The Press Democrat from Santa Rosa, California • 1

WHAT EVERY YOUNGSTER DREAMS OF: EMOOMir 1 0-Year-Old S. R. Girl Gets Chance at Role in Movies! 86TH YEAR-NO. 179 SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1942 Published Every Day Except Monday 1 0 PAGES 'Spotted on Streets, Child in Hollywood For Screen Test i mm mm mm mm AF1ER UEOI Ull BODY OF PEP RITE I Opportunity, in the form of one of the industry's leading motion-picture directors, has lScnocked for a 10 -year -old pianta Rosa girl. INVALID WIFE Cities Seek $44 ,000 of County Sum Abandons as Nazis Russia Rostov JL pi GREYHOUND il Mf FACE TIEUP Court Ruling Asked by Company in Attempt To Avoid Strike Continue Advance Germans Claim Capture of Another Rail City 20 Miles South as Soviet Peril Grows; Hamburg Left Ablaze by Huge Raid Bv ASSOCIATED PRESS Rostov, capital of the Northern Caucasus, and Novocherkassk, near the Don river 20 miles to the northeast, have fallen to the driving Germans who claimed last night that the fury of battle already had shifted 20 miles south with the capture of Bataisk a city on Prf Ts lhe railway fading straight U-lJUUL I Ull to the oil treasures of Baku.

Ail J. Elsewhere on the 300-mile front If) I ft the Soviet high command said no material changes took place. Pre- 13 I A 1 v'ous''- tne Kwl army was re- ft ri lit I ported bracing near Tsimlyansk tl 5 One, of those "once-isi-a-lifetime" events occurred in Santa Rosa the other day for 10-year-old Edna May Wonacott, shown here being congratulated by Assistant Director William Tummell. She was picked out, on the street, by Director Alfred Hitchcock, and ordered given a tryout for an important juvenile part in the new Skirball production, "Shadow of a Doubt," to be filmed in Santa Rosa. She is in Hollywood today with her mother, Mrs.

Elie Wonacott, for the screen test. Edna May is a sixth-grade student at the Fremont school. TONY MARTIN LINKED WITH NAVAL SCANDAL Suspended Officer Accused in Court-Martial Of Accepting Car as 'Bribe' for Rating SAN FRANCISCO, July 27. (AP)-A naval officer went before a court-martial today on charges of virtually selling a special rating in the navy to radio singer and screen actor. Detailed charges against Lieut.

Commander Maurice N. NEAR DEATH IN TRAGEDY Helpless Cripple, 70, Crazed by Thirst in Gruesome Plight Helpless and half -crazed from thirst, a 70 -year -old crippled woman was found late yesterday on the floor of her home near Sonoma, where she had lain for six days near the dead body of her husband. From parched and thickened lips came the repealed cry of "water water give me water" when rescuers summoned by a horror-stricken woman who had discovered the tragic plight of the aged invalid reached the home. Six days ago, as Coroner Vernon Silvershield reconstructed the death scene in the little room, Otto Rehaag, the 02-year-old husband, a former widely known Sonoma vintner, died from, hemorrhages of the lungs, falling beside the couple's bed. Sometime later, his wife, Bertha Rehaag, an invalid for the past 10 years and bedridden for seven months, slipped to the floor on the other side of the bed.

And there she lay until 4:30 o'clock yesterday afternoon when Mrs. D. Coblentz, wife of a ban trancisco publisher and resident of the valley, found her as she called at the farm home with a gift of food and clothing for Mrs. Rehaag, who at one time was employed at the Coblentz home. Dogs, Cats Starving A dog and six cats in the home were near death from lack of water, while rabbits in the hutches of the small farm had died from starvation.

At first, Mrs. Coblentz failed to see Kehaags body and thought that Mrs. Rehaag was dead. She called the Burndale hospital and Dr. E.

J. Finnerty responded. As Dr. Finnerty sought to give Mrs. Rehaag assistance, the aged woman moaned for water.

After emergency treatment, she was taken to the county hospital here by ambulance. On the other side of the bed, the physician found Rehaag's body. During the six days of horror, the details of her husband's pass ing had slipped from Mrs. Re haag's mind. Asked at the hospital where her husband was, she answered He's working on the farm I guess; I don know where he is.

I slipped out of bed. Because of her condition she was not told of his death. Coroner Silvershield, Sheriff A. A. Wilkie and Bernard Plover, deputy district attorney, conducted (Continued on Page 3, Col.

4) AFL Musicians Strike at KFRC SAN FRANCISCO, July 27 (AP) AFL Musicians walked out of radio station KFRC today in a dispute over employment hours. Station Manager William Pabst said KFRC, which is affiliated with the Don Lee, Mutual Broadcasting System, would use transcriptions. GUARD AGAINST FIRE SAN FRANCISCO, July 27 (UP) Alertness in guarding against forest fires was urged today by Lieut. Gen. John L.

DeWitt, commanding general of the Western Defease Command and Fourth Army. DeWitt warned conviction for wilfully causing a forest fire brings state and federal penalties, also punishment under the sabo tage act. And so, after a weekend of fast-moving interviews, photographs, telephone calls and conferences, little Edna May Wonacott, ten-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Elie Wonacott of 1132 Neale Drive, is on her way to Hollywood today to try out for a part in "Shadow of a Doubt," the Jack Skirball Universal production to be filmed in Santa Rosa.

She is the first Santa Rosan to be considered for any part in the picture. Accompanied by her mother, she is due to arrive in Hollywood this morning. She will be escorted to the studio at Universal City to meet Director Alfred Hitchcock and be given a screen test. If she is successful in this she will be cast for the part of "Ann," the younger sister of the leading lady in the story a part held by Teresa Wright, one of the industry's fastest climbing young stars. But even if she doesn't get this part, Edna May is assured of being in "Shadow of a Doubt," for she has been definitely selected for an extra part should she not be chosen to play Ann.

The circumstances surrounding Edna May's being selected for the honor of a Hollywood screen test proves the well-known and oft-repeated saw that "Truth is stranger than fiction." Spotted on Street For Saturday morning while the little girl was busy showing Santa Rosa to Shirley and Beverly Wonacott of Bakersfield, her two young cousins, the incident thousands of girls and boys, and men and women, too, for that matter, have dreamed of, occurred. A motion picture director stepped up to her on the street and asked her if she'd like to be in the movies. Prior to that question, a movie career, or even a chance to appear in a "mob" scene, was furthest from Edna May's mind. She knew the movie people were in Santa Rosa. She had read the papers, just as thousands of other people had read them.

But she had not considered that there was the remotest possibility that she might be selected to appear1 before the camera. -1 I 1 i aa sne neara a conversation liat had transpired a minute be-lfore Director Hitchcock stepped Up to her, she probably would (Continued on Page 3, Col. 2) On the HOME FRONT If you happen to notice your favorite chef or bartender is gone, don't be surprised if he turns up in uniform. For out of Santa Rosa local of the Bartenders and Culinary Workers' Union, 18 members have already answered the call to armed forces of the government, it was revealed yesterday as the union displayed a service flag with 18 stars at its meeting here. Dressed in the natty uniform of the U.

S. Marines, Capt. Clarence Ctok Sypher, former coach at the Santa Rosa Junior College, was at the Receiving Ship-Santa Rosa Merchant game at Doyle Park Sunday. Sypher was greeted by his friends and was thrilled by the navy club victory. He appeared to be in perfect physical condition! Kenneth Froelich, son of Al Froelich, popular river resort man, is now at Sheppard Field, Texas, assigned to the 318th Tech School Squadron, in barracks 784, friends here learned yesterday.

Young Froelich's wife, Mrs. Candace Froelich, plans leaving Augusts to join him in Texas. Another Santa Rosan who recently entered the army is now stationed in Texas. He's Private Ed Dwyer, former representative of the Pacific Coast Paper Company in this district. Dwyer is with the coast artillery at Camp Wallace, Texas.

Jack E. Gallagher, "somewhere" tne war zone, iias wniteu iu US Dnae 01 wuee monuis vine former Miss Helen Dyhre) that he is well and is enjoying army life. In his letter he stated "The Press Democrat has been coming quite regularly here of late, but always a couple of weeks old. I'm always glad to get it though and several of us read from the first to the last page." Gallagher, who is now a radio technician, has been in the army for 16 months. Prior to that he was with the American Trust Bank in Santa Rosa for four years.

Share in Road Coin Asked From Supervisors by Municipalities A $44,000 slice of Sonoma county's share of state gasoline tax funds was asked yesterday by the incorporated municipalities of the county, with the city of Santa Rosa requesting an additional 27 to 30-cent reduction in the general fund, to effect a saving in the tax rate to the city. While negotiations to secure a share in county road funds have been under way for some time, 'his was the first occasion when the actual amount sought by the ities was announced. The request was made to the board of supervisors, under a recent act of the legislature which provides that the board can set uic pvncuuigc ui lunus lu IX (tlVCIl iu lilies IOI SUffl WOIK. Mayor E. A.

Eymann of Santa Rosa was spokesman for the group, while other members of the delegation were City Manager J. A. Tedford and City Attorney L. G. Hitchcock, Santa Rosa; Mayor Jaspar Woodson and City Attorney Karl Brooks of Petaluma, City Attorney Fred McConnell of Healdsburg, City Attorney George Libby of Sebastopol and Councilman Bates of Sonoma.

The request was taken under advisement by the supervisors. Resignation of George Smith as superintendent of county buildings accepted, alter Smith had notified the board he was leavine to work in a defense industry. The resignation win take effect Au (Continued on Page 3, Col. 5) WASHINGTON, July 27 (AP) Six Central American republics are joining with the United States in an emergency job of road-building to bypass the submarine men ace and provide an overland route from this country to the Panama Canal. Guatemala, EI Salvador, Hon duras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, the state department disclosed tonight, have agreed to co operate in the immediate construc tion of pioneer roads to connect the already-constructed segments of the inter-American highway between the Mexican-Guatemalan border and Panama City.

The construction plans call for about 625 miles of quickly con- structable pioneer segments of which now aggregate about 1,000 miles in length. The pioneer road will be from 10 to 16 feet wide with an eight-inch gravel surface and average maximum grades of 10 per cent. This will permit opening of road traffic fairly soon between the ena of the existing standard-gauge rail way in Mexico and the Canal Zone. The emphasis on completion of the pioneer road will not modify the plan to construct a permanent inter-American highway for which congress authorized last December the expenditure of The pioneer road will, however, permit through traffic at a much earlier date. The expenses of the emergency construction will be borne by the United States.

SAN FRANCISCO, July 27 (AP) The Swedish freighter Kanangoora, now in drydock here, was made available by its owners today for transporting food, medical supplies and clothing to Americans held by the Japanese in the Philippines and other portions of the Orient. R. V. Winquist, vice-president of the General Steamship Corporation, agents for the Transatlantic Steamship Company of Gothenburg, Sweden, said proposed charter agreements were already be ing prepared. They will be signed, he said, as soon as final details are worked out.

The Red Cross hopes to send 300,000 boxes of food to the Orient aboard the Kanangoora. The major obstacle still block ing the plan is a delay by Japan and Germany in granting safe conduct to the ship. Red Cross officials expect such assurances PHU II! DUE IMN RELIEF SHIP OFFERED SAN FRANCISCO, July 27. (AP) A month-old wage-arbitration dispute between the Pacific Greyhound Lines and some 1,300 AFL bus drivers and other employees threatened to day to develop into a tieup of Greyhound Lines in seven states. F.

W. Ackerman, company vice-president, said he had discovered the union membership was balloting secretly on a proposal to "suspend work" in California, Oregon, Nevada. Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The dispute was disclosed when the company asked the San Francisco superior court today to determine what rights both parties have under a work contract which expires on August 31. The company asserted it had been trying vainly since July 1 to enter into negotiations with the AFL Amalgamated Association of Street, Electric Railway and Motor Coach Employees of America for a new working agreement.

The union, however, the company's petition said, had declined to open such negotiations and insisted that it had a right to seek amendment of the present working agreement and submit demands for increased pay to arbitration. Voting on Strike Company executives, Ackerman said, went to court only after finding that the union membership was voting on a proposal to empower union leaders to order a work suspension after August 2 unless union demands were conceded. Declaring that the company op erates bus services at the Mare Is land navy yard and in other war industrial sections, Greyhound officials told the court "it is essen tial that the controversies and the duties of the respective parties shall be decided and determined without delay." R. E. Hasselman, AFL union chairman, and Charles W.

Riley, secretary of the union, said refusal of the company to arbitrate was a violation of the present agreement. Seek New Raise The union officials said bus drivers were granted a wage increase of approximately 15 per cent on October 2, retroactive to July 1, 1941. "Since that time," they asserted, "numerous emergency measures have been placed in effect, adding to the burdens of bus drivers." Ackerman declared the line's employees' wage rates were equal to or higher than that of those paid persons similarly engaged in the west. "As recently as September, 1941, they were granted increases amounting to 23 per cent for driv ers, and 17 per cent for station em ployees, said Ackerman. Neither side disclosed the actual wage structures in dispute.

Old Cars Destroyed In S. F. Campaign SAN FRANCISCO, July 27. (AP) Traffic Judge George B. Harris put a sledge hammer punch today into his edict that "old jalopies must go." The judge himself swung a sledge hammer that started six old cars on their way to the junk yard.

The action was in line with the state's policy of speeding dilapitated old cars into scrap metal for the war effort Demolition of old cars abandoned on San Francisco streets was ordered under a section of the motor-vehicle code permitting the state to seize machines worth less than $25. On August 1 state traffic officers will begin putting stickers on antiquated cars, notifying owners they must sell them as junk or the state will do it for them. Air-Raid Alert SAN FRANCISCO, July 28 (UP) The Fourth Fighter Command ordered a preliminary (yellow) alert in the San Francisco bay area last night due to approach of an "unidentified target," later found to be friendly. The alert was ordered at 11:14 p.m. and the all-clear was given at 12:07 a.m.

There was no radio silence, and no two bloody crossings of the lower Don, 120 miles east of Rostov. The fall of Rostov claimed by the Germans last Friday was a moral as well as material blow to the Russians, because the city symbolized the first shattering of the German army's legend of in vincibility. Lntered by the Germans at the end of their drive early last winter, the city was recaptured in the first of a series of five months of triumphs by the Red armies. Industrial Center Besides being a vital transpor tation center on the Don delta near the Sea of Azov, Rostov is important industrially. It has a large tractor plant, converted to tank making, as well as extensive leather factories.

It also is on the oil pipeline from the Caucasus. The city was on. the high north bank of the river and it was probable that Marshal Semeon Timoshenko had moved most of his army to the south side of the Don rather than risk its envelopment. The Russian midnight communique reporte further successes at Voronezh, at the northern extremity of the Don front, when a Soviet unit crossed the river in stubborn fighting. "Our troops are developing active operations on the western river bank," the communique said.

The stubbornness of Soviet re sistance in this area, the successes of recent counterattacks and frequent German reports of Russian troop concentrations on the upper Don all pointed to the possibility of a large Russian counterattack against the flank of the extended tionunuoa on Pare 3, Col. 1) SAN FRANCISCO, July 27 AP) Thesiluation in the Aleu tians was described today by Sen ator Mon C. Wallgren (D-Wash.) as "without doubt very serious." How serious it is, I don know," the senator said. "I would like to go up and see for myself, but I am awaiting word from Washington. "No matter how many Japs are up there, or how few, there are too damned many.

We've got to kick them out." Wallgren is in San Francisco with Senators Harold D. Eurton and Carl A. Hatch as a subcommittee of the Truman investigating committee. Wallgren said they were awaiting army approval of their contemplated trip to Alaska as members of the military affairs committee. The senator said the Japanese knew at least as much about Aleutian waters as the U.

S. Navy. "They've had fake fishermen up there for years," he said. "They have been taking soundings and making charts. "The whole sea coast has been very soupy up there.

People say they never heard of a one-way fog. Well, that appears to be just what they have. It's a queer fog that hinders us more than it does the Japs." Rancher Drowns in Life -Saving Try RED BLUFF, July 27. (AP) Eugene Peterson, 57, Corning rancher, drowned in the Sacramento river near his home today while attempting to save a granddaughter, Barbara Sho-water, 10, of El Cerrito. The girl, pulled momentarily under water by current, made shore ssfely, but Peterson, fully clothed, was caught in a whirlpool and disappeared.

His body has not been recovered. ALEUTIAN PERIL CLAUD GRAVE Nazis 'Hijack' Cargo of Onions Before Sinking Latest Victim By ASSOCIATED PRESS The sinking of an obscure little onion boat by Hungary Nazis, announced yesterday by the navy, and the reported torpedoing of the Mexican freighter Oaxaca boosted to 401 the unofficial Associated Press tabulation of Allied and neutral ships torpedoed to the bottom of the western Atlantic since Pearl Harbor. The ironic sinking of the 55-foot craft was" reported by Capt, Walter Broward Croslund, who said a low-rationed U-boat hi jacked his boat just off Havana, forced himself and two other crewmen out and then helped themselves to 40,000 pounds of onions, canned goods and a quan tity ot Diesel oil. lhe three sur vivors heard an explosion later and presumed the craft was sunk. The manager of the government-controlled Mexican navigation company, operators of the vessel, said in Mexico City that Oaxaca was sunk yesterday en route to Tampico from New Orleans.

It was not learned immediately whether there were any casualties. The ship was one of (Continued on Paee 2, Col. 1) COALINGA, July 27. (AP) Fire-tighting crews, including state convicts and Fresno county prisoners, tonight were reported in con trol of flames which had blazed for a week in the coast range west of here. The fire, which licked down to the edge of this San Joaquin valley oil field area, -spread from two small lightning-set blazes and roared out of control Thursday in range brush and scrub timber.

One hundred convicts were brought from San Quentin prison today to support a force of 100 previously sent from San Quentin and 50 from Folsom prison. Others on the fire lines included oil company employees and state forestry crews. The Forestry Office here said the greatest damage was to 50,000 acres of range land. There was minor damage to oil company installations. DOUBLE LAUNCHING ALAMEDA, July 27 (AP) The sea went down to get two ships today at a double launching at the Pacific Bridge Company's yards.

The freighters Benjamin Sher-burn and Samuel V. Shreve were built in graving docks below sea level. At the launching the water was permitted to pour in and float the new craft. that 10 per cent of Hitler's airplane production was devoted to giant flyingboats, but that percentage was too small for United States needs. Under Lee's resolution, the percentage of shipbuilding capacity that would be diverted to building flying boats would be left to the supply board composed of the secretaries of war and navy, the administrator of the War Shipping Administration and the chairman of the War Production Board.

This board would proceed immediately with construction of (Continued on Page 3, Col. 6) cons CURB COUA FIR Aroff, U. S. N. revealed for the first time at the open ing of his public hearing, ac cused him of "scandalous con duct" and falsehood, including accepting a $950 automobile from Martin as a bribe.

Martin flew here from Chicago to enlist in the navy January 2 when he faced imminent induction into the army. He was inducted as a "chief specialist," a rating then so new that no insignia had been designed for that classification. The 28-year-old singer was assigned to duty in the 12th Naval District Procurement Office, interviewing college students to develop interest in the V-5 classification of the navy. Under Suspension Comamnder Aroff was relieved duty in the 12th District Naval Procurement Office here April 17, and Captain Robert A. White, who was formerly a partner of Aroff in a Los Angeles plumbing house, was subsequently removed as director of the office and placed on the retired list.

For the last three months Martin has been manager of the navy's theater on Treasure Island in Francisco bay, and, naval officers said, doing a good job of it. The charge of "falsehood" was based on the statement that Aroff told questioning naval intelligence officers that he had purchased (Continued on Page 2, CoL 5) S()-Year-01d Man In the Navy Again SAN FRANCISCO, July 27. (APr Eighty-year-old George Sanderson is going back into the navy. A retired chief boatswain's mate who first entered the navy in 1882, and served 40 years, tried unsuccessfully to get back in until he made a trip to Washington and got an order from Secretary Knox. Sanderson retains his rating as chief boatswain's mate and has been assigned assistant to the recruiting officer at San Francisco.

His return to duty makes him the oldest man in active service with the navy, service officials said. Saboteurs to Seek Trial by Civil Courts Surprise Habeas Corpus Defense Move Awaits Supreme Court WASHINGTON, July 27 (AP) Seven of the eight men accused of coming to America in Nazi U-boats to commit sabotage invoked the civil rights of this democracy today and the United States Supreme Court broke off its vacation to hear their plea. On Wednesday at noon, the tribunal will open a special term so that defense counsel may present petitions for writs of habeas corpus in behalf of the now on trial for their lives before a military commission appointed by President Roosevelt. (The writ of habeas corpus is an ancient institution, the history of which is closely intertwined with the history of freedom in the English-speaking world. It has for its object the bringing of a prisoner before a court or judge, usually to determine whether he is being legally detained.

Prisoners do not have such rights in Nazi Germany.) The supreme court, according to informed persons who were not willing to be quQted hy name, will have two points to pass upon: 1. Whether it has any right to consider the petitions in, view of a presidential order denying civil court processes to such prisoners. 2. Whether the military commission has jurisdiction to try the men. If the first point is decided negatively, the second will presumably not be considered.

If it is decided affirmatively and the court then decides the commission lacks jurisdiction over the cases, 16-day proceedings of the commission would be nullified, one government legal authority said. The men then might be bound over to U. S. (Continued on Page 2, Col. 6) I portation is not available and where the distance to be traveled requires some form of transportation.

"Details are also being worked out on a plan whereby this com mand will assume the expense of installation and the monthly rental charge for telephones used ex clusively for reporting of flash messages. Heretofore observers have fur- Senate Gets Proposal for Giant Cargo Plane A rmada Army Transportation to Be Provided Plane Observers WASHINGTON, July 27. (AP) A fleet of giant cargo and troop-carrying planes was proposed in the senate today as the only answer to the submarine menace. Youthful Senator Lee (D-Okla) told his colleagues that air-borne transportation offered the "only possible chance we have of winning this war." It is folly, he said, to continue trying to "build ships faster than Hitler can sink them." His resolution, calling for a special board to start immediate construction, was referred, to the military affairs committee. Lee said it had been estimated OAKLAND, July 27 (AP) The army today lifted transportation worries off the shoulders of Pacific coast ground observers in the aircraft-warning service.

Brig. General W. E. Kepner, commanding the Fourth Fighter Command, announced today the army would "provide centralized and controlled transportation for ground observers from their homes to the observation post and return where commercial trans Pvt. Harry D.

Junkin, son of Mrs. Pearl Junkin, 720 Fifth street, Santa Rosa, was recently graduated from an intensive course in aviation mechanics at Sheppard Field, Texas, it was announced here yesterday. Sheppard Field, near Wichita Falls, Texas, is one of the many army air forces' technical training command schools. (Continued on Pae 2, Col. 4) (Continued on Page 3, CoL 2) shortly..