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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 1957)
I Of 8 ournm V HACI tTRIP MODEL This model of the Camp White drag (trip, which was constructed by members of the Southern Oregon Timing association, will be one of several displays at the Safety Jair between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. Saturday at the National Guard (armory. The model will be used to demonstrate how safety is (employed in the operation of the drag races. Monte Wray, left, c provident of SOTA, and other members of the organization test Ute model. Strings attached to a sewing machine motor propel the' miniature dragsters down the course at variable speeds. (Standing to Wray's left are Bill Henderson, Charles Hewitt, Carl perdue, Noel Black, Don Coghill and Jack Hillberry. Opening Ceremonies Set For Safety Fair o Ceremonies for the opening of the Southern Oregon Safety Fair will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 16, at the Med ford National Guard Armory. The fair itself opens at 8 a.m and runs until 10 p.m. Commissioners W. A. Calla han and L. O. Arens of the Ore gon State Industrial Accident commission will officiate at the ceremonies. Callahan, who is the acting director of the accident . prevention division, will cut the ribbon which will formally open the safety fair, said to be the first of its kind. Medford Mayor John V. Sni der is scheduled to give a wel coming talk to the state, county ind city officials from Southern Oregon who have been invited to attend. He will be introduced by Myron Terpen ing of Grants Pass who is the general chair man of the event. Also attending the fair will be W. D. JortesT chief of the field operations of the Accident pre vention division in Salem. The fair is free and will- be open to the public. Free automotive safety checks will be available for those who attend, officials said. The Med ford Jaycees are sponsoring the checks as part of their traffic program on the armory parking lot. Lights, turn signals, wind shield wipers, tires, brakes, steering mechanism, wheel alignment and exhaust systems will be checked. Local firms will furnish qualified personnel for the inspections, according to the Jaycees. More than 60 exhibits, demon strations and other attractions will be at the fair. Prizes will be awarded consisting of gift boxes of Rogue Valley pears and first aid kits. The winners of a safety pos- Portland Grocer Killed in Store Portland (IP) William W. McKenzie, 71-year-old storekeep er at a Sellwood district gro- cery, was fatally wounded here last night as he tried to fight off jtwo and possibly three holdup men. McKenzie died in a hospital about an hour after he suffered a bullet wound in the chest. Police apprehended two men who had been wounded by Mc Kenzie as he shot it out with them in his small neighborhood store. One man. Eugene Franklin Jyylor, 43, Portland, is in criti cal condition with a chest wound. LeRoy Brewton, 24, of burner, was wounded in the arm in the shooting. Both men have police records. Both men were apprehended within a few minutes after the shooting by a swarm of city po lice summoned from throughout the southeast district of the city. (2 Employees Resign From Detention Home Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Bjorn sen, employees of the Jackson county juvtgjile department at the detention home, have re signed, it was announced today. Bjornsen, who was hired in July to assist with construction work at the home, has accepted other employment of a construc tion nature, it was reported. Mrs. Kay Crowell, county ju venile officer, said a number of applicants for the positions as detention home superintendent and matron already or file, are now being considered, and that the new employees will be an nounced soon. f ter contest conducted in elemen tary schools in Jackson and Josephine counties will be an nounced at the fair. The fair is to take the place of an annual safety conference, according to its backers. Fall Unemployment Hits October Peak In Jackson County Unemployment in early Octo ber rose to the highest point in the fall months but was largely offset when good weather per mitted outside work to resume, according to John J. Patton, manaeer of the MpriforrI nffire of the Oregon State Employment service. Patton said the effect, of havih 0 more than 80 per cent of the county s manufacturing concen trated in one industry was dem onstrated in the early part of uctooer when loggers were kept out of the woods by danger of fire and then by heavy rain. He also said the unemployment rose further when some mill crews took their usual week of vacation to go deer hunting. These reasons made the early part of October appear to be on me way to nigh unemployment records, he said. With the re turn of good weather in the sec ond half of the month, a return of loggers to the woods and mills resuming operations lowered the unemployment fieure hp said He added that unsatisfactory prices is the principal deterrent to activity in the lumber indus try. Jobless Number 1,455 An estimated 1.455 nennle. were out of work in the Jackson county area at the end of Octo ber, according to Patton's report. This figure is an increase of 51 per cent more than . September, which was a peak month of sea sonal employment, and 71 per cent more than one year ago. Medford ranks fourth in thf state population an normally fifth or sixth in the number of unemployment claims filed, ac cording to the report. During Oc tober Medford was ranked about 10th in claim filing, Patton said. This indicates that conditions here are generally better than in much of the rest of Oregon, he added. The principal sources of new jobs in the next 60 days will be in the fruit industry, where Christmas gift box packing and orchard pruning will soon begin, he said. Patton added that the gift boxing comes at the time of year when other types of activ ity slack off due to weather. j Ten Homes Perch Near Rim Of Giant Sewer Cave-In Seattle HP) Ten homes perched percariously near the rim of a giant sewer cave-in to day as swirling sewage water continued to eat away at sandy soil at the bottom of a 60-foot crater. At least 75 persons had moved out of their homes in the 1600 block of Ravenna blvd. where the cave-in carved out a 200 by 120-foot crater. Pieces of front lawn drooped out over the edge and one por tion of a divided highway rear ed out like a giant diving board over the chasm. James L. Robertson, assistant city engineer, said the only way to stop the "whole neighbor hood"' from tumbling into the big hole was to build a by-pass sewer line. 52nd Year United Press Full Leased Wire 30 PAGES Discount Rate at Four Federal Banks Lowered by Board Move Indicates That Boom May Be Over Washington (W The gov ernment has eased up on the anti-inflation brakes in a move that indicates the boom is over. The Federal Reserve Board, in the first reversal of its cherished "tight-money" policy, put the discount rate Thursday from 3Vi to 3 per cent at four of its member banks. The remain ing eight banks are expected to follow suit shortly. The move means that business men, would-be homeowners and car buyers, and others probably will be able to borrow more money from banks easier and cheaper. It is an attempt by the government to get the people buying again. Top economists said in New York that the action indicates 1hat inflationary pressures in the economy have eased. They said it also indicates that the boom has ended and that busi ness activity began to slow down. Inflation Not Dominant The government had pursued a tight-money policy as a means of holding down the inflationary spiral. But a spokesman said the i eserve board's action recognizes that inflation now "has ceased to be the dominant factor in the economy." The discount rate is the inter est reserve banks charge mem ber banks to borrow money. A reduction could stimulate credit and thus the overall economy if member banks pass on the lower cost of borrowing to their customers. It also encourages the banks to borrow more free ly from the reserve and thus in creases their ability to make more private loans. The lower discount rate, an nounced Thursday, went into effect today at reserve banks in New York, Atlanta, St. Louis, and Richmond, Va.- The other banks are at Cleveland, Chi cago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Boston, Dallas and San Francisco. Congressional reaction to the move was immediate and favor able among both Republicans and Democrats. No Last Rush Seen In Tax Department No last minute rush was re ported at the county tax depart ment office this morning as the deadline for the paying of coun ty taxes approached. Taxes must be paid prior to 5 p.m. today to entitle the property owner to receive a three per cent dis count, tax officials said. According to officials a con tinual flow of persons was re ported paying taxes at the court house since the statements were mailed last month. About one mail sack of statements was re ported daily at the sheriff's de partment with less mail report ed today than Thursday. Officials said that Tuesday of this week saw the heaviest re turn of statements so far. Some 33,000 county tax state ments were mailed out. Walla Walla OP) Bertie Bar rett, a 30-year-old Ind, an known to carry a knife, escaped from the state penitentiary here Thur sday by walking away from the motor pool. t "This job won't be done in a matter of hours," Robertson said. "It will take days and perhaps weeks but we've got to do it or we may lose a whole neighbor hood. It's a very bad situation, a losing battle." A break in the city's biggest sewer line, 145 feet under ground, caused the original cave in Monday night. Sewage waters from .the 50 y e a r-old bricklined concrete pipe, six feet in diameter, con tinued to gnaw away at the sandy soil and a second cave-in occurred shortly before midnight Wednesday night. The city council approved an emergency appropriation o f 5200,000 to finance the 'by-pass sewer line and repairs, but total damage in the area is expected to run into millions of dollars. MEDFORD, Third Polio Ca Reported In County, Health Officer Says New Shots Schedule For All Schools Another new case of poliomye litis, the third reported in Jack son county during the past month, has occurred in a 31-year-old woman, according to Dr. A. Erin Merkel, public health offi cer. She had not had Salk vac cine protection, he said. The first case during the month resulted in the death of a young woman and the second re sulted in extreme paralysis in a five-year-old boy. The last case reported, according to Dr. Mer kel, is a non-paralytic type of polio. The woman was admitted to a hospital Saturday night. The three cases were the only ones this year. Dr. Merkel announced .the third round of Salk polio vaccine shots will be started next week. These shots will be given to the children who received the first shots last January and February. Jackson county physicians will again donate their time so the program can be completed, Dr. Merkel said. Vaccination stations are limited to the completion of . -. . ' 1 U T J tt-tai,- -fifct ennareu wno nave iidu two shots seven or more months ago. The public health doctor stated that medical groups ' are still much concerned about the un protected people between tne n Ps nf 1 and 40. He believes that the people do not realize the - , . A 1 A it, degree of protection mai Salk polio shots are giving. tVip zirtMnr added that the phy sicians have an ample supply of vaccine and the county neanii Hnnartment has vaccine avail able for children under 20 years of age who do not get their snois otherwise.. . . The schedule for tne aamims or,ff nf shots in the public schools has been announced. During the next two weeks the third shots will be given as fol Monday. Nov. 18. Hanby school Gold Hill, 9 a.m., Sams Valley, 10 a.m., and Lone fine, i r.m - Tuesday. Nov. 19, Med ford schools during the morning, children will be transported to the public health clinic in the county courthouse for the shots; Wednesday, Nov. 20, Butte Falls, 10 am. and Prospect, 1 p.m.; Thursday, Nov. 21, Applegate, 10 30 a.m. and Ruch 1 p m.; and Monday, Nov. 25, Elk-Trail, 9 a.m., Shady Cove, 10:30 a.m., and Eagle Point, 1 p.m. The De cember schedule which will in clude the remaining county schools will be announced at a later time, Dr. Merkel said. Dr. Merkel reminded parents of non-school children who re ceived Salk polio shots during January or February to take their children to the nearest des ignated school during the sched uled hours. The public health clinic at the courthouse will be open Tuesdays and Fridays for administering these shots if the parents are unable to take them to one of the schools, the doctor said. Dr. Merkel Notified Of Reserve Position Dr. A. Erin Merkel, public health officer, was notified this week of his appointment as sen ior surgeon in the reserve corps of the Public Health service, U.S. Department of Health, Edu cation and Welfare. The appointment was effec tive as of Oct. 1, and was signed by Marion B. Folsom, secretary of the department. WEATHER FORECAST: Isolated light showers tonight and Satur day. Patches valley fog Sat uriiav morning. Low tonight 36. High Saturday 6-48. Temp. Hiehest Yesterday 47 Lowest this Morning 34 Prec. to 10 a.m. Today 04 Our Skies Tonight Sunrise" 7:02 a.m. Sunset 4:50 p.m. Moonrise Saturday 1:13 a.m. New Moon Nov. 21 PROMINENT .STAR Spica. rises 4:56 a.m. VISIBLE PLANETS Venus, low in south west 6:44 p.m. Jupiter, rising at . 4:36 a.m. is now moving near Spica. Mars, rises 5:54 a.m. tula jj . OREGON, FRlr o - Sure Been Kept Judge Upholds City's New Business License Municipal Judge Noreen Kelly today upheld the city's new busi ness license ordinance. In a 15-page memorandum opinion and order, Judge Kelley outlined the case the city filed against Ray DeMarrs, a barber and one of three city business men who had challenged the con stitutionality of the ordinance, passed last August, and held that the ordinance was constitutional. The lengthy document goes in to considerable detail to discuss various aspects of the case, as well as other cases bearing on this one. Her final conclusion, Slight Gain Shown in Pupils Enrolled Jackson county school enroll ments now total 14,799, accord ing to Alf B. Mekvold. Jackson county . school superintendent. Last year at this date there were 14,767 students enrolled in the schools of this county. The total county-wide gain was 32 pupils during the year. The superinten dent stated that several schools in the county had decreases in enrollment which substantially affects the total enrollment figures for the county. Those school districts showing increases for the first quarter are: Griffin Creek, 13; Ashland, 22; school district 6C, 65; Lone Pine 11, Talent, 2; Applegate, 16; Medford, 131: Evans Valley, 3; Shady Cove, 2. School dis tricts reporting decreases for the first quarter are: Jacksonville, 6: Ruch. 4: Phoenix, 43: Eagle Point, 14; Rogue River, 60; Elk- Trail, 16; Prospect, 48: Butte Falls, 18: Pinehurst, 1; Howard school, 23. At the present time, the total teaching staff in the Jackson county schools is 712. Of this figure, 192 are employed in the rural district, which are second and thrd class districts, and 520 in the first class districts. Road Connections Okayed By County The county court Wednesday approved the proposed Highway 99 freeway interchanges and over and underpasses affecting Jackson county roads, according to County Court Judge Rodney Keating. Judge Keating reported that the court accepted the tenta tive proposals as outlined which are still subject to revisions. He emphasized that the pro posals are forwarded to the state highway department for its ap proval and then to the bureau of public roads for its approval before a formal aggreement is made with the county court. J. F. Hagemann, assistant county-city relations engineer with the state highway depart ment, met with the county court Wednesday morning and explain ed maps of the tentative and proposed interchanges and over I and underpasses. Tribune EMBER 15, 1957 Under Wraps, All Right" as stated in the memorandum opinion, is that the ordinance "is, in every respect herin ad vanced, valid and constitutional." Ordered To Appear DeMarrs. was ordered to ap pear in' Municipal court at 8:30 a.m Monday, Nov. 18, for fur ther proceedins in the case. The case also, in effect, settles two other similar cases which were postponed pending decision in the DeMarrs case. The de fendents, who also challenged the validity of the ordinance, are M. J. Olson, Arnold lane, owner of the Tic-Tok Time shop, 34, North Bartlett st, and Richard G. Shafer, 60 Quince st., owner of the Shafer Electric Shop, 142 North Front st. Both were cited for doing business without a lic ense. Maximum penalty provided in the ordinance for violation was a $100 fine or 50 ays in jail, for each day of viloation, or both, although in test cases the maxi mum penalty rarely is imposed. Today at 5 p.m. has been set as a "deadline" for obtaining the business license for those busi nesses in the city subject to its provisions. Editor of Bend Paper Hanged in Eiiigy Bend (TP) Robert Chandler, editor of the Bend Bulletin, was hanged in effigy here Thursday night. The effigy was found dangling from the Bulletin flagpole and bore the legend, "Thank you, Mr. Chandler, for your great support in building COC." Presumably the effigy was in protest to a Bulletin editorial of Wednesday in which Chandler had opposed construction of a campus for Central Oregon col lege. The college now holds classes in Bend high school. The editorial opposed the pro posal of President Don R. Pence of COC that thought be given to construction of a college plant at a beginning cost of one-half million dollars. . Suspect in Suffocation of 22 Girl Confesses Reno (ff! John L. Miller, 15, suspect in the suffocation of a 22-month-old girl, confessed the slaying following his arrest at a service station early this morning. "I felt like I wanted to kill someone and she was around so I killed her," he said in a signed statement. Police Capt. Louis Spitz and Sergeant Ray Cavallo arrested Miller on a tip from a merchant patrolman. The patrolmen, Tony Snyder, said he had talked to a slot machine playing hitch-hiker who was suspicious of the youth who had given him a ride from Oregon. Available Officers All available officers began searching the city and taxi-cabs Price 10e United Press Full Leafed Wir No. 177 Armada Finds 17 Bodies, Wreckage Of Stratocruiser Search Concentrated Northeast of Hawaii Honolulu HP) An air-sea armada that found the bodies of 17 persons killed in the crash of a Pan American Stratocruiser combed a small area of the Pa cific today in the slender hope of finding survivors. None of the searchers held out much hope of finding survivors, but it was a chance they could not afford to overlook. The search concentrated on an area 1,040 miles northeast of Hawaii. A Navy plane from the carrier Philippine Sea spotted wreck age from the Stratocruiser "Ro mance of the Skies" Thursday, six days after it disappeared while flying from San Francisco to Honolulu with 36 passengers and eight crewmen. The wreckage was scattered over a 33 square mile area. Carrier at Scene The Philippine Sea was the first ship to reach the scene. Soon the destroyers Renshaw and Epperson and the Coast Guard cutter Bering Strait join ed the carrier in the grim job of recovering the bodies. The bodies were taken aboard the Philippine Sea and placed in an improvised morgue. The carrier was ordered to carry them, immediately back to Long Beach, Calif. The Chief of Naval Opera tions in Washington asked medi cal officers on the Philippine Sea to examine the bodies and report an opinion on the prob able causes of death. The first report from the car rier said the victims suffered "extensive injuries . . . with mul tiple fractures considered the cause of death." Victim's Shoes Gone Twelve of the bodies wore life-jackets, five of which had expired air cartridges. None had shoes. This indicated the Ill fated Stratocruiser hurtled them into the water and broke into pieces while the passengers braced themselves for a crash. One body was still belted to an airliner seat. Capt. Donald B. MacDiarmid, one of the Coast Guard's top search and rescue experts, said the description of the wreckage and the conditions of the bodies indicated the plane "definitely went into the water in a bad or uncontrolled ditching." Every scrap of the plane was pulled from the water for study by experts. They will try to find out what caused the plane to crash as it did without the crew even sending a distress signal. 450,000 Residents Have Not Had Polio Shots Portland (IP! The state board of health said today that some 450,000 Oregon residents under the age of 40 have not yet re ceived any Salk vaccine protec tion against paralytic polio. Dr. Richard H. Wilcox, acting state health officer, warned that the danger of polio outbreaks "bust be considered a distinct possibility" until at least half of these unprotected persons ob tain Salk shots. ' SURVVERS Slaying in Reno Today also were alerted to watch for the 1957 model Plymouth the hitchhiker described. Cabbie John Rayner spotted the car in the service station where Miller had just had the gasoline tank filled. Four police cars converged on the scene and Cavallo and Spitz made the ar rest with drawn revolvers from both sides of the vehicle. Miller was booked on a mur der charge at 3 a.m., about half an hour after he was captured. Cavallo said he told officers everything they wanted to know. An intensive three-day ' man hunt started after the youth was identified by neighbors who found the body of tiny Laura Helen Wetzel in a vacant house at Palos Verdes Estates, Calif., Monday. Democrats Say Tht Will Accept Report Of Group Majority Technicalities in Tax Bill Discussed Salem HP) House Democrats said today they would accept the report of a majority of the con ference committee on reduction of Oregon income taxes. House Speaker Pat Dooley said that by his calculations the cut in taxes amounted to 20.03 per cent with fringe benefits such as loss carry-forward and accelerated depreciation. He said his figures were on the basis of an estimated tax base of $1 million dollars. The speaker predicted that the special legislative session would adjourn sine die Saturday morn ing at the end of its third week. He said it might be dne tonight, but feared there were too many details to clear up. Conferees Meet The House Tax committee and House conferees were meeting with tax commission attorneys to go over technicalities in the major tax bill. Rep. Clarence Barton, Co quille, a House conferee, said that if any mistakes were found, the Senate conferees would be called in for a meeting this afternoon. Conferee Sen. Walter Pearson, Portland, said attorneys feared there might be something wrong with the title of the bill. In the House, a supplemental appropriation of $50,000 was re duced to $15,000 on the advice that this amount would be suffi cient to see the Legislature through the end of this week. Earlier Estimates 22'2 Per Cent Earlier Estimates of the cut in taxes ran around 2214 per cent. After more than six days of wrestling with the income tax problem, the third conference committee came within $1,500, 000 ot agreement Thursday night and stalled again. However, five of the members voted for the 22& per cent pro posal advocated earlier in the day. by Sens. Walter Pearson, Portland Democrat, and "Lie Ohmart, Salem Republican. Consequently the bill will be printed. Reps. Clarence Barton, Coquille, Kuy Jonas, Salem, and Robert Duncan, Medford, all Democrats, refused to sign the conference report without au thority of a party caucus. The plan approved by the majority of the conference com mittee would leave a surplus of some 34 million dollars in the state treasury with which to meet the 1959-61 biennium and return the rest of the state's estimated 74 million dollars sur plus to the people. Majority Stands Firm Democrats,, after an evening caucus, came back with a counter proposal to the Pearson Ohmart plan which would have changed the rate structure so as to raise an estimated $1,500, 000 more a year. But the majority of the com mittee consisting of Pearson, Ohmart, Sens. Phil Lowry, Med ford Republican, Rudie Wilhelm Jr., Portland Republican, and Rep. Leon Davis, Hillsboro Re publican, stood firm for ng more surplus. - o - Both sides, argued that they had given in a majority of times during the long discussions. Included in the bill as ap proved by the committee ma jority are provisions for accel erated depreciation and carry forward of losses applying both to corporations and individuals along with tax benefits for per sons over 65. , DOW JONES AVERAGES New York (IP) Dow-Jonet final stock averages: 30 indus-. trials 439.35, up 11.41; 20 rail- . roads 106.67, up 2.90; 15 utili ties 65.89, up 1.05; and 65 stocks 147.99, up 3.60. Sales today were about 3,510,000 shares compared with 2,450,- 000 shares Thursday. - Month - Oid The search from Miller shift ed to Northern California after San Francisco police found an abandoned car that had been stolen near the home of the little girl. Fingerprints in the auto matched those of Miller, who escaped from a Whittier, Calif., reform school Sunday night. Miller abandoned the first car after it ran out of gas and stole another which he drove to Eureka. Calif., then to Klamath Falls, Ore., and back to Reno. He said at the time he smothered the Wetzel girl, "I didn't feel bad and I didn't feel bad afterwards." But the youth said he later realized "I messed up my life." The body of the Wetzel girl was found in a vacant house near her home.
