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About Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1919-1980 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 1949)
.Power Failure At Bonneville Felt in Valley Machinery Stilled and G apital k Jouryl. , No. 24 SS'JUS'W: Salem, Oregon, Friday, January 28, 1949 Price New Blizzards In Range Lands lOf Middle West Baldock Tells Bridge Plans to Salem Officials Highway Engineer Lists Advantages of One Way Streets 61st Year, No. 24 Salem, Oregon, Friday, January 28, 1949 Price Five Cents Lights Out for About 20 Minutes Lights went out and machin ery operated by electricity was stilled for 20 minutes or more in the Salem area beginning at 10:48 a.m. today. Downtown Salem had service restored by 11:15 a.m. but it was about 11:25 a.m. before all other areas surrounding the cap ital city again had service Source of the power failure was the Bonneville system which caused Portland General Elec tric to lose its connections. In Portland a Bonneville- of ficial reported to the United Press that the power stoppage was due to a breakdown at the Bonneville powerhouse. He said that the trouble occurred in the jiOregon City and St. Johns trans Tmission line at 10:58 a.m. and was cleared up at 11:06 a.m. Not Due to Shortage Breakdown was not caused by the current power shortage which Bonneville officials said had been relieved slightly dur ing the past two days, but by the shutting off of power in a 116-kv line to Oregon City when a low voltage transformer at the main Bonneville plant went out. Other communities besides the Salem area affected were Eu gene, Lebanon, Abany and As toria, according to the Bonne ville spokesman. The failure came only 10 min utes after the Oregon senate ap proved unanimously a bill to give the governor emergency .. powers to restrict sale of elec tricity to help relieve the power shortage. Company Statement Shortly before the break in electricity the public relations office in Portland oi the PGE issued a statement on power shortage situation in the north west which stated: "With all possible power gen erating resources being utilized to the maximum, present elec trical load in the Pacific North west are barely being served. This survey of the power supply situation was reached at the meeting at Tacoma Thursday of the Northwest Utilities Confer ence Committee, representing all the regional public and priv ate agencies. "Power requirements during the last few days have only jjceen met by operating the -'Northwest power pool at reduc- eo frequency, which has caused electric clocks to run slow throughout the Pacific North west. (Concluded on Pane 15, Col. 8) Salary Raise Asked by Judges Multnomah county legislators had a stormy session last night over a request by that county's circuit judges for a $1,000 pay increase. The legislators look no action, but a majority of them are for it. The proposed pay would be S8.500 a year, with the extra SI. 000 to be paid by the county That would give them the same salary as supreme court judges get, and $1,000 more than the other circuit judges. One Portland member of the legislature said he and other lawyers would have to vote for the bill because "I have to prac tice before those judges." Other lawyers say the Portland jurists deserve the extra pay because they work harder than upstate g judges. This claim is disputed by most upstate legislators, who claim that some upstate judges work harder. One Portland legislator sug gested that all lawyers in the legislature be prohibited from voting on- the bill because "lawyers have a special interest in it." Several Portland judges ap peared at last night's meeting, engaging in bitter arguments with some of the Portland delegation. 8th Airfares Observes Seventh Birthday Fort Worth. Tex.. Jan. 28 Wi The Eighth airforce turns seven years old today ana top ranking air force officers were on hand to say "happy birthday" and witness an aerial review of the big B-36 Suptrbombers. Scheduled .to attend the cere monies were Gen. Carl Spaatz. retired chief of air force; Lt. Gen. Curtis E. Le May chief of the strategic air command' Lt. Gen. Ira C. Eaker, Maj Gen. I W. E. Kepner and Maj Gen. Clements McMullen, all former commanders of the Eighth air force. Maj. Gen. Roger M. Famey. present commander of the Eighth, is host to the visiting officers. Senate Passes Emergency Bill On Power Crisis By PAUL W. HARVEY, JR. The Oregon senate gave unan imous approval today to a bill to permit Governor Douglas Me Kay to take emergency steps to relieve the power shortage. Tiie bill, which now goes to the house where speedy approv al is expected, would let the governor declare an emergency during a power shortage. This, in turn, would authorize the pub lic utilities commissioner to al locate power, regulate the distri bution, and force any person or firm to cut down on the use of power. Sen. Thomas R. Mahoney, Portland democrat, sponsor of the bill, quoted Public Utilities Commissioner George H. Flagg as saying "rationing on a volun tary basis won t work." School District Bill The senate approved and sent to the governor a bill to let school districts keep for two years more their temporary power to levy bonds up to 10 percent of their assessed valua tion. The permanent limit is 5 percent. The house labor and industries committee introduced a bill to license all building contractors. It is opposed by the Association of General Contractors. The house local government committee introduced a bill to increase the marriage license fee tvom $3 to $5. The legislature wound up its inira weeK oi worK today. Tough Job for Senator Cordon Washington, Jan. 28 W) Sen ator Cordon (R., Ore.) has been handed a tough job as a mem ber of the senate appropriations committee. Republican colleagues named him yesterday as a member of six of the committee's sub groups. As a member of the armed services subcommittee he will hear the testimony for all funds for the army, navy and air force. On the agriculture subcommit tee he will help decide the am ount of money the agriculture department and its various pro grams will receive. He also was named to: The interior subcommittee, which handles all funds for rec lamation, reclamation bureau power projects, the bureau of land management, Indian bur eau and related activities of the interior department. The deficiency subcommittee which will handle supplemental army department civil functions appropriations, including funds for McNary dam and other dams in Oregon being constructed by the army engineers. The independent offices sub committee which will handle funds for all independent gov ernment agencies and for gov ernment corporations. The treasury-post office sub committee, which deals with ap propriations for those two de partments. Sonja Mink Coats Stolen New York, Jan. 28 (IP) Thieves ransacked the fashion able hotel apartment of ice-skating star Sonja Henie last night and stole two mink coats valued at $28,000 but apparently left ner jewelry intact. The coats were taken from Miss Henie's suite at the Hotel Pierre. Employers and Unions to Discuss Jobless Benefits Possibility of avoiding the usual argument over unemployment compensation and industrial accident benefits was seen here to day when officials of employer groups and labor leaders agreed to talk things over. They will meet here Monday night to try to agree on a legis lative program. Labor wants unemployment compensation benefits raised from $20 a week for 20 weeks m any one year, to $25 a week for 26 weeks. It wants industrial accident benefits boosted 30 percent. Employers don't think bene fits should be increased very much, And employers want their payrolls taxes reduced. If agreement is reached, it would remove one of the legis lature's most controversial is sues. The house education commit tee agreed to introduce the ba sic school suport bill of State Education Superintendent Rex Putnam. It would increase state aid to schools from $50 lo $95 per year for each school child, Seeks Right to Use Emergency Tax Bill Clause By JAMES D. OLSON A constitutional amendment to empower the legislature tu pass tax measures with an emergency clause, providing two thirds of the members of each house approves, was one of three measures dealing with the initiative laws placed on the house desk Friday for introduc tion Monday. Sponsoring the three meas ures which if passed by the le gislature, must be referred to the people for ratification, in clude Representatives Earl Hill of Lane county, Dean B. Erwin of Enterprise, John P. Houscll Hood River and David C. Baum, LaGrande. The second measure in the set placed in the house hopper would, if approved, require the signatures of at least eight per cent of the legal voters in every county of the state before an ii.itiative measure could be placed on the ballot. Under the present law eight percent of the voters of the 6tate must be on petitions. Initiative Petitions Should this measure win ap proval it would be far more dif ficult for petition circulators to obtain the required number of names to initiative petitions but proponents claim thai in many cases the present eight percent of signatures to petitions are ob tained in Portland, thus shut ling out upstate voters from any consideration of the petitions. The third measure would re quire an affirmative vote of at least 25 percent of the legal vot ers on any bond issue proposed by a county, school district or other sub-division of the state. Strong opposition to all of Ihe measures is certain to de velop, as the bills will be con sidered a direct effort to curtail the initiative and referendum rights of the voters. Reasons for Measures But the sponsors of the three measures contend that under piesent laws it: is virtually im possible for the legislature to lormulale a sound tax program because of the danger of hav ing the referendum applied to one or more of the tax propos als. Members who have joined in introducing these proposed con stitutional amendments feel that the voters have a right to say whether the legislature should be given an opportunity to pass ing necessary revenue raising measures without having its ef forts nullified by the action of a small segment of the state's vot ers," said Rep. Hill. "If two-thirds of the members of each house gives its stamp of approval to a tax measure there won't be much wrong with it," he concluded. Belton Bill Demands Plant Site Return A bill to make the stale give back the sites of three flay nlnni to their co-operative flax grow ers was proposed today by Sen. Howard C. Belton, Canby. The plants are at ranhv Springfield and Mt. Angel. Sen ator Belton said the plants were established with WPA aid 15 years ago, and the state accepted tine to me land because WPA ordered that a government ag encv must own the land Belton said the state has no money invested in the land, and the bill would put the land back on the tax rolls or from a total of $17,000,000 a year to $32,000,000. But the committee members said that didn't mean they would vote for the bill. They just agreed to introduce it to get It printed. Some committee members said they didn't like the idea at all. Putnam told the committee $75,000,000 must be spent in Oregon in the next five years lo bring Oregon schools up to standard. The bill also would set up a 2.000,000 annual fund to help poor districts construct new buildings. In order to make the bill taste better, a provision was attached to refer the whole measure to the people at the next special or general election. . 'I.V M"? rji. " Path Cleared Through Arizona Snow A mechanical snow remover clears a pain mrough inc snow on Aspen Ave., main thoroughfare of Flagstaff, Ariz., as the city worked to get out from under its worst snow storm since 1CD5. Nearly four feet has fallen this week to push the year's total over 100 inches. (AP Wirephoto) County Swaps Timber ith State By DON Following public hearing Friday held by the Marion county court and representatives of the state forestry department, the county court gave the go-ahead signal to state officials to complete negotiations on a swap of timber from 1120 acres of land on Sar dine creek in this county for 24,629 acres of land now owned by Deadlock in Palestine Peace Rhodes, Jan. 28 P) Israeli- Egyptian armistice negotiations were at the edge of failure to day. Failure of both sides to mo dify their -stands appeared like ly to wreck the conference very soon. Egypt has demanded the Jews give up gains in the south em desert which the Jews have refused to do. The two-weeks old negotia tions resumed- yesterday after a two-day recess during which the delegates went heme to con sult witli their governments on the deadlock. Reuven Shiloah, Israeli dele gate, returned from Tel Aviv with the word to acting UN me diator, Dr. Ralph Bunche, thai his government's position was "substantially unaltered," in formed sources reported. That meant Israel was deter mined to hold on to the Negev desert. Nor was there any indication of any alteration in Egypt's stand when Col. Ismail Sherine returned from Cairo. Alluding to the two defeats administered to the Egyptians in the desert since October, one Jewish source said, "(hey have apparently forgotten what sort of condition they were in when we agreed to a cease-fire or der." Ohio River Floods Invade Lowlands Cincinnati, Jan. 28 W) The flooding Ohio river invaded low lands and threatened towns long much of us 981-mile course to ay wun no immediate sign when it might crest in its fifst rampage of the year. ilood or near-flood stages were in prospect for river towns from Wheeling, .W. Va , far up stream, to Louisville, Ky., some iza mues. southwest. At Cairo, 111 , where a levee gives protection up to a 60-foot stage, the river already was sev en feet above the 40-foot flood level. Flooding tributaries in that area forced an estimated 1000 persons to flee from their homes. Lumber Shipments Drop 23.4 Percent Portland, Jan. 28 M"i Water shipments of lumber from the Pacific Northwest dropped 23.4 percent last year. The Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau reported shipments total led 2.015.724,719 board feet with the Columbia river ports lead ing the way Coos Bay and the Oregon coast area placed second. Ptiget Sound shipments were third. The fall-off was in the export market. Shipments to domestic markets increased 26.8 percent. for Land UPJOHN the Cascade Operating company but which was bulk of the old Silver Falls Timber company holdings lying east of the Silver Falls recreational area. If the deal goes through as contemplated this will give the state to develop for the county's benefit the watersheds of both Abiqua and Silver Creeks run ning back to "House Mountain and Lockout Mountain. The slate already owns the land im mediately adjacent to the north which contains headwaters of Butte Creek and includes 6000 acres. It is estimated the swap represents a value of about $250,000 to $300,000 on each side of the fence. The next move now will be for the forestry department to appraise the timber on the 1120 acres and when this is cruised then the swap will be made on the valuation of the timber against the valuation of the 24, 629 acres, which roughly is ap praised al $10 an acre. Actual purchaser will be the Vancou ver Plywood company which ex- pccis to ouy the 24,629 acres from the Cascade Operating comany and in turn trade it with the state for the Sardine Creek timber. County Judge Grant Murphy in commenting on the deal said that it would be possible for the state timber on Sardine creek to be sold immediately and the county get an immediate benefit of 75 per cent of the value of the timber sold. But, if it did this, then the slate would have only the 1120 acres back. But under the proposed deal when the 1120 acres is logged off this also will go back to the state to grow a new forest on and in addition it will have the 24,629 acres which It will secure in the trade. (Concluded on Paire 5, Column 8) Big Meteor Seen Thursday Some Salem residents report ed seeing an unusually large meteor here late Thursday. Seattle, Jan. 28 (U.R) A bright object about the size of a basket ball, while hot and trailing a short tail of falling "stars," was reported speeding across the skies in the Seattle area about 5:35 p.m. (PST) last night. Prof. T. S. Jacobscn, Univer sity of Washington astronomer, said judging by descriptions fur nished by residents the object probably was an exceptionally larEe meteor. A woman said she was stand ing at the window of her Queen Anne Hill home whore the ob ject blazed across the sky above Elliott bay and appeared to be headed toward downtown Seat tle. She said it looked as though "sparks were shooting from the sides." Another woman said it ap peared from the south and look ed as if it "swooped into Lake Washington. Several persons reported the speeding object appeared close overhead, but Jacobsen said it may have been several hundred miles above the surface of the earth. j JF 10 More C-82 Flying Hay Ely, Nev., Jan. 28 (PiTen more C-82 flying boxcars are on the way to join Nevada's op eration haylift today. Jubiliant ranchers predicted two more days of the aerial feeding would see their snowbound livestock over the hump. Clearing skies were in the off nig aflcr poor visibility which made yesterday's flights a bor derline operation. But, despite clouds thai shrouded the nioun tains around tins aulield, air force crews continued to drop baled hay. At Hamilton field, Calif., the Fourth Air Force annouced mo than 250 Ions of feed have been supplied in four days to cattle and sheep on the eastern Nevada ranges. sixteen tliglils were made yesterday. The 10 C-82s were dispatched from Greenville air force base in South Carolina lo aid the 17 al ready engaged in hay drop. In Carson City, Governor Vnil Pittman asked the Nevada leg islature for an emergency appro priation of $75,000; the money would be used to purchase avail able feed in the slate, to prevent outside interests from bidding up the price. But legislators referred the governor lo an $83,000 fund available lo the state's sheep and stock commissions, then ad journed for the week-end. Meantime the stale fish and game commission joined with the federal fish and wildlife service to set up feeding stations for starving ducks, geese, deer and other wildlife. Thousands of Robins Eating Salem Apples Robins like apples, better nnr. haps, than humans. Anyway appics still hane on the trees of a vacant lot in the 1700 block on North Fitlh. and Friday thousands of robins were flocked under the trees eating the apples, Mrs. Carl Pyeatt. who live just across the strecl. said she thought no less than 3000 of the birds were in the abandoned garden. Throughout the cold snell many Salem residents have been feeding birds of various kinds i New Salem Bus Terminal Delayed Indefinitely The sotting up of a new lni min.il for Sale m street hnsnc ic tin,,, delayed indefinitely. And with bus depot and wailing room in The reason for it is the possibility that the citv will nn-enl Ihr. recommendations of R. II. Baldock, state highway engineer fur system of one-way streets, which is part of his general re port on street, highway and bridge improvements. Last Monday night the cily ccuncil voted, with approval of City Transit Lines, lo move the bus terminal from Commercial and State about half a block north where the buses would have 170 feet of ;;pacc from iniaway of the block lo the Commercial and Ccurt street corner. At the same time City Tran sit Lines announced they had arranged for a long-term lease in the Brcyman building, ad joining the Quisenbcrry drug store, for a bus waiting room and depot. But the Baldock report, if adopted by the city, will make Commercial a one-way street foi southbound traffic Buses on the street, according to the ter minal arrangement, would be headed north along the east side, Fight to Save Millions Of Starving Livestock Slowed Down More bad weather hits por tions of the slorm-slrickcn western rang elands today. Snow and wind storms slowed to some degree the fight which is being waged on many fronts lo save, the millions of starving mid snow-bound cattle and sheep. There were fresh falls of snow, accompanied by strong winds, in Nebraska and in parts of Nevada, Utah, Idaho and Arizona. Nebraska, one of the hardest hit by the earlier blizzards, got the most snow. Winds whipped the snow into drifts over newly chared highways ana rail lines and curtailed relief work in Ihe disaster areas. Lesser amounts of snow fell in other parts of the rangclunds and did not seriously interfere with the relief operations. Emergency Cash Relict Emergency cash relief came from federal and state sources to finance the huge task of sav ing the more than 5,000,000 cat tle and sheep which are in va rying degrees of distiess in the western storm area. Inclement weather also struck over other sections of the na tion. There was widespread preci pitation over the central part of the country. There was a band of freezing rain and sleet from southern lower Michigan into Texas. Snow fell over most of the north central region. Tem peratures dropped and a new cold wave was forecast. Kleods in Ohio Flood conditions remained in the weather picture. Warnings were issued for a 171-mile stretch of the Ohio past Cincin nati. Some 1000 families have been driven from their homes by flood waters from Ohio riv er tributaries in southern Illi nois. Rain fell along the Amiala- chians and in the north Atlan tic states. There was snow in the New England slates. Tem peratures continued mild in the rtvjiiiiicasiern suues and were slightly below normal along Ihe fficuie coast. No Real Break In Weather Due Cold weather continued over Oregon today and the weather Dureau said no Break was in sight. in some places minimums ear ly today weren't quite as low as they have been Brookings on the south coast for instance was 36 above bul the state still had sub-zero points. Burns al minus 7 was the cold spot this morning Those who thoughl the weal It er might be moderating a bit Thursday, changed Iheir minds Friday when the mercury dipped to 17 degrees for the day's min imum and a forecast that the low would drop to 15 degrees to night. Prospects arc the week-end will continue the cold to make it a solid month of below-frcez- mg temperatures. Friday was the 28th day of it. The maximum Thursday man aged to climb to 38 degrees and the mean for the day was high er than it has been, 31 degrees, or 9 below normal. The weather bureau predicts the cold will continue tonight and Saturday and that there will be some local fog in the morn ing. it is gone the establishment of a the Brcyman building ot the street, as they now are al the other end of the block So both the new plan and the one now existing will be knock ed out if Commercial becomes one-way. Mayor Robert L Elfstroni sees a possible shift of the ter minal lo Liberty street, though long negot i a t i n g probably would be necessary. A move to any street on the fringe of the cily center is impossible, the transportation company offi cials have tnld the city empha tically. While one-way streets may nor be established for possibly two years, the moving of the terminal to another part of Commercial street would hard ly be justified as a temporary measure it is believed, and a short-term lease of the waiting room space probably would not be acceptable to the owner of the building. J Indications were stronger to day thai Salem will accept most, if not all, of the Baldock rec ommendations for bridge, street and highway improvements in Salem. That observation seems to b justified by the absence of criti cism Thursday night when R. H. Baldock, state highway engi neer, reviewed the recommen dations at a joint meeting of tha cily council, the city planning and zoning commission, and tha long-range planning commission. Silting in also at the Senator hotel dinner meeting were tht West Salem city council, and members of the Marion and Polk county legislative delegations. 87.000.000 Estimated Cost Baldock showed lhat the study, approved by the stale highway commission and involving a to tal estimated cost of $7,600,000, has buck of it two years of in tensive observation and research, in which records and experi ences of cities in all parts of the country with similar problems have been considered. Stress was put on the two bridge, and the one-way street grid recommendations which have excited the most local com ment. These with recommenda tion for a by-pass route just west of or coinciding witli Lancaster drive for through traffic on highway 99E, and a link-up with the North Santiam highway coming into Salem constitute the four points of the program, Bridge First, Grid Second In reply to questions Baldock said he thought the sequence of Ihe projects should be, first the bridge, than the grid plan, th by-pass, and the Santiam high way hook-up. He said, however, il wouldn't be necessary to wait for completion of the bridge to put the grid plan into effect, and that traffic increase might force t. These two parts of the rec ommendations arc interlinked. One-way streets and off-street parking, the engineer said, are tlie two best methods of keeping a city center intact. (Concluded on Paire 5, Column ) Carnival of Crashed Autos A 19-year-old West Salem youth, picked up on a charge of reckless driving with liquor in volved after a smashup which scrambled five cars, headed a list of three drivers who appeared rnday in police court on the same charge. Police reports showed that Kenneth E. Griffin, 1017 7th, West Salem, bumped parked ears on South Commercial street which resulted in a total collision of five cars. One of the parked cars struck a park ing meter. The last in the row was struck by another parked car and was undamaged. Griffin was fined $250 on the driving charge and pleaded in nocent to illegal possession of intoxicating liquor. A third charge against him, no driver's license, was continued. The second driver on the same charge was Ted T. Kightlinger, 025 N. Winter. His bail was set at $200. Bail for a third driver, Milton Parker, 990 N. Winter, was set at $250. Harry E. Young, route 2, Mo- lalla, originally booked on a charge of reckless driving, liq uor involved was fined $200 on a charge of driving under the in fluence of intoxicating liquor. His driver's license was revoked for a year. A 30-day jail term was to be suspended upon pay ment of the fine. Oregon Highways Still Hazardous Ice and packed snow si ill were major driving hazards in all sec tions of Oregon Friday. The slate highway commission re ported slick sections on all o the state's major highways. The commission warned all week-end motorists to carry chains as wcatilt-r predictions forecast continued cold. Sand ing operations are now in prog ress on the mountain passes lead ing to the state's ski resorts. THE WEATHER (Released bv the United States Weather Bureau f Forecast for .Snlein and Vicin ity: Fair tonight and Saturday except, for local mnming fogs. Continued cold, Lowest expected lonieht, 15 degrees; highest Sat urday. .17. Maximum yesterday :18. Minimum today 17. Mean temperature yesterday 3t which was 9 below normai. Total 24 honr precipitation ui 11:30 a.m. today trace. Tot.nl precipitation for the month .52 oi an inch which is 4,29 inches below nor mal. Willamette rivre height at Salem Friday mornine, -l.l feet.