Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 62, Number 276, Decatur, Adams County, 21 November 1964 — Page 1

VOL LXII. NO. 276.

Continue Bargaining To i f - * ■ ... VI Prevent Paralyzing Rail ' & Strike Scheduled Monday

CHICAGO (UPI) — An agreement was reached today among five of 11 non-operating railroad uniops on a wage and fringe benefit plan for more than 290,000 employes. The unions involved in the settlement were maintenance of way telegraphers, clerks, hotel and restaurant employes and signalmen. The signalmen agreed only to fringe benefits. Federal mediators said the agreeinepts were significant because the unions are among 11 non-operating unions which include shopcraft workers. The six shopcraft unions, which have not reached settlement in their talks, have set a strike deadline for 6 a.m. (local time) Monday which could paralyze the nation’s railroad system. J. E. Wolfe, Chairman of the National Railway Labor Conference, said today’s settlement followed recommendations of the presidential emergency board laid down on Oct. 20. Calls For Increase The settlement provided for increases of 27 cents an hour, broken down in‘o 9 cent increases over three years retroactive from Jan. 1, 1964. Other provisions are for spur weeks vacation pftei- 20 years service, a paid holiday and $2,000 life insurance policies for retired employes. - The agreement was reached in mediation sessions conducted by Francis O’Neill, chairman of the National Mediation Board. O’Neill has been meeting with carriers and the. shopcraft unions who are at odds over a wage package similar to the one agreed to today by fellow brotherhoods. , The mediator said. shop craft

Local Man's Mother Dies Last Evening Mrs. Herman E. Sprunger, 63, lifelong resident of Adams county, died at 8:30 p. m. Friday at her home on Berne route 2. She had suffered a heart attack two weeks ago. Bom in Wabash township Feb. 9 1901, she was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. P. Hirschy, and was married to Herman E. Sprunger Nov. 14, 1920. Mrs. Sprunger was a member of the First Mennonite church at Berne. Surviving are her husband r five sons, Donavin L. Sprunger of Decatur, Dwight E. Sprunger of Washington, D. C., Lynn W. Sprunger of Marion, Steven S. - Sprunger of Berne, and Sprunger of Geneva: two daush-5 ters, Mrs. Enid Bailey and Mi?s> Jayne L. Sprunger. both of Berne route 2; six grandchildren: brother, Clarence Hirschy of Wayne, and four sisters, thew Misses Erna, Marv and Hfrschv, all of Berne route and Mrs. Magdalena Johnson of:? Berne. Friends may call at the Yagers funeral home in Berne after I*3 noon Sundav. Funeral services a will be held Mondav at the Firsts MprmonD* church, with the Rey Gordon Neuenschwander offietot-5 ine. Burial will be in MRE ? cemetery. s

REDDY FEATHER SAYS: -TODAY'S DECATUR AMERICAN REID SERVICE co Tm« PUND j *° yscouts $27,021.63 M G,RISCOUTS TUfll I CRIPPLED CHILDREN SOC. lltO Goal Is LITTLE l PONY LEAGUES $29,834 1 u. s. o. YOUR SALVATION ARMY Community Pund MSHFAI HRAtTH Still Nooda y COMMUNITY CENTER $2,812.37 4m AMERICAN RED CROSS Bhw Tk> PaHM Way

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT

representatives and carriers would continue bargaining in efforts to beat the clock and avert the Monday strike deadline. The talks would be separate but there might be more sessions later in the day, O’Neill said. The shopcraft workers are asking for wage boosts higher than those recommended by the presidential board. Keeping Wert* Informed O’Neill said he was keeping Labor Secretary W. Willard Wirtz informed as to the progress of the talks. Some 600 shopcraft workers—members of six AFL-CIO unions — staged a wildcat strike Friday against the Long Island Railroad in New York and its suburbs, but returned within hours. Commuter runs were delayed up to two hours. Carrier officials, speculating on the effect of a nationwide walkout, said they could not predict its effect without knowing how other railroad unions would respect picket lines. In Washington, the Post Office Department announced that in the. event of a strike Monday it would halt all shipment of all second, third and fourth class mail that had destinations of 150 miles or more. TO Cautions Shippers The Post Office cautioned shippers of perishible goods to discontinue mailing their goods if the strike appeared imminent. More encouragement for a settlement came from a mediation board aide who said “the mere fact that we’re keeping them (the negotiators) talking is a good sign.” In another railroad development, thi# carriers and the

nil 111 $8,500 In Damages Awarded By Jurors An award of $8,500 damages for negligence in a sidewalk injury to Mrs. Ida Chaney, of Fort Wayne, against the city of Fort Wayne, was brought in by an Adams county jury at midnight, following three hour deliberation. This was believed to be the first sidewalk suit that the city of Fort Wayne had lost. Originally filed for $15,000, the damages were reduced to SIO,OOO before the trial started. A pre-trial settlement for substantially less was rejected by the city of Fort Wayne. - Judge Myles F. Parrish, to ' whose court the Allen county case S wac venued, charged tha. jury in 5 matters of law during a long 5 afternoon and evening session, 5 with the case going to the jury •■ about 9 p.m. 5 Neil Sandler, of the Fort Wayne 5 firm of Kennerk, Dumas, and ; Burke, represented Mrs. Chaney, 2 and Fort Wayne city attorney q Robert Arnold .and his associate, 3 Louis Bloom, represented Fort Jj Wayne. This was the first trial of the a November session of court, which 3 already has a full docket, Judge 3 Parrish stated. In fact, manv a cases have already been assigned | to the February term.

Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen (BRT) signed a wage agreement covering 96,000 BRT members. The contract gave 20,000 con-

Wintry Storm Blasts State

By United Press International A pre-Thanksgiving storm invaded Indiana Friday, leveled a furious death-dealing attack on motorists and started a temperature slide toward the season’s first zero weather. The wintry storm howled into the state with such fury that at times it stalled traffic completely by cutting visibility to zero and laying a treacherous coating of ice over highways and streets. Eight inches of snow coated a winter-prone area near the southern tip of Lake Michigan, and there were drifts much deeper as the area was buffeted by winds of near gale proportions. Temperatures plunged to their lowest points since last March and headed for levels even colder tonight, with minimums predicted ranging from zero to 10 above. The possibility of zero readings prevailed for the entire state from Lake Michigan to the Ohio River. 10 Above at Lafayette Shippers were warned to protect for temperatures as low as 5 below zero in the state’s Northwest portion. Overnight lows this morning included Lafayette JO, Fort Wayne and South Bend 11, Terre Haute 13, Indianapolis and Cincinnati 14, Evansville 16 and Louisville 17. As the new storm, the second in 24 hours, moved into the Begin Wrapping Os Mentally 111 Gifts , The wrapping of gifts for mentally ill patients by volunteer workers started this morning at the Mental Health association office, 228 N. Second street, Mrs. John Brunso, chairman of the patient gift program, announced this morning. Eight or ten volunteers from the Kappa Kappa Kappa sorority are helping, and approximately 100 gifts have already been brought in, Mrs. Brunso, and her co-chairman. Miss Dorothy Schnepf, stated. The goal is 400 gifts, and these gifts must be received by a week from next Monday, Mrs. Brunso added. Charles A. Wilson Dies Last Evening Charles A. Wilson, 70, retired farmer of Markle rural route 1, died at 6:45 o’clock Friday even-: ing at his home. Mr. Wilson' was a member of the Prospect Methodist church. Surviving are his wife, Margaret; six daughters, Mrs. Robert (Janet) Cooper, of Bluffion, co-owner of the Cooper rest home in Decatur, Mrs. Wendell Crum of Uniondale, Mrs. Ora Blew of Zanesville, Mrs. Harley Confer of near Markle, Mrs. Robert Baker of LaGrange, and Mrs. Gerald Johnson of Markle; five sons, Robert Wilson of Uniondale, Richard Wilson, at home, Everett Wilson of Markle, Dr. Max Wilson of Bluffton, and Philip Wilson of Angola; two brothers, six sisters, 85 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held at 2 p. m. Monday at the Prospect Methodist church, with the Rev. Noel Reed officiating. Burial will be in the church cemetery. Friends may call at the Elzev funeral home at Ossian after 7 p. ra. today.

ONLY DAILY NIiWBPAPMft IN ADAMS COUNTY

Decatur, Indiana, 46733, Saturday, November 21,1964.

ductors and yard foremen increases of $1.75 per basic day and 76,000 brakemen and switchmen boosts of $1.44 per basic day.

state from the northwest, nearblizzard conditions prevailed. The snow was so dense it stopped heavy weekend traffic, stranding scores of motorists briefly and contributing to hundreds of accidents. At least five traffic fatalities since Thursday were blamed on weather conditions. Skidding vehicles blocked arterial highways in the .Lafay-ette-Fowler-Kentland area of Northwestern Indiana, stranding many motorists. Trains Picks Up Some The Sycamore, an Indianapo-lis-to-Chicago train on the Newt York Central Railroad, stopped at Fowler to pick up between DO and 100 persons caught in the web of the storm, including 40 paskengers transferred from a snow-stalled Greyhound bus, Chain-reaction accidents were a dime a dozen. Ten to 20 Cars were involved in one incident on U.S. 24 near Monticello, and 30 to 50 cars on U.S. 52 south . of Lafayette. Bus service between Indianapolis and Chicago was disrupted for a time, and police appealed to motorists to keep off highways in the northwest quarter of the state. A * number of Indiana high school basketball games were postponed because weather made it difficult for teams and fans to travel. Although it still was snowing lightly in scattered areas this morning, police and highway maintenance spokesmen said all major roads were open and slippery surfaces were being treated to eliminate treacherous spots. 8 Inches At South Bend Snow depth at 7 a.m. today included 8 inches at South Bend, 2 at Fort Wayne and traces at other points. Wind velocities at the same hour included 22 at Fort 'Wayne with gusts up to 32 miles per hour, 21 and 26 at South Bend and 18 and 24 at Indianapolis. Additional snow squalls and flurries were predicted for the northern two-thirds of the state today, with several inches additional accumulation near Lake Michigan. But the snow activity was expected to end by tonight, with skies clearing and only fair weather ahead through Monday. Noted Publisher Roy Howard Dies i * NEW YORK (UPI) — Presi- • dent Johnson and leaders of the publishing world paid tribf ute today to Roy Wilson Howard, a giant of 20th Century • journalism, who died Friday - night at the age of 81. Howard, who began his news- ! paper career more than six decades ago as an $8 a week reporter, actively headed the ’ group of 17 Scripps-Howard • newspapers at the time of his I death. He was a former president and one of the prime builders of United Press. He had been ■ p-esident and editor of the New i York World-Telegram and Sun • until his retirement from that : post in 1960. Howard was stricken with a l heart attack at his Park Avenue office late Friday afternoon. He was taken to Doctors I Hospital where he died a few . hours later. President Johnson said he ' deeply regretted the death of l Howard.

Nine Boy Scouts On | Hike To Fort Wayne | Nine Decatur Boy Scouts, undaunted by snow, cold winds and low temperatures, left Decatur at 4 o’clock this morning on a 50-mile hike. Their cold trek will take them to Fort Wayne, to pick up a special wreath at Bishop Luers high school, and back to Decatur, where the wreath will be the focal point of a Sunday afternoon service in commemoration of the death of John F. Kennedy. The nine scouts, all members of the First Baptist church troop 66, are Larry Curtiss, Larry Uhrick, Kerry Uhrick, Steve Helm, Jesse Serna, Gayle Egley, Steve Green, Ron Lehman and Dan Green. Their route to Fort Wayne, via U.S. highway 27, and back will encompass nearly 50 miles. I Though only the older members of the troop are making the hike, it is an event in which the whole troop has a part. All the members of the group worked to earn the money to buy the wreath. Troop scoutmaster Jerold Lobsiger is making the trip by car and will check the hikers periodically along the way. The boys will thaw 'out and eat lunch in Fort Wayne before starting back this afternoon. The walking time for the trip, which members of the troop have made in previous years, is about 13 hours. The hikers are. expected to arrive in Decatui- with the wreath between 4 and 6 p.m. today. At 3 o’clock Sunday afternoon, the members of the troop will conduct a special public memorial service at the Decatur Youth and Community Center. Decatur Mayor Carl Gerber and others will be present. An honor guard from the troop, including a drummer and bugler, will participate in the ceremony, during which the wreath will be placed on the Kennedy memorial plaque at the center. NOON EDITION Record Christmas Club Checks Mailed The First State Bank of Decatur has placed in the mails checks totaling $196,738.25, as the annual distribution of Christmas savings club checks, the largest in the bank’s history. This year’s distribution is $15,022 higher than the 1963 total of $181,716, or a boost of approximately eight per cent, as compared to the national average increase of seven per cent. According to Christmas Club Corp., the Christmas clubs in the United States will distribute $1,774,000,000 this year. According to an independent survey, 45 per cent of club members felt that their 1964 checks represented money that would not have been saved without the systematic club plan. Surveys made by Christmas Club show that the total distributed will be used in the following manner: Christmas purchases, 38.11 per cent; savings and investments for the future, 31.29 per cent; taxes, 12.51 per cent; yearend bills. 6.19 per cent, and miscellaneous, 11.9 per cent. The new Christmas savings club will open at the First State Bank Monday. INDIANA WEATHER Fair tonight except snow flurries continuing near Lake Michigan. Colder tonight. Sunday generally fair and not quite so cold. Low tonight aero to 19 above. High Sunday a to 29 north. M to 35 south. Outlook for Monday: Fair and

Kennedy Tragedy Hit Nation One Year Ago 4*mm rnA 4j|%t/w / 4tP*L , J 1 •«<’"' '/ *-*/ *-.nW. » f*.. »t . * .„• .W ;**>« * *., #<M« «»■• ''t/ufu/rr . ~ " .w’*#•cw 'H!»>*»w ! - # >' THIS BRONZE BUST of the late Pres. Kennedy, received by Pres. Johnson, has been placed in the cabinet room of the White House. It will eventually be placed in the Kennedy memorial library, which is to be built in Cambridge, Mass. It was sculptured by Felix de Weldon of Washington, D. C. The plaque on the front of the pixiestal bears an excerpt from Kennedy's inaugural address, a replica of the presidential seal, and a herald angel designed by Mrs. Kennedy.—iUPl Telephoto)

By NORMAN RUNNION United Press International WASHINGTON (UPl)—Was it really a whole year ago? It will have been at 1:30 p.m. EST—Nov. 22, 1964. Twelve months distant from three bursts of gunfire out of the sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository building in Dallas. Where were you that day? If you were in a newsroom, will you ever forget the horror of what you saw on the wire: F—L—A— B— H DALLAS —President Kennedy shot and seriously, perhaps fatally, wounded by assassin’s bullet. If you were Mrs. Mary McGrath, a New York cleaning woman, do you remember telling people at St. Agnes Church, "Jesus, Mary, Mother of God, President Kennedy was shot.” Charles Brehmn of Dallas will never forget. He saw it happen. "He was waving and the first shot hit him, and then that awful look crossed his face.” A Gigantic Shock Can anyone really forget those four numb days when, as it was written, grief rolled over the nation like a gigantic shock wave, and you wondered at the time if it would ever subside. Has it really subsided yet? Not on the faces of the thousands who make their way up the green, sloping face of Arlington National Cemetery to stand beside his grave, or who wince at the sight as they see the eternal flame flickering in the dark of a Washington night. Where, now, are the principals of that terrible day in Dallas? Lee Harvey Oswald lies in his grave in Ft. Worth, unmourned. His foul crime against a man, and against humanity, is still not understood even despite the Warren Report’s searching analysis of his twisted mind. Jack Ruby, his killer, sits in a Dallas jail cell, awaiting execution—or a commutation, or a new trial—while his mind deteriorates. Gov. John Connally of Texas, who nearly died from one of

31 Persons Die in Swedish Air Crash

ANGELHOLM* Sweden, (UPI) — A Swedish airliner attempting a landing at Barkaakra Air Base 'in rain and mist Friday night hit a power line and crashed on its back, killing 31 and injuring 10 of the 43 persons aboard. The crash was the worst ever reported in Sweden. All of the dead were Swedish except for the plane’s Norwegian co-pilot. The twin - engined, U.S.-built Convair Metropolitan was flying here from Stockholm. It was to have made an intermediate stop at Halmstad, 42 miles north of here, but was unable to do so because of the weather? Twenty of the plane’s 39 passengers had planned to land at Halmstad. Force Way la Auxiliary firemen, truck drivers and first-aid men taking

the assassin’s bullets, Is fully recovered. Jacqueline Kennedy lives quietly in New York, with Caroline and John-John. Lyndon Baines Johnson is president of the United States in his own rights elected by. the biggest margin in American history. '' _ -’ ■ Life Goes On Life, of course, goes on, and the world changes, as It always does. There is much that has happened In the last 12 months that John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th president of the United States, with all his dreams and aspirations, would have been happy to see. He fought so hard that final year for the tax cut and the civil rights bill. On that muted November day when his successor s'ood before a stricken Congress and said, "let us continue,” he called for passage of both bills as the most fitting memorial that could be provided for John Kennedy. In February, the tax cut, designed to stimulate the national economy, became law. On June 10, the Senate invoked cloture in a civil rights bill for the first time in its history, and oh July 2 the most far-reaching piece of rights legislation since the days of Civil War reconstruction became the law of the land. It has, for the most part, been obeyed. The fact that Americans, North and South, largely have accepted it would have made John Kennedy more happy than its mere passage. There are many other things that this cultivated and witty man would have enjoyed. He would have liked the accomplishment of the Washington Senators, whom he kept seeing lose on opening day of the baseball season, who finally climbed out of the American League cellar. True, they only went up one notch, but progress in all things is noteworthy. Many Events Since He would have been proud of the American Olympic team that won more gold medals than anyone else at the Tokyo Olympics.

part in & Civil Defense exercise near the scene of the crash aided in rescue operations. They forced their way into the crumpled wreck through emergency doors to find the dead and living alike hanging upside down in their seat belts. “We managed to break into the airplane, and the sight inside was even more terrible than I had expected,” one rescuer said. “All of the passengers hung in their seatbelts. You couldn’t tell whether they were dead or alive. “Somebody cried, ‘l’m dying, take me first, I’m dying,’ but I couldn’t see who cried. I worked like a madman, cutting people down. Some of them were so maimed that you Wouldn’t believe they had been human beings.” A survivor, Dr. Ulf Nicojausson, described the crash as the “most frightful minutes of my

SEVEN CENTS

This man who pushed so eloquently for Negro equality would have welcomed the decision of the Nobel Peace Committee to award its 1964 prize to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. These are’ all rather small things in the scheme of the awesome power that radiates from the President’s office In the White House. In the -world of big matters that count, there has beeit much that has been good, and much that has been bad that Kennedy was spared. -He would have reacted with dismay to the racial violence that erupted this summer from Harlem, Rochester and Jersey City in the north to Philadelphia, Miss., in the South. A president who fought with such deep conviction for the nuclear test ban treaty, he would have been disturbed by Red China’s nuclear explosion, heralding the spread of atomic weapons which Kennedy viewed as a setback to mankind. The Torch Borns He would have understood the internal forces that brought about the change in leadership in Britain and Russia, but he probably would have regretted the disappearance of his old foe Nikita S. Khrushchev from the scene. Khrushchev was the man who brought the world to the brink of war in the Cuban crisis that Kennedy handled so brilliantly two years ago, but he was, as Kennedy knew, a tough peasant who understood reality. All of these changes have made for an eventful year, climaxed by last Nov. 3 when Kennedy’s chosen vice president. Lyndon Johnson, swept to the greatest electoral victory of all time. Johnson campaigned on a pledge to keep burning the “golden torch of promise that John Kennedy set aflame.” And throughout the whole year, the nagging undertone of frustration and sadness, the words of the poet John Donne: “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankinde; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.”

life ... it was like a nightmare." Blast Then Silence “I thought we reached the runway .. then there was a blast, a stronfe light and a few seconds of Complete silence ... ” he said. “I found myself hanging with my head down in my seatbelt when I recovered from the shock. “People cried and I saw several lifeless and maimed bodies around me.” A police spokesman said “many of the 31 bodies were mutilated beyond recognition.” Two of the plane’s crewmembers survived — hostesses Louise Hoffsten, 20, and Karin Hallgren, 24, both of Stockholm. The pilot and co-pilot were killed when the impact of the crash smashed their cockpit and ripped off the plane’s wings. •