Red Cross as Communist prisoners were missing from the list of 132,474 prisoners submitted by the U. N. Tuesday.The Communists also promised that Red commanders would send supreme. U. «N. commander general a “proper answer” in due time to Matthew B. Ridgway’s appeal Friday for International Red Cross representatives to visit the North Kordan prison camps. At the same ti(rie, U. N. and Communist staff officers abandoned their attempt to find a compromise program for policing an armistice and tossed the issue back to a second subcommittee, j 2L 1 Funeral Sunday For Chronister Infant Funeral services will bp held at 2 p. m. Sunday at the Zwick ftihome- for Terry Duane Chfonlster. eight-week-old son of Kenneth D._ and Clarabelle BrownCnronister, vrho died at a Fort Wayne hospital Friday. . The Rev. . William Ensminger will officiate, and burial will be in the Decatur cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home after 2:36 o’clock this afternoon. V Surviving in Addition tb the parents are the grandparents. Mr. and Mrs. Dallas Brown of near Decatur. Mr;'and Mrs. Milton Chronister of Bobo, and the maternal great-grandparents. Mr. and, Mrs. J. M. Breiner of Decatur. & INDIANA WEAJTHER Increasingly cloudy x and not quite so cold tonight. Sunday v mostly cloudy and warmer with snow In north and central por- \ tions. Rain or snow extending south by afternoon. Low tonight zero to 5 above north, 10 j to 15 above south. High Sunday 20 to 25 north, 25 to 35 south.

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT

Protest Hungarian trial For Fliers Get Tough Policy Is Studied By Officials Washington. Dec, ?22 — (UP) — The state department is considering a "get tough” policy today to force Hungary to rev/rse its decision to try four Aitierican airmen for violating its frontier. p The department swung into action as news of th< Hungarian move sent tempers soaring at the White House, in Conprpss, and across the nation. <; i 'lt decided immediately that further protests would.jbe useless Unless they are baqkeq up by action showing the Commupists the United States means business. Among the moves under consideration are severing diplomatic relations, applying economic pressures. closing Hungarian, consulates in this country: and banning travel to Hungary. * ‘Budapest announced yesterday that the fliers would bq tried because they allegedly were on an espionage iflissioti when Soviet fighters forced their plane down Hungary Nov. 19 ? .The U. S. sternly: denied the cjiarge in three formal diplomatic notes and the fliers’ release as a matter of international justice. V The announcement that . they would be tried cam£ as a shock 1 are. Officials had ’expected they would be released quietly when Russia got through trying to use them to back up spy charges against the United States. ' Serious Charges London. Dec. 22-MUP) —Russia broadcast today-a Hungarian government communique saying four United States air force men facing trial tor flying into - Hungary v.duid be tried “as who violated the Hungarian boundary wtih 1 criminal Intentions." Jhe communique. Its quoted by the ‘ Russians, indicated that the charge against the fliers might be much more serious tljan was indicated yesterday. As quoted in Budapest dispatches. the Hungarian note presented to the American charge d’affaires said it had been decided tb turn over to a Hungarian court -the members -pf the Ainerieah aircraft crew . .Vi as persons havin’g with premeditated intention violated the border of Hungary.” ' 'But. the Soviet it official news agency TASS, quoting the note In a dispatch broadcast from Moscow, put it: ‘ “ . the government of the Hungarian republic* is submitting the crew of the American plane for trial in a Hungarian court . . . is. the persons who violated the Hungarian boundary with criminal, intentions." [,\ ; ' 115 Pints Os Blood Given Here Friday Near Quota Despite \ Weather Conditions I'• ; ' ’ Officials of the Red Cross reported, today that “we came within 101 pints of meeting our qtiota” for the: Friday visit of the regional bloodmobile unit. p Altogether, 115 pints of blood were donated to the Red Cross in the last visit of 1951 fog the unit. Os the anticipated 153 persons who were scheduled for preceding, 120 of them were able to get to the American Legion home to donate; 1 114 of this number were productive;, and six others were rejected. u 4 Seven "walk-ins” we/e processed, raising the total tQ 115, and encouraged officials who anticipated a Revere let-down because of the icy highways which hampered travel inniany instances. However, a surprising number of donors from rural areas were able 1 to the trip to the, Legion heftne, which was used by the bloodinpblle unit. Mrs. Max Schafer, secretary of the Adams county Red Cross,, stated today that <athe two additional visits for 1952 are because of the defense quota. “The number of visits for civilian quotas remains the same,” she said, “hut they have stepped up the defense quota,” thus creating eight visits next year instead of 1951’5. TheYfirst such visit next year is scheduled for February 1.

k\ \ .. . X - Ji ■ w

Traffic Death toll Heads For Million Millionth Expected I Before Sundown \ Chicago,--Dec. 22. —(UP)— D-hqur sped toward “Mr. Million” today. Two head-on collisions in . Arizona, killing three persons each, brought it closer. \ More than |5,000 motorists arourid the San Francisco area wbre stopped by traffic, police trying 'to hold it back. ' D-hour is the hour when the nation’s millionth traffic\ victim will die. “ it was expected before sundown; 7 “Mr. Million" already had a monument to his memory. A white cross bearing a sign dedicating the marker,td the “unknown millionth” was set up at a downtown Indianapolis intersection. , At 3 p.m. yesterday, the national safety council, placed the nation’s traffic- deaths since the advent the automobile at 999.88 D. Their figures placed the tempo at about four eachi hour. ’ < Most-iwere reported in western and- states. Sno.w in the northern tier of states slowed motorists, where they were able to operate at all, to a crawl. \ The safety council was issuing periodic death totals. Figures obtained from others were slightly less than those shown in Jhe council’s estimates, but the council was Supplying a corrective factor to aCr. (Turn To Paxe Elxrht) 4 Teen-Age Dance Here On Christmas Night L The annual teen-age will be held at the American Legion home at 9 o’clock Tuesday. Christmas nighL Music wil be provided by Gene Chronister’S orchestra. Adams Post 43, American Legion, is donating the dance hall and the orchestra, with supervision by the Den. A special invitation is extended to college students honpe on vacation to attend. Decatur Barber Shbp Burglarized Friday For tire second time in less than four months the Lose Barber Shop, oh West Madison street was entered and burglarized “sometime last night." The breakin was reported to police early today by Morris Pingry, proprietor of the shop. Entry was made by breaking the front door glass, reaching in _and unlocking the door. About $5. it was estimated, was stolen from the cash drawer. City police ate investigating the burglary.

ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY

Decatur, Indiana, Saturday, December 22, 1951.

Good Fellows Club previously reported — r .1.__>994.5S Elks —4 3504 \ Friend —— 5.(P The Kids-1.50 A Qoodfeilow 1.00 Mrs. Anna Vogleiyede 5.00 Edgar Mutschlet -10.00 TOTAL*j 81.042.08 Next Steel Move Is Up To Pres. Truman j Faced VZith Threat Os Crippling Strike ; Washington, Dec. !22 7- (UP)’ -M President Truman, faced with the threat of a crippling steel strike, was expected to decide today to turn the deadlocked steel / wage dispute over to the wage stabilization board. ’ , I • Mr. Truman was reported ready to move swiftly aveft a sharp cut into vital dlefehse production, although he may withhold actionuntil next week.' Some sources believed thp president would resort to h‘ no-strike enter under, the Taft-Hartley,'law’i emergency provisions to insure continued production after the CIO United Steelworkers’ Nlew Year’s day strike deadline. But the consensus was that Mr. Truman would try the wage board first, recommending settlement terms which woqld not be binding on either the union or the steel industry. If CIO president Philip Murray, who also leads the big steel union, rejects the president’s anticipated no-strike plea—as is widely expect-. e>l —Mr. Trumaniimay be forced to turn to the Taft-Hartley law. Under that law—which Mr- Truman repeatedly has criticized •— the president can order the attorrey general to seek an injunction outlawing the strike. Tij.e WSB refuses to consider a case while a strike is in progress. , Murray has made himself plain About heeding any such {plea- He said earlier this week that only .the special convention q>f 2,500 union members -called for Jan. 3 has power to call off a walkout once it has He has warned that without a new contract Jan. 1, his men will quit the steel mills. V • ' A new contract appeared out of the picture, following federal mediation ehief Cyrus S. Ching’s disclosure ydsterday that the 10 steel companies meeting here refused to make any wage offer in answer to the union’s demand for an boost. Noon Edition j

Millions On Move ’ For Holiday Season Snow And Cold Slow Down U.S. Traffic By United Prhss. : .Millions of Americans were on the move today, making their annual Chtistmas migration, but snow and frigid weather slowed them to a crawl in much of the nation? Rail, bus and air terminals were ■ jammed travelers despite extra runs added to schedules to , beat holiday load. Many of the prospective passengers were: servicemen going home for Christmas, i The national safety Council said the long Christmas weekend niight rdsult ih one of the highest holiday traffic death tolls in history as motorists try to buck their way through snow-clogged roads. | t ! The council said 600 might; die. One of them will be the millionth traffic victim since the automobile’s invention. , ' . The weather alone was claiming many lives. Since the current series of storms and cold waves be-’ gan eight days ago, 304 persons have died of causes directly ot indirectly attributable ttythe weather. Os these, 95 died on highways, 117 of heart attacks. 25 from freezing i and exposure, ahd 67 from miscelihneous causes. The highway situation was so at ''Chicago that the drifts even stalled 18 snow plows near JoHet, 111., southwest of the city. f Much of the nation east - of the Rockies was gripped in a severe cold wave as winter was scheduled to make its official entry into the northern hemisphere at 11:01 a.m. EST. The cold knifed south, to Texas and headed east toward the Atlantic coast. 1 It was sb chilly At Portland, Ore., that the zoo’s polar bear came down with pneumonia. » Chicago streets were treacherous rivers of frozen slush. Public transportation labored, suburban trains rah late. Snow was forecast for Sunday. j In Burlington, la., a non-sched-uled t airliner made an emergency landing and slammed nose first into a snowbank. None of the 75 passengers and crewmen was injured. The Detroit city council made a special |300;000 appropriation for snow removal. The city already Jfas spent 1482,000. more than half: of last year’s total to clear streets. ■ ; 1 liO PAPER TUESDAY The Decatur Daily Democrat, In order that employes may spend Chrlatmai Day with their families, will not publish an edition .Tuesday, Dec. 25.

World's Largest Shaft Coal Mine In Illinois Is Rocked By Explosion

14 UN Planes Downed In Action In Week Only One Communist Plane Is Shot Down Bth Army Headquarters. Korea, Dec. 22—(UP)—The United Nations lost a record 14 war planes and shot down only; one Communist aircraft In the past: seven days, the sth air force disclosed today. One American F-86 sabrejet, the United Natoins’ best jet fighter In Korea, was destroyed and second damaged In combat. ' , Communist anti-aircraft «guns knocked down, the other- 13 allied aircraft during the week ended yesterday. They comprised two F-84 thunder jets, two F-80 shpoting star jets, one F-9-F panther jet, three ! propellor-driven .F-51j mustangs, four corsairs and one P-26 bomber. It was the heaviest seven-day toll of sth air force planes since the Korean war began. Op the credit side, sth air force planes shot down one Communist MIG-15 jet and damaged eigth others during the week. The Red aircraft were unusually elusive during the week and were sighted on only four days. None ventured within range of allied anti-aircraft guns. U. N. planes, out to avenge their losses, nutated North Korean) skies today despite clouds and rain. B-29 superfortresses did their part in the campaign to reduce the Communist air potential by dropping 70 tons pf; 500-pound bombs on the new’ enemy airfield-- at Namsi on the western edge of ‘ MIG Alley” deep In northwest Korea. The seven superforts ran into anti-aircraft fire and spotted enemy fighters, but all returned safely. AOn the grounds only one minor (Turn To Pare Six) Four Persons Hurt, In Auto Accident 4 None Badly Injured As Autos Collide Four persons were hospitalized as the result of a traffic accident which occurred Friday evening when cars driven by Freeman D. stepler, 33, of route 2, and James E. Whitehurst, 24, of Fort Wayne, collided on U. S. 27 near Hessen Cassel' road in Allen county. Three victims were brought to the Adams county memorial hospital, none of them . seriously injured. Whitehurst was taken to the Fort Whyne St. Joseph’s hospital with leg and back injuries. Stepler and two passengers were brought here. Stepler suffered a ’ bruise over the left eye. chest bruises and cuts on the’ hands and legs and the loss ot a tooth; it is believed he will be released from the hospital today, Carl Bieberich, also 33 and of route 2, was released shortly After the accident after receiving emergency treatment. He sustained facial lacerations and bruises. It is re pored that Walter E. Egley, 39, of route 2, another passenger in the Stepler car, would be released over the weekend. He sustained severe facial lacerations, the loss of five teeth, and a chest injury. \ T It was reported that the Whitehurst car apparently went out of control and swung sideways. Stapler veered his car but was unable to avoid hitting the Whitehurst car broadside, according to state - trooper Richard Worth. Both vehicles were badly damaged, \ • - ' 24 PAGES

Ridgway Radio In Accusation Al Communists Seek To Negotiate For Future. Warfare , Under Truce Cloak \ ' Dec. 22— (UP) —Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway’s official radio, accused the Communists tonight of “trying to nej :iate for a future war in Korea” under a cloak of peaceful intentions in truce program was beamed to the Communsits, in Korean and Chinese languages, by the supreme commander’s “Voice of the United Nations” radio statiph. It is probable, > the broadcast said, that the Communist - truce regotiators will try btn stall the armistice negotiations at Panmunjpm beyohd the 30-day Ppriojd for which a tentative cease-fire’ line' drawn’. ™This period expires next Thurs day, two days after Christmas, and dispatches from Panij'.njor indicated that only a miracle could now bring an armistice by tha day. i ■ ) There is a tight deadlock- in negotiations on the terms of enforcing an armistice. In the truce negotiations, Ridgway’s radio station said, the Reds seek to fix things so they can build up their own strength during :an armistice while the U. N. force; are weakened. Especially, it pointed out, the Communists want the right to build new air bases during an armislice and at the same time to limit or prohibit allied troop ro- ' tation. '■ s. ‘‘The Communis‘B Are fooling no one in their efforts to negotiate for a future war in Korea,” the broadcast said. “Sooner or later,” it continued "the Reds must;.choose 'betweethelr demand that they be permitted to built Air fields, and an armis tice. This, it said, means the choice between an end of the bloodshed and the un’imited right to build bomber bases for renewed\ aggression against the Korean people.” "it is the choice between peace and war,” the broadcast said. \ 1' I ? Man Murders Two,; Perishes In Fire Crazed Man Slnvs Mother And Sister MichigantowTi, Ind., Dec> 22— (UP)—James PoVrell, 60. killed his mother and sister yesterday .then set fire to their home and peppered Dolice and firemen with eunshot from a window until he perished in flames. The charred bodies of Powell, his 83-year-old mother, Mrs. Nora Powell, a semi-invalid:, and his sister. M<s. Lilian Everman, 55. Albuquerque. N’M.. were taken from the smolderlne ruins of their country home near here hour after the stavings. i \ Two youths trying to enter the house to put out the fire were wounded. State police said Powell had been mentally ill and anparenHy killed his relatives because - they took st ens to have him committed to an institution. ■ | Powell shot the two women and bis net doe with one of fjwo’ ntiM found beside his body, a rifle and a shotgun. Then he touched off a match to furnishings (n the Volunteer firemen and neighbors saw the Dames and fan to th© •Cene Thpy were greeted fjy chnK gun volleva from a seor” ’ o »nr V window. Some of the ®hr>t >’* Perrell and Michael Wavt. 15, and I (Tant To Pace Five) '\H ' I

Price Five Cents

: Little Hope Held For Survival Os Men Trapped By L p Mine Explosion ; West Frankfort, 111., Deq. 22.— (UP) —The first four bodies were hoisted from the explosion-torn depths of the world’s largest shaft coal mine tbday and rescuers battled choking smoke to reach more than 120 other miners believed caught and feared deed in the blast. Coroner David Clayton said that radio reports relayed from the 90 rescuers bad sa|d sg least 40 men were killed and another 75. trapped, Many Os those trapped were r a red dead, he said. f : Walter mines and minerals who arrived at the scene a short time after the blast, said the explosion-;‘‘definite- t !y”; *was caused by coal gas. But 4 Mb said "any one of 1,000 different rbings could have set it off.’’ Removal of the victlnfs was halted abruptly when all power at the • mine shaft failed, knocking out the and communications to hose working in the black, wet ihrkness below. ; ’ I jOnly four injured men wAre takm from the pit within the first 11 iburs after the explosion rocked the New Orient, mine at' 7:30 p.m. <bST) last night. . ’ ' *-7/ A company spokesman who refusdto be named said that 218 men ad entered the shaft at 5:80 p.m. ast night to do maintenance work. \ mine union official earlier estiijated 228 men were In the mine at, the time of the blast |’Of this number, 93 men Including the spur- injured were believed ibove ground dnd alive. This left. 121 men still unaccounted for. The sheet-covered bodies of the four dead men removed frdm the •njine were taken immediately into he off ices of the Chicago, Wilmingt>n and Franklin Coal Co., ..owners of the mine. Later they were removed from the scene toy I)fanes. . An unidentified rescue worker vho pulled the bodies from the blasted tunnel said the men died fu|ly one-mile from the immediate blgst area. Sherman Whitlow, president of , ocaj 1265 of the United Mine Workrs union which s 'most of thb men belonged, estimated before the four bodies removed that 135 men we|re still in the This figure included bath those believed dead and trapped. ?It doesn’t look good,” ftie! said when asked whether any had survived. \ Joseph L. Buniett, A^piU ie l fore r mAn who was in another part of tho pit when the blast occurred, held but little hope for the lives of those trapped. V •’All will be iost,”*Bu>nett said. Whitlow said he based his estimate on the number ,of men in the mijie on a count of the lights in the- “lamp house” where the men store their lamp, helmets when not in use. V He said his count showed 228 men. went down in the mine and that only 93 had checked out, including the .injured Who were removed'. \ Cjoroner Dlavid Clayton aaid radio reports from 90 rescuefs in” the: mine tunnels said that 40 men were dead and he fearedmany mofe were killed. "It’s blown all to hell,? one grimy miner said as be sat in the mine head locker room after a turn in the; pit. ‘ He was shaking with , . (Turn To Pa*e Six) 1 SHOPPIES I* -r Vj ,| wn - // ■ • H.l, fl|bi T» 'MI * M r'