Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 51, Number 272, Decatur, Adams County, 18 November 1953 — Page 1

VoL LI. No. 272.

Hoover Corroborates Truman On White, I | Mg- .< lIWMMMIF- SliS’ .-/Rk<X v hit i jffi r I i ♦h* FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover appeared first, before a closed meeting of ? n b *^ at ® internal security subcommittee, headed by genTWilliam E. Jenner (R-Ind.) (left), and then • » W ?»» General Herbert Brownell (center), in an open session of the sub-group. He told the committee that, while he did not approve the action, Harry Dexter White was retained in office-as a means] for keeping watch on him. Hoover said. White was kept under surveillance by his department during 1946, 47 and 48. .

15 Paratroopers Are Killed As Plane Crashes - Huge Plane Slashes ? Mass Drop Os <■ Army Paratroopers u FORT BRAGG, UP — A< Air Forte boatd arrives today to investigate the crash of a Cll9 “Flying Boxcar” which slashed through a mass drop of hundreds of parairdopers, killing 15 meh and injuring 11. 4 All but one of the plane’s "stick” of 40 paratroopers’leaped to safety Tuesday as the big craft whipped in a turn to avoid billowing parachutes and then plunged td earth. The pilot, who heroically stayed with hjs plane to guide it away from the jump, three crew member!) and ope paratrooper died as the Cl 19 plowed into a pine forest and burned. Ten paratroopers were killed by the huge plane as it plunged to earth. The air force ordered a board of inquiry, from Lawton air force base, Calif., here to investigate the cause of the crash. The sudden tragedy came as 23 “Flying Boxcars” began mass drdp maneuvers over a drop zone in a remote! area of.this huge military * base. The plants were carrying 4p members each of the famed 82rtd airborne division and the XVIU corps. Eyewitnesses said the twin-en-gined plane seemed to losq speed and dropped out of the formation, cutting through the paratroopers as they spilled from the planes ahead. Sgt. Jessie Errington, Negro jupipmaster from Newport News. Va., stayed by his post until all his 20 paratroopers leaped frop) the falling craft. Then he jumped from a height of about 300 feet. They had started jumping, then “I heard something hit the top of the plpne and little bits of glass fell ddwn all over us,” Errington, a veteran paratrooper, said. £ “A lot more of our men would have been killed if the pilot hadiCt stuck to the controls,” he said. ' Xs Errington landed on the sandy soil, the plane crashed, \ skidded about 300 yards and burst into frames. Wreckage was blown over a wide area. . The jumpmaster said he ran tq the. downed Cl 19 and saw the pilot’s body lying outside the smashed debris. Rescue crews found the bodies of three other crew membep) and of Capt. Adam G. Melscer, Fayetteville, N. C„ ranking paratroop officer in the plane who waited w til his men were safely out. « The pilot was identified as lit Lt. Leo B. Clark of the 746th Troop Carrier Sqdn., Charleston air force base, S. C. . t The other crew members were: Co-pilot S. R. McCraig, Pietcl), Wash. - : ' J Airman 2nd Class D. Gi Singly iton, Avalon, Mo. Airman 2nd Class C. L. Perrine, Mansfield, Ohio. p The following were killed as they floated downward: Pvt. Kenneth R. Shadof, 17, Mil(Tara Te Pa«e EtffM)

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT * ■' < . . . ' • !

Appeal Heard Today In Witnesses Case Religious Prejudice Charged By Attorney INDIANAPOLIS. UP — A New York attorney told the Indiana supreme court today that “religious prejudice" generated a dispute between the city of Decatur and Jehovah’s (Witnesses over construction of a church. The court conducted a hearing on the city's appeal from an Adams circuit court ruling reversing a decision by the city zoning board that the sect could not build a proposed church. Hayden C. Covington, the attorney who is a member of the sect, said the board refused to grant variance from a zoning ordinance on “arbitrary and capricious” grounds and denied the groqp liberties . granted by the constitute tion.” Covington praised Circuit Judge Myles F. Parrish and said he was “not swayed by religious prejudice which generated this thing.” “This started because the® Jehovah’s Witnesses would not salute the flag,” Covington said. "That is the real reason this burden has been saddled bn this poor little church." City attorney Robert S. Anderson said the only questions before the court were the constitutionality of provisions in the' ordinance which specifies buildings cannot be built closer than 18 feet from the street and that churches must furnish parking lots large enough to accommodate one auto for every six seats in the church building. — t "Those were the only reasons why the zoning board denied the application," Anderson said, ex plaining the church planned to put its building only 14 feet from the street and have a parking lot only one-third as large as the ordinance required. \ Anderson said the Witnesses' claim the regulations were unlawful came only after the sect lost Jts appeal for variance. “It’s like playing football,” he said. “When you lose you say the rules were wrong.” Covington said it was wrong to J’burden the church with the obligation of running a parking lof.” That, he said, was "an undue burden and an abridgement of the freedom of worship.” He argued the constitution question was not of the ordinance Itself but its application.. “When you are dealing with a church, the burdeiu-falls on the city to show they have a basis for denying’ liberties granted by the constitution. The guarantee of freedom of religion puts a church in a different position than x filling station." “The neighbors just didn’t like what the Jehovah’s Witnesses believed,” Covington said. “They just didn’t want the church in their neighborhood. Is religion only for those who can afford to buy a parking lot?” The courtroom was jammed with nearly lOff spectators, most of whom were identified as sect members. A

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Government's Case Ends In Kidnap Trial County Coroner ls\ Final Witness In Greentease Trial KANSAS CITY, Mo., (UP)' — : Dramatic testimony from Buchanan county coroner Dr. H. F. Mundy thjß the murder bUHet which killed 6-year-old Bobby Greenlease went straight through his head ended the government's case today against the tot’s kidnapers.' Carl Austin Hall and Mrs. Bon nie Brown Heady sat stoically in the federal court house here as Dr. Mundy showed with his right index finger where the bullet entered Bobby’s head back of the right ear. Then he pointed his left finger behind hisl ear and said: “It came out here.” Dr. Mundy was the government’s final witness as the prosecution completed its case. A federal jury jwill decide, perhaps later today, whether Hall and his liquor-loving mistress shall be sent to the poison gas chamber for kidnaping and murdering the boy. They already have pleaded guilty. Hall, who with Mrs. Heady kidnaped Bobby for >600,000 ransom, told in his confession how he ,shot Bobby with a .38 caliber pistol as the boy fought desperately for\his life.. ■ - . Defense attorneys said they had five witnesses to call for Hall and Mrs. Heady. They will qse none of them in an effort to tear down the goyernmant’s case. The attorneys. Roy K. Dietrtch and Harold llull. had. in fact, admitted all of the government's case. Hull planned to call for hi = defendant only her aunt. Mrs. Troy Baker, formally of Chica’go, who r.ow lives in St. Joseph. Mrs.” Baker reared Mrs. Heady, who was orphaned when she-was 2 years old. v Hull said he wanted her testimony only to show that for *0 of ♦he 41 years she has lived she was not a mean woman. Emotion in the crowded courtroom in Kansas City’s federal ouilding reacned a new pitch late Tuesday when Mrs. Robert Greenlease sat and testified within 25 feet of the mah and Woman who kidnaped and murdered her son with cold premedbation last Sep(. 28. Not once did Mrs. Greenlease look at Hall and Mrs. Heady. She kept her eyes bn the jury whda she tobl how she tried to get positive evidence from Hall by telephone that Rnbby was alive. All she got were evasive answers. At tne tim-?, Bobby already had heei shot to death and buried in a shallow grave in Mrs. Heady’s yard at St. Joseph. Mo. INDIANA WEATHER Partly cloudy and continued mild tonight and Thursday. Low tonight 43-49. High Thursday in the 60’s.

ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY

Decatur, Indiana, Wednesday, November 18, 1953.

Eisenhower Refuses To v •. , ■;. . . . < ' ' CommentOn White Case At Press Conference

GOP Pledges To Follow Up On While Case More Sensational Spy Exposures Are Promised By Party WASHINGTON UP — Republicans promised today to follow up the Harry Dexter White case with more sensational spy exposures to hammer home their charge that the Truman administration was "blind" to the dangers of Communist Infiltration. A high official of the Republican national committee told a reporter “We’re going to hang one case after another on the Democrats" from now until the congressional elections next November. GOP political strategists .were elated at FBI director J. Edgar Hoover’s testimony Tuesday that the FBI was “hampered” rather than helped by former President Truman's decision to let White take a high post in the intetpa* tjonal monetary fund, in 1946 afte,r he had been accused of spying. Mr. Truman had asserted Monday night that he did this to enable the FBI to continue a government-wide spyhunt without tipping off suspects that they were being watched. Hoover made a dramatic appearance before the senate internal security subcommittee after Att. Gen. Herbert Brownell Jr. testified that justice department records failed to show that Mr. Truman had taken any Steps to keep White from getting secret Information during the time he supposedly was serving as a “decoy." v Senate . Republican leader William F. Knowland said the testimony, backed up by long-secret FBI documents, was “factual and devastating in showing the carelessness with whic hthe Truman administration dealt with security problems.” Mr. Truman declined to Comment but Democratic national chairman Stephen A. Mitchell said he didn’t believe the “Democratic position Wjs weakened” by the Brownell and Hoover testimony. Chairman William E. Jenner RInd of the internal security subcommittee promptly launched an Turn To Page Eiaht Petition Objects To Dumping Garbage Petition Is Filed With City Council During a short session of the city council Tuesday night, a 36name petition was presented objecting to the city’s dumping gar bage at the Howard V. Fast farm east' of Decatur. Spokesman for the remonstratprs was Walter Ryf, who told the council that 'dumping garbage on the Fast farm was a “dangerous situation." Ryf: ”... There are (water! wells around there, and if a heavy rain comes, all the grease from the garbage will ri ic to the top and flow into the creek ... we consider it extremely dangerous.” Ryf asserted that wells In the vicinity of the dumping grounds are 112 feet deep, maintaining a water level of 28 feet. He held that if the state board of health considered thei 400-foot deep wells of the city in danger from pollution by garbage, the farmers’ wells were more in danger.’ He also stated that the dump was “lowering the valuation of property.” Mayor John Doan said he was “anxious to see it (the complaint) worked out,” and revealed that East was intending to install a cooker on his farm whereby he would make the garbage suitable (Ten Te Page Eight)

Say Red Promoted By Treasury Head Records Produced By Senate Probers * I f WASHINGTON, UP — Senate investigators produced today to show that former secretary of treasury John W. Snyder promoted accused Communist Harold Glasser after his department received reports linking Glasser with Harry Dexter White and Soviet espionage. The senate internal security subcommittee placed in its records correspondence detailing Snyder’s Aug. 26. 1946 advancement of Glasser from assistant secretary of the treasury’s division of monetary research'to .the SIO,OOO-a year post as director. Subcommittee counsel Robert Morris, referring to Tuesday’s testimony by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, told the subcommittee memebrs that “two FBI summaries” pad been sent to the treasury department in the period Nov. 8. 1945 to July 24, 1946—-well before the advancement. y Attorney general Herbert R. Brownell testified Tuesday that one of the FBI summaries identified Glasser as “an active member of the espionage ring." Brownell also said an FBI report sent to the White House for former President Truman’s attention reported Glasser “was described by numerous sources as a. member of the Communist party.” Glasser last April refused to answer subcommittee questions about his alleged espionage activities, claiming the protection of the fifth amendment. Letters signed by Snyder, which also recommended Glasser for a subsequent post with the cbuncll of Jewish Federations‘and Welfare Funds, Inc., were presented at a subcommittee session ■ to whieh (Turn To P»»«- F.lskf) County Officials To Meet Here Tonight Sectional Meeting Here This Evening County commissioners and other county officials of northeastern Indiana counties will gather at the K. of P. home in Decatur at 6:30 o’clock tonight for the quarterly meeting of the Northeastern Indiana county commissioners association, affiliated with the state group. Adams county’s three commissioners will serve as hosts Jor the meeting and more than 100 county officials are expected to attend the conclave. One of the principal topics for discussiou at tonight’s business session. Which will follow the dinner to be served by the Pythian Sisters, will be to whkt extent county commissioners will pern)it state agencies lb dontrol county homes. \ County homes always have been operated by a superintendent and supervised by commissioners. Some counties recently have given a large part of the local jurisdiction to state agencies in return for state maintenance aid. County road problems also wP.I get its share of discussion at tonight’s session and all county highway superintendents in northeastern Indiana will attend the session. t . * \ . i Equipment and machinery manufacturers* representatives also have been invited to attend. The state association is divided Into two northern and two southern sections and each of these districts holds four meetings a year in addition to the annual state meeting. Several officers of tho state association are expected to be in Decatur for the meeting.

Reds Turn Down Compromise On Korean Parley . Counter-Proposal Offered By Reds On Conference Makeup PANMUNJOM, Korea (UP) — The Communists rejected an American compromise on the make-up of th'e Korean peace conference today and offered a counter-proposal which a Bed spokesman said would |nvite neutral nations to sit in as a powerless “third party.” The United Nations representative meeting with the Reds to decide the composition of the conference said their proposal seemed “flatly contradictory" and he couldn't understand it. American ambassador Arthur H. Dean had attempted to break the deadlock on who would participate by proposing that the neutrals beinvited after (he conference starts—-if they are needed. Dean spoke only for the United States because the United Nations empowered him to discuss only the time and place of the ence, two items which also remained unsettled. North Korean delegate Ki Sok Bok told Dean at a 2-hour and 40 minute meeting that his proposal was “merely a maneuver of your side to cover up your unreasonable stand of objecting to the participation of neutral nations in the political conference. We cannot accept these so-called proposals.” Ki offered a plan on inviting the neutrals which puzzled Dean. “Frankly, 1 can’t understand their proposal,” Dean said. The ambassador sold the Red plan contained points that kwere “flatly contradictory” and he wanted to “find out what they really had in mind." - Communist correspondent Wilfrid Burchett told U. N. newsmen that Ki had proposed inviting the neutrals as a powerless ‘ ‘ t h i r d party" but the Reds failed to make this clear to Dean. Dean refused to comment on the Australian - born correspondent’s Tara T« Pace Eight Chiang's Entire Cabinet Resigns Speculate Major Leadership Break TAJPEH, Formosa UP — Chian) Kai Shek’s entire cabinet resign ed today givipg rise to speculation of a major break in Chiang’s longtime leadership of the Nationalist Chinese government. In a completely unheralded move, Chiang's ministry headed by premier Chen Cheng quit. It was the first indication o' political unrest in the Nationalist government since Chiang was forced off the China mainland bj the Communists. No official explanation was gives for the resignations. Other top-ranking nationalist leaders who walked out were for eign minister George Yeh and presidential general secretariat • Dr. Wang Shih-Chien. In Washington, officials expressed surprise at the development. They said they had no in thnatioa the resignations were coming. There was some speculation that differences over a pending new civil aviation law and what rights it accords foreign air lines may bo at the root of any dissension in the Kuomintang. Chiang accepted Wang’s resignation but official sources said he had not acted on the others.

To Name Directors Os Decatur C. Os C. Ziner Appointed Committee Head Ralph Habegger, local hardware store proprietor and president of the Decatur Chamber of Commerce, has named Clarence Ziher chairman of the nominating committee for election of four directors of the Chamber to serve for terms of three years each. The election will be eld > * ballot the first week in December, in accordance -with the by-laws. The nominating committee will place eight names in nomination and of these the four receiving the highest number of votes will be elected. In addition to Ziner. other members of the nominating committoe Include Glenn Hill, Leland Smith Insurance Co.; Earl Caston, assistant cashier First state bank; Jack Gordon, operator of Weste-n. Auto store, and Dick Heller o* the Daily Democrat. . Outgoing directors are: Earl Fuhrman of Schafer Wholesale Co.; Robert Anderson, attorney; Gene Rydell, Bag Service, and Habegger. Folowlng the election, of directors, the 12-man board will meet and name a president and other officers for one-year terms. The president, with the approval of the bohrd, then names the various committee chairman for one-year -terms. •Os the eight men to be placed in nomination, the by-laws require an equal number represent industry and retail merchants, so that the board at all times whl have representation of industry and merchants. Ballots for the election will prepared by Fred Kolter, Chamber secretary, and he said that he also planned to send each Chamber member excerpts of the by-laws pertaining to elections. FBI Version Os Red Spy Rings Is Bared Version Made Public By Attorney General WASHINGTON UP —The FBl’s own version of how two Red spy rings bored into the government was made public for the first time Tuesday by Att, Gen. Herbert Brownell Jr, Identities, of the alleged spies and the way they operated had been brought out piecemeal by various congressional committees. But the FBl’s reports had been kept secret. In his testimony before the senate internal security subcommittee on the Harry Dexter White controversy, Brownell either released or paraphrased the contents Os two FBI reports and two letters from FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to the White House. . In the first “top secret” letter dated Nov. 8, -1945, Hoover said the FBI had information that 12 government employes “were participants’* or were “utilised", by a spy ring. . This was the so-called “Silvermaster ring” beaded by Dr. Nathan Gregory Silvermaster of the agriculture department. The other group referred to- in the documents was headed by Victor Perlo, who served with the war production board and the foreign economic administration. Those named besides White, Silvermaster and Perlo in Hoover’s first message were George Silverman. who worked tor the railroad retirement board and war department; * Lauchlin Currie, administrative assistant to the late President Roosevejt; Donald Wheeler, Maj. Duncan Lw, Julius Joseph, Helen Tspnty and Maurice Halper la, all es the office of strategic (Twa Te Faso Five)

Price Five Cents

Voices Hopes Red Issue To Be Ended Soon Refuses To Discuss Harry D. White Case During News Parley WASHINGTON, UP — President Eisenhower today expressed hop® that the issue of Communists in federal government would be a matter of history by the time of the 1954 congressional elections rather than of continuing controversy. . ■ The chief executive declined to commert at today’s news conference on the case of Harry Dexter White. But he said that by the time the American people go to the polls, again, he hopes that the fear on the part of the public of Communism in the federal government will have disappeared. * L The President, under questioning, said his administration in the meantime would proceed vigorously to rout any subversives out of the gorfsrnment but in away that would not endanger individual liberties. The chief executive refused at the outset to discuss the White case in any form. He gave that reply when he was asked whether he felt need for new legislation as a result of disclosures in tho case. He acknowledged that Atty. Gen. Herbert Brownell Jr. has recommended changing the federal statutes on wire tap evidence and immunity of witnesses, but he said he did not want to discuss this until he had an opportunity to confer with his advisers. A reporter reminded him that Leonard W. Hall, the GOP national committee chairman, said in arecent speech that he thought the top issue of 1054 would be the exposure of Communist infiltration of previous administrations. Mr. Eisenhower said he thought issues in political campaign were not made by individuals but by th£ needs of the country. He said some of the needs are obvious—relief for drought and flood-stricken farmers, tax revision and tax reforms,. as a few examples. He added, cleaning* out of the government is, of course, important He recalled he had announced last January an executive program for attacking subversion withinthe government. JHe felt his administration was proceeding as strongly and vigorously against subversion and security risks as it possibly could without endangering individual treedom. But. he added, he hoped would be a memory by the timethe next election comes around. He based his hope* that public ¥ fear of subversion in government would be relaxed or have disappeared by the next election on the care his administration is taking in appointing people to government jobs, plus vigilance and energy in ridding the government of security risks. The President was asked about*' a statement this week by exPresident Harry 8. Truman that the Eisenhower administration had '“embraced McCarthyism" for political purposes. The President’s face reddened 50 Millionth Phone Is Installed Today INDIANAPOLIS UP — The nation's 50 millionth telephone, installed today In the White House, was made in Indiana. The set was manufactured at the Western Electric Co. plant in Indianapolis, which produces all telephone* installed by the Bell System throughout the nation. (Tw« Te Face Six)