Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989, July 10, 1958, Image 1

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Medford mail tribune., July 10, 1958, Image 1

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Newspaper Page Texto o cm mm MM IN Al Least Three Dead; Tidal Waves Nearly Erase Isle Vessels, Plane Search Bays, Coves United Press International At least three persons lost their lives today when a five hour earthquake ripped the rugged Alaska coastline north west of Juneau with tidal waves which nearly obliterat ed a small island. The three dead were report ed to be picking wild straw berries on tiny Khantaak island in Yakutat bay when huge waves rolled over the island, crumpling much of it into the bay. . The island was about five miles long. Bays, Coves Searched. Reports of the deaths came from Bob Welsh of Belling ham, Wash.; who was in Yaku tat, about 300 miles north west of Juneau, for the salmon fishing season. Welsh tele phoned Bellingham to report the death of his mother, Mrs. Jean Welsh Walton, and a man and his wife identified only as "Mr. and Mrs. Tibbie," government employees living at Yakutat. Two Coasto Guard vessels and a Coast Guard amphibious search plane were searching the bays and coves between Lituya bay, about 150 miles west of Juneau, and Yakutat for a missing fishing boat, the Sunmore. Coast Guard head quarters at ' Juneau reported two persons were rescued when a small fishing boat, the Badger, was swamped and sank in Lituya bay. Survivors Flown- Out " , " Mrs. Dean Goodwin,, wife of the bush pilot who flew the two survivors to Juneau iden tified them as Mr. and Mrs. William Swanson "from some where in the Seattle-Tacoma area." Mrs. Swanson was re ported to be suffering from chest injuries and her husband was -less seriously injured. The Coast Guard found a awamped cabin cruiser near Yakutat bay and was checking out a report that four persons were aboard the small pleas ure boat. Frank Neumann, University of Washington seismologist, said the temblerowas the strongest quake recorded at his station since the shock which caused a tidal wave in the Aleutian islands Mrch 9, 1957. Lasted for Five Hours "Thiswas a terrific earth quake,"' Neumann said. "It lasted for five hours and was so strong that it knocked out some of our equipment. The first shock was recorded at 10:19:14 p.m. PST July 9." He said the center of the quake was in the Yakutat area. The shock sent residents of the Hawaiian Islands scurry ing from- their homes in a tidal wave alert which later was called off when it became evident the force had dissipat ed itself in Alaskan waters.. Lebanon, Ore. (UPI) Leonard Gilliland, 27, missing from his Scio home since Tuesday, walked into a farm house near his homj today. Phoenix Woman Elected Demo Group Mrs. Marvin Madden of Phoenix elected secretary of the Jackson County Demo cratic Central committee at a meeting at the Central Point Legion hall last night. About 100 attended the meeting, ar ranged by K. C. Wernmark, Central Point precinct com mitteeman. It was one of a series of periodic area meet ings. County Chairman James A. Redden presided. . Speaker was Ray Schu macher, county assessor, whose topic was "taxes and the methods of appraisal." A 15-minute question and an swer period followed. Reports were given by William Fronhmayer, party treasurer; Mrs. George Rode, Mrs. Albert Straus, Mrs. Dee Newton- and David Peterson on precinct organization; Mrs. Frank Christian and William V. Deatherage on arrange rangements for the annual picnic which will be held at Tou Velle State park Sunday, Au$. 3. ODD EGG - It's not the commonest thing in the world to find a turtle nest in one's garden like Medford residents Mr. and Mrs. William Jeffery did Tuesday. Mrs. Turtle did a neat job of digging a hole, plastering it with mud before laying the egg (above) inside. The egg, soft and leathery, is about two inches long. After the mother engineers the-nest according to specificatipns and lays the egg, she never returns during the incubation period, ac cording to Mrs. Jeffery. The Jefferys, whose property lies along Bear creek, take a great deal of interest in the wide variety of birds, muskrats, porcupines, skunks, squirrels and turtles that visit their back yard from time to time. Values on Defended &aiem (.un iane uoun-i ty Assessor Winfred W. Smith today defended values placed on timber by the State Tax Commission as hearings into timber valuation in Oregon went into their third day here. Smith accepted valuations placed on timber by the com mission and also a 25-year depletion s c h e d u 1 e recom mended for Lane county timber. .""'' Action Appealed "' - However, the Lane County Board of Equalization, in a split vote, slashed tax com mission , recommendations an average of 68 per cent. This action was appealed by Asses sor Smith. Voting to sustain the asses sor was Equalization Board Chairman Robert Straub, but Atlantic Scoured For Mouse in Cone Cape Canaveral, Fla. (UPI) Air Force recovery, boats scoured the South Atlantic to day for an experimental rocket nose cone and a tiny captive mouse hurled into space in a combination military-scientific missile test. The Air Force was keeping quiet about the success or failure of the mouse-carrying hybrid rocket, designed as a forerunner of the missile ex pected to shoot for the moon. After the firing Wednesday night, spokesmen said only that the missile "performed successfully." , There was no mention of the mouse's fate, or of the landing place of the nose cone. The mouse and the nose cone were "sent into the hea vens atop the second stage of a Vanguard rocket which in turn was mounted oh the first stage of a Thor." inter continental ballistic missile. Secretary Named on the picnic com mittee were Mrs.. Christian, general . chairman; Deather age, park arrangements; Mrs. Straus, foods chairman assist ed by Mrs. Roy Johnston, Jesse Wagner, Mrs. Scott Hamilton, Mrs. Robert Dun can, Mrs. Marcus - Norton, Mrs. Ray Schumacher, Mrs. W. G. , Werner, .Mrs.. Neva Clarke; Ray Schumacher, en tertainment ..chairman; Mr. and Mrs. Larry Sheehan, reg istration, assisted by Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Madden; Clyde Fichtner, prize chairman, as sisted by Wernmark, Mrs. Richard Kane, George Deck kelman and L. B. Nordwick; Gordon Hudson, Christian and WilMam Fronhmayer, tables; Scott Hamilton and Gerald J. Scannell, co-chairmen .of games; Tom Reeder, Karl. Janouch and Marcus Norton, co-chairman of clean up, and. Mrs. George Rode andJ Mrs. Edward C. Kelly, publicity. x M hm Timber at Hearing board members L. H. Wil- hams and Earl L. McNutt voted for the slash. "The action of the board is unjustifiable," Smith told the State Tax Commission which is sitting as a board of equal ization during the hearings. Smith said that before the reappraisal program sponsor ed by the tax commission was completed in Lane county re cently there were no accurate c'ruises of timber which could be used for tax purposes. He also said that before reap praisal there were many in accuracies in cutting reports submitted by some companies. - The assessor said he based his disagreement with the Board of Equalization both on a knowledge of tax commis sion methods in arriving at the value of timber and his own personal experience in trying to buy timber land for his serviceman son. Values 'Conservative He said tax commission values were "conservative" and in some cases amounted to only about half what the timber was actually worth on the market. Smith favored tax commis sion procedure in :using an average of five or six years to determine the value of timber even though timber prices this year have fallen off badly. . "If the same number of years is used continuously to obtain an average value, the taxes will average themselves out and timber will be taxed uniformly with other classes of property," Smith told the hearing. Visitor's Cards Used at "Visitor's cards" are being used by Rogue Valley Memo rial hospital, hospital officials have announced. The cards may be obtained at the main desk in the lobby. They will be issued to anyone wishing to visit in the hospi tal, and provide a means of telling who is in the building, officials said. - If a patient is asleep, or otherwise unable to see visit ors, hospital attendants will notify the patient later who the visitors were. Fires Mopped Up By State Crews . .. Two brush ' fires were mopped up by state depart ment of. forestry personnel yesterday. Five fire fighting crewmen brought under control an 80 acre grass and brush fire near Ruch, department offi cials said. Cause of the fire was not determined. Another crew was dis patched to a two-acre light ning strike near Browns,boro. New York (UPI) The 94th Grand Lodge convention, of the Benevolent and Pro tective Order of Elks ended today. Yugoslav, Poland Policies Blasted At Berlin Meeting Soviet Boss Backs . East German Leader Berlin (UPI) The East German Communists began a week-long congress today marked by the steady rise of iron-fisted Stalinism aid bit ter blasts against the West and the independent policies' of Yugoslavia and Poland. East German Communist leader Walter Ulbricht open ed the congress with a two hour speech in which he at tacked Yugoslavia for its "false anti-Marxist"' doctrines. He said Yugoslavia "revision ism" was damaging to the in ternational Communist move ment and that revisionism led to the Hungarian revolt. Ulbricht Defended Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, in a speech re leased today, placed himself squarely behind East . Ger many's Stalipist leaders and rebuked "national .Commun ists" who attempted to depose them. He particularly defend ed Ulbricht. Only one major satellite Communist leader was report ed present at the congress Hungarian Communist boss Janos Kadar. whose Dro-Stal- inist policies put him at the head of the government when Soviet troops crushed the 1956 rebellion. No Significance UDservers said tney saw no particular significance . in the absence of Polish " Com munist leader Wladyslaw Gomulka since the' other Com munist satellites represented did not send their top lead ers. ' ; -. Khrushchev spoke Wednes day at Bitterfeld and the Communists released addi tional parts of ,h;3 sp'?ech to day.' He 'called j , Ulbricht a friend and a true servant of the working class and said Russia would stand behind him and defend East Germany against -the West. Subdivision Bill Talked by County A revised proposed county subdivision ordinance was dis cussed Wednesday evening at the county planning commis sion meeting in the county courthouse. The new proposed ordin ance was recently compiled by Jack Eaton technician for the planning commission, from subdivision ordinances in ef fect in Multnomah, Clackamas and Lane counties and engin eers and local subdividers. Mrs. Leona Perkins, record ing secretary, submitted her resignation to the commission effective Aug. 1. She stated "personal reasons" for' her resignation. The commission accepted her resignation and directed Eaton, to contact ap plicants for the position. The commission approved, on the recommendation of Eaton, that with the increase work load in the office that a secre tary be hired on a full-time basis. '; Work progress and expend iture reports were also read and approved. Present for the meeting were Edwin Gebhard, presi dent: and John Niedermeyer, Ed Bolt, Gerald Latham, and Lloyd Selby. Lice No Longer Menace in Portland Portland (UPI) The Portland area no longer has a louse problem, " health; of ficials said today. WEATHER FORECAST: Fair nd -warm through Friday. Low tonight 55. High Friday 95. Temp. Highest Yesterday 92 Lowest this Morning St Our Skies Tonight Sunest today T9 P-m- Sunrise tomorrow 4:44 a.m. Moonrise, tomorrow. 1Z:5 a.m. New Moon July IS PROMINENT STAR Spica, in the south- 1 west . 9:1 p.m. VISIBLE PLANETS Jupiter, above ' Spica. ' Saturn, due south Z10:1C p.m. Mars, low in east 12:58 a.m. -Venus, rises 2:58 a.m. 53rd year Medford 26 Pages County Budget of $3 Million Passes After Hearing Committee Refuses Request Petition Jackson county will enter negotiations soon to assume administration of the - pro posed recreation sites in the Talent project, members of the county court announced yesterday afternoon. " The announcement, f o 1 lowed meetings with the Ash land park commission and Tal ent Irrigation district repre sentatives. Both organizations said that due to legal ques tions they would be unable to assume administration of any of the park sites, County Judge Rodney. Keating ex plained. The county court expects to sign , a contract with the bu reau of reclamation and the national park service in the near future. Members of the county court are now await ing receipt of a sample con tract from Neal Butterfield, Portland, chief of Columbia Recreation Survey branch, na tional park service. Work Scheduled Work will start next spring on the two recreation sites at Howard Prairie reservoir and on one site at Emigrant reser voir, according to James CaPTj lan, project engineer for the bureau of reclamation here. First step will be to draw up of a master plan of the rec reation layout. This will cover the access roads to be con structed in and around the camping areas and minimum facilities such as sewage and water. Next step will be drafting of specifications by the bureau of reclamation office at Camp White. Then public notice will be given advertising bids. Howard Prairie reservoir will be completed by the end of next summer, Callan said. However, it cannot be used for recreation for the next two years. . Callan expects heavy useage of Howard Prairie res ervoir water while the dam is being raised at Emigrant res ervoir. Heintz construction com pany, Portland, expects to start work on the dam next week. The dam will be raised 80 feet to a total of 190 feet and will more than double the area of the reservoir. Meter Relocation Postponed by City .Relocation of parking me ters on Main and Eighth sts. to allow for one-way traffic, state statutes and a new bumper-to-bumper parking system has been postponed, Public Works Director Vernon Thorpe said today. Thorpe said the relocation would take place just before the changeover to one-way traffic, tentatively scheduled for Aug, 10. He said no meters would be changed now since in the new locations they would interfere for the time being with motorists opening car doors. , Thorpe also reported that city crews were resurfacing 11th st. between Oakdale ave and Peach st. today and to morrow. Average of 428 Use Park Poo! in June An average of 428 swim mers used the city municipal swimming pool each day dur ing June, according to City Park Director Darell Huson. This is a drop of 60 swimmers a day from the 1957 daily average, he said. Total number of swimmers for the month was 10,282, compared to 10,726 in 1957. This, he explained, may be attributed to fact that 1958 average temperature for the month was 79 J degrees while 1957 had an average of 82.5 degrees. ' A sft MEDFORD, OREGON, THURSDAY, JULY 10, 1958 to, i i re on Su a Eie ir Ag ir To Establish Jeinnt Cdmmittefi M I Need ' , (Uerblock Is on Coil to nty On Recreation Sites The Jackson county budget for fiscal year 1958-39 was adopted last night following a public. hearing in the county courthouse auditorium. . The new budget totals $3,- 435,887.09, . which is S323, 191.37 larger than the budget for fiscal year 1957-58, which was $3,112,695.72. The county . budget com mittee refused a petition from county department heads to create a budget item to make adjustments in job reclassifi cations. The item was propos ed to handle "adjustments in equity" for employees . re questing reclassification and granted by a review board. Any adjustments made would have been retroactive or the 1958-59 budget. . f ' Closed Issue -? - Budget committee mem bers indicated they consider ed this a closed issue for the 1958-59 fiscal year budget. "We spent eight' days on this (job reclassification)," Committee Chairman Tom C-. Wray said. "If you can get all the help you want at a cer tain salary why change it." Gerald T. Latham, chair man of the governmentalop erations committee, . Jackson County Chamber of Com merce, presented a memoran dum of the chamber's conclu sions on the new budget. , It commended the budget committee and the county court "in implementing a per sonnel program to meet eco nomic and social trends in employment." .The memoran dum also pointed out the civil service report is only a yard stick or tool for establishing an equitable salary schedule in relationship to responsibil ity, and tenure. Productivity and efficiency also should be factors in using the classifi cation and scale formulae for developing economical opera tion of county government." Estimates on Receipts The chamber committee suggested that estimates on receipts for the coming year would -provide a means of re ducing school district levies. An increase of $10 per census child would reduce school dis trict levies about Wi mills, it was pointed out. This would mean inclusion of $206,160 in the budget for this item.' However, Karl Janouch, county treasurer, said there is only enough money in the county treasury to tide the county over for the first three months of the new fiscal year in case sources of revenue are slow. He said- it is hard to predict what future revenues: Vacation) Negotiate , might be, Next year, various receipts can be allocated . to this .purpose and the next budget be set up accordingly. " Latham said the committee had conferred with the tax commission, the Oregon tax research bureau, the district attorney and the county asses sor. They said it could be done, Jie added. This is espec ially true considering the accelerated timber y sales in O and C and federal forest lands, Latham commented. , Following a motion by Hen ry Conger, local farmer, that the. budget be . passed, C. Wernmark, Central Point, protested, that nobody had been given a chance to voice any objections. Wray replied he thought people' had plenty of time to make their com ments since the budget was explained department by de partment. Conger strongly objected to the petition from the elected county officials as coming from ."a pressure group." Carnival Fat Man Succumbs To Uremia Bremen, Ind. (UPI) A carnival fat ' man who weighed more than 1,000 pounds died today in a house trailer on the parking lot .of a hospital. i ' Roert Hughes, 32, Emden, Mo", was pronounced dead of uremia. Change in Federal Timber Sales to Al low Small Operators to Bid Favored ay a. nujBi.ni jraun Mail Tribune Correspondent Washington ' A House Senate conference committee Wednesday "agreed to write into law, that government tim ber" agencies " must offer "a fair proportion" of timber sales to small operators. The new timber policy dec laration was "written into the act making small business ad ministration a permanent agency. . It" was first adopted on the Senate floor last week at the request of Sen. Wayne Morse (D-Ore.) All pther northwest senators . cosponsored ." the amendment. .- "The government sells over 8 billion hoard feet of timber from public lands and nation al forests," Morse said. "The amount now equals about one fourth of , the wood used by our nation each year. The smaller firms have difficulty Price 10 cents No. 95 liBfemis Red China Trade, Russian Economic Issues Discussed Recommendations On Defense Planned Ottawa (UPI) Presi dent Eisenhower and Prime Minister John Diefenbaker agreed today on establishment of a joint cabinet committee on defense. It will make recommenda tions to the President and Prime Minister on joint de fense of the North American Continent. It also will super vise the three existing joint military committees which have been ' in existence for some time: . Members of the new top joint, defense committee "will be the secretaries of state, de fense, and ', treasury on the American side and the extern al affairs, finance and defense ministers for Canada. ' Meeting Date Undecided It was hot immediately de cided when , the ' committee would hold its first meeting or how often it would meet. Creation of the committee was ' agreed upon at an 80 minute meeting this morning between Eisenhower and Die fenbaker. Secretary of State John f Foster Dulles, Canad ian External Affairs .Minister Sidney Smith and staff aides also attended the conference. , At the meeting, there also was ' further discussion of trade with Red China vand ways to meet Russia's grow ing economic offensive. ; - An agreement reached on Wednesday between the Pres ident and the Prime Minister opened the way' for possible limited sale to Red China of goods produced in American owner plants in Canada.. Full Consultation : 4y It provided for full consul tation between the two gov ernments on an individual basis when Red China makes a firm offer to make a pur chase. A reporter asked White House Press Secretary James C. Hagerty if the agreement meant any relaxation of U.S. restrictions on trade with Red China. Hagerty gave a flat "no" answer. , Ottawa f(UPI) President Eisenhower played golf at the Ottawa Hunt Club course to- i day. securing' bids and financing road construction. What we propose here is to extend the helpful aid of the SBA to products sold by the govern ment." rJ. SBA heretofore has been limited to seeing that small business firms got a fair pro portion of " government con tracts. This is the first effort to guarantee small business special consideration in gov ernment purchases. "".An interpretation , of . the new legal . requirement was that if small timber operators complained . that the forest service or bureau of land man agement weren't putting up timber in the quantity and value on which they could bid, a special f timber -sale would have to be called. for small businesses only. Just before the conference convened, members of Con gress received telegrams op Peasants Spared Life on Learning Of Nationality Noose Around Neck, ' Freed Flier Says . Wiesbaden, . Germany (UPI) One of nine U.S. airmen shot down over So viet Armenia by Russian jet fighters disclosed today that Armenian peasants almost lynched him but spared his life when they discovered he was an American. Maj. Bennie A. Shupe told a packed news conference the peasants had a noose around his neck and the other end of the rope' tied to a telephone pole when he finally, made them understand he was an American. No National Markings It was not clear whether the Armenians thought they were about to hang a Soviet flier or perhaps more likely a Turk, their traditional blood enemy from across .the border. - ' 'The nine airmen wore fly ing suits that bore no national markings. Shupe said he saved' his life by ' shouting out the names of American cities until the peasants understood. All Roughed Up . Shupe spoke to newsmen after Col. Dale D. Brannon, the ranking officer among the nine men aboard the C-18 plane that was shot down June 27, read a pre pared statement for the group. Shupe and Brannon were two of the five that para chuted when two Soviet MIGs set it aflame by shoot ing at it. Brannan said all five were "roughed up" and had their hands tied behind their bapks. ; : I . - -. i Four others ; rode - t the burning" plane down to a! crude landing field with the MIGs still firing at it. They escaped minutes before the plane exploded. : ' Shupe had the closest call. "I was walking toward the other men (who had para chuted) , when a group, of peasants surrounded me," he said. .. He said they tied his hands behind his back and took him to a nearby pole. ; Close fo Death "I was positive they had every v intention of hanging me from the pole when I at last managed to make out I was an American," he said. "One of the peasants shouted out 'New York, Chicago.' 1 then named all the U.S. cities I could think of to keep them Off." Shupe said later he would "never forget" his experience. "The noose was partially around my neck," he said. ,"It came down the left side of my face, over 4he ear and then under my chin. I was much closer to death than I ever want to come again." Brannon said all five who bailed out were hit with fists by Soviet peasants off and on for three hours. Thrown Into Truck He said he himself was thrown into a truck and a mob of peasants piled on top of htm, kicking and battering him while he lay defenseless. He said they were abused until they, got into the hands of Soviet military police. ' After that, Brannon said, the treatment, of the airmen improved! t posing the amendment from, several Oregon timber inter ests, including Western Forest Industries association. Joseph W. McCracken, WFIA official, earlier wired his support for the i idea, then reversed his field. "We oppose government o(-; ficers deciding who will sur vive and who' will die in the lumber business," wired an Oregon plywood operator. : Agreement to the confer ence report by both houses will send, the bill to the White House, r Sen. Richard L. Neuberger (D-Ore.) agreed with Morse that the need for a timber sales policy protecting small operators was pointed up by hearings held in Oregon and here in -recent years by th Senate Interior committee. This new policy was an out growth of those hearir&s.