Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 17, Number 12, DeMotte, Jasper County, 7 February 1947 — COLD IDLES 50,000, NEW WAVE IS DUE [ARTICLE]

COLD IDLES 50,000, NEW WAVE IS DUE

Frigid Blast Leaves Trail Of Idleness Across Nation; 15,000 Idled In Indiana Crippling cold left 50,(ft)0 workers idle across the country yesterday. more than 15.000 of them in Indiana, and threatened ever more widespread industrial paralysis. With industrial gas users being cut off to conserve supplies, the United States Weather Bureau w’arned of another cold wave due to hit Indiana tonight or tomorrow 4 . Nearly every Indiana industrial city except Indianapolis felt the pinch of low gas supplies as the winter’s severest cold wave kept temperatures near zero. The mercury touched zero at 6:30 o’clock yesterday morning at Weir Cook Municipal Airport and rose in the afternoon to 18 degrees. Today will be warmer, with ldw and high temperatures of 8 and 30 degrees forecast. Tomorrow the mercury is due to plunge once more. Snow flurries are expected. The cold was held responsible for five fires in which three person?' dieii, two in lianimtAiU unu another, a helpless cripple, in Vincennes. . As the gas storage grew- more acute, Indiana Gas & Water Company announced it expected its supplies w r ould reach their lowest point tonight. L. B. Schiesz, president, said he expected the emergency to last until Monday. All 12 Indiana distributors of Texas natural gas, including Indiana Gas & Water, cut off industrial use and appealed to spaceheating users to conserve gas. Northern Indiana Pulifie Service Company, w'hich distributes manufactured gas to large industrial suers, cut industrial gas 50 per cent. At South Bend. 5,000 workers half the payroll of the Studebaker Corporation, were laid off. At Evansville, served by Southern Indiana Gas and Electric Company, 7,000 workers were idle. At more than 50 other large Indiana industrial plants, workers in departments using gas were laid off. Mr. Schiesz explained failing pressure in piplincs of Panhandle and Eastern Pipeline- Corporation was forcing gas curtailment' in these cities served by Indiana Gas & Water Lafayette, Crawfords ville, Lebanon, Frankfort, Noblesvalle, Tipton, New Castle, Anderson. Bloomington. Bedford, Martinsville, Franklin, Columbus and Seymour. . Among other large plants affected in the South Bend area were Bendix Aviation Corporation, Bantam Bearings Division of Torrington Company and Sibley Machine and Foundry Corporation. General Electric Company laid off 5,000, Bowling Green. Ky., and Henderson, Ky. The remainder of the bulk of layoffs was in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Panhandle & Eastern piplines into Indiana have a 100,000,000eubic foot daily capacity. Mr. Schiesz said. Cutting off industrial use will have 35,000,000 cubic feet, he added.