Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 56, Number 185, Decatur, Adams County, 7 August 1958 — Page 1

Vol. LVI. No. 185.

VI I mL Wife w ICV O Jh w|f.F MAY ATTEND U. N. SESSlON— President Eisenhower breaks into a hearty laugh (left) during his first press conference since July 2. The President told newsmen he will attend the United Nations special assembly meeting on the Middle East if he finds it necessary oi desirable that he should participate. In a more serious vein, the President points a finger (right) as he stresses the point that he believes the United Nations special assembly meeting on the Middle East should not be confined to Little Lebanon, but should range over a wider section of the Middle East.

23-Cent Boost In Tax Rate Os Public Schools

An increase of 23 cents in the Decatur school rate will be necessary in 1959. it was announced today, to cover increases in the tuition fund, although cuts will be made in operating costs and bond payment funds. The present Decatur school rate is $2.85, and the proposed rate next year will be $3.08. The increase is mainly due to three reasons, the school board explained. Five teachers must be added to the school staff; three of these will be added in the 1958-59 school year, and two will be added in September, 1959. Nominal cost of living increases have been granted in teacher's salaries. For the past three or four years there have been five sections of the first grade, including some 150 pupils in each grade. This number of pupils moved forward each year into a higher grade. But at present there are not enough teachers in the higher elemenatry and high school classrooms to handle the increase m the number of children. Graduating classes have averaged about 70 There have been only two three or four sections in the upper grades. . As these grades which have five sections progress, additional teachers must be added year one high school teacher and two elementary teachers were added to the staff. An additional $5,000 will be added to the operating balance. The operating balance, it was explained, is not an expenditure, but is necessary to carry the payroll between tax distributions. Money is received at various times for payment as salaries, and this sometimes lags behind actual payments to be made. If no balance were carried, the school would have to borrow the monty, with resulting interest charges. The operating balance will be increased from $25,000 to $30,000 because of the increased and expanding budget. , In the special school fund, which was 86 cents this year, a four-cent reduction is possible to 82 cents for 1959. The Worthman field rest rooms were included in the 1958 budget, and will be completed this fall. This item was dropped from the 1959 budget, and c«;tain reductions were made in fixed charges. By holding the line as much as possible on increased operating costs, it was possible to reduce the rate four cents. The last of the Decatur high school building bonds will be paid off Jan. 1, 1959. This makes it necessary to levy for only one bond payment of $2,500 instead of the usual two semi-annual payments, reducing the bond rate three cents from 18 to 15 cents., The total school budget for 1959 win be $720,536.03, as compared with $668,986.00 this year, an increase of $51,550.03. Much of this win come from the state and nontax items, and the property tax levy wfll apply only to $348,162.35 which will be raised locally. This year $316,566.73 will be raised with a $2.85 tax levy. This year’s estimates are based on a taxable property valuation of $11,301,610. In 1957, $292,675.15 was raided, and in 1956 the amount was $282,115.80. The complete city school budget will be run twice in the Decatur Daily Democrat as a legal advertisement, so that everyone may (Continued on pag< five) • 12 Pages

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT ONLY DAILY NEWBPAFEB IN ADAMS COUNT! •

Says Kierdorf Victim Os Own Arson Attempt Claim Witness Saw Attempted Bombing Os Cleaning Plant BULLETIN PONTIAC, Mich. (UPI) — Haman torch Frank Kierdorf died today at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital only hours after police produced a witness who saw a Flint arson job on which he was believed to have been burned. FLINT, Mich. (UPl)—State Atty. Gen. Paul Adams said today police have in custody a witness who saw the attempted bombing of a Flint dry cleaning shop where Frank Kierdorf apparently was turned into a human torch. Adams said “We do have such a witness in protective custody. We prefer not to say where. He came in voluntarily to police. We interviewed him last night in Flint.’’ He refused to say whether the witness had identified either of the two men he saw. Kierdorf, 56, an ex-convict and Teamster business agent for Mint Local 332. staggered into a Pontiac hospital about 1 a.m. Monday, his body blackened and charred by burns from head to foot. The expected complications from his horrible burns have set in. He has “euremic snow” on his skin and doctors say his kidneys are not carrying away the poisons in his system. . Kierdorf told police through his swollen lips late Monday that two unidentified men had taken him “for a ride,’’ and threw fuel on him and set fire to him. But authorities spotted discrepancies in his story and later police found evidence of an attempted bombing of the dry cleaning shop. The witness turned himself in to police at Port Huron Wednesday night and was rushed to flint to confer with Adams. He was driving on a highwaj’ which runs from Flint to Port Huron about midnight Sunday when he heard the explosion at the cleaning establishment. The witness stopped his car and saw the two men running from the building. Then he heard the anguished screams of a third man inside. It was after Adams conferred" ■Lontlnneo on oage five) INDIANA WEATHER Partly cloudy with a few scattered thundershowers north and central and generally fair extreme south tonight and Friday. Continued warm and humid. Low tonight 68 to 73. High Friday 85 to 91. Sunset today 7:51 p. m. Sunrise Friday 5:51 a.m. Outlook for Saturday: Continued warm and humid with scattered thundershowers. Lows 68 to 72. Highs 85 to 93.

House Passes Exlension Os Trade Measure Compromise Bill Would Extend Trade Program Four Years BULLETIN WASHINGTON (UPI) — The House today approved a compromise four-year extension of the reciprocal trade agreements law. WASHINGTON (UPI)-The Eisenhower administration drew near a major legislative victory today as the House called up for certain passage a bill to extend the reciprocal trade program for an unprecedented four years. . _ The trade program has been extended 10 times before in its 24year history but never for more than three years at a time. The current bill would authorize the President at any time up to June S), 1962, to negotiate and sign trade agreements carrying tariff cuts of up to 20 per cent. The House also was slated to consider a. bill to provide 20,000 four-year college scholarships for bright students in the fields of science and foreign languages. The awards, to range from SSOO to SI,OOO a year, would cost an estimated $1,070,000,000 over a seven-year period. Still another matter up before the House was a compromise money bill providing a peacetime record of $39,602,827,000 for defense spending during the current fiscal year. House-Senate conferees workd out the compromise Wednesday night. It carried $815,857,000 more than the President asked and $1,193,266,000 more than the House voted. At that it was more than 440 million dollars below the Sen-ate-approved total. Other congressional news: Welfare funds: The House passed a bill to force public operation of employe welfare and pension funds after beating down a Republican move to exempt man-agement-run plans. The bill now goes to the Senate which passed a different welfare fund disclosure bill last April. Farm: Republican leaders lost a gamble when’ they engineered defeat of a new farm bill which would have provided some of the price support reductions the President wanted. They pushed for a quick vote on the measure in hope of getting action later on a bill containing even more concessions to Agriculture Secretory Ezra T. Benson’s demand for lower price props. But Speaker Sam Rayburn said no new farm legislation would be considered this year. Debt: The House voted to grant President Eisenhower’s request to raise the temporary national debt limit from 280 billion dollars to a record 288 billion dollars and the (Contlnuec on page five) Gigantic Plastic Ballloon Collapses Cause Os Failure Is Not Tet Determined CROSBY, Minn. (UPI) — A gigantic plastic balloon containing a female monkey, frogs and goldfish as passengers collapsed today at 60.000 feet about one hour after it started a 25-mile trip to the stratosphere. Air Force spokesmen said it was the largest plastic balloon ever launched. A Winzep Research Laboratories official here said it was not known what caused the failure. He did not know whether the money or other contents of the balloon survived. A similar launching attempt on July 30 failed when the balloon of about the same size was destroyed by sharp air currents at 40,000 feet. The balloon soared skyward from an open-pit mine near here at 6 a. m. The Air Force lost contact with it at 7 a. m. The monkey was strapped with photosensitive plates to measure the cosmic rays. The Air Force stressed that the flight bad been planned to insure the monkey would not be harmed as a result of the test. The frogs and goldfish, as well as onions and potatoes, were sent aloft to study any cell damage that might occur at the 25-mile altitude. In addition, fruit flies and a type of fungps, neurostora, were included in the cargo to see if cosmic rays cause any genetic or hereditary changes. The balloon, made of thin polyehtelene plastic, measured 233 feet in diameter and weighed 650 pounds.

Decatur, Indiana, Thu rsday, August 7,1958

At Least 15 Men Die When Tankers Collide In Thick Fog Today

U. N. Council - Meets Today On Assembly Call Afternoon Session Is Scheduled On Call From Russia UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. (UPI) —Western diplomats predicted the U.N. Security Council would act quickly today to set up an emergency session of the General Assembly on the Middle East beginning Friday. Indications were the session would be on U.S. terms. The council, summoned by Russia, was scheduled to meet this afternoon. It had two resolutions to consider, one by the United States and the other by Soviet Russia, both calling for an emergency convocation of the 81-member assembly. ■Die U.S. resolution will be taken up first and appeared certain to be approved by the 11-member Security Council. The Russian resolution was as certain to be rejected. There can be no veto on the vote. Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev dumped the Middle East issue into the lap of the General Assembly in a sudden shift in tactics, apparently a result of his talks with Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse-tung in Peiping last week Denounces Council In so doing, Khrushchev rejected Anglo-American proposals for a summit meeting within the council which he denounced as a tool of the United States. But Soviet and Red Chinese propaganda machines were going all out to put the blame on the West for torpedoing the summit talks. The official Communist Party newspaper Pravda asserted Russia “has emphasized that in the present tense situation the swift summoning of a conference of the heads of government at a summit level is particularly necssary.” Red Chinese newspapers supported Khrushchev’s opposition to a summit-council meeting and criticized the United States for insisting the assembly should discuss its resolution ahead of the Soviet resolution demanding withdrawal of U.S. and British troops from Lebanon and Jordan. There were signs, meantime, in Washington and Moscow that the “crisis” atmosphere in the Middle East was dissipating. Alert Called Off The U.S. Navy disclosed it had called off the four-hour “alert” put into effect in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets immediately after the Anglo-American troop landings in Lebanon and Jordan. And in Moscow, Soviet newspa(Ccntir.ued on page rive) Charles W. Perry Is Taken By Death Funeral Services On Friday Morning Charles W. Perry, 80, father of Mrs. Roy Taylor, route six, died about 11 p.m. Tuesday in the Paulding county, 0., memorial hospital. Funeral services will be conducted at 10 a.m. Friday in the Didrick funeral home, Grqver Hill, 0., the Rev. Robert Kinney officiating. Burial will be in the Mohr cemetery north of Van Wert, O. Friends may call at the funeral home until time of the services.. Mr. Perry was a retired farmer, and a resident of the Scott, 0., community most of his life. In failing health approximately two years, he was taken to the Paulding hospital Sunday night. Surviving are the widow, Sabina, the daughter; three sons, Clifford Perry, of route two, Van Wert, Russel Perry, route two. Convoy, 0., and Lester Perry, route one, Haviland. O.; a brother, Marion Perry, Albion; 12 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

Heaviest Rainfall Recorded In Preble W- \ - '-r- ■ ~ _r ~7 J Only Light Showers In South Portions Northwestern Adams county received the brunt of a flurry of storms that drenched the area Wednesday afternoon, leaving an average county rain fall of .68 inch. At the Arthur Koeneman farm in Preble township, the heaviest rainfall for the county, 1.5 inches, fell, while St. Mary’s township and Wabash townships received .3 inch of rain. The inch-and-a-half fall may have been part of a heavy thunderstorm which knocked out some 1,500 telephones and several wires in the Fort Wayne area at mid-afternoon Wednesday. Temperatures in Fort Wayne fell 18 degrees in two hours, to 69 degrees at 3 p.m.; -the cooling rainfall amounted to .70 inch. In Decatur, where weather observer Louis Landrum recorded 1.14 inch of rain, the afternoon showers began about 3 p.m., with a torrential downpour for about ten minutes that sent dollar day bargain-hunters scurrying to shelter in their cars and in stores. The St. Mary’s river had not yet started to rise at 7 a.m. today, st anding at 3.49 since it had been dropping steadily, about a foot a day, since last weekend’s showers. Most of the wheat and oats in •the county have been combined, with many of those who had cus’tom work done being forced to wait until this week, when the weather granted a longer reprieve from the rain. This morning’s county - wide weather picture looked like this: in Preble township, the heaviest rainfall, 1.5 inches was recorded at the Arthur Koeneman farm. High wind accompanied the rain at first at the Cecil Harvey farm in Root township, where 1.1 inch was recorded. Six tenths of an inch fell in Union township, at the Erwin Fuelling farm. Kirkland township,, on the Dan Fiechter farm, .75 inch was recorded. Decatur received 1.14 inches of rain, according to weather observer Louis Landrum. In St. Mary's township, on the Nimrod McCullough farm, .3 inch stood in the rain gauge. In a quiet shower be> tween 3:30 and 5 p.m. Wednesday, .6 inch of rain fell in French township on the Harold Moser farm. A (Con' oo on page five) Two County Medals For 4-H Members Part Os National Program For 4-H Two county medals will be awarded this fall to 4-H boys and girls in recognition of their leadership abilities as a part of the national 4-H program to encourage leadership, Eldon Holsapple, 4-H leader, said today. County winners receive gold-fill-ed medals and will then compete for the state honors, the winners receive a fine pen and pencil set each. County winners last year were Michael Lehman, of route one, Berne, and Jeannie Smith, route 4. Eight sectional winners-four boys and four girls— will be delegates to the national 4-H club congress, Chicago, next December, with expenses paid. Each will be eligible to try for a S4OO college scholarship awarcled to the boy and girl selected by a committee of judges for national honors. All awards are given by Edward Fos Wilson through the national committee on 4-H and the cooperative extension service. Awards in 29 fields, ranging from medals to scholarships, are available to those youngsters in 4-H this year. More than 170 scholarships are available to those who qualify by winning national (honors in their chosen fields. Work on these scholarships must start early in a 4-H career, Holsapple cautioned, since a cumulative 4-H memory book is necessary. It is loose leaf, and may be arranged to suit the club member.

Connie Pleads Not Guilty To Teel's Murder Divorcee Appears In Court To Answer To Murder Charge INDIANAPOLIS (UPI) — Mrs. Connie Nicholas, 42, went to court in a paddy wagon today and pleaded innocent to a charge that she killed her wealthy lover, Forrest Teel, 54, when he left the apartment of a young rival. Mrs. Nicholas said not a word as she braved a battery of television and news cameras, radio microphones and reporters for arraignment On a preliminary charge of murder in the Marion County court of Judge Virgil Norris. She was taken to court on the arm of a nurse from General Hospital, where she lay for a week, part of the time in a nearfatal coma from a sleeping tablet suicide attempt. Her attorney, Frank Symmes, entered the innocent plea and waived arraignment for his client. Mrs. Nicholas was served immediately with a new warrant issued by Prosecutor John G. Tinder charging her with first-degree —premeditated—murder. Symmes asked the court to permit her to return to the hospital on the strength of doctors’ statements she needs further medical attention. Spokesmen for the county sheriff agreed to abide by the doctors’ rquests, and Mrs. Nicholas was returned to the hospital. Mrs. Nicholas walked up and down a stairway to the second floor of the Courthouse where she was fingerprinted and booked and taken to court. A nurse helped her each step. She looked tired. Her arm was in a sling from an injury she contends Teel inflicted before she shot him. A white bandage patch was over one eye. Sh wore a white blouse with small figures of anchors and starfish. Defense attorneys have indicated they will try to have the charge reduced to manslaughter. They contend Mrs. Nicholas shot Teel in self defense during an argument over his switch of attentions to Miss Laura Mowrr, 29. The defense contends Teel struck Mrs. Nicholas during the argument resulting in a swollen eye and a paralyzed right arm. The prosecution has accused the attractive divorcee with “malicious, cold-blooded, premeditated murder.” Police Wednesday revealed a (Continuea an Paxe Five)

Emanuel C. Joray Dies Last Evening Vera Cruz Resident Is Taken By Death Emanuel C. Joray, 84, a lifelong resident of the Vera Cruz community, died about 7 p. m. Wednesday in the Wells county hospital, Bluffton. He had been seriously ill a week after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. A well driller, he resided on Bluffton route four. A member of St. John’s Evangelical and Reformed church at Vera Cruz, he was a 50-year member of the IOOF lodge at Geneva. Surviving are two sons, Philip Joray, Ephrata, Wash., and William Joray, route one, Geneva; two grandchildren, and a sister, Mrs. Mary Ehrsam, of route one, Monroe. His wife, the former Amelia Henneford, preceded him in death in 1951. v Friends may call after 7 p. m. today at the Thoma funeral home, Bluffton. The body will be taken at noon Saturday to St. John’s Evangelical and Reformed church, at Vera Cruz, for funeral services. The Rev. L. C. Minsterman will officiate. Burial will be in the Vera Cruz cemetery. ;

Missile Is Fired By Remote Control Interceptor Missile Fired By Air Force CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (UPI) — The Air Force fired a Bomarc interceptor missile by remote control today in a test of both the weapon and the nation's new automatic detection and filing system. A technician in Kingston, N. Y., pressed the button that sent the needle - nosed Bomarc streaking off the launching pad here at Cape Canaveral toward an unmanned target plane at sea. The missile was aimed for a pear miss of a drone plane over the Atlantic. The Bomarc was launched by remote control after radar at the test center here established the position of the target. A huge electronic computer in Kingston figured data fdr the flight. The Air Force said a technician, who was not identified, made only the decision that the “blip" on his radar screen was an “enemy” plane. His task was to test this information on the IBM computer, which took over from there. Reporters only 300 yards away from the firing scene saw the doors of the shed housing the slender 47foot long Bomarc swing open 30 seconds before the launching. It blasted off with a deafening roar, rising straight up for several thousand feet before it veered to a more level trajectory and sped toward the target, ■ which was about 200 miles northeast of the cape. Purpose of the flight was “to test the compatibility of the Bomarc and the Semi - Automatic Ground Evironment (SAGE) system, devised by scientists at the Cambridge, Mass., Air Force base,” a spokesman said. The intricate system is designed to seek out enemy aircraft and compute data needed to aim interceptors at them.

Democrat Editors Meet Aug. 22-23 Conservative, Labor Forces May Clash INDIANAPOLIS (UPI) — Conservative and labor forces are sure to clash at a meeting of the Indiana Democratic Editorial Association at French Lick Aug. 22-23. Most of the Hoosier party leaders will be present because for the first time in a decade, observers believe the Democrats have a fair chance this fall. The state committe will meet at the same time. Marion County leaders, headed by Indianapolis Mayor Phillip L. Bayt, are in the van of the conservative forces. Bayt needs many right-wing Republican votes to win his bid for Marion County prosecutor this fall. Sheriff Robert O’Neal, the only Marion County Democrat official, is in the same position as the mayor. These Marion County chieftains prevented the party’s platform committee from mentioning repeal of the “right to work” statute in the platform, although that thought was embodied in rather vague language. What About Butler? On the otherhand, union forces from Lake County and other industrial areas, spurred chiefly by CIO heads and by AFL officers to a lesser extent, are certain to demand that Democratic campaign speakers specifically repeal of the “right to work” law, a measure which will be championed unmistakably by the GOP campaigners. The Republican state platform says “right to work.”, Ev ansville Mayor Vance Hartke, the Democratic senatorial nominee, is much more frank about repealing “right to work” than were the party’s resolutions drafters and he may be expected to join the laborites in their offensive. The hotel room conferences also (Continued on page rive)

Tankers Crash Off Shore Os Rhode Island One Tanker Loaded By Million Gallons Os Gasoline Today NEWPORT, R.I. (UPI) — Two tankers, one loaded with a million gallons of gasoline, crashed in flames in thick fog today, killing at least 15 men and injuring 36. At noon, five hours after the collision, nine bodies were found entombed below decks in the larger of the two ships. Six other men died when they leaped into the fiery sea after the collision off Ft. Adams; ’ Os the injured, 31 were held in hospitals for treatment and five were released. Several of the hospitalized were reported in critical condition from burns. , Flames and Smoke The ships, the 10,000-ton S.S. Gulfoil out of Philadelphia, and the coastal tanker S.S. Graham, collided in a half-mile channel at the entrance 'to Narragansett Bay. The collision occurred within sight of the still-beached wreckage of the Norwegian freighter Velleville, which ran aground last September during President Eisenhower's vacation here. The Gultoil skipper. Capt. M. Eden of PoH Arthur, Tex., perished with his ship, which later went aground off Ft. Adams. Flames and smoke spewed from both vesels five hours after the collision, punctuated by a rocking explosion. The Graham burned fiercely at the southern tip of Rose Island in Newport harbor. At one time, the heat was so intense that fireboats could not get near the vessel and it had to be towed off the shore. The graham carried a crew of 12. Like Stick of Dynamite Navy Chief Petty Officer Thomas Wright of the Newport Naval Base public information office reported that a crew from the Navy oiler Salamone found the ’ nine bodies below decks. He said the vessel still was burning at noon. Rear Adm. E. J. Roland, commandant of the Ist Coast Guard District at Boston, said an investigation board would be set up at once. Engineer Melvin J. Wroten, aboard the fully loaded Graham, said “It was like a stick of dynamite. It was awful and it was beautiful and, oh my God, I lived through it.” _ Wroten was the last to leave the Graham with Capt. Karl Anderson of Chester, Pa. He said the fire flashed along the port side of the ship, then gasoline - fed flames licked to the starboard side where the men were attempting to launch a lifeboat. “We all ran forward,” he said, “and dove into the water. By the time the lifeboat hit, it was all aflame. But most of the men were calm and all but one boy wore lifejackets. I got to him a few minutes after we were in the water. "Fine was everywhere. I didn’t even see the other ship.” “That Terrible Fog” The Gulfoil, owned by the Gulf Oil Corp., delivered 120.000 barrels of oil Wednesday at Providence and was sailing in ballast for Port Arthur, Tex. The Graham is owned by the S. E. Graham Transportation Co., of Gladwyne, Pa. The Graham, a 1,500-ton. 250 M>-foot vessel, was loaded with gasoline. Capt. Clay T. Evans of the ferry boat Newport, which interrupted its run to Jamestown Island opposite Newport to pick up survivors, said “There was fire all over the water. “You couldn’t see more' than 100 feet,” he said, "the fog was so bad. The traffic from the rescue boats was terrific. We had to detour around the area. There was so much fire but you just couldn’t tell how much because of that terrible fog." First to reach the scene was the Coast Guard cutter Laurel from Castle Hill, R.I. Other cut(Continued on page five) ’ ' ■ . 9>. »■

Six Cents