Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 57, Number 2, Decatur, Adams County, 3 January 1959 — Page 1

Vol. LVII. No. 2.

BATISTA'S DAUGHTERS IN U. 8. — Looking somewhat downcast, two daughters of Fulgencio Batista, ousted Cuban prekident, sit*in airport in Jacksonville, Fla4after their refugee plane was forced down by bad weather. They are Mirta (left) and Elisa. Scores of refugees were with them.

Quiet Havana Waits Arrival ■ < Os Top Rebels Arrival To Signal End Os Victorious Rebellion In Cuba HAVANA (UPI) — A quiet Havana awaited the triumphal arrival of rebel leader Fidel Castro and provisional President Manuel Urruti today to signalize the victorious end of the rebellion that ousted President Fulgencio Batista. About 4,000 rebel - troops—were reported in or entering the city while other units under Castro Lieutenant Camilo Clenfuegos Occupied the Cuban army’s Camp Columbia headquarters base, once the mainspring of Batista’s power. The rebel radio reported that 600 men led by Argentine-born Dr. Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the rebel commander in Las Villas Province in Central Cuba, had occupied Fort Cabana across the bay from downtown Havana. It said they enteretkthe city after receiving permission from army commander Col. ’ Ramon Barquin, who was released from prison Thursday . after being sentenced in 1956 for a plot against Batista. Rebel militia fanned out through Havana during the night searching for Batista followers whs have gone into hiding in the city. Gunfire Reported Heavy gunfire was reported shortly before midnight near the Havana Riviera and National hotels in suburban Vedado, but an uneasy quiet settled over the city this morning with only a few random gunshots breaking the predawn silence. A Cubans Airlines turbo-prop Viscount airliner was reported standing by at Cuba’s International Airport ready to take off for Santiago, provisional seat of the government in rebel-controlled Oriente Province, to bring Castro and Urrutia to Havana. A report spread through the city that Urrutia already was in the capital, but this could not be confirmed. Castro was expected to arrive in the afternoon, but some rebel sources said he might arrive. sooner. ...__i The U.S. Embassy announced it had completed'arrangements with Cubana Airlines to fly remaining American tourists to Miami, Fla., today aboard Viscount airliners. Hourly Flights Planned It said the planes would make hourly flights beginning at 9 a.m. Embassy staff members immediately made the rounds of Havana’s downtown hotels rousing tourists still desiring immediate evacuation. Many U. S. vacationers whose budget money ran out New Year’s Day have been sleeping in the hotel lobbies. The rescue ship'City of Havana left here Friday night with 500 American tourists stranded by die sudden colapse of the Batista government. Ambassador Earl Smith supervised the loading of ship and reported the rebels gave their complete cooperation. Other Americans gathered in the city's main hotels under the protection of armed rebel militia and regular police. Continued on pa«» five ‘ • »- - ' • • ' - - ’V

decatur Daily democrat

See Possibility Os Red Claim To Moon Russia Expected To Fire Man In Space LONDON (UPD—The launching of Russia’s moon probe set Western space experts to wondering today whether the Kremlin would consider a rocket hit sufficient < basis for a claim to ownership of the moon. ‘ Ordinarily a territorial claim re- ! quires physical possession of the territory by one or more explorers, but it is not certain whether * this terrestrial tradition would ap- i ply in space. There was much informal dis- ’ cussion of toe possibility of a Rus- ' sian moon claiin at the Interna- 1 tiona 1 Astronaut! cal—Congress—in i Amsterdam last summer. Reds Sidestepped Issue 1 American lawyer Andrew Haley. 1 president of the congress, tried 1 hard to get the Russian delega- ! tion to go on record as renounc- > ing any territorial ambition's on < the moon. 1 The Russians sidestepped skilfuly. 1 Haley and some others feared 1 the Russians might consider the I planting of flags on the moon as « tantamount to a claim of sover- < eignty. According to Moscow Ra- 1 dio toe rocket launched Friday 1 carries pennants with the coat of l arms of toe U.S.S.R and the formal inscription “Union of Soviet s Socialist Republics, January 1959.” I A second possibility that oc- s curred to Westerners at Amster- t dam was that Russia might plant t flags on the moon, announce that theoretically it was in possession t and then make toe grand gesture of “giving the moon back to the , world.” I A Propaganda Weapon The propaganda value of this . “renunciation” would be tremendous for toe East and another hu- I miliation for the West — certainly in Russian eyes. There is no reason to believe the Russians have completely solved the problem of reentry—a vital prerequisite to manned space flight — or even that they have t completed toe experiments with 1 animals which are also an esse- i tial preliminary. J However, Russia is expected to c fire a man into space, probably in t a low orbit satelite, sometime this year. t — c Decatur Ministers J Will Meet Monday The Decatur ministerial associa- i tion will meet at 9 o’clock Monday v morning at the Zion Evangelical c Reformed church. The Rev. Ed- t ward Pacha, pastor of the First t Christian church, will have the s scripture lesson. All members are c urged to be present. t ' x • ’ • . E -. < t INDIANA WEATHER r Temperatures falling to near c Sero north to 10 above by Sun- a day morning. Light snow to- t night, becoming flurries by fa Sunday morning. Sunday part- a ly cloudy and cold, snow slur- t ties near Lake Michigan. Low t tonight near zero to 10 above. High Sunday 10 to 18. Outlook v for Monday: Partly cloudy and r cold with snow flurries near d Lake Michigan. fa • , -4.. ■/_. . £ ' ll

Alaska Added To Union, New Flag Unfurled Eisenhower Returns To Washington For Alaska Ceremonies WASHINGTON (UPI) — Rep. Overton Brooks (D-La.), a topranking member of the House Space Committee, said today the Soviet moon rocket launching shews the nation’s space program “should be pushed to the utmost.” ——.. He said toe nation must not relax its efforts in the international race to explore the reaches of space. Other members agreed. House Dempcratic Leader John W. McCormack, the committee chairman and other committee members said they were not surprised by toe Russian launching. No Comment From Ike White House Press Secretary James C. Hagerty told reporters at Gettysburg, Pa. Friday that President Eisenhower would have no Immediate comment. But it was known the President had received periodic reports on toe Soviet feat. In Pasadena, Calif., Dr. Henry L. Richter Jr. of the California Institute of Technology said Russia “did us a favor by finally sending up a moon rocket.” He said Americans were becoming complacent because of the success of this country’s big Atlas satellite. , Senate Democratic Leader Lyndon B. Johnson said he had felt for some time that the United States was “not going far enough fast enough” in toe space field. The House Space Committee Friday--only an hour before Russia announced its moon rocket launching-—called on the administration to schedule two extra moon rocket shots. Want Idle Rockets Used The committee unanimously approved a resolution sponsored by Rep. James G. Fulton (R-Pa.) that the Air Force and National Space Administration be permitted to use two Thor-Able moon rockets now standing idle at Cape Canaveral, Fla., missile testing station. “There is at present no plan of which we are aware to make use of these vehicles in such a capacity,” the resolution said. Fulton called toe rock ets “spares” left over from toe completed Air Force program under which three attempts to launch mood rockets were made last year. One rocket reached 71,000 miles above toe earth — highest achieved by the United States so far. However, Sen. Mike Mansfield (Mont.), assistant Democratic leader, said he disapproved of toe House Space Committee’s proposal as a “sign of panic.” He said decisions on new U.S. rocket launchings should be left “in toe hands of those in power, not Congress.” House Republican Leader Joseph W. Martin Jr. (Mass.), a House Space Committee member, said the committee’s action "certainly is opportune” in view of the Moscow announcement. "We ought to press for use Os the extra rockets,” he said. ■MW Ostrander Seeks Not Guilty Plea Petition Is Filed In Circuit Court Charles W. Ostrander, 39, sentenced to 20 years in prison on May 23, 1956 for rape of a young girl at gunpoint on April 12 of that year, has asked the local court to change his plea from guilty to not guilty. Ostrander, in his petition, maintains that he is a pauper, and Indiana state prison has confirmed that he has only one cent credited to his account. He claims, in his 32-page statement, that he was accused of raping the girl, underlie years of age, while holding a .38 calibre revolver on her. In his appeal to change plea he states that toe prosecuting attorney did not establish that toe act took place, that the pre-trial accusation was made 38 days after the event was alleged to have happened, that toe court-appointed attorney did not inform him of his rights; that there were added charges of kidnaping against him, and his attorney and the prosecutor assured him that they would be dropped if he pleaded' guilty; and that no medical examination of the girl was entered as proof that the affair actually took place. The application for a motion to withdraw the plea of guilty Was recorded by the county clerk today. No action has yet been taken by the circuit court. ■

ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY

Decatur, Indiana, Saturday, January 3, 1959.

Russia Reports Rocket More Than Halfway To Goal, Not To Hit Moon I -

I . Safely Experts ' Express Shock AtßoadToll r • * Americans Killing > Selves At A Record Pace On Highways 1 (United Press International) On peaceful country roads and at noisy city intersections, Ameri--1 cans killed themselves at a near- . record rate during this, the first , holiday weekend Os the brand new ■ year. Safety experts were shocked at toe steadily-climbing toll. They revised their forecast and said -toe long holiday would bring death to more than 400 persons if the rate continues. There were no signs it would let up. At 8 a.m., CST., 63 hours after toe holiday began, toe United Press International counted 219 traffic deaths. Altogether, accidents killed 316 persons during that period, 34 by fire, 11 by plane and 52 in miscellaneous mishaps. California's traffic toll, 20, was highest among the states. New York’s was 15 and Pennsylvania’s 17. Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois each had 12 and Minnesota had 10. Two dangerous peak periods were yet to come. Saturday night and Sunday night, it was feared, would bring big boosts to toe traffic toll. The weather wasn’t helping much. In many areas icy National Safety Council, hoping toe nation had learned a lesson from the Christmas traffic toll of 599, set the New Year’s holiday estimate at 390. This would be but 40 more than the toll of a normal January non-holiday 102-hour period. But before the holiday was half over toe count was running so high a council spokesman said the earlier figure probably would be topped and the count may exceed 400. & The toll was running ahead ofthe 1956 new year’s holiday, when 412 were killed. The worst new year's traffic record was in 1952, when 423 were killed. Blue Crutches Sale For March Os Dimes ■v ..' Boy Scouts Conduct Sales In Qity Today Boy Scouts of troop 63, sponsored by the American Legion, are conducting a sale of “blue crutch- 1 es” in the city’s business district 1 today. Sales will continue.until 4 o’clock this afternoon, with all proceeds ] going to the March of Dimes, be- : ing c o n du c t e d throughout the i month of January in all sections. ■ of the country. Today’s .sale is the first to be ' conducted each Saturday during 1 the month by the city’s teen-age+ 1 council and Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. A different type of sale will ! be featured each week. The Saturday sales are only a ' few of the features to be held dur- ‘ ing January to bolster the March of Dimes fund. * Cannisters will be placed in stra- j tegic locations throughout the city ‘ and county; toe annual Polio Sweepstakes bowling event is un- , derway, and the annual Mother’s March will be held 1 a t e r in the month. " ... ’ The National Foundation, pre- i vioUsly confined to aiding polio < patients and to research in the • continuing fight on toe crippling disease, has now expanded to re- < search in other diseases. However < despite the development of the ; Salk anti-popil vaccine which has < greatly, decreased the incidence of < paralytic polio in the country, funds are sorely needed and will s be needed tor years to assist per- 1 sons stricken by polio in previous years. - j -i ■"

Three Sisters Die As Home Destroyed Log Cabin Home Is Destroyed By Fire CONNERSVILLE, Ind. (UPDThree young sis ter s were -killed when an explosion and fire demolished t2jeir log cabin home eight miles southwest of heye Friday. Killed in the fire were Alice Mae Adams, 5, Mary 3, and Rosali. 2. 1 Fire officials blamed a coal and ' wood stove for the blast, which ■ sprayed flames through the four- ■ room dwelling. It burned to the ' ground in about 20 minutes. Mrs. 'James Adams, 23, ■ mother of the victims, told Fire Chief Omar Adams that she heard a muffled blast .about 15 minutes after she had tended the stove. Mrs. Adams said she ’grabbed 8-months-old Carolyn Sue from a bed and rushed outdoors. She dropped the infant on the ground and trieid to re-enter the home, she said, but the way was blocked ’ by a. wall of flames. Mrs. Adams was treated for first degree burns on her face and hands. Carolyn Sue was reported in “pretty good” condition at Fayette County Hospital. Adams, 29, was at work as a laborer at an auto wrecking shop here when the fire occurred. The couple moved her from Utah last September. > , A few hours earlier, death •claimed the fifth victim of a blast and fire at Vincennes oh New Year’s Eve. Barbara Kidwell, 3, died in Good Samaritan Hospital at Vincennes of bums suffered in the fire which killed her mother, Mrs. Charles Kidwell, 34, and her The two fires pushed the New Year’s holiday weekend fire death count to eight in Indiana. Sheriff Edward J. Volz said a neighbor boy attempted to save the three young girls txit was driven back by the intense heat Vernon Grazell, 18, cut his hand severely in breaking a window pane as he tried to enter, Volz said. **!• Blizzard Threat In Arctic-Borne Air Cold Wave Warnings Issued For Indiana United Press International Arctic-borne air that chilled most of the nation brought a threat of blizzard conditions in Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma. Cold wave warnings were out for Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee and Kentucky. The Weather Bureau said freezing rain was likely over much of Texas and Arkansas, slickening highways at a height of the New Year’s holiday traffic period. Florida had a brief warning of possible tornadoes in an area from Tampa on the West Coast to Cape Canaveral on the east But the alert was cancelled this morning. The section had a night of driving rain and high winds that did not near tornado proportions., , The new onslaught of winter sent temperatures plummeting to below zero from Montana to Wisconsin and ihto northern lowa. Kansas and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. g"he temperature dropped 33 degrees in 24 hours at Grantsburg, Wis., <lO below), and 39 degrees at Pueblo, Colo. (4 above). The new deep freeze followed the traditional pattern, with a mass of Arctic air piling up in the Yukon and showing no inclination to leave. The same situation last month froze most of the nation: and buried/upstate New York in record snows'. Three inches of sqow fell at Concordia, Kan., Friday night and Caribou, Maine, got; four inches. There was- widespread r ain in the South, from northern Florida to southern Georgia and Alabama. Near Barstow', Calif., a desert sandstorm backed by 60 mile-an-hour winds was blamed for a 15car chain-reaction accident that injured 18 persons. '

Uniled Stales Must Not Relax t> ■ In Space Race b Congress Leaders— Demand U.S. Space Program Be Pushed WASHINGTON (UPD—The naI tion today gets a new flag design ( and a 49th state, Alaska, in White House ceremonies. , President Eisenhower returned here from his Gettysburg, Pa., farmtoddthe honors. , He was to issue a proclamation I admitting the sprawling northland . to the Union and at the same time ‘ unveil the new design for the 49star flag. . _ , The President gave his final ap- , proval to the new flag, Friday but i the design was a tightly-kept seeift until tire high noon-ceremony. i Add One Star White House Press Secretary . James C. Hagerty only told re- , porters the flag would be red, white and blue and his 49 stars. , The design was the work of a special presidential commission. , The nation’s flagmakers were , anxious to start production of the » new flag as soon as the official t design became known. But the old 48-star model can be flown until it wears out. ] How .long it will be before Ha1 waii becomes the 50th state, necessitating another, change, is a : matter of pseculation. 5 The Justice Department said the 2 new flag becomes official on July ; 4, but can be flown before then i. Speculation about the new flag r tended to overshadow the highly i significant proclamation of statehood for Alaska. Alaskan Officials Attend The Senate last June 30 approved the Alaska statehood bill, which previously had passed the House. Alaskans overwhelmingly voted to accept statehood in a Nov. 25, 1958 election. Those invited to attend the cer- . embny were Alaska Senators-elect Erhest Gruening'and E. L. (Bob) Bartlett, Rep.-elect Ralph J. Rivers. Alaska Gov.-elect William A. Egan, all Democrats; Interior Secretary Fred A. Seaton, farmer Alaska Gov. Mike Stepovich, Acting Alaska Gov. Waino Hendrickson, all Republicans; and Robert B. Atwood, publisher of the Anchorage, Alaska, Times, and chairman of the Alaska Statehood Commission. . •< By issuing the statehood proclamation, President Eisenhower officially recognized the results of the Nov. 25 election. Mrs. Francis Miller Dies This Morning Native Os Decatur Dies At Fort Wayne Mrs. Francis M, Miller, 79, a former resident of Decatur, died at 12:20 o’clock this morning at her home, in Fort Wayne.. She had been in failing ■ 'health -for three years and bedfast for the past three weeks. She was born Tn Decatur Nov. 26, 1879, a daughter of Harmon and Mary Kortenber, and was married to Francis M. Miller Feb. 28, 1905. Surviving in addition to her husband are three sons, Herman Mil- , ler of Fort Wayne, Francis Miller of Pamona, Calif., 'arid Jerome Miller of Decatur; three daugh- i ters~Mrs. Reynold (Helena) Getty of Fort Wayne, Mrs. Joe (Bertille) Schneiders of Pittsburgh, Pa., and Sr. M. Marlita of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Milwaukee, Wis.; 12 grandchildren; one brother, Clem Kortenber of Decatur, and one sifter, Mrs. Andrew Wolpert, also of 1 Decatur. , . . ' Fuhetal arrangements have not been completed, but burial will be in the Catholic cemetery at Fort Wayne.

Infant Kidnaped Al Brooklyn Hospital New-Born Girl Is Kidnaped Friday NEW YORK (UPD — A newborn baby girl was kidnaped from a Brooklyn hospital nursery shortly before midnight Friday night, and-police broadcast an alarm for a woman who was seen loitering in the materpity ward. The FBI was called into the case immediately. The missing child was identified as the unnamed infant of Mrs. Frances Chionchio, 26, and her husband, Frank, 28, a Brooklyn attorney employed by the Port of New York Authority. Police said the baby’s disappearance was discovered at 11:45 p. m. by nurse Patricia Burke on her return to the nursery of St. Peter’s hospital after leaving the infant untended for a few minutes. The child was born at 9:17 p. m. and her father had his first'look at her only 15 minutes before she was kidnaped.. , ; Police said they suspected a 5 foot, 7 inch, 140-pound bleached blonde in her early or mid-30’s was the kidnaper. Nurses reported seeing the woman loitering in hospital hallways and a watchman, Armand Carazzo, said a woman answering the same description left the rear door of the hospital with her black coat bulging . as though she might be carrying a bundle beneath it. No notes were found, authorities said. Eight other babies in the fourth floor nursery were left undisturbed in their cribs. formula in the hope that the kidnaper would take proper care lof the baby. Near-Zero Weather Forecast Tonight First Cold Wave Os 1959 Is Due Tonight United Press International Near - zero temperatures were only hours away today as the first cold wave of 1959 blew into Indiana on winds of 15 to 25 miles per hour velocity. , , The mercury will fall near zero in the northern third of the state, near five above in the central area, and near 10 above in the south by Sunday morning. The chill blast of air will be so intensive the temperature will rise nd'more than 10 degrees Sunday with highs scheduled ranging from 10 to 18. Temperatures crested Friday between 37 at South Bend and 49 at Evansville, then dropped to overnight lows ranging from 24 at Evansville to 30 at South Bend, where a one-inch snow lay on the ground. By 6 a m. c.s.t, the mercury had dwindled to 10 above at Chicago and stood below freezing all around Hoosierjand. Highs today will range from 35 to 40 before the cold wave strikes. Light snow was due throughout the state today, diminishing to flurries by Sunday morhing. Monday will remain cold with Snow flurries around Lake Michigan. Ten Cars Derailed Friday Near Maripn MARION, Ind. (UPD - Ten cars' on a Nickel Plate Railroad freight train were derailed Friday afternoon in the western part of Grant County near Herbst. There were no 1957 Accident Fatal To Gary Resident GARY, Ind. (UPD —Mrs. Joseph L. Gregory, 47, Gary, who was Injured in a two- car collision near Hobart on the last day of 1957, died Thursday night in a hospital here. , NOON EDITION "» ■ ; ; r

Six Cenb

Moscow Radio Says Next Step Base On Moon Russia Jubilantly . Announces Rocket Successfully Fired MOSCOW (UPD — The official Soviet agency Tass said today Russia’s moon rocket, reported more than halfway to its goal, will “pass close to the moon” but will not hit it. The Tass report —said —the “Moonik” will miss the moon by 3,750 to 5,000 mUes and plunge on into space to “become a new planet of the sun.? At 1 p.m. Moscow time 4 a m. c.s.t. Tass said, the rocket was 209,000 kilometers (134JXX) miles) up—well over halfway to the moon. . — “The results of the processing of trajectory measurements confirm that the rocket will pass close to the moon and will become a new planet of the sun,’* the official agency said. “The rocket’s scientific apparatus is working normally,” the agency added. “Reception stations on the earth continue to receive a steady intake of scientific information. “According to data from the ; first Measurements, toe tempera- ’ tore on the surface of the rocket amounts to 15 to 20 degrees centigrade (60 to 68 degrees fahrenheit).” At the time of the 1 p.jn. reading, Tass said, toe rocket was degrees/ west (longitude) and 7 degrees, 33 minutes south (latitude).” The “Moonik,” which the Russians said should reach the vicinity >of the moon at 11 p.m. e.s.t. tonight, ’was reported on course and going like clockwork early today, 24 hours after it was launched. Meanwhile, an English-language broadcast on Moscow Radio said, the next step in the Soviet bid to conquer space would be the establishment of a base on the moon, 240,000 miles from earth. Seven Miles Per Second “Preparations will be made to equip an expedition to the moon which would establish an observatory and an intermediate base there for future space-flight,” the Moscow broadcast said. Western observers believed, however, that it would be some? time before anyone—East or West —could* send men to toe moon with any assurance that they could return alive. ( Die Russians said the rocket was traveling at 11.2 kilometers—about 7 miles—a second in its race .to reach the moon, a goal which the United States has been unable in four attempts so far to achieve. (U.S. rocket experts said, the Soviet launching indicates the Russians are about a year ahead of the United States in adapting engines designed for intercontinental ballistic missiles for use In space exploration. (They said America’s Atlas ICBM, with extra stages added for space-probe purposes, could send a payload as big as that of the Russian rocket to the vicinity of the moon. They added, however, that the Atlas may not be ready for use in multi-stage space experiments until late 1959. Calls For Speedup (Rep. Overton Brooks (D-La), a top - ranking member of the House Space Committee, said'to)day the Soviet achievement proves that toe U. S. space program “should be pushed to toe utmost.”) The speed of the Soviet rocket is necessary to overcome the, pull of the earth’s gravity during toe early stages of the flight It was scheduled to drop pffTfrom 25,000 m.p.h. to about 2,000 in midflight and speed up again as it approached the moon. The Moonik's final stage, weighing a record 3,038 pounds compared with Sputnik Ill's 2,919, was expected to be visible at 3 p.m. Moscow time today over extensive areas of Siberia, China and India. Russia's high-altitude observaConUnu«d on page fly* ' ■ s! V