'" 8 ,lUi 960? 69 WEATHER Sca'tered (new ihewtri tonight and south area Friday; hifll.S S 35; low 1-11 with itro temt vtl leys. LA GRANDE OBSERVER 100th Issue 64th Year LA GRANDE, 0R:ON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1959 8 Pag as Fiv Cento 7 v 7m T ' . " Downtown fires in La Grande this year received their play of the news headlines and figured near the top in this area's major news stories. This picture shows four ' downtown stores being consumed by flames during a CAR WRECKS, FIRES, MADE HEADLINES IN - ,'. By BILL BBBOUT - ; Ofctervtr Staff Writ.r Another year, is drawing to a close. The world will soon welcome 1960. Now is the time for re flection on the big sto.ies and ev ents in Union County which made headlines in The Observer during 1959. ' Fatal car accidents, two major fires in the city and a record number of hunting fatalities were the big stories ill the Grande Ronde Valley during 1959. Despite repeated warnings and tougher law enforcement policies by police agencies,' ten persons died as a result of carelessness with firearms and 13 persons were killed on highways in Wallowa and Union counties. Two fires within a week caused damage totaling more than a half million dcl'ars in La Grande dur ing February. But the year's news files had a brighter side. OUTER SPACE BATTLE FOR 1960 Predict Soviets To Hold Lead In Rocket Space Explorations WASHINGTON 'UPP A U S space official says Russia's "clear lead" in rocketry will enable it to pull farther ahead of this coun try In the exploration of outer space. This forecast is evident in a study of V. S. and Soviet space programs made recently by Dr. Homer E. Newell Jr.. assistant director for apace sciences of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration iNASA'. According to Newell, the two countries are running about even in scientific investigation of near by space. But "in deep space probe work." Newell said, "the U.S.S.R has definitely taken the leal This is directly attributable to thei' clear leaH in vehicle technology." Similar Advancement Russia's rocketry lead has been variously estimated at 2 to 10 years. Newell mentioned no time figure. But he said: . "The-side that has the more ad vanced technology in the way of paylcad capabilities, guidance, etc.; will have the distinct edge. SEAMEN TO GET WAGE HIKE NEW YORK lUPH-Abut 10. 000 seamen will get a 4 5 per cent wage boost Jan. 1 under contract terms agreed updh Tuesday by the National Maritime Union and 39 tanker companies. FIRES PLAYED BIG PART La Crande .and Union County joined in Oregon's Centennial Cel ebratiori with a locally written play, the world premier of a folk opera, and a visit from the Cen tennial Wagon Train. ; Farm Programs Farm income dropped during 1959 but county farmers continued to work with Extension Service specialists and the Agriculture Stabilization and Conservation of fice to get Union County agricul ture back on the track. In May, the auctioneer's chant signalled the end of Pondosa and a wind whipped blaze, less than a month later, le't the historic old logging town a smouldering ruin. Plans for new sewage disposal facilities for La Grande stirred up resentment among Island City res idents in November with the city ! comm.ssion - sponsored S30O.OOO bond issue going down to defeat 1 by an cverw helming margin. Union County's school reo;gani - and by virtue of the increased flexibility and capabilities pro vided by the more advanced tech noloijy will forge steadily ahead. "Thus, one may p-edict a time lead in vehicle technology will be transformed into a corresponding time lead in the exploration and investigation of outer space." Newell scid the two countri-s "appear to be at about the same staqe of advancement in upper air research" and in scientific "stud ies of the earth's environs." He said "their instrumentations are roughly equivalent." The Russians have "done far less on solar radiations" than the United States but have accom plished "much more" in experi ments with animals in space. t Sights Soviet Achievements The United Stales may have a "slight edge" in close-in space in vestigations and in instrument de signs, but the Russians are super ior in rocket power, maneuver ability, and size of their scientific packages. V. S. cxplo-ation of the moon "is yet to begin" whereas the Russians have "already achieved significant steps" in lunar investi gation. As for exploration of the planets: The United States, Newell said, "has minimal capability in this area at present, and on the pres ent schedule planetary work is preceeding at a very, slow pace.' period last February when fire losses here totaled al most a half million dollars. Fire loss from these busi ness establishments added up to 3265,000. HUNTING DEATHS AREA DURING '59 aatfon committee took its lmriris as' county voters rejected the com mittee s plans for reorganization Snow Closet Schools Some of the other significant news stories of 1959 on the local scene are listed below. January Vcster O. Varney, Jos eph, dies in car crash; heavy snow forces closing of Elgin and Imbler schools; Company E, Oregon Nat ional Guard, receives superior rat ing in federal inspection: Dr. Gor don Clarke named city commission president; Elks hold annual state winter meeting here; Edgar Allen Gilde.-sleeve, Enterprise, killed in car wreck: Nobel Prize winning chemist, Linus Pauling, speaks at EOC. February Four L a Grande stores go up in flames with loss estimated at $265,000: Grande Ronde Apartments destroyed by $300,000 fire; Bill Lee. 17. receives Silver Award as Explorer Scout : La Grande Observer purchased In r. : .i 2D 1 PREPARE STRATEGY FOR Rep. Don McKinnis, right, and Honce Snodgrass, Chamber of Commerce manager, discuss plans for hearing of the State Water Resources P.oard in Salem next Tues day. Chamber representatives will attend the meeting to urge board approval of Pacific Northwest Power Company's request to construct High Mountain Sheep Dam on the Snake River. The chamber membership is on record in favor of the dam construction. (Observer Photo) m In r'l-I! l- Zij , i i vi W V'i'-j .Jv't ' "' v I ye. h,.. 4 ;.VVJf Vv- ,rV I . - JI i;;-V'nfe " vr'sr I V-T' T i i1 from Ray Anderson and Fred Wey bret by Riley Allen, Robert W Chandler and J. M. McClelland Jr.; EOC faculty protests "dis claimer oath" on federal education loan fund applications: Elgin ini tiates new $150,000 Coliseum with' ball and pageant. March Pondosa mill closed hy Mt. Emily Lumbr Co.; Kristal Tomjack. 16, elected president ot Oregon F.H.A.; Fire Chief Ray Snider recommends new, central ly located fire s'ation: Oregon National Guard reorganized with Col. David C. Baum as Battle Group commander. 3 Die In Wreck April Sec. of State Howell Ap pling addresses Chamber of Com merce; Lawrence William Wil son, Frederick All"n Leslie and Wesley Ernest Andrews die in car See CAR WRECKS Page t Four Poisoned By Radiation? OAKLAND. Calif. (UPI) A man and three women today awaited results of Navy medical tests for radiation poisoning be lieved to have come from han dling radium salts. Fred Webb, 26, said he has been gradually losing his hair, has developed rashes on his hands and arms, and has suffered other symptoms since an acci dent at the Oakland Naval Sup ply Station six months ago. i i j J wk. regon Posts Number Of w tm u NEW MARK OF 486 BREAKS ; :432 FIGURE SET IN 1946 By United Press International Oregon's official all-time highway death toll mark WoS broken Wednesday, the nexf ,0 ,h8 ,a,t daf of 1959- Tillamook residents c rvnitu ill a iwu'tdf cur Iision near Lebanon; a seven-1 f" wy uita arier oinq i (.,. . l iv . .. - -i i iiruiiuT hoy. 11, died in Ilillsboro lm injtirus suift-red earlier in Ti:.i! brought the loll for the our to -Mi. accc ltallic Safety (.onimission 't''-v The previous mark w 1,1 11 P t-war ear of vm 'onimission in Sa- as sot 1MB when I'Cim)'s Inst their lives in Iral- !ie ai- ule.its. Deceirber Toll High Willi one day lo k Deeem I tr lull was 55, compared to 37 on Die s.mie (lute lat year. Hi cut Young. 11, Crescent City. C.il.f , died in a Ilillsboro hospital U 'tin s,!ay from injuries suffered (i the Sunset highway Monday in i lvo-rar collision. Mis parents, Mr and Mrs. Benjamin Young, a id a brother were injured. Kilkd in the collision near Leb anon Wednesday night were Joe I., llcnmtt, 2(i, and r.unice Violet t:,-iinicneRcr, 48. Three other persons were injured. lawrcnce Flock, young son of S-Sgt. and Mis. Norman V. Klock, Kelso. Wash. died in a Klamath Kails hospital1 Wednesday from in car on a bridge at ' Keno. Thef ckground otqmlment ex Snow, Ice On Oregon Roads Present Hazards SALEM UPI The Highway Department ' reported dangerous road conditions at many spots in the state today 'due to ice and snow Packed snow was rcorted at Government Camp, Warm Springs Junction, Sunset Summit Detroit, McKenzie Pass, Tiller Trail, Siskiyou, Green Springs, Prospect, Diamond Lake, Maupin, Shaniko. Dend, Santiam Pass, Ochoco Summit. Brothers, Lapine. Silver Lake. Madras, Willamette Pass, Klamath Falls. lily. Quartz Mountain. Lakeview, Paisley, Meacham. Ontario, John Day. Austin, Seneca, Burns and 3asque. Icy spots were reported at Wil son River, Astoria. Tillamook, Corvallis, Salmon Kiver, Camas Mountain, Grants Pass, Medford. Cave Junction, Carpentcrville, Sis ters, C'hetnult, and Ontario. Boy Scouts Pick Up Yule Trees Saturday La Grande residents are asked to put their discarded Christmas trees on the curbs Saturday so members of Boy Scout Troop 109 may pick them up. Troop members will cover the city in the annual P'oject in La Grande. ,f.f 'roc 1 lMiL - ( ' HEARING father is stationed at Kingsley Air Force Base at Klamath Falls. Another accident Wednesday night saw seven cars and a Grey hound bus skid into the ditch near Willamette pass after two refrig era. or trucks jackknifed on the icy highway. Two jiersotis were injured. More Passenger Miles The Traffic Safety Division said that in 1946 when the previous high was set about 4.500.000 pas senger miles were traveled. The figure this year will be about 7,500.000 passenger miles. Also, In 1946 there were 470.154 motor vehicles registered com pared to about 875.000 this year. The 1958 death toll was 449 while 468 died in 1957. now the third worst year on record. The department confines its fig ures to traffic accidents occurring on, a "Irafficway" or public road. It does not include accidents which occur entirely on private property. Leaden Clouds, Snow To Usher In New Year By GRADY PANNELL Observer Staff Writer Leaden clouds and sifting snow will usher in New Year's in the Grande Ronde Valley to the tune The La Grande Observer wishes everyeno a very happy New Year. Today's edition is me New Year's publication. There will be no Observer pub lished Friday. special emphasis on New Year's eral cocktail lounges here planned tending over from celebrations lu night. Various organizations and sev- City Officials Accept Sanitpry Sewer Petition A petition for Sanitary Sewer Im provement 3-23 was accepted and placed on file in an action taken by the city commission at its Wed nesday night meeting. The district will cover property not now served or within another sewer district that abuts Cedar Street between A and B Avenues, The petition carried the signature of more than 67 per cent of the property owners in the proposed district. 1 Commissioners also approved an application from the firm of Bur ton and Miller, Elgin, for a "mas ter" Amusement Devices License for I960. The commission acted on the recommendation of Police Chief Oliver Reeve. Reeve also approved a devices license for the Elgin company which does not have to come before the commission. Intrigue Shadows International Search For NEW YORK UPI - An in ternational search was underway today (or a 22 year-old girl and a mysterious colonel on whose miss ing yccht she said was "first mate." Authorities sought to learn if the beaten, st'angled and decomposed corpose of a young woman found in Tangier, Morocco, could be that of Harriet Elizabeth Benton, Ogdensburg, N.Y., or of another missing American. Rep. Clarence E. Kilburn IR N.V.I said in Washington that meager details of the willowy bru nette s disappearance have all the earmarks of international intrigue. Miss Benton abandoned a prom ising advertising career with a Boston agency last summer to seek adventure abroad. Against the advice of relatives, she left with $1,000 last August on a sight seeing tour of Europe. Harriet's Syracuse University classmate, Patricia Grant, 23, Grim Auto RUSSIAN LINQUIST Mrs. Lucille F. Ijtmor eaux, teacher of the Rus-. sian language for the past five years in Cana da, next week will con duct a course in begin ning Russian here. Her classes will be held on Wednesdays and Thurs days from 7 to 0:45 p.m. in room 23, administra tion building, Eastern Oregon College. Mrs. Lamoreaux currently re sides in Enterprise. Eve parties for tonight. The stroke of midnight will be the "witching hour" when the weary old man bows out in traditional ceremonies. Inr addition to the club parties, there will- be1 next-door neighbor hood gatherings, and much of the discussion will center about to morrow's annual football bowl games. Police Warn Drivers The television set and the color of the grid bowls loom as the best curative measure Friday for minds a bit soggy from' the punch bowls of the night before. In keeping with the spirit of New Year's Day, the police de partment here wishes ail a happy day, but there is a firm reminder by Chief Oliver Reeve to motorists that they might be better off at the home firesides than on city streets. His two reasons were simple and terse: 1. Slippery streets and hazard ous driving conditions. S. If you have been drinking. don't drive. Checking Points The same warning has been is sued by State Police. They will be out in form and wil enforce "to the letter" the laws of driving. Various check points will be manned by the highway patrol units in Eastern Oregon. La Grande's Public Library will be closed this evening at 5 o'clock for New Year's Eve and will not be open until Saturday at the usual hour. Tomorrow also has a religious significance for Roman Catholics. A - Holy Day of Obligation, Our Lady of the Valley has scheduled Masses at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. The usual holiday Friday also means that federal, state and local municipal buildings will be closed. For some, it means an other long holiday period. Missing U.S. Girl Maplcwood. N J . said today she was to meet Miss Benton in Gibraltar in September, but Har riet 'missed the rendezvous. The last Miss Grant heard from her was a letter she received in Madrid Oct. 8. "It's foolish of me to want to go halfway around the world with a man I met yesterday.. .but we're sailing tomorrow," Harriet wrote from Gibraltar. "I've had a taste of Morocco. It was thrilling. I'm go.ng back, then on lo the West Indies." She said she had found passage on a yacht bound for the West Indies and referred to the man as "Collin." In a postcard mailed Oct. 8 from Gibraltar, Harriet told her parents, Mr. and Mrs. E. P. Benton, she was employed as "first mate" on the yacht Raider, bound for the Canary Is lands and the West Indies. Kilburn said Scotland Yard pinned down the owners of the Record Deaths Mishap Delays UP Train Union Pacific Railroad's stream liner, the Portland Rose, was de layed two hours this morning when two pair of wheel trucks on two loaded boxcars derailed on a west-bound freight train this morning at the Hilgard siding. Railway officials said both cars remained upright on the tracks and were removed to the sid ing by a derrick from La Grande. No one was hurt The Portland Rose arrived m La Grande two hours behind schedule and mail on the US ear freight was delayed by the de railment. No cause for the accident has been I determined, the Portland UP office informed The Observer shortly before press Uma. Engineer on the freight wis H. Deaton, La Grande, and conduc tor was Dwight Mahoney, also of this city. Skier Huriy Freezes In Position WILLIAMS, Arit. UP11 j George bUttta. , hroat a saVr. i shoe coming down from .100-foot Bill Williams Mountain. Hit feet froze to the hard-packed snow; his knees were literally (rosea stiff in a standing position. Rescuers found him Wednesday leaning weakly against a tree. They had to summon a helicopter to lift his rigid body and end his 18-hour ordeal. Degele had accomplished his mission on the mountain. He had found and repaired a lightning- caused break in the cable that carries television into Williams. In a local hospital, Degele was under treatment for severe frost bite of both feet and legs, but attendants said the husky former Marine was in amazingly goad condition. Degele was only briefly out ot contact with others, but heavy ! snows ana intense cold slowed rescue operations to an agonizing crawl. He had been trying since Satur day to reach the broken cable. Thomas Booher :, Dies At Hospital Thomas H. Booher, RL 2, La Grande, died in the Grande Ronde Hospital this morning. Death was believed caused by a heart attack. - p Booher suffered thr attack ajt the scene of a car accident at Upper Perry at about 10:30 a.m. He was not in the accident but -spectators said they thought a member of his family was in volved. There were no Injuries report, ed in the mishap and State Police are investigating. Raider as one Col. M. J. Gallon: ' who carried a British passport.''' Neither Harriet, Gallon, nor the yacht have been seen since. Dental Char Ixaminatlesi Officials said the State Departs ment. Coast Guard. Navy, Kkf Force, the FI, Scotland Yard and police units around the world are hunting for the New York girl and Gallon. m A diplomatic courier was re ported en route from Tangier I Washington with a dental chart ef the teeth of the young woman nas lieved murdered there and her corpse thrown in a sack eel the" outskirts of the city m October or early November. The chart will be shown dentists!, who treated Mist Benton aadj Helen Mueller, 19, New York, wist also went abroad last summer mm seek adventure and who vanishes! in Tangier in early Novemhef leaving her belongings In her hotel room, 1