Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 51, Number 167, Decatur, Adams County, 17 July 1953 — Page 1

Vol. LI. No. 167.

Red Attack Breaks On ROK Advance ■Ur- .„; S-. .•... _■ < - ~ 5 >JB Kk jp w ■ /s -/t ':wMB IF ' ' BB fl ■MwHK ->■ £%£& -r-' r IFRJs&BJ HHHBB I RADIOPHOTO made on the central front in kprea as American and Republic of Korea troops move to- *‘ z trd V” • - ltied Sniper Ridge where the Reds have thrown full armies against the defenders. Three ROK divisions rolled forward as the counter-attack regained a full mile of the east-central front.

Boost Os Near Half Million In Valuation Taxable Valuation In County Higher By Half Million Improvements on real estate and new buildings constructed in the past year, have boosted the taxable valuation in Adams county $490,415 Albert Harlow, county assessor, ye ported today. J Compilation of taxables, includ-; ing the recent assessment of per- I sonal propery, was made by the I assessor’s office, following tlxgr f ' checking of all assessments by the county board jot r&rtelr. Tj With $1,679,950 deducted in mortgage and soldier exemptions, I the assessed valuation of all property, both real and personal in the county stands at $36,95’,045 this year, compared with_536,494,630 in 1952. The grand total of all taxalhe property will be boated above the ’ 40 million mark, when the state s assessments of railroads, gas and oil lines and other utilities are > added to the tax abstract., ■The two taxing units that comprise the city of Decatur show a gain in real estate improvements and new buildings of $203,400. De-catur-Washington gained $157,270 and Decatur-Root added $46,130 to the column. — Personal Property Lower The assessor’s tax sheet shows that the value of personal properly in the count}' dropped last year from the 1952 total. In 1952 the assessed value, was $14,276,870. This year the total is I $14,222,890. Lower market prices on farm products and livestock account for the decrease, the assessor explained. — Real Estate at $23,995,455 — Real estate was not appraised this year, the carry-over total from 1952 being $26,995,455. Personal property is listed at $14,222,890. 'Mortgage and soldier exemptions are deducted from this combined total. Valuations By Taxing Units The assessed value of all taxables. real estate, improvements and personal property in the var J ious taxing units in the county •follow: Townships: Union. $1,717,570; Root, $2,198,280; Preble, $1,979, ‘ ’‘6so; Kirkland. $1,649,900; Washiiitton. $2,454,590; St. Marys. sl,415,280; Blue Creek. $1,5’7,480; ■Monroe, $2,594,250; French, $1,673,710; Hartford. $1,757,080; Wabash, <M93T7,920; Jefferson, $£381,270. Town of Monroe, $300,370; Monroe in Washington township, $44.000; Geneva, $1,003,430; Berne, $3679,920; Decatur-Washington, $7/ 701, 655; Decatur-Root, $1,968,690. . Decatur-Washington had a gain fT»ir» Tn *lxl Don Davis Speaker I At Rotary Meeting Don Davis, publicity supervisor for the Indiana state fair, was the guest speaker at the weekly meeting of the Decatur Rotary club Thursday evening. Davis, after speaking briefly on this year’s fair, Seq>t. 3-12, showed excellent colored movies taken at the 1952 fair, Indiana’s centennial fair, judged the finest state fair held in the United States last year. Pete Reynolds was chairman of the program.

. DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT . ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY | i ;< i :

Files Final Brief In Appeal Action City Brief Is Filed In Appellate Court City attorney Robert S. Anderson today filed (he final brief in the appeal action to the Indiana appellate court against the Jehovah’s Witnesses of Decatur in the matter of the buildipg of a church at the corner of Monroe and ‘Ninth in alleged violation of a zoning ordinance. i i •• , The appeal stems from a reversal .handed the city by Judge Myles F. I Parrish last year, holding that the city had deprived the religious group of its constitutional rights of freedom of'Worship and that th£ city zoning appeals board had displayed religious prejudice in refusing to grant a variance to the stated ordinance. (In spring Ahdersbn filed a complete transcript of the proceedings with the higher court and later filed his brief* The attorneys for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Custer & Smith and Hayden C. Covington, following this.; filed a reply brief. To this reply brief Anderson today filed the city’s reply brief,) The lines or the litigation are now drawn and a waiting period for the docketing of the case is now all that remains. In attorney Covington’s reply brief, made itliiis month, he reiterates his former-'charge that the city was prejudiced when it denied a variance. Covington also launched into an attack against the five men of the zoning board and the city attorney hithself. The Witnesses contend the ordinance is unconstitutional because it deprives'therji of the right to worship. This is the butt of their argument. | The city hopes to prove to the appellate court that by turning down a variance to the ordinance it was following the ordinance and was not —by making a variance-\-at-tempting to alter tit. The city further holds that it is not required tp make variances to its zoning '(Ordinance and is not committing an unconstitutional act by doing something it does not have to do. | , They state >the Jehovah’s Witnesses invalidated any court action on grounds o! unconstitutionality by following (■xact procedure required by the city, and thereby implied its validity. Anderson said by following 1 1 the letter of the ordinance requirements—filing, appeal to the city. ,an|i so forth —the Witnesses admitted the ordinance was legal and only turned against it when the city board refused to grant a variance. In the brie( the city goes to some length to protest attacks against the characters of the men serving on thf city board: "This writer (Robert Anderson) . . . does certainly object to the unfair, untrue and inaccurate statements made about the five honorable men | who constitute the board of zoning appeals . . J ” The controversial issue is reportedly to come before the appellate court flext September, at the earliest. BULLETIN NEW ORLEANS UP — A tornado awept aero** sections 4of Naw Orleans shortly before noon it o d ay, destroying a church and damaging several buiWingo. First reports indicated no deaths.

South Koreans Deal Damaging Blow To Truce 1.1 1 ■ Rhee Complains On \ ROK Army Retreat Before Offensive SEOUL. Korea (UP) — South Korean officials dealt two damaging blows to prospects for an early aribistice today on the eve of a crucial truce conference at Panmunjom. President Syngman Rhee was reported to have complained to eighth army commander Gen. Maxwell D- Taylor aver the ROK army retreat from the Chinese before the Allies began their counterattack. Rhee, according to Korean sources, 'said the ROK’s had been “chewed up" because they had been held back in anticipation of an armistice. Major Gen. Choi Duk Shin, South Korea’s absentee truce delegate, indicated Rhee would never send another representative to the Panmunjom hut. Choi, who boycotted the talks when the I’nited Nations agreed to the armistice now’ awaiting signature, said he had “no plans" to return to Panmunjom. , “They (the Communists) don’t want peace,” Choi said. “They just want a temporary truce to benefit them.” The Communists have beeb stalling at Panmunjom on the ground that the IT. N. has not given sufficient assurance it can contrpl Rhee and his army following an armistice. Gen. Mark W. Clark, who spent the night at the battlefront, went to Munsan earlier Friday and held a three-hour conference with his chief truce delegate, Lt. Gen. William K. Harrison. Clark returned to Tokyo byway of Seoul. Resent Stalling . WASHINGTON. UP—America’s impatience over Red stalling tactics in the Korean truce talks was near the breaking point again today. There was a strpng suspicion in official quarters that the Communists were up to new mischief. Authorities here regard the new Communist ground offensive as an act of “bad faith.” North Korean and Chinese negotiators a,t Panmunjom wejre understood to have been'told in blunt terms of this American feeling. The session with the Communist negotiators tonight is expected to show greater current Coiqmunist strategy will lead to a truce or more war. Informants said the Allies were fully prepared for either eventuality and that the decision was up to the Reds. U. S. patience has been particularly strained by repeated Communist demands for "guarantees’* that South Korea would abide by a truce once it if signed. This conduct in the face of Allied insistence that the truce will be honored has prompted suspicion of Red motives. INDIANA WEATHER \ Considerable cloudiness with shower* and local thundershower* tonight Saturday partly cloudy with scattered afternoon and evening thundershower*. Somewhat warmer Saturday. Low tonight 6872; high

Decatur, Indiana, Friday, July 17, 1953.

Chinese Communists Forced Back On Korean Front By Allied Troops _ i Lz • ...

New Strikes, Slowdowns In East Germany Revolt Os Workers Against Red Rule In Second Month BERLIN, UP—New strikes and slow downs were reported in the, Soviet zone today as the revolt of workers against Red rule entered its second month and unconfirmed reports said the Soviets were moving tanks and infantry into East Berlin. Refugees said more than 10,000 workers at the Buna synthetic rubber plant in Merseburg walked off the job Thursday. Workers at the nearby Leuna chemical works also were reported out. Strikes and slowdowns in smaller factories were reported in widely separated areas and, according to reports, workers throughout East Germany are refusing to pay dues to the Communist trade union. They are giving the money to families of men arrested by the Reds as rebels. P , Reports that the Red army is moving, heavy reinforcements of tanks and troops into East Berlin" swept West Berlin today. The Soviets called today through their official German language newspaper for talks on unity between West and East Germany, saying it is false to befleve that only the Big Fodr powers can bring about an agreement. The three Western powers have invited Russia to participate in a Four Flower conference this fall to discuss German reunification. Moscow not yet replied to the bid from the United i States, Great Britain and France. The invitation was extended following the conference of the western fort eign ministers in Washington. Taegliche Rundschau, official mouthpiece of the Soviet high commission, also urged in a front-page editorial that the West German elections scheduled for early September be postponed. France, Russia Sign Big Trade Agreement Negotiations Are On With Other Nations By UNITED PRESS Soviet fetissia and France have signed a big three-year trade agreement, it was disclosed today, and reports of negotiations for trade with the Communists came from three other countries. It was announced in Moscow and Paris that- France and the Soviets signed an agreement in Paris Wednesday for an exchange of 168,570,000 worth of goods. Negotiations Cor trade with the Soviets were reported also from the Netherlands and Greece. A United Press dispatch from the Hague said that an unspecified amount of Dutch butter will be exported to the Soviet Union in exchange for Russian j wheat. Negotiations are continuing for an agreement by which the Netherlands will export herding to Russia. An Athens dispatch said Greek and Soviet negotiators have agreed tentatively to annual exchanges of $10,000,000 worth 'of goods, end that negotiations afe under way for exchanges with Communist East Germany and Czechoslovakia. A Hong Kong dispatch quoted the Communist New China News Agency as saying that an unofficial British trade delegation now in Peiping had signed contracts for two-way trade with Communist China totalling about $72,000,000. However, these contracts may never get British government' approval. ;I. I :

” ' —+- Record Collection { Os Takes Last Year I g Federal Treasury Sfets New Records • ‘‘2 WASHIiNGTON UP — The federal treasury collected a recorjd •$«,595.916.068.2W in taxes last yea’t. iPersopal income tax payments accounted for the hulk of the itj4rease, a treasury collection rfe* port showed today. It covered t«m collections on everything from e|cess profits to playing cards fp fiscal 1953, the 12- - month period through June. f The total collection was $4,58(k---331,408.71, about 7 per cent, inorfe than in fiscal 1952, but it was nqk, enough to prevent the from running up a peacetime record deficit of $9,389,000,000. . J? Individual income tax Recounted for $36,948,806,969.3|, iqore than halif the total. This wits a $3,471408,158.40, or 10 per cen| gain over fiscal 1952. f It was also 10 per cent mojlk than formef President Truman haW anticipated before he left theWhite House in January. | Corporation tax collections i|H creased negligibly, and fell 9 ntfr cent below Mr. Truman’s estimates. Corporations anted up s2l|t or $8d,405j6>16.12 more than in fiscal 1962. In January Ms. •Ttaiman had anticipated -a we their $2,200.000,00<r from this revenn® source. . iPresent indications point to bigger business tax payments in tbfe current fiscal year because of a 'better profits situation. individual income tax rates ar|' due by law to.go down 10 per cert next Jan. 1, simultaneous -with cj& ; piration of the excess profits tai on corporations. Contributing to the fiscal 19*»t revenue increase was a $1,019,98h| 959.58 gain in miscellaneous colled| tions from excise, gift, occupations al, estate, alcohol, tobacco, and playing card levies. Combined, these totaled $10,824,286,257.50. Unemployment insurance tax receipts rose $13,836,475.61 to total $273,452,907.02. , The government got its \biggest take, as usual, from Neiw York state/lt was $12.900.157,997.84. Fol? lowing among the states were IL’i| noisf $5,862,196,315.77; $M50,252,390.50; California $5,265,# 2w,715.70; Pennsylvania, $5463,| (Tan To atx) i. Local Man's Father Is Taken By Death Edward Horror, 58, of Fort; Wayqe, died Wednesday at the? Lutheran hospital in that city aft er an illness of Iff months. Surj viving are his wife, Margie; 'twq; sons, Everett of Bluffton and; Dwight of Decatur; and two brothers. Ross and' Job of Bluffton. 1 Funeral services will be cons, ducted at 3 p.m. Saturday at the| C. M. Sloan & Sons funeral home,| with, burial in Prairie Grove ceih-| etery. ■'V I \ _ * Two Boys Killed As [ Fire Destroys Home 7 Other Children 1 | Escape Uninjured CORYDON, Ind., UP — Twa small boys were killed and seven? other children escaped unhurt ear-| ly today when fire destroyed theiri farm home near Bradford. The I oldest, 19-year-old Nina' Babbitt, made two frantic at-| tempts to save her brothers, Dar-j rell, 3, and John D., 4, after res 4 cuing two infants, but fierce? flames forced her back. ; Authorities said Nina and p 12-. year-old sister awoke about 12:30 a.m. to discover -their six-room, frame houae filled with smoke.; Their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Alon-| sb Babbitt, went spending the? night at New Albany, where they’ operated a vegetable market. | The girls roused three older rtW® T« Peae Slot)

Sen. McCarthy Is Under New Heavy Attack New Investigator For McCarthy Is Saidj Incompetent WASIUNGTON UP — Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy came under heavy new attack today as the ■ ’state department's information chief branded 'bis newest investigator “completely incompetent or downright malicious.” Tn the sharpest language he has used yet. Dr. Robert L. Johnson lashed out at Karl Baarslag, who was sworn in Thursday as researeh director of McCarthy’s permanent investigating subcomniittee. : ' \ Johnson condemned Baarslag's published] charge that U. S. over- ; seas libraries “just don’t go in for anti-Soviet literature.” This statement. said Johnson, ip “patently false and clearly damaging to thp vital interest of the x\n|ierican people abroad." Johnson asked (McCarthy in a letter made public Thursday night 5 4ik2 up ? ly r r*K»r* Ing sttrvef on which Baarslag said he based his charge. He also “suggested" that the research director; be called to testlNeither' McCarthy nor Baarslag whs immediately available comment. Sen. Charles E. Potter . R-IMich., a subcommittee member. said he would have to study Johnson’s letter before taking a position. (Baarslag, former head of the American Legion's counter-espion-age activities, was quoted inr Thursday’s New York World-Tele-gram and Sun as saying he was “aimazed” at what he found during a recent tour df U. libraries sovierseas. “It was possible to findil pro Cdmmunist volumes" he was quoted' as reporting. “But it was? im3sible to locate anything in the ure of anti-SoViet publications.” n reply, Johnson said the detment had found onlr 39 books by| “known Communists” in the fTara To P»« Kl*ht) Roe Funeral Rites Sunday Afternoon ; Mrs. Catherine Roe Dies In Michigan Funeral services will be hel<a Sunday afternoon for Mrs. Catherine Roe, 85, who, died Thursday at the hohie of a daughter, Mrs. "Mary Coppack, at Albion, Mich., after a long illness. She was born in Crawford county, 0., Sept- 27, 1867, a daughter of John and Rosana Easeley-Blck el, and was married in 1884 to Nathan Roe. Her husband died in 1937. Mrs. Roe lived in Blut Creek township for 53 years be fore moving to Albion with her daughter. Surviving are six daughters. Mrs. Coppack, Mrs. Laura Saums of Fort Wayne, 'Mrs. Flossie Johnson of Lausburg, Canada, Mrs. Orva Carver, of Galveston; Mrs. Pearl Selbee of Battle Creek, Mich., and Mrs. Florence Lyons of Cleveland. O,; two sons, Rawley Roe of Fort Wayne and Fredrick Roe of Geneva; 39 grandchildren, 71 greatgrandchildren and bix great-great-grandchildren. Services will be held at 1:39 p. m. Sunday at t|e home of a grandson, Raymond Roe, near Salem, the Rev. Vernon Riley officiating. Burial will be in Spring Hill cemetery. The body has been removed from the Loben--stein funeral home to the Rayipond Roe residence, where friends may call until time of the sef? vices.

■ j ' ’ -0- , , t ! i Denies Deferment To j u.' i. Cong. Beamer's Son ■j ■ i , • j National Director r Denies Deferment ■. f i • • i ■ INDIANAPOLIS. Ind. UP — The Indiana selective service director announced today that Maj. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey,, national selective service director, has denied further deferment from induction (or the son of Rep. John V. Beamer R4nd. \ The entire Wabash, ln<l. coun-, ty draft boaVd resigned in a body Tuesday, saying “political influence’ ’had been used to keep John V. Beamer Jr., '24, the congressman’s son, out of ,service on an occupational deferment. He now has -been made available for early induction, according to Lt. Col, Frank R. Kossa, sthte director of selective service, s J Kossa announced he 4’as informed by telephone from Washington that Hershey “disallowed” the request of Procter and Gamble. Beamer’s employer, for pccupational deferment.: Beamer’s (tie is being' returned to the Wabash counfy dra(t board office. Kossa also announced a new five member board has been appointed to replace the three resigned 1 members. H ij.l; ■ The new members are Wilbur ’ H. Large; Fred C. Eb--1 hlfighotii; North Manchester; John ’ A. Collinge, Lewis H. Kretzmeier * and Arthur Tomson, all of Wabash. Kossa said the appointments, made Thursday when three state j draft officials me*t with the old board at Wabash, already were confirmed by the President. Kossa also announced (that Indiana is “now. in the process” of increasing the i size of all local draft boards from three to five members. lie said about 30 boards ( already are made up of five member<. ' Purpose of the larger boards is i /Tur» To PM* ii ij —u* —r - ". i Warns On Excessive ] Use Os Waler Supply Water Situation In City Rated ( Serious Mayor John Doan today called the city's water situation “serious” and asserted he would call for enforcement of a city ordinance if there was not an immediate stoppage of unnecessary 'usage of water. Mayor Doan pointed with alarm to the fapt that many of the city’s water cisterns —16 feet in depth—were a mere five feet from the bottom and a serious situation was developing. Hot w'eather, always a threat to the city’s usually adequate water supply, said the mayor, was causing people to water their lawns and forcing the water department to pump untreated water into the mains. Said the mayor: “I would not like to have to enforce the city ordinance against any unwarranted use of water, and I ask the cooperation of the public in ceas ing. at .this time, all watering of lawns, sidewalks and car washes.” City engineer Ralph Roop declared the shortage lias forced the water department to run 65-grain hard water directly into the mains ' from the homestead well, south of town. In addition, said Roop, to Jacking the hardness of the soft water from 6-grain hard to' about 39-grain hard, the fact that water from the south well was being pumped north against the norihal flow of water from north to south, was resulting in a “riling” of water in the mains. He explained that pte water coming from the opposite direction was disturbing the sediment at the bottom of the mains and leading it info homes: It was also learned that; wells Nos. 1 and 6 were being pjimped directly Into the mains, bypassing the water treatment plant: completely. /I .

Pricr Five Cental

Heavy Losses Sustained By Chinese Reds 14,200 Men Killed, 6,800 Wounded- In Attacks In Korea SEOUL, j Korea UP — The Chinese Communists who smashed an estimated eight miles into; the central front are being forced back .uinder a combined infantry-tank-artillery-plane attack are kurrenduring in big numbers, front dispatches said today. - Gen. Maxwell D, Taylor, com- 1 manding the Bth arnjly, said the ; front is now stabilized, 'and that j the United Nations forces are pressing forward; Eighth ? army headquarters said that the Reds lost 14,200 men killed and 6.800 wounded in, the week ended Tuesday— and casually rate has shot upward “since then. Regrouped, ’ reinforced U: N. troops gained up to 1.000 yards —• more than halt a miie — on the left flanlt Friday after gaining one mile Thursday. Three attacking South Korean divisions seized two vital objectives in ? the second day of their drive to: the ncrth- Friday. The tankried second ROK corps had to fight savagely to wrest the two bill: masses from the retreating Reds. I “Things are looking much better." an American adviser to the ROK’s said. “Our attacks are going very • we 11,.” 4 United Press front dispatches described tank - infantry teams ? knifing into the Chinese lines in nutcracker atiackers and said one dominating hill had been recaptured by storm in Friday’s advance after an all-day battle.| The 1 dispatches told how hundreds of Allied plants hurled flaming napalm gasoline jelly the Chinese to burn them to death. Other planes dropped bombs and massed artillery poured hundreds of tons of shells into the enemy lines. I I- ' • “The Chineste are surrendering all over the place.” an American advisory officer on the western said, ji ? Tank crews are asking “what to do . with all these Chinks." “Following the Communist attack on the Kumsong front . . tha eighth army has Succeeded in stabilizing the front,” Taylor said. The four - star general said American and South'Korean troops, fighting against overwhelming odds, recovered “rapidly fTom the heavy blows struck by an Estimated 10 enemy divisions.” “Commanders have regrouped their units and have pressed back to contact with the enemy in-the first resumption of open warfare in nearly two years,” Taylor said. Other reports from the frotst ' said the ; big Allied offensive against the IQO.OOO-man Red army in the central front bulge’ touched off a Chinese surrender in such great numbers that the advance /TWr* T* PM* K»«M» Decatur Boy Scout f Writes Os Trip, Setting JUp Camp Bob Ochsenrider, one of nine 'Decatur Boy Scouts attending the annual jamboree, which opened formally in California today, has written to the Daily Democrat briefly of their early experiences. “Our first stop was at Chicago, where we stayed tor one morning, visiting several interesting spots. From then on, it was a straight trip, through Kansas City and Amarillo, Tex. h “We arrived at Santa Ana Tues* day, July 14, and at once started setting up camp. The California • breeze gave us a little trouble but after a little struggle, we got our tent up. The breeze, however, is fine. From where we are situat- • ed, we can see the Pacific dqean. We are having a fine time."