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About La Grande observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1959-1968 | View Entire Issue (July 15, 1959)
LA GRAND E OBSERVER WEATHER " Sunny and warm Thursday; ?oine afternoon clouds; high Ua-95; low tonight 50-5S. 277tn Issue 63rd Year Gromyko Says His Proposal Is Price For Berlin Truce GENEVA il'PP Russia sisting in such a "package." Ihc warned the West today that her East-West talks may founder, loaded All-German Committee pro- Gromyko ignored the warniiv; posal is the Drice for a Berlin mut n narallcl anneal by Secretary truce. The western powers ac- powers eused Russia of threatening to torpedo the Big Four talks. Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko told the western foreign ministers that the All German Commiti'ee. on which East Ger man Communists should have eipial representation with the West Germans, is tied lightly with his lierlin truce proposal, lor the western Big Th-ee, warned tlat if Gromyko persisted in in- Sec. Herter Given Full Authority WASHINGTON UPI) Presi dent Eisenhower said today that Secretary of State Christian A. Ilerter has full authority to agree to a Big Four Summit Conference if Russia makes it clear it will respect western rights and obli gations in Berlin. ' The President told his news conference, however, that for the moment there doesn't appear to be any break in the deadlock at just-resumed Geneva Big Four Foreign Ministers conference. He said he was sure the Rus sians would like to reach an agreement at Geneva if it was all in their favor. However, he added, the real question was whether the Russians were ready to make concessions, in exchange for western concessions, that would give everybody confidence that there was some progress being made toward peace. Eisenhower said he was not 'adverse to going along with the other allies in negotiating the ul timate fate of Germany and Ber lin and all other subjects at any level. But in the meantime, he said there must be a clear un derstanding of western rights. He said he and Herter are in full agreement that they are not going to surrender any rights or make any retreat that would be clear evidence of western weak ness. Eisenhower made it clear that he does not favor suggestions, re portedly advanced by the West Germans, that the Berlin issue be shelved without any agree ment and a summit conference held on other issues. Drive Goal Set For United Fund A goal of $31,484.54 has been accepted by the United Fund board of directors for the 1959-60 drive. The recommendation was made by Dr. Gordon W. Clarke. Clarke reported that the, budget committee, which he heads, be lieved the community should be confronted with the agency's real needs which this amount repre sents. June McManus president of the group reported that the area clinic held recently in Pendleton found i-Jhat most agencies had increased their needs and that the public must either provide these needs or face curtailment of services. David C. Baum was appointed to head the committee which will select candidates to return the board to full strength. REJECT RED PROPOSAL ANKARA. Turkey UPI '-The Foreign Ministry disclosed today that Turkey has joined the United States and Britain in rejecting the Soviet proposal for a nuclear-free zone in the Balkan and Adriatic Sea areas. Haggard Convicts Give Up Mine; Officials Hunt For Booby Traps PETROS. Tenn. (UPP Prison officials searched today for dyna mite booby traps believed planted by 95 convicts who surrendered after holing up for two days in a mine at Brushy Mountain State Prison. ' Earl Hensley. about 50, one of four -hostages held, said four of the convicts told him the prison ers had set booby traps in the mine. The prisoners, haggard and worn, filed out of the shaft Tues day. Two hostages, Ben Davis, about 36. and Hensley. the last of four mine foremen held by the of State Christian A. Ilerter tot drop the demand for participation of the Communist Fast Germans as equals at reunification talks during any interim Berlin truce. Another two hours of talks left the conference as deep as vver in deadlock and no move was made in the conference room to get secret negotiations started. Before the ministers met or the second plenary session since the talks resumed Monday, a siu-p-ise behind the scenes move by Gro myko touched olf hopeful specu lation that the Communists might come up with a proposal that could get the stalled conference going again. Gromyko invited British Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd to lunch Thursday and Lloyd accepted. Sources interpreted the invitation as a move by Gromyko to get the secret talk started after he himself had blocked it Monday by insisting on having theF.ast Ger man Communists participate. The news of Gromyko's invita tion leaked out as the Big Three foreign ministers again bombard ed the Soviets in the conference room with renewed demands for a tamper-proof Berlin truce agree ment. Walla Walla Boys Develop 7-Foot Rocket WALLA WALLA UPI Two Army demolition experts were scheduled to arrive here today to destroy some home made solid fuel rocket propellant developed by two teen-agers for their seven foot long rocket. Army officials at Fort Lewis said Chris Warner, 16. and Philip Ekstom, 18. developed the fuel and the rocket and had been vited to go to Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Ala., for its firing Redstone scientists requested a copy of the basic formula for the' fuel and then wrote Warner's mother that it was highly un stable and should be destroyed immediately. The. fuel was being kept in the family refrigerator while young Chris was working on a wheat ranch in eastern Oregon. The rocket is eight inches in diameter. It is believed by Army officials at Fort Lewis to be the largest ever built by amateur rocket enthusiasts and is said to be capable of reaching a speed up to Mach 3.5 (about 2500 mphi. The missile can travel a distance of 90 miles at an altitude of 4." miles, according to the boys' cal culations, Army officials said. Redstone Arsenal invited the boys to bring their rocket to Ala bama after Fort. Lewis queried the Department of the Army about the possibility of using one of the three major rocketry ranges in this country. Scientists at the Alabama range said Warner and Ekstom can take their rocket to Redstone as soon as a new, safer fuel is developed. Fort Lewis officers said. Warrant Issued For Durel Shrum A warrant for the arrest of Durel Wayne Shrum on a charge of assault and battery was issu ed yesterday by Municipal Judge Ross E. Hearing. Shrum who lives at 1704'. Fourth street, was picked up by police at 11:58 yesterday evening. Bail was set at $100. The complaint -on which the warrant was issued was signed by his wife Margaret Mae Shrum of the same address according to police. prisoners, walked out of the shaft ahead of the prisoners. Neither they nor Tom Jones and Sherdy Bunch, released ear lier, were harmed. A few hours after the rebellion ended eight ringleaders were tak en to the state penitentiary at Nashville. The end of the rebellion came shortly after the convicts vowed to "tear out of or tear down" the mine shaft Which had been their fortress since Monday morn ing. Acting Commissioner of Correc tions W. A. i Pat I Patterson, w ho HARVEST TIME IS HERE Crass harvesters are hard at work. Most of the valley's blue grass is tut and bun dled. Sixty per tent of the fescues are also bundled. (Observer Photo) Clmnrio RnnHp Vn m . . . Oram Harvest begins The first load of barley came into' the Pione?r Flour mill in Is'and City. Monday. The initial harvest load came from Mrs. Harlan Long and Son's ranch near Mt. Glenn. A lot of the winter barley is ripening and ready to cut now or within a short tim?. Valley blue grass is mostly cut and in the bundle and about 60 per cent of the fescue is cut and bundled. Wheat in most areas of the valley is still almost 10 days to two weeks from harvest. In some Cancer Claims in-!r" Dljl- 1 CmCST DIOCM PORTLAND iUPP World fa mous composer and conductor Ernest Bloch, 79, died in a hos pital here today where he had been under treatment for cancer. Bloch. whose works ranged from the tone poem "America" to sym phonies and the Opera "Mac Beth." had been a resident of Agate Beach on the Oregon coast since !!W0. He entered a hospital here July 7 and died at 7:50 a.m. today. Born in Switzerland in 1880. Bloch came to the United States in 1918. shortly after starting work on "America" for which he was awarded a prize by Musical America in 1919. Officer Added To Guard Staff Lt. Col. George V. Boyd, staff assistant fur the old 18Klh In fantry Regiment for 8 years, has arrived in La Grande to assume similar duties with the 1st Battle Group, IHtith Infantry which has headquarters in La Grande. Col. Boyd, who is also executive officer of the Battle Group, will he in charge of all full time em ploy 's and is direct assistant to Col. David C. Baum. Battle Group Commander, in matters of ad ministration, training and supply. Col. Boyd has 24 years military duty and served with die 41st Division during WW II. He was awardtd th? Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple II art and Combat Infantryman's Badsje during the Papua. N"w Guinea and Philippine Island Campaigns. Mrs1. Boyd and their two daugh ters will move to La Grande as soon as arrangements can be made for adequate housing. said no concessions were made to the convicts, said the prisoners called from a telephone in the mine and said thy were coming out. They gave no reason for sur rendering but Patterson said "they knew the jig was up." The prisoners walked from the shaft, covered by the guns of 25 guards and highway patrolmen, The convicts had listed nine complaints, ranging from the quality of their food to unsafe conditions in the mines, as the reason for their rebellion LA GRANDE, OREGON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 1959 d - . areas root diseases have damaged the wheat. Farmers have begun harvesting the green peas in the Elgin area. The cherry harvest should start either the latter part of this week or the first of next week according to Ted Sidor, Union county exten sion agent. The crop appears o be only 40 per cent of last year's yield due to early spring freezes which cut the crop. Sidor reported that so far this year the water situation has been adequate. Late spring rains have kept water in most storage ponds and furnished moisture for crop production. Union county has been one of the favored counties in the state as far as moisture is con cerned according to Sidor. "Most crops in Union county look very good and it appears to be a bumper crop this year," Sidor said. Forest Fire Danger Is At Critical Mark Forest fires in eastern and southern Oregon yesterday point ed to the increasing fire danger throughout the state. A fire that covered about 40 acres in the Wallowa w nitman National forest near Sumpter was still out of control late Tues day but U. S Forest Service of f i cials expressed hope of contain ing the blaze today. The fire, apparently man caused, broke out Tuesday after noon. Five thousand gallons of borate slurry was dropped on the blaze during the afternoon by a fire fighting plane. A dozen forest fires broke out in the Klamath Falls area and have burned over 1,400 acres of brush and timber according to George Wardell, head of the Klamath Forest Protective Asso ciation. The largest fire, north of llilde- brand, was brought under control after burning over 1,000 acres. A lightning storm centered in the Bly mountain area, 50 miles east of Klamath Falls, touched off eight separate fires. All were reported under control. Three lightning-kindled fires on the Klamath Indian reserva tion were reported under control today according to Billy Crawford of the bureau of Indian Service. Clarence Edgington, regional fire dispatcher in Portland, said j the fire hazard was getting worse each day as high temperatures continue and the forest becomes drier. The weather bureau reported that no rain is in sight through next Monday. The forecast for eastern Oregon through Thurs day is fair with a high of 85 95 and a low tonight of 48-60. Man Arrested On Basic Rule Violation Here A La Grande man was arrested for violation of the basic rule yesterday afternoon. Wendell Larry See was picked up by police at his residence,1 2704 Fir street at 4 o. The charge was failure to drive on the right side of the road and did not involve speeding. Bail was set at $25 and a hear ing scheduled for 3 this after ROLLS NO GOOD FOR SHEEP MEN DERBY, England (UPI) The Rolls Royce Co. an nounced it had received a com plaint from an Australian sheep farmer who recently traded in his 30-year-old Rolls. "It's useless," he wrote of the new car. "There is no outside run ning board. Where on earth do they expect me to put the dead sheep?" Music Program Is Set Tonight At High School The La Grande Summer Music Classes will give their annual con cert tonight in the La Grande High School Auditorium. This year 240 students have taken part during the six weeks that these classes are held. More than one hundred have started on a band or orchestra in strument, and the rest have been divided into three more advanced band classes. Don Scott directs these classes. The program tonight will start with demonstrations by the be ginning classes, and then each of the other bands will present three or four of the selections they have learned during the summer. The Junior High Woodwind Quar tet, whose membership includes Beverly Schaad. Janice Pipes, Bonnie Scott, and Phyllis Lyman, will also perform. The concert starts at 8 and there will be no admission charge. AIRLINES BAN PORTABLES WASHINGTON IUPII The Civil Aeronautics Board has ap proved an agreement among in ternational air carriers to prohib it passengers from playing porta ble radios in flight. The agree ment by members of the Inter national Air Transport Assn. said the radios might interfere with radar and navigation equipment, NEW EQUIPMENT Tom Ruck man, Imbler, holds the new emergency kit belong ing to the Imbler Fire District. The kit includes a resuscitator to be used for drown ing and electric shock, an aspirator to be med to relieve obstructions in the throat, and an inhalator which will be used in heart attack, smoke, shock, and suffocation cases. The equipment will be on the truck at all times. Nation s Silenced Ike Urges Continued Discussion WASHINGTON UPI Presi dent Eisenhower said today that the steel strike for the moment had not created emergency condi tions warranting use of the Taft- Hartley Law, but he urged labor and management to continue ne gotiating. The President told reporters it was obvious that if the strike lasted so long that steel inven tories required by the government were exhausted, the defense pro duction program would face a very serious situation. He said, however, that he was in no position today to estimate accurately how lung the strike would have to run before it interfered with the defense pro gram. He suggested the fullest pos sible use of free bargaining be tween labor and management be fore there is any direct federal intervention. Under the Taft Hartley Law, the President, if he determines that a labor-management dispute has created an emergency threatening the "health or safety" of the nation, can request the Justice Depart ment to seek an injunction stop ping a strike for 80 days. Favors Free Bargaining Eisenhower, responding to a va riety of news conference questions about the steel strike which be gan at midnight when a half mil lion workers walked out, made it clear that he did not believe con ditions now warranted his use of the Taft-Hartley Law. He did not believe he should have done more as chief execu tive in the days before the strike. tie said too much government pressure inevitably changed the nature of free bargaining. The President in the pre-stnke period confined himself to statements urging both sides to keep on ne gotiating. Court Refuses To Drop Union Cleanup Order - WASHINGTON (UPI) The U.S. Court of Appeals refused to day to delay or reconsider Its sweeping cleanup order against President James R. Hoffa of the giant Teamsters Union. The three-judge court denied the teamsters' request for a stay of the order pending an appeal to the Supreme Court. Before the court acted, Chair man John L. CcClcllan (D Ark.) said the Senate Kackets Commit tee's heated session with Hoffa Tuesday proved "there can be no cleanup from within" the union The appellate court has ruled that the U.S. District Court here has the power to enforce recom mendations of a "watchdog" court of monitors named to keep an eye on the way Hoffa runs the union. Steel By Strikers ALL THIS AND NO AGREEMENT GENEVA (UPI) Dele gations to the foreign minis ters conference have various ly labeled conference mem oranda at "working papers" and "talking papers." Tues day the Wet) German delega tion presented a new one e "thinking paper." There has been no explanation as to the difference between the memoranda, but one observ er said they show that diplo mats can: Talk without think ing, work without thinking or talking, and think and talk without working. Hoffa Remarks Dim Hopes For Union Cleanup WASHINGTON (UPI Chair man John L. McClellan (D-Ark.) said today the Senate Kackets Committee's latest temper-tossed hassle with Teamster President James R. Hoffa proved "there can be no cleanup from within" the union. McClellan told newsmen he hoped that testimony in the last few weeks by "Hoffa and his henchmen" would fortify the three-member board of monitors a federal judge set up to super vise Hoffa's control of the 1,500,- 000-member union. The senator, who planned to hand down a fuller verdict today. made the comments in the wake of a non-stop hearing of almost nine hours Tuesday, with Hoffa in the featured role. Chief counsel Robert F. Kenne dy said it was "not necessarily' Hoffa's final appearance nor the end ot me two-and-a-half year Teamster i inquiryr H bdJ -this would depend on further develop ments before the end of the year. The hearing culminated with McClellan's remorse over "con tradictions" in Hoffa's proposal that underlings be called to pro vide answers he said he could not remember. The underlings thereupon Invoked t h e Fifth Amendment's protection against possible self-incrimination. Kennedy called this tactic by liotta completely dishonest." Runway Is Topic For Commission A report on the airport runway situation will be the main item on the city commission's agenda at their regular meeting tonight. City Manager Fred J. Young has also received communications from the Civil Aeronautics Board and the State Sanitation Authority in regard to the construction of the lagoons on city property near the airport. Young has also sent a map of the airport with an overlay of the proposed sites of the ponds to the Federal Aviation Authority for approval. Prlca 5 Cents Mills McDonald Predicts Victory By NORMAN L. BRAUN UPI Staff Writer PITTSBURGH iUPD - A hah million United Steelworkers went on strike today, cutting the na tion's steel production to a com parative trickle. With negotiations for a new union - industry labor contract tightly hung up on the thorny is sues of wages and "management's right to manage," the workers who produce yo per cent of the coun try's steel walked out. I SW President David J. McDon ald called on the heads of the 12 major steel companies, whose de cision set the pattern for the giant industry, to agree to submit the dispute to a three-man fact-finding board. Industry sources here saw little chance of acceptance of the pro posal and the most costly strike in the nation s history appeared in the making. The walkout, the sixth by the big union since World War It, started officially at 12:01 a.ra. e.d.t. when a two-week extension of the previous wage agreement expired. But by the deadline, the mills already were idle and the furnaces banked or emptied. McDonald left New York Cit scene of 10 weeks fruitless nego tiations with the industry, Tues day night to appear before cheer ing workers at a strike rally of employes of U. S. Steel Corpora tion's Fairless workers at Morrts ville. Pa. Raising aloft a picket sign pre claiming him the "No. 1 picket," the union president said: "We're absolutely determined on this strike and by the eternal gods we will win." A crowd estimated by police at 1,200 roared its approval. After the rally, McDonald re turned to New York where later today both industry and union leaders were to meet with federal mediation experts at the urging of President Eisenhower. Pre-strike estimates were that the steel workers would lose CI million dollars in wages and the industry 248 million dollars in pro duction each week the walkout continued. A 34-day strike in basic sted in 1956 cost the industry an esti mated two billion dollars in lost wages and production. It also led to price increases in almost every item made of steel. See STEEL on Page 5 Dixon-Yates Contract OK Court Rules WASHINGTON (UPI) The U. S. Court of Claims ruled today that the controversial Dixon-Yates power contract was valid, and awarded the utility firm $1,847,545 in termination costs. The majority of the court held that there wus no conflict of in terest involving Adolph II. Wen zell, who acted as the govern ment's advisor when the contract was being set up. The government had refused to day any contract termination costs to the Mississippi Valley Generating Co. (the Dixon-Yates firm), contending that Wenzell's dual capacity in the case violated the law and invalidated the con tract. While he was acting for the gov ernment, Wenzell was a vice pres ident of the First Boston Corpora tion, an Investment banking firm that later handled part of the fi nancing on the deal. The court said the evidence in dicated that Wenzell was not working for the government at the time the contract finally was reached, and that therefore was not involved in a conllict ot in terest. : The Dixon Yates combine agreed on Nov. 11, 1954, to build a huge power generating plant at West Memphis, Ark., to provide current needed by the Atomic En ergy Commission. ", in August, 1955, after a site had been acquired and some prelim inary construction work done, the AF.C announced that it would be able to receive power from an other source and cancelled the Dixon-Yates agreement. The case touched off a bitter controversy on the issues of pub lic vs. private power generation, and was one of the insues in the 1954 election campaigns.