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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 26, 1943)
rr i j 'UtD QOQLB A a ' ; s 1 i Thurs. sunset C:01 Fri. nnr!se 6:25 (Weather on Page 5) PCUMD3D 1 fi" V I ;N mm V ' It gives a person a little of the 'old home feeling to see piles of slabwood on the parking . strips , again. Not so many years ago that . was as common as the month, of August. Houses were hidden be- hind these wooden walls. - Then came the salesmen for automat t Je heating,. oil and gas, with their t appeals : to comfort-loving house- wives ' and , work-shirking hus 1 bands, and the piles of slabwood r began to shrink. The esthetic I sense of the community was ap pealed to as the shabbiness of . woodpiles lining the streets was " pointed out. - But with the war, and ration- ing of fuel oil, and bars against t installing new automatic burners, . there has come a scramble for anything to provide heat. Slab ; 1 wood was the answer.. Not for- 1 est wood, for the woodcutters and ' their familiar trucks disappeared. "The old wood market at the end of Chemeketa street was deserted. The boost in price for old fir from $3.50 or $6.00 a cord to $13.50 v didn't maintain the supply. The lure -of the shipyards .wa- too strong for", the workers in the woods.' . . ii ' j The same war that stopped pro ' duction of bordwood, stimulated "the cutting of lumber, until the ' rnills . have been ; buried in their - waste. Slabwood, . mill ends, ' : nogged fuel, eawdust, all by-pro- ducts of lumber manufacture, are now available in abundance. The ' city of Portland, as well as Sa- lem and most of the other towns . of western Oregon have been " saved by slab. Believe it or not, in Portland ' over half the population depends n wood fuel for its heating. It was' the organization of supply of - slabwood from the mills of the valley that- kept: Portland -warm last winter. This summer- a fresh attack is being made on the same line, reaching out farther. to util , - Ize the wood which now goes into the consumer in mid-valley lum- ber mills. Salem schools, we notice, have : great piles of slabwood drying on ' the school grounds, apparently in . ample quantity to keep the kiddies : warm (Continued on Editorial page.) Billings Death Held -Accident; . Carlson Released . After Shedding Light on Mystery j Though not quite ' all angles of mystery in JStephen Jay Billings' . .death here Monday - had been cleared up, W. E. Carlson, Bill . Jngs recent roommate and fellow- worker at : a . Portland shipyard, was released Monday after he had cooperated with Salem police in - shedding light upon some of the circumstances. - ' . On the basis of Carlson's story and other new evidence uncov ered Wednesday, viewed in con junction with the results of. an autopsy performed Monday night, . it appeared 'that contrary: to cir cumstances which led at first to a theory of murder. Billings died from the combined 1 effects of a "walking" type of pneumonia and a skull fracture suffered acci dentally. Fortified wine,' It was indicated, played an Important though indirect role in the case.? : Billings,' it was believed, came to Salem from Portland late Monday, arrived at his mother's 'home at 134T0 North Liberty street;; uinwiinw Hnrintf thm riltrht nf tered without the knowledge ot the two-T young women sleeping upstairs, and suffered . the skull fracture In a fall down basement stairs. Death did not occur until ' ; ; . . late Monday; afternoon and tbefT Jair c H 211 Ift closed porch where he later was found dead was explained, it was .believed, by" his struggles after being injured. ' This version r of the case was strengthened by the statements of Neighbors who said they heard what might have been groans though so faint they did not in vestigate between 10:30 and 11 o'clock Sunday night. Miss Rose mary -Billings, sister of the dead Turn to Page 2 Story B) . Dam Material; Has Approval SILVERTON, ; Aug. 25-(Special-Approval of 1 priorities for materials needed in construction of the city's proposed new dam on the- Abiqua has , been granted, . XIayor Reber Allen was advised iodr- iy. the war production board luarters in Washington, DCi . -ids on construction of xthe dam will be opened by the council next Monday. Though; the council has voted to build a permanent dam at an estimated cost of $45,000, bids also were asked - on specifi-. cations for a temporary structure. The old dam was washed out by . high water last winter.. Since then, the municipal water supply has been provided by pumping, which has been costly. City offi cials hope to have he new dam built before winter. ISHilTY TXHSD YEAE Verdict Takes J ;.. 4; Hours Defendant Calm; ; Judge . to Give Sentence Monday DALLAS, August 25 (Spe cial) : After deliberating four hours, jurors found Richard Henry Layton guilty of murder in the first degree at 2:30 Wed nesday afternoon : and gave their verdict without recommend ing: leniency, making death in the Oregon - gas chamber mandatory for the former Monmouth police man convicted of slaying 17-year-old Ruth Hildebrand. . j t Layton was calm when the jury foreman read the verdict of guil ty. 'After "the court room had been cleared, Layton lit a cigarette, put on, his dark glasses and asked to be escorted back to his cell in the Polk county Jail.. . . : Judge Arlie Walker .will " sen tence Layton Monday morning. At , 10:30 Wednesday ... morning Judge Walker Instructed the Jury to i return J one of four verdicts: guilty of, first degree murder without recommendation for len iency, guilty with .a recommenda tion, not guilty by reason of in sanity, or Innocent. -. . . Ruth Hildebrand V nude body was fished from the Willamette IrJxFr June 2,0. two weeks,, after Layton -'testified she had: stumbled to her death-tin a game of nude tag played by the pair on a path near Buena Vista, . The state contended that Layton had offered to drive the girl home from a bus station, but had driv en; her- to "Lovers ;; Lane" near Buena V i s t a, raped her and knocked her into the river. r Dallas citizens apparently were not Interested in following the city's' first murder trial : in two years. Layton's trial drew less than one out Of seven citizens of Dallas to the half filled court room to hear testimony reported in all of the state's daily newspa pers. Not one employe in the block of business houses near the Polk county court house questioned Tuesday had crossed the street to the trial. , jOf the 127 people counted in the court room Monday afternoon, 38 were either before the bar of the court as Jurors I or court officials, or behind the rail but present as witnesses waiting to be called. . According to Sheriff Thomas Booker, f Pollc county, Layton called for the papers each morn ing; apparently to check the re ports of his triaL JJ-" magazines i wlw ? 1?okin a cartoon and western stories. Again to Get Portal Pay WASHINGTON, Aug. 25-(JP) John L. Lewis has failed a second time to get Jhe war labor board's approval for portal-to-portal pay for his United Mine Workers. The board rejected a proposed pay ment of $1.25 a day on grounds it amounted to a general wage in crease contrary to the national stabilization pplicy. v The $1.25 payment lor the time miners spend in travel from the mine mouth to working places was included - in a . tentative ' contract between the -union and the Illi nois Coal ; Operators association. The board turned it down yester day,' eight '- to - four, . with ' labor members dissenting . r" - ; The decision,' however, pointed the way for the miners to increase their earnings by doing - eight hours of productive work a "day, instead of seven, .with time - and a half fprme eighth", hour. . 'The board took the position that time and a half after the seventh hour is. not a wage increase re quiring board approval. For years, the mine workers contracts have provided for time and a half for all time in excess of seven hours in a day and five days in a week. An eight hour day would add $1.50 a day and upwards 'to the twiners' pay envelopes. 12 PACTS MiiifSS(irD.: V- "This Is the Way We Cci:v6ur Foodn 1.0- V "We do It like this.' Mrs. May belle Barch, supervisor el food prepa ratien at the Salem eommonlty cannery, shews Neal Craig, snper bttendent, aa Salem ' housewives busily scrape : carrots and : eorxL Below. Craig and George Grant, processor, are capping tin cans, i last step before final processing of produce. - .j- r-v - i ' - ' . "- -V : ' : :L -. i. v- j. " ". Production At Community Cannery ! Celebrating the end of its first the SiJem community cannery searing production peak was nearly swamped with the lowly vegetable which has been mak ing headlines for the last two weeks beans. Tor in the four weeks since the cannery opened, 90 per consumption next winter has been beans, and of that amount 60 per cent has been grown in victory gardens, Neal Craig, supervisor, revealed.. j Beans are not - alone, however. Carrots, corn (both cream style and whole kernel), beets, toma toes, j chicken, 1 apricots, peaches, pears, and meats and fish will go into the cans before the end 61 the season in mid-October, with early vegetables already filling 29,000 cans for 600 families. " ' ;-, Plans' for; the cannery were made last spring soon after the start of c victory garden classes. Those inaugurating the victory garden movement consulted with E. R. Alexander, specialist in agri cultural education from Washing ton, DC, as to the most feasible method to preserve the produce which the gardens promised, since early : growing- weather Indicated such bountiful crops that a sur plus would be available over and above regular home use. Every can of. vegetables, fruit and meat put up this summer Is releasing an extra can for the sol diers and sailors in war zones and for hard-pressed allies, and each can Is - saving precious ration points for the housewife.; ; "- Because of difficulties In ob taining equipment," the first plan for circulating pressure cookers among organized groups of house wives had to be abandoned. In stead, the community - canhery Idea started, with funds for its ; (Turn to Page 2 Story A) u N ears Peak month of operation Wednesday, cent of the produce put up for McNiitt Hints Labor Draft WASHINGTON, August 25 - Manpower CTomxnissioner Paul V. McNutt asserted 'Wednesday night that the . father-draft and new manpower regulations were necessary to make certain ' that "the" war will not be prolonged for even one unnecessary 1 hour, that not one single life is lost which it would have been possible to save' -s ; ;. .-.V '- " McNutt, In a radio address (blue network), said that the problem of meeting military and industrial manpower needs had become' "ex tremely serious. " - : .Without mentioning in so many words the possibility of a general draft of labor, which he previous ly had called "inevitable, he com mented: - . -"We can no longer exclusively rely on the voluntary : cooperation of ; worker and management to solve the problem of labor turn over. The American people," act ing through - their wartime: govi ernment, must besin now tor ex ercise a more positive control. '; He said his order authorizing the general drafting of p re-Pearl Harbor fathers after October 1- and those in non-deferrable jobs even earlier could not be avoid . (Turn to Pae 2 Story 1) Cclem. Oreqn, Thursday LIomLag, August S) D u lI G u lI 1 Patterson, Kimdsen on Pacific Front ALLIED n E A DQUARTEES is the' southwest fa- w. m v.. - - .- believes that only a real" and last poftlUons In New Guinea andrVL " , rr r New Georgia, the two . arms' of the allied Pacific offensive; re mained relatively -nstb anged Wednesday, Gen. Douglas Mac Arthar. reported Thursday. Adverse weather reduced air operations to limited recennals sance.;' '' ?:" . -.; -ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN THE"- SOUTHWEST, PACIFIC, Aug. 2ST-() Blows of Increasing strength will be dealt Japan soon, Robert , P. Patterson, American undersecretary , of j war, promised Australians today shortly after al lied headquarters reported addi tional iprogress, in offensive ac tions in the Solomons and New Guinea. :;' ' ii. G-Sr . Patterson made ' his statement upon arrival here with Lieut. Gen. William . S. j Knudsen, .US army production ' adviser, on a tour of; inspection and for con ferences .with . General ; Douglas MacArtbur : and Australian ; mil itary and v governmental 3 leaders. (Torq to. Prge 2 Story G) Labor Needed For Beans, Other Crops' Additional workers both for the harvesting, and processing of crops continued to be In demand. Wed nesday with the emphasis still up on beans though other crops were beginning to Intrude Into the pic ture. V vr : f P Vurt aJ Requests for bean pickers, as a matter of fact, slackened a trifle on Wednesday but sound cars were out again that night ' with a plea for workers. Meanwhile it was re ported that there was a specific need at the canneries for men, able to do some of the heavier tasks. This was especially the case at the California Packing company plant where : men are wanted for both day and night shifts. " 1 " Cannery managers expressed appreciation of the help of Salem people otherwise ; employed who have worked part time, as well as the volunteer aid of soldiers on re cent nights. They pointed out how ever that while, these workers have helped save a great volume of pro duce, operation, with, part time crews is uncertain and more, full time workers are needed. MT ANGEL The currently pertinent .crop harvesting question held the spotlight at She Business Men's luncheon at the Mt. Ansel hotel Tuesday noon. W.rE. Snyder of the farm labor-commSsion at Salem was called over by A. A. Hauth, head fl the local farm labor bureau, to address the club and help solve the immediate needs of two bean growers. - :. The growers, N. H. Lacey about (Turn to Page 2 Story C) 3, IS 43 D Tj G J 6Give Up M)R Tells Hitler." : . Axis Learn Plans in Battle, Says President ; By JOHN M; HIGHTOWER OTTAWA, Ont " August 25 (iT-Out of his knowledge of the new; forces to' be loosed upon axis ' Europe by. the decisions of Quebec, ... . President : , Roosevelt Wednesday i sternly . warned Adoif HiUer: -' - v - :"-v "Surrender' now : - " . The allies are bent upon achiev ing "victory in the shortest pos? sible time," he said," and have ar rived at definite war plans with which' Germany, 'Italy and Japan wiU be-- duly " acquainted on the field ol battle.";; ;. . ; The president made ne men-; tlon' of sarrender by Italy or' . Japan,; but said that If Ger many's leaders could know the : strategy 1 mapped at . Quebec : "they ' would find -surrender ' would pay them better now than on Parliament hill in the capital of America's northern good neighbor,' the chief execur tive also disclosed that Prime Min ister Churchill, Prime Minister Mackenzie King and he . had dis- 1 cussed post-war problems at their Quebec meeting. V . The president's remarks appear to project . the united nations or ganization into the post-war per iod as machinery suitable for cre ating a permanent peace. - nr......... ..:t.j -tc' wg peace van jusuij uie sacnuces we arc making, and our Unanimity (Turn to "Page 2 Story D) Reds Drive Beyond Gains Of Last Year By W. W. HERCHER LONDON, Wednesday," Aug. 26 (ff)-Russian troops eclipsed last winter's counter-offensive ; mark Tuesday by capturing Zenkov, 85 miles northwest . of fallen Khar kov, and widened their breach in the enemy's' Donets basin lines, where they killed 2500 Germans, Moscow; announced today. More than 60 .villages were reported captured today. - Surging swiftly through Khar kov, the Russians - fanned out to the west and south to threaten Poltava and ; Lozovaya, 75 . miles to. the- southwest and south, re spectively, theT daily communique disclosed. - Savage German counter-attacks had failed to halt the Russian drive toward the Dnieper river bend,' it was salcL - . ' . : Loxevaya's captore would eat :mc - ef the main . rail escape : . routes for the - Germans In the 1 : .Donets basin. v.; :, - Only limited gains were. made on the , Bryansk front, the com munique said, but .Russian bomb ers set afire German trains in at tacks on Novozybkov and Unecha on the railway running, westward to Gomel. -: 4 Soviet airmen also were strik ing at enemy airdromes and . . troop ' concentrations jb I w Kharkov tm the ambiUeaa Rus sian effort to crush the entire . German line in sonthern Enssla . and trap thausandr of Germans . (Turn to Page T Story H) rJanville Jilarried, Goes Sans Wife - NEW YORK, Aug. 23H) Tommy Manville, married today for the seventh' time, showed: up at d Morroco -club- Wednesday without his wife and with sev eral scratches on his face. Manville, ; accompanied by - two plain clothes detectives, said ' he and his bride, the former Made Marie (Sunny) Ainsworth, 13, "had a flhf and that he didn't know where she was. ..: ! " The marriage of the wealthy asbestos heir and the showgirl, who Is from Matagorda, Tex., took place without previous announce ment. Miss Ainsworth having bro- ken their engagement two weeks tz because they were not well enough ' acquainted. Zc New Command t LORD LOUlS MOUNTBATTEN Bombers Blast In France By GLADWIN HILL LONDON, Aug. 25 -VP)- In the lull between heavy bomber blows American ' and RAT ' medium bombers Wednesday : concentrated for the second successive day. on westernmost German air fields in France, showering down explosive destruction on three , bases and one power station, while Thun derbolts and Spitfires ; mowed down faltering nazf fighter Inter ference. - ' . US Eighth air force Marauders hit the power station at Rouen and the Tricqueville air field and RAP Mitchells struck at the Ber- nay St Martin airdrome and RAF Bostons the ,air field at Beaumont Le Roger. ; ;Vv Few nemy , fighters showed themselves and, he "of these "was downed by an RCAF squadron. Not ; an allied , plane was lost. ' , , f (The federal communications commission reported in .New York that the main radio la the Berlin area, Deutschlandsender, had gone off the air. Wednesday night along with the naxl-epe rated Calais" and Paris radios in France, Indicating . the possible presence of allied bombers, and that the German-controlled Ka lundborg radio in Denmark had said its transmissions and those of the Copenhagen radio bad been Interrupted for nearly half an hour "for military reasons.") It ' was also announced tonight that a burst of anti-aircraft fire from guns which had not been fired against enemy planes in several, months destroyed a low flying Junkers-88 just off a north ern Scottish island. The raider (Turn to Page 2 Story F) Bette Davis' : Husband Dies HOLLYWOOD, Aug. 25.PV- Arthur Farnsworth, husband of Screen Actress Bette Davis, died late-today of mysterious Injuries received Monday - when he : was found unconscious on a sidewalk. Dr. Paul Moore, who with Miss Davis was at the bedside when death came, said Farnsworth suf fered, a basal fracture of the skull. presumably in a fall while walk ing. ., - .. . "tt : ,- : Farnsworth never regained con sciousness sufficiently to tell what happened,, the physician said. TAem Kenneth EveretllKUied By Rit-and-Ru'n Motorist Ralph Eugene Rutherford, 17, of route 7, Salem, was arrested by state poUeo late Wednesday night In . connectiea with tK hit-and-run accident In which Kenneth Everet, 11, was killed. SgL C Emahiser said -Rutherford admitted he was the driver, . '. ' ' -.";-. 4 Kenneth Everet, 11, son cf l!r. and ' LLrs.' : Lee : Everett- Fair haven avenue, was fatally injured Wed- nesday niht . about 3 o'clock when his- bicycle was struck by a hit-and-run motorist on the road between the state penitentiary and Four Corners. A companion, Ro bert I. Culver, SO Robert avenue, also was struck and severely tut apparently not ' critically Injured. The Everet boy died about 9:" 3 p..ra-, within a few minutes after he and the Culver boy had been brought to the Salem Deaconess hospital by Miss Verna Harms. Death was due to a fractured skull and resultant injury to the brain, the attending physician said. Youns Culver's injuries includ Ho. IC3 Puis sia n Looming New Blilitary Post Created for British General WASHINGTON, ' August 23 (fy- Final plans to drive th Japanese out of Burma probably will be drawn in Washington immediately, before Lord Lou Is, Mountbatten gooe to his new command in , southeast Asia. This became apparent Wednes day night with disclosure by the British embassy that the ' com mando chief who was named as supreme allied commander for southeast Asia Is expected here either Wednesday night or Thurs day. '. ; - " V .-''''' ; : Ilia visit presumably Is fer staff conferences with the hih command of the army; navy and air forces to map the details of Derations, probably to a large extent amphibious and airborne, which were planned In broad outline at the Quebec confer ence of President Roosevelt and Prime Minister ChurchilL The offensive down the Arakan coast of northwest Burma probably will be resumed, but a more Important likelihood is a direct blow at Rangoon. The selection of Mountbatten to direct the task of driving the Jap anese back from Burma brought Immediate approbation in military circles.- Many military men here long have felt that a principal re quirement for a supreme com mander in southeast Asia was a reputation . for successful, vigor ous action to retrieve, some of the prestige lost by previous dis&s ters in that theater. V Mountbatten has that reputa tion. He has worked his way from midshipman to vice admiral in the British navy. In that climb, he has held most types of. com mand, including that aircraft car rier Illustrious on which he was skipper for several months about two years ago. But he hasn't neglected the oth er phases of professional warfare. He is a flier and has had many hours in the air. As commando leader ' he learned ' the hard and tricky art of land fighting, and is a master of guerilla tactics. Fur thermore, he has experienced all the rigid training required for mastery of the hand-to-hand fighting Sot which the commandos are celebrated "it a no good telling chaps to do something you cannot do yourself," he says. OTTAWA, Ont, Aug. 23 Lord Louis Mountbatten, leader of Britain's ; famed commandos and cousin of King George VI, has been named the new supremo allied commander in southeast Asia for the' conduct of operations against Japan, it was . announced Wednesday night. , . , A British . anneuneemest of the appointment which obvious ly had been decided upon by President Roosevelt - and Prime Minister Churchill at Quebec was Lamed here but ca'er date f -TL? CStadeL-Qacbee City." scene of the Roosevelt-Churchill conference. (Turn to Page 2 Story C) ed a gash on the skull, bad cuts on the head and one ear and nu merous bruises. His condition was reported "good. Winabelle Walker of route 6, an eye-witness, said the boys were "away off the road" when struck, and that the automobile was going at hih speed, striking them from behind as they cycled westward. State police-were notified anl' mad efforts to trace the cfXendln car. ' -.-; V ' It waa reported that the two boys had been on the way to visit the home of Everet's siller. ..In -another accident at the'li-. tersection of Market street and East Turner road, a collision Le tween .two automobiles, . Tie! Hamlin antfjohn II. Miller, both of Turner, were Injured. First tiJ car men who tt: I the-rn re poll ed that Hamlin suffered frscture of four ribs, Miller had chest Ln. -es. They were taken to the f i General hospital, but MI" : " v. i able to leave soon aft . . ; '. Hamlin's injures were ret o- . sijered serious. A