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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (March 15, 1955)
MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE THREE Humphrey Urges Caution in investigation of Stock Market Boom Sandpaper was patented by Isaac Fischer, Jr., in Vermont in 1834. Tuesday, March 13, 1955 Some Experts Put Blame for Price Break on Probe Washington (U.PJ Sec retary of the Treasury George M. Humphrey today urged the Senate Banking committee to observe caution in its investiga tion of the stock market boom. Humphrey testified in the wake of the worst market break since 1929. Some experts have blamed the investigation for the $10,000,000,000 drop in stock values in the last 10 days. The market rallied today with de fense shares leading the recovery- The secretary warned that there is danger of destroying confidence in both the stock market and the future of the nation's economy. Negaliv Testimony Committee Chairman J. Wil liam Fulbright (D-Ark.), replied that he sees no reason why the investigation should have an ad i verse effect on the market if the market is sound and the in quiry is conducted in an orderly and reasonable manner. Sen. Homer E. Capehart (R Ind.), went even further than Humphrey. He said committee questions put to witnesses had "all tended to be on the negative side." He added there has been little testimony of the sort that would show the economy is healthy. I don t tninK anyone can deny that the Democratic con- trolled-committee set out to prove the stock market is too high and just a few steps behind a crash like 1929," Capehart said. Says Liltl People Hurt "It has had a tendency, in my opinion, to push down the prices of stocks. Capehart said it is "the little people" primarily who have been hurt by the drop in stock prices. Fulbright retorted that the main purpose of the Senate in quiry is not to find out whether stock prices' are too high. He said it is to determine whether the stock market is functioning in the best manner for the na tional economy and "especially whether it is threatening to throw the economy" into a de pression. Margin Requirements ' Asked for specific criticism of the investigation, Humphrey earn xesximony arjout tne pos sibility of margin requirements being raised appears 'to have had the most effect on the con fidence of investors. . - But the overall tone of his statement to the committee was that the sharp rise in stock pric es in the past 18 months had been generally healthy. The committee is conducting a "friendly" investigation of the market boom. 'Si '' INSTRUCTOR Sgt. Myron Warren, above, of the safe bur glary detail of the Portland po lice, will instruct the third class in the advanced police training school being conducted here. He will speak tomorrow at the Med ford city hall, giving instruction in interrogation and safe bur- lary investigations. New Lava Flow From Kilauea Heads for Sea Pahoa, Hawaii U.R) A flow of molten lava from a violent new eruption in the Kilauea vol cano field pushed its way toward the sea today, devouring cane- fields and forests lying in its fiery path. The new eruption broke out suddenly last night, sending a huge fountain of lava spurting 800 feet into the air. Then a massive lava flow bubbled from the ground and fanned out into the lush tropical forest. Plantation Bypassed The flow bypassed a small plantation as it headed toward the sea, two miles distant. Resi dents south of the flow were evacuated several days ago, and no lives were in danger. Earlier last night, another eruption two miles distant' from the 800-foot mountain destroyed a farm house which had been miraculously spared in another eruption Sunday. During the day, four 30-foot cones had played lava in the middle of the Pahoa - Kalapana road. Suddenly a fountain broke out above the road and sprayed red hot lava on the farmhouse of Katusuto Hayushi, burning it to the ground in less than 20 minutes. 1 V I Market Experts Fear Tighter FederaD Controls New York U.R) Stock mar ket experts expressed fears to day of tighter government stock restrictions on the heels of Mon day's sharp market break the greatest since late 1929. Prices tumbled.as much as S12 Monday in the kingsized selling wave. The total value of stocks Emergency Funds Sought for Dust, Grasshopper Fight Washington OJ.'p.) Dust bowls and grasshoppers are a growing menace to farms and rangelands in the drought strick en southwest, Congress learned today . In testimony made public by a House appropriations subcom mittee last night, agriculture of ficials asked for emergency funds, $730,000 to" fight grass hoppers and $7,147,000 to fight wind erosion. The officials said the govern ment this year may have to ex tend its fight against dust bowl conditions into a seventh state, Wyoming. Grasshopper Buildup They warned that "severe wind blow and erosion are ex pected" in the southwest. The subcommittee was told there has been a "severe build up of grasshoppers on e.uuu.uuu acres of rangeland in 15 west ern states. Agriculture officials said about 2,600,000 acres will "require treatment to avert ser ious damage or extensive migra tion." They said the infested area includes 750,000 acres in Texas, 900,000 in Colorado, 565,000 in New Mexico, 500,000 in the Ok lahoma panhandle and 93,000 in southwestern Kansas. 4-H Club News Coffee Exporter Sees End of Price Changes San Francisco (U.R) The frenzied price changes that took place on the coffee market a year ago are now a thing of the past, according to Abraham Ja- bour, the largest single coffee exporter in Brazil. He said the coffee famine of the 1953-54 crop was caused by a heavy frost in one of the lar gest coffee producing states in Brazil. 1 , "Coffee went up to 93 cents a bag for the green bean," Jabour said. "But now the price has sta bilized itself at about 50 to 54 cents a bag." He said that Brazil produces 16.000,000 bags of green coffee beans a year and expects to in crease its production by 1,000, 000 bags this year. "It is not generally known, but the consumption of coffee today is not so great as it was before the war," Jabour said. "But it is increasing all the time, with the United States tak- ing 70 per cent of our harvest annually." Bonneville Signs Idaho Power Interfie , Portland, Ore (U.R) Bon neville Power Administrator William A. Pearl" yesterday an nounced signing of a 20-year exchange agreement with the Idaho Power company providing for a high voltage intertie 'at La Grande, Ore., by May, 1956. The connection has been sought both by the BPA and the Federal Power commission for some time to help integrate Utah and Idaho systems with Oregon and Washington utili ties of the northwest power pool. The La Grande intertie will complete a five state loop of high voltage transmission lines linking all major generating fa cilities of Oregon, Washington. Idaho, Western Montana and Utah. Five Airlines Settle Dispute -Washington (U.R) The White House has announced that five of six maior airlines have settled their wage dispute with the Af L Machinists union. The dispute involved more than 14,000 mechanical and ground service employees of the five airlines. The settlement means a $2,597,000 payroll in crease for these workers, plus $1,500,000 of payments retroac tive to last July 1. A union spokesman said' it was a voluntary settlement and it represented a "substantial vic tory" for the workers. The five airlines reaching an agreement were Capital, Nation al, Northwest, Trans-World and United Air Lines. The case in volving Eastern Airlines i6 still to be settled. The machinists originally had scheduled a strike for Nov. 16. President Eisenhower forestalled it by creating an emergency board to investigate the dispute. The new contract gives the employees a general basic wage increase of 5 to 7 cents an hour. It also makes adjustments which will result in a basic increase of 18 cents for some workers. 1 Antelope Club Friday, March 11 at the An telope school house the Ante lope Dairy club conducted the meeting with Judy Bradshaw, president, and Marjo Murray, secretary. Koil call was answ ered with steer weights by those taking beef projects. Lucy Gard ner reported on the window dis plays put in various stores dur ing 4-H week. John Bohnert told the Swine club members to start looking for their weaner pigs and they might get some from one of the club members. Steve Garen joined the dairy club. Our annual box social will be held Friday, April 15, at Eagle Point Grange hall at 7:30 p.m. All interested are invited to attend. Mr. and Mrs. Earl Jossy and Mr. and Mrs. A.' E, Mallory are on the entertain ment committee. We judged pictures of a class of Hereford heifers and then gave reasons. John Noble then showed motion pictures of a trip that Vern Matthews took to Il linois. A comedy was also shown Bob Hayes, . Reporter. Boy Scouts Troop 15, Phoenix ' For the next five weeks the troop will meet on Wednesday evenings at the Presbyterian church from 7 to 9 p.m. Johnny Klassen will instruct fly tying classes and also will give pointers on fishing. Our Scout leaders are now taking the leadership training sessions on Thursdays. We are to make plans for the Camporee which is in April, and urge all Patrols to participate. Roger Kelsoe, Scribe typical rates from Medford Portland $ .90 Salem .80 Eugene .70 Klamath Falls ..... .40 Station to station rates, not including tax, for 3 minutes after 6 p.m. weekdays and all day Sunday Save time call by number Pacific Telephone works to make your telephone a bigger value every day listed on the New York Stock Exchange dipped 53,000,000,000. The loss in values was added to a 57.000,0110,000 decline of last week, the greatest for any week-long period in 15 years. Nearly every stock market analyst attributed the stock break directly or indirectly to the market study being conduct ed by Sen. L. William Ful bright's Banking Committee. Fear Stiffer Restrictions They said Monday's break especially reflected fears that the investigation would lead to stiffer restrictions on the trad ing of securities. Some expressed fear the stock market study would lead to in vestigations of the profits of in dustries selling defense items, such as aircraft and shipbuild ing firms. They especially fear ed the possibility of renegotia tion of contracts or new tax pro posals which would affect pro fits. The general price decline which began March 7 was in it self disconcerting to most invest ors. But the experts refused to concede that today's market re flected conditions prevalent in 1929. Tickers Run La'te At the market close Monday declines in the industrial aver age amounted to 28.32 points since March 7, about 6.75 per cent. The railroad average dip ped 11 points or 7.17 per cent and the utilities 3.25 points or 5.11 per cent. A 10 per cent decline is not excessive during a period of ris ing prices, the experts insisted. However, the selling during some periods Monday assumed proportions of actual dumping to avoid losses. Solon Opposes Drink on Planes Albert Thomas (D-Tex.),' wants the Civil Aeronautics board to stop the sale of alcoholic drinks aboard airliners. This was brought out in hear ings before the House Approp riations committee which were made public last night. Chan Gurney, acting CAB chairman, said the agency is keeping its eye on the whisky sales to make sure safety is not impaired. "Are you going to wait until a plane crashes or until you have to hit somebody over the head or have a fight and let wo men and children get hurt be fore you do something about it?" Thomas asked. "I think the board is sound asleep and you had better do something before something happens." Gurney said "he would "call the matter to the attention of the board." American Telephone and Tele graph, Bethlehem Steel, U. S. Steel, General Motors, Texas Company, United Aircraft, and DuPont all fell several points. International Business Ma chines dipped 12 points, Du Pont dropped seven points and ten recovered all but four of the total loss. Tickers ran as much as nine minutes late during the hectic selling. More than 4,200,000 shares of stock changed hands. It was the fourth time this year that sales have passed the 4,000, 000 mark. . Canby Schools Closed By Numerous Flu Cases Canby, Ore. (U.R) Hun dreds of cases of the flu in the local area resulted today in the closure of grade and high schools here for the rest of the week. Principal Leslie Rood said 296 youngsters were absent from schools yesterday. USE FUEL FROM TIMBER PHONE 2-8086 For the Right Wood Fuel For Every, Purpose Timber products Company Your Easter Spl '-fL ' ' i ' I R.. On y ENf i- i ! sues to i o nt wWkyiYi -. - , ' SHORT COATS IN WOOL PLUSH, THE VELVETY, NEWS-MAKING FABRIC! The plushiest Spring short coats are at Penney's now in fabulous, wool plush! Versatile variations on the boxy theme highlight this collection . . . all of them luxuriously lined with . iridescent rayon taffeta, superbly detailed. Beige, coral, aqua, ice blue, pink, gold, others. Sizei 10-18 Penney's Lay-Away HAT I HEADLINERS! 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