Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 51, Number 244, Decatur, Adams County, 16 October 1953 — Page 1

Vol. LI. No. 244.

Sen. McCarthy Says Witness Ready To Talk Reports Breakdown By Witness During Radar Secret Probe NE\y YORK u 4 - An '•important'' witness “broke down*’ today at a senate investigation into loss of American radar secrets to | Russia and told Sen, Joseph R. McCarthy fae was willing to "tell everything,’’ the senator reported. The unidentified Witness, a jhinhaired middle-aged man, questioned at a closed hearing of the senate permanent'! investigating subcommittee. Half an hour after he entered the hearing roor at the federal courthouse the nah was brought out and placed unde? ~ care of a doctor and nurse in a' locked room. He appeared to ba shaking with emotion. Later as McCarthy was holding a press conference at the end of his subcommittee’s morning session the Wisconsin Republican suddenly ended the conference. He said the witness had sent word he was willing to talk.

After questioning the mysterious witness again in private, McCarthy called a recess for lunch without .* disclosing what had gone on in the hearing room. McCarthy said the witness had had “an emotional outburst” during his first appearance before the subcommittee. j The senator, questioning witnesJ ses s here for five days in an effort to rout out possible remnants of the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Soviet spy ring at the signal corps’ radar laboratory in Fort Monmouth, NJ., told reporters in great excitement that the witness “has been lying” and “has changed • his mind.” ' ! j McCarthy ,\ cut short the press conference just after announcing he had received a signal corps evaluation of an ] air force report on a German sclentizt who fled'to West Germany from an East Geri man laboratory where he had been working for 1 Russia. McCarthy quoted the report as saying: “The defectee (the refugees scientist) has steen an entire film based on Oak Ridge. Tenn., the atomic energy location, while he was with Parna, the East German laboratory in the Russian Zone. \ “The information he supplied concerning the film indicates' he actually had seen it. It contained technical ! data as well .as some physlcal/’l - McCarthy said Maj. Gen. George I. Back, signal corps commander, tolh him at this morning’* hearing that he had brdefed an Investigation into the scientist’s story last December and the matter had been turned over < to the federal bureau of investigation. » McCarthy announced that Gen. Klrke Lawton, Fort Moriniquth commander, took steps Thursday i. to tighten up what the senator called “shockingly lax” regulations on withdrawal of restricted documents the Fort Monmouth laboratory, by civilian employes there.

City Mail Routes Under Inspection Annual Inspection Is Underway Here _ Annual inspection of mail routes is being made in Decatur this week, intended to equalize the work each carrier lias to do with respect to distance, weight x>t mhil, and pieces of mail, it was announced by Decatur postmaster Leo Kirsch. ! ; Today. I Robert Frisinger, assistant popttaastter, walked an “average” route to check up on how many stops one carrier was making in his daily round, to make It possible in the future to dualqize the distance each man had to walk a day and not tax one carrier more than any other, said Kirsch. j ’ ’ Next week a check is to be made of the weight each man has to carry, and the number of pieces of mail allotted to him, this likewise th be altered if it J* found that there is an inequitable dirtribution due to growth of any given section of the cky daring the past year, Kirsch explained. The postmaster said the De - catur rural routes were checked last ‘May for the same purpose. He promised a breakdown of the findings would be given at the clo«e of the present project, gontrolled I by departmental policy of ! the postmaster general.

' • . "s’ 1 ■ DECATUR DAIJY DEMOCRAT ONLY DAILY NEW||pAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY

Radar Fence Against A-Bomb

•'"State. t .... A VITAL FACTOR in defense of America against foreign A- and Hbomb attack is being built across the frozen Arctic. A line of radar stations like the one pictured above is being built on a 1,200-mile line from the North Pole to give the U. S. defense forces at least six hours warning of impending attack. Below, a string of tractordrawn “wanigans” haul material and fuel in laying the groundwork for the warning system. The upper picture was made in the U. S. during experimentation. The radar Antenna is inside the rubber dome of the structure.

Germany Snags First Parley Os Big Three Files Objection To Proposal To Discuss Russian Guarantees LONDON (UP)—West Germany snagged the opening session of the Western Big Three foreign ministers conference today by objecting to a proposal to' discuss non-ag-gression gaurantees with Soviet Russia. Slecretary of state John Foster Dulles, British foreign secretary Anthony Eden and French foreign minister Georges 'Bidault met to discuss a new note to Russia, the Trieste crisis and other urgent international problems. ‘lt developed the West German government, to whom a copy of the proposed note to Russia wassubmitted, objected to the Wording of the text a5 regards a possible big power non-aggression pact to relieve east-west tension. The note, while mainly concerned with arranging a fourpower meeting with Russia on German and Austrian treaties, included—in somewhat vague terms, informants said —the offer to discuss a security system for Europe. West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer raised two objections to the" security pact offer. \ ■lnformants said he favors offering Russia a security guarantee but he was understood to hold that an offer to discuss it now might delay French approval of the European army pact and that the Russians might raise issues which could be discussed only at a peace conference in which an all-German government would take part.

Farmer Is Fatally \ Burned Last Night 1 HARTFORD CITY, Ind., UP — Charles F. Knox, 63, a farmer, was burned fatally Thursday night when he was trapped by a fire he started to clear underbrush. Knox was overcome by smoke end burned when the fire got out of hand. . He was a brother of Walter Knox, Blackford county Farm Bureau president. \ ‘ - 1— BULLETIN George Colshln, aged about 77, was found dead in bed at hl* home, 234 South Fourth •treet, early this afternoon. He had been In failing health for some time. The body was removed to the Gillig & Doan funeral horns.

Farm Groups Oppose Support For Cattle Farm Bureau, Gninge Opposed To Program WASHINGTON, UP—Two of the country’s big farm organizations have vetoed the house agriculture committee’s request for a cattle price support program and three industry groups indicated they als£ will advise secretary of agriculture Ezra T. Benson against the move. Benson Thursday asked 23 livestock and farm groups for their reaction to the proposal which he said would “involve administrative actions of great ) magnitude and of a complex nature.” He listed what hetions he believed would be necessary, including reimposition of unpopular compulsory grading, and asked the groups to give their opinion as to the possible effect on the “welfare of the livestock and meat Industry, as well hs on the future beef supply for consumers.” The Apiericah Bureau Federation has wired Benson that catt,le price supports would be a step “toward government price fixing” and “amount to socialization of American agriculture.” \ The National Grange said it believes current emergency measures—federal purchases of canned beef and hamburger, a low-cost feed program, and a livestock loan program—’’will gain in effectiveness as more fully used.” However, the grange "heartily concurs” with objective of “exploring every possible means of additional emergency measures” and asked for qn early conference with livestock producers, industry representatives and. farm organizations to “develop additional measures."

Spokesmen for -the Americas meat institute, the national association of retail grocers, and the national association of food chains, also queried by Benson, indicated their groups will advise against price supports on. live cattle. Clash Sidetracked . DES MOINES,' lowa UP — The touring house agriculture committee today -sidetracked a head-on clash with Secretary of agriculture Ezra T. Benson over his failure tc comply with its controversial .six-day-old request for “immediate” price support for choice cattle. The committee, it was learned decided in 4* aomewhat stormy meeting Thursday night to the question face to face with Benson at Cheyenne. Wyo., Nov. 1 or 2. . |. ' The decision was a compromise between some members who wanted to renew the demand Cora price floor and others who felt the committee had got out on a limb and had better crawl back. (Toro To Pane EirM)

Decatur, Indiana, Friday, October 16, 1953.

Farm Leader In lowa Asksl Eisenhower Fire 11 ■ Ag Secretary Benson

Eisenhower And Drought-Stale Governors Meet Approves Leaders' Recommendations On Disaster Plans , s ? - <> x< . KANSAS CITY. Mo. UP — President Eisenhower met with a dozen governors from droughtravaged states today and approved their recommendations tor coping with the farm disaster on a federal-state cooperative basis. Immediately after hearing the governors at a breakfast at the MXiehlebalch Hotel, the President and his party left to fly to his old hometown, Abilene, Kan. Mr. Eisenhower’s plane took off at 9:10 a.m. for Smoky Hill air force base at Salina, Kan., where a motorcade was to complete the trip to Abilene. The governors recommended both an emergency program to distribute hay to the hardest hit regions and a long-range “constructive and continuing’* program of cooperation between specially appointed federal and state committees. Secretary of agriculture Ezra T-. Benson, under fire recently in* many farm sections, attended the breakfast and announced a cooperative plan in which the U. S. department of agriculture and the states would help provide bay. The federal gbvernment would pay one half the transportation price or |lO a ton, whichever is lower, and the states would procure and distribute the hay. Benson was praised by Gov. Dan Thornton of Colorado, one of the drought state governors. The President made what the White House described as a major farm speech here Thursday night. He spoke to a national convention of the Future Farmers of America and, through these youngsters, asked farmers to be patient while he and his administration build a new farm program. \ The President promised that “the price support principle be a part of any future planning. “We must —and will—continue faithfully io administer price support laws now on ■ the statute books,” said Mr. Eisenhower. Some of the President’s closest, gubernatorial friends were among the breakfast group of drought state executives at today. These close associates included Democratic Allan Shivers of Texas and Republican Dan Thornton of Colo(Twm To P«i» Eight)

Mrs. Walter Hilly Berne Postmaster Assumes Duties As Acting Postmaster . Mrs. Walter Hilty today assumed the duties of acting postmaster of Berne. She will serve until examinations are held and a permanent postmaster is named. Indications are that Mrs. Hilty’s selection will be made permanent. The temporary appointment came from the postmaster general and Mrs. Hilty immediately assumed her duties. She succeeds Mrs. Arthur Zehr, who died several creeks ago white on a vacation in the west. Mrs. Hilty is the wife of Walter Hilty, long time Republican political worker in the south part of Adams county. She assumed the federal duties when the Berne po*t office opened for business today. Mrs. Hilty was recommended by the Berne, county and district Republican organizations and het selection was also recommended by congressman E. Ross Adair. Congressman Adair, on a recent Decatur visit, said that he woqld recommend any person endorsed by the Berne city committee and Republican county and district chairman Harry Essex.

Urges legion Back Strong Air Force Sen. Kennedy Cites Weakening Os Force ■INDIANLLPOLIS UP — Scu John F. Kennedy D-Mass. said today the United States should have an air force second to none and “today we do not have it.’ \ In a sp'eech prepared for delivery before a meeting of the American Legion executive board, he urged the legion to support “a defense effort more In keeping with the perils of the time than the ose which is at present our national policy.” \ He said the air force suffered a "wring-out” under the defense budget approved by congress last year. Comparing the United States effort With that of the Soviet “we cannot help but be alarmed,” the senator said. Kennedy cited recent statements of administration leaders to show that Russia will soon have the planes to deliver weapons of “Infinite” destructive capabilities. He said the destructtveness of atomic firepower multiplies “a thousandfold” the traditional advantages of an aggressor in war. Commenting on the statements by administration leaders. Ksn£y gpid: “Seldom If ever in the mk hiatarx of th*.Unitgd States, e so many’ conflicting statements been made on any Issue by responsible officials as were made last week in Washington on the present danger to the United States from atomic attack by the Soviet Union.” In the first session of the board’* annual three-day meeting, it went on record favoring the Bricker amendment, which would restrict treaty-making powers of the president, and opposing any changes in the McCarran-Walters immigration law. The group also urged congress to “adopt and implement” univer sal military training and to exempt junior baseball games from federal admission taxes. In other action, the board accepted mineral rights to SM acres of land in the oil-rich Williston basin in Montana and North Dakota —'the gift of the anonymous Little Rock, Ark., physician. Proceeds will go toward establishment of a child welfare foundation in Indianapolis.

New Sewer Project Nears Completion : Last Os Large Tile To Be Placed Soon Last of the sections of large tile for the Porter-Homewood sewer will probably go in early next week, it has been announced. When the manhole at Dayton and Eleventh is secured, the main construction of the 1100,000 project will be at an end. But it will be a while yet, said city official, before it is ready for use. Laterals have to be built, and there will be some delay in advertisement for bids due to the change in specifications by the city council last week, and road* will have to be constructed over the sewer. Glty engineer Ralph Roop stated today the sewer, when in full service, will be able to carry 40,000 gallons of sewage a minute or 58.000,000 gallons in every 24 hours, which will probably have a beneficial effect on several other sewers of the city by lessening the load that will have to be carried. The most important change that will come, however, in the words of the engineer: *Tt (the sewer) will make the northwest part of town.” He explained that septic tanks now being used there and forever a headache can be discarded in favor of modern plumbing; an improvement that always precedes modern housing.

Mass Breakout • t Is Threatened By Prisoners Prisoners Revolt On Brain Washing By Communists PANMtNJOM, Korea, UP — Four thousand anti-Red North Korean war prisoners threatened a mass breakout from their compound today in a rebellion against “brain washing” interviews by Communist indoctrination officers. Stripped to the waist, they started pulling up the poles that held up the 8-foot barbed wire fence around them. They openly defied 600 Indian troop reinforcements who levelled rifles at them and quieted only when Indian officers called off today’s “brain washing” session. The situation in Indian village where 22,418 anti - Communist North Korean and Chinese prisoners are held had become dangerous. Some officials expressed belief that serious bloodshed can be averted only if the questioning qC anti-Red prisoners ■by Commimlst “brain • washers” is’ called off anOne thousand of the North Koreans were to be questioned today. They refused to be taken to the questioning center. They and 3.(700 other North Koreans swarmed against the barbed wire fence and threatened to break out. The remaining 4.000 North Koreans in other compounds shouted and sang their defiance. This is the box score for two days of the “brain washing” prescribed by the armistice for prisoners who refuse to go home 500 Chinese questioned; 490 refused to go home; 1,000 North Koreans successfully refused even to attend the questioning. Today’s attempt to get prisoners to be questioned was a complete failure. \ \ , After the strike had lasted five hours and the North Koreans showed no signs of weakening, Lt. Gen. K. S. Thimayya, head of the neutral nations repatriation commission, called off the interviews. He said a new attempt to interview prisoners, this time 1,000 anti-Communist Chinese, would be made Saturday at 8 a.m., (5 p.m. CST Friday). “We’ve done all the appealing we can,” Thimayya told newsmen. Thimayya earliet refused to let <Tor» To PMe Eight) Miss Lollie Meibers Dies This Morning Funeral Services Monday Morning Miss Lollie Meibers, 67, lifelong resident of Decatur, died at 2 o’clock this morning at her home. 1127 West .Mtonroe street Death was attributed to complications following an illness of several months. Her condition had been serious for the past week. She was born in Decatur Dec. 12. 1886, a daughter of. B. J. and Mary K. Meibers, apd was never married. (She resided with a sister, Miss Matilda Metbers, who died last January. — - -.Miss Meibers was a member of the St Mary’s Catholic church and the Rosary society. She was the last surviving membed of a family of five. Funeral services will be conducted at 9 a m. Monday at SL Mary’s 'Catholic church, the Very Rev. Megr. J. J. Seimetz officiating. Burial will be in the Catholic cemetery. The body was removed to the Gillig & Doan funeral home, where friende may* call after 2 p m. Saturday until time of the' services. The Rosary society will meet at the furieral home at 8 p.m. Sunday.

Evacuate Americans From Tense Trieste Report Tito Builds Up Armed Strength TRIESTE UP — American wives and children started evacuating tense Trieste today and United States army headquarters for Europe banned all non-official travel to the city by either military or civilian personnel. e Well informed sources in Belgrade reported Marshal Tito is quietly building up his armed forces about one third above normal strength in his own part of the Trieste territory to- back up his threat to invade the Allied zone if Italian troops enter it. On the Italian side, authoritative Italian sources said in Rome that any compromise plan which would keep Italian troops out of the Allied zone is “unthinkable." In London, the United States, British and French foreign ministers opened a two-day “save the peace” meeting at which Trieste was a top item on the program. There was no indication that the United States and British governments were eontempiating any backdown from their decision to turn over Zone A —the northern part of the Trieste area which they occupy—to Italy. tA .' But despite angry.statements by Yugosiaves end Itutame, and the threat of fresh riots in Trieste, there were indications that a compromise was being sought About 20 wives and children of American soldiers left Trieste by train for the big army supply base at Leghorn. Italy, today in the first stage of the Anglo-American evacuation. It is expected that* all the 700 American and 400 British families will be out within about two weeks. The troops themselves are to follow later. French Commandos Pound As Red Line Win-The-War Fall Offensive Underway HANOI, Indochina UP —French commandos stormed ashore in north central Viet Nam today dealing a powerful new blow in Gen. Henri Navarre’s win-the-war fall offensive against the Communists. The amphibious attack was almecf at the central Red stronghold of Thanh Hoa, a city of 50,000 population about 20 miles north of the beachhead. This correspondent, flying over the invasion site in a C-47, saw French Union forces pushing inland with little opposition. French naval vessels, including the American-built aircraft carrier Arromanches, pounded the coast to pave the way for the assault Overcast skies hindered air support of the commandos. To the north, massive French armored forces closed in on two Red divisions entrenched in a 65-mile-wide iron triangle some 50 miles south of Hanoi. Thousands of French Union ar- ? mored troops pushing south from the Red River delta to join commandos who landed south of Phat Diem Thursday passed the first barricade of Limestone Hills, reports from the front said today. One more row of hills separatee them from the fertile plains around Thanh Hoa, center of huge Red weapons and food stores. The Cap-Rond beachhead 120 miles south of Hanoi forms the extreme southern tip of the coastal triangle under French attack. Officials described the operation as the “biggest concentration of infantry, armor, aviation, artillery and npval craft” since the Indochina War began eight years ago. The full-dress offensive opened the fall fighting season following the monsoons. INDIANA WEATHER Fair tonight, Saturday fair and mIM. Low tonignt 42-48. > High Saturday 75-SO.

Price Five Cents

Request Made At Committee Hearing Today Asks Benson Fired And Replaced By * Favorable Leader DDES MOINES, lowa (L’P)—An, lowa Farmers Union representative asked President Eisenhower today to fire secretary of agriculture Ezra T. Benson and replace him with someone who favors high support < prices for farmers. The request was made by Fred W. Stover at a house agriculture committee hearing which was carried by television to thousands of farm folks in Central lowa. The Farmers union has fewer followers in lowa than the lowa Farm Bureau and the State Grange. ‘ The lowa Fann Bureau, dominant farm in the state, said it was polling “current thinking” and is not ready to take a stand on the issue of continuing present rigid high price supports tor basic crops. This was considered significant since the group traditionally has favored flexible and lower price supports. The committee, touring the farm belt to learn what farmers expect I of . the Republican congress next year, has heard overwhelming testimony in favor of high supports. The lowa State Grange testified that a poll of its local units showed 75 percent favored continuance of the present 90 percent of parity price supports and only 25 percent were opposed. The Republican governor of this leading farm state proposed at the outset of the hearing that support prices for farmers be kept high. lowa Gov. William S» Beardsley, in calling for "affirmative action on the farm front,” also proposed that the government subsidize consumption of surplus foods by lowincome groups.

He recommended a food stamp plan to encourage such families to help "eat up food surpluses." Present law stipulates that the six so-called "basic crops," including corn, of which lowa is the nation's leading producer, must be supported at 90 percent of parity. It expires after the 1954 crop year. Benson has criticized "rigid * high price supports. He has said moet farm experts” favor flexible supports. “The only thing that a sliding scale of flexible supports is good? for,’ Stover said, “is to flex and slide Benson out of office.” The Republican-controlled com* mittee is touring the politically midwest farm belt in the wake of a sharp farm price decline to get "grass roots” views on the role the government should play in propping farm income. “We cannot go on half - boom, half-bust,” Beardsley said. Farm purchasing power has declined for more than 30 months he said, and if this is allowed to continue the decline will spread through the entire economy. Beardsley was the first witness on a list of more than 70. Committee chairman Clifford R. Hope R-Kan., said before the hearing begun that it possibly was the most important the committee wou’.d conduct because Des Moines is the .nation’s agriculture capitot. The OK) United Auto Workers (Tara To Pace Right) John Omlor Dies At Home In Fostoria Relatives in Decatur have re- • ceived word of the death Wednesday of John Omlor, G 6, of Fostoria. O. Funeral services will be held at Fostoria Saturday morning at 8:30 o'clock CSt. Mr. Omlor had been a funeral director tn the Ohio city for manv years before his death. He has several relatives in Decatur and Adams county.