Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 55, Number 23, Decatur, Adams County, 28 January 1957 — Page 1

Vol. LV. No. 23.

■num ip i mil i . SAVED AFTEfr TWO JETS COLLIDED •. •*W’’i? , ‘ > wF* War ;?i X- ;- ■ . Bk •■<?■& ' i iW ><?> Z.'&n O ;i, B i» « • ?»®Ssk ?Ssk .4 MAJOR WINFRED E. LYNN. 33. Paducah, Ky., is welcomed aboard ■ an Air Force rescue pianfe by Capt. M*. L. McCurray after Lynn and two other airmen were plucked from a life raft in the Caribbean Sea. Maj. Lynn, pitot of one pf the two B-47 jet bombers that collided on a night flight near Cuba, told how he and the two other crewmen, also rescued, fought off sharks from their one-man life raft. Three others remained unaccounted -for. ~~~ ? "~~~

Hints Dropped For Dulles To Quit Cabinet Some Democrats In ) Senate Suggesting v Dulles Should Quit WASHINGTON (UP) -Chairman Thomas S. Gordon of the Foreign Affairs Committee asked for a House “gag” rule today to speed President Eisenhower’s Middle East resolution to quick passage. Such a rule woifid prohibit members from offering any changes in the resolution and allowed them only to vote to approve or reject it. Gordon made the request before the House Rules Committee which controls -the movement of all legislation to the floor. Rep. William M. Cblmer <DMiss), ah influential Rules Committee member, toW Gordon: “1 gag on your gag request.” Colmer said the Senate would take “weeks” to debate the resolution but that Gordon was proposing a “take it or leave it” approach in the House. Gordan replied that House consideration would be “a long, drawn out affair” if every House member were allowed to offer amendments. He said he and the Foreign Affairs Committee Wanted to give Mr. Eisenhower “every possible speed” in getting congressional approval. Suggest Dulles Resign The resolution would authorize President Eisenhower to use military force, if necessary, to shore up the Middle East against Communist attack. It also would -authorize expenditure from present funds of up to 200 million dollars in economic aid on the area. Some Senate Democrats accused Secretary of State John Foster Dulles of “mishandling” the Middle East problem and suggested that he resign. Freshman Sen. Joseph S. Clark (D-Pa.) demanded outright that Dulles resign on grounds that he has “lost the confidence of our Allies” and Congress. Fulbright and Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey (D-Minn.) hinted indirectly that they would 'like to see Dulles go. Humphrey said Dulles “may very well have outlived his usefulness in serving the vital interests of the nation.”- — Other developments: Schools: President Eisenhower sent Congress a special message asking for 31.3 billion to be spent on construction of new schools. Members of the House Labor Committee expected to take up the request immediately. Rep. Cleveland M. Bailey (D-W.Va.) predicted the committee would turn out a bill quickly that would pass both houses of Congress. Budget: Treasury Secretary George M. Humphrey asked the American people to demand that Congress cut President Eisenhower’s proposed $71.8 billion budget. Humphrey said the people should take the lead to getting Congress to have the administration carry through an economy drive. Kefauver: Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-Tenn.) said he would head up a Senate subcommittee to inveiti(Continned Paste Five) INDIANA WEATHER Freezing rain and drissle over most of state except mixed with snow near the northern border and probably changing to rain extreme south late today. Turning colder tonight and Tuesday, with precipitation changing to snow flurries north portion tonight and south portion Tuesday. Low tonight 15-20 northwest to. 25-32 southeast. High Tuesday low Ws northwest to low 30s . ■ s«rtbca»t ®uMet ♦p. m.i sunrise Tuesday 7:55 a. n. Z '

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT

————<o —. Highway Chairman Pledged To Cleanup Wasteful Mm Hit By State Chairman INDIANAPOLIS (UP) — State Highway Commission Chairman John Peters promised today to clean up a “wasteful mess” left to the department by the preceding Republican administration. Peters ordered road equipment rental contracts cancelled and 1 elimination of the “fad” of giving 1 new titles “in order to raise 1 slaries.” He hinted he may fire 1 up to 250 employes. ! Peters, of New Albany, was ap- • pointed by Governor Handley to ' replace Virgil Smith of Milan. 1 Peters said there were several 1 positions in the 3,750-man department he has not been able to run down. He said he knew of * six persons, one a politician, who 1 are getting paid but doing no - work. He declined to identify them. May Cut Force 250 ; can’t even find the Indlvid--1 uals and Rwy are Mt getting clerks’ salaries either,” Peters 1 said. “Every employe had better ’ start reporting to work and give * some accounting of what he’s * doing, or Ws not going to have a paycheck.”. “I'm convinced we can operate 1 with less than 3,500 people,” ■ Peters said. “If it takes a re- ' duction of 250 employes, that's ' what we’U do.” - He said the department will be - run like a business, not as “a • welfare agency.” Peters ordered cancellation effective Feb. 1 of all equipment ! rentals. He said this would not ' apply to snow-clearing equipment. ! It was revealed earlier that a ' Marion County commissioner got ’ $17,500 for rental of a grader that 1 cost $7,500. 1 Peters also ordered cancellation of increases of $25 to SIOO he 1 said were given along with meaningless titles. He said he had a ’ list of “close to 100 increases,” 1 although some may be earned. Peters sworn in two weeks c ago, was a member of the GOP 1 faction opposed to former Gov. ! George Craig. r Only 12 Million Left He complained that of the 68 • million dollars the department - had at the beginning of the cur- > rent fiscal year, only 12 million 1 was left Jan. 25 with five months - before the year runs out. ; Peters said the preceding commission left only $1,298 in a right-of-way fund but there were 101 r employes in the right-of-way de- . partment. t . “Do you see any reason why we should have 100 employes to 1 spend $1,300 in five months?” . Peters asked. . He said the State Board of Ac- ‘ counts would make an inventory (CoutinnoS Ml Pane Fire) I ; Oscar Myers Dies ■ Saturday Evening [ K - Funeral Services r Tuesday Afternoon r Oscar Meyers, 77-year-old farm- > er, who resided in St. Mary’s town- - ship most of his life, died at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Adams county memorial hospital, where he had been a patient since Nov. 29. He was born in Willshire township, near Wren, 0., Dec. 15, 1879, a son of George and Caroline KoosMyers. He .had never married. Only survivors art two brothers, C. W. Myers and Alfred Myers, both of Wren. Six brothers and one sister preceded him in death. Funeral services will be conducted at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Zwick funeral home, the Rev. O. B. Turner officiating. Burial will be ” in Ms. Tabor cemetery. Friends may xttite funend home until time of the services. * .

Man Sought In Girls' Death Found In Jail Bedwell Confesses To Brutal Slaying Os Chicago Sisters CHICAGO (UP)—A man sought as a Skid Row dishwasher’s suspected accomplice in the slaying of two teen-aged sisters turned up in custody today on another charge. ' . Police said they were already holding on a disorderly conduct charge William Willingham Jr., 28, Richmond, Va., a selfstyled hill billy singer and photographer’s salesman. Mrs. Minnie Duras, Skid Row restaurant proprietor, identified Willingham as the man who was with dishwasher Bennie Bedwell and the Grimes sisters—Barbara, 15, and Patricia, 13. Bedwell has already confessed beating the sisters and tossing their nude bodies into a snowy ditch on the city’s outskirts. He said he was accompanied by a man he knew as “Frank." Police said Willingham told them he knew Bedwell but denied any part in the deaths of the Grimes girls. “I don’t know anything about this and I never went out with those girls,” he said. * Willingham said he had not seen Bedwell since before Nov. 28, when Willingham was sentenced to 30 days on a previous minor charge. He said he never went under the name of Frank. Police awakened Bedwell from a deep sleep and showed him a photograph of Willingham. Bedwell told them it bore a “close” resemblance to “Frank,” but he couldn’t be sure. Authorities planned to bring the two together face to face later today. Dictated a Confession In his confession Bedwell indicated the girls may have been ajive when be stripped them and tossed them into the ditch beside German Church Road. Bedwell was asked if the girls were aliye when he and his companion undressed them. “They didn’t move anyway,” he said. “I didn’t know the girls were dead.” Later in his confession, however, he said he took “the bodies and laid them over the guard rail.” Bedwell dictated his signed statement to sheriffs police Sunday. He admitted the girls were killed after a series of drinking bouts in Skid Row bars. Bedwell then was taken to the city’s southwest suburbs where he reenacted the brutal crime before a crowd of thousands of onlookers. The suspect showed how he and slugged the two girls in a car a man he identified only as Frank when the victims resisted their advances, stripped the girls of their clothes and then dumped them in a ditch in near zero <Continued on Pare Five) Egyptians Return Israeli Prisoners Four Prisoners Os War Are Returned TEL AVIV, Israel (UP)—Egypt returned four Israeli prisoners of war Sunday, including the only serviceman captured during the Sinai peninsula operations. All claimed they had been tortured or mistreated during their confinement. Lt Jonathan Etkes, a tighterpilot, was captured after a forced landing at Sharm El-Sheikh during the battle of the Red Sea Straits Nov. 2. The other three men classified as prisoners of war were captured in border incidents in 1955. Israel handed over 500 more Egyptian prisoners, making a total of 2,500 returned since last Monday. Some 5,000 Egyptian troops were captured in the Israeli sweep across the peninsula. Etkes told newsmen his jailors pushed lighted eigarets in his ears and nose and applied electric shocks to various parts of his body in attempts to force him to disclose military secrets. He showed reporters a blackened eye and claimed he was kicked by an Egyptian soldier wearing hobnailed boots as he lay on the ground. Former Engineer Os Highway Dept. Dies CHICAGO (UP) — Earlß. Lockridge, 71, Indianapolis, .former chief engineer of the State Highway Commission, died of a heart attack in a Chicago hotel Sunday while on a business trip. A native of Miami County, Lockridge served as chief engineer.for 13 years Uhtil his retirement in 1953.

ONLY DAILY NRWtPAPRR IN ADAMS COUNTY

Decatur. Indiana. Monday. January 28. 1957

Eiseiihower Asks Over $2 Billion In Federal Aid To Assist Schools

Stale Highway Heads Annoyed At Legislation Assert Bill Would Cost Taxpayers Os State Over Million INDIANAPOLIS (TO — State highway officials were annoyed today about a bill in the Indiana Legislature they said might cost taxpayers more than a milliondollars a year. The bill would force Indiana to pay the cost of relocating power lines and other utility property that must be moved because of highway construction. It was introduced in the House nearly ttfo weeks ago by Reps. Donald Foltz (D-Evansville) and Walter Barbour (R-Indianapolis). William Sorrell, highway commission member, called it “a pretty low blow.” He said experts were trying to figure out what it would cost the department, but he figured it would be “a million and a half a year.” Ordinarily, Sorrell said, utilities pay the cost of relocating unless a highway moves into utility property. “We left they hit us a pretty low blow when they included alt the rt»da,” Sorrell said, If'lt applied only to interstate highways to be financed nine to one by federal funds, “we wouldn’t squawk,” He said. ‘ The bill was assigned to the House Roads Committee. It will come up soon for final House passage. In tiie Senate, bills encompassing the views of Governor Handley on improving Indiana’s mental health program were excepted soon. I ... - ' — - — ' Sen. Dorothy Gardner (R- Fort Wayne) said she would corn*, up with proposals after a talk with Handley. Sen. Gardner was author of the 1955 law wheih set up a separate division of mental health in the State Health Department. She hinted one bill might allow foreign physicians to practice in Indiana mental hospitals without first becoming U.S. citizens. She said this might help solve the shortage of competent doctors to care are the mentally ill. The administration of former Gov. George Craig and his mental health commissioner, Dr. Margaret Morgan, was plagued by resignation of several physicians. The most important legislation affecting health probably will be the state budget. Much will depend pn how much, if any, of the mental health budget, which calls fbr personnel increases, will be cut. Conant Resigns As U. S. Ambassador Personal Reasons Given By Conant WASHINGTON (UP) — The White House today announced the resignation of James B. Conant as U.S. ambassador to Germany, effective about Feb. 15. President Eisenhower Expressed “deepest personal regret” in accepting the resignation of the envoy, a former president of Harvard University. Conant informed the President on Dec. 1 that he wanted to leave his post to return to private life for persdnal reasons. Conant served as high commissioner and later as ambassador to West Germany for about five years. Mr. Eisenhower in his letter of acceptance said Conant served with "great distinction and honor.” The President said Conant through his “tireless and skillful efforts” played an important role in the return of Germany to "its rightful place in the family of nations.” - ■The White -House gave- no else : as to when a successor would be named.

— Highways Coated By Freezing Rain Glaze Warning Is Issued For State By UNITED PRESS A treacherous coating of freezing rain glazed highways in Indiana today, snarling traffic and resulting in dozens of arccidents. But traffic was forced to move so slowly, few of the wrecks resulted in injuries, and no traffic depths were reported attributable to the weather in the first few ’hours of the hazard. Weather forecasters Issued a * “glaze warning” for the entirestate, although early it hit only the central and southern portions. They said the freezing rain and drizzle will continue throughout the day from Lake Michigan to the Ohio River. It will change to snow tonight. Only the northern one-third will get snow flurries Tuesday, however, although flurries on an occasional basis may return to the entire state Wednesday. Weathermen said the freezing rain was falling from a point north of Indianapolis to Evansville at dawn. Temperatures were below freezing throughout the state, and the rain became ice as fast as it fell. ' High temperatures Sunday ranged from 15 at South Bend to 29 at Evansville. Lows early this • morning ranged from 12 at South Bend to 29 at Evansville. Highs Tuesday will range from 18 to 30, after lows tonight from 15 to 25, and highs today from 25 to the low 30s. The five-day outlook for the period ending next Saturday called for temperatures averaging about 7 degrees below normal north to about 3 below normal south. Normal highs are 33 to 45 and normal lows 17 to 25. “Colder Tuesday, somewhat warmer Thursday, turning colder again north portion about Friday or Saturday,” the outlook said. “Precipitation will average near one-half inch in scattered snow flurries in extreme northeast Tuesday and rain about Friday or Saturday.” Juries Drawn Here For February Term Circuit Court Term Opens Next Monday Jury commissioners Ed Berling and JameS Gattshall met with county clerk Richard Lewton this morning to draw the names for the grand and petit juries for the February term of Adams circuit court.; The term begins Monday, Feb- 4. The 12 members of the grand jury include Elizabeth McMillen, Decatur - Washington; Victor Bleeke, Union township; Russel H. Meletti, Decatur-Washington; Hugo Boerger, Root township; Henry Conrad, Preble township; Alfred P. Hirschy, French township; Joseph Baumer, Jefferson township; Alfred F. Dick, Kirkland township; Henry L. Dehner, Union township; Harry Lehrman, Union township; Raymond Black, Wabash township, and Virgil K. Gilbert, Blue Creek township. Names drawn for petit jury service were Paul H. Meyer, Monroe township; Harold F. Mclntosh, Monroe-Washington; Raymond A. Geimer, St. Mary’s township; Albert Ewell, Prqble township; Ptful H. Gallmeier, Root township; Ralph Bailey, Wabash township; R. W. Fox, Berne; J. Ward Calland, Washington township; Glen E. Girod, Preble township: Ezra Habegger, Hartford township; Roe C. Dickason, Geneva, and John H. Baumgartner, French township. Frank P. Heiman, Washington township; Robert F. Carr, Root township; Lester Bricker, Jefferson township; Walter T. Butcher, Jefferson township; Luther Funk, St. Mary’s township; William F. Dague, Blue Creek township; Roger J. Kaehr, French township; Herman Bittner, Root township; Paul McClain, Monroe township; Herman Kieffer, Preble township; Glen Gifford, Berne, and Robert A. Everett, Union township.

Egypt Demands Withdrawal Os Israel Troops Ask Unconditional Withdrawal From Egypt Territory UNITED NATIONS, N. Y. (IP) — Egyptian government sources said today in Cairo that Egypt will be forced to “take action on its own” unless the United Nations succeeds in forcing Israel out of the Gaza Strip. The sources said unless there is an unconditional Israeli withdrawal from all Egyptian territory Egypt will take action ranging from closure of the Suez Canal as a first resort, to a military counter-offensive against Israel as a last resort. In Jerusalem army spokesman Lt. Col- Nehemia Brosh said Syrian shore batteries opened fire today on Israeli fishing boats on the Sea of Balilee, wounding a fisherman. The area was the scene of heavy clashes last year. Denounce Hammarskjold The Egyptian position was macle public in Cairo shortly after Israel announced plans to develop i the Gaza Strip in defiance of Unit- > ed Nation# demaids it quit all ter- ' ritory captured from Egypt, and » after Israel denounced Secretary ’ General Dag Hammarskjold's approach to the situation? ) Egyptian sources said today’s - General Assembly debate in the ! U. N. on the Middle East would 1 prove a crucial point in the wors--1 ening Middle-East crisis. 1 Both Egypt and Israel expressed disappointment in Ham- ; marskjold’s report which called ’ for complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and from the , Sinai shore on the Gulf of Aqaba. 7 Reacts Angrily Israeli Foreign Ministry spokes- ' man Moshe Leshen said in Jerusalem that Hammarskjold wanted to return to “the very state of affairs 'which brought about the present crisis.” He described Hammarskjold’s view on Gulf of Aqaba navigation a “masterpiece of obscurity.” Egypt reacted even more angrily. Government sources expressed disappointment Hammarskjold failed to demand unconditional withdrawal of Israeli forces and said Egypt is prepared to go (Coatlaued oa Pace Five) Local Lady's Father Is Taken By Death Hugh V. McElhaney Dies At Bluffton Hugh V. McElhaney, 63, farmer residing west of Bluffton, died at 3 o’clock Saturday afternoon at the Wells county hospital in Bluffton after a three-hour illness. He became ill while enroute to Bluffton, and after consulting a physician, was removed to the hospital. Surviving are the widow, the former Nellie Boltin; three daughters. Miss Marie McElhaney, at home, Mrs. Dale Hunt, of Decatur, and Mrs. * 0110 Kfueckeberg, Fort Wayne; two sons, Charles W. McElhaney, of Bluffton route 2, and Edwin McElhaney, of Poneto route one, and nine grandchildren. Funeral services will be held at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday -at funeral home in Bluffton, with burial in Mossburg cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home until time of the services. No Meeting Tonight Far Decatur Lions Harry Schwartz, president of the Decatur Lions club, reminded club members that there will be no regular meeting this evening, , cause of the annual Chamber of Commerce dinner, which members will attend, with their wives, at the Youth and Community Center Thursday evening.

Racial Violence In South Over Weekend Shots Are Fired At TV News Director By AL KUETTNER (United Press Staff Correspondent) Shots fired at a white television news director were linked today to possible retaliation for police apathy in anti-Negro bombings during weekend racial violence in the South. Bob Underwood, 30, news direc- . tor and announcer for WCOV-TV , in Montgomery, Ala., was slightly cut on the face by flying glass ; from two shots fired through his windshield Sunday night, police reported. . , Police earlier arrested tw .o members of an angry throng of , some 500 Negroes who gathered after a dynamite bomb damaged a Negro home and slightly injured a Negro cab driver. Another bomb, a dud, was hurled at the home of the Rev. Martin Luther King, leader' of the Negro bus integration movement, police said. Both incidents occurred shortly before dawn Sunday. Underwood told police that during the last 13 months he had received a dozen threats from unidentified telephone callers who accused him of favoring whites in his news reports on the integra- ' tion situation. The latest caller protested be- ' cause he had praised police for • capturing his escaped convicts in one day, Underwood said. He said 1 the call pointed out that no ar- • rests had been made in the re- [ peated bombings. Underwood said the sniper apparently had no intention of hitting him, since he furnished a good target while walking from the television station to his car in an adjoining parking lot. The explosion Sunday shattered a Negro's nome and damaged a nearby service station which served as g Negro cab stand. Three Negro cab employes wgre shaken in addition to the injured driver. A package of 12 sticks of dynamite bounced off the front door ( of King’s home but smouldered on the porch without exploding, po- , lice said. , Calk On Americans Demand Budget Cut : Hymphrey Calls On J Americans To Act ] WASHINGTON W) — Treas- I ury Secretary George M. Humph- 1 rey called upon the American peo- 1 pie Sunday night to demand that 1 Congress trim President Eisenhower’s record peacetime budget. 1 “H we can make a sufficient re- : duction now, then we would be in 1 a position to reduce taxes a year i from now,” Humphrey said. 1 Humphrey emphasized that ) President Eisenhower is In "com- < plete accord” with his goal of re- 1 during, where feasible, the admin- i istration’s proposed $71.8 billion spending program for the fiscal < year beginning July 1. He said i there also is “almost unanimous belief In the cabinet that we have to improve the situation.” ? i But the secretary said the final answer to government economy lies with the public. He said its ever-growing demand for more and more government services al(Coßtlnned on Pace Five) Garage Destroyed By Fire Here Sunday A garage at the Walter J. Kiesg : residence at 1412 West Madison street was destroyed by fire Sunday afternoon. The fire depart- 1 ment was called at 3:35 p.m. but ! the blaze had too much of a start ! for the department to save the building. suit of a trash fire set too close to I -The fire was started as the re- - the garage. The garage was emp- « ty at the time of the blaze. No ] damage was done to the nearby 1 house. 1

Six Cents

■ Ask Congress Vote Fund To Help Schools Four-Year Program To Ease Critical School Shortage WASHINGTON (UP) —President Eisenhower asked Congress today to vote $2,220,000,000 in federal aid 'over the next tour years help states overcome a "most critical" shortage of schoolrooms. \ In a 2,000-word special message to the House and Senate, the chief executive appealed for quick passage of an “emergency” program designed to overcome the nation’s present “deficit" of about 159,000 classrooms. In an effort to head off the fight over school segregation riders which blocked action on a similar school program last year, Mr. Eisenhower appealed to Congress to enact the measure ‘‘on its own merits, uncomplicated by provisions dealing with the complex problems at integration." Funds for Needy Districts .The'President proposed: 1. Federal grants of 325 million • dollars annually tor the next four years, a total of $1,300,000,000, to dit tributed under a complex formula taking into account the number of school-age children in a state and the state’s average income per school-age child. .£ 2. Duringfirst year of the program, 1957, the federal aid would have to be matched by outlays from either state or local school district funds. After the first year, the matching funds would have to come solely from state funds—a requirement aimed at states which now make little or no contribution to school budgets. 3. The matching funds would be calculated on a formula based on the state’s income. The poorest states would put up 50 cents tor each dollar of federal aid, the richest states two dollars for each dollar of federal aid. 4. Any state which falls below the national average in the proportion of its income devoted to schools, or in dollar expenditures per pupil, would have its federal aid grant “reduced proportionately.” Bond-Buying Plan 5. The federal government would spend up to 750 million dollars over the four years to buy bonds issued by local school districts which have been unable to market their bonds commercially at “reasonable” interest rates. These bonds would be purchased at an interest rate equal to the rate paid by the U.S. Treasury on its own long-term securities, plus % of 1 per cent. 6. Federal advances of 150 million dollars over four years to help state agencies bund schools which would be turned over to local school districts on a “ieasepurchase” plan. It was estimated that this federal nestegg would enable such state agencies to float bond issues of their own bringing in a total of 6 billion dollars. 7. Grants of 20 million dollars over four years to cover the administrative costs of state plan(CoatiaaeS Pasw Fira) County Councilman In Special Session Members of the county council this morning began a special two day session at the county court house to consider requests for additional appropriations totalling $78,964. Appearing before the council this morning were Thurman Drew, administrator of the Adams county memorial hospital, and John L. DeVoss, attorney tor the hospital board of trustees. The hospital board is seeking additions of $36,375 for building and equipment in the operating fund, and $23,224 for building and equipment in the building fund. • Also to be considered by the ““ will uniniii win uc a remiusi jur «u ijr propriation of SIB,OOO for the purchase at a bulldozer for the county surveyor’s department. _ - - I/.:.-'-*