Alton Evening Telegraph from Alton, Illinois • Page 1

Traffic Toll Accidents Injury 'AooidmU Todays 0 0 079 08 ALTON EVENING TELEGRAPH Alton Claady femiftfet Mt4 SutflfdAy, OertkdowU Injury. Serving Alton Community for More Than 120 Years 70. HlRhett in middle 8feb Established January 15, 1836 Vol. CXXt, No. 130 ALTON, FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 1956.

20 PAGES 6c Per Copy Member of The Associated 2 Missionaries ReportedFreed By Red China May Be Several Days Before Pair Readies Border at Hong Kong, Ilcport By JOHN RODERICK HONG KONG WV-Pciping radio announced tonight two Roman Catholic missionaries from Cali- fnrnin, Father John William Clifford and Thomas Leonard Phillips, were released today, after three yenrs In prison. The broadcast heard here said: "Two American offenders. John William Clifford nnd Thomas Leonard Phillips, who completed their prison terms on June 15, were released today by the authorities." The release ot the two American priests had been expected all day. U.S. Consular officials waited at the China border at Hong Kong for the expected arrival but the last train rolled In with neither of two men on board.

A U.S. consular official said It might be several days or even a week before they reach this British colony. The two Roman Catholic priests will be the first American prisoners freed by the Reds In six months. Word of their impending release raised hopes that the Reds soon would Tfree 11 other imprisoned Americans in a move to pump new life into the long- deadlocked U.S.-Chinese negotiations at Geneva. The reports that Father Clifford and Father Phillips are being Jreecf came from the British diplomatic mission in Peiping and through the British Red Cross.

Peiping radio made no mention of them. U.S., British and Roman Catholic Church officials maintained a fruitless, day-long vigil at the border to receive them. The Reds last Jan 6 refused to free the last 13 Americans known to be in Chinese jails despite an agreement last Sept. 10 to release all Americans. Peiping radio broadcast a government statement in January saying Communist China would permit no interference in the way the Red regime dealt with the Americans.

The last Americans to leave Red Chinese prisons were Dr. and Mrs. Homer Bradshaw, Presbyterian missionaries who were freed last Dec. 20. The Geneva talks between U.S.

Ambassador U. Alexis Johnson and Red China's Wang Ping-nan been stalemated for months over the failure of the Reds to free the 13. Communist China announced Tuesday it again has demanded that U.S. Secretary of State Dulles meet with Chinese Premler-For eign Minister Chou En-lai to negotiate settlement of the Formosa dispute. It said the latest request, made May 11, proposed that arrangements completed within two months of that date.

The United States rejected the proposal and accused Communist China of refusing to make a a i 1 renunciation of force" in the Formosa issue. The State Department said it would continue to seek such a renunciation and also would go on pressing for the release of the 13 prisoners. The two priests were arrested in Shanghai three years ago today. They were accused of espionage and revolutionary activities against the state but were not to three-year terms until last November. Father Phillips' next of kin Is Mrs.

Evelyn Harrington of Altadena, Father Clifford's is Mrs. Anne Clifford of San Francisco, Argentina OKs Asylum For Tanco By BRUCE HENDERSON BUENOS AIRES OB Argen i a' provisional government gave dramatic support to the traditions of political asylum and diplomatic Immunity Thursday night. It returned much sought rebel Gen. Raul Tanco and six other fugitives to the Haitian'em- bassy hours after machlnegun ners abducted them and delivered them to the army, President Pedro Aramburu ordered the return of the rebels as soon as he received an angry protest from Haitian Ambassador Jean Brierre. Although Tunco had been the object of a nationwide hunt as a top leader of Sunday's Peronlsta-lnspired revolt, Aramburu said he was guilty only of political crimes and therefore entitled to thf asylum he had reached, i Foregoes Trip For Religious Convictions WdOD religious convictions against being vaccinated have eliminated James Adcock, 17-year-old honor student East Alton-Wood River Community High School, from attending Boy's State at Illinois State Fairgrounds at Springfield the week of June 24-July 1.

Francis Manning, chairman of the Wood River American Legion Post committee which helped select Adcock as one of three Boy's State delegates from the local high school, said that the authorities in charge of the premier boy's state ruled that Adcock and all others attending the gathering must be vaccinated against not appear at the encampment. Adcock, Manning said, declined to be vaccinated. Manning added that he felt Adcock's stand is to be commended. "It's unusual to find a youth who will let religious convictions interfere with something he really wants to do, and I know it was a hard decision for James to make." Mrs. Stanley Adcock of 427 Ferguson James" mother, said this morning that the youth's family had not urged the decision upon her son "one way or She said, "he made up his own mind." His family, Mrs.

Adcock said, had gone as far as pointing out to her son that he would be compelled to undergo a series of inoculations if he is called into military service and, in the light of 'this, he could very well be vaccinated at once and attend the boy's state assemblage. He still declined to do so, Mrs. Adcock said. Both Mrs. Adcock and Mrs.

Elmer Barnett of Alton, a Christian Science practitioner, asserted that James' decision was not "to be attributed to the blind adherence to some foolish religious dogma." Mrs. Barnett said this morning that Christian Science provides that each individual may act in the manner he feels is the most wholly good. She expressed apprehension that the issue might not be readily understood by the non-Christian Science section of the public, but stressed that in a "free country" each individual has the right to act on his highest sense of right. This, she 'said, has led to the mistaken notion that Christian Scientists disapprove of the conventional medical practices, whereas in fact, she said, "we have the highest regard for the medical profession and for hospitals which fill a vital human need." If any Christian Scientist feels the need of inoculation, medicine or surgery or any other form of treatment, she said, he is free to avail himself of them. By the same sign, she said, he is free to reject them.

She said that law does not require vaccination of public school children who object to the treatment on religious grounds and most Christian Scientists decline to be vaccinated in the public school inoculation programs. Chow Route MESSIN' AROUND WITH THE Three of some 20 soldiers camped in tents Thursday night at Civic Memorial Airport, en route in 50 trucks from Michigan to Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo. The airport was the only installation in the area, large enough for the encampment which had been pre-arrangod. On June 21 an encampment of another transient Army group of 600 men in 90 vehicles is expected at the Photo.

Preliminary Plans 17 Test Borings For Sewer Project With full cooperation assured on part of the city by Mayor Struif, preliminary planning work by the U. S. Corps of Engineers for the Alton floodwoll and pressure sewer extensions in the lower Plasa valley is to enter a second phase. June So Far Mostly Clear And Dry With June half over, the score of fab- days is 12 out of which is pretty good for picnicking, swimmng, tennis, but not so good for growing things. The rainfall this month has been only slightly more than a quarter of an inch.

If rainfall were normal, the total by now would be almost two inches. I Meanwhile, the temperature has been rising during the midday and the sun has had a drying effect on the countryside. Thursday's high temperature was 85 and the low was 67. From Urbana, the Telegraph has received a press release on the widespread browning or death of evergreens of all varieites this year. Adverse climatic cited as the cause.

Dr. R. J. Campana, plant pathologist of the Illinois Natural History Survey, a research division of the state Department of Registration and Education, blames prolonged and severe deficiency of soil moisture. Although last October and November were among the wettest on record, the following five-month period from early December through April 24 was the second driest on record.

In Alton District Teachers Set Outstanding Attendance Record for Year The school teachers of the Alton School District compiled an attendance record of 98.63 during the school year just completed, according to a report made to the Board of Education at its meeting Wednesday night. at Haskell House. Of the 409 teachers in the school district, 177 did not miss any school at all. Absent for some time during the year were 232 teachers. Seven of the 24 schools listed in the report have percentages of attendance of teachers above 99.

The rural schools, listed as a group, and Horace Mann School had the best attendance record for teachers, 99.51. The 10 rural teachers missed a total of only nino days during the year. The 24 teachers at Horace Mann missed only 22 days during the school year. And close behind the leaders was Irving School, whose 13 teachers missed a total of 12 days, for an attendance percentage of 99.50. And just behind Irving came Rufus Easton, whose nine teachera missed days tor a percentage of 99,49.

The 409 teachers in the district missed a total of only days during the year. Other teacher attendance figures reported were Alton High, 79 teachers missed 154 days; Central, 14 teachers missed days; Clara IBarton, 18 teachers missed days; Douglass, 3 teachers missed 13 days; Dunbar, 4 teachers missed 29 days; East Junior, 29 teachers missed 45 days; Fosterburg, 8 teachers missed days; Godfrey, 13 teachers missed 33 days; Humboldt, 15 teachers missed 44 days; Lincoln, 14 teachers missed 29 days; Lovejoy, 9 teachers missed 51 days; Lowell, 5 teachers missed days; Mark Twain, 9 teachers missed 30 days; McKinley, 26 teachers missed 85 days; Milton, 25 teachers missed 134 days; North Junior, 17 teachers missed 35 days; Roosevelt, 10 teachers missed 14 days; Thomas Jefferson, 9 teachers missed 21 days; Washington, 7 teachers missed days; and West Junior, 39 teachers missed days. The report explained attendance records of several schools were affected by one teacher being off for a long period of time because of a major lUness, Planning work by the federal engineers has been in progress for several months, and, in the new phase, the surveying is to move further inland from the riverfront with the drilling of 17 test borings for the sewer project, most of which will be on city streets. Mayor Struif said today that he notified the district engineer, Col. George E.

White of full cooperation by the city, both through a city permit the test borings on city streets and through assistance to secure permission for possibly five borings on private property. Under the program by which the government would provide a floodwall to protect the West End business section of the city, the city would be obligated to build a pressure sewer, long planned for the Piasa-Belle valley, and the government would assist in the sewer program by pressurizing some existing gravity sewers that would be diverted to outlet into the proposed pressure sewer. These sewer lines are those that now outlet into the present century-and-a- quarter-old Piasa trunk sewer, bordering the downtown business district. In his letter to Col. White Struif said, he also has asked for an early conference in which city authorities may discuss with him arrangements to coordinate the city's new sewer planning program with that of the Corps of Engineers.

The mayor pointed out that It is essential that the plans to be drawn for the city under a $25,000 loan-grant from the Housing and Home Finance Agency be kept in harmony with the seawall and sewer plans now being made 'by the U. S. engineers. And now that the city is about to retain engineers, and proceed, it is desirable that arrangements to coordinate the city with federal planning be set. up.

In the proposed conference with the distinct engineer, said Struif, he will seek to have members of the City Plan Commission, City Engineer Fairfield, and other officials accompany him. At an early meeting, the Plan Commission is to consider the loan offered by the federal housing agency and make recommen. dations to the City Council on next steps to be taken in putting the Alton sewer program into effect. ln the matter of the test borings to be made by the engineers, three engineers of the Corps of Engineers, Elmer Huisenga, James Lawler, and Samuel Heddermann, conferred yesterday with Mayor Struif and City Engineer Fairfield. The borings, it was explained, will range from 16 to 30 feet in depth to reveal underlying earth and stone conditions.

The test holes, 6-inches in diameter, are to be refilled and tamped by government crews, and the city will cooperate in resolving any traffic situations that result from use of streets for the work. fhe engineers explained to city Officials that the sites have been selected so as to avoid overhead wires and cause as little traffic interference as possible, 2 Altonians Beaten Up In St. Louis CLIFF NEWCOMB Cliff Newcomb, 20, a student at the University of Illinois, who resides with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. C.

E. Newcomb, at 2414 Amelia is recovering from injuries received when he was beaten at 12:15 a.m. Monday in Forest Park, St. Louis. Newcomb told the Telegraph today his nose was fractured in four or five places.

Both eyes were blackened and stitches were taken under the left eye. He said he was beaten and robbed by three young men, all of large build but apparently teenagers. "I was in the park with Dick Phelps of Boynton drive, Alton. We had dates with nurses at Deaconess Hospital, Oakland avenue, St. Louis.

We were driving home through Forest Park. A was a hot in front ot us. I was driving. I stopped. The motor died when I put on the brakes I saw a guy jump out of the passenger seat of the other car.

"I tried to start the car again and Just then he yanked the front door of my car open and reached in and hit me in the ace. It must have been with a blackjack. Another guy ran around and opened Dick's door and hit him. The third man must have stayed at the wheel of their car. "They hit us several times, took my billfold and then they took Newcomb said he was unable to see what type of costume or shirts the attackers were wearing.

He said he is quite sure the attack was not the first done by the trio. He said he does not know if they were members of one of the notorious St. Louis teenage gangs. "We were dazed," he said. 'The cojis saw us weaving back across the street and picked us up and took us to the Newstead station where we told our story and they took us to St.

Louts City Hospital. "The interne at the hospital who gave me emergency treatment asked me where I had been beaten and I told him in Forest Park. He said I was this week's that such beatings happen there regularly and even more often at Tower Grove Park." Phelps' injuries" included a broken cheek bone and bruises all over his head, Newcomb said. After returned Alton upon release from the St. Louis hospital at 10 a.

m. Monday, he went to St. Joseph's Hospital here to have his nose set by lite own physician, Workers Reject New Steel Pact NEW YORK (M The United Stgelworkers today rejected "as entirely inadequate" wage and contract proposals made by the Big Three steel firms. David J. McDonald, union pres- dent, told newsmen: "No mathematical juggling can obscure that the steelworkers are teing offered an increase in take- lome pay this year of five cents an hour." McDonald described the indus- offer as "too little, too late and too long." "The wage offer is too little," McDonald told a news conference.

"The fringes are inadequate and become effective too late to have any significance. And the whole contract, instead of being modernized, is to be extended, with its obsolescent features, for too long a period." This was a reference to a suggestion by the Big Three U. S. Steel, Bethlehem and a five-year contract. McDonald said rejection of the management offer was supported unanimously by the union's 170- member' Wage Policy Committee at a meeting this morning.

The rejection raised the possibility of a strike in the industry, unless the man- sgement-union differences can be reconciled before June 30, when present contracts expire. McDonald said he still was wpeful that an agreement could reached. "After a year of record profits and productivity, the industry has offered the steelworkers a wage ncrease for this year of six cents an hour, and a minor adjustment 'or skilled employes of two-tenths of a- cent in their job increments," McDonald said. "At the same time, the indus- ry's offer would require the em- to contribute one and one- jalf cents more for insurance, "The industry's wage offer, herefore, would result in a take- lome pay increase to the average steel worker this year of about a nickel an two per "To get this trifling 2 per cent wage increase, the steelworkers would be required to mortgage an unpredictable' 1 future by agreeing now to settle their fate, and that of their families for a similar wage settlement for each year of a five-year term." Apparently, this meant the offer provided for a two per cent wage increase for each of the five years. Neither side in the negotiations would reveal the terms of the management ol'Ier.

There was an unofficial report that the industry offer calls for a five-year no-strike contract, with a package increase of 15 cents an lour the first year and fixed annual increases in each succeeding year. According to this report, five cents of the first-year figure would ae used to set up a supplementary unemployment insurance benefit fund. Management negotiators are reported to have turned down a union proposal for time-and-a-half pay for Saturday work and double pay for Sunday work, on the ground that the cost would be too high. Airport Takes First Step in $210,000 Building Program Accepts Bid On 1150,000 Did H-Bomb Miss? Air Force Mum On B52 Accuracy By ELTON C. FAY WASHINGTON The Air Force had only a noncommittal reply today to question about whether the B52 which dropped an H-bomb over Bikini last month missed the target.

The Atomic Energy Commission lad nothing to say. Reports that the big bomb was President Continues Improving WASHINGTON President making his best progress yet at the end of" a week's hospitalization today handled "quite a bit" of White House business including the signing of 21 documents. This new activity was announced at the Army's Walter Reed Hospital late this morning. At the same time, James C. Hagerty, White House press secretary, said flatly that Eisenhower has given no member of his staff any hint regarding his potlitical future specifically whether he intends to stay in the presidential race despite his new illness.

"I know he has not discussed it the political situation with his staff," Hagerty told a news conference. As for a columnist's report that Eisenhovyer intends to his political plans before leaving the hospital, probably at the end of next week, Hagerty said: "If you people think I'm going to comment on what every columnist Says, you're nuts." Asked to say independently of the columnist's report whether Eisenhower has discussed politics since entering the hospital a week ago today, Hagerty replied: "I have heard of no political discussion with the President. "Apparently the columnist (Stewart Alsop) has a better crystal ball than I have." Hagerty's report on Eisenhower's activities followed up a medical report this morning which Hagerty pronounced "by all means" the most optimistic issue since Eisenhower underwent for an intestinal blockage Saturday morning. The physicians said the President had "a very good night" with almost eight hours of continuous sleep. That was the longest unbroken rest since he entered the hospital.

Olin Transfer All Ammunition Manufacture Will Be at East Alton Plant Ammunition manufacturing operations of the Winchester-Western division of Olin Mathieson Chemical Corp. will be consolidated at the East Alton plants during the next six to nine months, according to an announcement today by W. Miller Hurley, vice president and general manager of the Winchester-Western Division. The Division has been manufacturing ammunition at both New Haven, Conn, and East Alton. Hurley stated that, in order to maintain its competitive position, Winchester-Western like all industry continually studies the efficiency of its methods and that for the past five' years special studies have been made relating to ammunition manufacturing and marketing.

Hurley said that these studies show that if is no longer economically sound for the division to maintain separate ammunition production facilities at New Haven and East Alton. "In addition, it has been determined that the East Alton operation is more strategically located with respect to our market distribution and has production capacity sufficient to make possible the integration of that portion of the division's ammunition production presently carried on at New Haven. Accordingly, the division had no alternative but to plan consolidation of ammunition manufacturing at East Alton. There will be no immediate increase in employment at the East Alton plants as a result of the consolidation of ammunition manufacturing facilities. The company's ammunition business has declined due in part to completion of long-range military contracts and the reduced procurement policy of the government on ammunition.

The East Alton plants have been producing a major share of the corporation's ammunition business for some time and with minor adjustments in manufacturing schedules will be able to absorb the additional production, a spokesman said. At East Alton, 1,300 persons are employed in the manufacture of ammunition. In addition, several hundred other persons perform a contributing service to the division. An Associated Press dispatch from New Haven quoted Hurley as saying that the shift, plus the completion at New Haven of several long-range government together with the general decline in business, will mean laying off several hundred New Haven em- ployes during the next three or four months, with more layoffs to follow toward the end of the year. Hurley said the ammunition plant at New Haven now employs 900 persons, about 40 per cent oi them women.

Hurley said every effort will be made to find other jobs for the ammunition workers, but addec that "it is obvious that there will not be enough jobs to absorb many the employes," wide of the intended point of burst midair have become current in recent days. They apparently come directly or indirectly from persons who saw the target point after radioactivity had diminished the area. Some speculation places the margin of error in excess of 3,500 yards from the place above Namu Island where the explosion was intended. That's about two miles. In response to a question, an Air Force spokesman said: "The recent thermonuclear air drop at Bikini was conducted as icheduled.

Success "The Air Force considers that the ability of the B52 bomber to deliver a thermonuclear bomb was demonstrated successfully. "Detailed information about the distance and altitude of the explosion in relation to the target is considered classified (secret) in- ormation under the provisions of he Atomic Energy Act." An error of even 3,500 yards might not be serious in an actual wartime drop of a weapon which has a major destructive force out to at least 12 miles from the point of burst. But under precise condition set up for the Pacific test it coulc disturbing. Recording instru ments are oriented carefully on the'intended point of burst. If an explosion occurs elsewhere, some vitally needed information, on the efficiency of the bomb is missed.

A miss also' involves the pride of the bombing crew or of the designers of the ballistic container or detonating equipment of a nu clear bomb. The Air Force- prides itself: on accuracy. Recently an operations officer 'or the Strategic Air Commam a Senate subcommittee abou the training system for -crews Speaking of the use of. American cities as targets for "hits" elec ironically registered, he said: "Now, we do not tell one of our crews to go bomb Chicago. We will tell them to go and hit the center of the roundhouse in Chicago or the northeast corner of a particular building.

We actually lave them doing pinpoint targets." Not'SAC Crew The crew of the B52 which dropped the H-bomb was not a Strategic Air Command crew. Ii came from Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, and operates under the Air Research and development Command. Lacking any definitive statement from the Air Force, a miss could have come either from' personnel error or a malfunction or misapplication of the extremely complex bomb sighting equipment. While the Air Force and AEC were careful to give no figures unofficial observers who witnessed the midair test burst, it was generally believed that: The B52 was flying at about 50,000 feet at the time of bomb release. The bomb was expected to follow a trajectory in its fall of about seven miles.

The time of fall would have been about 5( 60 seconds. The point of burs was intended to have been about 10,000 feet above a 300-yard wide target on Namu Island. Says Radioactive Rain in Kashmir Over 'Tolerance 9 SRINAGAR, Kashmir JB Sci entists at a nuclear observatory in the remote Hash mlr Mountains reported today they had found radioactivit; "slightly above human tolerano level" in rainfall collected June 3. Rainwater collected two dayi later showed only half as much radioactivity, they added. The observatory, opened three years ago by American nuclea physicist Arthur H.

Compton, ii keeping watch on rainfall anc clouds passing over the Kashmir Himalayas from Northern Asia and toe Pacific, Bond Issue First step in a $210,000 con- truction program at Civic Memorial Airport was launched Thursday night as the Airport commisskmers accepted Quail ft bid on a $150,000 bond issue. Qualil, a Davenport, Iowa, firm was the lowest of three bidders. The firm offered a coupon of per cent with a $3.30 premium, which means a net interest cost of $2.98. Ninety thousand dollars of the $150,000 will be used to build one 12-unit multi-T hangar for small planes and one 10-unit multi-T hangar for larger planes. The remaining $60,000 will be applied to a permanent administration building, which will contain a waiting room, offices for administration, coffee shop, storage for freight, restrooms, etc The administration building is to be built with 50 per cent federal aid and will cost $120,000.

The State of Illinois is to provide extension of utilities to, the hangars and administration building, plus ramps, roadways and other service facilities. bids received were from White Phillips offering, interest of 3 per cent and per cent coupon with a net in- terst cost of 3.1397, and from Negley, Jens with a bid of 3 per cent coupon with a premium of $150, which means a net interest cost of 2.99. When the Airport Authority was established in '1946 it was empowered by the voters to issue without referendum bonds up to onerhalf of one per cent of the assessed the area included in the Authority. This amount, though not calculated is, 1 below" the amount that has already been issued' in bonds, 'according to Bruce Quackenbush, attorney for the authority. The referendum which authorizes the bond issue was voted when the airport was established in 1946.

At that time, the Airport commissioners withheld issuing bonds until airport development projects were feasible with federal- aid, according to Quackenbush. With the latest $150,000 bonds issued, the total amount issued to date by the Authority is 000. Previously, $500,000 in bonds had been issued and had been paid down to $380,000. The current; bond isue will be tacked onto the end of the.other issues in line of payment and will be retired in 'the period of 1965 to 1970 inclusive. The $150,000 bond issue not raise the regular annual tax for the airport Quackenbush said.

R.L. DeGrand Accepts Piasa Robert L. DeGrand was named assistant secretary-treasurer the Piasa Building Loan Association by its board of directors Thursday night. He will assist Otto Cichlar, for 26 years secretary, or secretary-treasurer, since the offices were combined. A spokesman for the board said the move was made because of the increasing business of the association and its resultant load on the current administrative head.

DeGrand, 33, resides at Belleview Ave. His appointment will be effective July 1. He now is secretary-treasurer fpr the Hellrung Construction Co. He received an associate degree in accounting from St, is University in WH haying completed Ws earlier studies in Old Cathedral elementary and at Merquette High. He end Mrs, former parsMs boys and River Stage 0,3 Fall 0.5.