Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 57, Number 151, Decatur, Adams County, 27 June 1959 — Page 1

Vol LVII. No. 151.

Two Jet Planes Crash In Texas

SAN ANTONIO. Tex. (UPD — ’l'wo Air Force jet planes, one an , RB -66 reconnaissance bomber, crashed in the San Antonio area within one hour and 50 miles of each other Friday night, killing at least four persons, and possiblj six. Air Force firemen who had to walk four miles through rugged, hilly, brush-country, found three bodies at the site of the bombei crash, 27 miles northwest of San Antonio early today. They waited , for daylight to bring the bodies out. The pilot of the second plane, a T-33 jet trainer enroute from Luke Air Force Base, AriZ., to Randolph AFB near San Antonio, was killea when his craft plunged into farmland 26 miles southeast of San Antonio. It was assumed he was alone in the two-place planed Officials said another body might be found at either or both of the crash sites. The Air Force said the RB-66 which normally carries a crew of ’ three or four, was en route to Kelly Air Force Base, San Antonio. The fcß66 was based at Shaw Air Force Base, Sumter, S.C., but had been flying out of Langley Air Force Base. Hampton, Va., because of runway repairs at Shaw. The Air Force at Langley j said it was presumed three men were abroad but this had not been verified. The pilot of the T 33 trainer which crashed was identified as Ist Roy Bowings Jr. of Homestead Air Force Base, Homestead, Ha. The base in Florida said Bowins was flying the trainer from Oakland, Calif. ■' Homestead when ~the" crash 'occurred. Bowings’ survivors include his widow, Linda, and two children, Anna, 3, and Roy B. HI, 2 who reside at Homestead. Bowings’ permanent home, according to the Air Force, is Great Falls, Chester County, S.C. Authorities said it had been definitely established by a number of eye witnesses that the reconnais-

68 Are Dead In Italian Crash

MARNATE, Italy (UPD—The U.S., airliner that crashed near in the worst air accident in Italian history, came within a few yards of causing many more deaths. The Chicago-bound TWA Super Constellation, which disintegrated after being struck by lightning, plunged to earth barely 30 feet from a farmhoue where 22 Italians had sought shelter from the storm. /Bits of flaming wreckage fell within 50 yards of a tuberculosis sanatorium housing several hundred sick children. All of the plane’s 59 passengers, including citizens />f eight countries, and 9 crewmen were killed. At least 31 and perhaps as many as 37 of the victims were Americans. Today workers began the grim task of recovering the charred remains of the victims from the mass of twisted, molten steel that was all that was left of the big fouftfengined plane. The plane crashed 12 minutes after taking off from Milan w,ith a heavy fuel load. Eyewitnesses

MF 1 • | m jsL,i BMi J lOgSp & WMF »;;.a/WF X> llhw. 1 • mF » dM ■ '' ‘ 1 ’ J ! v VISITING QUEEN AND PRESIDENT OPEN SEAWAY— Heads of the English-speaking nations, Queen Elizabeth of Britain and President Dwight D. Eisenhower of the U. S. stand at attention as the anthems of their countries are played at their meeting in Montreal for the official dedication of the 500-million-doUar St. Lawrence Seaway. —

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT

sance plane was burning before it smashed into the rugged terrain and exploded. “I saw a huge ball of fire come hurtling down,” said Max Dittmar. The' crewmen in the bomber apparently had no chance to parachute to safety. Their badly mangled bodies, burned beyond recognition, were found in the scattered wreckage of the plane. Dittmar, who lives in the area, walked into the crash site with Air Force fire fighters. ’.‘You could carry, in your arms any piece of the wreckage,” he said. “It was spread over an area of more than 300 yards. There wasn’t much left to burn.” Veteran 6. E. Worker Retires Wednesday Arthur B. Miller, 803 Mercer avenue, will retire July 1 after more than 33 years of employment at the Decatur General plant. \ ‘ Right now, he is having a three*, j vacation, before his normal, retirement' under the company's pension plaru Just before his vacation and retirement, friends at the company presented, h'm with a new billfold containing cash. Miller joined G.E. at Decatur September 15, 1925, as a punch press operator. He was transferred to the maintenance section in 1934, and had various assignments in that section until he was transferred to a salaried guard job in Octransferred to the maintenance section as a power house attendant, and after World War 11, he worked *as a machine mover in that section. From 1949 to the date of his retirement. he worked in the miscellaneous motor assembly department, where he assembled bases and unloaded a paint conveyor. ]

said lightning hit a wing, setting the plane on fire in the air. Despite heavy thunderstorm rains, it took firemen almost two hours to quench the fuel-fed flames that licked the debris. Italian soldiers and police threw a cordon around the wreckage to preserve possible evidence for the officials who will investigate the crash. ’Farmers who saw the plane crash said a wing fell off after the plane was struck by lightning. The plane hurtled earthward in a huge ball of fire, crashing in two main sections and scattering bits of wreckage over a wide area. The impact blew in the door of the nearest farmhouse, and farmer Davide Barbieri dashed out to find the wreckage lying 10 yards away. Other farmers also rushed to the scene, but there was nothing they could do except call a priest to administer last rites to the vicims.

Irene Owens Dies After Long Illness Mrs. Irene Owens, 36, wife of Lee V. Owens, of Harrison township, Van Wert county, 0., onehalf mile north of Middlebury, died at 2:25 o’clock Friday afternoon at the Clinic hospital in Bluffton. She had been in failing health since 1953. Sne was born in Decatur Oct. 17, 1922, a daughter of Virgil D. and Janeva Humbarger-Draper, who reside on Grant street. She was married Sept. 20, 1947, to Lee V. Owens, an employe of the Central Soya Co. A graduate of the Pleasant Mills high school in 1942, she lived most of her life in Adarps county. Mrs. Owens was a member of the Union Chapel Evangelical United Brethren church. Surviving in addition to her husband and her parents is one sister, Mrs. Nile (EUan) Williamson, also of Decatur. One daughter preceded her in death. Funeral services will be conducted at 1:30 p. m. Sunday at the Zwick funeral home, the Rev. Emmet Anderson officiating. Burial will be in the Decatur cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home after 7 o’clock this evening. The casket will remain closed. , SI. Mary’s River Begins To Recede The St. Mary’s river stood at 7.34 feet this morning, receding from the 8.87 feet at 8 a m. Friday, after Thursday night's thunderstorms, which brought rain and storm damage to a wide northeastern Indiana area. Decatur, having little damage from the storm, except one power transformer which had to be replaced and several communications lines down, received 2.60 inches of rain Thursday night. In other areas, more damage was reported in the violent weather, which covered an area in northeastern Indiana, of which Adams 1 county was on the edge. I Farther west, in Huntington, a heaw storm Thursday night pourled 4.65 inches of rainfall between 8 ■ and 11 p.m., making the 24-hour total for that city 5.18 inches, the greatest amount of precipitation recorded at any one time in the last 18 years. Damage climbed into the tens of thousands of dollars in the city t as the rain came far too fast for sewers to handle. A home was damaged and a barn destroyed by fires in the Zanesville area during the severe electrical storm, bringing Bluffton firemen out to help. The total 24-hour rainfal lat Bluffton was 3.04 inches, and the Wabash there rose from 1.23 feet Thursday morning to 8.15 feet Friday morning. In Collett, Jay county, .28 inch of rain had fallen, a low amount compared with the area north of Portland. Muncie Woman, Son Killed In Accident CHURUBUSCO, Ind. (UPD—A Muncie housewife and her young son were killed and three other persons were injured in a two-car crash northwest of here Friday night. Mrs. Evelyn M. Huffman, 33, and her son, Ernest, 10, were killed. Injured were Dale F. Huffman, 44, the father; Irene Smith, 17, Muncie, and James P. Glass, 29,1 Columbia City.

ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY ■ — < - i—- r — —

Decatur, Indiana, Saturday, June 27, 1959.

Two Children Killed As Auto Smashes Into Rear \ < . ■ • ... ft ’ .'■ ■ ■ Os Truck Early Today

Bury Suggestion Os Steel Talk Report WASHINGTON (UPD. — The Labor Department has buried a suggestion relayed by the White House to publish an impartial report "on steel wages and profits during contract talks, it was learned today.’ The proposal was made "by a reporter at President Eisenhower’s news conference on June 17. The White House sent it to the Labor Department for study after the President called it a “most intel ligen” request. Government economists, however, took a slightly different view. They felt it would only irritate rather than educate negotiators for the basic steel producers and the Steelworkers’ union. The government continued its hands-off policy despite release | of a “fact sheet” Friday by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-Tenn.) which he said showed the steel industry could raise wages without raising prices. Kefauver’s statement was studied closely by labor Department officials, who generally had an unfavorable reaction; They said privately that “silence is golden” in the s current stage of negotiations when a strike appears imminent. One official said that even the base year chosen by the senator to measure steel profits —1947— was considered unfair by management. Selection of another base period might be construed as unfavorable by union spokesmen, he added, so there is no happy medium. “The ‘impartial report’ idea is dead,” said one government economist. ‘I haven’t heard it mentioned for several days.” The idea behind the reporter’s request was to give the public enough factual material to judge the conflicting claims of union and management representatives % Woman Pedestrian Is Killed By Car INDIANAPOLIS (UPD — Mrs.' Margaret Blacklidge, 72, was killed late Friday night when she was. struck near her east-side home by' a car operated by Glynn Thurston.; 19, Greenfield, while crossing a street. |

Steel Talks Bogged Down

NEW YORK (UPD—Steel wage contract negotiations were bogged down today and a crippling nationwide strike at midnight TuesI day seemed inevitable. I After failing to induce the top j executives of 12 major steel companies to meet with him at a summit conference, David J. McDonald, president of the United Steelworkers Union, called a meeting of the union’s 33-man executive board for this morning to consider the 'rebuff and review “the entire situation.” The situation was critical. McDonald admitted as much when he denounced what he termed the “farcical filibuster” of industry’s four-man bargaining team with whom he had been negotiating the past seven weeks. McDonald refused to go into another meeting with them. He sent telegrams inviting Roger M. Blough, chairman of U.S. Steel Corp., and the heads of 11 other companies inviting them to confer with him face-to-face. Answer: Polite “No” The answer, was no. Politely, the steel executives informed McDonald that the companies fourman team are their “authorized representatives” and said it would “serve no useful purpose” to change .present bargaining procedures. Nobody could accurately foresee the next move in the deadlock. There was no actiori 'by governmental agencies, although James F. Finnegan, chief federal mediator, expressed willingness to provide his services if called upon by either side. President Eisenhower had pre-

France, Italy Urge Meeting Os Ministers ROME (UPD—France and Italy today called, for a meeting of Western foreign ministers in Geneva prior to the resumption July 13 of the Big Four talks there. The call came in an official communique issued at the end of a four-day official visit to Italy by French President Charles de Gaulle. The communique proposed that Italian Foreign Minister' Giuseppe Pella should attend such a meeting with the foreign ministers’ of France, Great Britain, the United States and presumably West Ger* many. The communique also called for greater cooperation between the Western European nations in aiding underdeveloped nations; The rest of the communique was couched in very general terms stressing l the-,, need for France and Italy to work closely together in all fields. But informed sources were certain De Gaulle and Italian officials discussed such subjects as the Algerian problem, the question of Italian participation in Sahara development, and atomto collaboration between 'ltaly ar|| France, as well as th£ need for a meeting of Western foreign minis terg. Italy was not represented at the deadlocked foreign ministers’' meeting which last week but Secretary of State. Christian A. Herter and .other Western leaders kept this country's leaders informed on the talks. 11-Year-Old Boy Drowns. In Pit GARY, Ind. (UPD—Larry Sig-' ' lej-, 11, Gary, drowned late Friilpfy while swimming in a sand pit n,ear his home. Lake County i authorities said Sigler was swimi ming with a group of children, j The boy’s father. James, his brother and two sisters witnessed I the accident.

viously indicated a hands-off policy in the controversy. Steel mills throughout the country were preparing to bank their blast furnaces. Pittsburgh reported U.S. Steel will begin shutting down its iron-making facilities in the Chicago area Sunday night. Shutdown Complete Tuesday Youngstown Sheet & Tube will start closing down two coke plants five blast furnaces and 15 open hearths Monday and expects a complete shutdown by 3 p.m. Tuesday. As McDonald put it in his telegram to the steel executives:’ “Time is running out. Some steel furnaces will have to be banked.” Just before disruptoin of negotiations, McDonald assured industry that a shutdown would be orderly. The union chief disclosed that strike instructions had been sent to all USW locals. Describing further meetings with industry’s negotiation team as “futile,” he said “there is nothing on the bargaining table.” He said the companies have refused to deviate from its position that the current contract agreement be extended for a one-year period, with no increase in employment costs. In Washington Sen. Estes Kefauver, (D-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate anti-trust monopoly Subcommittee, said there is “ample room for a reasonable upward adjustment ip wages” for steel workers “without the necessity of a price increase.”

Lengthy Strike Al Dunbar Is Settled j U.I.U. Local 222 at Berne ap- 1 proved the new contract Friday , night at their special meeting, epd- ‘ ing a six-week strike at the Dunbar furniture factory. ’ -. Work is expected to resume Mon- 1 day at 7 a.m., now that the union ’ membership, has approved the new three-year cpntract. Approximately one third of the union members changed their votes in this elec- . tion, with the vote this time-about 105 to 64, for approval. Two weeks ago, the union had turned down, , 110 (p 52, an offer from the company,- which followed a long bart gaining session when neither side j had made any concessions toward ' a compromise. f Earl Burry, route two, Berne, is I head of the local. Harold Sprunger, 4 Berne, is the executive vice presi-. dent of the Dunbar factory, arid r was main negotiator for the man- , agement. «> The new three-year contract has these provisions: wage increase of ? 18 cents per hour for hourly work--1 ers, and 12 cents per hour for r piece workers and spread over the r three-year period, the increase'in pay retroactive to May 1 of this - year; agency shop; modified wage - progression; lower requirements 5 for third week vacation; lay-off ■ bottom of plant-wide seniority list; 1 and other minor improvements. picket line was established at ► "the plant the first day of the strike. May 19, and had teen maintained 1 since then. Management and office personrial were allowed to go , in and out of the plant. Follow-Up Meet On Tillage Wednesday Adams county farmers attending the follow-up meeting of the minimum tillage at the Hugo Bulmahn farm on Wednesday, July T,. will notice a striking difference in growth between, the conventionally planted corn and the minimum tillage planted corn., x Reports from Leo Seltenright, county agent; and Cletus Gillman, , of the local SCS, who visited the i farm and inspected the seven patches of corn, indicated a var- ■ iance in the outcome of the'Various methods shown at the tillage demonstration May 19. Os definite interest also will be the growth of corn on the slab along the surface ditch, where many farmers voiced the opinion ■ that corn could not possibly grow there. Ascar Ackerson, soil conservation agronomist from Goshen, and Gilbert Walker, extension agrono- . mist from Purdue, will lead a parade of notable agricultural authod- 1 ities from throughout the state, ’ County agents and soil conserva- j tionists from the northeastern Indiana counties have also been in- 1 vited. Ackerson arid Walker, however, will discuss tillage practices and answer questions farmers may ' have on corn growing. Corn, which was planted from May 6 to the 20, is now well above i waist high, according to the latest i report. Most farmers are pleased i when their corn is knee-high at 1 this stage of the season. Several rows in the various plots have been left uncultivated to Ulus- 1 trate the weed growth in minimum ’ tillage vs conventional planting 1 methods. Wheat and oats variety ' plots will-also be viewed by those The follow-up meeting, as the , original demonstration, is promot- , ed by the local soil conservation . district supervisors and the county extension office. ( INDIANA WEATHER Partly cloudy, continued warm and humid through Sunday with chance of isolated thundershowers. High today low 90s, low tonight around 70, high Sunday in low Ms. Outlook for Monday: Little change, continued warm ind humid with scattered ,late afternoon and night thundershowers. .2 — .A. NOON EDITION

Two Ohio youngsters, were killed early this morning in Decatur when a car slammed into the rear of a truck on 13th street between the Erie and Nickel Plate railroad tracks, opposite the Adams County Builders and Supply. Four other occupants of the car, Including the driver, received treatment for superficial lacerations and bruises at the Adams county memorial hospital. The truck driver was, uninjured. The dead are Shellia Marie Cable 13, of 1235 Vine street, Cincinnati 0., and Harold Lewis, 10, of 444 Olive Rd., Dayton, O. Truck Stopped For Train Investigating officers reported that the accident, which Occurred at 2:55 a.m. today, happened when the car, traveling north on 13th. attempted to avdid the truck, which was Stopped in traffic awaiting for a passenger train on the Erie tracks, but skidded under the truck carriage, shearing off the top of the car. The car, came to rest 65 feet beyond the point of impact. ..." '* < The driver of the car, Lester Cable, 33, of 444 Olive Rd., Dayton, 0., was the father of the young girl who was killed and the stepfather of the young boy. Besides Cable, who was treated for bruises on his head, James Cable, 11. of 1235 Vine St., Cincinnati, O.; Elizabeth Ann Foster, 18-months-old, of the Dayton address; and Janice Lewis, 13, of .the Dayton address, were treated for cuts and bruises. All are reported in good condition at Jthe hospital. The two dead persons are at the Zwick funeral home, where they were pronounced dead by Elmer Winteregg, Jr., county coroner. The mother of the children, Mrs. Elizabeth Cable,, arrived this morning at 10 o’clock with a group of relatives to verify the names of the children. She was the owner of the car which was demolished in, the accident. ’■Truck Driver Unhurt The driver of the truck, Orion Avolee Popplewell, Jr., 31, of Greenfield, was not hurt. The truck, which sustained S3OO in damages, is owned by the I.R.C.D. Motor Freight, Inc., of Richmond. City police officers Roy Chilcote and Vic Strickler and state trooper Alan Coppess, and sheriff’s, deputy Charles Arnold assisted at the investigation. Formal results of tfce inquiry are not complete.

Long Puts Self In. Psychiatric Care

COVINGTON, La. (UPD-Gov. Earl K. Long, out of mental hospitals for the first time in almost a month, ran the state of Louisiana today from a motel, under the watchful eyes of three psychiatrists. Long disappeared from the motel Friday night and a state trooper said he had left for his home in Winnfield, in the north central part of the state, But his official car later turned up at the motel and a new shift of troopers who came on duty early today said he had been out for relaxation and had returned and gone to sleep. , The psychiatrists made it plain that they will stand for o no foolishness from Long- and ordered seven or eight days of rest with only essential vistiors for him. More Revenge Expected Even so, Long was expected to take revenge on others he regarded as responsible for putting away a man who has "never been insane a second in my life.” That estimate of his mental condition was Long’s own. The three psychiatrists said they thought he ought to still be in the hospital. Long forced his way out of the Southeast Louisiana State Hospital Friday by firing the director of that hospital and the director of all state-owned hospitals. He filled their positions with men who signed a statement that he was sane and there was nothing for District Judge Robert D. Jones to do but order him released. As soon as Long got out, he sacked John Nick Brown, superintendent of state police. Politicians feared there wer.e others on

Zwick’s ambulance carried the injured to the hospital and the two dead youngsters <?to the funeral home. To Give Report On Super-Secret Parley QUANTICO, Va. (UPD — Defense Secretary Neil H. McElroy is scheduled to report to the world today on one of the most supersecret conferences ever held by an aggregation of top government officials. . . - Although the annual “secretaries conference” has been in progress at this Marine Corps base since Thursday night, not a single item of news concerning the events has yet been released. McElroy, however, has agreed tb hold a nws conference at noon today to answer reporters’ questions about what has been going on behind closed doors. The at the conference has been air-tight despite a formal program which looks like it had been drawn up for any ordinary convention consisting of formal speeches and discussions. No texts or abstracts of the speeches are available. Among the talks from which reporters were barred today is one by Murray Snyder, asistant defense secretary in charge of information, on “public affairs as they affect unified commands and international problems.” Army Secretary Wilber M. Brucker was on the program as today's luncheon speaker. He was followed by T. Keith Glennan, director of the Civilian Space Agency. The program of speakers today also included Gen. Thomas S. Power, Strategic Atr Command; Gen. Earle E. Partridge, Continental Air Commander; and Admirals Harty D. Felt and Jerauld Wright, commanders of the Pacific and Atlantic Fleets respectively. Their talks all were labeled as “progress reports.” ■ Gas City Man Is Run Over By Train JONESBORO, Ind. (UPD—Vernon W. Horner, 35, Gas City, was killed early today when he was run over by a Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad tmin north of here. Crewmen told police Horner apparently was lying on the tracks.

his firing list, since he charged that his being committed was a plot to "get rid of Unde Earl.” Calls Three Doctors Then, apparently on his own. Long called Dr. Robert Heath, Dr. Charles Watkins and Dr. Victor Lief to examine him in the motel he had taken over. Dr. Heath is professor and - chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at the Tulane University School of Medicine and a noted neurologist and researcher in psychiatry. Dr. Watkins is professor and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine and an internationally known psychiatric specialist. Dr. Leif is instructor of psychiatry and medicine at the Tulane School of Medicine and an internal medicine specialist. ’They evidently reached an agreement with Long about his conduct, because after they consulted with him he tried to slip away from his cabin and talk to reporters. He started to say something about wanting to clear up a news story about his wanting to commit suicide when Dr. Watkins sternly ordered him back to his cabin. The psychiatrists also cancelled a news conference that Long had scheduled for 11 a.m. today and announced that one of them will remain constantly with Long. “We urge his friends not to call him,” they said. “We are hopeful that all persons connected with the governor’s welfare won’t disturb him until he gets the rest he vitally needs now.”

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