Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 49, Number 303, Decatur, Adams County, 26 December 1951 — Page 1

Vol. XLIX, No. 303.

30-DAY TRUCE DEADLINE ENDS THURSDAY L ? ■ A ' • \ I

Report Four U.S. Airmen Near Release Fliers Seized By Hungary May Soon ~ Be Given Freedom Washington, Dec. 26.— (UP) —The United States has offer- ; ed to pay the $120,000 fine for four American fliers held by ; Hungary if Hungary will release them “promptly,” it was announced officialy today. Washington, Dec. 26.—(UP)— Informed sources said today it is ■! possible that four American fliers seized by Hungary last month may : be released very soon. " These sources indicated that exl tensive American-Hungarian nego- ' tiations over the fate of the fliers have progressed farther than the state department or Budapest is willing to admit openly at this time, It was determined here, however, - that this government has no information that the filers have been released. But indications are that surprise developments are in* the making, including the possibility that the American airmen may be turned over to American authorities ■innearby Austria. The state department, continuing ■ its policy of silence on the case,, declined to reveal the status of negotiations for release bf the airmen. But the department promised some comment on the case about 3 pm.. CST. Officials would not speculate on the nature of the comment. • Reliable sources reported earlier, however, that the United States government was willing to arrange to pay the $120,000 “ransom” demanded by the Hungarian t govern- ’ * ment as the price for the fliers’ i freedom. f One report from Paris said the € Hungik-ipns already had agreed to free thefour men without receiving the total payment at the ?/’f fliers are released. If true, this If- suggested That some sort of a'par- " tlal or down payment was ih the ."works with more money to follow lat Or. ' ■'■■'] The fotfT fliers were seized when their C-47 transport plane was forced down fighter planes in controlled - Noy. 19 when they wandered off course while flying from Germany ; to Yugoslavia. . They were tried and convicted Sunday on .charges Os violating the Hungarian border and were ordered to pay a S3O T OOO fine each or , spend three months in a Red jail. i The fliers have been held incommunicado since they were seiss-. ed? ' The United States has sent four formal protests to Budapest and also hae .protested to Moscow. , A dispatch 1 from Budapest said ■ there was an unconfirmed report that Hungary would, release Shortly, or has released, the four, airmen. A U.S. legation spokesman there said: ‘‘the matter rests with the Hungarian government.” \ Legion Would Pay Indianapolis. Dee. 26 —(UP) — The American Legipn today offered to pay Hungary $120,000 ransom (Tara To P»kc Slx> Two Christmas Babies Born Local Hospital Santa Claus tdok time out from - his heavy duties Christmas day to aid the stork in bringing two special gifts at the Adams county memorial hospital. Two babies were born at the hospital Christmas day, r a baby girl to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cook and a baby boy to Mr. and r . Mrs. Von King, all of Decatur. - in addition, a baby boy was born at a Fort Wayne hospital Tuesday to Sgt. and Mrs. Kenneth Jennings. The mother is residing in Fort Wayne with her parents while her husband, a marine ser-geant.-is stationed at the. Quantico marine base. Sgt. Jennings was home on emergency leave when his son was born. y— . ' '■ INDIANA' WEATHER Clearing and much colder; tonight. Snow flurries near t Lake Michigan. Partly cloudy and ©old Low tonight near zero to five below north, zero to 10 above south. High Thursday 10-15 norths 15r -22 south.

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT ONLY DAILY NEWtfrAMiR IN ADAMS COUNTY V .•

■ . --7; Thurman Gottschalk Dies At Winter Home Funeral Services To Be Held At Berne Funeral services for former state; senator Thurman A. Gottschalk, 69. Democrat leader-and a former director .of the Indiana welfare departement. will be held Saturday ip Indianapolis and Berne. At -9 o’clock in The morning will be held at the FlannerBuchanan .mortuary in Indianapolis. The,-body then will be brought to Yager funeral home in Berhe, services will be hfeld at A’:3d jun. The funeral party is expected in Bdrne at 12:30 and the body will lie in state until the funeral. hour. The Rev. Karl Tauber, pastor of the Trinity Evangelical Unjted Brethren church, Berne, will officiate, Burial will be in the MRE cemetery. Mr- Gottschalk’s death occurred Christmas, eve at his winter home in Miami, Fla. He had suffered a heart ailment for several months and was in poor health when he started on his trip to Florida. . Native Os Berne j. ;\ A native of Berne, Mr. Gottschalk entered the Indiana general assemblyin 1909 as a representative. He seryed in the house again in 1921, 1923 and 1925, and was minority deader in the latter two sessions. Ha r represented Adams Blackford and Wells counties in the assembly. In 1927 he was " elected to the state senate and served\ lb years. He-was senate president pro tern in iwit. Fyom 1937 to 1942 he was state welfare administrator and supervisor of state institutions. He was one of the framers of the 1936 state social security laws. Mr. Gottschalk rounded out a lent career of state service by servfng’as president of the state welfare boAld during the first part of Gov. Hehiy F. Sehricker’s He’ resigned earlier this year because of poor health. After graduating from North Centrot College v and Indiana University he ! entered business with the Berne company and”later was asr sociated with the B-G-Construction .company and the Gottschalk Supply company. is survived by the wife, Mrsr Alberta Gottschalk; a sop John S. Gottschalk, Washing1 a daughter. Mrs. Elizabeth - Hawk, Indianapolis; four grand- ; children and a sister. Mrs. Charles Hartman, Coral Gables, Fla. Otto Miller Rites Thursday Morning Deca tar Man Dies On Christmas Eve Funeral services will be conducted Thursday morning for Otto A. street,, who died at 6:30 p.m. Mon- : day at the Adams county memorial ( hospital. Although he had been in failing health for several years, his death was He vi-as born in Washington township Maj[ 27, 1893, a son of Paul and Mary and wUs married to Rose Spanglei* May 8, 1923. He had been employed by the Yost Construction Co. for the past 14 years. r= J Mr. Miller was a member of the St. Mary’s Catholic church, the Holy Name society and the Moose lodge. Surviving are his wife 1 , one son, John Miller of Decatur; three padghters, Mrs. Vera Burnett-of Monroeville, and Misses Mary and Anna Sue Miller, both at home; four brothers, Tony of. Kalamazoo, Mleh., Leo and Leonard, both of Fort Wayne, and Edward P. Miller of Decatur; three sisters. Mrs. Lena Hliyard of Akron, 0.. Mrs. Gertrude Fort Wayne and Mrs. Frances Heimann of Decatur, and on® grandchild. One brother and four sisters are decease Services will be held at 9 a.m. Thursday at the St. Mary’s Catholic church, the Very Rev. Msgr. J. J. Sejmetz officiating. Burial will be ip th* Catholic eemetei-y. The body was removed to the Zwlck funeral home, where friends may call Until time of the services. The Holy Name society will rec'it'p the rosary at 7:30 this evening, and the Moose lodge will conduct rites at 8 o’clock, both at the funeral home. ’ --Ax. _ I ;

— - General 'Dean In Pyongyang War Prison Call r » — TT’r/'C’- 1 tt—y- -j- • * A L \ TWi f ir L? /-w * jfll r s ’ THitt rtiui u g.ven to American conesponuancs in rvui<_a uj> w-n,nLr ouicueij cuneopuaacni vi tne leftist Paris newspaper Ce Coir, shows Burchett (left) interviewing Maj. William F. Dean reportedly In Dean’s war prisoner cell in Pyongyang, North*Korean capital. Showed to Mrs. Dean in Berkeley, Cal., ahe Identified Dean as her husband'. Burchett said Dean weighed only 130 pounds when captured,., but now weighs 180 and is well. > \ 4 —■— —t —■ —fr-1- —» : ' n ’ ■ “

r f £ | \ • Annual Meeting Os C. Os C. Jan. 17 -■ ' ■ ’ ■ •- u' Civic Theater Will Entertain At Meet ?'‘ ' v The twenty-second annual dinner and meeting of the Decatur Chamber of Commerce will be held January 17 at 6:30 o’clock p. m. at the Moose home, it wa, announced today. Herman Krueckeberg, cashier ©t First State bank, will be general chairman of the event. ! . Ronald Parrish, manager of Bellmont Trucking Co., has been namel ticket manager. Tickets will sell for $2 per person, it was announced, and members’ wives again will be invited to attend the annual meeting. < Chairman Krueckeberg announce ed that the Fort Wayne Civic Tneater again would present a play, following the dinner. This year’s productiori is entitled “As Husbands Go” it is an interesting and humorous play which has much favorable commerit throughout the nation. The Fort, Wayuq Civic Theater group is regarded as One of the finest in the middlewest and last year’? presentation at the annual Chamber meeting was‘> very well received. , 7- ' Attendance at the annual affair will be limited to 400 persons because of the limited capacity of the - Moose dining room. Parrish said tickets would go on sale soon and would be placed at convenient uptown locations. I James Hakes Dies Suddenly At Wren Heart Attack Fatal To Resident As Wren James Z. Hakes. 72, well known carpenter arid l mason,jdied suddenly of a heart attack at 8:30 o’clock this morning at his home in ,Wren, had been in apparent good health and his death was unexpected. He was born in Portland, a son of Zene and but had resided in Wren most ot his life. He and his wife, the former Gertrude Fackler, celebrated their T»2nd wedding anniversary last October. Mr. Hakes was a member of the Wren E. U. B. church and was a veterart. of the Spanish-American waK |. I, Surviving in addition to his wife are . four sons, Willis of Leesburg, 0., Don, Ivan and Harold Hakes, all of near Decatur; four daughters, Miss Alice Hakes, at home, Mrs. Raymond Mertz of Decatur, Mrs. Norval Banter of Linn. Grove and Mrs. Orton Hooker of Harrlsburgt Pa.; 22 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. The body was removed to the Zwick funeral home. Funeral arrangements have not been completed. \ „ i •

a . ■ ... Decatur, Ind.,. Wednesday December 26,1951. a ■ 1...- > U .... ■' ‘"A ' ■..

Lewis May Call Work Stoppage As A Protest 10-Day Nationwide Stoppage Looms As Disaster Protest West Frankfort, 111., Dec. 26—1-(UP)--An aide to John L. LewiS said today the United Mine Workers Union preside.ri| might call a 10-day nationwide^coal mine work stoppage as a mefljorial to the 119 victims of the Orient min& explosion. 4 f "He’s really mad about this disaster," the aide said. | The work stoppage would be ca& ed tomorrow, the aide said, and would run for five days Ipto the new year. ‘ J If it were called, the time off. Would coincide with a threatened Strike 4 by the nation’s steel workers. 1 'hi.: j■■ 1 • It also would catch the country at a time when coal consumption is extremely high due to a prolonged siege ot cold weather. .The source, who refused the use of his name, said the possibility that the mine union bqss= would order the stoppage as a period of mourning for the dead was “good.” Under the UMW contract, five days a year are permitted to commemorate the deaths of min# disaster victims. The Centralia, 111., mine explosion in 1947 prompted a five-day work stoppage. \ V Lewis was to Inspect the mine today witir officials of the state and federal government along with the\ owners of the mine, the Chicago, Wilmington and Franklin Coal ,c6r Bernie UrhCiip,' executive secretary of\ the American Retail Coal association, said that coal stockp’les across the country were “binfull.” He said a 10-day stoppage ufouid not be a hardship so long as the layoff did not continue beyond that time:’ Sherman Whitlow, president of Local 1265 of the UMW to wjhich most of the New Orient miners belonged, said he thought the holiday would be “appropriate.” i “I don’t know what Lewis has in mind,” he said, “but I think a mine holiday would be appropriate.” [ Lewis could not be reached for comment. Lewis spent Christmas at the home of his brother, Howard, iri nearby Benton, where several of the miners killed Ip Widriy’s blast lived. \ Howard said the gathering was “pretty sad” because Lewis wks disturbed over the disaster. , Later in the day, Lewis returned to West Frankfort where he attended several of the Christmas day funerlas held:: Tor 24 of the dead. It was necessary to hold the services because local mortuaries were overcrowded. \ All churches in the area were (Tara To Page Four) J ;

Captain Seesenguth Hies Food To Gl’s —-7 ■ - Braves Weather In Korea On Mission A United PV-ess dispatch tells of an exploit which Capt. Donald L. Seesenguth, of French township, organised and accomplished some* where In oKrea so that Q. I.’s could have their Christmas dinner. Th® weather was “miserable” over there and Capt. \Seesenguth was the only flier who flew his plane over the area where soldiers were snowed-in Christmas morning. 1 ! ■,! Piloting a B-29, Capt. Seesenguth dropped packages of food to American The press dispatch described weather "conditions in the Korean battlefront area, even worse than the ice and sleet which greeted early church-goers here Cnrsitjnas morning. ’Vndhunted by the low-lying clbuds, sleet and snow, Capt. Sees-1 enguth accomplished his mission ‘•nd Q. I:’s had their special'Christ- 1 nias dinner. \ 1 The weather also foulted up schedules of distinguished visitors to the Korean battle area, includ-\ lug Francis Cardinal Spellman of New Vork and Hollywood players Paul Douglas and Jan Sterling. Capt. Seesenguth is a son of Mr. - and Mrs. Bert Seesenguth of neap Cralgyille > and a nephew of Mrs? ClaraiSeesenguth of Bluffton route four. 4 A veteran pilot, he was called to/active service last fall. * VI . '- J ■ Harvey E. Brodbeck Dies Monday Night Funeral Services Thursday Afternoon Haiwfey E. Brodbeck, 72, "of 833 Dierkes street, an employe of the DecatUr Casting company until his re'tirejnent in 1939, died at 11:30 o’clock Monday night at the Veterans hospital in Fort Wayne. He ( had been ill for six years and in the hOspltal seven months. • ", Born in Wren, 0., Dec. 3, 1879, he was a son of William and Sarah . Bay : ByodbOOk, and was married to Iva. Thomas Nov. 16, 1899, A veteran of the Spanish-Amer- j lean Wat. during which he saw ac- ( tive sOrtice in Cuba, he joined Co. j B, 160th yegiment, 26, 1898, j and was discharged at Savannah, 0a„ April 25, 1899. Surviving are his wife; two sons,; and Gerald,, both of -Deca- j I tur; three daughters, Mrs. Lewis I -Shook Os Wren, Mrs. Gertrude Martin Vnf Fort Wayne and Mrs. Ruth ; Eckrote of Decatur) six < grandchildren; two great-grand- ( children. • and One brother, Floyd ( Brodbeck of St. Louis, Mo. Four < brothers nad three sisters are de- ( ceased.,. 1 Funeral services Will ho ducted at 2 p. m. Thursday at the < Zwick ftjneral home, the Rev. H. ’ J. Welty officiating. Burial will j be ip * the Decatur cemetery. I FriendsAmay- call at tire funeral < home asor T o'clock this evening. ( ■ A -'' .

Truce Negotiations Now Deadlocked; Shocked At Prisoners-Of-War Status \ • I. -

Reid Lefevers Is' Given Prison Term , - - . , / ■ ; iz ■ ■■ v ; Death Auto Driver Sint To Reformatory Reid LeFevers, 25, Fort Wayne, who pleaded guilty •, Decembar 2() to reckless homicide in connection with an automobile mishap on U.S. highway 27, north of Decatur on September 8, which resulted in the death of S. A. Smith, of Fort Wayne, was fined 1100 and costs and costs and sentenced to the Indiana, reformatory for from one to five years. The sentence was imposed in Adams circuit cburt at 11 this morning by Judge Myles F. Parristt, who had taken the plea of guilty which was made last week, under advisement. Judge Parrish reviewed the procedure in the before giving the sentence. The' record shows that after LeFevers had pleaded guilty to the second count of the two-count affidavit, prosecutor Severin H. Schurger, on December 21 had filed a motion to dismiss the first count of, the affidavit which charged mansluaghter. T Judge Parrish then read instructions, which he stated he would have read to a jury, had LeFevers pleaded not guilty. “It U not a question of sympathy, but of justice,” the co»rt said. “A life has been taken and this man has pleaded guilty to reckless homicide.” Following the sentencing, LeFevers was ordered to be returned to the Adams county jail to await transportation to the reformatory. Attorney Robert Anderson, appointed by the court shortly after the arrest was made, represented LeFevers at today’s sentencing. J ; . f Miserable Weather On Christmas Day Decafur And County Celebrate Holiday ‘ Christmas in Adams county won over the elements Tuesday and despite sleet, rain and ice outside, the great day was celebrated by hundreds'of-families throughout the county. Many persons who had driven a distance to unite families for the Yuletide' festivities were compelled by the weather to get early starts back home or stay an extra day. Many families celebrated the day with family ‘digfiers, gift distributions and visits to relatives. Business in Decatur was at a standstill and even ijiost of ihb filling stations were closed for the day. Weather was at its worst. The temperature hovered around 33 degrees until late in the evening and sleet and a drizzling rain fell all day long. The sleet, which is usually a headache to electric and telephone lines in the county, was fairly kind. Communications were kept intact throughout the day and little wire damage was \ reported. Electric power continued through the day to aid many housewives to cooking the family dinners. Trees were covered with a coating of ice the rain caused the ice to disappear by midafternoon. Driving conditions were bad and walking was almost as bad, but all this (Tur» Ta Paka Bia) McGill infant Dies Here This Morning * Daniel J. McGill, son of Mr. and Mrs. James If. McGill, died at 9:15 o’clock this morning at the home, 718 Mbrcer avenue, Surviving in addition tb the parents are two brothers, James and M;chael McGill, both at home. Funeral serVcies will be conducted at 2 p? m. Thursday at St. Mary’s Catholic church, the Very Rev,. Msgr. J. J. Seimetz officiating. Burial will be in the Catholic cemetery. The body was removed | to the Gillig & Doan funeral home. ■ v V I <! ' ■

■ ■ r Tragic Death TollOfß4l Over Holiday . Traffic Accidents Kill Over 500 As Death Toll Grows By United Press i Christmas bells tolled tragedy for hundreds of Americans. Traffic accidents killed 543 persons during the four-day holiday and fires claimed 96 mor.: lives.' ■ Miscellaneous types of accidents killed 190 other persons to give the nation a total of 841 accidental deaths during the weekend. Texas counted 96 accidental deaths, 59 pf them in traffic, and California had 66 persons dead in accidents, including 54 highway fatalities. The traffic death rate fell below the 600 predicted by the national safety icouncil. This was attributed to \bumper-high drifts and hazardous driving. conditions which kept thousands of would-be motor- - ists off the roads and caused others to. drive more carefu.ly. New snow storms choked highways and burled parked cars v”»d«r deep white blankets? More than eight inches fell in lower Wisconsin and in the Chicago vicinity. Residents of many large cities abandoned their au.os in drifts and boarded already over loaded public conveyances. In San Francisco, a fleet of 52 planes, was chartered by military authorities to fly home hundreds of Korpa veterans, tiut many servicemen spent Christmas in air> port terminals as flights 17 were de* layed or cancelled by fog. Fires, many caused by faulty stoves and heating equipment, gutted homes which had been gay settings for Christmas reunions. ■ Four firemen were injured and one overcome by smoke f fightipg blazes in Chicago. Seven tenants of a Chicago apartment fled from their homes in one of the fires. In Woburn, Mass., another fire caused an estimated $100,006 damage to St. Charles’ (Catholic) church. The fire broke out a few hours after thousands of worshippers crowded into the 'century-Md church for Christmas masses. At Great Barrington, Mass., a landlady offered suites in her luxurious apartment house to 12 families left homeless by a fire. Mrs. lucille Stanton said she would (Tuna To P»<e six) ; ■/ X' , Mrs. Sophia Smith Is Taken By Death Funeral Services On Friday Morning Mrs. Sophia E. Smith, 83, of 350 Line street, a lifelopg resident of Adams county, died it 5: 30 o’clock Tuesday morning at the Adams county memorial hospital. |she had been ill for the past year with complications qnd serious for three months. Born in Adams county Dec. 5, 1868, she was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Shraluka. Her husband, Michael Smith, precede! her , in death. * She wjas a member of St. Mary’s Catholic c|iurch and the Rosary society. Only survivors are two sisters, Mrs. Beh Schrank and Mrs. Louise Shraluka, both of Fort Wayne.. Funeral services Will be conduct- ‘ ed at 9 a.m. Friday at St. Mary’s 1 Catholic church, the Very Rev. ! Msgr. J. J. Seimetz officiating. Burial will be in the Catholic ceme-. ' tery. The body was removed to the ! Gillig & Doan funeral homP, where 1 ‘-friends may call after 7 o’clock this ■ evening. The Rosary society will recite the rosary at 7; 30 p.m. Thursdays ; ■> ‘ v ■. , .1 i

Price Five Cents

'• . I Communists Claim 571 Prisoners Die Os Disease, Killed By Allied Planes Pfimmunjom, Korea, Thursday, Dec, 27—(UP)—The 30-day deadline for the signature of a Korean armistice expires at midnight tonight (9 a. m. Thursday CST): As of this writing the truce negotiations are deadlocked and the allies havp expressed themselves as ‘‘snocked’’ over tlfe< prlsoners-of-v;ar situation. Therfc are these possibilites: 1— The allies and Communists fright extend thp deadline and \ thus continue the tentative ceasefire line set Npv; 27. 2 — They might let the cease-fire line:lapse. This would mean that* another would have' |o be fixed later, dependlng pn the front line situation at the time. 3— Fighting might break out on a major scale. 4— The “twilight war” might continue as at present, with virground action, in hope that hh armistice will be signed. There 'are some indications' that the deadline may be extended and there is strong belibf that there will', be no explosion qf major , -fighting./ i • , The Communists claimed yesterday that 571 massing American prisoners have been killed by allied planes and guns or have died of disease. Another 152 American prisoners ' have “escaped” and three have been ‘'released,” the. Red truce negotiators told, the U, N. command, the of anothec_332 Americans missing after the Reds captured them are being investigated, the Communists said, t In their statement the Communists sought to account for 1,058 v missipg Gl’s whom the U. N. command lists as having been in Red hands. In addition to'®' them, it was disclosed the allies have now demanded the Communists account for 25' more Americans , and 20 , Britons. The truce negotiations are tightly deadlocked on the refusal of the- Communists to * guarantee against the construction of new air bases in North Korea during an armistice, and their refusal to permit airplane Inspection of the armistice On Nov. 27, and Communist truce teams set'a tentative truce line which would . become permanent if they signed’an armistice within 30 days. The allies ”say there is no hope that the deadline can be met. ‘ ‘UN spokesman Brig. Gen. WllUam P. Npckols called the Com- I report on the 1059 missing menu “shocking” and full of ‘•glaring discrepancies.” He said none of those listed as escaped or rtleased ever reached the U. N. * lines. There was just one favorable development in Wednesday’s truce negotiations: the Reds' handed the U,< N. command team a foot-high pardel containing the mail from allied prisoners in Communist camps ot their families. Urgent preparations were made to forward mail 40 the United States, u >e “shocking” Red report on the prisoners came a little more than 24 hours before the deadline fixed for conclusion of an armistice in 30 days from. Nov. 2,7. The deadline comes at midnight Thursday (9 a. m/ Thursday CST). Negotiators say there is not .the slightest possible chance of agreement by then. Alternatively, there (Turn To Pnee glxf ’ ' \ Good Club Previously reported -__51042.08 Matt & Bill Schplte —a— 2.00 A Friend -3.00 Hank Dierkess.oo St. Vincent de Paul 5.00 ‘ A 1.00 A Friend — — ; 1.00 Smith Drug Co. . 10.00 Friends 2.00 Mr. & Mrs. Ben Shroyer 10.00 The Whole Gang 3.04 FINAL TOTAL $1084.12