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About La Grande observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1959-1968 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 10, 1959)
Roseburg Disaster Toll Climbs To 12 As City Cleans Up BLAST SECTION BLOCKED DUE TO FALLING DEBRIS . ROSEBURG, Ore. (L'PI) A large part of the downtown area of this lumber center of 13.000 remained blocked off today because of falling debris from buildings hit by last Friday's disastrous explosion and fire. Authorities said many of the ruins were still too hot to be searched. Building inspectors planned to make a building-to-building safety inspection into the area. Police Chief Vernon Murdock said the city would be re ' istricted ior an indefinite period of a f Keruses To Boost Gas Tax WASHINGTON (UPIi The House Ways and Means Commit tee adamantly refused today, for tbe fourth time this year, to vote an increase in the federal gaso line tax as a way to solve the financial crisis besetting the high way construction program. The committee, by a reported vote of 15-8, rejected a proposal to boost the tax by one cent a gallon. Earlier this year the House group had turned down three oth er moves to hike gasoline tax by either a half-cent or one cent. "We're back where we started nothing," Rep. Thomas B. Cur tis (R-.Mo.) said after today's ac tion. President Eisenhower has asked for a 1'4-cent increase in the gas tax to continue the interstate high way construction program on a "pay as you go" basis. However, the committee has ten tatively voted for a plan to float one billion dollars worth of bonds. This would mean a sharp cut back in future apportionments to the states Tor construction of the 41,000-mile super-highway system Under this plan, federal funds for the states would be cut to 600 million dollars for the 12 months beginning next July 1. At present, the allocations amount to $2,200, 000.000 a year. However, the House Public Works Committee recommended last week a much milder "stretch out" schedule, forcing ,the Ways and 'Means 'Committee to recon sider its financing proposals. The proposed gas tax increase rejected today was proposed by Ilep. John W. Byrnes R-Wis.) He urged the one-cent increase for 21 months beginning Sept. 1. This would have provided the states with $1,100,000,000 for the year starting next July 1 and $1, 300.000,000 for the following 12 months. Sources said 12 Democrats and 3 Republicans voted against the move; 6 Republicans and 2 Dem ocrats favored it. Other congressional news: Goldfine: Tbe House influence investigating subcommittee decid ed to recall Boston industrialist Bernard Goldfinc to answer 18 questions he refused to answer in last Year's hearings. Goldfine pleaded no contest to cont?mpt of Congress charges for balking at the questions during the investiga tion which led to the resignation of Presidential Assistant Sherman Adams. In imposing a suspended sentence of 12 months in prison and a $1,000 fine, Federal Judge James W. Morris directed the Boston millionaire to answer the questions if given opportunity Construction: The House was set to approve and send to the Senate a $1,285,002,700 military construction bill. WEATHER Mostly fair Tuesday with Increasing clouds; high lues day 85-90; low tonight 40-46 A GOOD WAY TO Dale Cole rests momentarily before skiing again time. He said the National Guard and state police, called in when a slate of emergency was declared, would probably remain here a week or more. The county coroner's office placed tbe death toll at 12. A woman, earlier believed to have been killed in the blast, was lo cated alive Sunday. Coroner C.H Babbitt said the victims included eight bodies which had been iden tified, three persons missing and presumed dead and an unidenti fied body .which could not be any of the presumed dead. May Find More Dead Authorities at first feared the death toll would go as high as 30. However, Babbitt said there was a chance of finding remains oi additional victims in the rubble. The town was calm Sunday. Residents attended religious ser vices in damaged churches, while workmen set about cleaning up the debris. Some business estab lishments on the fringe area of the blast planned to reopen today. The explosion occurred when a truck containing four tons of am monium nitrate mixed with diesel oil and two tons of dynamite was set off by a fire at a nearby sup ply company. The cause of the fire is still not known. Authorities have estimated the loss at 10-million dollars. The Red Cross said some 650 buildings were destroyed or damaged. The Small Business Administra tion has declared Roseburg a dis aster area. A three-man board of inquiry, representing the Na tional Manufacturing Chemists As sociation, arrived here Sunday to investigate the explosion. "Nitro-Cargo-Nitrate" The mixture which set off Fri day's explosion was identified as nitro-capgo-nitratc,. a mixture of ammonium nitrate and diesel oil. The Interstate Commerce Com mission is also looking into the blast., Avery Thompson, Douglas County District Attorney, has in dicated he may ask the Grand Ju ry to investigate. The truck driver, George Ruth erford, 46, of Chehalis, Wash., was released from the hospital Satur day. He said he was 75 feet from the truck when it blew up. The blast knocked him unconscious. Rutherford said he had received permission from an employe at the Garretsen Supply Company warehouse to park the truck. He said he understood that Roseburg bad no law against parking trucks carrying explosives in the city. Roseburg Blast Dead Identfied ROSEBURG UPI Identified dead in the Roseburg blast disas ter, with the victims all local residents, included: 1. Roy McFarland, assistant fire chief. 2. Don DeSues, 32, policeman. 3. Richard Knight. 20. 4. Dennis Tandy, about 18. 5. Bonnie Jean Berg, 19. 6. Harry Carmichael, about 50. 7. Virginia Lee Kuykendall, 4. 8. Eva McDonald. Missing and presumed dead: 1. Martin Lust. " ' 2. ' Wayne Townsend. 3. William Unrath. about 45. LA GRANDE 297th Issue - SHE RECEIVED RED CROSS BLOOD Mrs- Loretta McDaniel looks over the paper showing that she used 27 pints of blood after her nose began hemorraging following a car wreck in which she and her two youngsters were involved. Loretta is expecting a baby in September and she feels the blood saved both of their lives. The Bloodmobile will be in La Grande be tween 1:30 and 6:30 p.m. tomorrow. (Observer Photo) BLOOD SAVED HER LIFE Young Of Red BY VIRGINIA ANDERSON ' Observer Staff Writer Blood saved her life! Mrs. Loretta McDaniel is ex pecting her third child in Sep- lemner. ne na 'nor two anningiu ana ine pany sne was jar-nrie-liart icaf" old '""son and lTmlng was klll'alive ind ht-aTRVy. month old daughter- were riding along the highway June J6 when her eyes were momentarily dis tracted from the road. Before she knew it her car ran head on into the ditch and hit a fence. She was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance with a broken nose and a sprained ankle. The two children weren't seriously hurt Loretta had always been sus ceptible to nose bleeds but after Hoover Doubts Will Bring Gift NEW YORK 'UI'li Former President Herbert Hoover said Sunday night that Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev could bring world peace as. a gift when he comes to the United States, "but this is unlikely to be the result of this visit." Hoover, born 85 years ago to day, had told newsmen last week he felt more like 72. Asked how he felt Sunday, he said, "physi cally perfect about 68, I should think." Appearing on the NBC televi sion program "Meet the Press," he answered questions ranging through his relief work in two world wars, the strength of Amer ican democracy, farm problems, crime, education, inflation and 1960 politics "I'm not a can didate. You can take that as posi RELAX around Wallowa Lake. (Observer Photos) Mother Cross she had .X-rays and a routine check her nose stopped bleeding and she was released from the hospital. Everything seemed to bo all right and the baby she was car- Then around 4:30 in the aft crnoon hr-r no.se began bleeding again. Mrs. McDaniel made an other trip to the hospital where her doctor packed her nose. She stayed there overnight and in the morning when her nose had stop ped bleeding she was released to go home. Her nose bled at intervals dur ing the day but she expected that. About 3 a.m. Loretta woke feeling that she was choking. Her nose had begun to hem Khrushchev Of Peace tive Hoover said that Khrushchev could bring "the greatest, most generous gift which mankind has received in a thousand years," if he would eliminate "all interna tional demands all warnings, all threats, and all conspiracies against free people" and agree to peaceful co-existence, and in spected disarmament. He said there was some hope the visit would lessen some world tensions, but little hope Khrush chev would choose the means he outlined "to win immortality among the leaders of all men." "We must be alert and armed to the teeth," Hoover said. But Hoover expressed confi dence in the nation's ability to face both the external and inter nal problems which beset it. JUST ONE HAND, TOO This is a sure way to keep cool on a warm Sunday afternoon. LA GRANDE, OREGON, MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 1959 M'iM : -. - -,-!-.-' - Knows Value i. Bloodmobile onhagc and it wasn't to stop for almost a week. During a week of fighting for both her life and that of her child, Loretta had 27 transfu sions. .The young- mother was lucky for she has type O positive which a majority of people arc and there should be enough blood. - There wasn't enough of the blood on hand in the hospital and they had to call for local doners until blood could be ob tained from the Red Cross. Close To Death Her condition was bad Thurs day, Friday and Saturday. "I guess I was pretty close to death at one time," Mrs. McDaniel said. Ixintta and Gaylc McDaniel had never given blood themselv es when the Bloodmobile was in I.a Grande because of the stories they had heard about the high priors patients were forced to pay for blood. "Our feelings have changed," Mrs. McDaniel said since they found out that the blood is free and patients are only charged for laboratory costs, if they are necessary, and the administra tion costs. There are private concerns called "blood banks" which charge for blood. These organi zations are usually in operation where the Red Cross does not op erate a Bloodmobile service. Loretta said that it should also be emphasized that the cost of administration of Red Cross blood is also cheaper than hav ing to call local doners. If lo cal doners are called, the pati ent is required to pay for with drawing the blood from the don er along with the regular cost of a transfusion. -H"' b OBSERVER Integration Problems Flare In Little Rock Labor Bill Fight Due For House WASHINGTON VPl Both sides in the fierce House battle over labor reform legislation fought today to sway uncommitted colleagues whose votes were ex pected to determine the outcome. The House begins the labor re form debate Tuesday. It promises to be the most spirited fight of the session and the biggest has sle over the issue of labor unions since the Taft-Hartley law was passed 12 years ago. House Democratic Leader John W. McCormack (Mass.) and GOP leader Charles A. Halleck (Ind.) vowed on the eve of the show down to push vigorously for rival bills. Neither would venture a prediction of the outcome. It appeared that the votes of 216 of the 435 House members would clinch victory, if no more than the normal number of law makers are absent for such a crucial test. The most optimistic of several conflicting Democratic head- counts showed fewer than 200 Democrats committed or . semi- committed to vote for the bill ap proved by the House Labor Com mittee. This left about 80 Demo crats uncommitted. Some Republican strategists calculated they needed all 80 of these Democratic votes to go with the 135 to 140 GOP ballots they counted on for the stronger meas ure of Reps. Phil M. Land rum iD-Ga.) and Robert P. Griffin (R Mich. I, which is supported by President Eisenhower. The other 13 to 18 Republicans were un pledged. The 100 or so undecided con gressmen generally fell into three categories: Republicans from industrial areas where Ha bor is-strong politically; South ern Democrats, and northern Democrats from farm areas. The lawmakers who have not made up their minds were under intense pressure from labor lob byists to vote against the Lan drum-Griffin bill and from bust ncss groups to vote for it. Driverless Boat Out Of Control For Two Hours A rented boat from the Wal lowa Lake boat docks went out of control yesterday after the driv er of the boat looked back to see how the skier he was pulling was doing. He fell out of the boat and away it went. No one was hurt. The boat spun in a circle for two and one-half hours until it ran out of gas. It could have been retrieved but since it wasn't endangering anyone they didn't want to take the chance of battering a boat in an attempt to get. to the driver- less one. LITTLE LEAGUE DINNER The annual dinner for the Lit tle League ball players will be tonight at the Elks club at 6:30 p.m. The Elks lodge 433 is sponsor ing the dinner and all players, managers and umpires arc invit ed. LOOK AAA, NO DRIVER! Two and one-half hours on the Lake and this boat didn't find one either. PROMOTION COSTS RISE LAFAYETTE, Ind. (UPI) Official of tht Lafayette Na tional Bank who budgeted $8 for promotion stunt add ed up the bill today and found they'd actually thrown way $2,808. The bank told 800 silvtr dollars for 99 cants each. Thursday, they said, they war advised that tha mint-condition 1896 coins have a collectors value of $4.50 each. Firefighters Die Battling Brush Blaze ELSINORE. Calif. (UPI Two firefighters were dead and a half dozen others were in critical con dition today in the wake of a huge weekend brush fire near Lake El- sinore. Ben Slater, 31, and Andy Brooks 24, both of Santa Ana, Calif., died Sunday night at Corona Hospital where they were being treated for serious burns. In critical condition at the same hospital were Kenny Van, 23, San Juan Capistrano, Calif., and Nel son Harlin, 23, Riverside, Calif. Mike Edwards, 18, Anaheim, Calif., and Steve Johnson. 18, Hun tington Park, Calif., were on the critical list at Riverside Commu nity Hospital, and John Guthrie, 23, Perris, Calif., was treated for critical injuries at llemet Hospi tal. In serious condition at that hospital were Raymond Shannon, 28, Carlsbad, Calif., and Larry M oilers. 19, Arlington, Calif. In all, an estimated SO firemen were injured in the fire which blackened 1.600 acres and de stroyed one home since erupting Saturday when a pickup truck crashed and caught fire. The driv er of the vehicle, Michael Moore, 19. Downey, Calif., was killed and -his passenger injured, - The blaze, called California's "worst in years in terms of in juries," for a time threatened 250 homes on the lake's west shore. Weekend Arrests Noted By Police The La Grande police depart ment made four arrests for traffic violations over the weekend, two of the arrests were the same driver. Bobby Ray Moore, 21, 2402 Spruce St., was arrested by police at 11:59 Saturday night for im proper driving at the intersection of Spruce and Adams Ave., police said. Moore was released on $15 bail. Police arrested Moore Sunday night at 11:09 for reckless driving on X Ave., Police stated. He was released on $50 bail. A hearing for both violations was scheduled Cor today at 3 p.m. Herbert La Vern Lovely, 24, Box 392, Crawfordsvillc, Oregon, was stopped by police at Spruce and Adams after running a red light according to the police. Love ly was released on $10 bail and a hearing scheduled for Municipal court at three this afternoon. A transient Jackson Weston, 18. was picked up by police on a com plaint of trespassing at 1433 Madi son Ave. Weston was arrested by officers in front of 1527 Madison at 9:50 Saturday night. Bail was set at $20 and a hear ing scheduled for 3 p.m. today. Prlc 5 Centt Faubus' Stand Is Awaited LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (UPI) - Segragation leaders called an Im mediate "buyers strike" today to turn Little Rock's business district into a "cemetery," and student demonstrators warned there would be trouble when the high schools open integrated Wednesday. At the same time, the School Board issued a statement saying it is "confident that the people of Little Rock will accept this chal lenge to resume the peaceful op eration of its high schools. . . There is no reason to anticipate anything else." The buyer's strike, a pressure move to try and force Negroes to call off court enforced integration, came as the nation watched to see what Gov. Orval Faubas would do in the next two days to try for the third straight year to prevent desegration of Little pack schools. I Boycott Is Threatened 'Let the Christian people of this state continue this buyer's strike until forced integration is stopped and voluntary segregation re sumed," said Amis Guthridge, le gal counsel for the Capital Citi zens Council. a Guthridge said the council had published a list of more than 100 downtown Little Rock merchants who should be boycotted "for em ploying a Negro." He said the IM, not yet complete, had been spit through the mails and would be supplemented. The plan was to try and force businessmen to fire -Negro em ployes if Negro students try to in tegrate the high schools. Meanwhile, the nation watched to see what Faubus. the South s segregation chief, has up his sleeve this time to try and pre vent integration. He's adopted a "wait and see" attitude. Assassination Attempt Made On Raul Castro HAVANA (UPI)-Sourccs re ported today that 'an attempt was made Sunday night to kill Raul Castro, brother of Premier Fidel Castro and commander in chief of Cuba's armed forces . The sources said the assassina tion attempt was made while the younger Castro was attending the wedding of a revolutionary army friend. The attempt on Castro's life fol lowed a weekend scries of up risings, reported invasions and large - scale preventive arrests throughout the island. The assassination was attempt ed by an unidentified individual who entered the church as the wedding was beginning and took a position in front of Raul. As soon as he reached his po sition, the individual pulled a con cealed pistol from his pants pock et and raised it in Raul's direc tion, t Various members of the revo lutionary army who were attend ing the wedding already were watching the individual because their attention had been attract ed to him by his late entrance and his efforts to obtain a place near Raul, who already was in a crowded spot. U.