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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1958)
Wednesday, January 1, 1938 MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE FIVE I Legislative Session, Portland Vice Probe Ton By UNITED PRESS A record-breaking Legisla ture, the Portland vice furor which still hasn't completely lubsided and a sorry traffic record by the state's motorists topped Oregon's news parade In 1957. The Legislature got off to sone kind of record when it took two weeks to organize the Senate. Split along party lines 15-15, the senators wrangled over who was going to preside and finally settled on Democrat Boyd Overhulse of Madras. It was the first time since 1878 that a Demo- Russians Send New Year Greetings London M The Russian leaders sent New Year's greet ings to heads of state through out the world Tuesday night and called on the big powers to help the Soviet Union set tle "the international cli mate." The messages were signed .by Premier Nikolai Bulganin, Communist Paty Chief Nikita S. Khrushchev and Soviet President Klimenti Voroshi lov. They went to President Ei senhower, British Prime Min ister Harold Macmillan, Queen Elizabeth II and the heads of other governments on every continent. The message said Russia hoped "the coming yeai will be one of the strengthening of friendship and peace . . . so that people everywhere need have no fear for the fu ture for xheir children and their loved oi.es." Young Barrymore Ordered To Jail Hollywood HP Actor John Barrymore Jr., 25, must spend the next three week ends in city jail on a convic tion of being drunk and dis turbing the peace. Municipal Judge Henry Draeger fined Barrymore $100 and sentenced him to jail after police in nearby Beverly Hills arrested the j oung actor. Police said Barrymore, son of the famed actor John Bar rymore, had been quarreling with his wife and became belligerent with investigating officers. crat had been Senate presi dent. The legislators sat in regu lar session a record 128 days, passed 700 new laws and ran up a 51,100,000 bill, most cost ly in history. The Legislature, among other things, appropriated $272,000,000 for the next two years; abolished the 45 per cent surtax; increased person al income tax exemptions from $500 to $600; revised the tax withholding laws; raised the effective average rate of corporation excise taxes from 5.2 to 6 per cent; increased the basic school sup port fund; increased teacher salaries; voted $20,600,000 in highway bonds and $7,000, 000 for a higher education building program; increased the maximum weekly unem ployment compensation bene fits and boosted the public welfare budget. Session Called When an estimated $70,000,- 000 surplus was discovered in the state treasury, Gov. Robert D. Holmes, inaugurat ed in January as Oregon's first Democratic governor in 22 years, called a special ses sion of the Legislature to re duce the surplus. During 19 days of almost continuous bickering, the legislators cut income taxes overall 20.3 per cent; repealed the state prop erty tax: provided tax relief for persons over 65 and the blind, and added $10 a census child to the basic school sup port fund. An investigation of vice and alleged corruption among public officials in Portland by a succession of grand juries made black headlines and car ried to a Senate investigating committee in Washington. The final chapter of what started out to be an expose of Team ster Union infiltration into the rackets and attempts to influence high public of ficials hasn't yet been writ ten. But of 116 grand jury in dictments, 83 cases have been dismissed; four have been ac quitted; one has been con victed; one plead guilty and fines have totalled $350. There are 27 cases still pend ing. The weatherman made his usual splash across the state. As the year opened, a cold spell halted work on The Dalles dam, idling several hundred workers there and on other construction jobs. Floods plagued eastern Ore gon, especially in the Vale area. Near record winds lashed the state and two ships, tied up for salvage, broke their mooiings in the Willam ette river at Portland and smashed into the Hawthorne bridge, tying up traffic over the span for a day. Unseason al 90-degree temperatures hit the state in April and violent thunderstorms killed a 7-year-old girl and knocked down power line towers, resulting Oregon Passed Some Financial Milestones, Unander Declares Editor's note: Th following re port on Oregon's financial condi tion was prepared for the United Press by State Treasurer Sig Unander. By SIG UNANDER Written for United Press Salem (IP) In 1957, Ore gon passed some financial milestones. For the first time, our bonded debt crossed the $200 million mark and now rests at the approximate con stitutional maximum of $220 million. The state's bonds, however, maintain their AA rating. Less than $50 million of . these obligations depend upon general taxation. The rest, for example highway bonds, are redeemed from gasoline taxes, motor vehicle and motor carrier receipts. The last biennial period of 1955-57, the state had a Gen eral Fund budget of $221, 846,968. We now operate on a General Fund budget of $277,966,546, and there are some who wish to see this in creased; possibly to $330 mil lion plus in the next bien nium. I am not among the sponsors of big spending. Total Nearly $800 Million In addition to the general fund, the so-called dedicated or self-sustaining funds like the Highway Commission, Fish Commission, and Game Commission, etc., have budg ets approved by the Legisla-1 ture and revnues coming from fees and licenses. In cluding dedicated funds, to gether with the General Fund, we have a total bien nial expenditure of $794,406, 114. On an average in 1958, therefore, , the operations of the state government not in cluding municipal,, county, and local governments will amount to $33 million per month. Our timber industry has been in an unsatisfactory po sition. I look for improve ment. I have taken action to secure release of approxi mately one billion board feet of federally-owned timber- for sale primarily to the small mills which have no private timber resources. Interstate rates affect our timber and the housing con struction field, and I have re quested and there has been granted a decrease in the Federal Reserve rediscount rate which should tend to ease credit. In the housing field, we constructed slightly less than a million houses in the United States in 1957. Forecasts call for improve ment here and in general con struction activity. This should improve prospects in 1958 for the entire timber industry which is the etonomic main spring in the state. Outlook Said Good Our two other large sources of income are agriculture and the tourist industry, and a close eye should be kept on prospects here as these de velop. Very substantial in come is derived, in approxi mately equal amounts, from mining and fisheries. The im mediate prospects for these appear at least as good as in 1957. The overall effect of the rearmament and defense pro grams must be watched. Pres ent indications indicate a fa vorable derivative for Ore gon's economy from these ac tivities. The stepped-up high way program will account for expenditures in 1958 of $84 million. There are many indica tions, therefore, that more people will find good employ ment opportunities and that we will make substantial progress in 1958. Nationally, construction is rated several billion dollars ahead of 1957. In Oregon alone, many large projects will materialize in 1958. mm PRICES are UP TO DURING OUR THIS SALE IS STORE -WIDE! UP TO 50 Off on No Discount Less verything an 20! "" "V. f 1 I II II -X. M Q n ffl&QDra&QG G0o I SPECIALISTS IN HO MEW ARES! Specialists in HOMEWARES! O Please No Refunds or Exchanges on Sale Merchandise! in $200,000 damage. There were grass fires in eastern Oregon and a scattering of forest and range fires, al though the number of fires and acres burned was less than any of the previous five years. The most shameful story was written on Oregon's high ways. Through December 27 the dead in traffic accidents totaled 463. It was the worst slaughter on the highways since 1946 when 482 were killed. Some 25 others were killed in mishaps involving vehicles on private lands, but the state traffic safety division does not consider these of ficially as traffic deaths. Crime Noted Crimes of violence had their share of attention during the year. Perhaps the most spectacular was the shooting to death of John Troy Law son, 60-year-old acting town marshal at Paisley, in the holdup of the southeastern Oregon community's post of fice by two liquor-sodden des peradoes. In the crime which had overtones of the Old West, Donald Lee Ferguson, 32, and Jesse Thurman Hibdon, 30, pistol-whipped the postmaster, Mrs. Norman Bannister and robbed the post office of $150. Lawson, a plumber who acted unofficially as the town's law officer, attempted to stop the gunmen but was shot dead as he stepped across the threshhold of the post of fice. Angered townspeople 957 Oregon News Stories Market Predictions For Coming Year Worry Forecasters BY ELMER C. WALZER United Press Financial Editor New York PI The una nimity of the forecasts for 1958 down in the first half steadier and rising some in the third quarter with a strong push in the fourth quarter for business and the market is worry ing the prog- Elmer walzer n o s t i cators who have said just those things. So now they are. toning down their advices, pointing out the pit falls ahead in the market with stress on one word selectivity. Jacques Coe, head of the brokerage firm that bears his name, says "the neatest trick of the (year wil be to try to ferret out those groups which may do better than average." Downtrend Predicted He believes more groups will go down than will go up. One which he thinks will produce more profits in 1958 than in 1957 is the meat pack ing industry and here's why he thinks so: "When hogs and cattle are at low prices, the margin of profit increases substantially, "During thhe forthcoming year, it is quite evident that there will be a plentiful supply of hogs. The hog-corn ratio is an index that guides farmers in their decision whether it is more profitable to sell the corn than feed corn to the hogs and sell the hogs. "This ratio is between 15 and 16 per cent. Last year at this time it was 12.4 per cent. Should the ratio fall below 12, it would be better to sell the corn rather than feed it to the hogs." However that works out, he thinks thhe packing compan ies which in recent years have brought cost and inventories into control, should be prosperous. Some Exceptions Edmund W. Tabell, analyst for Walston & Co., is worried over the unanimity of the forecasts, and he, too, selects several groups which might profit in 1958. His first choice is the consumer goods line which he has been suggesting for some time. He believes three other likely candidates are groups that topped out a year and a half or two years ago, name ly building supplies, chemical and paper. He suggests watching bonds and money rates. A further rise in bonds, he says, should stimulate some equities, not ably electric utilities. Tabell also finds benefici aries from easier money might include some container issues, electronics and build ing stocks. He lists some of the rail road equipments because they supply the railroads with cost and labor saving pro ducts. quickly organized a posse and gave chase. Ferguson was dropped by a bullet fired by Douglas Houston, a truck driv er, and captured a short time after the holdup. Five days later Hibdon was captured by Hammond Fire Chief Harold Broderick who was hunting in the Summer Lake area north of Paisley. Both gunmen pleaded guilty to second de gree murder and were sen tenced 'to life imprisonment. Guy Earl Cramer, a dis gruntled 76-year-old Bonanza pensioner, shot and killed Fred Peterson, 75, Klamath County Welfare Commission chairman, over an imagined wrongdoing, and wounded Mrs. Altha Urquhart, welfare administrator, and Commis sioner Jerry Rajnus. Tried and asquitted by reason of in sanity, Cramer is confined to the Oregon State hospital at Salem. At Eugene, Albert Wach smuth, 65, , shot and killed State Policeman Charles C. Sanders and fatally wound ed Lane County Deputy Sher iff David D. Hefner when the two officers attempted to in vestigate a complaint of a dis turbance at the Wachsmuth home. He was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. In another sordid and sense less crime, 14-year-old Law rence Zink of The Dalles killed Mary Matthew, a 9-year-old neighbor girl, with an ax as she slept in her back yard with a friend. The Zink boy was committed to the State hospital at Pendleton. Robberies Rife A rash of bank robberies, mainly in the Portland area, made the news. Biggest haul was $19,500 taken from the Sherwood branch of the U.S. National Bank of Portland by Ross Neal Porter of West Linn. Captured a week later, Porter confessed and was sen tenced to 10 years. The same bank was held up again and robbed of $3,900 and the gun man is still at large. A story of heroism and cour age was unfolded at Coos Bay when the Norwegian freighter Thorshall collided with the government dredge William T. Rossell. Four crewmembers of the Rossell were killed but 15 others were rescued dra matically by a helicopter as they clung to spars and the mast of the stricken dredge. Thirty-one of the crew were taken from the icy waters by rescue boats. In Portland Sherry Fong was acquitted in her fourth trial for the second degree murder of Diane Hank, a 16-year-old school girl. The governor, in express ing his opposition to capital punishment, spared the lives of two inmates of the Oregon prison's death cell. George Sack, sentenced to die for the murder of his wife, had his sentence commuted to life. The death sentence for James Norman Jensen for the ax murder of Mrs. Fern Hile of Medford was commuted to 99 years. Death took the lives of for mer Gov. Jay Bowerman; Mrs. Cornelis Pierce, widow of former Gov. and Congress man Walter Pierce, and Bern ard Mainwaring, publisher of the Salem Capital Journal and member of the State Board of Higher Education. Asian flu came to Oregon in 1957 and sent moppets and oldsters alike scurrying to their doctors and health of ficers for shots against the disease. Mice Damage Crops Toward the end of the year Oregon suddenly discovered it was the victim of one of the worst mouse infestations in modern history. Crop damage estimates ranged upward from $5 million in portions of southeastern Oregon and the public was warned to handle dead field mice with care duo to the danger of tularemia In fection. By the end of the year both federal agencies and state officials were in the field to wage war against the rodents. A slump in the lumber mar ket brought unemployment to thousands of loggers and saw mill workers and seriously af fected the economy of the en tire state. On the lighter side, an 88-year-old cellblock at the Ore gon state prison was aban doned for a new, modern wing with accommodations for 156 inmates. Dr. Archie McMurdo of Heppner was named Oregon's first Doctor of the Year. H. The Nautilus, world's first atomic submarine visited Portland and attracted thous-1 ands of curious to the harbor seawall. Elvis Presley performed t Portland Multnomah stadium to the screaming delight of thousands of teen-agers. And Oregon's first penguins ar rived from the South Pole. But as the year drew to a. close a fatal lung disease struck the entertaining, white vested birds at their tempor ary home in Portland's Penin sula park and many of them died. There was still hope, however, that some of the pen guins would survive to live in their permanent home at the new Portland zoo. jjeaim Unfair it CILCDSIEIID JAN. 2 For Inventory HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL! Shop at the Pink Store ... Where You Park at the Door 617 East Main Phone SP 2-8992 Box Canyon Dam Settlement Near Spokane (IP) A formal set tlement, ending the Box Can yon dam case, is to be agreed upon here Friday. The out-of-court settlement provides that Pend Oreille County Public District No. 1 would receive $2 million from Pacific General Shea Con tractors. The PUD brought suit in connection with alleged de lays in construction of the dam on the Pend Oreille river in northeastern Washington. The utility cancelled Pacific General Shea's contract and brought in Morrison-Knudsen to finish the job. The case was technically a Pend Oreille County Superior Court case, but was heard here by Superior Judge Ray mond Kelley. T Mexican Labor Fees Increased San Francisco (IP) The U. S. Department of Labor announces that fees charged employers of Mexican farm workers entering the United States under the migratory la bor pact with Mexico have been increased, effective to day. Glenn E. Brockway of the department's regional office said the contracting fee will go up from $7 to $10 per worker, and the recontracting fee from ..4 to $5 per worker. The increases were ordered to bing collections more close ly in line with actual trans portation and subsistence costs incurred by the United States in bringing in Mexi can Nationals, Brockway said. FUE5S Storage Restyling Repairing and Relining Cleaning and Glazing Frances' Furs Formerly Frances Dallaire . 1100 Crater Lake Ave. Telephone SP 2-6526 y I J ANUARY L until ALL of our unwanted merchandise is SOLD! FURNITURE CARPETS DRAPES We Still Have A Good Assortment of: O LIVING ROOM FURNITURE Sofas, Chairs, Sectionals O OCCASIONAL TABLES Lamp Tables, Desks, etc. O BEDROOM FURNITURE Including Twin Beds, Night Stands O DRAPERY FABRICS O WOOL CARPETS Limited Quantity 1 2 Rolls Only Drastically Reduced in Price DINING SETS DINETTE SETS MATTRESSES & Box Springs O BED SPREADS . M O ASSORTED LAMPS AND MANY, MANY OTHER VERY FINE ITEMS at Savings up to 50 OPEN MONDAY NIGHTS 8 u 220 North Barrier VPhone SP 3-4394 Furnishings with a Sense of Style' 7 it
