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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 9, 1955)
GM Dealer Made 51,000,000 on Investment, Subcommittee Hears Washington (U.R) General Motors' sales chief said yester day that one of the car dealers now complaining against com pany treatment made S1,000,000 in 14 year' on a $10,000 invest ment. F. Hufstader, GM vice president and chief salesman, testified before a Senate Anti monopoly Subcommittee investi gating the giant auto concern. He presented a case-by-case rebuttal of testimony by several past and present General Motors dealers who were previous wit nesses. He dismissed as "untrue" many of tht& allegations. Hufstader denied charges that General Motors forced dealers to expand, refused to buy back parts on cancellation, and forced purchase of accessories and spe cial equipment. o Dangerous Credit Policies M. H. Yager, Albany, N.Y. Pontiac dealer, complained last week about factory pressure for ever greater sales. Yager said this causes dangerous credit pol icies and irresponsible advertis ing. Hufstader said today that Yager invested $10,000 in his Kantiac dealership $5000 of it borrowed in 1941. As of Oct. 31, 1955, Hufstader said, "Mr. Yager had made a total gain in excess of $1,000,000. Yager also asserted that GM dealer9are subjected to constant factory pressure to sell more and more new cars even if it in volves exaggerated trade-ins, ex tremely easy credit terms, and other unsound business prac tices. His testimony was similar to that of other GM dealer wit nesses, most of whom had lost their franchises. Hufstader told the subcom mittee that Yager devotes only Toy House 31 7 EAST MAI N half his time to his auto busi ness although his new car sales have been declining for the past two years. Nevertheless, Yager's profits have been averaging S9, 000 a month this year, Hufstader said. Should Blame Selves Hufstader had testified pre viously that complaining dealers should blame themselves for not preparing for the time "when customers ceased walking into their stores clamoring to have their names put on an order blank." Curtice denied that his recent offer to extend the period of the dealer franchise from one to five years was "illusory." He said that the offer even applied to dealers who had been warned that their one-year agreement would not be renewed next year unless they stepped up sales. Wolf Decision Due Next Week Portland (U.R) Attorneys for Victor Laurence Wolf said today their defense for the confessed bomb slayer probably would take about a day and a half, indicating a decision on the 45 year-old handyman's fate would come early next week. Wolf confessed under en old Oregon law to the bomb-slaying last April of attorney Kermit Smith. A hearing is being held to determine his degree of guilt and whether he must pay the death penalty or go to prison for life. Marjorie Smith, widow of the victim who was found innocent of a murder charge in McMinn- ville recently in connection with her husband's death, appeared as a state witness yesterday. It was Wolf who implicated Mrs. Smith in the slaying. The attractive widow, dressed in black, repeated testimony she gave at the McMinnville trial during some two hours of cross- examination by Charles E. Ray mond, Wolf's attorney. She said she realized that Wolf had an emotional interest in her and that she came to resent it. She said she sent Wolf a valen tine eight days after she remar ried Smith but that she sent out "a lot of valentines." Howard Belton Learns Of Death of Son Portland (U.R) Word has been received here of the death Wednesday in Chicago from a heart attack of Arthur L. Belton, 35, son of State Sen. and Mrs. Howard C. Belton of Canby. Young Belton was born in Portland and attended high school at Canby. He was a 1941 engineering graduate of Oregon State College. Nixon Asks Freer Latin American Trade Relations Washington (U.R) Vicer President Richard M. Nixon called today for freer trade be tween the United States and Latin America to cement good will in the Western Hemisphere. Nixon said the Latin Ameri can countries now working to improve their economies want neither "grants nor soft loans but an opportunity of develop ing wider markets in the United States." "It is up to us now to help them in this by supporting Presi dent. Eisenhower's liberal trade program," he commented in an interview. Efforts Endorsed Nixon endorsed the efforts of Uruguayan President Luis Batlle Berres who is visiting the Unit ed States in the interest of lower tariffs and fewer trade restric tions. Nixon said he agreed fully with the Uruguayan president that words alone are not enough to guarantee- good will among the sister- republics of Latin America. "We must develop hemispheric trade to help raise living stand ards and thus strengthen one of democracy's strongest bastions," he declared. Firm Believer in Trade Nixon also recalled that he re turned from a tour of Central America earlier this year a firm believer in the advisability of in creased trade with the Latin American republics. Nixon, who served as host to Batlle Berres because of the convalescence of President Ei senhower, praised Batlle Berres for Uruguay's government and emphasized the importance of the visit. "Uruguay has a long tradition of democracy which we have al ways admired," Nixon said. "We are proud to be a partner of a country that values the princi pies of freedom so highly." FIL Buster Keaton, frozen faced comedian of silent films, is in "very grave" con dition at Sawtell Hospital in Hollywood suffering from a gastro intestinal ailment He is shown as he will appear on TV show "The Silent Part ner," Dec. 21, in which he re-enacts slapstick routines of yesteryear. HEADS NAM New- York (U.R) Cola G. Par ker, former chairman of the Kimberly-Clark Corporation of Neenah, Wis., was elected presi dent of the National Association of Manufacturers last night. o G ' First Showing o MEDFORD THE Q ALL O O Belvedere Sport Sedan Exciting New 4-Door Hardtop styling. Top of the line! PL YM 0 UTH O SEE IT TOMORROW AT Dick Knight Co. o DeSoto Plymouth o 33 South Riverside at 8th o 'There's a Reason Dick Knight Sells More Plymouth" Garden Notes By C. B. CORDY County Extension Agent for Horticulture Our local area came through the November frost with very little damage. Districts further north were not as fortunate and many of the nurserymen feel that they have suffered a very heavy loss. While it is evident at this time that there is injury, the extent of the injury can not be fully determined until next spring. While some of the nurserymen felt that their losses would be minor, others were of the opin ion that they would suffer al most total losses. The tempera tures dropped to lower levels in eastern Oregon and in Washing ton than they did in the Wil lamette valley and Portland areas. Wtih the possibility of dam age being as severe as some nurserymen feel anyone inter ested in planting should make arrangements for their planting stock as soon as possible. There seems to be a general increase in orchard plantings along the coast and it seems likely that fruit trees will be scarce by spring. Placing orders now would not only insure you getting your trees but would also help the nurserymen ar range for a source of supply. Frost damage in many orna mental plantings will be diffi cult to determine by inexperi enced people. Reputable nurs erymen will make every effort to keep these damaged plants off the market. While it is al ways a good practice to buy from established, reputable firms it would appear to be of more than usual importance this year. This would be particularly true if plants were to be purchased from areas where the tempera tures went down to or below the critical point. . Casper Woman Pleads Innocent To Murder Casper, Wyo. U.R) Mrs. Rose Alexander, the pudgy wom an who buried the body of a young divorcee under a base ment floor, pleaded innocent in Justice Court yesterday to a charge of murder. The matron, Mrs. Rose Alex ander, 42, insisted that Barbara Alexander, 27, was killed acci dently by falling bricks. She said she buried the woman who won away her husband with a crude wooden cross because she was afraid the death would be blamed on her. . Rose , Alexander is charged with first degree murder in the death of Barbara Alexander, and with concealing the death from everyone for more than two years. Canned Pork Products Bought in Support Plan Washington (U.R) The Ag riculture Department has pur chased 6,697,500 pounds of can ned pork products under its $85, 000,000 program to bolster live hog prices. - This was the largest purchase since the program went into ef fect Oct. 24. Since then the price of good butcher hogs on the Chicago market has slumped from $13.90 to a low of $10.40 reported Wednesday. Friday, December j9, 1953 MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE THREE British Spend Then Acquire By ROBERT MUSEL London (U.R) Britain squared off against its chief agricultural enemy, the rabbit, two years ago and promptly floored him with a heavy dose of myxomy cetous virus. But it can't deliver the same punch for the knockout because under the stiff upper lip of the British there is a broad streak of sentimentality toward an imals. Besides, chaps, it isn't . . well, dash it all, it isn't quite sporting y'know. Why it was all right , to per mit the deadly virus to slaugh ter 199 out of every 200 rabbits in the island in the first place and now it isn't all right to fin ish the job is something as com plicated as the British character. For even though the stakes are very high, about $42,000,000 a year and going up, the rabbit has succeeded in lining up some powerful forces on its side, in addition to the most powerful force of all the thing the rabbit does better than almost any other animal. Myxomytosis spread over Eu- To Eradicate Rabbits, Streak of Sentimentality rope from France where a big landowner tried it on his estate after hearing of how Australia wiped out uncounted millions of rabbits with the virus. Event ually the virus reached Britain. This week, two years later, the minister of agriculture, Derek Heathcote Amery, told Parliament that almost all of England and Wales was clear of rabbits. And although the value of agricultural products has jump ed millions of pounds, there was an uneasy feeling that myxomy tosis is not sporting and should be curbed. TV helped consoli date the opposition by showing a horrifying closeup of a dis eased and blinded rabbit stum bling aimlessly around. So the government has for bidden the deliberate spreading of the virus. Sportsmen, poach ers, ; sentimentalists, city folk and pet shop owners are jubi lant. So are the blue-blooded foxhunters. , Why? Well they reason that with all the rabbits gone the foxes would begin killing chick ens and lambs and then the coun try would get rid of foxes. Farmers still can get rid of I rabbits with shotguns and any other methods except myxomy tosis. But most experts think it can't be done. ' For when he doesn't have a virus, the rabbit is the hardest working family raiser in the world. PORTABLE Walt Young's Med ford Stationery Store 210 East Main St. s For a Real - FAMILY - GIFT Select a . 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