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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1957)
52nd Year Medford United Press Full Leased Wire Price 10c Tribune United Press Full Leased We Second Section MEDFORD, OREGON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1957 Six Pages Eight-Year Drought in Southwest Plains States May Have Ended Washington (U.R) Officials of three government agencies have expressed cautious hope that the parching, costly eight year drought in the nation's western and southwestern plains has been broken. Their views were given to the United Press in response to ques tions about effects of the recent severe storms and floods in the drought states. ' Experts of the Weather Bu reau, the U.S. Geological Survey and Agriculture Depart ment agreed the worst of the drought is over for the moment at least. But they also agreed there is no clear-cut or simple answer to the question of future prospects for drought areas, ftain May Slop "In some areas, yes, the drou ght is over," a Weather Bureau official said. '"In other areas, no. Fore some corps it is over. For others it is not over." "I just don't know," a Geolo gical Survey official said. "I would hesitate to say the drought is over even with a lot of rain, The water may run off rapidly, the rain may stop, and in a few weeks we could be back where we were before. Would the drought we've had for eight years be over and a new one started?" "It seems to be over in a sub stantial part of the area," re ported an Agriculture Depart ment expert. "But we will need a great deal more moisture in the subsoil for the drought real ly to be over." These agencies have dealt with drought problems since great arid areas began forming in the Quotes From the News By UNITED PRESS Beirut, Lebanon Lebanese Foreign Minister Charles Malik, on .American determination to oppose Communist penetration of the Near East: "One can only hope that this determination will persist and will bear fruit in the near future." Miami Beach, Fla. Lesier Lee. 6, on hearing orer the tele phone the voice of his mother, whom he had thought died 32 yean ago: "It was like a voice from the dead." Chicago Vice President Richard M. Nixon, on President Eisenhower's vacations: "He owes it to himself and the nation to take time off to keep himself in the best mental and physical condition." Washington Mrs. Jean McCarthy, wife of Sen. Joseph R. Mc Carthy (R.-Wis.) on the condition of her husband, who ii seriously 111 with hepatitis: "Everything seems lo be going along quite well now." New York Protestant evangelist Billy Graham on the Rev. John E. Kelly's advice to Catholics to stay away from Graham' meetings: "The Catholic church has always been as friendly and as tol erant as their church law will allow them. . . . We welcome Catho lice leaders and people to our meetings even though it is impos sible for them to give official sanction." ' " ill Antwerp, 1885 Wolfschmidt was there! vT WOLFSCHMIDT IS HERE! Incomparably smooth! Amazingly blendable! That's why, since 1847, Wolfschmidt has won 37 Gold Medals in international competition. In any of the many ways Vodka is good, Wolf schmidt is better. Mixed witlTvennouth, you. have a Martini that's drier-than-dry. For a new taste sensation try Wolfschmidt. Wolfschmidt Ltd., Dundalk, Md. 80 proof. Distilled from 100 grain neutral spirits. PRODUCT OF U.S.A. 445 QT. r 1J WOLFSCHMIDT'S '"vpOi.l OWGINAl GENUINE VODKA v-li - ... southern great plains in early 1950. The drought first appeared in Southwest Texas and south eastern New Mexico. It spread north and east through what in normal times was known as a "sea of grass." Crops Wouldn't Grow At the height of the drought the area was literally "the great American desert." Crops did not grow. Pastures withered. Live stock had to be taken off many ranges. : During the past winter severe storms bringing oceans of rain and snow swept the arid South west. The rainstorms are con tinuing over a large section. Rivers which for years were dry now are over their banks. Res servoirs are filled or filling. What was dust for years is now mud. On April 12, the Weather Bu reau in a special report said "re cent upper air circulation pat terns are changing sufficiently to give farmers hope that the sev ers drought may not return in the coming growing season." "In southeastern Neb raska, the western two-thirds of Kan sas, the; Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles, the new weather regime has provided more than twice the normal precipitation during March," it said. . Close Watch Kept The bureau's long-range wea ther forecast, issued today, pre dicted "above normal" rains in the Northeast and far South west during the next 30 days. It also foresaw a tapering off of ain in central and eastern Texas which has been "abnormally heavy." Kenneth L. Scott, head of Ag ricultural Credit Services for the Agriculture Department, said the drought appears to be broken in most of the area. He said sec tions now lacking rainfall are West Texas, southeast Colorado and New Mexico. "It looks like there is enough moisture so that we can discon tinue the emergency feed pro grams for livestock," Scott said. He emphasized, however, that when such programs are discon tinued the department will keep close watch for resumption . of the dry spell . ' ,' He said federal relief pro grams will swing back into full operation at the first sign of new drought difficulties. Survival Problem Of f Key Deerr May Go Before Congress . Miami U.P.) The survival problems of the' diminutive deer which prance and swim in the Florida Keys may cause a tussle in Congress. The deer, which some say are only a fancy of newspaper pages, are the tiny "Key. deer" which roam the Keys as a herd of about 125 and live on palm berries. They are believed to be a unique specimen of deer perhaps the last of their kind in the world. ' Florida congressmen are being caught in a squeeze between Keys property owners and resi dents strongly favoring a gov ernment refuge to insure sur vival of these creatures. A bill currently pending in Congress would make a small area in the Keys a refuge for them. The measure was spon sored by Rep. Charles Bennett of Jacksonville. But it has already touched off a fight in the Keys. Landown ers say the federal government has taken over enough land in Monroe county. . , They Are Real "We have already lost over 65 per cent of our land in Monroe county to the Everglades Nation al Park," said Joe Russell, presi dent of the Lower Keys Prop erty Owners Association.-"With population growth, land is go ing to be scarce." . Another Keys resident said the little deer "exist only in the fantastic news printed by some one who has never seen the Key deer." Naturalists and U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service workers know, however, that the deer are real. They are leading the drive for a refuge for the deer, which are between 22 and 25 inches high and weigh from 40 to 60 pounds, compared with 100 pounds for Florida mainland deer and the 300-pound bucks of the North. The tiny herd roams over a small area on 4he Torch Keys and Big Pine Keys. They swim together from island to island in search of food. Two Bodies Found, In Clatsop County Astoria (U.PJ William E. Christensen, about 40, and his wife, Wilma, 42, were found dead at their home Tuesday in what Clatsop county authorities described as an apparent mur der-suicide. The two bodies were found by a neigJibor who' lives across the street ' from the Christensens in the Oklahoma hill section near Wauna, Ore., 26 miles southeast of here. T. C. Porter, the neighbor, told Sheriff Paul Kearney he heard muffled shots between 9:30 p.m. and 10 D.m. Mondav but did not investigate. This morning, he reported,- he saw Mrs. Christensen's body lying on the front porch of her home. Tokyo (U.R) Communist China said Tuesday its shore bat teries repulsed . a Nationalist Chinese warship Sunday off the Hwangchi peninsula on the Fu kien coast. California Drying Up Fast; Immediate Project Needs Told San Francisco (U.R) Calif ornia is drying up so fast that only immediate construction of huge conservation projects will keep the state water-solvent, an expert has warned. The warning came from Har vey O. Banks, California dir ector of water resources, in a speech to the opening session of the Inter-society Conference on Irrigation and Drainage. Banks noted that California's population has doubled since 1940 and is continuing to grow. ' Californians are now over drawing on their water supply at the rate of more than five mil lion acre feet each year, Banks said. This amount of water would cover five million acres one foot deep. . By 1965, he said, "It is in dicated that the net shortage of developed water supply could amount to more than 10 million acre feet per season." Banks said if the proposed $1,500,000,000 Feather River Project were in operation today, "it would barely overcome the deficiences of the present." The project is now held up in the Legislature because of the rights dispute between counties of or igin and counties of need. Banks said California needs the immediate construction of "one or more additional pro jects of comparable size" to the Feather River Project. Most of California's water over-draft has to be made up from underground water basins, with the consequent lowering of the water table, Banks said. This means Californians must sink their wells ever deeper. Banks said the need for huge water projects is "acute" be cause of the lag between plan ning and actual construction of any project. Some 300 American engineers and water engineers attended the two-day meeting. Also sitting in are some of the 300 delegates from 44 nations who will attend the third World Congress of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage, which opens today. Former Albany Attorney Gets 60 Days in Jail Portland (U.R) Robert Mo Kechnie, 35, former Albany city attorney, has been sentenced to 60 days in jail by U.S. Judge William East for failure to file federal incocme tax returns for 1953 and 1954. McKechnie was the first of some 20 persons convicted in Oregon Federal Court of the mis demeanor offense to draw a jail sentence. Other violators had been .given probation. Protection Racket Leads Nine To Trial Braunschweig, Germany UJ3 Nine ex-convicts were on trial today on charges of operating a protection racket for prostitutes. They were accused of collect ing money from women in three cities for "protection" and as commission for finding cus tomers. The prosecution charged a bowling club was a front for the convicts' activities. 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