Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 62, Number 151, Decatur, Adams County, 26 June 1964 — Page 1

VOL LXII. NO. 151.

Widen Search For Three Missing Men

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. (UPI) —White-hatted sailors and FBI agents spread out over dozens of back country roads and trails today looking for three civil rights workers missing for five days. Search teams of from 5 to 15 men were dropped along the lonely roads in a 10-mile-square area near here. The sailors, sent into the search by President Johnson, arrived without heavy boots Thursday but by the time the search resumed today most were wearing the combat-type boots, dungares and white hats. The patrols were assigned to “walk” the rural roads and areas paralleling them for some trace of the men who were last seen Sunday. Their burned station wagon was found on a logger’s trail at the edge of a swamp Tuesday. Within hours after President Johnson ordered the sailors into the hunt Thursday, teams made up of nine sailors, an FBI agent and a state trooper moved cautiously through the fringes of the dense Bogue Chitto swamp. Wayne Carpenter Is Surveyor Candidate Wayne R. Carpenter, of 110 Harvester Lane, has been approved by the Adams county Republican central committee to run tor county surveyor this fall, Roy L. Price, Republican county chairman, announced this morning. Carpenter, a drainage contractor, and native of Wells county, was not available this week tor a biography and picture, which will be published next week, as soon as it is obtained, Price added. Carpenter will run against Democrat Herman Moellering this fall for the office. This left the Republicans with just two vacancies: county recorder, against Miss Rosemary Spangler, and county treasurer, against William L. Linn. Price stated that the Republican central committee has until Labor Day to certify the filling of the ticket to the county clerk, so that the natnes may be printed on the ballot. He checked earlier this.'week with county clerk George Bair to get the exact method of filling the ticket, so that .jt could be done correctly and legally. j

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HOME SAFE—Mr. and Mrs. Shirly Wulf rejoice at the safe recovery of their youngest daughter, three-month-old Kimberly Jo. The baby was abducted from her parents’ home in Beloit, Wis., while they Were in another state and the baby sitter was out of the house.

National Debt 1 ' .■*. , <- Limit Boosted

WASHINGTON (JJPI) — The Senate approved the biggest in-” crease in the national debt limit since World War II today, raising - the ceiling to a record $324 billion. The vote was 48-21. The Senate acted one day after cutting deeply into government revenues with an electionyear slash of excise taxes which could cost the Treasury more than $503 million. In today’s action, the Senate voted to raise the spending ceiling by $9 billion from the current temporary national debt limit of $315 billion. The extension would continue through June 30, 1965. - The House previously ap-

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY

“If the sailors go far in there, we’ll have to go in and get them out,” a farmer commented. “There’s at least one cottonmouth water moccasin for evfery square yard in that swamp,” said one sailor as he emerged after four hours of searching. The missing men are Andrew Goodman, 20, of New York: Mickey Schwerner, 24, of Brooklyn; and James Chaney, 21, a Negro from Meridian, Miss. ' Die Justice Department said it had received numerous reports that the three had been seen since Sunday, none of which checked out. Alabama Highway Patrol Chief Al Lingo announced late Thursday that seven persons in Marion, Ala., had seen the missing integrationists Tuesday and identified them from news pictures. But one of the seven told reporters that this was a “lie.” Lingo then denied he had said the witnesses made positive identification. He said the witnesses only detected a “striking resemblance” between the men they saw and pictures of the missing workers. The search was suspended at dusk and one of the sailors said they found “nothing but snakes.” INDIANA WEATHER Fair and a little wanner south tonight. Saturday mostly sunny, not much temperature change. Low tonight in the 60s. High Saturday 87 to 94. Sunset today 8:17 p.m. Sunrise Saturday 5:19 a. m. Outlook for Sunday: General-, ly fair and continued warm. Lows near 70. Highs low 90s. I Yost Construction Is I I Low On -Markle Levee | LOUISVILLE (UPI) — Yost Construction Co., Decatur, Ind., was low bidder with an offer of $539,732 for construction of the Markle levee of the Huntington Reservoir in Indiana. The bids were opened Wednesday in the office of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. Three firms bid in addition to Yost, Including Fox Construction Co., Fort Wayne, and Meshberger Construction Co., Columbus.

proved a similar increase in the temporary dpbt limit, assuring enactment before the present ceiling expires at the end of the mon’h. ■ . The Sena’e approved the measure despite the opposition of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Harry F. Byrd Jr., D-Va., who warned that the country faced a continuing upward spiral in the national debt. < Although the government has been operating with the $315 billion ceiling since December, the limitation would have fallen to $309 billion on June 29 and then to the permanent ceiling of $285 billion the next day.

South Adams Board Votes 50-Cenl Levy The South Adams community schools board has adopted, by unanimous vote, a 50-cent sinking fund to run for a period of six years. The fund will not oecome official until approved by the state tax board. The adoption of the 50-cent levy followed a heated discussion on the originally proposed 80-cent levy tor 12 years. The adoption of the 50-cent levy was a compromise with the group opposing the 80-cent proposal. The sinking fund is established so that money can accumulate to cover necessary school repairs, pay for the installation of school equipment or cover the expenses of building new facilities. The 30-cent slash, from 80 cents to 50 cents, came after 50 taxpayers showed up at the school board meeting, objecting vehemently to the 80-ctnt proposal. Most cf those 50 were from Hartford, Jefferson and Wabash townships and the town of Geneva. Geneva druggist Sidney Buckmaster spoke in behalf of the objectors and suggested a 40-cent rate. The board officials pointed out that 56 cents of the proposed 80 cents would be used to pay off present debts, bonds and interest and that only 24 cents would actually be put in a cumulative or sinking fund. ( Arguments relating more to sore spots about the South Adams consolidation than to the question of the levy were raised several times by the objectors, with accompanying applause. Others who spoke in opposition to the proposal were Jerome Hawbaker, Ernest W. Binegar, Ardon Mosser, Steve Armstrong, Roy Poorman, Fred Duff, Helen and Agnes Kennedy, Maynard Lehman, Harve Ineichen, David Myers, Mrs. J. I. Hall, Elmer Affolder, and Wayne Dubach. Nation's Living Costs Levelled Off WASHINGTON (UPI) — The nation’s living costs levelled off in May while the take - home pay and buying power erf factory workers climbed to record peaks, the Labor Department announced today. On the cost of living, the department said lower prices for food and housing balanced off “fractional” advances for most other goods and services last month. The consumer price index, traditional barometer of inflation, held steady last month at 107.8 per cent of average 1957-., 59 prices. Diis means it now costs $10.78 to buy the same items that were available for $lO in the base period. A spokesman tor the Bureau of ,Labor Statistics, however, predicted the index would climb slightly higher in June to a new high.’ The average factory worker scored substantial gains in May. His take-home pay—after deductions for federal income and social security taxes—rose to an all-time record of $92.18 a week for a iman with three dependents. State Policeman Is Rotary Speaker Sgt. Darrell Bauer, of the Indiana state police, spoke on traffic safety at the weekly dinner meeting of the Decatur Rotary club Thursday evening at the Youth and Community Center. Mayor Carl D. Gerber was chairman of the program and introduced the speaker. Sgt. Bauer spoke on the “Diree E’s” of traffic safety, education, engineering, and enforcement. He than gave the service club members when he termed a “shock treatment,” showing a gruesome film titled “Mechanized Death.” The film revealed that 75 oer cent of traffic fatalities occur within 25 miles of the victims’ Homes, where drivers are familiar with the roads. The film also showed that in attention and speed caused 43,400 deaths during 1963. Grover Odle, Decatur police chief, was a guest at/the meeting. and Joe Klarke, manager of radio station WADM, was introduced as a new member of the club. George Auer, who conducted his final meeting as * club president, thanked the members for their cooperation during the past year. He will turn the gavel over to the new president, W. Lowell Harper, at next Thursday’s me-.t-, ing.

Decatur, Indiana, 46733, Friday, June 26, 1964.

Indiana Taxpayers Will

Get Bonus Distribution; ■* J’ May Cut Property Taxes

Senate Votes I Reduction In Excise Taxes WASHINGTON (UPI) — The Senate Thursday night voted elgction-year tax cuts which | could cost the government more . than $499.5 million a year in revenue. Rebelling against its leaders, the Senate voted to eliminate or reduce federal excise taxes on everything from ping - pong balls to sables. But at the | same tame it approved an extension of $1.9 billion in other Korean War emergency levies. The excise taxes are due to expire June 30. Die Johnson administration sought—and the House agreed to—more or less blanket approval of a measure to extend the levies for one year. But the Senate sharply amended the excise package before sending it to a joint conference committee where differences between House and Senate versions of the bill will be thrashed out. Observers predicted that many of the tax cuts voted by the Senate would be restored by the conferees. ** The final vote on the amended excise tax bill was 77-2, with only Sens. Frank J. Lausche, D-Ohio, and Edwin L. Mechem, R4N.M., dissenting. Lausche sharply criticized the tax-cutting action, labeling it “electioneering?’ Before the final action, the Senate killed the federal tax on tennis equipment, ballpoint pens and pencils and cut the levy on cabaret and “living theater” admissions and musical instruments. The major revenue loss came when the Senate voted, 48-38, to repeal the 10 per cent tax on jewelry, furs, toilet articles and luggage selling for SIOO or less. This was estimated to cost $455 million in federal revenues. New Hampshire Is Shaken By Quakes LACONIA, N.H. (UPI)—Two diah-rattling earthquakes about 50 minutes apart shook central New Hampshire today. The temblors were the second earth shocks in the area in three months. “It sounded like a train roaring through the valley,” said a Claremont man who lives on a hilltop. Rev. Francis Donahue, assistant director of the Weston College (Mass.) described the - temblors as “a strong, local earthquake.” He said they occurred about 60 miles north of Boston: The earthquakes were felt in a 50-mile arc from Laconia to Claremont and from " Lebanon ,to Concord. No injuries or extensive damage were reported. >’> Die first shock occurred about 7:05 a.m., EDT, and the second about a.m. ‘ Police and radio stations said their switchboards were jammed wi’h telephone calls from alarmed persons. Marvin M. Midgette, assist-, ant publisher of the Lebanon Valley News, said of the first temblor: “I could feel it in the car. I thought it was an explosion or a sonic boom.” A Laconia man said«, the tremor ("came in with a roar, snapped and faded away.” A similar earthquake hit central New Hampshire April 1. At that time. Dartmouth College geophysics professor Robert Decker ’said the area was “still rebounding from the lifting of the weight of glacial ice millions of years ago?" - Today’s temblors lasted less than 30 seconds each. cs •

KI Richard B. Vergosen Plants Manager Is Named By Duo, Inc. Richard B. Vergosen, of Little Falls, Minn., has been named plants manager for both the fiberglass and aluminum plants of Duo, Inc., Victor B. Porter, president, announced* this morning. Vergosen comes to the Decatur corporation with six years experience in both fiberglass and aluminum construction as plant manager for Crestliner Boat Co., at Little Falls. Crestliner was a sibsidiary of Bigelow-Sanford. « A native of St. Paul, Minn., where he attended high school and obtained his A.B. degree from St. Thomas College, Vergosen will work directly with plant supervisor J. T. Kelley, of the Decatur fiberglass plant, and Albert Miller, supervisor of the Mottville, Mich., aluminum plant. Interviewed today, he stated that he was “very pleased” with both plants and the development of them. Both factories are now getting ready for the 1965 boatbuilding season. Vergosen expects his wife, Therine, and son, Paul, 16, to move here some time this summer, in time for his son to enroll at Decatur Catholic high school. He is a member of the Decatur Lions -club, of the Little Falls Knights of Columbus, and was a director of the .Little Falls Chamber ofc Commerce. He was with Whirlpool Corp., for ten years as assistant shop superintendent before going into the boat-building business. He will have approximately 130 production employes working under him at Decatur, and another 30 at Mottville. Automobile Stolen ’ Here Last Evening A 1964 automobile was stolen from this city Thursday evening, making the second case of vehicletaking this week. Robert McMillen, route’ 6, Decatur, filed the stolen report with the city ploice at five minutes before 9 o’clock Thursday night. McMillen explained that he had parked the car in the Schafer company parknig lot on First street at about 7:45 p.m., and when he returned at 8:20 p.m., another auto was parked where his had been. The ignition keys were not in the auto, he explained, but the vehicle was unlocked. The auto is a 1964 model Ford, with license plate 1A 5145. The city police have dispatched the stolen report to area authorities nad are continuing their investigation of the case. Mondav aftemon of this week, a resident of near Monroeville had his auto taken while he was in a doctor's office on Second street. The tar was recovered a, short time later, however, in Lancaster, 0., with two Fort Wayne*youths apprehended. , * A car recovered from Sommerville, 0., Tuesday was recovered here Thursday and may be connected with the Thursday night theft of the McMillen auto.

INDIANAPOLIS (UPl)—lndiana taxpayers will get a bonus distribution from the state next month which could mean an average property tax reduction of 11 cents per SIOO of assessed valuation next year. Commissioner John T. Hatchett of the Indiana Department of Administration reported that the state will take in at least sl9 million more from the sales and gross c income taxes than had been anticipated last October. Hatchett said approximately $lO million of the tax revenue will be distributed as local property tax relief under terms of a 1963 law. This will bring the first such distribution under that la,w to $12,785,630, or about sl3 per school child. Die law provides that the state treasurer send this money to the county treasurers and that the local officials by July 31 compute the average daily attendance of each school and allocate a sum from the property relief tax fund to the individual schools. Chairman Richard Worleyj of the State Board of Tax Commissioners, estimated that this first distribution will average a rate reduction erf about 11 “cents. But he and Hatchett pointed out that whether or not that • distribution is specifically applied to next year’s tax rates depends on local citizens. However, they pointed out the money cannot be spent without authorization from the state tax board. Hatchett said that the adjusted gross income tax and the gross income tax had brought in as of June 24 a total of $248,309,486, which, allowing for $5 million refunds and $1 million corporate net refunds would leave about sls million more, than had been counted on when the budget was prepared last October. He said the actual sales tax collection for the year was $68,334,066, which is approximately $4 million more than the state financiers expected to get. He said that in addition to the $lO million to be distributed as property tax relief out of this excess sl9 million, $6 million will go to the regular distribution of school support and S 3 million will be channeled to either surplus or to offset a loss in cigarette tax revenue. A portion of the cigarette tax money also goes to local schools. Hatchett reported that as of June 30 the state surplus will be approximately $5 million compared to the actual surplus a year ago of $4,632,000. In _ estimating the property tax relief, an average daily attendance figure of 983,510 school children was used. In addition Hatchett said -that judging by the above expectations of income from the state’s new tax system, the $25 million will be avilable next summer as property tax relief, as planned by the 1963 lawmakers. Fort Wayne Officer Missing In Viet Nam WASHINGTON (UPI) — First Lt. Neil B. McKinney, son of Mrs. Esther B. Figel of Fort Wayne, Ind., is among 17 American servicemen who have vanished while on active duty in war-torn South Viet Nam. • McKinev was on an Air Force missing list of four whom sources said may have survived plane or helicopter crashes and may now be held captive by Communist Viet Cong guerrillas. I No Mail Service On Fourth Os July There will be no. mail service Saturday, July 4, and. the post office windows Will be closed that day, postmaster John Boch announced this morning. * Those who regularly have Saturday off will have a scheduled free day Worked into the regular schedule, but the post office will not be closed any day except Saturday, July 4.

German Question Talks Are Hinted

WASHINGTON (UPI) — The United States, Britain and France declared today they are ready to “take advantage of any opportunity” to try to solve with the Russians the longstanding issues of Berlin and a divided Germany. The policy statement, which appeared to invite talks on the German question, was contained in a “tri-partite declaration” by the three Allies issued in each of the capitals today. Die declaration, on which the West German government was closely consulted, was a reply to a treaty of friendship and cooperation which Russia signed on June 12 with the Communist regime of East Germany. The Western statement was negative to the extent that it protested a number of claims and implications in the SovietEast Genman treaty. But it was positive in that it used the development to call for settlement “as soon as possible” of issues involving Germany. The three Allies declared that reunification of Germany on the basis of self determination, or free choice by Germans themselves, remains '"h “fundamental objective.” “The three governments are convinced that such a settlement should be sought as soon as -possible. This settlement should include progressive solutions which would bring about German reunification and security in Europe. On such a basis the three governments are always ready to take advantage of any opportunity which would peacefully re-es-tablish German unity in freedom.” On the negative side, the declaration made these points: —No agreement Russia makes with East Germany could affect Soviet post - war

Six Killed By Truck Blast

BUSHKILL. Pa, (UPI),-r A tractor-trailer loaded with ammonium nitrate caught fire and exploded on a highway in the Stroudsburg resort area of Eastern Pennsylvania today. Six persons were killed and 10 injured, three seriously. Three of the dead were volunteer firemen from the nearby community of Marshalls Creek. Another was a 23 -. year -old school teacher in a local community. The fifth fatality was a Baltimore, Md., woman believed to have been on her honeymoon and the sixth was believed to have been a truck driver blown to bits by the blast. Die explosion, which occured on Route 209 in the community of Middle Smithfield in the Delaware Water Gap area of the Pocono Mountains, leveled a snake farm, freeing dangerous snakes, and rocked buildings in Stroudsburg, nine miles to the south. State troopers carrying snake guns beat through the flattened buildings of the snake farm, killing dangerous .rattlesnakes. About 40 of them, killed by the police, littered the ground. Truck Driver Escapes The driver of the ammonium truck, whose vehicle was blasted to bits and scattered for hundreds of yards in all.. directions, escaped death- He had tried to flag down three fire engines racing to the scene and had been ignored as he walked

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obligations on Germany or Berlin, including Western access to that city, and the Allies will continue to hold Russia “responsible for the fulfillment of its obligations.” —West Berlin is not an “inr dependent political unit” as the treaty Claimed and no Soviet “unilateral” * efforts to block Four Power administration of “greater Berlin” can change its legal status. —The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) “is the only German government freely and legitimately constituted and therefore entitled to speak for the German people in international affaire.” The Allies do not recognize East Germany. Final determination of “frontiers” of Germany must await an overall peace settlement. —Charges ctf “revanchism" (revenge-seeking) aftd “militarism” written into the Russian treaty are “without basis.” The Allied declaration noted that West Germany, on Oct. 3, 1954, renounced use of force to achieve reunification or bound-, ary changes. k* I John L DeVoss Head Os Bar Association Decatur attorney John L. DeVoss was elected president of the Adams county bar association for the ensuing year, at the organization’s annual meeting Thursday at Lake George. ■■ Also elected were D. Burdette Custer, vice president; Lewis L. Smith, treasurer; and David A. ' Macklin, secretary, all three of whom are local attorneys. The new officers take over imi mediately, and will be installed at the county bar association’s • first meeting in September.

along the highway seeking help. Some of the firemen aboard the fire trucks which had ignored him •were killed" by the blast. They had just hitched their hoses to hydrants when the blast leveled and rocked buddingsand lit up the sky. Police identified the dead firemen as Earl Miller, about 50; Edwards Heis, about 51; and Leonard Mosier, 48. The other dead were John Regina, 23, the school teacher, whose father owns the Regina Hotel, about a half mile from the scene of the explosion, and Mrs. William Paesch of 2230 E. Madison St., Baltimore, Md., who was riding along Route 209 in a station wagon with her husband. Heard Fire Sirens John Florio, 21, of Pleasantville, N.Y., en route from Ohio to a job in Connecticut, said he was a few miles south of the truck when “J. heard sirens.” . ■ “Three fire engines passed and I followed them,” he said. “By the time we got within a half mile of where the fire was the sky was all red. I was stopped about a half mile from the scene by police. 1 was talking to a lady and her husband. I turned around toward the rear of my car and beard a terrific exptoeion.” Ftorio was knocked down by the concussion. He suffered cuts on the back of his head. j j j