The Times Herald from Port Huron, Michigan • Page 1

finai; EDITION ME RALD WEATHER No Chang H.l,rV KOL-NDKD AUGUST 1. 1300 PORT HURON, MICHIGAN, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1942 TWELVE PACES TODAY PRICE FIVE CENTS MM EOT Willi PORT HURON 47S I Wickard To Victims9 Bodies Jam Morgue ALLIES CLOSE PRISTS IN FINAL SPREE OFCAS BUYING JOKE BELIEVED CAUSE OF FiE Mw 4 6 ml I ff 6 Bus Boy Says Match Ignited 'Phoney Palm; 122 Dead Unidentified 185 Are Injured Boston. Nov. "0 AP State and county law-enforrement officers vent into immediate action today to determine whether any law violation contributed to the Saturday night fire that suddenly converted the Cocoanut Grove night club into house of flaming death for 479 merrymakers. Moving under instructions from John F.

Stokes, actinc Tublic Safety Commissioner. Stephen C. Garrity, state fir marshal, turned over to District Attorney William J. Foley of Suffolk county a preliminary report of the fire that flared from a match-flame lighted by a 16-year-old bus boy as he sought to replace a light bulb removed by a club patron. By JAMES L.

KILO ALLEN Boston. Nov. 30 INS Black tragedy hung like a pall over Boston today in the wake of the disastrous fire which in the flash of an eye swept the fashionable Cocoanut Grove night club late Saturday night, causing an estimated death toll of 479, with 355 identified dead and 124 unidentified dead. At least 185 persons were injured. A prankster's "joke" was believed to have been the cau.e of the tragedy.

As official investigations got under way, a 16-year-old bus boy, Stanley F. Tomaszewski. told the police he inadvertently started the catastrophe by holding a lighted match too near an artificial palm tree, while replacing an electric light bulb in the ceiling of the night club. The bulb had been removed as a gag by a merrymaker. It was the worst fire disaster in America since the Iroquois theater fire in Chicago in 1902 which cost Bodies of some of the hundreds of victims of the fire that swept the Cocoanut Grove night club jam the North Grove street mortuary in Boston awaiting identification.

More than 400 persons perished as a result of the blaze, which was traced to a match lighted by a busboy working in the club. Army Cavalcade Rolls In For Two-Day Stay 602 lives. Young girls who came to the softly-lighted Cocoanut Grove night spot in evening clothes died clasped in the arms of their male escorts as the flames quickly consumed the tinseled trappings. Control U.S. Farm Labor Washington.

Nov. 30 INS President Roosevelt today issued new regulations for the Office of Economic Stabilization, turning control of agricultural labor over to Claude R. Wickard. secretary of agriculture, and permitting farm wage rates to rise unhampered until further notice. In defining agriculture labor, the President's regulations specify that it should include anyone working on farms whose salary is less than $2,400 a year.

Economic Stabilization Director Byrnes instructed Secretary of Ag riculture Wickard to handle farm wages and remove ceilings from farm wages two weeks ago in one of his first directives. The President's regulations today had the effect of formalizing decisions reached with respect to agriculture wages at that time. Pinkley To Address Meeting Of Merchants Guests of The Times Herald at its annual merchants' dinner at 7 p.m. today in Hotel Harrington will hear Virgil Pinkley, manager of the European bureau of United Press, describe his experiences while headline-hunting on four continents. During the dinner, communities of St.

Clair county which went "over the top" in their scrap metal collection campaigns wTill receive large American flags from The Times Herald. Wr. W. Ottaway, president of The Times Herald, will present the flags to representatives of Port Huron, Capac, Marysville. St.

Clair, Marine City, Algonac, Emmett and Yale. John D. McGillis, Detroit, executive secretary of the general salvage section of Michigan, will speak briefly. Louis A. Weil, editor of The Times Herald, will be toast-master.

Rev Victor F. Brown. D.D., pastor of Ross Memorial and Sturges Memorial Congregational churches, will give the invocation, and Very Rev. Dean Thomas A. Connell, pastor of St.

Joseph's Catholic church, will give the benediction. Mrs. H. W. Kellogg, new resident of Port Huron, will sing.

Singing will be led by Ralph F. Swan, and a three-piece orchestra will play during dinner. Mrs. Yvonne Scott. St.

Clair, whose husband is in the Navy and whose only son lost his life when the warship Houston went down, will be an honor guest. Detroit, Nov. 30 American correspondents are doing an outstanding job of factual and objective reporting of war developments on distant battlefronts, Virgil M. Pinkley, European manager of the United Press, declared today. Pinkley, who recently concluded a 10-month, 68.000-mile news gathering tour of fighting and diplomatic fronts on four continents, was in Detroit to addrses a luncheon meeting of the economic club.

Votes Probe Of All Farm Prices Washington. Nov. 30 INS The senate agriculture committee today unanimously adopted the Gillette-Reed resolution calling for a sweeping investigation of government price-fixing of agricultural commodities. Sen. Burton K.

Wheeler, Democrat, Montana, acting chairman of the committee, said that members generally declared that the administration interpretation of the anti-inflation law is wrong. NOTED WRITER GUEST TONIGHT IN ON TUNIS TO Push To Within 12 Miles Of Enemy Stronghold; Reds Report New Gains London, Nov. 30 AP Reuters said the Algiers radio announced that a French submarine reached Algiers this evening from Toulon. This is the second French submarine reported to have escaped from the German-occupied naval base. Spanish authorities at Barcelona have interned the other, identified as the 597-ton Iris.

Vichy reported the escape of two submarines when the fleet was scuttled and also reported that a third struck a mine parachuted to the sea by a German plane. The broadcast identified the submarine at Algiers as the Marsquin. 975 tons and built in 1924. Her normal complement is 51. i By The Associate Press) American and British troops today were reported in position for a climatic assault on Tunis, the Axis-held capital, after occupying the key rail function at Djedeida, 12 miles northwest of Tunis.

Allied artillery was already drawn up within range of the fortified city, and military quarters said the big push would probably start with attacks on the three Axis-guarded airdromes around the city. Italian field headquarters asserted that Axis troops had captured "an important position" in Tunisia, stopped armor-supported Allied columns and captured more than 200 prisoners. "S6me British-American tanks were destroyed," the Fascist command said, but its failure to give the locale of the clash suggested that it was an isolated action. Rail connections between Tunis and the great naval base at Bizerte, 40 miles to the north, were cut off by the Allied thrusts to Djedeida and to Mateur, 25 miles south of Bizerte. While German and Italian troops waited for the assault, drawn up in half-moon defenses on the outskirts of Tunis and Bizerte, the Nazi-controlled Paris radio reported that heavy fighting was in progress near Sousse.

on the coastal road 70 miles south of Tunis. In this sector, French troops under Gen. Henri Giraud were attempting to seal off the Axis "escape corridor" and prevent reinforcements from reaching the beleaguered Tunis-Bizerte zone from Tripoli. British headquarters said Allied heavy bombers pounded anew at See ALLIES, Page 10 Four-Day Holiday Ends For Pupils Public and parochial school pupils and Junior college students were back at their desks today after a four-day Thanksgiving holiday, to remain until the start of the long Christmas vacation. Public schools will close for Christmas vacation at the end of the school day Dec.

23. and St. Stephen and St. Joseph's schools will close after classes Dec. 18.

Junior college will also close for Christmas vacation at the end of the day Dec. 18. All schools in Hie city will re-open Jan. 4. French On Reunion Island Surrrender London.

Nov. 30 AP The French island of Reunion was surrendered to Allied forces today following a two-hour ultimatum to Governor Aubert by a Fighting French commander, the Vichy radio announced today. A comparison of specific rumors with specific enemy propaganda appeals since Pearl Harbor has shown a relatively low relation between the two. Enemy short-wave radio broadcasts, which reach a very small audience in the United States, have largely been ignored by the American public. These broadcasts do.

however, serve to communicate specific propaganda "lines" To enemy sympathizers and enemy agents. There can be little doubt that enemy sympathizers and enemy agents in the United States are engaged in planning and encouraging the circulation of rumors which aid the enemy's propaganda objectives. Of these, the most important are "hate-rumors." The evidence shows clearly that manv "hate-rumors" originate in See RUMORS. Page Seven Chopping 5u SNAP AXIS "TO Parade Tonight To Display Blitz Vehicles The United States Army recruiting cavalcade, w'ith its long caravan of mechanized equipment and a personnel of some 200 officers, enlisted men and WAACs, was to roll into Port Huron this afternoon to give residents of the Thumb and River districts a show the like which has never been seen here before. A huge military parade and a colorful recruiting rally tonight will highlight the cavalcade's visit to Port Huron.

Free jeep rides and an exhibition of motorized equipment and other Army implements, including tanks and guns, will also be features of the show. The cavalcade will be here all day Tuesday with the primary purpose of interesting 18 and 19-y'ear-old youths in enlisting in various Army branches. It will leave Port Huron early Wednesday morning. It will provide residents of Port Huron and vicinity with their first opportunity to see a full Army mechanized unit, at its parking place north of the city hall. Noted Army Men Here The show will also give residents of this community a chance to meet a number of celebrities, including Capt.

George C. Spence, Armored force officer who recently returned from Africa after observing and participating in desert battles, and Capt. Wayne King, nationally-known former orchestra leader and now a member of the special services branch of the Army. The mammoth parade, which will include more than 65 vehicles, will start promptly at 7:30 p.m. from Military and Court street and will move north on Military street and Huron avenue, disbanding at the display' grounds.

Among the ve- See CAVALCADE, Page Two Icy Roads Cause Traffic Crashes. Icy roads were believed by sheriffs officers to have caused at least two traffic accidents Sunday in which four persons were injured. Mrs. Carolyn Hay, 57. Detroit, her sister, Mrs.

Anne Edmonds, 58, are in Port Huron hospital with possible fractured skulls and severe face and head cuts as a result of injuries suffered when a car driven by Charles H. Hay. 63. Detroit, crashed into an abutment on M-51 near State road. Mr.

Hay suffered minor face and head cuts. David Thompson, 17, of 1406 Eighth street, an employe of the Thumb Fire Extinguisher company, suffered acid burns about the face and arms when a truck he was driving, which carried containers of sulphuric acid, overturned on M-51 near North Street. Port Huron hospital attendants said his condition is improving. He told Deputy Sheriff Ralph C. Schlee that the ice and snow on the pavement caused him to lose control of the truck which overturned, breaking the acid containers.

He crawled through the broken windshield and. Alvin, Lane, a passing motorrst, took him to the hospital. Warm Sun Hits Week-end Snow The abundant snow that had residents of Port Huron and vicinity dreaming of a white Christmas, began yielding today under the rays of a warm sun. The temperature stood at 22 degrees at 9 a.m.. rose rapidly and stood at 23 degrees noon.

The official forecast if v'no change." purchase By Coupon Only After Midnight; Coffee Sales Begin Vrforista of the Thumb and districts will join Tuesday estimated 18.000.000 car from the Alleghany moun- -o the Pacific coast in turning Wna'r-gallon coupons for a week of gasoline in lino with -the foment program to conserve faiDion tons of rubber i.n tirc. 'Rationing of gasoline on a na---D-wide basis will start officially -12 01 a.m. 'W'oning of coffee started cffi--jlly Sunday at the rate of one JSd every five weeks for every son 15 years old or older who 2 been issued War Ration book 1 Stamp No. 27 is good for i pound of coffee between now Ed Jan. 3.

Ordinance Hits Hoarders Some motorists were reported to have purchased gasoline in ve and 10-gallon contairers in recent days, apparently with the intent of beating" the rationing program in its early stages. Police Chief Thomas J. Davidson warned that persons found hoarding gasoline for their cars are subject to arrest under an ordinance dated 1888. The. ordinance prohibits any person from keeping more than five gallons of gasoline within the fire limits of the city.

Ironically, this would also apply to gas dealers and distributors, but Chief Davidson said it would be enforced only in cases of hoarding. Persons who have not been issued Ration book 1 because of excess sugar and those who did not apply for books last spring and summer have until Dec. 15 to apply for books. Bock So. 1 must be obtained before applicants are eligible to receive War Ration book No.

2. Hindi, is expected to be issued early in January. As in every other place in Michigan, today is the last day in Port Huron and other Thumb and River district communities that auto owners may buy an unlimited quantity of gasoline. Hundreds of motorists who hav not yet filled their tanks are expected to take advantage of this situation before midnight today. After rationing goes into effect gasoline may be purchased only ration coupons.

Filling stations in Port Huron reported the heaviest week-end business in history over Saturday and Sunday. Several were all but puirped dry as motorists "filled The majority of St. Clair county's 18.000 motorists already have their basic ration books, which are See RATIONING. Page Five Holdup Averted When 'Victim' Grabs Himself A Chair iiuiu-up mem wm at tempted to steal the cash receipts from Harry Slack, operator of a station at Court and Military streets early Sunday is being sought by police. The Negro is reported to have run out of the station when Slack Scabbed a chair instead of handing over the money.

Slack could sot furnish an accurate deFcrpi-uon of the man. Police are questioning several suspects today. Same Fifth Member For Draft Hoard 2 T. Warsop Cooper. Jeddo.

is a member of Local Draft Board 2, which has jurisdiction in 'Cive Service over St. Clair "ty outside Port Huron. Addition of Cooper, a re-aM TSl estate dt aifr and builder former resident of Detroit, the personnel of the board members Other members rry E. Shiland. Port Huron.

Vkftlan' B- Warren, super-Por: Huinn township. Ed-Cart Emmctt and rR: Walker, Port Huron and Clair. r. tdsl toast Tort Nov. 30- on survivors of a crew of 42 Amer'can enrgo ship tor-lantilr and yunk in the south At-JandeH 0ttter have been Xaw an ea-st Cuast Prt the announced today Eleven men "ed Weather I) m.

"i 5 p.m. 1 'li i1 sin. m. s.m. vi.

2 I 1' 4 ten1 snow tit.n:t grir i'" r- ITALY GIVEN LJSTCHANCE Told To Seek Peace Now Or Take Consequences (By The Associated Pres-sl London. Nov. 30 Prime Minister Churchill's warning to the Italian people to get out of the war or expect a "prolonged, scientific and shattering air attack" was pounded home again and again to the Italians today by the British Broadcasting corporation. The BBC preceded Churchill's victory speech Sunday with appeals to the Italians to make a separate peace and followed up by rebroadcasting at intervals the full text of the prime minister's 30-minute speech, addressing Germany and France as well as Italy. For the second night in succession home-based British bombers swept across the Alps Sunday night to attack targets in northern Italy.

The raiders were hampered by bad weather, however, the announcement said, and the force of bombers which -participated was small in comparison to that which subjected Turin to a heavy attack Saturday night. Populace Flees Turin The specific objective of Sunday night's raid, accompanied by the usual alerts in western Switzerland, was not immediately disclosed. It was the twenty-third raid on northern Italy since the beginning of the war and the twelfth since the RAF began its new trans-Alpine aerial offensive Oct. 22 with an assault on Genoa. More than 100.000 incendiaries in addition to 8.000-pound were dropped over Turin in the Saturday night raid, and one See ITALY, Page Two Salvage Pennant To Be Presented In Ceremony Today St.

Clair county was to be presented a war salvage pennant at 3:30 p.m. today by John D. Mc-Gillis. executive secretary of the general section of. Michigan, on the city hall lawn.

The pennant will be presented to City Manager Leonard G. Howell and Rober? M. Farr, chairman of the county board ot supervisors in recognition of the outstanding effort of the county in the recent salvage campaign. More than 118 pounds of scrap metal per person was collected during September and October in the county. This showing was considered outstanding by state salvage officials.

The Port Huron High school band, directed by E. E. Straffon, will play. The salvage pennant will be run up the flagstaff to fly beneath "Old Glory." Members of the board of supervisors. Port Huron cify commission, salvage heads from the various cities, towns and rural areas and pupils of Port Huron and St.

Stephen High schools, who assisted in the scrap pickups, are expected to attend. Where To Find It Busboy Tells How Tragic Fire Began Boston, Nov. 30 INS Stanley F. Tomaszewski, 16, part-time bus boy, told his own story today of how he accidentally started the fatal Cocoanut Grove fire. This is the boy's account as given to Boston officials: "Saturday night I was working in the Melody Lounge, cleaning tables and picking up dishes.

"To the left of the bar, about 10 feet high, is an electric light It's a dark space in the room, which was crowded at the time. "A man of a mixed party I mean men and women reached up and turned off that light Mr. Bradley, the bartender, asked me to go over and turn the light on. "I went over and got up on a bench and as I touched the bulb it came out of the socket. But I held on to it.

So I struck a match looking for the socket, and I started screwing the bulb in. "The match was in my left hand then and I don't remember whether it burned my hand or fingers, but it fell and landed in one of the imitation palm trees just underneath. "There are blowers in the Melody Lounge to blow out the bad air and as I stepped down from the bench to get back to the floor after fixing the light I heard some woman, I guess, yell, "Then I saw there was a fire and I tried so put it out with my hands and I burned both hands a little while trying to put it out. Then there was a big puff of smoke and a flash of flame as it seemed to sweep through the whole room, causing a panic. "After I got home I decided to go to police headquarters and tell my story." Boston Blaze.

One Of Worst Fire Disasters Bv The Asoriat4 TresM With its toll of at least 433 dead, the Boston Cocoanut Grove fire ranks among the nation's w-orst fire disasters on the basis of lives taken. The greatest, toll was in a marine disaster June 15. 1904. when the steamship General Slocum caught fire in the East River of New York and 1.021 persons, many of them Sunday school children, died. Dec.

30, 1903, Chicago'? Iroquois theater burst into flanrus and 602 were burned to death. About 500 died in the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. Other major fires and their toll include: Coal mine fire at Monongah. W. Dec.

6. 1907361. Ohio State penitentiary fire. Columbus. April 21, 1930320.

New London. school explosion and fire, March 18. 1937. 294. Negro dance hall fire.

Natchez, April 23. 1940198. Collingwood school fire, Cleveland. March 4. 1908176 Rhoad's Opera House fire.

Boyertown. Jan. 4. 1908 169 Hoboken Docks and ships fire, June 30. 1900145.

Triangle Shirt Waist company fire, New York city, March 25. 1911145. Morro Castle fire, off Asburv Park. N. Sept.

8. 1934134." Cleveland Clinic fire. Cleveland. May 15. 1929124.

Birmingham. church fire. Sept. 20. 1902115.

POWER STRIKE THREATENEI WLB Sees Tieup Of 19 Cities In Michigan (By- The Associated Tress) Laiising; Nov. 30 The War Labor board, declaring it saw danger of "irreparable harm to the war effort" in a threatened strike of Consumers Power company employes in 19 Michigan municipalities, has taken jurisdiction and will seek to avert a closure. The Michigan State Joint Utility Workers council-CIO, voted here Sunday to call the strike at midnight Friday night, and said the walkout, if it occurred, would paralyze electrical power, and in some instances gas to industrial and domestic users in the affected areas. Only concessions by the company or some action of the war labor board could avert the strike, its leaders said, announcing that the walkout had been ordered in the company's plants at Jackson, Muskegon, Saginaw, Pontiac, Adrian, Battle Creek, Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing, Bay City Kalamazoo, Owosso, Mt. Clemens, Six Lakes, Manistee, Alma, Charlotte, Cadillac and Hastings.

Both sides said they expected the WLB would act promptly. The union president said three issues were involved in the dispute, and the company confirmed this, insisting, however, that only one of them was vital. They are: 1 Union demand for a union shop contract which would require all employes to affiliate with the union. 2 Elimination of a 10 per cent differential in wages paid 'employes in urban and rural areas. 3 The union's demand for wage increases averaging 15 cents an hour and correction of asserted inequalities in wage scales, a subject on which the company said "we can get together in negotiation." Predicts Hitler Collapse By July Washington, Nov.

30 INS Senator Allen J. Ellender, Democrat, Louisiana, discussing the far-reaching effects of the scuttling of the French fleet at Toulon, predicted today that by next July or August Hitler will be "broken completely" or driven to near collapse. Self-destruction of the French fleet, coming on the heels of the Allied victory in North Africa and Russia's drive around Stalingrad, represents a material as well as morale triumph, the senate naval affairs committee member said. "I believe that by next July or August Hitler will be broken completely or so badly beaten down that his ultimate defeat will not be far off." EHender declared. "Once the full import of several German reverses and defeats become known to the German people.

Hitler's government will collapse. "The German people are not trained to accept defeat. As long as he could tell them that his legions were marching to success, everything was all right. "That is one reason why the destruction of the French fleet at Toulon is so important from a morale standpoint. The Germans and the Italians had depended on the French fleet to protect them from invasion through the Mediterranean.

"Now that protection igoac, the way is opcrk" Stork Call Saved Life Of Physician Boston, Nov. 30 AP The birth of a baby, the flip of a coin, and a wife's persistence were among the ironies which saved a number of persons from possible death or serious injury in the Cocoanut Grove fire. Dr. Vincent M. Sena of Som-erville was just about to leave his office to meet a friend at the night club when he received a rush call and he was delivering a bouncing baby boy at Somerville hospital when the fire broke out at the grove.

Miss Allison Smith of Brook-line said she and her escort, undecided whether to go dancing at the Grove or at a hotel, tossed a coin and the hotel won. And S. H. Rosenberg, also of Brookline. declared that when he and his wife started out for a night's entertainment with a group of friends "everybody but my wife wanted to go to Cocoanut Grove she wanted to go to the Mayfair." "She held out and won," he said, "and without question probably saved our lives." Wild, hysterical panic broke out.

Yet many patrons acted gallantly and heroically in the terrible emergency. Many of the victims mav never be identified. At an eariy hour today only 230 of the dead had been identified. Exits Blocked With Bodies Younc Tomaszewski was nervnn as he toid the police how the fire started, me police quoted him as saying: "I was in the Melodv Tounci in the basement when a patron removed an electric lieht hulh from the ceiling as. a joke.

A waiter told me to replace the bulb. The room was too dajk. "I got a chair and stood on It. lighting a match so I could see what I was doing. While I wreworf the bulb into the socket with one hand.

I held the match too near one of the phoney palm trees. Sud- aeniy one of the palm trees burst See TRAGEDY, Tage Two Former Marygrove Student Fire Victim Detroit. Nov. 30 INSMari Agnes Derry, 22. daughter of a for mer Detroit college president was amone the 445 ncrsons vi-hn rwr.

ished Saturday night in a nightclub lire Boston, friends learned today. Miss Derry was the daughter of Dr. George Herman Derry, who was president of Marygrove college, girls' school on Detroit's north side. Miss Derry attended both the University of Detroit and Marygrove. Derry was president of the school from 1927 until 1938.

Seek Prevention Of Repetition In State Lansing. Nov. 30 AP Governor Van Wagoner said today he would confer with Ralph Thomas, chairman of the state liquor control commission. relative to prompt adoption of rules and regulations governing the decoration of Michigan drinking places, "so we can prevent anything like Boston's Cocoanut Grove night club disaster from occurring in this state." The governor said he was thinking in terms of a ban on holiday decorations in such places. Imagination, Goes All-Out On 'Hate Rumors' Washington.

Nov. 30 The Office of War Information has analyzed more than 4.500 rumors which have come to the attention of various federal agencies during the past 11 months. The results of the study, together with certain conclusions, are made public today in response to an increasing number of requests from newspapers, civic groups and individual citizens for information on what they can do to guard against rumors and rumor-mongers. The rumors analyzed by OWI fall into five general classes: 1 By far the greatest number may be called "hate-rumors." They express prejudice, animosity or hostility for groups other than the enemy. 2 The second group may be classified as "anxiety rumors." They reflect uneasiness or fear and commonly take the form of unfounded reports of Allied disaster or weakness, or of overwhelmin enemy strength.

3 A third Troup, classifiable as "escape rumors" reflect, in the main, wishful thinking about the progress and duration of the war. 4 A few can be classified only as "supernatural rumors." These contain fantastic prophecies of disaster or impeding miracles. 5 Finally, there are a substantial number of "curiosity rumors." which contain amusing or novel tid-bits cf supposed "news." Business Tace 12 i Classified 3 1 Comics 8 District News 10, 11 Dorothy Dix 8 Editorials 4 It's News To Me 4 Local News 5 Market News 10 Paul Mallon 4 Radio Programs 6 Smilax 4 Society News 6 Sports Theaters 3 i Victory Chtizixzzz 7.