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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (April 6, 1952)
Weather Recommended BEDFORD FORECAST Generally cloudy, cooler Sunday. Possible light rain Sunday .nlcht. Expected high Sunday (5-68, expected low 38. Temp. Highest Saturday 75 Lowest Saturday 44 A feature tory ra tfc )uk ioa county blooS. collection prop-am appear em Fat 13 ' say's Mail Trioane. United Prsj Full Leased Wir Wire 47th Year 32 Pages MEDFORD, OREGON, SUNDAY, APRIL 6, 1952 No. 13 Tut Mr taite ISo Agreement Seen' lo) mm n-f- nji. lini i. o . United Pre Full Leased 20 EPUBL CAB race C-46 Cargo Plane Explodes in NY Streets; 5 Dead Disaster Brings Total ; To 124 Killed in Area New York 4J.R) A twin-engined C-46 cargo plane groping through a gray rainstorm for landing at Idlewild airport crashed into a cluster of frame homes on Long Island Saturday, killing five persons and injuring 24. The crash, the fourth major air disaster in the New York metropolitan area in , four months, smashed and burned six homes and wrecked automobiles. Scores of persons ran into the streets fearing that their homes, too, would go up in flames. Two Miles Short- of Port The U. S. airlines cargo plane, a Curtiss Commando, ended its flight from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., in a burst of flames in the Jam aica section of Queens, 13 miles east of Times Square and two miles short of Idlewild airport. The Civil Aeronautics Admin istration said the plane flew off the course recommended by the control tower to the runway. The disaster raised to 124 the number of persons killed in four . major airplane crashes in the metropolitan area since Decem ber. Three of them were at Elizabeth, N. J., near Newark airport, which was closed after the third wreck. Want Fields Closed . The new tragedy raised cries from residents of Queens for the closing of La Guardia and Idle wild airports, which are sur rounded by densely populated residential areas on Long Island. It disrupted a search by local and federal authorities for ways to lift the "umbrella of danger" created by low-flying airplanes. "These air-rmrrders J must top," declared State Sen. Sey mour Helpern. The pilot and co-pilot of the C-46 were blown to bits when their plane dropped out of the sky with its landing gear down. Most of the dead and injured were in the crumpled, burned- ' out buildings! Homes Burned Out Some of the injured were not in serious condition, but had to remain at hospitals because they had no place to go. Only the walls of their charred homes were left. A police inspector was killed while driving down the street. His automobile was caught by one of the plane's wings as it smacked against a fence. A nurse was hurt by a piece of flying wreckage as she walked to the corner to take a bus to work. One of the planes engines cracked onto the pavement near where she was hit. Plan Explodes The plane exploded after it roared into one two-story frame dwelling and bounced across a parking lot into another home, only a short distance from a main thoroughfare and a busy Jamaica shopping center. The blast, heard for. blocks, showered the intersection of 169th street and 88th avenue with flaming wreckage and cargo. Three frame houses on one corner were burned out. Diagonally across the street, two other , frame dwellings sep arated by the parking lot, were destroyed. The houses on the other two corners were almost 'untouched. ; (See Stories Pag 7) . - Government Units Start Preparation of With the deadline for com pletion of budgests still about three months away, county, city and county school officials this .week start preparation of plans for the .coming fiscal year. The county rural school board has conducted four meetings on budgets and the county school office is now required to notify local district boards of any changes before April 10. Hear ings on changes will be held April IS and 16 and rural boards will be notified of final changes on or before April 20. County Superintendent Alf B. Mekvold said this morning that the final budget will exceed the six per cent limitation on the county equalized levy. County wide elections for approval of exceeding the limitation will be held on or before the third Mon I : Op "GOOD Christian living and a happy family" are. responsible for long life says Mrs. Christina Nelson, 106 - year - old, of Nor walk, Cal. (International) Employment Stays Slow During March OSES Report Says While employment picked up somewhat during March, the month remained a "winter month" from the employment standpoint, it was reported Sat urday by the Medford office of the Oregon State Employment Service. The greatest gain in the num ber of jobs available came dur ing the last week of the month, the report said, and outside work generally began to get under way and some new hires were being made, but had not yet reached any considerable vol ume. Claims Drop The number of jobless pay claims dropped 15.3 per cent from February, and were con tinuing to drop as the month ended. The number of unem ployed on the last day of the month was estimated at 1,938, a decline of 23.6 per cent from the month before. Job placements were about 40 per cent better than in February. The report said the labor sup ply here appears to be adequate for the next 60 days, but that after then the usual increase in seasonal work may cause short ages in some occupations, par ticularly in skilled trades. This will probably be the case regardless of what takes place regarding the reconstruction at Camp White, the report said, and it predicted that if the Army project is carried out, there will be an even greater shortage which will extend to many other occupations. A considerable number of high school students will be available for permanent employ ment after graduation in June, and the report said the employ ment office has been conducting an extensive aptitude testing program, which has shown this year's graduating classes to offer an excellent source of recruit ment for new employees. - The office . invited inquiries regarding employment of gradu ates. . New York (U.R) Newbold Morris, ousted , federal corrup tion hunter, said Saturday night that it would be impossible for the FBI to handle an investiga tion such as the one he started Brussels, Belgium (U.R) An international jury of film per sonalities Saturday named the 27-year-old Russian film, "Bat tleship Potemkin," as the best film of the past SO years. Budgets day in May with the exact date undecided, he said. . Departmental estimates of costs for the 1952-53 fiscal year are still being received by the county- court. After estimates have been received from the county clerk, the district court and county welfare commission, meetings will be scheduled by the budget committee and the county court. Public hearings will also be scheduled. City officials report that they are about ready to start meet ings of the budget committee and the city council on the-Medford fiscal program for the com ing year. Members of the city budget committee include Chair man Floyd Watkins, and Jim Roots, Robert Rector, ' Tony Manno, Charles Crary,' Lew Bates, Archie Fries and A. A. Lausmann. Collision of Two Military Planes Kills 15 Persons Mother and Child Die In Crash Over Mobil Mobile, Ala. AJ.R A mother and her critically ill baby being flown to a hospital on a mercy mission were among IS persons killed when two big military planes collided over Mobile, authorities reported late Satur day. The bodies of Mrs. Paul E. Neville and her eight-weeks old son Robert were among the nine recovered from the twisted fuse lage of a C-47 transport which crashed into a swamp after the spectacular air collision Friday night. Long Starch for Plan Ground and helicopter teams which reached the demolished transport after a long search Saturday also brought out the body of Sgt. Paul E. Neville, son of Mrs. Hallie Buster of Arcadia, Calif. Officials of Lawson Air Force Base near Ft Benning, Ga., said the Neville's were being rushed to Walter Reed hospital at Washington. D. C for an emer gency operation on the child for a dangerous tumor. The collision low over Mobile suburbs tragically ended an Air Force effort to save the life of the son of the youthful trainee of a Ft.. Benning officer candi date school. Lawson officials said. The transport had been sum moned from Brookley Field. Ala., for the mission. ' Another victim was the flight nurse, officials said. Try to Cool Wreckage Other squads worked to cool off the wreckage of a huge C-124 cargo plane that had plunged in flames into a railroad yard, but after 24 hour only five of the six bodies believed aboard the craft had been recovered. Scorching heat still prevented a complete search of the plane that had plummeted in flames into yards of the Gulf. Mobile and Ohio railroad after the mis hap low over a Mobile suburb. Names of the victims aboard the C-124 could not be released until after a special disaster identification squad could be brought in late Saturday -ty piane irom Wright Field at Day ton, O. Based at Brookley All crewmen of the C-47 were said to have been based at near by Brookley Field, including the flight nurse reported among the dead. A spokesman at Brooklev Field said the Nevilles were un derstood to have been en route to the Walter Reed hospital at Washington to obtain emergency medical treatment for the child. This could not be confirmed immediately, however. Communists Claim Illegal UN Attack Tokyo. Sunday (UJD Com munist truce negotiators submitted a "furious protest" today at Panmunjom charging tnat two United Nations planes attacked Red delegation supply vehicles yesterday morning. Col. Chang Chun San, senior Communist liason officer, hand ed the protest to Col. Andrew J. Kinney, the U. N.'s senior liason officer, this morning. The protest was the only con crete development of the day as sub-delegates held one of the shortest truce supervision meet ings in a three-minute parley that wound up with an agree ment again to disagree. High-ranking officers from both sides participating in the debate have met for three. 20 and 11 minutes in the three sessions since the issues were passed up to the sub-delegate level. I Truce strategy was being map ped at United Nations and Communist headquarters while the negotiators met at Panmun jom. The greatest secrecy of the nearly 10-month-old truce talks cloaked separate high-level conferences in. Munsan and Kaesong. Meknes, French Morocco U.fc Five Moroccans were killed and several persona were wounded in a clash between soldiers and demonstrators Saturday at Mrirt a village SO miles south of Keknes, police reports said. Two European soldiers of the French Army were among the wounded, it was reported. ueiore Headline On Phone Dispute Negotiators Plan Meetings Today New York 0J to Company and union negotiators seeking to avert a nationwide telephone strike Monday recessed negotia tions Saturday with no agree ment in sight. Representatives of the CIO Communications Workers of America and the Western Dee trie company were brought to gether by federal mediators, who threatened to keep them in round-the-clock sessions. The meeting recessed shortly after S p.m., however, and will be resumed at 1p m. today. Sales and distribution em ployee represenUUves met after a brief recess in the only ses sion resumed late Saturday, but a spokesman said "no over-all decision could be made by the N Progress The mediators reported "no progress had been made on the 10 main contract items at issue, but the "slight progress' had been made on minor matters. The principle issues are wages, seniority, a strike clause and a union shop. The union threatened to throw picket lines around major tele phone exchanges in 43 states and the District of Columbia at 6 a.m. Monday if the company still refused to meet its wsge demands by then. Refus to Pass Pickets Other telephone workers al so members of the CWA-have refused to cross picket lines in the past, and the strike could tie up telephone service around the nation at a time when it already is overtaxed because of a tele graph strike. The only states not sffected would be Maine. New Hamp shire. Vermont. Rhode Island and Montana. Increases Offered The Western Electric em ployes install and distribute telephone equipment. The com pany has offered the 10.000 in stallers wsge Increases of 10 to 12 cents an hour and the dis tributors 10 to 16 cents an hour. The union ' has not made a specific wage demand. Jack Creaier, manager of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph company here,- said Saturday that he is unable to tell what effect a strike of Western Elec tric employees will have on telephone service in Medford. Creager pointed out that Ore gon workers are not involved in a dispute and that the pending strike involves Western Electric company employees, of which about 200 are in Oregon. There are a few Western Electric em ployees ' in Medford. Creager srid. and the' local situation de pends on whether they put out a picket line here, and if they do. how many telephone workers will vross it SPORTS BULLETINS Medford track and field teams scored triumphs over Klamath Falls teams in compe tition there Saturday. Tb Medford Junior high school fMat tipped tb Klamath jun iors 72 to 32 and th Medford Froth gained a 77-44 victory ever th Klamath Froth. Sacrament. Calif. U.R) Ed Chandler, stingy Los An gelas righthander, pitched his second straight shutout victory of i h young PCL campaign tonight, as th An gels nipped Sacramento. 1-0. on his four hitter. General's Son Missing on Patrol In Korea; Portland Man on Plane Seoul. Korea UP First Lt. James A. Van Fleet Jr.. only son of the 8th. Army commander, disappeared in enemy territory during his fourth night combat mission in a B-28 Invader light bomber early Friday. Tall, handsome "Young Jim, 26. had been In Korea just three weeks and last saw his father on March 19. the general's 60th birthday. His plane, with two other crew members aboard, failed to return from a bombing mission east of Sunchon, 80 miles south of the Yalu in north west Korea. The general himself reported to newsmen that "My boy, Jim, is missing in action." Lt Van Fleet recently wrote his mother that he wanted no tears spilled because be was go- ing into combat The general took the news with outward - calm and made hardly a break in the rigid routine of his mili tary duties. But he spent an hour la his Ike Delieved Set To Resign NATO Post This Week Iowa Showing Termed "Clear Call to Duty" Paris -41 K Close associates of Gen. Dwighl D. Eisenhower Saturday described his powerful showing in Iowa where the GOP elected 14 convention delegates favorable to the general as "an other clear call to political duty." They predicted he may answer early next week with his formal resignation as NATO supreme commander so he may return to the United Stales to open an all-out personal campaign for the Republican presidential nomina tion. Significant Development His national campaign man sger. Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. described the endorsement given Eisenhower by the Iowa state convention as -"a very sig nificant development" Lodge said the Iowa results proved Eisenhower's "great ap peal" to political workers as well as to the voters. "Iowa is an important state in the heart of the middle west" he said. "It had been claimed 100 per cent by the opposition daft) and we thought we'd be lucky to break even. "Proves Appeal" "For Eisenhower to get the majority of Iowa delegates proves that he has great appeal for Republican political workers as well as for the general pub lic." the Massachusetts senator said. The senator and Eisenhower campaign manager saw the gen eral for more than six hours later and it was widely reported her the two put into final form Eisenhower'a letter of resigna tion from his present military post Telegraph Strike Reported Easing Washington AJ.R) Western Union officials Saturday night reported that strike-ridden tele graph service was being "rapid ly - restored, but AFL Union leaders immediately countered that the three-day-old walkout bv some 30.000 employees was "still extremely effective." The company said that tele graph service has been "made available" in 63 cities handling nearly 60 per cent of its normal volume of business. In addition, the company said. a "back to work movement" had started in six more cities four of them in' Louisiana. George Hageman. Pacific re gional director for the Western Union division of the AFL Com mercial Telegraphers' Union. charged that the company claim was "entirely false." He said reports from union lo cals across the country show "our unes are holding solid. The strike is extremely effective." The company said a "rapid restoration of service" had been made possible because of "re cently completed vast mechan ization" of Western Union oper ations. This makes it possible to transmit messages automat ically, the statement said. Washington (U.R) The Polish embassy bowed to State department's orders Saturday and ordered a stop to its publica tion of the Polish bulletin. office, looking at the big map hung between flags of the United States and the United Nations He drew a finger along routes his pilot son might have taken after radioing at 3:15 a. m. that he was in heavy weather and low on fuel. "I can see him now," the gen eral said softly, "with guns load ed, socked in. He was not about to drop his bombs in the Yellow sea." Portland Man Along With Lt Van FleeJ were Lt John A. McCallister, Portland, Ore., th navigator-bombardier, and Airman 1st Class Ralph L. Phelps, engineer-gunner of Bern idju, Minn. Hundreds of planes searched for the missing B-26 but the hunt was called off Saturday apparently on personal orders of Gen. Van Fleet A spokesman said UN planes "could not af ford to carry on such an inten sive search" and still fly neces sary combat missions 117 W i mJ i 'nil . i...4ii ,ni ;aajyOj "RYIXG TO AVOID nationwide strike, union and industry repre entatives meet in New York amid gloomy talk of no compromise, ohn A. Stephens tleft), vice president of TJ. S. Steel Corp. and hilip Murray. Steelworkers' union chief are spokesmen for oppos ng Interests. Strike is scheduled for Tuesday. (International) Steel Industry and Union Agree to Meeting Today New York (U.R) Steel indus try and union leaders agreed Saturday to meet face to face today to try to avert a nation wide strike scheduled for mid night Tuesday. The break came shortly after Nathan P. Feinsinger announced that he has the power to revise wage increases his wage stabili zation board recommended for the CIO steelworkers. Negotiations were broken off Economy Forces Chop $6 Billion From New Budget Washington (U.R) Biparti House economy forces claimed Saturday to have chopped $6, 000,000.000 from President Tru man's "rock bottom" spending requests for next year, and they promised more cuts. Rep. John Taber (R-, N. Y.), ranking minority member of the appropriations committee, fore cast a total'reduction of around $10,000,000,000. This would bring the presi dent's budget for fiscal 1953, starting July 1, down to about $75,000,000,000. Mr. Truman asked for $85,000,000,000. More Cuts Slated Appropriations committee Chairman Clarence Cannon CD., Mo.), agreed that more cuts will be made. He set no special goal. Cannon said the House so far this year has made a "very satis factory" economy record. Republican Leader Joseph W. Martin Jr. (Mass.), fixed as the next target a $46,680,384,270 military spending bill that comes up in the House Monday. The appropriations committee al ready has trimmed it $4,240, 638,500 below President Tru man's request for $50,921,022, 770. . Hous Will Go Further Martin said the House "un doubtedly" will want to go further in slashing this measure. He predicted the House will trim it by an additional $1,500,000, 000. Cannon tried in committee to deepen the defense cut by about $1,300,000,000. However, he said he will not propose the addi tional cuts on the House floor. He will support the bill as it came from committee. Cannon said. Red Cross Reports Progress in Drive Collections in the 1952 drive for funds of the American Red Cross chapter here climbed to 48.8 per cent of its $27,500 goal by the end of the week, officers here said Saturday. A total of $13,421 has so far been collected. The drive will continue throughout April, or until the goal is reached, they said. Chapter officers also reported that the Red Cross' communica tions system is still operating from key . cities to the armed forces centers, despite the West ern Union strike, and that emer gency mes-aces to men in serv ice can still be handled, - Thursday when the company re fused to pay the Steelworkers the recommended 26 cents an hour increase, offering a 16-cent boost. Feinsinger Announces Meeting Feinsinger, who flew here Fri day for emergency meetings with the disputants, announced the calling of the joint meeting for today. "It should be definitely under, stood that this is not to be a negotiating meeting," he said. "Nor should the holding of this meeting be interpreted to indi cate that either side has changed its position. - "Acceptance of the invitation by both sides simply indicates a spirit of cooperation which I hope will be furthered as a re sult of the meetings." ' He said the meetings would be "informal" with attendance limited to one representative of each of the "big six" steel com panies, Philip Murray, president of the steelworkers, and two other union officials. Settlement Reached in Portland In Portland, Ore., meantime, the union and Oregon steel mills announced agreement on a con tract which called for a wage in crease less than that recommend ed by the WSB. The agreement calls for immediate wage increases of 12V& cents an hour to take effect July 1 of this year and Jan. 1, 1953. Six paid holidays and a more liberal vacation clause also are called for in the contract. BULLETIN Sacramento (U.R) Opera tions at McClellan Air Fore Bate said an aircraft was down in the Antelope area north of Sacramento. No information on th plan was available. Th Civil Aeronautics Admin istration in Oakland, Calif, said it had heard a report that a B-29 was seen to hav ex ploded northeast of th air fore base. - Montana Town Gets Breath As Flood Threats Slacken BY VERN MCINTYRE United Press Correspondent Chinook, Mont. (U.R) An "ill wind" blew good for Chi nook late Saturday and hopes soared that a "major disaster" had been averted at least until today. . Another warm day with brisk westerly winds was the forecast. A feared west surface wind came in high and reversed itself, aiding the town's populace man ning dikes on the west side. A few minutes later, a dead calm lay over the city. It appeared Chinook had weathered what city officials termed a "crisis." Crest Blivd Past County Surveyor William Ol sen said he believed the crest of the Milk river that has run rampant down a 200-mile-long valley had passed on down stream. "However, there's an enormous amount of water head ing this way down the north fork. Everything north of us is brimming, so w can't by any means get too optimistic."' It was State Flood Authority Richard Dightman of the Helena Weather bureau who" earlier Michigan Selects 41 Uninstrucfed GOP Delegates Taft Gets Idaho Delegates as Unit Washington (U.R) Taft and Eisenhower bids for the Repub lican presidential nomination Saturday appeared to be a neck-and-neck race although the lat est tabulation of delegates voted read 130 for Taft and 65 for Eisenhower. The race gathered new speed as three states -picked 62 more delegates to the GOP national convention. Ik Boosters Claim Win Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's boosters claimed a victory on the grounds that the general picked up a majority of the 46-vote Mi chigan delegation, and three delegates in the fifth district of Kansas. Sen. Robert A. Taft's backers pointed to the fact that Idaho instructed its 14 delegates for the Ohio senator and claimed as good a chance as the opposition camp to split the Michigan group on a 50-50 basis. Michigan's big block of votes, chosen in state convention at Detroit, was the question mark. Only three of them actually were instructed to vote for Eis enhower and two of them for Taft. The remaining 41 were not instructed to support any candidate for the GOP presiden tial nomination and can swing any direction when the national convention meets at Chicago in July. An informal poll indicated they were split evenly at this time between the Taft and Eisenhower forces There was no question about the others. Idaho Delegates Ar Unit Idaho, a Taft stronghold, put its 14 delegates under a "unit" rule, requiring them to itick to gether in convention balloting. The Fifth District of Kansas, Eisenhower's home state, picked two district delegates favorable to the general and a third whose selection must be confirmed by the state convention at Topeka next Thursday. Discounting . the conflicting claims between the rival camps, today's selections appeared to leave Taft still out in front on the number of openly pledged delegates chosen so far this year. ihe latest tabulation gave: Taft 130; Eisenhower 65: Gov. Earl Warren of California 6; Harold E. Stassen of Minnesota 21; Gen. Douglas A. MacArthur 2; and uncommitted 67. Favorable Vote Given $195,000 Bond Issue Central Point Pa Consolidated School District 6 voted 130 to 65 here and in Gold Hill Saturday favoring a $195, 000 bond issue. The bond issue was askerl to complete a classroom wing at the new Crater high school and shop building and to build four new rooms at the junior high school. Architects will meet with the school board Monday, it was stated, and plans are expected to be completed in a week Fol lowing completion of plans, bids will be called. - warned of a wave-making west erly wind, but he explained Saturday night that apparently a different density of air over the city forced the current aloft It then doubled back. -Livestock Doomed A hundred head of livestock in small groups were , marooned on specks of land around Chi nook. They were doomed. It was impossible to get feed to them," even by air because a pilot would need a bomb sight An estimated 1,000 head of lambs and ewes have drowned around here alone. Bodies of hundreds of animals dotted the water as I flew over the scene. . It was strange, there was a brisk westerly wind up there while chimney smoke was streaming the other direction. That was the Godsend Chinook prayed for. "Operation Haylift" plane personnel shot drowning animals this afternoon as Dightman re leased the forecast' that flood weary residents had hoped they'd never hear: "A 20-mile-an-hour wind from the west" and arrival of the river's crest by sunset (S Story Pag 5)
