Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi • Page 1

INDEX AMUSEMENTS Pog. 4, See. I CLASSIFIED ADS Pages 5-7, See. II COMICS Paget 2-3, See. II EDITORIAL Page 6, See.

I FINANCIAL Pages 4-5, See. II RADIO LOG Page 4, See. I SOCIETY Page 3, See. I SPORTS Poges 1-2 8, See. II TV LOGS Page 8, See.

I WEATHER WEDNESDAY FORECAST Fair and rooL Expected high 56, expected low 42. TUESDAY RECORD BflM! High 64 at 3 p. low 51 at Mississippi's Leading Newspaper For More Than A Century a. m. Rainfall .03.

Established 1837 5c PER COPY Jackson, Mississippi, Wednesday Morning, February 2, 1955 VOL CXVII NO. 287 Full AP ond INS Report FL- uu mm Stat raai(D to House 'Stands Pat' On LiquorSalesTax Fighting Swirls About American Gobs In Straits Chiang And Reds Exchange Blows; No Evacuation? By SPENCER MOOSA TAIPEH, Formosa, Wednesday, sideration before the measure goes to a vote of the House on final passage. This is the three percent tax on newspaper advertising, one of the No Confirmation On Report Cameron To Get Judgeship Reports from Washington that Ben F. Cameron, Meridian attorney, would be named to succeed retiring Judge Edwin Holmes on the 5th U. S.

Circuit Court of Appeals could not be confirmed here late Tuesday night. E. O. Spencer, chairman of the Mississippians for Eisenhower group, said: "I was in the White House yesterday. I'm confident that no decision has been made on the appointment." Mr.

Spencer said that his group submitted seven names for consideration and that he was confident that a decision had not been made between the men. They are Judge Allen Cox of OxfordJudge Sid C. Mize of Gulfport, Supreme Court Justice Lee D. Hall of Jackson and Columbia, Judge M. M.

McGowan of Jackson, Ben Cameron of Meridian, M. M. Roberts of Hattiesburg and Gerard H. Brandon of Natchez. By CHARLES M.

HILLS The Mississippi House of representatives in a stormy session Tuesday afternoon refused to elim inate a 5 percent sales tax on illegal whiskey, as it voted 81 to 49 not to reconsider such an amendment to House Bill 17. Only one more amendment remains to be taken up for recon- C.R. Underwood To Take Stand Defense Opens Its Testimony Chester R. Underwood was expected to take the stand Wednesday in the million dollar suit by Knox Glass company against the Underwood family. Defense attorneys Tuesday continued to pile up testimony aimed at convincing the court that the late Roy R.

Underwood dictated policies from Knox, for he Knox plant at Flowocd, Miss. The company charges in the com plaint that Chester and members of his family profited by more than a million dollars from side deals with Knox while the family held high company positions. Underwoods claim all their business deals with Knox were chan neled thrugh Roy Underwood, who "dealt at arms length" and drove a hard bargain. Miss Alberta Luter, long time 2 Twisters Hit In North Delta Heaviest Toll In Commerce Area MEMPHIS, Feb. 1 L5P-Violent tornadoes ripped across the Mid-south today, killing at least 25 persons, many of them school-children Two tornadoes struck in Mississippi, in the delta country a few miles south of here.

One twister skittered through a rural area in Arkansas, a few miles to the southwest. The two Mississippi twisters had a deadly affinity for school buildings. Both included an elementary school in their erratic, destructive path. The Red Cross said about 100 persons were injured in the two Mississippi areas, with some 50 hospitalized. Officials asked the 3rd Army to send 100 cots and 280 blankets from its Memphis storehouses.

The tornadoes, ripping away' communication lines, added confusion to the death and destruction left in their wake. A thumbnail outline from each site: 1. The main twister, a full-blown giant, skipped across the rich plantation lands around Commerce Landing, a little town in the shadows of the high Mississippi River levee about 30 miles from Memphis. Twenty two dead were counted in the Landing area. About 45 houses, most of them tenant buildings on the Leather-man and Abbay plantations, were destroyed.

A Negro school, with 45 pupils, was flattened the teacher and two children killed. 2. The second Mississippi tornado plowed through a rural area near Olive Branch, a small town about 18 miles south of Memphis, demolishing a Negro elementary school. A teacher and at least two children were killed. 3.

In Arkansas, in the vicinity of Marianna some 40 miles southwest of Memphis a hop-scotch tornado caused considerable rural damage but apparently took no lives. Highway Patrol Inspector L. Y. Griffin said the brunt of the Com- (Contlnned On Fire S) PATH OF DESTRUCTION A giant tornado ripped through Commerce Landing, Tuesday killing at least 23 persons. At right, Henry Hill searches through wreckage of his home from which bodies of his father, Cleveland, 58, and nephew, Albert Hill, 21, were pulled.

Man. at left is unidentified. Clarion-Ledger AP Wirephoto) i wjtrz-M if -sir! ignite' secretary and bookkeeper for Chester, was the first defense witness after nine days of complainant Luter took the and was excused, with no cross examination by the complainants, at 3:50 p. Tuesday. She testified that Roy Underwood was boss and held a one- FORMOSA at By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS UNITED NATIONS U.N.

Secur ity Council delegates 'agreed un officially to give Communist China week to reply to an invitation participate in U.N. debates on cease-fire in Formosa Strait. LONDON Prime Minister Churchill and leaders of the eight other nations of the commonwealth agreed to delay independent diplo matic moves on the Formosan situ ation in hopes the U.N. Security Council will arrange a cease-fire WASHINGTON Republican congressional leaders conferred with President Eisenhower and were reported to have been told that the President foresees no need for use of U.S. ground forces in defending Formosa and its out posts.

It was reported that Eisen hower and his advisers viewed the Formosa situation with some opti mism. PRESS CONFERENCE WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (INS) The White House announced today that President Eisenhower will hold his regular weekly news con ference at 9:30 a. m. (CST) to morrow.

the Abbay-Leatherman cotton gin to (Clarion-Ledger AP Wirephoto) TORNADO SHREDS GIN The struck savagely at Commerce In A Few Seconds Death, Destruction few items left in the bill over and above the over-all sales tax increase of 1 percent. The House has consistently erased the lifting of tax exemptions on items recommended by the Legal Advisory Committee on Education. Now left in the bill is approximately $14,500,000 new revenue. Tuesday afternoon, it reversed a previous action in which the tax had been placed on fuels used by railroads, killing this tax on an amendment offered by Rep. Doc Carruth, of Pike county.

The tax would have brought some $100,000 added taxes. Wednesday morning at 10 o'clock, the House ways and means committee will hold a pub lic hearing on the proposed orj) cent bottlers tax, which it is an ticipated would bring $7,000,000 ad ditional revenue biennially. In other actions Tuesday, the House amended HB 17 to take out sales taxes on gasoline and oils, costing the program $2,237,000. It withdrew cotton seed fertiliz ers, insecticides, herbicides defoli ants and seeds in growing agricul tural products for market, taking away another $600,000 proposed in crease in taxes. Speaker Walter Sillers ruled out an attempt to amend the sales tax bill to 3M percent instead of 3 and give 2 -cent to municipalities, terming it not germain, because the sales tax bill is raising reve nue, not distributing it.

An attempt by Rep. Frank Critz, Clay, to get the 34 percent tax placed without distributionfacets, failed. The vote was 88 to 39 against the Critz proposal. Following the whiskey tax argu ments, the House adjourned until 2 p. Wednesday when it is ex pected the newspaper tax will be re-discussed.

Publishers all over the state are said to be calling on their legislators to kick this out, since all other taxes except the whiskey clause have been exempted. "It is hardly fair to tax news media when other items are being exempted in this bill," Mrs. Thel-ma Baxter, one of the legislators who voted to tax Monday, told newsmen. FA X. '4'i 1 Rare In State I told him Roland B.

Handley of the Mississippi Fish and 'Game Commission informed me that groundhogs are rare in this state. "That's true," Mr. Groundhog admitted. "My immediate family moved to Tishomingo county from Ohio. We are pioneer stock, you know." He polished his long claws on his reddish brown fur with Brit ish savoir faire.

The Encyclopedia Britannica says, I told him, that February 2 is so called in the United States because of a "fanciful supposition" that the groundhog a to a 'I shadow today. more weeks of picture are (from Skunk and Mr. Bridges) Shook North Delta year contract as manager of the Flowood plant over Chester's head when disagreements arose. Chester replaced his brother, Roy as the helm of the parent company after Roy died in 1951. In 1953 he was ousted, along with his sons Dick and Jack, after a shareholders proxy battle with other members of the parent company directors.

IF. .5 v- -V vj, 1 Feb. 2 CD Air and sea clashes flared yesterday around the tense Tachen Islands, near where the U.S. 7th Fleet awails orders to help bring off the garrison. More civilians, only a dribble, left the endangered islands 200 TAIPEH, Formosa, Wednesday, Feb.

2 Ht Nationalist war-planes struck last night at Chinese Red targets on Yikiang-shan, the tiny island just north of the Tachen Islands which the Nationalists may evacuate with U. S. 7th Fleet help. Official reports said the Yi-kangshan raid caused damage to military targets. The bombers carried out their mission despite intense anti-aircraft fire and all returned to Formosa, the reports added.

miles north of Formosa. They are due to arrive today on two small Chinese ships. The signal still had not been given for the withdrawal of the garrison, an operation fraught with the peril of a possible clash between the United States and Communist China. It was reported President Chiang Kai-shek was holding out for at least private assurance the United States would help to defend Que- mov and Matsu islands, his most important offshore strongholds. U.S Ambassador Karl talked at length with Shen Chang-huan, acting foreign minister.

Soon afterward, a U.S. source said the finishing touches were being put to an announcement in Washing ton clarifying the U.S. position on the offshore islands. (In Washington, however, both officials in the State Department and James C. Hagerty, Wnite House secretary, said they knew nothing about a statement).

UTiile Communist China may not risk interference in a withdrawal operation, it showed no sign of letting up the pressure on the Tachens. At 5:50 a.m. Tuesday, a Nation alist warship fought a 76-minute encasement with a number of Red warcraft 25 miles northeast of the Tachens. The Defense Ministry said the Red shiDs were "routed." But less than four hours later, four Red warships began shelling the Yu Shan Islands, a Nationalist lookout Dost in the samearea 35 miles nnrtheast of the Tachens. The Defense Ministry said most of the Communist shells teu into the sea, indicating the Reds were firing on ships in Yu Shan Harbor.

The ministry added that the warships "fled under strong fire from the defenders" but made no damage claims. The attacking Red force may have been brought under fire be- fnr dawn, since the Nationalists had claimed their planes attacked and set fire to a warsnip 15 miles north of the Tachens. Senate Committee Reduces Tax Rate On Snuff, Tobacco The Senate Finance committee in session Tuesday afternoon passed out the snuff and tobacco tax bill, but split the new tax to one half cent instead of one cent on every bottle, can or plug. Sen. Ed DeMoville, member of the committee, said, "we did not hike the tax on cigars.

Therefore, we don't see why we should put a heavy tax on the little guy who dips or chews, and let the wealthy smoker go untouced." The House of Representatives had placed a full cent extra tax on snuff and chewing tobacco for each five cents worth. COOPER CONFIRMED WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (INS)- The Senate Foreign Relations Com mittee today unanimously approv ed the nomination of Former Sen. John S. Cooper (R) as ambassador to India.

Cooper will succeed George Al len, who has returned to the U. S. to become Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East, Africa and South Asia. ftp tornado which Landing Tues (See other Photo on Page 9) 'Giant Hand' Grabs Small Negro School COMMERCE LANDING, Feb. 1 Tenant houses lay in splintered piles of wreckage after the thundering black flunnel passed but of the school nothing remained.

Witnesses said the tornado that struck here today was like a giant hand that snatched up the school full of children, crushed it, and threw the pieces into the boiling clouds. No one could say for sure how many children were in the Negro elementary school when the twister hit. There were about 50 enrolled, but some left the building. Two hundred yards away, from the scoured school site lay a blue car, crushed into a ball. It had belonged to the teacher, Lina Morgan, 40.

She was among the muddy, battered dead. The school was about 300 yards from the Mississippi Rivej levee, the only high ground, and must have been among the first buildings hit. W. V. France, gin manager on the Leatherman Plantation, was standing nearby when the school disappeared.

The whole thing lasted a few seconds. "Afterward" he said, "men and women came to the spot and after swhile they would find a child and come crying up the road with it in their arms, walking toward Robin-sonville about three miles east. It doesn't seem possible that anybody got out, but they say two little boys did." Everything around the school was crushed, but no other place seemed to have been hit as solidly. For the houses or what had been the houses were still there. The school was simply gone.

1 day reduced twisted rubble. A I Strauss Says AEC Hot Hurt By Debate Denies Statement By Thomas Murray WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 WV-Adm. Lewis L. Strauss protested today what he termed the erroneous idea that the Dixon-Yates power controversy had hampered nuclear work carried on by the Atomic Energy Commission.

"I must not allow the inference to stand," the AEC chairman told the Senate-House Atomic Energy Committee. Srauss thus fired back at Thomas E. Murray, only holdover appointee of former President Truman on the AEC. Murray said the power row had been a drain on the time and energies of the commission. Murray said at a committee hearing yesterday he favored cancellation of the contract by which AEC would buy electricity from a new generating plant to be built by the private Dixon-Yates group.

The power would feed Tennessee Valley Authority lines to make up for drains on the TVA supply at AEC installations. He said the furor over the contract, opposed by public power advocates, had damaged the commission's prestige. Anything that diverts the commission from the developments of weapons and peacetime applications of atomic energy is not in the public interest, he said. In the wake of that statement. Sen.

Gore (D-Tenn) insisted that AEC reconsider its approval of the contract. Strauss told a reporter he couldn't comment on Gore's call for another AEC vote. But in testifying before the committee, he aimed this thrust at Murray: "In the interests of those thousands of men and women who work devotedly in our laboratories and production plants, I must not allow the inference to stand that the effectiveness and the results of the commission's efforts have been impaired by the controversy over the Dixon-Yates contract." He said Murray "surely is aware that the production of atomic weapons for our armed forces is at an all-time high." Controversy growing from the Dixon-Yates contract "may 'have added to the burdens of the commissioners." he said, but hasn't gone so far as to "interfere" with their work. ARK. HIT BY TORNADO Map locates Commerce and Olive Branch, and Forrest City, towns hardest hit by series of tornadoes which left haphazard trails of death and destruction in the Mid South Tuesday.

(Clarion-Ledger AP Wirephoto) Jackson Firm Bids Low On Construction MOBILE, Feb. 1 UP) A Jackson, company today filed the low bid for construction of barracks and other facilities at the Air National Guard Training Center at Gulfport, municipal airport. Lt. Col. Matthew C.

Harrison, Mobile district assistant engineer for the Corps of Engineers, said Engineering Co. entered a bid of $287,859. The government estimate was $313,511. The project includes construction of 13 40-man barracks, three shower buildings, four squadron operations and training buildings, a crash truck station, ammunition storage magazine, utilities systems, pavement and concrete walks. PHOTOGRAPHERS PRIZES CT.F.VELAND.

Feb. 1 (INS) International News Photos Camer aman Frank Kuchirchuk receiv ed the award for "best photogra-rhv" in the Cleveland Newspaper Guilds awards announced today. In other competition, five awards each went to the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Cleveland Press and two to the Cleveland News. fORRESTty iA OU Vg 8R ANCH I COMMERCE I JJJ 1 Af issIssippi Jj Greenwood CoJumbm 1 1 Yjuoo Gty I 1 i Jo I This is supposed to mean six stinking winter. Shown in the left to right): Milner, Aumont Groundhog.

Photo by Harold DUTY ABOVE SELF Reporter Jay Milner took to the bushes Tuesday to carry out his assignment of interviewing Grendall Groundhog of Tishomingo county on Groundhog's Day Eve. The dark intruder (center and you know who) informed Milner that Mr. G. will see his 'We Had To Leave Dead In Fields' By RUSSELL BRUCE TUNICA, Feb. 1 Iff) "We had to leave the dead in the fields.

There weren't enough ambulances for the injured." And at the hospital, the injured overflowed into the corridors and lobby. "I don't know where we'll put another one," said the nurse, but with a tired smile, she added, "we'll find a place." Only whispered words were heard as the doctors, nurses and volunteers moved swiftly about the 25-bed Tunica County Hospital. A pretty girl, wearing a cocktail dress, knelt on the muddy floor to give a drink to an aged Negro lying on a mattress. "I was at a party," she said. "They called for volunteers." In a corner three children, wearing crisp white hospital frocks, played a toyless game.

Three operating rooms were taking patients as fast as surgeons could work. Physicians and nurses came from nearby cities. At dusk, Red Cross Safety Director Gene Glaze said, "they're still bringing the dead out in wagons and on tractors." "Six or seven have died since they got to the hospital," the hospital administrator, Murray Hill, said. "We have two expectant mothers who are holding their own." The bodies were being removed to the city's three funeral homes. In one lay a young woman, her arms still wrapped around a baby.

"Mother and daughter?" a reporter asked. "I don't know," said an attendant. "That's the way they came Said the ShunU to Mr. G. Zany, Brave Reporter Covers Big Groundhog Day Dispute (Editor's Note: Ground Hog Coriand said shyly, "I volunteered or woodchuck emerges on that day from winter sleep to observe the approach of spring.

If he sees his shadow he retires to his burrow for six weeks more of winter, but if the day is cloudy he remains above a confident of continuing mild weather. belief, I continued quoting from EB, an American variation of the tradition that a sunny Candlemas presages a cold spring. With gestures and enunciating like Mrs. Hortense Vanghn, the Little Theater. director, taught me, I then recited: "12 Candlemas is fair and clear, (ConUnned am Pf f) respondent Jay Milner was assign ed to interview Grendall Groundhog, a vagabond type from county who showed up in Jackson Monday afternoon.

This is a Clarion-Ledger exclusive.) By JAY MILNER Stifling a yawn Mr. Groundhog apologized and said: "Yes, I am a little early. We don't usually come out until February 2. But with the world situation as it is we groundhogs, decided to send out an advance scout this year." He bowed his pointed little head.