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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 2, 1945)
Nazis Flee From Western Bulge; Start New Push in Northeast France Weather Forecast: Mostly cloudy tonlsht and Wednesday. Llttio cbanf o In temperature. Temp. Highest yesterday ,. ., 46 Lowest this morning , 36 Thirty-ninth Year Utah Train I i ' tp(fr .'v ," . I At least 48 persons were killed and more than 100 injured in this Southern Pacific's crack westbound Pacific Limited passenger train Lake. 14 miles west of Ogden. Utah. Most of the dead were in the shown here telescoped after the 12-car second section plowed into it. S.P. ADDS 48 TO LIST OF HOLIDAY DEAD ' Br United Press i Deaths caused by accidents during the three-day holiday week-end reached 241 today with the collision of two sec tions of a Southern Pacific pas senger train claiming 48 lives. Aside from the train wreck, which occurred near Ogden, Utah, California led the states with 22 deaths.. Pennsylvania, was second with 18 and Michi gan third with 15. . : Throughout the nation, traffic accidents took more than 115 lives. ,-. Ogden, Utah, Jan. 2 U.R Traffic was resumed over the Southern Pacific railroad today as officials tentatively sched uled an investigation into the wreck of the Pacific Limited in which 48 persons were killed and 76 others injured early Sunday in a disastrous rear end collision 22 miles west of here. . Eleven cars of the two trains were broken and telescoped when the fast 20-car mail and express section of the Limited ran through red signals, tor pedo warning and flares and ploughed Into the sleeper car at the rear of the 18-car passen ger section. Delayed By Freight The passenger train had been delayed by a freight which had stopped to repair a hot box. It had just started to move again when the fast express hurtled out of the pre-dawn darkness and ploughed into it, telescop ing the cars, ripping up a half mile of track and scattering pieces of wreckage and bodies for nearly 100 yards on both sides of the tracks. ' It was all over In a few sec onds, but in that time the crack train was turned into what Dr. L. S. Sycamore, Ogden, de scribed as a "mass of twisted and broken steel, sprinkled with arms, legs and torsos of passen gers and crewmen." Nearly all of the dead, many of them servicemen returning to duty after spending Christ mas furloughs with relatives, were among passengers and crewmen of the sleepers, diner and daycoach at the rear of the passenger train. Only seven occupants of the last car of the passenger section escaped alive. One whole fam ily of four, a man and his wife and two daughters, were snuff ed out in the crash. They were identified as Mr. and Mrs. Leroy Porter, Sparks, Nev., and their daughters, Peg gy, 14, and Mary, 8. In addi tion, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Fran cis, a brother and sister-in-law of the Porters, also were killed. James McDonald, 64, Ogden, engineer of the mail express died as the steam locomotive crashed, but his fireman, M. E. Hardman, also of Ogden es caped with minor injuries and shock. Hardman said he saw the flares and shouted to the engl nees that "something is wrong". A few seconds later, he said the engine hit the torpedo warning signals and immediately after that the crash occurred Medford OaiUd Prni Wreck Takes Search For Dead In Wreck fin iMnMlm, Using crow bars and torches, rescue workers (arrow) fight their way into twisted cars of tha Southern Pacific's Pacific Limited, wrecked near Ogden. Utah. IN WINDUP PLEA Hollywood, Jan. 2 U.R) Charlie Chaplin's attorney, mak ing his final argument to a jury of seven women and five men today, hammered away at Joan Barry's story of the month of December, the one in which she says the comedian caused her to become a mother. She was mixed up on the dates, told at least two different stories, and on at least one of the three occasions wasn't with the actor long enough for anything to happen, Attorney Charles E. Millikan said in slow, deliberate fashion. Two Possibilities At least two other men could have been the father of the child, he set forth, citing testimony of Dr. Russell Starr that the period of gestation is 270 days from con ception, with a possibility of two weeks variance either more or less. "Mr. O. C. Lassiter, former as sistant county attorney In Tulsa, Okla., has testified that Miss Barry admitted to him that she spent at least a day in the Mayo hotel In Tulsa January 12 with oil man J. Paul Getty. "January 12 is 270 days minus two weeks from October 2, the day Carol Ann was born. With Reusch, Too "She was in the apartment of Writer Hans Reusch a number of times in December, by her own account. "The blood test," by which three doctors ruled Chaplin could not De tne father, "is com pletely unrefuted and irrefut able. Miss Barry's counsel has waved it aside with a gesture.' FuU Lund Wire MEDFORD, OREGON, TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 194 g Many Lives wreck of two sections of the near the shore of Great Salt rear coach of the first section, New Rocket Bomb Will Rule Pacific Is Japanese Boast By United Press A Tokyo broadcast, beamed to Latin America, asserted Tuesday that a Japanese-manufactured rocket bomb would make its de but in the Pacific "soon." The broadcast, recorded by the FCC, quoted the Domei News agency as predicting: "The day is near when the efforts of our scientists will dominate the skies of the Pa cific ocean." T London,. Jan. 2 flJ.PJ Red army toops captured 232 blocks of houses in the eastern part of Budapest today and 63 blocks in the western half of the Hun garian capital, a Moscow com munique said tonight. The communique said soviet forces had repelled heavy Ger man attacks southeast of Komar- no, west of Budapest on the road to Vienna, and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. SIR BERTRAM RAMSEY, NAVY CHIEF, KILLED Paris, Jan. 2 U.P.) Adm. Sir Bertam Ramsey, naval commander-in-chief under Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, was killed today In an airplane ac cident while on his way to a conference in Belgium. TAX SUIT FILED Hollywood, Jan. 2 flJ.PJ Movie Producer B. P. Schulberg today was named defendant in a federal government suit charg ing he, owes $101,808.14 Income taxes and Interest for 1934-39. Federal Grand Ju " Eyes Ward Seizure As Store Managers Replaced by Army TWO WAREHOUSES IN DETROIT AREA ALSO TAKEN OVER Eight Company Officials in St. Paul Refuse to Obey Orders or to Leave Plant. Chicago, Jan. 2 QJ.PJ A fed eral grand jury met in special session today to investigate the government s seizure of Mont gomery Ward and company as the army moved swiftly toward a snowdown on its ability to op erate the retail store and mail order -firm s facilities in seven cities without co-operation from the company s top executives U. S. District Attorney J. Al bert Woll went before the spe cial session of the December January grand jury to ask in vestigation of whether the com pany violated the Smith-Connal- ly act and whether there was any conspiracy against the gov ernment in the company's resist ance to the seizure and operation of the plants by the army. Other rapid-fire developments in the Montgomery Ward case today included: 1. Maj. Gen.. Joseph Byron, army officer assigned to operate the seized Ward facilities, an nounced Ward officials refusing to co-operate with the govern ment's operations would be re moved and that all other steps necessary to the army's opera tion of the facilities would be taken. . ; 2t Four store managers for Montgomery Ward in the Detroit area were removed and replaced by army officers. . 3. The army seized two addi tional Ward warehouses at De troit. , 4. Eight Wards officials in St. Paul refused to accept army ap pointmnets and seven refused to leave the plant. They were re placed by a staff headed by Maj. Paul A. Getty, but no effort to evict the seven who refused to leave was made. Woll did not elaborate on what violations of the Smith Connally act might be involved in the grand jury investigation but it was the company's refusal to grant certain union contracts in compliance with war labor board orders that led to the gov ernment seizure of the Ward fa cilities last Thursday. "JAFSIE" PASSES New York, Jan. 2 U.R) Dr. J. F. Condon, 84, intermediary in the Lindbergh kidnaping case, died today ten years to the day after Bruno Richard Hauptmann went on trial for the murder of Charles A. Lindbergh, Jr. Dr. John F. Condon might have lived and died and been remembered in nis native Bronx as an eccentric schoolmaster, a booster of his borough and a writer of salty letters to the edi tors, had he not, in 1032, coined the name of "Jafsie" from his initials find placed his six-foot, 250-pound figure In the spot light of the Lindbergh kidnap ing case. BY JAP PLANE Pacific Fleet Headquarters, Pearl Harbor, Jan. 2 (U.PJ A lone Japanese plane dropped a single bomb on American air in stallations at Saipan Monday, and Liberators of the strategic air force bombed Iwo Jima Sun day for the 25th consecutive day. Pacific fleet headquarters re ported today. Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimltz' communique said the enemy raider, a twin-engined bomber, failed to cause damage. Montgomery May Take Command Of All West Front London, Jan. 2 0J.PJ Specu lation mounted today that Mar shal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery, Britain's No. 1 war idol, may be named deputy supreme comman der for the western front with jurisdiction over all seven allied armies. Swedish reports that Mont gomery will be given command of all ground forces coincided with increasing criticism that Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme' commander, has been saddled with so many political and economic problems that he has been unable to devote suf ficient time to coordinating ground operations. - Military informants said Els enhower's burdens have been Increasing enormously in the past three months. Therefore, If a shakeup should occur, it would not be due exclusively to the recent German counterot- fenslve in the Ardennes, they said. TO LAND IN U. S. New York, Jan. 2 flJ.PJ- Edgar Hoover, director of the federal bureau gt Investigation, warned today" of a new "Inten sified" effort by Germany to send saboteurs to this country as he revealed the arrest of two agents landed a month ago by submarine on the coast of Maine. . The men, arrested in New York, were William Curtis Cole- paugh, 26, a native of Connecti cut with a discharge from the U. S. navy, and Enrich Gimpel, JO, a German citizen, interned for a time in this country but sent home as an exchange pris oner only to return as a spy They landed November 29 in Frenchman Bay. Plenty of Money The two men, trained in espionage and sabotage in Ber lin, Dresden and The Hague, were equipped with $60,000 in United States currency, forged birth certificates copied after those of the Connecticut depart ment of health, forged discharges from the U. S. navy, secret ink and other paraphernalia. Both were carrying .32 caliber pistols when arrested and had assem bled parts for a short wave radio transmitter. "The landing of these two men and of the two Japanese balloons in the northwest and other matters I cannot disclose at the moment for reasons of se curity indicate that the German government has a very intensi fied program of training and sending agents into the western hemisphere," Hoover said. Hoover asked the public to alert itself against possible spies and saboteurs.. Hoover revealed the arrest of Colepaugh and Gimpel at a press conference last night. Their assignment, he said, was to mingle with service men in bars and pick up bits of valuable In formation which they planned to transmit to the enemy. They had not yet attempted to send any information, he said. 268 Divorces and 587 Marriages In County Last Year Divorces filed in Jackson county in 1944 totalled 268, and 387 marriage licenses were issued, according to records of the county clerk's office. The marriage licenses were 377 less than in 1943, which had a rec ord breaking total of 964, due largely to many Camp White soldiers being married here. The first 1945 marriage of record was between Roy Bcal and Grayce M'Carthy both of Siskiyou county, Calif. They pro cured their license here, Decem ber 11 last, and were married yesterday by Justice of the Peace W, P, Tucker, at his borne, Tribune United Pru full ROOSEVELT HINTS BIG THREE PLAN EARLYPALAVER Congressional Leaders Also Told Annual Message Will Be Delivered Saturday. Washington, Jan. 2 U.R) Congressional leaders said to day that President Roosevelt had "Indicated" to them that he would meet "sometime soon' with Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Premier Josef Stalin. The information was. devel oped at the leaders' first confer ence of the year with the presl dent, in preoaration for the new congress which convenes tomor row. Message Saturday It was decided that the presi dent will send his annual mes sage to confess on Saturday. The indication of an early meeting of the "big three" al lied leaders was reported by Senate Majority Leader Alben W. Barkley, D.. Ky. He told re- Dorters as a sort of an after thought: i "The president indicated that sometime soon without Indi cating the time or place he will meet with Churchill and Stalin." House Democratic Leader John W. McCormack, D Mass , quickly Inlected'.' "proBaWy;" " " Tim Unset ' Barkley echoed this. Then he and McCormack stressed that there was "nothing yet as to time or place." Barkley said the president's annual message vould be sent to congress on Saturday, the day the electoral votes will be 'count ed on Capitol Hill. He said he expected the present would send his new budget to the congress early next week, probably Tues day. Mr. Roosevelt will not deliver the messages in person. They will be transmitted and read by clerks. STILL UNIMPROVED Reports from Portland this afternoon were to the effect that the condition of Judge Herbert K. Hanna, circuit court judge seriously ill in a Portland hos pital, remains unimproved. A United Press wire bulletin read, "Judge Hanna condition semi comatose with periods of normal consciousness." Judge Hanna was taken to Portland the middle part of last week after an illness of several days. When the seriousness of the judge's condition became ap parent, the state supreme court assigned Circuit Judge James W. Crawford of Portland as tempor ary Judge for this district. Mysterious Balloon Is Found Near Estacada Portland, Ore., Jan. 2 U.P.) Army officers and FBI agents to day veiled in secrecy results of their intensive investigation of a large balloon possibly of Japa nese origin found in wooded country about 38 miles south east of Portland. Belief that the Japanese could launch long-range, small-scale paper-balloon forays against the west coast of North America from bases between Formosa and the Kuriles was expressed by Professor P. E. Church, for mer army-navy oceanography in structor, in Seattle. The balloon was discovered by unidentified residents of the area near Estacada, site of a large power plant Several miles away lies an important part of Port land's water system -the Bull Run headworks. Army and FBI officials de clined comment as to: Whether Leased Wire NO. 239. DRAFT OF 4-F'S Reconversion Director Has Legislative Plan for Tight Control Over Manpower. Washington! Jan. 2 flJ.R) An administration request for new laws to tighten government controls of manpower, including a draft of 4-F's for essential war work, faced the 79th congress to day on the eve of its opening session. . The request, together with other recommendations to bol ster the war effort on the home front, was made by War Moblli- Zhtion and Reconversion Direc tor James F. Byrnes in a 20,000 word report to the new congress which begins Its two-year ex istence at noon tomorrow. Legislation Listed Declaring that the nation's in dustrial and manpower resources are still far from totally mobil ized, Byrnes told congress that the following legislation was needed to enable the war pro gram to "ride on a horse instead of a mule": 1. Authority to assign 4,000,- 000 4-F's to war jobs as well as military service unless they al ready are engaged in essential activity; r " - - . 2. Authority for the war man power commission to enforce its regulations limiting the num ber of workers employers may retain. - 3. Authority for the war labor board to enforce its decisions m courts without resorting to property seizure, thus permit ting the government to treat "the Petrlllos and Averys alike." ,4. Increased unemployment benefits for war workers who may be temporarily out of jobs when the war ends and adequate financial assistance In re-estab lishment of small businesses dis continued as a result of the war. Revlsa Farm Rule Byrnes also suggested revision of draft deferment standards for men in agriculture in anticipa tion of increased calls by selec tive service. The Byrnes report provided the first glimpse of the legisla tive program which the Roose velt administration will propose to the new congress as its part in speeding victory and laying the groundwork for enduring peace with economic prosperity. JUDGE J. B. COLEMAN CONTINUES IMPROVE County Judge J. B. (Blin) Coleman, following an attack Sunday, was reported by mem bers of his family, as showing improvement today. He has been 111 at his home for the past ten days from a coronary attack, and his condition has been change able. - Power Plant the balloon was Japanese, for what purpose such balloons might be employed by the Japa nese, where or how they would have been released. An army de molition squad removed the bal loon from a tree in which it landed. The balloon was report ed to have no marking. Church said Japanese "sui cide" balloons could make one way trans-Pacific flights at speed of from 50 to 100 miles per hour from Kurile bases and " rea sonably be expected to cover the 5,000-mile distance in SO to 100 hours" with the aid of seasonal winter gales. This was the third mysterious balloon recently discovered in the northwest. A balloon identi fied as Japanese was found near KalispeU, Mont., about three weeks ago. A second mysterious balloon of unidentified origin was found near Tacoma, Wash., last week. REQUEST PUSH NEAR BITCHE ON 50-MILE FRONT Nazi Aggression Spreading Into Saar Valley; Heavy Attack Near Wulferdingen Paris, Jan. 2 flJ.PJ German forces were reported fleeing the western-most bulge of the Bel gian salient today, but to tha southeast they were building up an attack of considerable strength on a front of about SO miles between the Saarland and the upper Rhine. The new German push was centered in the Bitche area of northeastern France. Supreme headquarters announced that around Bitche the nazis gained a mile and a half, cut the road running five miles southeast to Bannestin, probably captured the latter town and still were pressing on. Attack Spreading The Germans now are active throughout the border area from Bitche tc the Rhine, official sources reported. A field broad-1. cast said the nazi aggressiveness was spreading westward into the ' Saar valley, where a heavy at tack was launched In the area of Wulferdingen 13 miles south east of Saarbrucken. Lt. ' Gen. George S. Patton's 3d army units chopped into the south flank of the Ardennes salient gained another souple of miles in a number of sectors up to yesterday morning, supreme headquarters reported. They recaptured Molrey,, 11 miles west of Bastogne and southwestern anchor post of tha nazi salient, which had changed hands repeatedly In the previous fighting. Closer to Bastogne, the doughboys seized Hubermont, six miles east of the Belgian road center; Harlange six miles southeast, and Neffe, two miles east. Patton's gains had Ironed out the German bulges on each side of Bastogne, removing any cur rent threat to the citadel, while his units pushed on to the north toward Houffallze, 10 miles above Bastogne on the Liege highway. A German commu nique, said, the Americans- we-re trying to break through toward Houffallze, a possible hint that they were approaching the town. - - ls Bee Thrust The steady gains of the Sd army threatened to cut off the westren half of the German sal ient, and lt was this mounting threat which apparently nromnt- ed tne nazi withdrawal from the bulge west of the line through Bastogne. The German nullout annarent. ly was reflected by a front re port which said that in the area of Hotton, along the northwest rim oi the salient, patrol thrusts nearly two miles deep into the enemy positions failed to elicit resistance. LEAVING FRIDAY FOR NAVY DUTY Arthur M. Cannon, manager of the Fluhrer Bakeries, has been commissioned a junior grade lieutenant in the navy and will leave Medford Friday night to report to naval headquarters In Seattle. Cannon received word December 23 of his appointment and copies of his reporting or ders arrived this morning. For the present managership of the bakery chain will be di vided between Mrs. William H. Fluhrer ,Fred Hoagland, man ager of the Klamath Falls bak ery, Ray Harrison, . sales man. ager, and Eugene Ferrell, chief accountant for the bakeries. It was stated this morning that there Is a possibility that Major Fluhrer, owner of the bakeries, now overseas with the air corps, would be able to return to active managership of the firm In the not too distant future. Mr. Cannon, who came to Med ford in September of 1940, has been active In civic circles and is resigning as president of the Medford Community Chest, from the board of directors of the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce and as treasurer of the Civic Music association In order to enter the navy. Cannon, a 1933 graduate oi the Univer sity of Oregon school of busi ness administration and a mem ber of the university chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, was with a firm of certified public accountants in Portland before coming to Med ford. He Is a member of the Medford Rotary club. Mrs. Cannon and the Cannons' two small daughters will remain at the family home, 16 Glen Oak Court, for the present.
