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About La Grande observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1959-1968 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 4, 1959)
WEATHER ; Mostly cloudy with occas ional rain tonight; parti cloudy with some showers Saturday; high Saturday 66 74; low tonight 42-48. LA OBSERVER 5th Issue 64th Ytar LA GRANDE, OREGON, FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER 4, 1959 8 Pages Five Cents GRANDE- -!Jt4J! SCHOLARSHIP WINNER H. E. Waddell, left, of the Union Pacific Railroad presents the Carl Raymond Gray $100 scholarship to David Schaad of La Grande. David is the son of Mr. and Mrs. R, W. Schaad. He will attend Oregon State College where he will study agricultural chemistry. The U.P. annually awards a scholarship to some person in every county that the railroad goes through. (Observer Photo) Oregon State Fair Will Open Tomorrow For Eight-Day Run SALEM IUPH The Oregon State fair starts here Saturday for an eight-day run to cap the climax ot the state's centennial celebration. Fair officials said today they expect about 350,000 people to attend the show which is marked this year by a record number of animals, hundreds of 4-H and Future Farmers of America and a pight show starring Bob Crosby. In addition there will be daily horse racing and a combined horse show and rodeo. Emphasis is on the open class competition and 4-11 and FFA contests where thousands of prizes will be awarded. Big Floral Show Superintendent Hazel Bartlctt of the floral show, a most popular attraction of last year's fair said this year's Offering will be even better. Four separate shows will be held during the eight days, insur ing that fresh flowers will be on hand during the enti.e fair. Lec tures on flower arranging are added features. About 900 head of cattle, a rec ord number, will be judged Mon day, Tuesday and Wednesday, in cluding devons which are making Ike Ends Historic 10-Day 'Mission' CULZEAN CASTLE. Scotland (UPI) President Eisenhower ended an historic 10-day European peace mission today and flew to Scotland for a few days of rest to prepare for his approaching meetings with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. The President was equipped with pledges of support from his European allies and was reported highly gratified at the results of his amazing tour. Johnny Reb's Daughter Defends 'Lasr Old Soldier's' War Claims HOUSTON, Tex. UPH Cen tenarian "Old Rebel" Walter Wil liams lay in a hospital bed dying today unaware of a controversy over whether he is the last sur vivor of the Civil War or the vic tim of a memory-clouded mind. The chances are unlikely that Williams ever will know. For he is gravely ill and his death ap pears imminent. The question now is whether Williams, totally-blind and deaf, will get a military funeral, as has been ordered by Congress and ap proved by President Eisenhower, or if he will go to his grave as a civilian whose claim to being the last survivor of the Civil War was challenged only as he lay on his death bed. The challenge was reported Thursday by reporter Lowell K. Bridwell, of the Scripps-Howard Cincinnati Post and Times Star. He reported that a search of gov ernment records cast doubt on Williams' claim. Bridwell's investigation was launched after an Ohio woman claimed that Williams had never served in the Civil War. The wom their first appearance at the fair. There are 1,500 poultry entries. 537 pigs and 779 sheep and goats entered for cash premiums so far. Much of the 4-H and FFA judg ing will be completed by the time the fair opens Saturday, but other events will keep the youngsters busy during the week. The big land products show will feature awards for the best malt ing barley aid the largest, sun flower and tallest corn stalk. Art exhibits will include daily projections of colored slides at 7 XI 5 Rocket Ship Carried Aloft Again ' EDWARDS AFB, Calif. (UPI' The experimental manned rocket ship X15 was carried aloft today for its first powered flight but re turned to earth still lashed be neath the wing of an eight-jet bomber after trouble developed. Cancellation was blamed on dif ficulties within the X15 in its "lox" liquid oxygen fuel lines. Liquid oxygen is the chemical used in the power system of the needle-nosed space craft. The sleek, stub-winged research plane, designed to probe the secrets of space 100 miles high at speed of 4,000 miles an hour, was car ried into the sky beneath the wing of the B52 bomber at 7:14 a. m. p.d.t. Before. the mother ship reached its "drop" position, test pilot Scott Crossfield communicated his difficulties to the bomber crew waiting to trip him loose. Crossfield and the B52 crew de cided to return to Edwa'ds Air Force Base together and landed at 8:42 a.m., the spokesman said. an, Mrs. Opal Beckett, of Miami town, Ohio, said it was a known fact by many residents of Frank lin. Tex., where she had known the "Old Rebel," that he had not been in the war. "It's the biggest joke on the American people I ever heard," she said. "I didn't mind him get ting the veterans' pension but when I heard he was going to get a military fune'al and was never in the Army it just wasn't jus tice." Last month Congress ap proved and President Eisenhower signed a resolution declaring the day of Williams' death to be a day of national mourning. But Williams' daughter insisted that her father was the last sur viving veteran of the War Be tween the States. "We have 40 or 50 letters here from people who said their fath ers served in the Confederate army with my daddy and they knew him personally," Mrs. Wil lie Mae Bowles said. Bridwell's investigation also cast doubt on Williams' claim to being 117 years old, a sworn statement by Williams listed his age as 86 in 1932 when he applied for a p. m. In the little theater on the second floor of the main exhibit building. ' Gov. Mark Hatfield will partic ipate by awarding 44 century farm certificates to persons liv ing on Oregon farms started at least a century ago. The Bob Crosby show, with Lu cille" Norman, will be presented twice' .jjaily, for the first four days of the fair and' then once nightly for the final four days. Bargain prices will be available at matin nees. The rodeo-horse show goes on nightly at 8 p.m. with matinees the first three afternoons of the fair. Both harness and thoroughbred horses will run every afternoon except Sunday with post time for the first race 1 p.m. Sunshine For Part Of Labor Day Event Throughout State By United Press International The Labor Day weekend in Oregon got off to a damp start but the weather man predicted at least some .sunshine for both eastern and western parts of the state Saturday. Oregonians have several enter tainment possibilities on the last holiday weekend of the summer, in addition to the usual trips to beaches and mountains. The State Fair opens in Salem Saturday and Portland's Centen nial Exposition is in its final two weeks. The Traffic Safety Commission in Salem predicted that there would he two auto deaths, about KM injuries and some 400 acci dents in the state during the three-dfy holiday. Civil War veteran's pension with the Texas state comptroller. Those figircs would make him 113, not 117, at his next birthday, Nov. 14. Mr. Bowles scoffed at Eird- well's -suggestion that her father is "only 104. If so, she said, il would have meant that Williamt fathered his first of 19 children at the age of 13. "OLD REBEL" Doubts Are Cast Break Up Shoplift At Stores Three La Grande area women wore taken into custody and later released following a Shoplifting spree through the stores of La Grande yesterday. A woman, her step-daughter and a young married woman "lifted" four transistor radios and ear plugs, two clocks, a set ol silver war" and several small items be-, fore an alert clerk notified police of the women's activities. Police picked up the three women on a charge of operating a motor vehicle without a driver's lencense. Interrogation by the police uncovered an unusual story. The young woman was "taking" lessons in starting charge ac counts" so that she and her hus band could file bankruptcy pro cedings, it was said. The mother of the girl, who was using the younger woman's name, noticed her daughter shoplifting but made r.o attempt to stop her, police said. The women were apprehended when a local merchant's e'erk noticed a transistor radio missing from the counter after the trio's departure. He immediately called police and officers picked up the three women and brought them to the station for questioning. Chief Oliver Reeve has state ments from the three women and will confer with District Attorney George Anderson before formal charges are filed. The three women were released on their own recog nizance after the investigation. The four radios were valued at $75, $59.50, $39.95 and $29.95. The clocks were priced at $7.65 and $8.75. The stainless steel silver ware was tagged at $10.9a. ' Rush Tanks To Defense Of City! BUENOS AIRES" UPI' - The government ordered tanks into Buenos Aires early today to crush a revolt led by the ousted com mander of the army. A spokesman at Argentina's "white house" said a column of tanks would hit the army en gineering school, headquarters of Gen. Carlos S. Toranzo Montcro's rebel command. The spokesman said Col. Fede rico de Alzaga. commander of the armored column, visited rebel headquarters in advance of the attack to present a formal sur render demand, but Toranzo re jected it. Gen. Emilio Larcher made a hasty visit to the engineering school, apparently in hopes of ar ranging a last-minute surrender. He would say only that he was going "in the name of President (Arturol Frondizi." Gets Support Of Generals Toranzo is supported by the dis sident generals who have chal lenged the government's authority repeatedly in recent months, and it appeared possible that an at tack on his headquarters might plunge the nation into civil war. Soldiers and civilians a-med with tommy guns had fortified the engineering school, throwing up barricades on the approaches in anticipation of the tank attack. The "white house" also was braced for trouble, with macine guns bristling on its balconies and in the halls leading to its main entrances. Troops of the 1st and 2nd infan try regiments, equipped for bat tle, massed at the government building to reinforce its regular guaids. Telegraphs Warning Maj. Carlos Zapana, informa tion chief at rebel headquarters, said the "highest officers in the army" had pledged their support to Toranzo. The navy and air force had not yet announced a stand, but it appeared that they would line up with the govern ment. The commander of the Cordoba garrison, where the revolution that overthrew President Juan D. Peron started in 1955, telegraphed a warning to the government that any attack on Toranzo might have fateful results. The sudden revolt was an out growth of Argentina's simmering military crisis, which exploded into new life Wednesday when War Secretary Elbio C. Anaya dismissed Toranzo from his post as commander of the army. WATER OFFICIAL RESIGNS WALLOWA (Special) At the Wallowa council meeting Tucs night, Wayne Prince, water sup erintendent, resigned and At ltn Collins, resigned his position as councilman and accepted the atcr appointment. Jack Sar rett was appointed to fill the council vacancy. Att acked Country Asks Help m United Nations r rro Housa Inks Weaker Labor Reform Bill In Compromise Act WASHINGTON (UPI) The House ended today a two year congressional struggle to write a labor reform bill by overwhelmingly passing a compromise measure lauded by Democrats and Republicans alike. The bill was sent to President Eisenhower 'or his signa ture. Eisenhower had joined the struggle wi.a a televised appeal for a new law along lines of the compromise and Angry N.Y. Officials Hit Gangs NEW YORK UPI Angry of ficials today began a drive to strengthen the police force in a "no coddling" assault on teen gang violence. Mayor Robert F. Wagner au thorized an increase of 1,080 men in the city's police force after a meeting with city officials Thurs day. Police Commissioner Stephen P. Kennedy promised he would begin culling applications at once. Wagner was to confer today with Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller who held his own discussion with slate officials on the juvenile crime problem Thursday. The two planned to lay groundwork for a more extensive conference of city, slate and civic leaders next Tues day. No Cuddling The mavor warned there would be "r.o cuddling" of youthful crim- ifals whose outbreaks have shocked the city. Two teen-age hods who alleged ly led the attack that killed two other teen-agers eary Sunday were arraingncd on murder charges Thursday before a judge who demanded "more drastic ac tion against these punks. "I see these things going on every day and nothing has been done about it," Magistrate David Malbin said as ho stared down at Salvatore 'Draculai Agron, 16. and Luis The Umbrella Man) Hernandez, 17. "The rights of the people have been neglected," he added. Swift Justice Swift justice was handed out to one teen-ager Thursday. Fourteen-year-old Grant Young of Brooklyn, attacked a nurse at knifepoint on a subway and was seized by police. A little more than five hours later, JuS' tice Leonard E. Ruisi sentenced the youth to the state training school at Warwick, under maxi mum security. Other spearheads of the city's attack on teen violence included orders to speed up the lighting of parks and playgrounds and plans for establishing additional work camps. The camps would be for - l"' rim WT'"?' r... ( v: : a ,T. ., . rf If I ( HIGH SCHOOL 'ASSIGNMENT' La Grande High School students, left to right, Mark Counsell, 16, Chuck Anderson, 15, and David Oswalk, 15, all sophomores, were given a special English assignment yesterday that included the news phase of a newspaper. They are shown looking at the main newswire in the editorial room of the Observer. Then, they were given a tour of the photo processing room, dark room, etc. (Observer Photo) was certain to approve. The bill, designed to drive crooks and racketeers out of the labor-management field, is the most important piece of labor leg islation to go through Congress since the Taft-Hartley Law was passed in 117. Today's action wrote finale to a drive for reform legislation that started last year on the heels of disclosure of abuses by the Senate Rackets Committee. The Senate enacted a reform bill last year, but it was killed in 'the House in the waning days of the 1958 session. The new bill, bitterly fought every step of the way, represents a compromise between a tougher version originally passed by the House and a milder one first passed by the Senate. On the final showdown today, the compromise measure coasted through with ease. Eisenhower was certain to sign the bill with relish. The compro mise retained most provisions of the tougher House bill he had en dorsed over the original Senate version. These included the President's proposals for legislation against secondary boycotts, organizational picketing and the dilemma posed by "no man's land'V jurisdiction over labor disputes. House opponents planned no move to block the bill, forged by Senate-House conferees as a com promise for their measures to clean up corruption in unions. Senate passage of the compro mise measure came after Sen. John F. Kennedy ID-Mass.) said it was "the only bill possible to obtain under the circumstances." He conceded that no one probably was completely satisfied. The two opposing votes were cast by Sens. Wayne Morse (D Ore.) and William Langer (R- ND.l. Morse said the bill would "liquidate" some of labor's "hard earned legitimate rights." SALE NETS FUNDS WALLOWA (Special The an nual Wallowa County Stockgrow ers' feeder cattle sale at Enter-' prise Monday brought a total of S480.322.93 on 2,556 head. Top price came on 27 head consigned by Wayne Marks of Imnaha, Mark Decker bidding them in for the Roclf Cattle Co., Clarence, Iowa at $30. Nine more of the Marks steers brought the same price from Lcavell Cattle Co., Gooding, Idaho. WW."' mmm: PAIR OF PANTS AND THE NAME CHARLOTTE, N.C. (UPI) Judge D. E. Henderson re calltd today on his 80th birthday anniversary that hit parents named him Jackson Ezakitl David James Nathan iel Sylvester Willie Edward Demoithtnes Henderson In honor of his uncles In the hopes at least one of them would leave him something In the way of legacy. Henderson said all he got out of It was the name and pair of pants from ene uncle. Mystery Collision At Sea? LOS ANGELES (UPI) A mysterious radio report early to day described a collision at sea between a fishing boat and a sub marine, but later today a Coast Guard commander said he doubt ed any collision had occurred. The radio report came in on the international distress frequency. It gave the location as about loot miles north of here and about 15 miles offshore. Three persons sup posedly drowned, and the boat the Unicorn, according to the ra dio report sank. "We are beginning to have our doubts of any ship being rammed at sea," said John Westbury. Coast Guard commander at Santa Barbara, at midmorning. A Coast Guard cutter and two search planes were sent to the scene soon after the report was re ceived at 1:30 a.m. p.d.t. The planes dropped flares, but no wreckage was sighted nor any el dence of a collision. Ike Again In Veto On Housing Bill WASHINGTON (UPI) Presi dent Eisenhower vetoed the sec ond housing bill today. The Senate sustained his action almost im mediately. The roll call vote was 58-36, five votes short of the two-thirds ma jority needed to override. The Senate vote on the $1,050,- 000,000 housing measure came aft er only an hour of sharp debate. Eisenhower rejected the second measure, as he had the $1,375,000, 000 original, on the ground that it ' goes too far. Although the Democratic- con trolled House and Senate, in an effort to compromise trimmed the money for the program, Eiscn hower still objected because it had grant and loan features he dis liked. The President has never lost a veto showdown since entering the White House in 1953. Troops Laos Says Reds On : The Move UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. (UPU Laos accused Communist North Viet Nam today of taking part In attacks against Laotian army posts and asked the United Na tions to send troops to help repel the aggression. The request was delivered to An drew W. Cordier, executive assis tant to Secretary-general Dag Hammarskjold, by Laotian Charge d'Affaires Vilaihong. Hammarsk jold is in South America. . t . mere was no immeuiaie inuic- tion of what action the U. if. would take. Normally, the se curity Council is called into ses sion to consider such appeals. The Laotian appeal said foreign troops had been crossing the fron tier since July 16 "and engaging in- action against garrison units of the royal army along the north east border of Laos." It said that a result "there gar rison units have been obliged to evacuate several posts and to en gage in many actions of self-defense." : 'It is obvious that these attacks would not have taken place if the attackers had not come from out side the country and would net have continued if these attackers had not been receiving reinforce ment and supplies of food and mo nitions from outside," the Laotian appeal said. The royal army suffered losses as a result of these attacks. "On 30 August a fresh attack. more violent that previous, was levelled against Muong and Xieng Kho. Fltjmerts from the Demo- v cratic Republic of North Viet Nam took part in- the attack which was supported by artillery fire from the other side of the frontier. , "In the face of this flagrant ag gression. . . Laos is requesting as sistance of the U. N. of which it is, a member. In particular, the royal govern ment requests the prompt dispatch of an emergency force to halt ag gression and to halt its spread ing." Local Man Gets Prison Suspension a by-year-oia local man was sentenced today to three years in the state prison, but his sen tence was suspended and he wis placed on conditional probation involving a child molest case. ' Archie Ray Mattison of La Grande was arrested July 9 of this year on contributing to delin quency of a minor charge. He pleaded guilty at a preliminary hearing and was remanded to the Oregon State Hospital for a 60 day observation period and pos sible treatment. Mattison was released after five weeks and at a hearing Aug. !26 before Circuit Judge A. F. Brownton he was retained in the county jail pending final disposi tion of the esse. j At an early hearing this morn ing at the county courthouec, 'judge Brownton rendered the ! sentencing. ; Conditions included that Mat tison remain in the county lock up until Sept. 18 st which time he will be released to the joint custody of three of his children who will keep their father andejr 24-hour watch for one year.. FoL lowing this, the man will be Iq j the constant custody of his wit j for four years. ' Prosecuting the case was Dl- trict Attorney George Anderson Jr. Salk Serum j" Is Recovered In Apartment - MONTREAL (UPD - Health authorities began tests today of 75,000 shots of Salk vaccine re covered in an unfurnished apart ment three days after tt was stol en from a suhjrban laboratory by three masked bandits. i The serum was recovered Thursday after a man told police he saw boxes marked "Connaugh Laboratories. Toronto" hina loaded from a truck. The vaccine; useless uiucaa norea unaer recns eration at 40 degrees, was fount surrounded y melting Ice. ,"