Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 50, Number 72, Decatur, Adams County, 25 March 1952 — Page 1

Vol. L. No. 72.

One Os Three Lost Tots Survives Storm w* ,|A 11 fl fl f \p ■ ■ ak r * J- *■ s • ..jiKaREaHiM •i -f | • ". : ■ *Wfr I - K I ' f ' »li, ■ ■ X HUP 1 wO ; i MIXED EMOTIONS show on the faces of Mr. nad Mrs. Arnold Church of Lockwood,’ Wis., with the Andmg alive of their little girl, Mary Ann (right), and the frozen bodies of her sister, Cathy, and her cousin, Steve Kennedy, both 5. The children were lost 40 hours after chasing a porcupine into the woods during a snowstorm. Searchers in snowcoyered Nicolet National Forest came upon Mary Ann “sunning herself” on the porch of a winter-closed lodge, three miles from her home. Nearby were the bodies of the other children. Taken to Oconto Falls hospital, Mary Ann’s condition was said to be "good", she having suffered only slight frostbite of her fingers and toes._

Three Men Loot Armored Truck Os $600,000

Danvers, Mass., March 25; —(UP) —Three men looted in armored truck of $600,000. today in the biggest cash robbery since Brink’s, Inc., and within two hours two men were seized in New Hampshire and a third was, believed trapped in Everett, Massl in Madbuf|r; N.H,, some 50 miles north of bu|sy Dahvers Square, where the jobbery occurred, one man was wounded and captured with his companion after a highway chase by a state trooper. Meanwhile, in Everett, 15 miles south of here, where the robbers’ stolen car Was found abandoned, some 50 police combed an area where another suspect was believed to have holed up. A bloodhound was. J>rought in in an attempt to pick Up his trial on tile clty r streets. H it was not known immediately if the two NeW Hampshire men were involved in the looting, since police ■refused to discuss that chase. However, both were brought to Dover, N.H., for questioning in the Danvers robbery—the biggest since Brink’s. Inc., was robbed of $1,219.000 at Boston in' January 1950. State trooper Clifton Hildreth wounded one of the men in the leg. He had set up u la’’roadblock when warned by radio that police, were chasing the pair. Hildreth forced the men’s, car off the highway and, when they tried to flee afoot, fired. The pair were identified as Norman Vaile, of Boston,\ who was wounded, and Joseph William Kelley, of Mass. The men were in a tan Hudson automobile. Valievas hospitalized but was not in serious condition. Broadcast Testimony Os William H. Oatis Frangfurt, Germany. March 25. — (UF) —Prague radio broadcast yesterday the testimony of American correspondent William N. Oatis in the March 15 tfiai of alleged accomplices with whom he co.mmitted espionage. \ • Oatis, convicted/ and sentenced by Czechoslovakia last July, 4, “admitted” in a- recording of .the trial that he had been ordered to find out about “military preparations going on” in certain Czech towns. i ; The 38-year-old Associated Press Prague bureau apanager answered in a low monotone questions put to him in English by a woman court interpreter. Oatis was arrested in April. 1951, on charges of being a U.S. spy. Burns Prove Fatal To Anderson Woman Anderson, Ind.. March J—-Mrs. Clara Lane, 46, died yesterday of burns suffered nine days -before. She was burned when an ■ oil stove exploded in the Lane home north of here. INDIANA WEATHER Partly cloudy, no important temperature changes tonight and Wednesday. Low tonight + 25-34 north, 33-42 south. High Wednesday 38-45 north, 45-52 south.

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT * ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAM 3 COUNTY

Commissioners Set Election Pay Scale • o. Salaries Set For ■ Primary Election The Adams county commissioners finished a busy special session late Monday afternoon by setting: the salaries of primary election work? ers. Inspectors will draw S2O for their work in the May 6 election. Other rates [set as follows: Clerks. $9; judges, $9. and 1 sheriffs. $6- . ; . ' Floyd Myers, Blue Creek town* ship trustee, was authorized by the board to purchase some new pieces of lumber to replace some stolen from the Kinsey school: in Jthat township. The lumber was part of the election booths which had been stored in that school!. *• | | In the schedule cff cattle testing announced yesterday alter a conference of the commissioners and Dr. Watson, in chajrge of the project. it was stated that Dr. Edward Peck wquld start] the work in Union township. Dr. Peck's,schedule calls for first I work in Root township and it is, likely he then will follow with testing in Union township. ] ; Alfred Grote. Union township, appeared before the: commissioners concerning a petition, recently filed. for the stoping of a dirt road, county*' road numbef in section 29. The petition asks for the improving of 40 rods a half ’mile of county road. The commissioners are studying the petition, but it is not believed likely that any action will be taken immediately. It i| the general opinion that other roads need the stone and County highway labor more urgently at the present time. Herman Seeley, Muncie, conferred with the compiissioners concerning a inventory used by counties to keep a running inventory of all cpunty highway equipment. The project is .recommended by state association of county commissioners and hast the approval of the state board of accounts. . - ' | | The plan calls so" a complete inventory of all. rolling stock and otl\er equipment of the highway department. Then the inventory would be kept up to date when equipment was purchased or disposed of. No action was taken Monday. The commissioners: also informally studied the advisability of compelling a contract with the county and any private utility firm which erects pipe lines across the county. This study is being continued and was brought up yesterday, because in the past * private firms have abused county roads And bridges when erecting the lines. * A plan was submitted to ask any utility firm, prior to uaipg lieavy equipment on bridges or digging into highways, to furnish a SIO,OOO bond with the agreement that] any damage will be repaired, I ■ ' " County attorney Ed A. Bosse was asked to study the matter," add if (T«ru To Poce , |

Truce Parley Conlinuei ' n News Blackout Make New Attempt To Break Deadlock On War Prisoners Panmunjom, Korea, March 25 — (UP) —Allied negotiators mes with the Communists under a newly-im-posed news blackout and made a new attempt today to break a deadlock in the prisoner of war discussions. ’ U.N.» staff submitted a "preliminary statement” on a Communist proposal made March 5 to continue negotiations for exchanging prisoners of war on the basis of alfeady exchanged. j There was no indication what the United Nations command said, since the statement was ? made in secret sessidn. But observers believed it was either a new version of aj previous statement, rejecting Communist proposals, or an invitation to the Communists to altar their original proposals, i I Meanwhile, staff pfflcers in the next conference telit disposed of the ports of entry issue and resumed debate on a Communist proposal to name Russia as a “neutral” truce inspector, U.N. and Communist Officers took only 20 minutes to decide to make the prisoner talks secret. Each side had previously expressed the view that the stalemate might be broken if negotiators were granted “limited privacy.”. j : After the U.N. submitted its preliminary statement,, the negotiators declared a half-hour recess. Then they exchanged "clarifying” questions ana answers;. The meeting lasted one”hour and 35 minutes. \A formal press policy determining how news of the item four talks will be handled by the U.N; command was released today. It said: “Details of the day-to-day discussion in item four will be withheld in order to permit the representatives of both sides fl> express themselves freely, informally and frankly without any implication of a commitment prior to the full development of their respective .views.” 5 The announcement said the policy will be reversed if the Communists try to take advantage of it. Down One Mig Seoul. Korea, March 25. —(VP) — American Sabrejets shot down one Communist Mig-15 and probably shot down two others east of Sinan; ju today when 60 Red jets swarmed towards a bombing party of allied planes'attacking North Korean targets near Manchuria. Thirty-two Sabres, screening jet and propellor-driven fighter-bomb-ers. held off the Migs while; their slower-flying partners cut a vital rail track between Chongju and Sinanju in 115 places. On the ground, onei allied patrol engaged 300 enemy soldiers working on bunkers west of the Mundungni valley on the eastern front. The U.N. infantrymen withdrew just before dawn, leaving behind them several dead Communists.’ The North Korean radio Pyongyang said one allied destroyer was sunk near Hung nam on the east coast of Korea yesterday. The broadcast gave no further details.

Decatur, Indiana, Tuesday, March 25, 1952.

Six Persons ! Killed In Fire . In Los Angeles Flash Fire Sweeps Hotel Upper Floors In City's Skid Row Los Angeles, Mar. 25-j-(UP)— A flash fire swept the upper floors of the St. George hotel In the heart of Los Angeles' skid row today, killing Mix persons. / Only the heroic efforts jof nlgbV clerk Leland Whitehouse kept toll from soaring higher. The blase was one of three major fires that lighted jthe Los Angeles skies early this mbrning. More than 50 of the hotel’s residents were temporarily overcome by smoke, but only 10 persons were hospitalized. > Five missionary students kneeled on the sidewalk across the Street from the ravaged hotel, praying for the victims ajf the charred bodies were removed from) the hotel. j ! I The- blaze was reported tq Whtiehouse shortly after '3 a. mi when a tenant on the top floor phoned, Screaming: - | “The entire top floor is on fire.” Whitehouse rode the elevator to the fourth floor arid then raced room to room, awakening the unsuspecting residents with shouts of: “Fire, fire." Then he returned to hi? switchboard post, phoning tenants in the" lower floors. The lobby was uri by flame but filled with Vmoke. One of the dead was a man who . hung tenaciously on a top floor ledge, qnly to lose his grasp and Plummet to his death. The ether victims suffocated. Their bodies were found huddled in bed or on the floor, mute evidence that they sought to crawl to windows nad safety. At least 15 persons leaped to the safety of fire nets. Others scampered down ladders. Screaming victims were heard <Tar» To Paca six) | .r.■ ■/M I j Court House Clock On Daylight Time [ Board Also Orders p Striker Be Repaired The court house clock, a Decatur landmark, not only is going to strike tl)e hour again, it is goipg to register daylight saving time after the last, Saturday in April. This was the junanimous decision of the Adams county board of commissioners in special session Monday. Jesse Suttori, proprietor of Sutton's Jewelry store and official custodian of the clock, conferred with the commissioners for some time Monday Concerning repair of the striking machinery of the clock. The commissioners authorized Sutton to ( purchase a new motor and other- necessary equipment to repair the striker The board also Increased the pay of coring for the clock to $l2O a year. L ‘ i LH Afetr this action was completed, the board voted unanimodsly to move the hands of the clock up to Coincide with daylight saving time; which is the unofficial tixne of Decatur merchants and factories from the last Saturday in April until the last Saturday in September. Last year the town clock, as it is generally known, remained on central standard time, causing considerable confusion, especially to out-of-town visitors and shoppers.

•dentot, lltedttatiw ■ < ! ' ! ' ' a‘ \ (Rev. Jonas M. Berkey. First Christian Church!) raiENDsmr with god "And he that sent me is with me: he hath not left me alone; for I do always the things that are pleasing > to him." —John 8:29. \ Only one man of all those who have lived on this earth could truthfully say the words of the text. That man was Jesus Christ. anjJ these are His words. But though none of us can truthfully say that we always do the things that are pleasing to God, we at least can do our very best to please God. Jesu£ Christ as a man should be the perfect example for each one of us because He also was and is God’s only begotten Son. There is only one way to be a friend to God and that is to submit and obey. God |cnows all: we know little. The person who makes himself a “friend of the world makes himself ait enemy of Goa.” \ r ' v :If we are God’s friend, He will never jail us: even though all of our worldly friends forsake us. He is with us now and He will not desert us in time of need. i . j i

May Ask Truman Change Steel Offer

Heart Attack Fatal To Clifton Sprunger Berne Witness Head Dies Last Evening Funera} services for: Clifton H. Sprunger, 58, president and general manager of the Berne Witness company, civic and business leader, will bi. held Thursday at 2 p.in t at the First "Mennonite . church in Berne. Contact with the Rev. Olin Krehbiel, pastor, w-ho left yesterday for Kansas, was made today. He will conduct the service. The body will be moved from the Yager funeral home to the Sprunger residence, 1 262 Lehman street, wftete friends may call after 6:30 p.rh. today. The body will lie in state in the church from'Thursday noon until the funeral hour. Burial will be in the MRE cemetery. , Mr. Sprunger’s death occurred at 6:10 Monday evening while he was attending the weekly Rotary meeting in the auditorium. He was sitting as a table with Dr. Myron Habegger and other Rotarians When seized with the attack. His L head dropped to one Side and his companions came to his aid and removed him from the room. Dr. Habegger pronounced him dead). Mr. Sprringer. a native of Berne, Was a veteran of World War I and Was in relief work in Europe for approximately a year following World War 1. He was in YMCA work for 20 years before returning to Berne in 1944 to head ths publishing company. Mr. Sprunger served as membership secretary of the Fort Wayne YMCA for 20 years, also being in similar work at Wheeling, W. Va., and at Mation. He was a charter member and .a former president of the Rotary club. He was a member of Berne Chamber of Commerce and active in that organization. Recently he was named to several of the committees that were planning Berne’s centennial celebration next August. He was a graduate of Berne high school, class of 1912. of Bluffton College, Bluffton, O. He qlso was a teacher in the Berne schools and iecehtly completed two terms on the Berne school board. . Surviving arp the wife, Mrs. Naoini Haecker Sprunger; a daughter, Miss . Barbara Sprunger, at borne; a son, James, a student at Bluffton College; a brother, Ellis H. Sprunger, Detroit, and four sisters. Miss Inda Sprunger and Mrs. W’aldo,Lehman of Berne, Mrs. Noah SOldner, near Pandora, 0., and MfS. Troyer, in Japan. I. Traffic Fines Aid School Library Bloomington, Ind., March 25.— (UP)—Traffic violators at Indiana University have unwittingly made a valuable contribution to the school's extensive of historical documents, it was annouced today. j i , Campus traffic fines paid by Indiana University faculty members enabled the university’s library td acquire the journal kept by a navy chaplain on the last cruise of the famous frigate “constitution” in the war of 1812. Findes assessed against faculty members are used for the -purchase of library items, and student fines go into a scholarship fund.

Fresh Storm Moving Over Western Area Rain, Snow Squalls Poking Ney Threat In Mountain Area By United Press A fresh storm moved over the Rocky mountains today toward snow-smothered Nevada as the tor-nado-ravaged sections of the south Worked at their massive cleanup l ob - > The weather bureau said the new ktorm packed rain and snow squalls. Forecasters I would give no promise that “operation haylift” could be. resumed so thfffc planes could needed fodder to the Starving cattle of the area. i The snow—worst in 60 years—blocked the movement of seven trans-continental trains. Major crosscountry highways were partly blocked, with oneway traffic perjn|tt‘ed in a fe>jw cases. Farther to the east in North and South Dakota, t ie problem of starving livestock rhached the critical stage. Reports of snow-marooned cattle dying of starvation came in from several points. | North Dakota Gov. Norman Brunsd-ale said some farmers had been snowed in for four or five weeks. And; South Dakota Gov. Sigurd Anderson appealed for a voluntary “self-help” program to open the road in 36 snowbound counties. ' - Generally, however, the weather was good throughout the nation. But sunny skies and mild temperatures brought with them a new threat— floods. ' Already warnings have been issued that any extended period of w-arrn weather accompanied by some spring rains will loose the snowpack and send high waters rushing down on lowland areas,. New Meiico and the Dakotas have received such warnings and the Brin Joaquin valley oA the west side of the Sierra Nevada mounj tains m California has begun flood emergency preparations. Some flooding already was started in the' south. \ The sun "also shone on the south, \ <Tum To Pace Six) Says Free Europe Can Avert Attack Gruenther Testimony Is Well Received Washington, March 25. —(VP)— Geh. Alfred M. GrUenther told congressmen today he believes that free Europe, with America’s help, can keep Russia from attacking the virest. i Gruenther is chief of staff in Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's North Atlantic pact coinmand in Europe. He testified before the senate foreign relations committee yesterday and the house foreign affairs committee today on/ the administration’s $7,900,000,000 foreign aid bill. His “selling job,” in Eisenhower’s behalf, appeared to have taken some of the steam out of a movement in the senate foreign relations committee to bring Eisenhower home for personal testimony. Gruenther’s testimony appeared to satisfy many committee members, including some who voted last week to invite Eisenhower back to testify in jy-rson on the European aspects of military and “defense support" aid. ; Russia has the world’s “finest” army, an “effective air force, and five times more submarines than Germany had at the outset of World War 11, Gruenther told the house group, j With these forces at her command, Gruenther said, Russia has “great capabilities' against “meager forcba.” But Eisenhower and the NATO staff are “very definitely convinced,” Gruenther said, that the U.S. military aid program will keep Russia from deciding to ' attack.western Europe. “I don’jt think they are going to make that decisidn (tri attack),” 1 (Tara To Pa*« aix) 1

i I ■ j; - Italian Students Protest On Trieste Massed In Front Os 1 American Embassy Rome, Italy, Mar. 25 — (UP) — Pciice used tear gas, clubs and streams of red-dyed water today to disperse 6,000\ shrieking, stonethrowing students who massed -in front of the American embassy shouting “down with the United States.’’ In Naples a mob of 16,000 broke ■tnrough\ a police barricade to march on hie United States consulate. . ' The disorders marked -the second day of: riotous protests, in which students from 12 to 25 years old demanded the return of Trieste to Italy. More than jOO demonstrators were arrested here and in'J<aplea, and dozens were injured in Clashes in which the mobs threw atonia i-nd broken glass gnd the police their clubs. But’ in Rome the clubs did not suffice. The police first turned fire-hoses on the students and drenched them with red-dyed water, then used tear gas. The demonstrators here demanded an audience with j American minister Llwellyn E. Thompson. The embassy security officer told the leaders: “Come back without a mob and we will be happy to receive some of you. But we do not intend to be intimidated.” 1 The Rome rioters 'hurled stones at police and private cars. The New York license plates, windshield wipers arid other equipment of a car belonging; to T. F. Donnelley. maritime attache of the mutual: security agendy, were torn The crowd in front of the American embassy tried to present a formal protest against: policies of the Uriited States, Great Britain and Yugoslavia, and demanded “liberty to Trieste.”' { Motorized police riot squads stood by iin downtown Rome ready to go into action if necessary. However, the demonstration largely was orderly, in contrast to yesterday’s clashes between students and police. . - - Licensed Nursing Homes In Indiana \ Indianapolis, March 25.— (UP)— The state department of public welfare announced today there are 300 licensed nursing homes *ln Indiana. Maurice O. Hunt, state welfare administrator, isaid the .number of homes meeting licensing requirements has risen from 29 in 1945 to the present number. The 300 homes have facilities to care: for about 4,500 patients. John L. Myers Dies At Willshire Home Funeral Services To Be Wednesday John L. Myers, 84-, retired farmer, 1 died Monday evening: at bi® home -in Willshire. 0., following an illness of five weeks. He was born in Adams county Sept. 11, 1867, son of James and I’redercika Loy-Myers, and was married to Alice Evans Dec. 25, 1892. The family moved to Willshire 12 years ago after Myers retired from active farming. Surviving Ln addition to his wife are four daughters. Mrs. Hazel DeArmond of Rockford, 0., Mrs. Bernice Acheson, Mrs. Fred Jewel and Mrs. Lois Geisler, alLof Willshire; two sons, Herman Myers of WHlshlre and Homer Myers of Seattlej,\wash.; 12 grandchildren; six. gregt-grandchildren, and o»e brother, Joe Myers of Decatur. One sister is deceased. Funeral services will be held at 2 p. m. (EST) Wednesday at the Willshire Methodist church, the Rev. W. A. Turner officiating. Burial will be in the Willshire cemetery. The body has been removed from the Zwiqk funeral home jto the residence, where friends may call until time of the services.

— Price Five Cent*

Sees Proposed Wage Boost As Serious Threat Recommendations By WSB Reviewed By Roger Putnam Washington, »far. 25 — (UP) — Mobilziation authorities said today that President Truman may be asked to change the wage stabilization board’s steel wage recommendations If they are i found to violate wage ceilings. A spokesman for defense mobilizatiou director Charles E. Wilson said the board’s wage recommends rions are being reviewed now by economic stabilizer Roger L. Put- - nam. He said Putnam is expected to submit a formal report to Wilson in the next 48 hours and that Putnam then can. turn the question over to Mr. Truman. Wlison said last night on his return from a conference with Mr, ■ Truman at Key West, Fig.; that the board’s recommended wage increases, amounting to 17% cents >• ian hour in Three t installments • spread over the next 18 months, ’’would be a serious threat” to the i economic stabilization program. ) He announced that he would call • in steel industry and union, leadt ora to disduss “a whole series of - plana” for settling the wage diss pute wheih threatens to result in i a nationwide steel strike April 8. Philip Murray, president t»f the • CIO and of the steelworker? union, angrily accused Wilson of trying ’ to “wreck the entire wage stabi- . llzation program” and said bis union will spurn an invitation to meet with .Wilson. There were these other developments as the prospects .of peace in the steel industry took a sudden turn for the worse: 1 — Three industry members of the wage board charged tljat the WSB is not working to prevent inflation and should be disbanded it is “serving’ no useful purpose/’--2— Nathan P. Fenisinger. chairman of the board, canceled a speaking engagement, at Chicago and devided to fly directly to Washington from Denver. Another public member of the board said it will be u|p to Feinsinger to call a board meeting to discuss the situation, as requested by labor members. , -j >’ 3— A spokesman for Wilson said the defense mobilizer stilt intends to go through with his plan for conferences with union and management officials and also will hold separate conferences with Putnam and Feinsinger. spokesman said Wilson has a series of plans, all bearing Mr. Truman’s approval, which he hopes will resolve the wage dispute without touching off another inflationary spiral. 1 j . The White House declined comment on Murray’s charge against Wilson. George Armstrong, an Industry - member of the wage board, said he and his industry colleagues will not .quit the boar|d. But he said in a statement that they thirik the ! oard "should be disbanded by higher authority.” He sair the board was set up. to prevent inflation and settle disputes, but that ' disputes are being “created” because unions think they can get more in wage hikes from the board than in cdllective bargaining. The steelworkers union had accepted the board’s recommendation 7 for a 36 crints-an-hour “package” increase — 17% cents in 1 wage boosts and 8% cents In “fringe” benefits—as a basis for settling the dispute. The board had said last week tha< the "package” increases could be granted within present stabilization rules, Murray bluntly refused to consider Wilson's new proposals for heading off the steel strike. His statement carried the threat of a ; future union boycott of the wage board.' . z ' z