Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 57, Number 78, Decatur, Adams County, 2 April 1959 — Page 1

Vol. LVII. No. 78.

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IN THEBE— Lester Mitchel, city electric plant superintendent, points to the damaged area from atop the 13-ton stator, which was removed from inside the generator body, to facilitate inspection and repair. General Electric employes are in the process of rewinding the stator at a cost of $37,000 to the city. Work is expected to be completed on or about the first week in May.—Daily Democrat Photo.

Ike Points To Rough Road To Lasting Peace

WASHINGTON (UPD—President I Eisenhower asserted today that the “road leading toward lasting peace and universal justice" will require courage, sacrifice and perseverance. The President in an address to the 10th anniversary session of NATO, pledged continued efforts for a “just solution to the problems of Germany” and European security and “cooperation in the newly opening realm of outer space.” “We shall always keep open the door qf honest discussion'' with the Soviet Union, he said. But he warned that the Western world must "always avoid substituting illusions for reality” in its efforts to settle East-West disputes. The President told the members of the 15-nation alliance that “We must be prepared during the years ahead to live in a world in which tension and bickering between free nations and the Soviets will be daily experiences.” Courage and Sacrifice Then he called the roll of what is needed on the road toward lasting peace and universal justice: “ —Courage to stand fast in thp face of menace and of threats... “-—Sacrifice needed to maintain and improve our collective strength over a long period of time... • ‘ —Perseverance to explore every avenue which offers reasonable hope for just solutions to the issues between ourselves and the Soviet Union.” Eisenhower, who was NATO’s first supreme military commander, noted that the Communists have made neither political nor military gains in Europe since the North Atlantic Alliance was forged 10 years ago. He pointed out that despite the "economic sacrifice” by member nations, military efforts of the 15 countries “have by no means stunted the economic growth” of the NATO nations. On the contrary, he added, “there has been a notable increase in production, trade and living standards among the NATO peoples during the 10 years of NATO’s existence. Economic and military strength have developed h?nd in hand.” “The need, as we reach fori- a lasting peace with justice,” the President said, “is the abandonment of the Communist purpose of world domination. We shall

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT

'never cease to encourage such a change.” _ It was ac this point that he warned that the years ahead would be filled with tension and disputes with Russia. Will Make Proposals But he pledged that “We shall always keep open the door of honest discussion —even to those whose creed is world domination.” He said NATO governments “conduct continuous—almost daily —discussions and negotiations with the Soviet Union” in addition to contacts through regular diplomatic channels, the United Nations and personal contacts among leaders. “No means are overlooked that give promise of constructive results,” he said. “We shall continue these negotiations and discussions. We shall continue to make concrete and realistic proposals for disarmament, tor a just solution, to the problems of Germany, sor 1 European security and for cooperation in the newly opening realm of outer space.”

Taught Connie To Fire Pistol

INDIANAPOLIS (UPD — Mrs. Connie Nicholas went out with a gun salesman and took a lesson in how to shoot the tiny French revolver that killed her ex-lover, it was testified today at the divorcee’s murder trial. William Gano, operator of a gun shop, said he drove with the petite brunet one evening to the outskirts of Indianapolis where he instructed her and she fired the gun several times into a sand pile. The same weapon two weeks later killed Forrest Teel, 54, Eli Lilly vice president, as he sat in his white Cadillac with Mrs. Nicholas outside the apartment of his new girl. Connie showed no emotion as the revolver,, not more than four or five inches in length, was introduced in evidence. Gano said Mrs. Nicholas came to his place and shopped twice before she picked the expensive French gun. The night she picked it up, she came back to the shop after hours and Gano demon-

Set Commencement For Rural Schools Adams county superintendent ol schools Gail Grabill today announced die commencement dates for the county schools Pleasant Mills seniors will receive their diplomas the earllesl this year. Commencement exer cises at that school will be Monday, May 4. Hartford will have theirs the following evening, Maj 5. The Geneva seniors will be graduated Monday, May 18, whib Adams Central will also receive the diplomas the sane night. The* Monmouth graduation ceremonies will be Thursday, May 21. The baccalaureate service at the AJarns Central school will be Sunda ' afternoon, May 17, at the school auditorium. Bluffton Youth Hurt In Illinois Crash EFFINGHAM, 111. (UPD—One person was killed and five others, including one from Indiana, were hurt in a crash involving a car, a semi-trailer truck and a house trailer on U.S. 40 near here Wednesday. A car driven by John Wilkinson, 18, Albuquerque, N. Mex., and carrying Gary Beatty, 18, Bluffton, Ind., and John Enders, 18, Norwalk, Ohio, crashed head-on into a truck driven by Kenneth C. Cox, 39, Clinton, Ohio, while trying to pass a house trailer. Enders was killed and the others were injured.

strated how to fire it. Unusual Weapon It was three days later that he took her out again and she fired it. Gano said the death weapon was an unusual automatic firearm. When one bullet was shot, it automatically ejected the shell casing, put another bullet in place and cocked. , “But was it necessary to pull the trigger each time to fire a bullet?” asked Deputy Prosecutor Judson Haggerty. “Yes, that is right,” Gano said. Haggerty was attempting to disprove the defense claim that the un went off accidentally four, times. ' » Gano said Mrs. Nicholas bought 10 or 12 cartridges for the gun. Earlier, a key prosecution witness was barred from telling the jury that Teel was turned partly away from Connie when he was shot to death. Judge Thomas J. Faulconer, ruled such testimony by Dr. Em-|

ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPEI IN ADAMS COUNTY s" ® <. LldM. *■' . -

- - - -- - Decatur, Indiana, Thursday, April 2, 1959.

Appraisers Os Electric Utility Believe Offer Os Purchase Is Above Value ■i -■ ■ ——.- ■ —— . '- ■ - * v ” ■ ■ l i' 1

The three appraisers began their study of Decatur’s municipal power plant sale contract Wednesday afternoon with the electrifying observation that preliminary figures indicate to them that IndianaMichigan's offer is actually <700,000 more than the plant and franchise are worth! Indiana - Michigan has offered the city $2,102,300 for the lines, diesel plant, steam equipment, but not the land or building, and franchise. The voters of the city will 'decide April 14 if the city will sell. The three, sworn in at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the courtroom by Judge Myles F. - Parrish, began work immediately in the office of Mayor Robert D. Cole. The appraisers are: Guy Shoemaker, of Largo, Fla., Robert Long, of route 2, Geneva, and Eli Graber, of Berne. The three appraisers, accompanied by the secretary-treasurer of Indiana-Michigan, left at 8 o'clock this morning for Indianapolis, where they have an appointment with William Lebo, chief engineer of the public service commission of Indiana. Explains Duties After the three men were sworn in, they questioned Judge Parrish on their duties. Shoemaker, an electrical engineer with years of experience in electric utilities, took the lead in questioning. Judge Parrish first read the section of the Decatur High . Senior Takes ; College Tests t Terry Marbach. son of Mr. and !- Mrs. Fred Marbach, of route five, e Decatur, and a senior at Decatur y high school, was one of more than 200 high school seniors who pare ticipated in the Wabash College 2 honor scholarship competion held e at Crawfordsville Monday and Tuesday. »- The youths participating were' ■ competing for 25 four-year scholt arships with a total value of SBO,c 000 towards study at Wabash. e Each of the participants ranked in the upper quarter of his high school class and took a battery of tests in competition for the awards. The 10 scoring highest on the tests will return April 18 e for interviews to determine the , winners of the top five scholare ships each worth $5,000. The seci ond five will receive scholarships e of $3,000, and awards worth $1,500 I- will go to the second ten places as determined by the examinai, tions. Two Alfred P. Sloan national '• scholarships, two General Motors •(.scholarships, and one George A. 0 Gilbert memorial scholarship, • each valued in excess of $3,000, 3 also will be awarded to participants in the honor scholarships 5 competition.

mett Pierce, who performed the autopsy on Teel, could not be admitted in evidence. Faulconer also blocked another state question as to whether Pierce thought that Teel had been involved in a fight at the time of the shooting. Faulconer cited a 1926 Indiana Supreme Court ruling that medical experience did not qualify a witness to testify on ballistics matters. "Significant Victory” It was a significant victory for the defense, which has contended that Mrs. Nicholas had taken out a tiny revolver and was about to shoot herself when it went off in , a struggle with her lover of 15 ’ years. The ruling meant the jury could not hear Pierce’s opinion that Teel was facing frontward in the driver’s seat of his white Cadillac when he was fatally wounded. The defense was expected to introduce Mrs. Nicholas’ last letter Ito Teel to show she intended sui- | ckie but still loved him. - - -X '■

1905 law whicl) provides for the appointment of the appraisers. Then he explained that they were not expected to go out and count the utility poles; they had the right to examine the books of the city utility, to question all the city employes, to examine, question, and use or discard* at will figures supplied by Indiana-Michigan, and to fully discuss the matter with the public service commission. Shoemaker, when informed that a meeting had been set up with the public service commission engineer next Monday objected because he did not want the city to have to pay for his time for more than it would actually take; he asked that the meeting be moved up to today, and a hurried telephone call made this possible. When the three appraisers left the court room they went directly to the mayor’s office. Present at the meeting were Mayor Cole, city attorney John DeVoss, J. Calvin Hill, manager of the Fort Wayne . division of Indiana-Michigan; the secretary-treasurer of IndianaMichigan; Alex M. Campbell, attorney for Indiana-Michigan, and the appraisers. Question Officials Shoemaker sat down at Mayor Cole’s desk, and took out a large , package of papers, as did the other two appraisers sitting near ' them. First of all they thanked the city for having printed full financial and property statements for them, and furnishing them with these statements for study in advance of the meeting. .•Shoemaker explained, that he was “cold* bn the plant, hartng* never seen it until Wednesday morning, when he made a tour of it. First he asked the mayor the capacity of the equipment, and records were produced showing the age, capacity, and condition of each of the generators. He then asked the condition of the boilers, and it was pointed out that they were now operating without superheating equipment, which had gone bad a few years ago. Mitchel Commended Shoemaker exhibited great surprise that the city was getting as good results from the operation of the steam plant as the record showed. He stated that they must have an excellent toss and crew there to run it so efficiently with such antiquated equipment, and all the officials highly praised the plant engineer, Lester Mitchel. Shoemaker stated that his figuring from the city reports led him to believe that the proper depreciation had not been taken for the city utility, and that for several years the utility should actually have been shown to operate in the red. In comparing the generating costs with those of purchasing power. Shoemaker indicated that the city should certainly have stopped generating power in 1953 and switched to purchased power at that time, when the costs of generating became too high. City Criticized The city could have made money if it had gotten together with In-diana-Michigan or some other power company in 1953, according to the quantity of electricity sold, and the cost of producing compared with buying. Allowing the very greatest capacity possible for the diesel. Shoemaker pointed out, the cost of producing power each year per kilowatt of installed capacity is approximately $285, an extremely high figure. The high initial cost also came up for criticism by the engineer. Shoemaker apologized to the mayor for such criticism of the city, but he pointed out that he was trying to be objective in discovering a fair price for the city utility. Provisions for Workers “If the city voters decide to sell the utility, what will happen to the men who work there?” he asked. Hill explained that there are about 18 men employed there, and that the line crew would be retained. As the operation is shut down and goes to Indiana-Michigan power, those who did not fit into the I&M operation would be given a lump-sum termination payment, amounting, for those who had worked there for 10 years or more, to 30 weeks' pay. The city plans to absorb as many of those who (Continued on page four)

Bumped Airmen Get Help From General

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (UPD—Enlisted men told today how they went right to the top to stop an officer who bumped them off an emergency flight so he could set out on a vacation in Hawaii. The airmen praised' Lt. Gen. Robert Burns, U.S. military commander in Japanl for getting them home on emergency leave. Burns personally ordered a • ‘ storming' ’ lieutenant colonel back to Japan a half hour after the Military Air Transport plane left Tokyo last Thursday and bounced the officer from the flight The seven enlisted men, who had telephoned Burns, then headed for the United States. The colonel was ordered to remain in Tokyo for an investigation. He was not identified by the Air Force'but one of ~ the airmen said he knew hin?a'S “Libfltenant Colonel Platt.” -—------ Another source in Tokyo identified him as Lt. Col. Charles H. Platt. ~ Airman Called General Airman 2C Robert J. Kindi said in his home town of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., that he was on emergency leave because his son had died. The colonel, he said. came storming into the plane and was pretty mad about the airmen “ready to take off.” The airmen appealed to the colonel to let them make the flight. “But he paid no attention to us. Multiple Sclerosis Drive Opens May 10 Adams county chairman for the multiple sclerosis campaign, Mrs. ■ Vernon Hurst, announced today that the annual drive for funds will be May 10 through June 14 this year. An additional feature added this year is a film narrated by movie actress Joan Crawford. The film, “In Sickness and Health,” is available for any organization in the Adams county area to show at regular meetings. Ihterested organizations should contact Mrs. Hurst for further information. The cause or cure of MS has not yet been determined but extensive researech is being done by the nationah society. In the Indiana area, the Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis operates an MS clinic, where those afflicted can receive examinations, evaluation, and possibly treatment for the dreaded disease. The disease, which cripples the nervous system, usually affects those between the ages of 20 and 40. It is of such devastating effect that once it strikes, the victim is usually crippled for life. The need for beds, walking aids, and other equipment is sorely needed by hospitals. The help of all county persons is needed to combat the dread disease.

Tornadoes Rip Into Florida, One Killed

United Press International Tornadoes and high winds which lashed the Southwest ripped into Florida Thursday, causing one death and raising the three day death toll from the devastating storms to 12. Eleven persons died when the twisters struck the Southwest. Tornadoes, spinning out of a squall line, hit Orlando and Dade City, Fla., killing one person, injuring at least 10 others and causing widespread damage. Mrs. Rosie Varnado, 40, of the Azalea Park section of Orlando died en route to a- hospital after a twister wrecked her home. Eight other persons in the same area were hurt, most of them only slightly. Two persons were injured at Dade City when a tornado dipped

— :—. & He merely turned away,” Kindi said. Airman 1C Coye Y. Bell said at Fayetteville, Tenn., he was the one who called General Burns. ’• , I knew I was in the right and I thought I’d stand up for it.” Bell was headed home to see his seriously injured brother, also an airman. Airman 3C Gordon N. Read said in Ithaca, N.Y., the incident caused him to miss his mother’s funeral. “If I hadn’t been bumped. I’d have made it , for sure J’ he said. •’ - ■■ ' . • S-Sgt. Paul S.. Cain said at Sedalia, Mo., he’tried to reason -with the colonfel. i i *' INDIANA WEATHEfc Partly cloudy north, mostly fair south this afternoon and tonight with chance of showers northwest late tonight. Sunset. 7:10 p m. Low tonight 37 to 44. Friday partly cloudy with , chance at showers » north and central. Sunrise 6:26 a.m. Warmer south and somewhat warmer north Friday. High Friday from the 60s north to the low 70s south. Outlook for Saturday: Fair and warmer. Low Friday night 1 42 to 47, high Saturday 7* to »•

Tibet Warfare Flaring Again

NEW DELHI (UPD—Warfare between Tibetan rebels and the Chinese Communists has flared up again southeast of Lhasa, informed sources reported today. The Communist Peiping Radio claimed in a broadcast heard in Tokyo that the Dalai Lama entered India today. The broadcast ssid the Communist New China News Agency reported that the Tibetan god-king was accompanied into India by a group of anti-Communist rebels. There was no immediate confirmation of the report, which was broadcast shortly after reports of fresh fighting were revealed. The reports coincided with a dispatch from Kalimpong that said the entire 5.000-man militia of the Indian protectorate of Bhutan, on the southeast border of Tibet, had been mobilized to meet the threat of possible trouble at the border. Some sources in Kalimpong reported the Chinese Communists were deporting 100 truckloads of rebellious Tibetans daily from Lhasa to enforced labor camps, presumably in occupied western Tibet. There were also reports the Communists were reinforcing

down into that west Florida agricultural district. The sheriff’s office at Dade City reported damage at one million dollars in the storm which wrecked many buildings and cut a quarter mile path through the northwestern part of the city. There was no immediate estimate of damage at Orlando but it was believed to be high. The Orlando twister passed over a school yard half an hour before pupils were to assemble for classes. Hail, which pelted parts of Alabama and Mississippi Wednesday, also moved into Florida. At Coldwater, Miss., Wednesday, high winds wrecked four airplanes, a hapgar and other buildings at the Coldwater airport.

Six Cenß

Mrs. Fred Beitier Is Taken By Death Mrs. Ruth Lobsiger Bcitler, 64, wife of Fred Beitier of Geneva, died Wednesday in the Portland nursing home,'after in extended illness of several months. Mrs. Beitier was born at Bluffton Dec. 9, 1894, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Bollinger-Lobsiger. She was married twice; the second time to Mr. Beitier; 27 years ago. Surviving are the husband; a son, Virgil Beitier, Napoleon. 0.7 a daughter, Mrs. Lois Orchard, Lima, O(; a stepdaughter, Mrs, Archie (Ermal Graber, » missionary in the, Belgian Congo, Africa; four stepsons, Liither and Cart Beitier, Qccatur, Andrew Beitier, Union •Cfty, and Alfred Beitier, Geneva; 13 brothers and sisters, William Lobsiger, California; Harry Lobsiger, Seattle, Wash.!* Ed, Noble and Charles Lobsiger, all of Decatur; Mrs. Beth Brown and Mrs. Mary Coffee, Decatur; Mrs. Mabel Wiley and Mrs. Esther Hrookaugh, Flint, Mich.; Mrs. Lola? Strahm, Craigville; Mrs. Velma Daniels, Decatur, and Mrs* Lt'.Cinda Turney, Fort Wayne. f The body is at the Hardy and Hardy funeral - home where friends may call. Services will be at 2 p. m. Friday at the funeral home, Rev. C. A. Schmid, pastor of the Cross Evangelical and Reformed church, Berne, officiating. Burial will be in the M- E- cemetery.

their Lhasa garrison. In New. Delhi, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru told a boisterous session of Parliament he disapproved of the Chinese Communist embassy’s attempts to bring the cbld war to India. Nehru spoke during debate on a Praja-Socialist Party motion to censure the embassy for distributing copies of the official Peiping Peoples Daily which named the Indian border city of Kalimpong as a Tibetan espionage center where the Tibetan uprising was planned. Tile Indians were angered because Nehru had officially denied the Red charges even btfore the embassy distributed the paper. Today Parliament booed and shouted down Communist members who demanded Nehru assure Peiping he would investigate its “It is not for us to object to any article in Peking (Peiping),’’ Nehru said, “but the only point is if the circulation here was proper or improper...it is impropriety...not the right thing to do. “We do not approve of the cold war being brought to India" by any foreign embassy. The Indians were becoming more suspicious daily of the Chinese Reds and their intentions toward the Indian protectorates of Bhutan and Sikkim nestled in the Himalayas between India and Tibet. There also was fear the Reds might invade the kingdom of Nepal. Frank Moraes, editor of the Indian Express and chairman of the Tibet Solidarity Committee, said in Bombay what is happening in Tibet shows the Chinese cannot be trusted. J. B. Kripalani, leader of the opposition Socialist Party, expressed fear of Chinese intentions toward Bhutan, Sikkim and Nepal. Other Indian sources said recent Communist maps of the Nepal area include major portions of the three countries as Chinese Communist territory. There whereabouts of the Dalai Lama were still a mystery but most sources believe he was the object of a huge hide-and-seek game in southeast TfbeU as he fled closer to the Indian border. Some reports said he was only hours away from the border.