Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 1949)
Dregdn Emerald Fiftieth Year of Publication and Service to the University . VOLUME L UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, EUGENE, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1949 NUMBER fi7 Winds Bring Threat of Flood ClayOusts Soviet In U.S.Zone By Richard O’Regan e ” FRANKFURT, Germany,” Feb. 16—(AP)—The U. S. army tonight ordered a Soviet repatriation mis sion to get out of the American zone of Germany by March 1. - Disaccreditation of the mission was announced after the Soviet commander in Germany, Marshal ‘Vassily D. Sokolovsky asserted it was indispensable and that a withdrawal would have to be worked out between Moscow and Washington. Gen. Lucius D. Clay, the U. S. commander, cancelled the accredi tation of the mission members, four officers and four soldiers. The mission ostensibly has been "handling the moving of Russian displaced persons wanting to go _back to Russia. Gen. Clay said: “Because the vol untary repatriation of displaced ' persons who are Soviet citizens has virtually ceased, the Russian re patriation mission in the U. S. zone will not operate after March 1.” U. S.to Take Over The army said it is felt the ac * credited Soviet military mission in the U. S. zone could take over the 3°b. i The repatriation mission’s task . is to contact Soviet citizens who want to go home. The army said the number of volunteer repatri * ates had shrunk to “negligible” proportions. * Gen. Clay wrote Marshal Soko lovsky that enough time has ‘elapsed to complete its job and "I must, therefore, advise you that, .effective March 1, the repatriation mission will no longer be accredit ed, and request that you withdraw * its personnel by that date.” Withdrawal of the Russian mis sion would leave only the Polish re patriation mission in the Ameri -can zone. The Czechoslovak mis sion was recalled in July, 1947; the _ Swedish in September, 1947; Vene zuelan in February, 1948, and Yu goslav last month. - The French also were reported planning to ask a Russian repatria tion mission to leave their zone. Frosh MeetTonight John Chaney, newly elected pres ident of the freshman class, will hold the first meeting of his frosh ‘ council tonight in room 3 Fenton at 7. The council will formulate plans for a dance and other freshman .committees, and various commit tees will be selected. Houses which have not elected or appointed frosh representatives to the council are urged to send a rep resentative. Union Postpones Railroad Walkout * SAX FRANCISCO, Feb. 16— (AP) — A Southern Pacific spokesman announced today the brotherhood of locomotive engi neers and firemen has agreed to postpone its threatened strike set for Friday. The compnay source brought that Word out of a mediation meeting at Southern Pacific headquarters. He said the union did not give any new strike date. Brotherhood officials were not available for comment. The dispute is over grievance cases. The union has complained more than 300 such cases were pending. In addition, Southern Pacific is among 60 railroads which have declined to grant the demand for an extra engineer on diesel locomotives. Job Interviews WUhStateStart “State civil service officials who will be here for the conference this afternoon are looking not only for graduates, but for sophomores and juniors for summer positions lead ing to fulltime employment after graduation,” Karl W. Onthank, di rector of the graduate placement service, revealed yesterday. “Fed people are aware that prob ably 20 per cent of Oregon’s cur rent graduates go to work for the public in some branch of sei'vice,” Onthank continued. This afternoon's conference of students with officials of state ag encies will begin with the 2 p. m. general meeting in 3 Fenton. Rob ert R. Johnson, director of the Oregon state civil service commis sion, will address the meeting, open to all students. Sectional meetings to begin at 3 p. m. include: “Accounting, Auditing and Re lated Occupations” — 206 Com merce. General business and executive work”—8 Commerce. “Social work”—206 Oregon. (Please turn to page seven) Clay Orders SecretSpy Trial Probe MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 16— (AP)—Secrecy imposed for rea sons unknown even to Gen. Lucius D. Clay masked the opening of a spy trial before a U. S. military commission here today. Gen. Clay, U. S. military gover nor in Germany, ordered an inves tigation from his headquarters in Frankfurt. He said he would order an open trial unless the court con vinces him the secrecy is neces sary. He will have to be shown, he said, that an open trial would involve ‘‘real and actual” danger to the United States, or imperil the lives of innocent persons. (In Washington Secretary of the Army Royall said he had called for a report on the trial. ‘‘Only the most important security considera tion could justify such secrecy,” he said. ‘‘I would not approve such a course without the strongest show ing.”) A handcuffed man, dark-haired, pale and slender and about 30 years old, is believed to be the sole de fendant in this first of a series of five related spy trials. Identity Kept Secret His identity was kept a secret, and the commission has announced it never will disclose its verdict, which may be the death penalty. The man is believed to be a Czech, one of about 20 persons charged with spying for the Communist Czechoslovak government. Five trials, in all, are scheduled. A second man, also handcuffed and clad in rough prison garb, was seen in an adjoining room. He was presumed to be a witness, possibly awaiting trial himself. Clay, learning of the unusual se crecy, said he feared forces un friendly to the United States would (Please turn to page seven) SlidesForceTrains T o Re-route T raf f ic SPOKANE, Wash., l'eb. 16 (AP)—A record-breaking’ wind blew a new Hood threat into the Pacific northwest today. Except in Southern Idaho, no major rivers were likely to flood. But the warm blast of air blowing down from Canada was threatening to clog creeks in three states with runoff water from the region's vast snow pack. In Oregon, Umpqua basin streams were rising and local floods Russ Withdraw From World Health Group GENEVA, Feb. 16—(AP)—A surprise decision of the Russians to cut one of their ties to the Unit ed Nations was disclosed today. The Soviet Union, White Russia, and the Ukraine have walked out of the world health organization (WHO), a specialized UN agency. The WHO director-general re fused to accept their withdrawal. He proposed instead that he visit Moscow to answer Russian argu ments that the WHO is ineffective and too expensive. The withdrawal would remove the Russians from the only special ized agency they have joined since the UN was formed. They have bitterly attacked most of the dozen such agencies sponsored by the UN. Resignation of the Soviet Union, White Russia, and the Ukraine would reduce the membership to 55. The Russians in resigning said "tasks connected with internation al measures for prevention and control of diseases and with the spread of medical science achieve ments are not being accomplished by the organization satisfactorily. At the same time, maintenance of the organization’s swollen admin istrative machinery involves ex penses which are too heavy for member states to bear. 'Vodvil' Comes Back --to Oregon Preparations for Oregon’s all campus vaudeville show April 15 are gathering momentum under the leadership of general chairman Art Johnson. Special committee chair mon and criteria for judging acts were announced yesterday. The show will replace the Frosh Glee, which was cancelled. “Each campus living organiza tion and church group will be eligi ble to enter an act in the big show,” Johnson stated. “If it is a success we hope to make it an annual af fair.” Proceeds will be donated to the World Student Service fund drive. A permanent trophy will be pre sented to the organization putting on the best six-minute program, for which judges will be named lat er. This ti-ophy will be on display at the Co-op before the contest; a sec ond and third prize will be award Semi-final competition will elim inate all but the most professional acts, which will be presented in the actual show. Committee heads named yester day were Helen Caldwell, tickets; Ed Peterson, campus sales; Willy Dodds, downtown sales; Barbara Ness canvassing; Marguerite Johns downtown publicity; Gr e t c h e n Grondahl, campus publicity; Suzie Michel and Ward Sybouts, promo tion; Jeannine Macaulay, stage; Velma Snellstrom. program; and Billijean Reithmiller, judging and awards. “The acts will be judged on five criteria,” Miss Riethmiller announ ced yesterday. The judges will be selected from students, faculty members, and townspeople, and will base their decision on originality, audience response, appearance, per fection, and wholesomeness. “Programs may consist of skits, magic acts, tricks, songs, slapstick routines, dances, etc.,” Miss Snell strom stated. “We do want to emphasize keep ing the acts clean,” she continued. “The vaudeville is being presented with the sanction of the executive council and, in formally, of the uni versiy religious council. It’s going to take place on Good Friday; so acts will verge too much on the study side will have to be disquali fied by the judges.” "The show will be heavily adver tised and solicited downtown,” Johnson says. Tickets will be sold at fifty cents each through house-to - house canvassing. "Since the program will serve the dual purpose of a service to the campus in presenting a bang-up talent show and a definite contribu tion to a worthy cause, we are hop ing for a good response.” were expected m J4 to 4<S hours near Roseburg. The Santiam river was at Hood stage at Jef ferson, but no major damage was anticipated. While tribu taries of the Willamette river were rising the main stream was not likely to reach flood stage unless heavy rains upset river fore casts. The town of Granite, west of Baker, was snowbound for the thir teenth day. Astoria, Ore., feared slides might move houses off their foundations as happened last week. In mountain passes, the danger of big slides was as great as the threat of local floods in the lowlands. The Cascade passes of Washington were shut off by the worst slides of the winter. Residents of the Coeur D’ Alene mining district in north Ida ho anxiously watched the steep snow-covered hills towering over their homes. Direct damage by the wind was especially severe around Spokane where wind velocity of 45 miles an hour broke all weather records for February and some of the bureau’s equipment. A big radio antenna blew down and smashed and weather workers' struggled in the gale some time be fore they could get a weather bal loon into the air to record how fast the wind was blowing. Windows Break In Wind Gusts up to 71 miles an hour cav ed in two plate glass windows in downtown Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, knocked over many trees, and blew the roofs off several small build ings. Power and telephone lines went down. In western Washington and Ore gon the winds were less severe but rain brought slides and minor floods as damaging as those creat ed by the inland Chinook. At Port Angeles on Washington’s northern coast, floods and slides blocked every highway west of the. city. Water was running two feet deep over one secondary highway. Steady rains sloshed into snow banks and streams kept rising. A. slide isolated the northwest tip o? the Olympic peninsula. Runoff water flooded basements at Lewiston, Idaho, but it came from minor creeks. The Palouse country of eastern Washington and north central Ida ho still was more concerned with snow clogged roads and a coal shor tage than with floods. However, continued warm winds could clog' the Palouse river quickly. Colfax and Pullman, Wash., suffered seri ous floods last February and tho snow is deeper this year. All schools in Moscow, Idaho, ami Latah county remained closed, and (Please turn to page 2)