Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 57, Number 38, Decatur, Adams County, 14 February 1959 — Page 1

Vol. tVII. No. 38.

- - ’ •. ■ Ci? J' 7T yN . , . •% w ” 11 Dead As Flames Sweep Old Building

I X I ASHLAND, Ky. (tfl=»I) - At least 11 persons were believed dead in an early morning fire that swept a two-story downtown building. Nine persons were rescued by heroic police efforts. "It was a blazing inferno with panic-stricken people jumping everywhere,” said patrolman Curtin Keeton, one of two police officers first on the scene after the fire broke out at 1:01 a.m. Police and firemen said nine persons jumped to safety from the burning building faster than they could break their fall with tneir rescue nets. It was the community's worst disaster in 40 years. At least nine persons, including Iwo policemen were hospitalized, but all were in satisfactory condition at Kings Daughters Hospital. Officials estimated up to 20 persons were in the ancient building, which housed businesses on the first floor and apartments on the second. Firemen brought out eight bodies, including those of three small children and a baby. They said they would go back in for three more bodies believed in the building when the structure cools. - A temporary morgue was set up

Grange Os Plea Is Denied Ostrander CtwrtH W. Ostrander, 39. sentencea to zv years in prison on May 23, ISM. for rape ot a young girl at gunpoint on April 12 ot that year, was denied his motion to change his plea of guilty to not guilty, it was learned today. During the first week of January. Ostrander filed a motion with the Adams circuit court seeking to change his former plea of guilty. Included in the motion, Ostrander stated that he was a pauper and that he was unable to hire proper counsel to represent him in court. The public defender for file state of Indiana, Robert S. Baker, was given notice of the filing of the motion on a request by Ostrander. A copy of Ostrander's motion was forwarded to Baker and a transcript of the former trial as requested by Baker, was sent to him by Richard D. Lewton, county Clerk, for study. Baker stated in his letter that it was of his opinion that the motion filed by Ostrander was wholly without merit and that he would not appear to- represent him in court. Ostrander claimed in his motion that he was accused of raping the girl, under 16 years of age, while holding a .38 calibre revolver on her. In his appeal to change his plea, he stated that the prosecuting attorney did not establish that the act took place, that the pre-trial accusation was' made 38 days after the event was alleged to have happened, that the court-appointed attorney did not inform him of his righfe£ 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 w,as entered as proof that the attack actually took place.

Lenten Meditation (By Rev. Edward Pacha, First Christian Church) “WHY BELIEVE?” In Psalm 27 we find the words, “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, ,on the Lord.” This seems quite hard to do. In our Wbrld of speed, the last thing we want to do Is wait Then too, if the Lord fails to send the solution to our problems as soon as we think He should, we tend to ask the question, “why believe?” < “Why Believe?” It’s simple enough. We must believe in Him that has created us. Man has been created in the image of God, and as such is only complete with God. The truth of this can be seen every day. The animal, when given shelter, food, and a chance to reproduce itself, is content. This is all that it needs: is all that it seeks after. Man on the other hand seeks more than this, for as we all know, no man is happy with nothing more than this No, nature can not satisfy man; only God can. Many men, it is true, seek contentment from nature. They turn to money; it is not enough. They turn to drink; it is not enough. They turn to other things of nature and find no contentment, for man is not of nature. Man is of God, and only in God does he find completeness. “Why Believe?” There is no other way!. There is no other way, for we can see that we are not of nature, for nature cannot fulfill our needs. We are of God, and as such Can Only believe, and "wait on the Lord.”

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT

at the fire department and attempts were being made to iden- ‘ tify the victims. vKeeton said when he got to the scene he put up a ladder and saw a man lying partly under a bed through the window. “I knocked out the glass and went over and dragged the man to the window,” Keeton said. The officer was nearly overcome by smoke when patrolman Kenneth Craft got up the ladder to take over the rescue of the man. Keeton barely made' it to the window.

Rackets Group To Quiz Hoffa

WASHINGTON (UPD-The Senate Rackets Committee will question Teamster President James R. Hoffa behind closed doers Monday about developments since their last stormy get-together six months ago. Counsel Robert F. Kennedy would not tell newsmen if Hoffa was summoned in connection with the committee’s investigation of racketeering in the multi-million dollar juke box and con machine business; The committee win resume public hearings Tuesday on alleged gangland invasion of the lucrative juke bok field in New York. Witnesses in four days of initial sessions this week charged that racketeers had founded one union after another to force tribute from juke box operators through use of professional pickets. Says Witness Intimidated Hoffa-backed Teamster Local 266 in Tfew York was described as the current contender for control of juke box business grossing 11 million dollars a year in the nation’s largest city. Kennedy described elements in the local as '‘successors of Murder, Incorporated.” Committee Chairman John L. McClellan charged in a turbulent scene Friday that a Negro professional picket was “threatened and intimidated” by an official of another union to keep him from talking. The charge was aimed at Alexander Cohen, proprietor of Coin Machine Local 531, one of the unions the committee maintains were set up as out-and-out business enterprises for their founders. Sonie Parker of New York was the picket involved. The 28-year-old witness was so shaken he could barely whisper his Fifth Amendment pleas when McClellan angrily marched around the committee table and stood over him demanding that he testify. Cehen Takes Fifth Kennedy said it was “outrageous” for Parker to plead possible self-ihcrimination. He said Parker had a fine reputation, had done nothing wrong, and had been “most cooperative” as recently as Thursday. Cohen, accompanied by the same attorney who sat with Parker, also took refuge behind the 4 ' »

Craft said “peoplg were jump ing so fast ope man hit me and I never saw him.” Cause of the fire was not determined. Flames shot 20 to 30 feet into the air as the structure went up like a tinder box, police said. One woman came to a front window and police begged her to jump and they would catch her. But she refused to jump. Just then, police said, there was an explosion in the building and the flames seemed to completely engulf it.

Fifth, Amendment as McClellan peppered him with such questions as: “Are you a thief? Are you a thug? Are you a gangster? Are you an American citizen? Are you ashamed of your country? Do you love your country? Are you a coward?" Mrs. Slvia Goldberg, named by others as Cohen’s bookkeeper at Local 531, followed him as a witness and politely declined to tell about any of her own or Cohen's Office activities. The Mack-haired witness, who said she was a housewife in Flushing, N.Y„ refused to say whether she was a former model or had been a hat-check girl at a Brooklyn night club. “Were all your services personal to Mr. Cohen?” McClellan asked. “I respectfully, decline to answer on grounds of the Fifth Amendment," Mrs. Goldberg replied. ~ *' »-

City Saved By Floodfighters

WEST TERkE HAUTE, Ind. (UPI- Floodfighters saved this city from disaster early today by plugging a gap in a levee that had loosed tons of floodwaters from the raging Wabash River. An around-the-clock force of 160 National Guardsmen and volunteers labored under driving rains to fill the hole in the five-block long sandbagged levee. The raging waters broke a hole in the five-block long levee at 12:45 a.m., but 30 minutes later civil defense officials reported the Wabash again was under control “at least for now.” The workers threw an unending stream of sandbags into the fight but rain posed the further danger. A civil defense official said that every half-inch of rain adds another six inches of water to the turbident river. Ice Jam Threatens Disaster Upstream, beyond Lafayette, new disaster threatened. A huge ice jam—l 2 miles long and 35 feet high at points—showed signs of breaking up. Army engineers kept an anxious watch and warned that if it breaks up all at once it would send the river on a bridge-ripping, homedamaging rampage all the way to West* Terre Haute. Gov. Harold Handley ordered cranes and engineers to about 10 threatened bridges and said he would order dynamiting of the ice it the situation worsens. The cranes were expected to keep the ice from tearing down the bridges. Third Flood Death Indiana’s third flood death and fourth weather-connected death of the Week was recorded when the body of Wilbert Elkins, 25, Brownstown, was pulled from a creek near his home by his father-in-law, Jackson County Sheriff Lester Greathouse. Elkins drowned Thursday when flood water swept him away as he helped move a truck from a flooded bridge. Mathen Robison, 40, Hammond, was luckier than Elkins. His car plunged into a flooded ditch at Crown Point and State Policeman Edward Slivca jumped in and rescued him half-drowned and suffering from exposure and shock. >

ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY

Decatur, Indiana, Saturday, February 14, 1959.

Slate Senate | Plans Study Os Labor Reform INDIANAPOLIS (UPD — House Democratic majority leaders believed today that some bargaining room exists between the “union reform” bill they sent to the Senate and the beefed-up measure likely to be returned to them after amendment. But strongly pro-labor members don’t agree. The Senate Tuesday will consider. as a committee of the whole, the wilted olive branch which conservative Democrats had oncte hoped to offer in lieu of the controversial "right to work” law. Repeal of “right to work” is the prime objective of union chiefs, who saw in the Nov. 4 Democratic triumph a mandate to destroy the 1957 law. The only trouble was, the holdover strength of the Republicans in the Senate gave the GOP a four-vote advantage. GOP Rebels Ask Reform It also gave five rebel Republican senators an opportunity to take command and say, in effect, to the Democratic controlled House: Approve a strong union reform bill or we won't agree to repeal of “right to work.” Rep. Donald Foltz (D-Clinton) majority floor leader in the House, and House Labor Committee Chairman Jop Harris (D-Cat lisle) both expressed the view that the Democrats would accept a stronger version of "the reform bill so long as the Senate amendments were not punitive toward labor. Foltz said he felt the House Democrats would go along with amendments to limit picketing to employes of the affected company ted other changes designed to eliminate strike violence “just so they don’t use it (H 866 to express antagonism to labor.” He expressed confidence that the House would have passed the original bill before it was weakened had the matter been pushed to a vote. To Watt and See Harris also said he felt a bill “stronger than the one we sent to the Senate” would be acceptable to his majority colleagues. Speaker Birch Bayh (D-West Terre Haute) and Rep. Robert L. Rock, Democratic majority caucus chairman, indicated they wanted to wait and see what the Senate does before committing themselves. ..3.S—

Light rains splattering Indiana overnightiy were due to end late < today. But after a Sunday respite, they were expected to return for a new assault. Temperatures will climb into the 60s today before a colder trend develops, sending them below freezing tonight and holding top readings Sunday to the 30s and 40s. Hoosier temperatures ranged up to 56 at Evansville Friday, then dropped to overnight lows ranging from just above freezing .in < the north to 52 at Evansville. Buffalo Is Threatened . A new crisis arose in White and Pulaski Counties when the Tippe- < canoe River burst its banks, fore- , ing 30 families in Pulaski and 15 in the town of Buffalo to flee their homes. Fifty house trailers were under water at Buffalo. A main bridge was closed in Winamac, and an ice gorge four miles long piled up at the Buffalo bridge. Twenty students from Manchester College helped in Georgetown cleanup work as the flood water

Airman's Wife And Children Found Dead TOUL-ROSIERE, France (UPI) — The American wife and three small daughters of a U. S. Air Force sergeant were found dead in their home near this air base Friday. The dead, all victims of gas, were identified as Mrs. Irene Thackery, 29, and her children, Gloria, 6, Detnise, 2, and Monica, 1, of Indianapolis, Ind. The i.r bodies were found lying on mattresses in the bathroom. Sgt. Robert Thackery, who was on duty at the time of his family’s death, said his wife had been depressed, but he gave no reason why she should want to take her own life. At Indianapolis, it was learned that Thackery formerly was em-

Await Report On John Dulles

BULLETIN WASHINGTON (UPI)1 Secretary of State John Foster Dulles has cancer, it was announced today. WASHINGTON (UPD - The world may learn today whether John Foster Dalles has cancer again. His associates were pessi'The fateful findings are expected to determine whether the 70-year-old secretary of state will have to retire from full-time dipIbmatic duties. Associates of Dulles expressed pessimism after learning Friday night of initial but not necessarily conclusive results of microscopic tests of tissue and fluid removed during a “successful” hernia op efation on the secretary Friday. Presidential Press Secretary James C. Hagerty declined an op portunity to deny the unfavorable reports concerning the possibility of cancer. When told such reports were originating from several well-informed sources, Hagerty declared: >. “I’m not going to say anything tone way or the other.” Dulles Rests Comfortably r°. * The State department promised a report this afternoon at the latest on the test results. But some informed sources said the announcement might be an “interim” report with the final conclusions to be announced later. Dulles was repeated Friday night resting “comfortably” at the Walter Reed Medical Center where the operation was performed. Associates and aides of Dulles had hoped for an immediate repeat showing no recurrence of the malignancy for which the secretary underwent abdominal surgery in November 1956. After the cancerous portion of his intestine was removed in 1956, Dulles recovered rapidly and soon resumed a full schedule. State Department press officer Lincoln White had “no comment” early today to a New York Daily News dispatch from its Washington bureau. It quoted “unimpeachable sources revealing for the first time* that the surgeons who operated on Dulles for intestinal cancer two years ago found that the cancerous cells had already ruptured, so that all the malignancy could not be:re-

subsided, and a group ot Church of the Brethren members from New Windsor, Md. was due io help with Peru and Logansport cleanup. Thawing weather after a cold and snowy winter spawned floods and threats, of floods in many Midwestern cities. An ice gorge measuring four miles long and 35-feet thick clogged the Sangamon River near Chandlerville, 111., threatening a state highway bridge and the town of 1,000. Floods Cause Two Deaths Floods at Bay City; Mich., were blamed for two deaths. A mother died when a porch collapsed under the weight of snow at Grand Rapids, and a workman was killed at Eastmanville when a silo toppled. In -Missouri, the weather bureau said continuing rains could set the stage for floods on at least seven rivers and streams in the central part of the state. The Sandusky River was on the rise in northwestern Ohio and ice

ployed by the Naval Avionics Facility. They lived in Indianapolis about two or three years. Mrs. Thackery worked briefly as a secretary at Fort Benjamin Harrison. Thackery has a sister, Miss Lois Thackery, and Mrs. Thackery a sister, Mrs. Gloria Colter, both of Indianapolis. Thackery’s parents are the Everett Thackerys of New Point, near Greensburg. Mrs . Thackery was a native of El INDIANA WEATHER Occasional rain, drinle and fog today. Precipitation ending generally this afternoon and turning colder tonight. Sunday partly cloudy and a little colder. Low tonight 20 to 33, high Sunday lower 30s north to mid 40a south. Outlook for Monday: Wanning trend with widespread cloudiness and rain.

moved.” Undersecretary of State Christian A. Herter, who was designated acting secretary, was to return to Washington by air late today from a South Carolina vacation. A special Air Force plane was sent to return him to the capital. Ike Schedules Conferences President Eisenhower scheduled morning conferences today with two other top State Department officiate. He called in C. Douglas Dillon, first undersecretary of state for economic affairs, who has been acting secretary in the absence of both Dulles and Herter, and then was to meet with Loy Henderson, deputy undersecretary for administration. The possibility of a cancer recurrence overshadowed the more immediately incapacitating ailment — diverticulitis "or inflammation of the lower intestine—whch also prompted the decision to hospitalize Dulles. NATO Acts on Note It was for treatment of diverticulitis that Dulles entered Walter Reed for several days in December,, but the condition never completely cleared up. Speculation over Dulles’ condition arid the possibility that it may be necessary for him to retire came in the midst of allied preparations for a Big Four foreign ministers conference with Russia on tense European problems. f Adams County 12th In Contributions Adams county ranked 12th in the state of Indiana in contributions to the 1958 Christian rural overseas program, it was reported today. Adams county turned in cash and grain valued at $2,751.70, the best effort here since the rural youth handled the program in 1954. No funds had been turned in in 1957, and tn 1956 only $281.34. Adams county surpassed much larger counties Such as Allen, which ranged 16th and gave $2,438.20, Lake, and Marion counties. Elkhart county was tops in the state, with $10,675.35 donated for the oversea's program. Wells county rahked 22nd, giving $1,750, and Jay county was unorganized. -giving only $35.10.

jams qn the Portage River’ threatened Pemberville. A 10-mile stretch of U.S. 24 was closed because of high water between Defiance and Florida, Ohio. West Terre Haute, a city of 3,300 near the Illinois border was the biggest danger point. The rising Wabash River has chased 2,000 persons from their homes, killed at least three persons and caused an estimated# 45 million dollars in damage across northern Indiana in a weeklong rampage.

Legislation Is Stalled

INDIANAPOLIS (UPD—lndiana legislators get hot under the collar when newsmen apply a ‘’do nothing” tag to the current 91st General Assembly, but the fact remains that thus far they have done little to justify removal of of that label. With only a little more than three weeks remaining in the 61day session, not a single major piece of legislation has been passed. And what’s more, it appears unlikely that much will be accomplished as the remaining hours tick away and both houses make frantic moves to solve the situation by holding night and Saturday sessions. Much of the time has been spent, as usual, by introduction ot home folks in the gallery, lengthy caucuses and attention to matters that seem more or less inconsequential. Another factor preventing a productive session is the makeup of the two houses. The Senate 1/ ruled by Republicans who hold a slim 27-23 margin. Democrats hold sway in the House with a huge 79-21 majority. Labor Bills Cause Logjam But the main reason for the logjam probably can be laid squarely at the door of labor legislation in general and ‘‘right to work” in particular. The trouble started, on the very first day when Democrats intro-

DRIVER CLIMBED OUT-Francis Flynn, Massena, N. Y., had to recuperate in a hospital after climbing out of this. He drove his car over the 40-foot embankment where bridge (foreground) over Power canal had fallen. It was 23 below.

Fidel Castro Named Premier j Friday Night HAVANA (UPD—Fidel Castro, ’ 32-year-old revolutionary leader ] who spearheaded the fight to overthrow former dictator Fulgencio - Batista, was named premier Friday night in what was viewed as a first step toward the presidency. Outgoing Premier Jose Miro Cardona ended a long-smoulder-ing personal feud within the provisional government when he announced to newsmen that he and his cabinet had resigned and that he had recommended Castro be named premier. Government sources said the change indicated no major split in revolutionary ranks and that Castro would reappoint virtually all of the 18 cabinet ministers when he takes office Monday. They said the only possibte exceptions were the ministers of health, commerce, communications and economics. Hailed As Step Forward Several ministers hailed the change in premiers as “a revolutionary step forward.” Foreign observers, noting this week’s change in the provisional constitution lowering the age requirement for president from 35 to 30 years, said Castro’s appointment could herald his eventual elevation to the presidency. i Sources said Miro Cardona re- i signed in a dispute over govern- , ment policy statements rpade by ( Castro. They said the premier felt , that Castro’s frequent speeches , u«d remarks on economic and political issues made it Imperative that he command cabinet rank. Castro now is commander in 1 chief of the armed forces and it was not known whether he would retain the post and serve in a dual capacity or turn the provisional ' army over to a subordinate. The crisis came to a head during high level policy discussions on the future of Havana's luxurious gambling casinos. „ Will Reopen Casinos Castro told a mass meeting of I

duced a bill to repeal the "right to work" law. Turmoil and confusion have been the rule ever since. Almost every day Democrats make time - consuming parlimentary moves to blast labor legislation from the Republican dominated Senate Labor Committee. On almost every occasion the moves fail on strict party 1 i n p work" repealer, its supplemental unemployment benefits, “union reform" or some other bill dealing with labor. Until the situation is resolved, if it ever is, other important legislation seems destined to wait. Stuck in Committees Most bills still are in committee, either in the House or the Senate. Two “right to work” repeal bills are in committees as are four related “union reform" measures and a “right to work” referendum. Time repeal has passed the Senate but is bottled up in a House committee. Held in Senate committees are bills which would provide for a direct primary for high officials, restrict absentee voting, reapportion the General Assembly as mandated by the state constitution, raise unemployment . benefits, strengthen anti-discrimination laws, increase old age benefits, raise minimum pay for teachers, change the dis-

Six Cexb

unemployed workers in the entertainment field Friday night that the casinos would be opened—on a tourists only basis —before the end of the week. The change in command was hailed by several cabinet ministers, who said in effect that Castro should be leader of the government in name as well as in fact. Interior Minister Luis Orlando Rodriguez told newsmen that the entire cabinet -would be reappointed. “Tbe revolution will march for- * ward to its objective now that the most important government job is occupied by the number one man," he said. Seek Restoration Os Flood Control Funds WASHINGTON (UPI) — President Eisenhower has ordered flood stricken areas of northeast Indiana included in the state’s previously - designated majpr disaster area eligible Last week the President authorized $250,000 in relief loans to persons whose property was damaged or destroyed in the affected areas. This sum was not increased today. The Small Business Admjnistta : tion said persons whose homes oi* businesses were damaged by ; the floods may apply for rehabilitation or reconstruction loans at 3 per cent interest Meantime, Sens. Homer E. Capehart (R-Ind.) and R. Vance Hartke (D-Ind.) announced plans to organize a drive to restore $225,000 in Indiana flood control funds which had been disallowed by the President's Budget Bureau. St. Mary's River Continues To Drop St. Mary’s river, according to weather observer Louis Landrum, dropped from 19.49 feet Friday to 17.89 at 1 o'clock this morning. Although only .03 inch of rain had been recorded at that time, considerable more has fallen since. This is not expected to pose a serious problem to the receding river, however.

trbution formula for state funds to high schools, establish fair trade prices and provide for a change in the present political convention systems. Those are just a few of the more controversial bills. Many similar bills have met the same fate in the House. The Senate has passed and moved on to Governor Handley for his signature tiiree routine House - originated bills. But the House has not moved a single Senate-passed bill onto the calendar for second reading, the intermediate step before passage. Thus the sum total of more thain five weeks of work is wrapped up in three minor bills. Lawmakers Absent To give both sides of the picture. however, it should .be pointed out that most of the’ important work of the legislature is done in committee. Legislators spend many hours going over the merits or shortcomings of hundreds of bills in committee, then take appropriate action. Committee chairmen bemoan the fact>that it is often impossible to round up enough members to take action on important measures. They argue that legislators are on many committees and many are not able to attend meetings because of conflicts In committee schedules. ' '