Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 55, Number 200, Decatur, Adams County, 24 August 1957 — Page 1

Vol. LV. No. 200.

CLEARING FOR SWAGE LIFT STATION ■ — — —— - ‘"""1 .>■ A‘J jjlnb - j W' ; ■■ • > z ■ W’TJW ■'• *' - TkI'IK ' A-V; '■";. ’^P3F w *!v.'V <■ ' i '»2' ■ * <0 '-'’ k - :—.—^-Jeau_-3MBJta»«k--; — n PRELIMINARY CLEARING work was begun Thursday on the east side of the Monmouth road about half-way from Second street to the river bridge, for a 100 by 160 feet lift station. The new interceptor sewer will dump into the lift station, and will be pumped from there to the treatment plant through a 14-inch force'ma In. The sewage will enter at a low level, will be raised, and then pumped one-quarter of a mile. Five men are presently engaged in the clearing and leveling operation by the Yost Construction company. A total of 400 days are allowed to the company for the construction, but it is hoped that the new sewage disposal unit and interceptor sewer will be in operation in about a year. Above, Cornelius Schirack operates the crane which lifts the dirt into a large pile. Cloyse Reinhart then bulldozes the dirt into the low areas. Many trees had to be cleared away. (Staff Photo)

AFL-CIO Will Demand Union Answer Charge Demand Teamsters Union Make Answer To Charge On Hoffa WASHINGTON (UP)-The AFLCIO will demand that the Teamsters Unicm answer charges made by the Senate Rackets Committee against Teamster Vice President James R. Hoffa, informed sources said today. • The committee, adjorning i n disbelieving exasperation, left Hoffa alone with his dim memories and bright chances of becoming president of the nation's biggest union. - “The committee discharged Hoffa Friday, handing him only a subpena for his personal records and telling him to come back later for more questions. But informed sources believed he would not be recalled until after the union’s convention Sept. 30, when Hoffa is expected to succeed Dave Beck, who is retiring as president in the wake of committee charges that he misused more than $300,000 of union funds. Corruption Charges Readied Before the convention, the Teamsters are in trouble with the big labor federation. The AFL - CIO Ethical Practices Committee meets Sept. 5-6 to con sider charges that the Teamsters are dominated by corrupt influences At that time, labor sources said, it will sock the Teamsters with the 48-point bill of particulars! compiled by the Senate committee, accusing Hoffa of associating with —and using—gangsters, goons and gunmen in his rise to power and engaging in “questionable’’ financial deals. On Sept. 24-25—still prior to the Teamster convention — the AFLCIO Executive Council will convene in special session in New York to act on the report of its Ethical Practices Committee. The council has power to order the Teamsters to clean' house or face expulsion from the AFL-CIO. The Teamsters’ own executive board—with Hoffa a member — is scheduled to meet Monday in Los Angeles to consider a reply to charges already brought by the (Pontinnen !•■«« Five) Fourth Donation Os Room For Hospital E. W. Busche, chairman of the board of the First State Bank, and well - known Mohroe township farmer, became the fourth donor towards an individual unit in the new addition to the Adams county memorial hospital, the hospital board said this morning. The gift of SSOO to the hospital was the fourth in one week for the new 35-unit addition, which will be completed about January 1 of next year. All rooms in the original hospital, which was dedicated to the men who served in World War I, were donated by organizations and interested persons. Memorial plaques will be placed on each room door, in memory of those who. have contributed a unit. There will be 35 units, five singles and 15 double rooms.

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT

200 Are Routed By State School Fire Mentally Retarded Patients Unharmed FORT WAYNE (UP) — About 200 mentally retarded patients at the Fort Wayne State School were evacuated without casualty Friday when flames broke out on the second floor of a building. Authorities reported one inmate was overcome by smoke and treated at the school infirmary. Fire of undetermined origin burnt forth in a dormitory unit on the east Wing of a structure known as the Oak Park Colony Building. Attendants quickly led residents to safety while firemen from Fort Wayne and St. Joseph township battled the blaze for about two hours. y No estimate was made of the damage. Some of the inmates were assigned to other buildings. Others will be transferred early next week to the Norman Beatty Memorial Hospital at Westville, according to mental health officials. The 59-year-old building was scheduled for abandonment due to its obsolescence. The state had appropriated $850,000 to erect a replacement building, but the old structure was supposed to have been used until the new one was ready in about 1959.

Four Are Appointed To Adjustment Board One County Council Appointee Unnamed With the exception of the county council, all other appointments have been completed for the sev-en-member Adams county tax adjustment board, which will meet early in September to give further study to budget proposals for 1957. The county council representative will be named at that group’s first meeting in September. William' Linn will represent township trustees, and Mayor Robert Cole will also be a member of the board, representing the largest city in the county. Appointees of Judge Myles F. Parrish, are Republicans Charles Langston, of Decatur, and Menno I. Lehman, of Berne, apd Democrats Louis Reinking, Sr., of Preble township, and Ernest Hanni, of Geneva. ' * j The board has the authority to make further cuts in certain parts of the proposed county budgets. After their study is completed, the approved budgets and tax levies are submitted to the state board of tax commissioners before final approval. Public School Book List Is Published The book list of the Decatur public schools, high school and elementary, is published on page four of today’s Daily Democrat. The list for the Catholic schools will be published next week. NOON COITION

Compromise Is Worked Out On Civil Rights Congressmen Agree To Compomise; To Vote Early In Week WASHINGTON (UP)—Congress today held the key to adjournment —a bipartisan agr*em<mt to a compromise civil rights bill. Speedy passage cf the measure was predicted by all four top congressional'leaders. Senate Republican Leader William F. Knowland and House GOP Leader Joseph Martin Jr. said President Eisenhower would sign the bill. Senate Democratic Leader Lyndon B. Johnson said he expected the 1957 session of the Sth Congress how would be able to adjourn sine die by the end of next week. Though southerners opposed the compromise bill with its modified jury trial amendment, they were not expected ot try and stop it with a filibuster for fear of having next year. The House Rules Committee, which for two weeks has bottled up the much rewritten bill, is expected to act Monday so the House can vote on it Tuesday. In a series of conferences Friday, Democrats and Republicans worked out a compromise to guarante jury trials only in major criminal contempt cases resulting from violations of court injunctions to protectt voting rights. A federal judge would have discretion to try minor violations with or without a jury. The compromise also spelled out penalties in minor cases. With a jury trial the maximum would be six months! n jail, a SI,OOO fine or both. If the judge in a nonjury trial imposed more than a 45-day jail term or S3OO fine, then the defendant could demand and be guaranteed a jury trial. Other congressional news? FBI Files: The Senate hoped to reach a vote Monday an legislation to protect the sanctity of FBI files afer agreeing to limit debae on the measure. The bill would resrict the Supreme Court’s recent decision granting defendants in certain criminal cases the right to inspect FBI reports of government witnesses used, against them. The bill would require the government to produce only written statements or records of oral satements made by he winess that would be pertinen o his testimony. Appropriations: Congress passed and sent to President Eisenhower hte last two major appropriations bills of the 5e55i0n—52,323,632,000 the last two major appropriations bills of the 5e55i0n—52,323,632,000 for the Atomic Energy Commission and $1,743,011,947 for military construction. The AEC bill carried funds for federal construction of five atomic reactors. The military construction measure was cut more than 230 million dollars below the President’s request. TV A: Senate Democrats hoped to block congressional approval of President Eisenhower’s appointment of Arnold Jones t the Tennessee Valley Authority board. They indicated they wanted to force Eisenhower into giving a recess appointment to Jones, now deputy director of the budget. In Continued On Pace Five

ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS

Decatur, Indiana, Saturday, August 24,1957.

Bodies Os Three Small Sisters Are Found In Muddy Illinois Quarry

Army Cutbacks Announced In Economy Move Expect Closing Os Major Army Posts Will Follow Cuts WASHINGTON (UP)—lnformed sources said today the closing of some major Army posts probably will follow the Army's latest economy measures if expected new manpower cuts go through. z As a result of the 50,00-man cut already ordered and a spending limit of $8,950,00,00 for the current fiscal year the Army Friday announced: —Sixteen depots, arsenals and other facilities will be closed between now and the end of calendar year 1958. —Division strength will be reduced from 17 to 16 by January 1958 by replacing the 2nd Infantry Division in Alaska with a “streamlined force” that obviously will be smaller than the under - strength one now ciere. —Eighteen anti - aircraft battalions, equipped with 90 and 120 mm. guns, will be cut out. May Close Forts —Civilian jobs will be cut down 15,000. . Secretary of Defense Charles E-. Wilson ordered the Army to reduce its strength one million men to 950,00 by next Jan. 1. Further cuts in the Army’s size now are considered inevitable. The Army has been quietly informing congressmen over the past several days that new cuts would mean closing some major posts. The effect—-intended or not —was expected to be to generate opposition to further Army manpower cuts. The Army has confirmed a report by Chairman Carl Vinson (D-Ga.), of the House Armed Services Committee that further manpower cuts could mean the closing of Fprts Jackson, S.C.; Gordon, Ga.; Chaffee, Ark., and Carson, Colo. The four forts were among the ones being studied, the Army said, “in reference to possible future cuts in Army strength.” It said no decisions had been reached. The latest Army economy moves followed a series of Defense Department, Navy and Air Force steps to hold military spending at 38 billion dollars in the year that started July 1. Continued On Pace Five Recognize Teachers At Indiana’s Fair ftarvey Haggard Is Named From County INDIANAPOLIS (IP) — Ninetytwo teachers from Indiana will be recognized at the Indiana State Fair Sept. 4 during _"Teachers Day.” School superintendents from each of Hoosierland’s 92 counties were asked to submit to the fair board the names of not more than 10 teachers with at least 14 years teaching experience. Lt. Gov. Crawford Parker, commissioner of agriculture, and Lowell Taylor, state fair board representative, drew lots to select one teacher and two alternates from each county. An Indiana “Teacher of the Year” will be picked, also by lot, at a later date. The fair board said recognition of teachers is in keeping with the theme of the fair—" Progress Through Education.” Teachers selected and their alternates include: Adams county — Harvey Hagagrd; alternates, Margaret Rhoades and Robert Brown. Allen county — Helen Augspurger, Iva Steiner and Wilma A. Wetter. Wells — Gladys Darrow, Huber C. Settle and Beatrice Huffman. Jay — Thomas Thomas, Jr., Madonna Miller and Bernice Dibble.

COUNTY

Three Boys Burned To Death In Bam Three Pennsylvania Boys Are Victims JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (UP)—Three boys burned to death in a flaming barn Friday while the grandmother of one saved cattle, not realizing the children were inside. - Burned beyond recognition in the fire at nearby Menoher Heights, Somerset County, were John D. I Pebley Jr., 14, his brother, Donald, ■ 10, and their cousin PHer Nitch ’ Jr., 14. The Pebleys, who lived on ’ a farm adjoining the Nitch property, were visiting their cousins. The bodies of the boys, who had been playing inside a den made of hay bales, were not discovered ! until after the blaze had leveled the barn and adjoining milk shed. Firemen first realized the children might have been trapped when the seared wreckage of their bicycles was found in the debris. Mrs. Mabel Geisel, a grandmother of the Nitch boy, said she Dwas in the house when she heard two other Nitch children scream that the barn was on fire. She ran to the structure and managed to bring out two cows, not realiizing Peter and his two cousins Were inside. Firemen said the boys might have set off the blaze while smoking in the hay hut which they had > constructed on the lower level of ; the two story farm. Coroner obert H. Halverson said access to • the den was through a long tunnel fashioned from the bales. _ Thirteen fire companies from the Cambria-Somerset area battled the blaze for more than two hours and prevented the flames from spreading to the house. Damage was estimated at more than $40,000. Police said parents of the Nitch boy were in Johnstown delivering eggs when the fire was touched off. Mrs. Nitch was placed under a doctor’s care. Atomic Weapon To Army Reserve Unit Restrictions On Enlistment Eased Decatur will move into the atomic age about September 1 when service battery. 424th field artillery battalion, Decatur’s army reserve unit, gets an eight inch howitzer, capable of firing atomic missiles, Lt. Henry S. Commager, battery commander, said today. Service battery will then become Battery B. of the 424th, and in addition to the huge weapon, with a firing range of 11 miles, it will also include a 16 ton full-track prime weapon mover, which resembles a tank. The battery will not, of course, keep atomic weapons on hand, but will train in such a manner that atomic shells could be used if needed. The new change in the battery will mean an increase in the number of men needed, too, Lt. Commager added. The battery will include more weapons, man for man, than an infantry company. Besides individual weapons like carbines, pistols, and “grease guns”, members will train with .30 and .50 calibre machine guns, rocket launchers, and the main weapon, the eight inch howitzer. At the same time, Lt. Commager announced that the reserve has temporarily lifted restrictions on enlistment, and that until further notice interested young men may join. Youths 17 to 1814 may enlist immediately in the organization. Those between the ages of 18% and on >-»<• INDIANA WEATHER Scattered showers and turning cooler today. Fair and cooler north and central tonight, scattered showers and thunderstorms south. Sunday partly cloudy with little change in temperature. Low tonight 60-70. High Sunday near 80. Outlook for Monday: Showers and thunderstorms and turning cooler.

Broader Health Services For School Pupils Teacher Federation Alos Demands Ban On Nuclear Tests' CHICAGO (UP)—The AFL-CIO American Federation of Teachers has urged broader federal health and welfare services, including immunization against polio and Asian flu, for all school children. The AFT also recommended that President Eisenhower take “vigorous steps” to bring about a ban on nuclear bomb testings and that the government or public agencies “retain control” of the development! of atomic energy. Both proposals were among resolutions adopted Friday by delegates at the AFT’s 41st annual convention. In addition, delegates called for support of bills expanding vocational education and “a strong program” for immediate federal aid for higher education covering both facilities and scholarships. Without more scholarships, further student loans and additional opportunities for self support, higher education will be increasingly denied to talented students with limited means,” the AFT said. It asked that "appropriate local and state as well as federal legislation” be enacted to handle growing college enrollments. The multi-clause welfare resolution also urged: improvement and extension of the school lunch program; extension of aid for schools in federally impacted areas; an assistance program for emotionally and mentally handicapped children. The AFT also gave full support to the AFL-CIO legislative program. It said any revision of the federal tax structure should favor those least able to p?y ratther than those best able to pay. Another resolution called attentvoutlnue.’ w 81X)

Joseph J. Berling Is Taken By Death Well-Known Decatur Resident Is Dead Funeral services will be held Monday morning for Joseph J. Berling, 75, well-known lifelong resident of Decatur, who died Friday afternoon at the Cooper nursing home in Bluffton. Death was caused by a cerebral hemorrhage. He had been in serious condition for many months, and had been taken from the Adams county memorial hospital to the nursing home last Monday. Bom in Decatur Sept. 29, 1881, he was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Gerhart Berling, and had never married. He resided in the family home at 134 South Fourth street with a sister, Miss Genevieve Berling. Mr. Berling was associated with his family in the produce business in this city for many years until the firm was dissolved. He was a member of St. Mary’s Catholic church, the Holy Name society, Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus, and the Third Order of St. Francis. Surviving in addition to the sister at home are two other sisters, Mrs. Paul Briede of Decatur, and Sr. M. Cleta of Fond du Lac, Wis., and two brothers, Williarrt H. and Edward F. Berling, both of Decatur. Services will be conducted at 9 a.m. Monday at St. Mary’s Catholic church, with a nephew, the Rev. Alvin Berling, OSB, celebrating the solemn requiem high mass, assisted by the Rev. Robert Contact and the Rev. Robert Jaeger. Burial will be in the Catholic cemetery. Friends may call at the Gillig & Doan funeral home after 6 o'clock this evening until time of the services. Recitation of the rosary will be held at 8 p m. Sunday.

Seven Persons Die In Slate Traffic Two Are Killed In Jay County Friday By UNITED PRESS Seven persons were killed in the first 12 hours of the weekend in Indiana traffic. The sudden spurt in fatalities dealt a blow to the state’s improved safety record. The 1957 traffic toll has been running about 7 per cent below last year. Six accidents in Jay, Dearborn, Lake, Marion, Bartholomew and Scott Counties occurred after 6 p, m. Friday and up to 6 a.m. today. Mrs. Ollie R. Bransford, 52, East Chicago, and Donna Smith, 14, near Indianapolis, were killed in separate accidents about 40 miles apart on U.S. 31 in a two-hour period this morning. Mrs. Bransford, riding in a car driven by her husband, Roy, 51, was injured fatally when the car collided with another driven by Kenneth Keown, 32, Louisville, Ky. Keown was arrested for intoxication and driving on the wrong side of the highway at a point south of Scottsburg. She died in St. Mary’s Hospital at Louisville. The Smith was killed on a bypass at Columbus in a collision of a pickup truck and an automobile. She lived a short time after the accident but died In Bartholomew County Hospital. A two-car collision on a narrow Jay County bridge on a county road Friday night killed Doman Tinch, 23, Dunkirk, and Arleen Miller, 18, Redkey. Three other persons were hurt. Tinch and Miss Miller were the drivers. Arturo Brenes-Pomales, 30, a iuoMlnuao on P**« Six) State Plow Contest Here Next Tuesday Maps Available To Spectators At Meet Mimeographed maps of the state plowing contest site will be available Tuesday, the board of supervisors of the soil conservation district announced today.

The state plowing contest will be held Tuesday on the Ward and east of Decatur on highway 224, Jay Chapman farm four miles and one mile south on highway 101. Light rains this weekend are expected to put the plowing field areas in good shape for the contest, which will draw the four top plowmen from each ot the state’s eight areas, and will include last year’s champions and runners-up. The trophies for the state contest have arrived, and are on display in the county agent’s office. The Ford company is sending a sound truck, with an excellent loud-speaker system into the area. Food will be available at noon, and cold drinks available during the day. The contour contest will start promptly at 10 a.m. and the level land plowing at 1:30 p.m. Contour contestants will be allowed to practice Monday afternoon, and level land contestants will practice Tuesday morning aftei 1 the 9 o’clock orientation. Birth Certificates May Be Obtained Mrs. Walter Gillipm, deputy secretary to the city board of health, stated this morning that persons needing birth certificates before registering pre-school age children, born in this city of Decatur, may obtain the certificates at the city hall next week. They may be obtained Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Requests may also be telephoned to No. 3-2702 and the certificates called tor at city hall. Regular office hours of Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. until 12 noon will be In affect after Wednesday.

Six Cenh

Three Sisters Missing Since Last Wednesday Army Os Volunteer Workers Shovel For Hour During Hunt DTXON, Hl. (UP)—A group of workmen found the bodies of three small sisters early today in a floodlighted, muddy quarry. The girls, Nancy, 10, Theresa, 8, and Ruthie Guernsey, 9, had been missing since last Wednesday afternoon when they were Seen playing at the rim of the 50 - foot quarry. A small army of workers had shoveled through the night against a maddening sea of mud, white floodlights pierced a heavy fog which shrouded the hilly timberland. Police said there were no signs the girls had met foul play. All were found lying fully clothed under a massive tree, one of the many authorities had been hauling out of the clay mire since Friday night. Sandal Starts Search National Guardsmen, state police, deputies and hundreds of volunteers had trudged through the surrounding area Friday, when one of thpm “happened to kick up^.a sandal belonging to one of the girls. Digging operations began shortly afterwards, uncovering the other five shoes, the little girls’ socks neatly tucked inside. Mr. and Mrs. John Guernsey, parents of the girls, identified the shoes as those of their daughters. Dixon Police Commissioner Fred Hofmann doubted foul play but cited the possibility the girls may have been playing along the slope of the quarry, perhaps in a pocket, and were buried under a landslide. A nearby cement plant had been filling in the pit with tons of clay and sand the day of the disappearance.

Bam Hampers Workers Hofmann said 75 to 85 workers manning hand shoves had been gnawing into the saucer-shaped pit, aided by two tractors and three cranes, but that torrential afternoon rains had increased heir work a hundred-fold. The little girls were seen playing near the lip of the quarry Wednesday by a shovel operator. Other workmen were around at the time. Hofmann said, which made the idea of foul play improbable. He could offer no reason, however, why the sisters had removed their shoes, there being no ponds nearby tn which they could go wading. Coroner Robert Preston said an examination performed on the bodies of the girls by Dr. Emory Streuser, a pathologist, indicated the children died of suffocation. An inquest will be held late today, Preston said. The parents of the girls had been up without sleep for two days, Hoffman sa id, but had gone home shortly before the discovery of the bodies. At that time, it appeared authorities were digging in the wrong place. The work party then moved over about 15 or 20 feet and resumed excavations. About 35 feet down and about 20 feet into the sloping embankment, the girls were found close together in a group. It was estimated their bodies were some 15 to 25 feet from where the sisters’ shoes had been unearthed. “We needed fresh men every half hour," Hoffman said. “That gumbo mud wore our men out as fast as they got in. They’d pick up a shovelful and couldn’t get rid of it.'* Operations extended along 50 to 75'yards of the perimeter of the quarry, as the workers burrowed 35 feet into the side of the embankment. "We started digging below the rim,” Hofmann said, “but then we had to cart away everything above so the men won’t be caught in another landslide. It was just dig, then push away,*’ he said. An earlier lead, that the girls may have been traveling to visit relatives in Boscobel. Wis., was discounted when a time-check indicated they were near Dixon at the time they were reported seen in ; iVeatSaMO «■ «ve>