Enterprise-Journal from McComb, Mississippi • Page 1

McCOMB. EIRP JOURN A The One Newspaper in the World Most Interested i ENTI AN ASSOCia ixuD PRESS DAILY CONSOLIDATE!) JUNE 1B4B ENTIRPRIIB ESTABLISHED 1880 JOURNAL ESTAPLISHED 1903 G4TH YEAR NO. 81 McCOMB, MISSISSIPPI, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8,, ody Of 31st Victim Of Vicksburg Tornado Found in -Debris Of Of. -Workers Shift Into Store; Untiring Crews Wrecked Homes Area Pentagon Thinks May Be Under Slave Labor Conditions Behinnd Curtain As Reports Indicate lit irt; in taiiJ.iiAL, uiSTKICT OF VICKSBURG This photoaranh shows something of the catastrophic loss many homeowners of Vicksburg suffered Saturday night when a boiling black twister roared from the Southwest, leaped over the Mississippi River to hit a residential district, bounced into the principal business area of the city to take more lives and do vast property damage, then rose to swoop down once more into another section of homes in the northeast section of the historic old city. Vicksburg.

with chin up, was again today battling hard to re-f store the usual currents of life and activity to the town. Pretty Pam Martin 8 Hours Faster 1 Than Old Record For Rounding World As Commrcial Air Lines Passenger i By C. Yates McDaniel WASHINGTON OP) Some Pentagon officials think it is quite possible that some Americans captured in Korea are alive and being forced to work for the Communists behind the'lron Curtain. Periodically during the Korean War American intelligence; agencies heard 'such reports and made every effort to them down. Defense Department offi-.

cials say they cannot declare flatly that the Chinese and Korean Reds failed to return or account for ell Americans they captured, because the Communists never made complete reports on prisoners and refused to permit independent investigations. But one official, after reading the statement of a returned Japanese prisoner of World War II that he had seen Americans in a prison near Moscow, put it this way today: "It is quite possible that some American boys are digging uranium in Siberian mines if we could only prove it." mis source recaiiea in an mier- i view that the Russians held and I are still holding German and Japanese military prisoners they captured in World War II. The Defense Department now lists about 7,500 American service Best Dressed Doll In Town Doing Bit For Needy Children By Reporter Junior Auxiliary Mothers, grandmothers, fathers, grandfathers, as well as Santa Claus and all his little children might welL, take a look at Terri Lee, the best dressed doll in town. Through the efforts of the Junior Auxiliary she is appearing in Denman-Alford's window, from Wednesday of this week through next Tuesday. This chic little dolly with her deluxe wardrobe is in McComb for the double purpose of charming goodhearted citizens into giving more money for needy children and of earning herself a welcome into the home of some little girl on Dec.

15- Appearing Wednesday, Dec. 9. she will model and exhibit Cnntinud on PhBf Sven Some Captured Gist men as missing in Korea. About most of these men, the Pentagon says frankly that it has no information whatsoever. But the Army has said about COO were once believed to have been captured.

EQUIPMENT FOR CROFT FACTORY ARRIVES HERE First Load Of Machinery Came Into McComb.This Morning More Is Scheduled A first load of equipment for the McQomb branch plant of Croft Steel Products, arrived and was being unloaded here Tuesday morning. --In charge of the activity were A. J. controller of the parent corporation for the local BAWI project, and Douglas Ben- son, its purchasing agent. The items arriving here today were machinery and equipment for "window fabricating," Mr.

Tener told The Enterprise-Jour- Another load of is expected to reacn txis city by Thursday of this wealc and a freight shipment of considerable size can be looked for within the next week, the Croft official indicated-Delivery on the extrusion press, the completion of which has been mainly responsible for seeming delays in getting operations underway in the plant, is expected from day-to-day by Croft officials, on advice, of agents of the press' manufacturers. It is predicted now that the press will be on the site and set up by Jan. I. With developments of today, local observers reported themselves vastly encouraged over prospects of getting the plant in early swing of activity. WEATHER SOUTH MISSISSIPPI: Lowest tonight 52-56- Cloudy, scattered showers and warmer tonight.

Wednesday scattered thunder- showers, cooler west portion. US' in 'i1 i I By Hugh A. Mulligan VICKSBURG, Miss. (A1) Tor nado-battered Vicksburg. still burying its dead, dug into a new area of town today in the search for victims of the twister that killed at least 31 persons.

Rescue crews moved shovels into a Negro residential area near the Nationally Military Park. It was the first search of the area where the tornado spent its diminishing fury after striking the city three times. The $25,000,000 tornado caused President Eisenhower to declare Vicksburg a disaster area making it eligible for emergency aid from the federal government. Loan System Set Up Mrs- Katherine Howard, Eisenhower's personal envoy, toured the stricken city yesterday and told Citizens it might be some time before actual loans can be made. The Small Business Administration, a federal agency, designated Vicksburg and 15 counties in Mis- sissippi, Texas, Louisiana and Ai areas, eligible for iciiduiiiiciuoii loans.

The SZA set up an emergency loan office in cooperation with state and local officials. Six burials of tornado victims were scheduled today. A doen were held yesterday. The body of 17-year-old Koy Warren, honor high school student, was dug from the ruins of her father's sporting goods itore yesterday afternoon, nearly 43 hours after the black funnel roared in from the west across the Mississippi River. Shovel crews working by searchlight in the store's ruins early Tuesday morning fcund the body of Pies G.

Hester. who reportedly bought a sport hat from Kay Warren seconds before the tw'ster wrecked the building. With the finding of Hesters body, the Corps of Engineers announced it was pulling out of the cleanup work- But the rest of the army or citizens and soldiers continued lor the third day to piobe the ruins of more than 900 destroyed or damaged buildings. Pick and shovel crews loaded dump trucks at the rate of one a minute. Schools remained closed.

The main business district, hardest hit, remained off-limits except to salvage crews. Civil engineers warned that many of the seemingly uiiscarred buildings on Washington Street were hovering precar-iouslj' on their foundations and (Continued on Page Seven) 1 i ill ii. 1 'X In Mississippi-- Rev. Davis Elected Baptist Convention Board's President JACKSON, Miss, (p) The Mississippi Baptist Convention adopted percentages of dis-ii'iDuiion lor the 4 ll million dollar enlarged program Dudgct. tthe board said other action at its meeting yesterday included adoption ot an enlarged statei.mis- sion budget and election of offi cers.

The Rev. J. R. Davis of New Albany and Marion W. Perry of Philadelphia'" Were re-elected president and vice-president-Other oliicers elected included: Rev.

Gordon Sansing of Jack- Ison, re-elected recording secretary; Rev. Van Hardin of Luce-I dale, assistant recording secre tary; Dr. Chester L. Quarles of Jackson, executive secretary treasurer; and the executive committee: Rev. James Fairchild of Louisville Rev.

Joe Hudson of Monticello, Rev. C. M- Day of Durant; Rev. M. Glen Smith of Corinth and J.

Wesley Miller of Rolling Fork. Durant Native Charged ELL1GOTT CITY, Md. (A') George Kirk, 34, a native of Durant, laced a 20-year prison sentence today tor shooting and robbing 31-year-old George G- Phifer of Plattsburg, N. Oct. 6.

Kirk was sentenced to Maryland penitentiary yesterday after Phifer told police Kirk shot him in the face and dumped him out of his (Phifer's) car in Baltimore. Kirk stole $148 and the automobile from Prifer, according to Howwar County state's atty. Daniel M. Murray Jr. He was arrested shortly, after the shooting which occurred in Certificates In I.

C. Forestry Shortcourse Earned At Johnston Johnston Station vocational agriculture students who had completed the Illinois Central forestry shortcourse taught by James F- Dykes I. C. Forestry Agent, were presented certificates of graduation in a special ceremoney held Friday at the school. The certificates were presented to the students by wight L.

Contmupri on Paee Six ft i I I v. A I w.A-'g'. CHICAGO (JP) A young brunette flow into Chicago early today to break by eight hours the record time for rounding the world as commercial air lines passen ger. "It was the best, weekend trip 1 1 ever had," said pretty Pamela Martin as she stepped from a United Air Lines nlane at Chica-! go's Midway airport. She started her trip there at noon Friday.

Slept 10 Hours She had covered the route in 90 nours ana oy minutes, tone naa vrlxr1fl liAiirc c1fan olnnrf 4 In uro but told waiting newsmen she felt "fresh, as a daisyi. The 23-year-old advertising copywriter-artist said she was "too excited to sleep much" and she looks forward to making' the trip again but with this difference: Next time she will take time out "to see those cities." For the benefit of news photographers, she, kissed the pilot of the UAL DC6b which made up 34 minutes on the final leg of the By OLIVER EMMERICH "A chair suddenly left the floor and flew to the ceiling. I called to my baby in the, Suddenly things were whirling all around me in my room on the seventh floor of the hoteL A lamp struck hne and the: lights went out." This is how Mrs. Kyser, wife of the. manager of the Vicksburg Hotel, described the first moments of the Vicksburg tornado.

llA steel filter from the 11th, floor blew into our 7th floor apartment. We had heavy iron bars over the windows to keep the baby from falling out. "The bars were jerked out by 'the' force of the storm. The elevator stopped. I ran down seven flights of stairs to find my husband.

Broken glass was everywhere. Oddly enough though I was barefooted my feet were not even scratched." Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Warren who had been working in their habedrashery are now hospitalized but knew that their 15 year old Kay, was helping a man by the name of Pies Hester "find a hat to fit him," when the big wind arrived. At 3 o'clock Monday the "bucket brigade," the steady crew of more than 100 men on that job who passed buckets of rubble from hand to hand in the line, found Kay's body and extracted it from the debris.

Officials of the United Gas Corporation stood vigil last night at this Vicksburg scene where Kay had been helping to fit a man's hat. Pies Hester was an employe of the Gas Company. For 48 hours the loyal workers had kept busy trying to find his body. He is believed to have been looking into a mirror, adjusting a new hat, when death plunged in on him. Early Tuesday morning a worker cried out, "Here he As this writer studied those tragic scenes in Vicksburg he was impressed with the amazing efficiency of a tornado.

One lady' said, was in the building and it suddenly exploded." This is exactly what does happen when a tornado strikes. The whirling wind, moving at terrific speed, creates a vacuum on the outside. The air pressure within a building thus forces itself against the walls and ceiling arid an explosion does actually occur. This writer, observed the results of one of these tornado "explosions" on a 3-story building. The walls had been powdered by the irhpact-This is why men with buckets worked patiently alongside the powered shovels.

Where this 3-story building had stood, piled within a space of 6 feet, were the roof of the building, and the ceiling and floor joists of two 'floors. The "studs" or uprights simply had blown out; and everything supported by them settled downward, thus flattening the 3-story building a small space as here, described. Hardy, a Summit negro, working on a construe lion job on the Mississippi river bank, saw a huge ball of fire, followed by "a cloud or some He told, of dropping beside a drag line. A negro higher up on the drag line was hit by a flying piece of steel. His severed head fell lo the ground to where Hardy was hiding, so he related witli an air of bewilderment.

'-It is not difficult for a newspaperman to gather informal lion on a tornado. All that is necessary to start a colorful flow of narration is a simple question, "Where were you when it struck?" A pretty salvation Army worker thanked God that her 'tire' had blown out just north of Vicksburg. The delay had saved her from the force of the catastrophe. A bus driver said, "I was in my bus, saw a ball of fire. All the bus windows and the windshield biew A businessman said, "Forty members of our-organization were having a party.

Only one persons was hurt. A young lady had an ear practically severed. We hope we can save An industrial worker said, "I saw it in the next block coming. I stretched out along the curb, flat on my stomach on the street beside my car. It News In Brief- Outbreak Of Escapes From Angola Getting Grand Jury's Study ST.

FRANCISVILLE, La. (IP) The new West Feliciana Parish Grand Jury was under instructions today to investigate a recent outbreak of escapes from Angola penitentiary. The order was issued yesterday by District Judge H. H. Kilbourne.

Angered citizens recently met to demand that prison authorities take steps to protect residents of the area from "atrocities" committed by fleeing convicts. Gov. Robert Kennon said in Baton Rouge he believed prison officials would do all they could. "I see no reason for alarm," Kennon said. "Yet I also see no reason why people should riot meet to express their views.

I have every confidence in Reed Cozart, director of correctional institutions. Kennon, commenting on a report that Mississippi Sheriff V. F. James had attended the citizens meeting, said James had helped on many occasions when called up on to recapture prisoners trying to escape into nearby Wilkinson County, Miss. Game Warden Cleared VIDALIA, jLa.

() Ivy Beard, Lismore game warden, 'was today after a'grand jury dismissed charges that he murdered John King," also of la'st week. Beard was released from Concordia Parish prison yesterday where he had been held since the Maying wCC1v. were brought against Beard by the aeau man nepriew, mji omy xvmg i i i t-v 1 1 of Jonesvillel Officers said last week Beard had admitted the killing. At yes-'terday's hearing, Dist. Atty.

D. W. Gibson called about 20 person to testify but produced no eyewitness to the slaying. i Fine Hounds Cast MUSCLE SHOALS-, Ala. (P) T-Some of the finest fox hounds in the land begin opening- casts today in the! four-day United States Continued oii Eieht.

flight-Denver to JACKSON, Miss, (p) Gov. Are you married, a reporter Hugh White supported the pro-asked Capt. W. F. White.

posed resolution to abolish Mis- "I was," was his lugubrious re- sissippi's public school system in ply. the event the S-Supreme Court Pamela, met by J. Stuart Roch- outlaw segregation, ford, general manager of Rochford White's announcement yester-Happiness Tours which picked up day reversed his earlier stand. Hit High Spots Her trip began at Midway- at 12:12 p. m.

last Friday and took her to London, Rome, Cairo, Karachi, Rangoon, Manila, Okinawa and Tokyo. Her only complaint was that was "just a series of airports." Next time, she avowed, she'll take "time out to see the cities She'll get the chance. One of Ihe promised rewards, if she broke the (Continued on Page Seven kt a ct STRATEGY MAY: GET WHITE OK Governor Now Supports Proposal To Drop Public School Plan If And When The resolution, would lay the groundwork for abolishing public schools and would call, for a vote of the people on whether they wished the Legislature to have authority to turn the schools over to private operators. wuier oxe rouowea The Plan is similar to resolu- tlons and laws adopted in several other Southern states "to sidestep any Supreme Court ruling, which might' order white schools to ac- Negro students. The Supreme Court now is con- sidering five cases where Negroes are seeking to have segregation abolished.

The resolution introduced by Speaker of the House Walter Sillers has not come to a vote in Mississippi's special legislative session which is considerng a program to equalize egro and white schools in the state. White's support of the plan came as the Legislature worked in its sixth week of the special session. The governor emphasized that i puttinc the nlan into effect would be a last resort and only at the discretion of the Legislature- "It is a move to protect and maintain the segregated school system of the state. I am now 'Continued on Page Seven) 5 iM.M Buying Christmas candy? Hurry up and shop Before selections dwindl To one chocolate drop if 1 -au. 9 ySy Mrs.

AUan Tlibmpsoii, Junior HighVs Are Added To Guest List For Club's Annual Football Banquet At School-- the tab for her trip, whisked Miss Martin to a loop hotel for a welcome breakfast and that longed-for shower she has been promising herself since Sun 1 The record Miss Martin broke was something over 99 hours, set by Maj. Horace Boren, an official of Braniff airlines. The plane was 20 minutesv- late out of Denver, due to a snowstorm but Capt. White said he "revved it up" on the home stretch. He beat the scheduled 7:25 a.

m. rival time by 14 minutes, with the! aid of a tailwind. Pamela had on her nicest smile, a burgundy suit, mink jacket, a tiny, gray-feathered hat orchid when she stepped from the plane. Messrs. Ralph Daughdrili, Arney Hall, Hallie Quin and Virgil (Big Jim) Allen said they were ready to sell them.

Although sponsors of the banquet? urge those who will attend to buy their tickets in advance of opening hour of 7 p- m. tonight, it will be possible lo obtain tickets at the cafeteria 'doors. Mrs. D. R.

Burch, high school cafeteria manager, and her' large corps ol volunteer student assist-J ante' are reported to. have one of the best meals of the long series in readiness for a hungry throng. Awards To Be Made Included in the brief, fast-paced program in the auditorium will be the awarding to various members earned by their untiring efforts i 1 By CHARLES B. GORDON Members of the McComb Junior High football squad today were added to the list of invited guests for the annual Touchdown Club football banquet of Tuesday night in the high school cafeteria. Their fathers and mothers already were eligible to buy tickets and attend, but the lads who will be thD future Tigers were today extended special invitations to attend as guests.

Mayor's Wife To Be Here Mayer Allan Thompson of Jackson, who will be featured speaker in the auditorium program to which everybody is invited regardless of whether he or she attended the cafeteria banquet, reported today that Mrs. Thompson TWO BODIES WERE FOUND UNDER THIS MOUNTAIN OF "DEBRIS A great heap of rubble marks what was left of th Mississippi Hardware Company and Ben Warren's clothing store after the tornado struck Vicksburg Saturday night. The picture of the sickening wreckage is in stark contrast with the glittering tinsel of Christmas decorations that hang overhead. Far down in this mountain. of debris, the body of Miss Kay Warren, 17, buried since Saturday evening in the ruins of her father's store, was located at 2:50 p.

m. Monday. Early today, the body of F. G. Hester, who was buying a hat from Miss Warren when the storm bounced onto the store, was found.

Monday afternoon and night, as servicemen supervised the scene, a "bucket brigade" of approximately 150 persons removed debris from the buildings and loaded a steadily moving line of dump trucks. The theory that. Mr. Hester's body was in the ruins prevented us ol a big. dxegiina that was cn the file.

(Photo by courtesy- Vicksburg Evening PcsW would accompany him to McComb of the football team of the troph-for the occasion. I ies, loving cups, and so on they Some tickets remained available of the past season. today for the banquet, and (Continued on Page Eiht).