Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 51, Number 190, Decatur, Adams County, 13 August 1953 — Page 1

Vol. LI. No. 190.

-i Paris Strike Hits Tourist Trade - — ' ' ' - - ■ 1 i * OiL ■ I V ■ HL 1 • Lz t i _trrei^P'JSMg^”*i Hhm! b ~~** — ~ 1 AMERICANS IN FRANCE are being hard hit by the growing general strike against the economic poliI t ies of Premier Joseph Laniel. Because of the rail tie-up no boat trains are running and passengers arriving on the SS United States are being transported from La Havre to Paris by motor coach. Here a group of passengers find .themselves being dumped with their baggage in the forecourt of the Invalides in Pans. Many tourists are already fleeing the strike torn country. j ~

More Quakes Rocking (keek Islands Today \ 22 New Tremors In Greece; Are Worst In Modern History ATHENS, Greece UP — Twenty-*. - Jwo new tremors shook the fabled lonian Islands today and mountains have been split open and entire swept into, the seU in the worst earthquake in modern Greek history. - Rescue ships from the U. S. sixth 1 fleet and British vessels from the Mediterranean squadron rushed to the almost-destroyed islands of Cephalonia. Ithaca and Zante as the estimated death toll rose above 500. AH estimates of casualties are sketqhy. Destruction is so great it will, be days or weeks ’before all bodies are found. “Mountains are splitting open, then sinking as if volcanoes had exploded,” George Lydias of the newspaper Vradyni reported from the desolated Cephalonian capital of Argostolion. “The whole earth is shaking with -A terrible underground noise.” he said.i - ' . / “People mad w’ith fear are throwing tt|emselves into the sea.” his colleague, John Voutsinas, said. On Cephalonia., the cities of Lixouri, Sami and Aghia Efthimia, as well as Argostolion. were in ruins. ♦ The mainland cities of Patras and Missolonghi. where the English poet Lord Byron died fighting for Greek independence, were hard--I hit. The British cruiser Gambia reported that firfes were raging through what-was left of the ruined port of Zante, capital of the is- 7 land of that name. The USS Salem, sixth fleet flagI ship, reached Argostolion with medical teams, hospital supplies, food, water and two helicopters. The U. S. embassy here put the whole sixth fleet at the disposal of the Greek government if needed for rescue operations. The embassy said U. S. air force bases in Germany and Tripoli were ordered to send helicopters ' to transfer refugees to the mainland. Adm. Lord Louis Mountbatten, commander-in-chief of .the British Mediterranean Fleet, flew to Zante to take charge of British rescue operations. Ten British warships were ordered to the area. , The first British ship to reach the disaster region was the destroyer Daring which brought fdur doctors and 15 nurses. Its skipper, Capt. P. D. Dick, reported Argostolion was “completely destroyed.” The British skipper said that more than 50,000 persons in the Argostolian area alone were without food or water. Some reports said entire inland villages were swallowed up in huge fissures. Landslides sent whole neighborhoods sliding into the sea. Tidal waves swept the port of Vathy, capital of Ithaca, the legendary kingdom of Odysseus of Homer’s epic poem “Odyssey. 4 , Eyewitnesses said the disaster looked ‘"like the end of the world.” ■ Many of the survivors were gripped with what the Red Cross called "disaster shock, and refused to leave their homes. 0 -0 12 PAGES

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT

70 Million Dollar Loss In GM Fire Two Workmen Killed In Detroit Blaze DETROIT. fUP —A spark from a welder’s torch was blamed today for touching off a spectacular multi-million-dollar fire which killed two workmen and injured more than a score of others as it reduced a sprawling General Motors plant to rubble. Company ofticials feared the final damage figure might reach $70.000.000.and said it was nothing short of a miracle that most of the 3.000 employes on duty at the suburban Livonia plant managed to flee the building before it became a flaming ihferno. Livonia public safety director James L. Hagen, whose preliminary estimate placed the damage at $4(7,000,000,; said the only part of the twx>block-long structure left was a section housing front offices. The rest was a mass of charred bricks and twisted steel. The fire started during Wednesday’s litje afternoon shift while a welder, who was not identified, was working near a tank of highly inflammable fluid used to clean transmissions. | ‘ ’ iVeteran Bell Worker Reports Kidnaping Reports Orders To Leave S>uth Bend - INDIANIAPOLIS, Inxl. UP — A veteran India! a Bail Telephone company worl er said today he was kidnaped it South Bend and told to “get out of town" six persons he : identified as striking CIO communic! tions workers. The uhion hi s beeft on strike at Bell exchanges throughout the state for 23 di.ys to back up demands for wage boosts and other benefits. J 4 I Roscoe F. ’Vest. Indianapous. who said he las been «with Bell for 35 years, sa d he was repairing a switchboard Wednesday night at an industrial plant when he was called to the stieet. He told auth xrjties he was surrounded ‘by striking members of the CIO Comm ahication Workers, ordered to “start walking,” and that he would i ot be permitted to re-enter the hu lding. West said he Was forced into a car occupied b ’ six persons who i said thejr would drive him to a bus station. Instead, West said, he was driven by Lakei ille, 10 miles south of here, and told to get on the bus for Indianapolis! there. West said he notified Bell officials' after the union people lef». was picked up by a police escort, and returned to South (Bend. fj He said the strikers told him “we don’t want out-of-town people working here during the strike.” Accusations of strike breaking were hurled at the company durr> ing mass demo istralions Wednesday at South Bend, where the strike began 23 ; days ago. OW Were joined 'by CTO workers from the Studebaker and Bendix plants, nut the demonstrations broke up Wednesday night. No mass picketing was reported this morning. ; While some 30 pickets marched 4n front of two downtown South Bend exchanges,: an estimated 250 others clogged the street singing: ■’How much is that scabbie in the fTvm T* Face Five)

Threat To New Korean Peace Made By Reds Claim Empowered To Hold Prisoners Guilty Os Crimes TOKYO, UP — The Communists. in their first major threat to the new Korean; peace, said they legally were empowered to hold Allied prisoners convicted of “crimes” until they finish their terms. Peiping radio, voice of Red China. denied that the Communists had a lawful obligation either to liberate their political prisoners or turn them over to a neutral custodial commission. The Red radio waited until the United 'Nations command had released the last of 5,495 Chinese prisoners desiring to return to Communism before making its defiant broadcast. Quoting a dispatch from the Communist camp at Kaesong near Panmunjdm. Peiping radio said the Geneva convention on prisoners accorded the Reds the right to compel prisoners convicted of “crimes” to serve out their terms. At the same time Peiping made a vicious sideswipe' at U. S. secretary of state John Foster Dulles, who had expressed “grave concern” over tl|e Commutiists’ refusal to release the accused Americans.. Peiping blasted Dulles’ statement that, as a result of the Communists’ attitude, the United Nations would hold \back prisoners convicted by the Allies until the Reds produced all of their captives. The Red radio said the Dulles statement was nothing but a ‘‘blackmail” plan for holding Communist prisoners. Dulles, announcing that the United Nations command would hold the prisoners, “let the cat ont‘ of the bag,” the Red broadcast said? r , “While alleging that the KoreanChinese side dp.es not intend to return all the POWs, Dulles nevertheless has to know for sure whether any POWs are actually being the broadcast said. “In speaking thus, Dulles unwittingly stamps himself quite a liar.” The latest development on prisoners held by both sides struck hard at the,issue that held up the cease fire in Korea for 25 months. Last October, Allied truce negotiators broke off their conferences with the Communists on the issue of repatriating prisoners. Rides On Running Board, Boy Killed HAZLETON, Ind. (UP) — A 13-year-old Hazleton boy was killed Wednesday and another injured critically as they rode on a running board with two friends. Herman Frederick died a short time after he was admitted to a Vincennes hospital, <■ Frederick, Jerry Tislow, 13, who was critically hurt, and two others were thrown from the running board when the driver of the car, Carl H. Stone, 17, also of Hazleton, sideswiped a telephone pole here.

ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER <N ADAMS COUNTY

Decatur, Indiana, Thursday, August 13, 1953.

Fear Os Epidemics And Hoarding Add ToFrench Hardships From Strikes

75 Americans Are Released In Exchange Report Conditions Bad In Prison Camp One Os Communists PANMUNJOM, Korea UP — The first group of prisoners from Communist prison camp No. 1 came back to freedom today and s|aid conditions there were worse than in notorious camp No. 5, where at least 2,000 Americans died. They told of Americans dying of sickness and mistreatment, of men duped by Communist propaganda/ of miserable food and of constant, mental harassment. One of the ?5 Americans handed over to the United Nations in “Operation Big Switch” was swathed in bandages. I. jOthers said he had been injured when thejtrack taking them from camp Nd. 1 at Imsang-Dohg ■to Kaesong hear here turned over? in North Korea after hitting a shellhole on the highway. 4 With the exception of the bapdaged soldier who was able to w&lk all of the Americans repatriated today appeared in good health. The returning Americans lifted the total of U. S. personnel freed by the Communists to 823, more than 25 percent of the 3.313 listed by the Reds tor repatriation. As the new group of Americans went through “Freedom Gate” here, 10 Americans in Tokyo prepared to fly home tonight On the second airlift of sick and wounded, and in Inchon 306 freed G.L’s waited for the next ship to leave tor the United States. • The have promised to return 84 Americans, one Canadian and 324 other captives Friday. ' The returning prisoners were in good humor and one of the men was so happy to leave Comrtiunlst captivity that he tried to run to the reception tent. <, Sgt. Richard L. Cones, 21 of 183 13th Ave. Cedar Rapids, la., said camp No. 1 “had it 100 per cent rougher than camp No. 5.” Cones said 400 Americans difed in No. 1 during four months of 1951. ! Another liberateu American, Sgt. Perry F. Woodley, 21, said the Communists jailed eight men cin trumped-up charges about two months before the truce was signed. Woodley, of Jasper, Ala., said the “progressives,” soldiers accepting the Communist line, fraternised with their captors and returned to the compound drunk oh (Tara Ta Pace Five) Hurricane Moves Up Eastern Coast Heavy Damage From Storm In Arkansas By UNITED PRESS A hurricane moved northward 300 miles off the Georgia-South Carolina boast today 1 and small craft began putting into safe harbors. V, i Elsewhere, a windstorm inflicted heavy damage at Ark. 1 The Atlantic hurricane, nicknamed Barbara, was powered by winds up to IbO miles per,hour; At Cape Hatteras, N. C., the wind rose to 22 miles per hour and rain began falling. Air force installations along the coast planned to move planes inward in anticipation of a blow. Violent winds raked Clarksville, damaging about 100 homes, up* rooting trees and smashing store window*. Showers fell In Michigan, Wisconsin. Illinois, Missouri, ■ Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona Wednesday night. But most of the nation was clear today.

Report North Korea . Unrest And Revolt 25 Officials Are Reported Purged TOKYO UP — Communist broadcasts today reported unrest and revolt in North Korea and said a total of 25 officials have be£n purged. Among the new names stricken frbm party lists by Premier Kirn Il'Sung were the former anilxissadors to Peiping and Moscow, Kwon O Chik and Chu Nyong- Ha, respectively a Peiping Radio broadcast said. L At the same time, the broadcast revealed the rise oi new z and younger Communists to par,’y leadership as veteran Reds fell by the wayside. Foremost among the new leaders were the three deputy chairmen oif the Labor Commpnht Party Central Committee of which Kim is chairman’ The three 'a-e Pak Chong tAe, only woman member of the party hierarchy. -Pak ■Chunk Ok and Gen. Nam 11. fehief Communist delegate at the Panmunjom negotiations. Peiping Radio said the following punitive actions were dealt out during the sixth convention of the Lat»or Communist Party's Central Committee inPyongyang. L' Reven Communist officials were dropped from the powerful party Central Committee and party the state.” 2. Former envoy to Red China Kwon was dropped from the list of candidates for the Central Committee and purged from party lists on the same charge. . Four other Koreans were ousted from the party Central Committee for “failing to display selfsacrificing loyalty to party and state 'during the period of/thefatherland liberation war.” Earlier broadcasts, by Pyongyang and Peiping Radio revealed 12 Koreans had been convicted — with 10 of them sentenced' to death—on charges df spying for the {United 'States and plotting to overthrow the Kim regime. " T I ‘ Warns Russia May Soon Have H-Bomb Warning Sounded By Vice Adm. Stevens WASHINGTON UP — Vice A'drn. Leslie C. Stevens has warned that •Russia may soon have the hydrogen bomb alongjwith enough a’ r strength “|o fatally cripple the United States in a single blow.” Stevens, who once served as U.S. navaj attache in Moscow, said the Soviet Union undoubtedly has a “respectable stockpile" of atomic weapons now’. And he said there, is zip reason why the Russians cannot “soon have hydrogen bombs on hand.” Soviet premier Georgi Malenkov indicated Saturday night that Russia already has developed the super weapon. But secretary of state John Foster ijulles told a news conference Wednesday that the United States is skeptical of the claim because there is no evidence the Soviets ever, have tested the H-bomb. •Sen. Wil|iaxn E. Jenner R-Ind. said ;:it would not be surprising* |f Russia has the weapon in view of security leaks in the origins, atomic bomb program. Jenner, chairman of the senate internal I <Twr» To Pw 45 New Polio Cases Reported In Indiana INDIANAPOLIS UF — The Indiaria state board of health today reported 45 new polio cases in Indiana for the week ending Aug. 8. • | The; board also reported nine fatal eases since Jan. 1. • The? total number of cases in 1953 rose from 151 in 46 counties, during the previous week to 196 in 49 counties at the last count. > i

Nine Children Are Suffocated In Ice Boxes Arkansas, Virginia Children Victims Os Suffocation RICHMOND, Va. UP —Families in- two statels] were shocked today with the deaths of nine small children who had crawled into airtight ice bbxles to play. The bodies of five youngsters were found Wednesday night near Crawfordsville, Ark., where they lived on a tenant farm. A three-day search for four missing boys at Richmondi ended in tragedy this morning when a carpenter opened an unused refrigerator box at McGuire Veterans administration hospital and discoytheir bodies. They apparently had been dead since Tuesday when they first were reported missing. The children were seven-year-old twins, Wilson and Woodrow Blackstock, their brother, George, 5, and , Walter Charles Boykin, 7, the son of lj)r. J. Melvin Boykin, acting manager of the McGuire hospital. I , The Arkansan victims—also is-' eluding a set of twins —were the children of Mrs. Annie Bell Hallman, who had been picking cotton in nearby fields when her youngsters apparently closed themselves into the big Ice box during play. “I told them never to get in-> side or they might freeze to death,” Mrs. Hallman sobbed when deputy sheriff Billy Williams broke the news that “I found your children; I'fn sorry, but they are all dead.” ( j ; The Hallman children were Edward, 9: Welsey, 7t Odie and Tommy, four year old twins, and .Barbara Ann. 2. Officials here, believed that the latest ice box victims crawled into the death trap while at play on grounds of the hospital Tuesday afternoon and that the door slammed shut by accident. The box was in an unused building at the big paraplegic hospital. Since the children disappeared hundreds of searchers had combed the area, including grounds of the hospital. Parents of the children were notified. The mothers were placed under care of a physician. - Some of ttye. hundreds pf searchers. many of them sleepless for 48 hours or more, wept when they heard the news. More Auto Windows Are Reported Broken Other Damages Are Reported To Autos ; [ ,■ I \ ■ i j The mirror breakers are still working at night. Several more automobiles, parked in various parts of. Deatur. were reported to have received broken side view mirrors some time during the night Wednesday. Police and the sheriffs office are keeping a constant watch for the offenders, hut as yet have not caught up .with the vandals. The incidents occur at night and in all sections of the city. Most of the damage has been to automobiles with side view mirrors, but there also have been reports to police this week concerning the smearing of autos with paint and breaking of automobile windows. One theory is that the gang of vandals' is using slingshots to do the damage, since several of the mirrors appeared to have been hit by a sharp stone or other sharp instrument. No shots have been heard in the vicinities where the attacks have been made. Police have been ordered to continue their search in an effort to run down the offenders.

Hospital's Budget Totals $215,645 Welfare Budget Is Also To Be Higher The 1954 budget for the Adams county memorial hospital totals $215,645, Frank Kitson, county auditor, announced today. Slightly under this figure, this year’s budget totals $200,551. . It was not determined if this figure wtll be used in the county’s budget, pending action of the trustees whd meet Friday night to approve Jhe estimates, Cal E. Peterson, president of the board, stated. The income estimate has not yet been filed, but based on hospial re-, ceipts for the past seven, months, which have been averaging $16,000 monthly, the difference between ex-| penses and income would be I balanced by a tax rate. This rate, based on estimates, would be three to five cents on each SIOO of taxables. . i;V " . . ; : jThe 1953 tax rate for the hospital is three cents. Figured on the-coun-ty’s S4O-million valuation, it will produce $12,000. A five-cepti rate would increase the county's contribution, tq it he hospital to $20,000? Auditor Kitson and Mrs. Thurman Drew,; assistant in the office,, are compiling the estimates for the county's budget, which wilj be published week. Welfare Budpet Filed H I The copnty welfare department’s budget totals $211,535 for 1954, compa red" to this year. _The department; is asking an elevencent tax ratje for the county’s share bf $44,066 df the budget, based on the taxable value of property in the county. General Fund Higher It may be necessary to increase the county> general fund levy from 30 cents to 56 cents on the SIOO, preliminary, compilation of the budget shows.’A request for $16,000 for 1954 election expense is one of the items that boosts the total budget, th*'auditor's office stated. H ■ Drive On Juvenile Beer Parties Here i I New Amendment To Liquor Act Studied IProsecutihg alttbrney Lewis L. Smith is studying a 1953 amendment to the Indiana alcoholic bev : erage act ikhich he believes will greatly assist local law enforcement officers in their drjive against juvenile beer parties. The chief: problem this summer, according to police officers, is|. the fact that Juveniles between 18 and 21 years of age can go to Ohio and purchase 3.2 percent beer. Many local youths have ‘brought the beer baokj to Indiana, where it is a vipiatibn of law for thfem to have it. Several automobiles being driven by young people, which have been stopped here recently for truffle violations, are said to have con tained beer purchased in 01^»' Another problem facing Officers is the practice of older person* lending their| drivers’ • licenses to youths, who Use them at identifies tion in making beer purchases jn Ohio taverns. The new amendment to the Indiana statute says: “It shall be unlawful for minor to possess or have on his person for his own u&e or to transport on any public highway, when not accompanied by at least one of his parent*, any > alcoholic beverage of any kind or description.” Violation, upon conviction, carries a fine of 5 to SSO to -which may be added a Jail sentence of from five to 30 days. The amendment is now effective and prosecutor Smith said thal his office would use the law to assist in curbing the practice o! Decatur and Adams county youths returning from Ohio with the beverages. It Is legal in Ohio to sell 3.2 percent beer to youths between (Tara Ta Face rtve>

Price Five Cents

fntire Nation Paralyzed By General Strike Tourists Stranded As France Paralyzed s By General Strike PARIS, UP —Hoarding and the . fear of epidemics were added today to the hardships resulting • from the French general strike, affecting 4.<J00.000 workers. All transport and utilities have been paralyzed, and thou- . sands of tourists—including 10.000 Americans—are stranded. Frugal French housewives wfere hoarding food, threatening a further squeeze on ajq estimated 100'000 tourists who already were reduced to eating box lunches. Gasoline also was disappearing from the market,, wlih indication that fuel hoarding might halt the scanty, makeshift transportation, still available. Tfae “holiday visitors” were scrambling possible means to flee the chaotic tourist playgrounds of France. Today the strikes, sparked by labor’s objections to the. economy program of Premier Joseph Laniel, had spread from.. nationalized industry pnd public works to private enterprise. The result was a land of no mail, no trains, do buses, no subway*, reduced gfcs. flickering electriicity, limited tail service at highwayrobber prices and a, score of other Inconveniences. 1 Garbage was rotting in the gutters of the normally gay, tree-lined boulevards and in front of the swank hotels of Faris. The hot and humid air reeked. French public health officials warned that the strike of garbage Collectors, coupled with a walkout of morticians. fa'ee<f France with the serious danger of epidemics. Hundreds of stranded Americans appealed to the American embassy for Hunds with which to continue thpir European vacations elsewherel or return home in disgust; ‘ J . An American Negfo : musician offered to trade his prized violin for a few thousand francs with which to get Ito Switzerland for a scheduled performance. An 80-year-old woman from Kansas had just enough francs left to take a third class train to Vienna where her distraught family awaited her. Shq needed a few thousand francs more for an airplane ticket, since strains are not running. , t i The American embassy, after asking instructions from the state department got the green light today to begin distributing funds against vouchers promising repayment. ! j, George Ruta, New York City, i said he had spent the night in the Gare des Invalides—the air terminal near Napoleon’s tomb. ‘‘l didn't have enough money left .to sleep in a hotel,” he said. Many tourists from all were In the same boat. The postal • strike had held up checks and money orders from home. Pnemier Laniel is standing his *i ground against the strikers opposing his economy measures. Army Pays Tribute r To Bradley, Collins WASHINGTON UP r-The army f today pays tribute to Its two top generals—Omar N. Bradley and J. Lawton Collins—as they prepare to step down from the military high command. Over 2.000 troops and the U. S. army band will pass in review before the two generals in special ceremonies on the parade grounds j at Fort Lesley J. McNair. Over- I head will fly a platoon of seven helicopters from Fort Benning, Ga. INDIANA WEATHER Fair tonight and' Friday, not much change In temperature. j Low tonight 59-67. High Friday M-91.