The Ithaca Journal from Ithaca, New York • Page 1

Tile WeatYier Ithaca Jouri Phorn a r.S. Weather Hurra fnrrratt: MMtrn fr 1 ark Tartly rloudy fclloord by ahnwrra or thandrmtorma late lanight aad Satarday. Cooler fcat- rday. lor detailed report, are Page 4. Tour want ad to Tho Ithaca Joorail for quirk service.

Ulal 2321 beforo It a.m. and yonr want ad will bo la tho aamo day'a Journal at p.m. MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, THE GREATEST NEWSGATHERING ORGANIZATION IN THE WORLD 134th YEAR-No. 131 SIXTEEN PAGES ITHACA, N. FRIDAY EVENING, JUNE 3, 1919 PRICE FIVE CENTS Rate Increase Granted Telephone Administration Prepared To Yield to Changes In Labor Bill Repealer Missing Bottle With Some Uranium Located Washington ne Truman administration, which has been insisting on full repeal of the Taft-Hartley Labor Act, was reported today to have decided to take what it can get in the way of a revised law.

Vicepresident Barkley talked briefly to a closed caucus of Senate Democrats today and a senator who was present reported that wajs the effect of his remarks. The senator, who would not permit use of his name, quoted Barkley as sayinjr he and the President want Congress to pass the best bill they can get. It was learned that at the same parly meeting the senators discussed a proposal to back live amendments to the administration's T-1I repealer, including a provision for presidential seizure of struck plants in national emergencies. 1 I 1 1 4f i 4 I "thiti rm Tir--r--J. Russia, West Near Accord On Berlin Pact FIRE SWEEPS the passenger steamer Northumberland, berthed at Port Dal-housie, Ontario, Canada, as it was about to start its 39th year on Lake Ontario.

The vessel suffered damage estimated at $200,000 in the blaze which started in the engine room. It was brought under control after 2 hours. Some Rents Ris6 100 Per Cent Under 'Home Rule9 Control 'Red' Loyalty Admitted By Chambers New York (JP) Whittaker Chambers, the government's key witness in the perjury trial of Alger Hiss, testified today he had ben loyal to the Communist Party before he broke with it in 1938. Chambers has sworn that Hiss, one-time high State Department official, turned over secret government papers to him. He said under cross-examination that wJftle a Communist he believed in "overthrowing the government at the opportune time by any and all means'' A confessed ex-courier for a Communist spy ring, Chambers was cross-examined by Lloyd Company New York (JP) The State Public Service Commission today granted the New York Telephone Company an interim rate increase cf 8 per cent on local service and 10 per cent on toll calls to points within the state.

The increase is to apply until Dec. 31 while the commission consider! the company's application for a permanent rote increase. The company had asked for a temporary increase of 10 per cent in both local service and intra state toll charges. It estimated such boosts would have provided the company with $30,800,000 additional "revenue computed on an annual basis. The increase granted by the commission today is estimated at $26 million on an annual basis.

Must File Tariff The increase is to become effective as soon as the company files a tariff setting forth the new schedule. The company filed its application last November, asking for the temporary increase of 15 per cent to produce $49 million additional revenue annually. The commission granted the; temporary increase after months of investigation. On June 20 it will resume its investigation and hearings on the question of permanent rates. The temporary increase, does not apply to local charges for calls from coin box telephones or attended public telephones.

The company had testified an increase in coin box minimum rates to 10 cents a call would add $18 million a year to its annual revenue. The commission indicated in its decision that the possibility of higher coin box charges would be considered carefully in fixing the amount cf the permanent increase. First Raise in 18 Years It was the first time in 18 years that the company had asked for higher rates in New York State.) New York was states in "which Bell System com panies of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company had not received rate increases since the war the others being Pennsylvania and Nevada. other states they had received increases totalling $239 million a year. Th company had contended ltj rate of earnings on total invested capital would drop 'this year unless an.

increase were granted. Ithaca Rates Affected Present rates in Ithaca for residence service are: Individual line, two-party line, $3, and four-party and rural lines, $2.50 each. For business service, the present rates are: Individual line, two-party, $5.75, and rural, $3.50 The exact charges for Ithaca under the interim rate order were not made public. A flat 8 per cent increase on the $3.50 current rate for an in dividual residence line would amount to 28 cents. The permanent rates sought by the company would amount to Residence service Individual, two-party, $3.50, and four-party and rural, business service Individual.

two-party, $7, and rural, $4.25. Fourteen Ti i-iSCape A In Jail Break Paul Stryker, Hiss's chief coun-Trts-oT The perjury indictment, re- Washington (JP) A missing 4 atomic bottle has been found, but the search goes on for. some of the uranium-235 which was in it. Senator McMahon (D-Conn) made that announcement Thursday as his Senate-House Atomic Energy Committee adjourned, probably until Monday, its hearings into chargrs of "incredible mismanagement" nutde against David E. Lilienthal by Senator Hickenlooper (R-Iowa).

Lilienthal heads the Atomic Energy Commission, whose Ar-gonne National Laboratory in Chicago missed the bottle of fissionable material last February. It contained an ounce of U-235, seven eights of which has now been recovered. McMahon said the commission's general manager, Carrol Wilson, had reported to the committee that the missing bottle was dug out of a large steel box of waste material in the Argonne Laboratory's special radioactive "burial ground." The uranium apparently had been spilled from the bottle, after which the container was discard ed. It was all due to "carelessness and negligence," McMahon said Besides pressing its inquiry into the the still-missing eighth-ounce of U-235, he said, the joint committee is branching out in its investigation of the commission to find out why con struction of a secret atomic in stallation is costing three times the original $7 million estimate The installation, located at Han- ford, being built by the General Electric Corporation. The congressional committee, at the instigation of Hicken looper, us former chairman, is conducting a broadscale probe of the Atomic Commissions management under Lilienthal.

Hic-enlooper h' demanded Lilien-thal's firing. Atomic Strike Planned Oak Ridge, Tenn. (JP) A strike of 2,000 workers in a huge atomic production plant is planned for next Thursday. If the strike comes off, it will stop production of Uranium-235 in one of the largest industrial plants in the world. U-235 is the fissionable element that goes into atomic bombs.

A CIO union voted Thursday night to strike and asked its in- ternational headquarters for authorization. The union asked a 15 -cent hourly wage increase when negotiations began 7 weeks ago for a new contract to begin June 9. Average Wage $1.59 A counter-proposal that wages be reduced 6 cents was made by Corporation, operator of all Oak Ridge atomic installations for the Atomic Energy Commission. The CIO employes average wage is $1.53. Two methods of, government intervention may be used to pre vent or delay the strike.

President Truman is empowered under the Taft-Hartley Act to seek an injunction to prohibit a strike during an 80-day arbitration period. Another Procedure Another is procedure to settle strike threats in vital AEC operations proposed by a special com mission headed by former War Labor Board Chairman William Davis. Under this plan, a three-man panel appointed by the President would enter an atomic labor dispute only after all other means had failed. The contesting parties would be obligated, once the panel intervened, to maintain the status qur for 30 days. Pollution Kills 1,000 Fish Cazenovia (JP) Authorities sought today the source of a milky pollution which, they say, caused the death of at least 1,000 trout and other fish.

The fish died in nearby Nelson Brook, Game Warden Charles E. Hunter said Thursday night. The trout ranged from 7 to 16 'A inches in length. Hunter said a similar pollution at this time of year had killed fish in the stream for the last 3 years. He said a milky substance ap peared in the water when the fish were first reported dying.

Trout will die, he added, when sufficient milk is emptied into a stream. He said it destroys the oxygen in the water. Red-Head Penguins Captured by Reds Moscow (JP) Ever hear of red-headed penguins? A Soviet whaling expedition brought back a family of them from Antarctica. They are on display at the Mos- Although Barkley did not comment on the specific proposals, a Democratic senator said he made it plain that he and Mr. Truman were determined to take what they can get from Congress on the party platform pledge for Taft-Hartley repeal.

Earlier Senator Lucas of Illinois, Democratic leader in the Senate, came out for unspecified amendments to the administration plan to cancel the present labor law and replace it with a modified version of the old Wagner Act. In the first official indication that President Truman's hard-pressed forces in the Senate are ready to support a compromise in a last-minute effort to win votes, Lucas said in an interview: "In principle, I approve of some amendments." He wouldn't go into detail. His statement came as the Sen ate's disrputed Democrats gather ed behind closed doors for what might be an all-day conference on labor legislation. The Senate itself starts its labor debate Monday. Mr.

Truman himself has stoutly maintained that he opposes any compromise. The CIO and AFL have announced they aren't dead set against all amendments, but they say they will never agree to anti-strike injunctions." The administration measure which would replace Taft-Hartley with a modified Wagner Act was compromised in the House, but lost anyhow. The compromise, introduced by Representative Sims (D-SC) with the vigorous backing of Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-Tex), added a few Taft-Hartley provisions to the Truman bill, including 80-day injunctions in national emergency strikes. Sparkman Favors Measure Senator Sparkman (D-Ala) told a reporter today he favors "some such measure" as the Sims bill. He added, however, that he is "open-minded" concerning, the national emergency provision and might be persuaded to support some kind of plant-seizure proposal instead of the 80-day Taft-Hartley injunctions.

Authority for federal seizure of plants is what some Democrats, like Senator Humphrey (Minn), are advocating as a means of dealing with strikes which imperil the national health or safety. In an interview Humphrey said he would propose a seizure amendment to the Truman bill at today's Democratic conference. Other Changes Proposed He said he also would propose amendments for (1) a specific guarantee of free speech in labor relations; (2) a requirement that both unions and employers bargain in good faith, and (3) filing of financial reports by unions, corporations, and employer associations. The Sims bill in the House con tained clauses roughly similar to those. The Sims bill also would have required union and company officers to file non-Communist oaths.

A non-Communist provision was expected to be proposed to day at the Democratic conference, but not by Humphrey. Lucas said there would be no attempt to bind the Democrats to vote for anything. Apparently the leadership plan was to sound out all the Democrats, and write a new dui that would capture as many votes as possible. Connie to Stand Trial in State Albany (JP) A couple ac cused in the "lonely hearts" slay- ings of two widows must stand trial in New York State where the maximum penalty is death. The Court of Appeals refused Thursday to review a rejected bid by which the couple sought to avoid trial in New York and presumably face charges in Michigan, which has no death penalty.

Raymond Fernandez, 34, and Mrs. Martha Beck, 29, are scheduled to go on trial Monday in the Bronx on first-degree murder charges. The state's highest court also refused to grant a stay of trial. The couple are accused of killing Mrs. Janet Fay, 60, an Albany widow, at Valley Stream, last Jan.

5. A. P. GIANNINI A. P.

Giannini. Bank Founder, Dies San Mateo, Calif. (JP) A. P. Giannini, founder and president of the Bank of America, the world's largest bank, died at his home here this morning.

He was 79. Death was attributed to heart disease. He had been in bed for nearly a month with a persistent cold, which doctors said apparently aggravated a heart condition. Giannini founded the Bank of Italy in 1904. It later became the Bank of America, a $6 billion corporation.

Giannini built his tremendous banking empire on a policy of serving the needs of "the little fellow." Bank of America's nearly 500 branches in some 300 California communities serve more than 3 million depositors. Giannlni's" "parents, "Liiigi and Virginia Giannini, came from Genoa, Italy, to California not many years after the state entered thi union. They began farming in the San Jose area. Giannini was only 7 years old when his father died, and subsequently his mother married a commission merchant, Lorenzo Scatena. Scatena gave the boy a start in the vegetable business.

Giannini quickly built up the largest commission house in California, but he went into banking when his father-in-law, a banker, died and left him a seat on the board of a San Francisco bank. Giannini tried revolutionary changes at once. He tried to make it a bank for. the little people; but the other directors objected. So Giannini stepped out and started the Bank of Italy.

Reds Reported In Tsingtao Shanghai (JP) A reliable source said today Chinese Communists had occupied Tsingtao, the North China port which until recently was the anchorage for the U. S. Western Pacific fleet. U. S.

ships and personnel pulled out of Tsingtao several days ago. The informant said the Chinese Nationalist navy also had withdrawn and the Communists took over the city and port without a fight. It was the last city held by the Nationalists in Northeast China. Mother, 9 Children Real Hitchhikers Jamestown JP) "Hop in invited Deputy Sheriff Elmer H. Widlund.

Mrs. Ida Sank climbed- into Widlund's car with a babe in arms and eight other Sank children, ranging in up to 12. They told him they were hitchhiking to their home, near Stow, after walking 9 miles to see a parade. Crews Cut Driver From Wrecked Bus Auburn (JP) Rescue crews had to cut a driver from a wreck ed, empty bus Thursday night. Antone Reis, 38, of New Bedford, was treated at a hospital for head and leg injuries and shock.

Reis, driving the bus to Chicago for an overhaul, said it had struck a pole and tree west of here after a front-tire blowout. He was pinned behind the wheel. Emergency crews jacked up the vehicle and cut through the front to free him. By ARTHUR GAVSIION Paris (JP) Russia and the West were reported ready today to compromise on a "little peace treaty" for Berlin. The basis of today's discussions at the four-power foreign minis ters' conference will be the American plan submitted Thursday by Secretary of State Dean Acheson and backed by both the British and French.

Russia and the West already are agreed in principle on the plan's two most important proposals. 1. Re-establishmcnt of four-power control in Berlin. 2. City-wide elections for an all-Berlin council.

Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Y. Vishinsky hinted on Wednesday that Russia was to transfer to German civic authority some of the functions exercised in the past by the Kom-mandatura. That is what the West wants and Western diplomats forecast some East-West bargaining. Tangled Problem A tangled problem is Acheson's call for four-power supervision of elections. Both Russia and the Western powers have their own version of what constitutes free and fair elections.

The Western powers intend to offer a contract. which would bind Russia to give the West free road and rail access to Berlin from their zones. They want to avoid the possibility of another blockade. Russia is expected to suggest unification of currency throughout Germany, under four-power control. If this proposal fails, Vishinsky might suggest that in Berlin the currency question be passed along to the Germans.

The East-West row over control of Berlin's currency was the primary cause of the -blockade. There are signs that both sides will make concessions, because both want to restore peace and unity in the former German capital. Strike Still Unsettled Berlin (JP) The four military commanders of Berlin met for ZVz hours today but came to no understanding on the city's crippling rail strike. It was the first such meeting here, in 50 weeks. Brig.

Gen Frank L. Howley, the American commandant told newsmen no agreement was reached but a "great number of proposals were offered and discussed." Crop Storage Bill Passes Congress Washington (JP) Only President Truman's signature was needed today to set in operation a vast system of government-supplied storage for farm crops, especially wheat and corn. Both the House and Senate gave speedy approval Thursday to compromise legislation authorizing the Agriculture Department's multi-billion dollar Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to undertake the program. The crop storage matter was a bitter issue during the 1948 political campaign. Mr.

Truman claimed that the Republican-controlled 80th Congress had denied the CCC authority to provide storage for crops under price supporting loans. Republicans insisted that Secretary of Agriculture Brannan had ample authority to buy grain bins and rent or even give these away to farmers for storage. Without approved storage farmers must sell on the market, often at less than the government support level. As approved, the bill would allow the Commodity Credit Corporation to buy, lease or even build elevators, warehouses and other storage, facilities if it found existing storage inadequate. By STERLING F.

GREEN Washington (P) In the 2 months since it became law, "home rule" rent control has brought results ranging from minor increases in some places to a few rent boosts of up to 100 per cent. Under the bill passed Mar. 29, communities could be decontrolled by their local governing bodies with the stale governor's okay and whole states could be decontrolled by their legislatures. An Associated Press survey showed today that 16 cities and towns, including Knoxville, Amarillo, and McAlester, have lifted rent controls, with the approval of state governors. Only Nebraska has thus far voted statewide decontrol, flan Reimnose Controls The bill also gave the federar government power to reimpose controlswhere it had lifted them power which pronfpted housing expediter Tighe Woods to decon trol more than 100 areas.

Landlord reaction to community, state and federal decontrol has varied greatly. Some areas reported practically no boosts. But in Americus, decon trolled from Washington, rents rose so sharply that the town is being recontrolled today. In Nebraska, with statewide decontrol, the leading real estate figure has announced 10 per cent increases and has asked his fel low landlords to show similar "restrain" lest they hurt the case of decontrol. In Amarillo, which decontrolled itself, the Globe-News says rent boosts generally have been "a conservative 20 to 25 per cent" but adds that some rents were doubled.

In McAlester these among other early increases were noted: A house went from $35 to a an apartment house went up $5 on each apartment. In most of the areas decontrolled from Washington in early April, rent rises have been moderate. Generally, decontrol is sticking. But the rent advisory board at Americus reported boosts ranging up to 100 per cent an the two control-free months. The local citizen's board was unanimous in asking the return of ceilings.

The real estate man on the board made the motion. States Study Decontrol Several state legislatures have taken up decontrol bills. Such a bill passed in Florida, but Gover nor Warren vetoed it Thursday night. Texas legislators are battling on the issue. Four states have turned down decontrol bills Iowa, Tennesee, North Carolina and Oklahoma.

Decontrol movements tend to center in the South and Southwest. They occur most frequently in smaller communities. Industrial New England and the fast-growing Pacific Northwest show little inclination to drop ceilings. Wallace Presents Corn to Czechs Prague, Czechoslovakia (JP) Henry Wallace has sent 10 pounds of hybrid corn to the Czechoslovak government as a symbolic gift. The corn, developed by the American Progressive Party leader, was handed over Thursday to Minister of Agriculture Julious Duris by Mr.

and Mrs. Donald Hesson of New York. They are on the staff of the National Guardian, a New York weekly newspaper which supported Wallace for president in 1948. Hesson said the gift was an ex ample of the help that should be sent to Europe mainly to those prttinfrioo AirHirh ircra irrvcf Horn- aged by the war. Weather Outlook New York (JF) Weather forecast for the lower lakes region (Lakes Erie and Ontario and nearby land areas of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania 'and New York) Saturday through Wednesday: Temperatures will varrage 5 to 10 degrees above normal (normal maximum 76 west to 72 east; normal minimum 56 west to 53 east); above normal Saturday through Tuesday; cooler Wednesday.

Precipitation will average one-fourth to one-half inch, oc-curing as showers and thunderstorms Tuesday and Wednesday. Editor Found In Contempt In Spy Trial New York A Communist conspiracy trial delendant was found in contempt of court today and order held in jail 30 days unless he purges himself of con tempt. Federal Judge Harold R. Me dina ordered John W. Gates jailed after the 35-year-old editor of the Communist Daily Worker had refused to say who helped him prepare a Commu nist Party publication.

The action immediately brought the other 10 defendants to their feet in protest. The judge then promptly or dered two of them, Henry Win ston and uus Hall, also held in jail. All defendants have been free under $5,000 bail previously. The party leaders on trial claim that the government has no right to question them about their comrades. The issue caused a stormy courtroom clash Thursday, after Gates balked at answering a prosecution attorney's question.

am not going to become a stool pigeon and finger my com rades for. the prosecution," Gates declared. Gates finally answered the question, which was about the official status of Eugene Dennis, general secretary of the Commu nist Party and one of the 11 defendants who are accused of conspiring to advocate the forcible overthrow of the government. Gates said "he (Dennis) was a member of the national committee of the Communist Party." Tin Miners to End Bolivia Strike La Paz, Bolivia (JP) Bolivia's tin miners have agreed to end a bloody strike in w.hich at least 40 persons, including two Americans, were killed, a government official said Thursday night. Guillermo Estrada, prefect of La Paz department, said the miners and government had reached an agreement which also called for withdrawal of troops from the mining region and pay ment of indemnities to widows of slain miners.

Earlier the Patino Company said 80 per cent of the workers at its Huanuni mine had gone back to work Thursday. The government, which had charged the 6-day walkout was politically inspired, interpreted the back to work movement as averting a revolution. The strike broke out last-Sat urday to protest deportation ofj union leaders. turned by a special spy-hunting grand jury, accused Hiss of lying when he denied feeding State Department papers to Chambers for transmission to a red spy ring. Statements Repeated As the trial's fourth day began before Federal Judge Samuel H.

Kaufman and a jury of 10 men and 2 women. Chambers repeated previous statements in which he said he broke with the Communist Party in 1938. Stryker continued his tactics of Thursday, hammering at Chambers's character in an obvious plan to discredit his testimony as much as possible. He asked Chambers whether it was true that every Communist Party member was a "potential spy, a saboteur and actually an enemy to our system of government." "True," the witness replied tersely in a low voice. "Have you not said that the Communist Party in America is an integral part of international communism," Stryker prodded again.

Loyal to Reds "Yes, it is," Chambers replied. After Chambers admitted he had subscribed to and been loyaj to Communist principles, Stryker asked him if it was not a fact that those joining the party had to ohev its order and "mav have to lie, steal, rob or go out into the street and fight." In cross-examination' Wednes- once liea to get a iederai 30b and that he lost another job after being accused of stealing. Chambers admitted he committed perjury in 1937 when he took an oath of office for a job with the Works Progress Administration. Chambers said "he swore to support the Constitution although he was a Communist dedicated to "help overthrow our country by force." Admits Dismissal Chambers also admitted, under Stryker's questioning, that he was dismissed, from the New York Public Library after he had been charged with stealing books. The books, however, were from the Columbia University Library.

Chambers said he left Colum bia University because of a "very just criticism" of a play he wrote for a campus magazine. He said it was "highly offensive" in. its treatment of Christ. VeliicIesIIeaclMum On Resignation UticaW Clifford J. Fletcher said today he had "no comment whatsoever" on Albany reports he planned to resign as state motor vehicles commission- Fletcher, 48, has held the post Moundsville, W.

Va. UP) dav. Stryker drew from Cham-TnnrtPPn nrisnners. includinff sixibers an acknowledgment that he serving life terms, escaped today in a mass break from one cell-block of the Moundsville State Penitentiary. Warden Orel J.

Skeen said the men used a home-made drill over the past several weeks in their successful bid for freedom. Cuts in bars were concealed by blackened soap. The escape was made at about a.m. and the prisoners' absence was not noted until a guard failed to report for the early morning checkup. The prisoners jimmied cellblock locks and escaped through a window.

The escaping prisoners left be hind them a bleeding guard they had slugged and tossed into one of the vacated cells. He was Identified as Jackie James. Six of the prisoners were in solitary confinement. Prison officials said a seventh, who had been involved in a previous escape attempt, refused to join the break. The men all were from West Virginia.

About 100 prison guards, local and state police were put on road blocks in the Moundsville area. Tot Killed by Car Buffalo (A) Shirley Ann Lane, 4, was killed Thursday when struck by an automo- jcow zoo. blTa a treule of bar boma. 'sines Feb. 18, 1943.

I.