The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 1

WEATHER TODAY Rain Temperatures Yesterday High, Low, 48 rm he Indianapolis tar Lt ihtr ha no empfy tiocking THE STAR SANTA FUND FAIR AND FIRST WEDNESDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 15, 1948 TRAFFIC TOLL 83 FIVE CENTS III A VOL. 46. NO. 193 The Day In Indiana By Maurice Early; 'Home Rule' Violated City Charters Asked Amendment Readied Louisiana Abuse Cited Voters Go Suburban Income Surtax Proposed For Cities Woman's Defiant Dare Routs Would-Be Bandit Star Santa Cheers Dying Girl, 2, As Only Tears Loom At Christmas 3 Nations Warned To End 'Deals' Aluminum, Lead Resold At Greatly Boosted Prices l-4th Pet. Suggested Maximum Study Group Also Recommends Vehicle Licensing Change Washington, Dec.

14 MONTH the police and firemen of Indiana, among ether groups of public servants, will establish strong lobbies in the State Legislature to have laws' passed ia their interests. SUCH THINGS were branded by the American Municipal Association conference here today aa Washington, Dec. 14 W) Aluminum and lead bought for Europe with Marshall Plan dollars have turned up in this country and been sold to American buyers at "high prices," officials said today. The Economic Co-Operation Administration (ECA) announced a crack-down on the practice. Britain, Belgium and Holland are involved.

Acting Administrator Howard Bruce said: "Unless this situation is explained or brought under com-plete control, we propose to reduce drastically our allocations to those United States taxpayers and aluminum users pay twice, once to buy the scarce metal for Europe and again to pay premium prices for it when it turns up here. UNOFFICIAL REPORTS said that some of the metal actually was shipped abroad, then transshipped to the United States. In other instances it is claimed that because the Marshall Plan shipments take car of their reconstruction needs, the Europeani are able to sell their aluminum scrap to United States buyers at premium prices. fT V'vyr xym Mm wM tL I I By PAUL N. JANES There may be tears in the home of 2-year-old Charleen Kay Robertson on Christmas, but a Jolly Santa Claus brightened things up considerably yesterday.

Old Santa made a hurry-up visit to the cute little girl who is doomed to die of cancer, possibly before he makes his regular rounds of Indianapolis homes on Christmas Eve. "Mrs. Claus told me to get around to your house early," said Santa (Ray Fiscus in private life). "She was afraid I would have so much work to do on Christmas Eve that I might overlook somebody, and we certainly didn't want to overlook you." WITH WIDE EYES, Charleen watched Santa unwrap many presents which were purchased for her with contributions to The Star's Santa Claus Fund. She hugged a lovely doll, dialed a toy telephone, examined a set of toy dishes, watched a mechanical drummer in action, and played a toy piano.

And, while she didn't say a word, her facial expressions said thank you a thousand times to good old Santa. Charleen must have anticipated Santa's arrival, for she was peering from a front window of the home of her aunt, Mrs. Juani-ta Tyree, at 1731 English Avenue, when he stopped his automobile and climbed out with all of her presents. She was so excited at first that she cried a little, but Santa stopped all of that by opening a large package containing the doll. On hand to watch the proceedings were several of Charleen' including her- father, Leslie Robertson, 414 North Jefferson Avenue, and her grandmother, Mrs.

Eva Green, who cares for the girl in her home at 6237 East 26lh Street. PHYSICIANS WHO HAVE removed a total of eight tumors from the girl's lower abdomen since last spring have expressed amazement that she is still alive. They say the dreaded cancer, which "goes wild" when it attacks children, is certain to claim her life before many weeks go by. The "early Christmas" pushed into the background the foreboding probability of pain, suffering and death. Christmas cheer will be provided for needy children throughout the city by persons conlrihut-ing to the Santa Claus Fund.

Your contribution large or small will help. Send it to The Star Santa Claus Fund, 301 North Pennsylvania Street, Indianapolis, today. The Star's Santa will do the rest on Christmas Eve. One of Indianapolis' braver women, Mrs. Anna Sigmon, feept through the cashier's cage from where ihe foiled a oldup man yesterday.

Mrs. Sigmon leaped into the cage at the Sigmon Coal Company, I 205 Roach Street, slammed the door and dared the bandit to shoot her. He fled. (Star Photo.) The Indiana Tax Study Commission yesterday proposed that Hoosier cities and towns be permitted to enact a surtax up to one-fourth of 1 per cent on the gross taxable income of their citizens and business Arms. The surtax would help finan cially crippled municipalities ward off threatened bankruptcy, the commission said.

It would produce approximate ly $10,242,000 if enacted at the maximum rate in the state 39 largest cities, Clinton Fielder, commission research director, said. UNDER THE commission pro posal the maximum surtax col lectable on a $20 gross income payment would be $5. Winding up a two-year study of Indiana's taxing problems, the commission said it would recommend enactment of municipal surtax legislation to the 1949 General Assembly. After heated debate the com mission suggested the city-town surtax be collected by the State Gross Income Tax Division and returned to the municipalities which levied it. IN ADOPTING the surtax plan, the commission simultane ously turned thumbs down on so-called municipal "nuisance" taxes on stores, theaters, pool rooms and amusement centers.

Other recommendations the commission made to the 1949 General Assembly In its final report were: IA state motor vehicle license plate tax to replace the present property tax on motor vehicles. 2 Continuing long-range study of local and state governmental units with a view to consolidation of overlapping agencies. State Treasurer Frank T. Millis, commission chairman, said the auto and truck license tag fee would be paid at the time the license plates were purchased and would catch 518,000 motor vehicle owners who have been evading payment of their property tax. It would produce $9,000,000 more annually than the property tax by catching the evaders, Millis added.

THE LICENSE tag fee would be based on weight of vehicles. The fees would raige from $5 for vehicles less than 1,200 pounds to $65 for commercial vehicles of more than 12 tons. Distribution of revenue from the license tag tax would be left up to the Legislature. The commission hit at the inadequate tax resources of some of the state's small counties and urged consolidation of these units. It urged more "home rule" for cities and criticized needless duplication of state and local governmental functions.

Her big brown ayes shining, 2-year-old Charleen Kay Robertson, who may not live until Christmas, plays with toys that arrived early for her Christmas yesterday. The presents delivered by Santa Claus were provided by contributors to The Star's Santa Claus Fund. (Star Photo by Hugh Connaway.) They Give To Brighten Yuletide Phony Cures i Paraded For Drug Sleuths By DAN PRISCU Colored lights to cure all diseases, machines that make fumes capable of killing patients as quickly as germs, and gadgets supposed to multiply milady's curves all these and more were on display here yesterday in a "chamber of horrors" shown by Federal food and drug men. The display was part of the annual convention of food and drug Inspectors held in the Clay-pool Hotel. LOOKING AT THEM, the food iic mtfi.ais were purcnasea in Canada, Newfoundland, Mexico and Peru.

ECA said it. has asked Britain, Belgium and Holland to quit selling the metal to scrap buyers in the United States. Because of the diversion of metals bought with ECA money the agency said metal and ore requests from those countries already have been trimmed. NO VIOLATION of law Is Involved, an ECA spokesman said. But the volume of such traffic more than 20 per cent of the nearly 100,000 metric tons of the metals purchased for delivery to Europe indicates dealings on a scale contrary to ECA policy, he stated.

He said it demonstrates that aid dollars were being used for metal not needed overseas. Spokesmen for the aluminum industry declare that the practice involves a costly cross-haul of the metal to and fro across the Atlantic. They estimate it is costing the taxpayers more than $26,000,000 this year, and the consumers more than $2,000,000 in premium price payments. (In London the ministry of supply denied that Britain has resold any scrap metal to the United States.) Ralph L. Wilcox, acting chief of ECA's non-ferrous metals division, told reporters that aluminum was bought in Canada with Marshall Plan money at 16 cents a pound, supposedly for use in Europe, then was resold here for "between 27 and 30 cents a pound." high handed a 1 ee which i late the i ciple of home rule.

The conference took the position that if the I a Iature increases salaries of police, firemen and local officials, then the state should pay the bill rather than saddle the expense en cities which have had no voice In the matter. "LOCAL SALARY BILLS are passed by the Legislature with a whoop because the legislators are not faced with the responsibility ef raising the money to pay the bill," Frederick N. MacMillin, lecretary of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, told the conference, prior to adoption of a resolution favoring amendment ef state constitutions enabling cities to adopt their own charters and determine the kind of gov ernment they want without be lng subject to any whim of rural- dominated Legislatures. LIKEWISE, the eonference Mid cities should have authority to raise their own revenue from ny local source and decide for themselves what services they require without asking permission from the Legislature. SUCH A HOME RULE amendment to the constitution is being prepared for introduction in the coming session of the Indiana Legislature.

MAYOR D. S. Morrison of New Orleans, who was elected president of the association, told about the sad experiences which can befall a city when the Statehouse gets in the hands of dictatorially ambitious men like the Longs. NEWLY ELECTED- state officials in Louisiana, lusting for dictatorial power and spoils, decided to abuse the lack of home-rule protection in New Orleans, he said. In order to throttle New Orleans, tax revenue was cut and city expenses increased.

But a constitutional amendment Is being prepared to protect the big Mississippi port city from the odd doings of the Statehouse. MAYORS also called attention to the fact that the "cream of the voters" are leaving the city and becoming suburban residents. They are frequently veterans who buy homes and raise children, the kind of good people needed in the city CITIES COMING to Washington with "tin cups" were defended by Mayor W. B. Hartsfleld of Atlanta, because the state and Federal governments are "scooping up all the tax money." IT WAS DECIDED to postpone action recommending the kind of civil defense which the cities would like established until a definite program is worked out by the Office of Civil Defense Flanning.

BUT WHEN a civil defense program Is adopted by the trustees of the association, it will protest the drafting of trained firemen, policemen and other key officials, in event of war. THOUSANDS of police and firemen are now in the reserves. If they were called it would be Impossible to maintain peacetime services and it would be disastrous in event of a wartime emergency, Richard Graves, director of the League of California Cities, SHid. The association voted to ask Congress to permit the assessment of Federal property to permit payment of sums tx heu of taxes to tha cities. Ohio Solves Bonus Through Bond Issue Angry Pastor Delivers Drinking Son To Jail Another Picture On Page 4 A flabbergasted holdup man yesterday pocketed his gun and ran when his intended victim dared him to shoot her.

Police said Mrs. Anna Sigmon, 60 years old, owner of the Sigmon Coal Company, 1205 Roach Street, greeted the bandit's request for her money with "You old son of a gun, you'll shoot me first." Then she leaped into the cash-ier's'cage in her office, locked the door and glared defiance at the dumbfounded holdup man. "He stood there looking stupid for a moment, then he ran," she chuckled. Mrs. Sigmon said the short, well-dressed man entered her office and asked about the difference between Indiana and West Virginia coal.

Assured that Indiana coal was very good, he went out to look at a pile. WHEN HE RETURNED, he hcWpH tn have a ton delivered to a house three doors awav and argued about the address. Finally he drew a revolver and asked for her money. Mrs. Sismon does not consider her action bravery.

"Nobody's going to get my money without an argument," she said. RnnnlH A. Eno. manaeer of the Roy Logan Shoe Store, 139 North Tllinni street nrnveri more con ventional victim for a holdup man who toon $ju irom mm yesterday morning while hundreds of Christmas shoppers thronged the sidewalk in front of the store. ENO SAID the man entered while he was alone in the store and forced him to open a small safe, from which he took $250, and the cash drawer, from which he took $70.

"I didn't work the combination of the safe the first time," Eno said, "and he told me he'd give me just three tries and then he'd blow my head off." Eno made it the second time and the bandit forced him into the basement, slamming a trapdoor above his head. Eno described the bandit as about 5 feet 6 inches tall, 35 years old, with a bushy mustache and dark clothes. Another holdup occurred at the Carrollton Liquor Store, 724 East 10th Street, where a tall, roughly-dressed man pulled a nickel-plated gun, snatched $60 from the cash register and ran. James Gentry, 58 years old, 722 East 10th Street, a clerk, told police the man asked for change for a large bill, then said, "Give me all the money." Storm Delays British Liner Southampton, Dec. 14 (JP A gale in the English Channel prevented the liner Queen Mary from docking tonight with 926 passengers from the United States.

She was anchored offshore to await better weather. Beverly K. and Richard E. Kelly In memory of Mother and Dad From a Hoosier Ladies Aid, East Union John Koehler Triller From a friend Ethel Elliott Dennis Warren Clark Dick, Mike and Dehby Hoover, Pittsburgh, Dickie and Johnnie Oliver, 1.00 2.00 1.00 10.00 1.00 5.00 5.00 1.00 5.00 1.00 Turn to Page 10, Column 5 Parents Ask Term For Son Youth Who 'Wouldn't Listen' Sentenced Picture on tl An 18-year-old youth drew a four-month sentence to the Indiana State Farm yesterday at the urging of his own parents. Sentenced was David B.

Baine, 1041 East Michigan, charged with a companion, also 18, with ve hicle taking in the theft of a truck and motor block they wanted to use in building a dirt-track race car. Baine was sentenced after his parents and his attorney said he had not learned to stay out of trouble despite nine appearances in Juvenile Court and constant, watching by the mother and father. The bov's sobbing companion, Mitchell E. Carlock, 359 South Ritter Avenue, never before in trouble, was given a one-year suspended sentence by Judge Saul I. Rabb.

BOTH BOYS pleaded guilty to vehicle taking and unlawful possession charges in Criminal Court, Division 2. Balne's police statement said the pair also had stolen an auto and driven it to Lima, in November to "visit" his relatives. Debating what to do with young Baine, the judge turned to the parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Baine, who stood at their son's side, and said: "Whatever I do is going to be wrong.

What would you do." "Don turn him loose, Judge, said Mrs. Baine to the surprised jurist. The father of the boy and his attorney, Edwin Haerle, joined In the mother's recommendation. "He must learn to obey the law," Haerle said. David hasn't listened to his mother, his father or the judge of Juvenile Court.

He must understand that we have laws and Turn to Page 10, Column 1 Contributions yesterday KA0. Previously reported Total $7,224.08 Anonymous 2.30 Edna M. Vogt n.00 E. 10.00 Betsy and Tommy 5.00 Mr. and Mrs.

George D. Wyatt 1.00 A. Mite 8.00 E. G. 10.00 Henry H.

and Claudia Hollidge 4.00 The speed and efficiency of the Ohio plan has attracted national attention and many visitors from other states which have approved a bonus are considering it. Ohio started early because in- (Inrliana i.t getting ready to pay a veterans' bonut. In Ohio the machinery has been set up already and bonus payments are under way. This is the first of a series of articles by Lester M. Hunt of The, Star on hoio Ohio is paying its veterans' bonus.) terest rates on bonds were more favorable at that time than they are likely to be again, according to Fid D.

Schorr, attorney for the World War II Compensation Fund, as the operation is called. THE ENTIRE project is under the Commissioner of the Sinking Fund of the state of Ohio, a permanent board composed of the governor, attorney general, treasurer of state, auditor of state and secretary of state. lis constitutional duties are to pay off the public debt but Ohio, like Indiana, has rigid prohibitions against incurring debt. So its duties largely were pprfunc-tory until the World War II Compensation Fund was set up. Ohio got.

around its debt restrictions by passing an amendment to the state constitution specifically authorizing the issue of $300,000,000 in bonds to pay the bonus. ONLY TWICE before has the state adopted such constitutional amendments, once to pay the World War I bonus and again to build a state office building, according to Attorney General Hugh S. Jenkins. The World War I bonus was a petty cash transaction, compared to the World War II enterprise. It only cost $30,000,000 financed hy $25,000,000 in bonds and by legislative appropriation out of surplus funds, Treas- Turn to Page 10, Column I i and drug inspectors wondered out loud whether people really know what's good for them.

Dr. K. L. Milstead, United States district chief of the food and drug administration, said he has encountered nearly every quack medicine pat on the market and a lot of machines supposed to have nothing short of magic powers. He pointed to a machine, like several seized locally, called a "Spectrochrome," as one of the most interesting and useless on display.

The manufacturer sold the complicated looking gadget by convincing gullible buyers they could turn on a certain color of light to cure a particular disease. A SIMILAR device, he explained, was the chlorine generator, guaranteed to cure anything. Actually, Milstead said, the fumes it gave off could cause death. Such gadgets are confiscated and the manufacturers fined, put out of business or jailed. The recently banned "Sino-therm" also is in the collection.

Milstead said the machine was merely a transformer that stepped down electric current. It was supposed to cure anything, Turn to Page 10, Column 4 ON INSIDE PAGES New pence rumors fill Nanking as Communists isolate Peiping Page 3. Princess Elizabeth names her on Charles Philip Arthur George Page S. Former highway engineer, Ray H. Bower of Tipton, named chief engineer by new Schricker commission Page 4.

Spies escaped with secrets of "great military importance" from Army's Aberdeen (Md.) Proving Ground before war, Congress probers reveal Page 14. Comics i Sports Editorials Theaters ...22 Radio 19 Werner Society. 8-9, 12 Cartoon .11 By LESTER M. HUNT Staff Reporter Columbus, Dec. 14 Ohio has practically settled it bonus problems.

In nine months it has paid of its estimated World War II veterans a total of $192,527,591. "I've been trying to straighten out this boy of mine for three years," the Rev. Mr. Perigo said "He's drunk all the time." The pastor, 254 North Belle Vieu Place, said his son had been at it again. "I gave him the money to pay his rent and he drank it up," he said.

The Rev. Mr. Perigo produced a bottle he said he had taken away from his son. "You'd better get that out of here," Patrolman Harm advised. Seeing his son was in the hands of the law, the minister went out the front door and dashed the bottle of whisky into the gutter.

The younger Perigo was led away to a cell. The Weather Joe Crow Says: The Indiana electors' casting ail those votes for Gov. Dewey seems like a case of locking the horse after the barn door is stolen. Indianapolis Rain today and tomorrow, colder tomorrow. Indiana Rain today and tomorrow, colder In south Yule Buying Soars Toward 1947 Record Those stockings on the mantles of Indianapolis will be as full as last year.

Christmas shopping here is on a level with, if not slightly above, the national buying volume. Buying here, as well as throughout America, seems headed for a last-minute push that will place 1948 right on a line with the all-time record holiday sales of last year. THESE WERE impressions gained from observations of some store executives last night and from a national retail roundup. There are many factors in the sales antics. One merchandiser reported volume during the foggy days Monday and yesterday appeared to slant off a little, but he foresees good days ahead.

Christmas falling on Saturday provides almost another full week after this one and records of 1943, when Christmas also fell on Saturday, bear out the prospects for strong buying to come. There Is, by ajl odds, the greatest, assortment of goods since the war in nearly all lines. To meet what they expect to be a last-minute buying wave equal to last year's, some stores Turn tn Pace 10, Columns RALPH K. SESDIR SONS ROOITNC-SIDING-TNSULATION ClU WA. Ml tar The Rev.

H. E. Perigo, pastor of the Free Methodist Church, 336 South Holmes Avenue, took his son's drinking in hand last night. As a matter of fact, he took it in both hands. That's why son Ernest, 38 years old, 257 Belle Vieu Place, who outweighs his father more than 40 pounds, is in jail facing his 14th drunkenness charge in three years.

Father and son came into police headquarters last night. Or, it would be more proper to say the father propelled his son into headquarters. IN THE MIDDLE of the hallway the younger Perigo suddenly objected. There was a brief scuffle. The minister's son ended up sitting on the floor.

"Son, call me a policeman," the Rev. Mr. Perigo, about 60, directed a goggle-eyed police reporter. "Yes, sir, right away," the young man said. With that young Perigo got up and made a dash for the front door.

Sprinting like a track star, the slightly built preacher collared his wayward son at the doorway. He pinned him helplessly against the wall. Said Patrolman Edward Harms who arrived on the scene: "HEY WHAT'S GOING on here what's this all about?" "I.