Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • 1

a VOL. CLXXV OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, TUESDAY, JULY 18, 1961. 11 EM NO. 18 OAKLAND'S DAILY LOCALLY OWNED NEWSPAPER CONTROLLED AND Oakland. -Tribune ASSOCIATED PRESS.

PRESS INTERNATIONAL SP Blames Trucks For Rail Troubles Western Pacific Merger, Would Provide Economies, 1CC Hearing Officer Told The Southern Pacific today continued efforts to convince an Interstate Commerce Commission examiner that the trucking industry is a big bad wolf threatening to destroy the railroads of the West. This contention is the heart of the Southern Pacific case in its battle for control of the Western Pacific against a rival application from the Santa Fe. As hearings in the struggle between the rail giants opened in San Francisco yesterday, Southern Pacific was given the chance to fire the first volleys and most of the shots were aimed at the nation's truckers. SP Vice President B. F.

Biaggint led off the attack by explaining that consolidation of the Southern Pacific and Western Pacific operations would produce economies which would allow them to compete more effectively with highway transportation. GREAT CHALLENGE "The great challenge today for both Southern Pacific and Western Pacific is the very substantial truck competition in the area in which they op erate," Biaggini stated. Then SP brought a pair of independent experts before Examiner Paul C. Albus, who kept the 300 executives, attorneys and spectators relaxed with a steady flow of wit. Dr.

Neil T. Houston of the Stanford Research Institute presented a statistical report entitled "Indicators of Trucking Activity in the West." Under questioning by Charles W. Burkett, assistant general counsel for the railroad, Houston pointed out that railroad income on intrastate traffic in California has remained about the same during the past 10 years. But trucking revenues have more than doubled during the same period. SMALLER SHARE While the population and economy of the West have boomed since 1948, Houston said, tonnage carried by rail has shown no growth.

He presented numerous charts on the transportation of agricultural products -all showing how the" trucking companies are gobbling up business at the expense of the rails. A strong appeal for creation of consolidated rail corporations capable of fighting the truckers was made by Dr. Ernest W. Williams professor of transportation at Columbia University. He stated that trucks have proven a more effective alternative to rail in the West than in the rest of the nation.

Dr. Williams appealed for maintaining the railroad as backbone of the American transportation system. The educator explained that other forms of transportation aircraft, truck, ship and pipeline- each are capable of performing part of the transport task better than the railroad. But none of them is organized in a nation-wide general-purpose common carrier network. RAILROAD DOLLARS Dr.

Williams testified that competition from other forms of transportation have created a condition of "urgent necessity" requiring concentration of railroad investment dolJars. lines or systems must be brought under common control," he said. "Such prospects are inherent in the present application." He pointed out that the Southern Pacific and Western Pacific routes serve many of the same points, and the two lines could easily be consolidated. Southern 'Pacific witnesses elaborated on this point today as they went into a detailed discussion of 18 areas in which SP and WP facilities could be used jointly. Santa Fe probably will not be sable to fire back with its arguments until next week.

Witnesses for the Western Pacific and the Santa Fe will THIS SECTION EDITORIAL AND FEATURE PAGES, COMICS, TELEVISION AND RADIO Eastbay Man New Brown Assistant Sherrill Luke Of Richmond Moves Sept. 1 contend that competition between railroads must be preserved, and control of WP by Santa Fe will heighten rivalry in the West. Albus opened the hearing by announcing that sessions will be held from 9:30 a.m. 5 p.m. each weekday "unless something special happens such as the World Series." NO CROSS EXAMINATION He ruled that no cross examination of witnesses will be allowed until after the hearings return to San Francisco from a tour of other cities.

The U.S. Department of Justice presented the only totally unexpected statements of that the first day, announcing the government sought dismissal of both the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe applications. The Government charged that both, corporations violated the law by obtaining WP stock without permission of the ICC. The Justice Department added that the railroads should be required to divest themselves of Western Pacific holdings. Southern Pacific President D.

J. Russell later defended his firm's purchase of 10 per cent of the WP stock as a solid investment. Attorneys for the contendto ing railroads appeared ready begin debate on the Government's action. Southern Pacific Tells Plans for Tracks Southern Pacific officials said today they would opergenerally on Western Pacific tracks between Stockton and Sunol except in the City of Livermore if the ICC approves the SP program. The two roads run virtually parallel' through the San Joaquin-Alameda County area.

In Livermore SP tracks, on their own right-of-way, would be retained and WP tracks, running in Oak would be removed. Along the rest of the line the WP trackage would be retained because it is in better condition than the older SP facilities. Some SP trackage would still be needed to serve certain industrial establishments, but most of it. would be torn up, leaving one track system for both railroads. Shell to Bare Political Plans Tomorrow Assemblyman Joseph C.

Shell of Los Angeles, a possible GOP candidate for governor, will announce his political plans at press conferences tomorrow in San Francisco and Los Angeles. As minority floor leader in the Lower House, Shell has been mentioned frequently as a gubernatorial contender. He hinted broadly at his intentions in announcing the purpose of the conferences would be, to: "Discuss the problems confronting our state under Governor Brown's administration and my plans to bring about a change in 1962." Shell will be the third to make an early announcement regarding 1962 intentions. Former Lt. Gov.

Harold J. Powers said recently he'll try for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. And Secretary of State Frank M. Jordan, only Republican holding a state elective office, has declared he's a candidate for reelection. State Republican leaders have said Richard M.

Nixon is their choice to run against Governor Brown next year. But Nixon says he isn't going to run unless the party needs him. Sherrill D. Luke, administrative assistant to the Richmond city manager, was today named assistant executive secretary to Gov. Edmund G.

Brown, effective Sept. 1.: The 32-year-old Negro attorney moves to the Governor's staff as Richard Kline, now assistant executive secretary, becomes Brown's travel secretary, succeeding John Vasconcellos, who is returning to private law practice in San Jose. Luke has been in the Richmond city manager's office since 1953, when he was appointed research assistant by Wayne E. Thompson, now Oakland city manager. Luke took time out for service in the Air Force from 1954 to 1956.

He had been appointed administrative assistant before going into the service and still holds that post under City Luke was graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1950 when he was president of the student body. Subsequently he took graduate work there and on the Berkeley campus, earning his master's degree in political science. Studying nights, he obtained a law degree from Golden Gate College. ACTIVE IN CITY Luke has been active in civic affairs. A Democrat, he is a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Bay Area Urban League, Richmond Rotary Club, North Richmond Neighborhood House, and is a past director West Contra Costa Red Cross.

Among his professional organization memberships are the Northern California Administrative Assistants Seminar, of which he is past chairman, and the International City Managers Association. He and his wife, Anne, live at 1134 Ward Berkeley, with their 10-month-old son, David. Manager Edwin S. Howell. UCLA GRADUATE A native of Los Angeles, Brown Signs Pension Fund Merger Bill SACRAMENTO, July 18 (UPD-Gov.

Edmund G. Brown today signed a controversial bill that will eventually merge the State Employees Retirement System with Federal Social Security. The measure by Assemblyman Thomas Bane Tujunga), permits present state employees to refuse merging their benefits under the state employees retirement system with the federal program. But all employees hired from now on have to join Social Security. "This masure has generated more mail and telephone calls to my office than any other product of the 1961 session," Brown said, noting that he had held a public hearing on the bill before signing it.

NO HELP Bad Check Suspect's Bail Reduced HAYWARD, July: 18-Promoter James (Big Daddy) Steenport, alleged participant in a bum check ring, had his bail reduced today, but it probably won't do him any good. Municipal Judge Lester Foley, while granting a continuance to Steenport and two others, also reduced his bail from $21,000 to $5,000. But there's a hold on the defendant from Sacramento, so it's doubtful that he's going any place. Tribune photo SHERRILL D. LUKE Governor's new secretary AP Wirephoto FOUR WERE TRAPPED WHEN THEIR HOUSES COLLAPSED IN PHILADELPHIA, BUT A LITTLE GIRL ESCAPED Four homes dropped into an underground creek used as a sewer Girl Saved Hours After Big Cavein PHILADELPHIA, July (P) Four row houses built over an antiquated sewer line collapsed last night, burying seven persons in the debris.

Four were dug out alive, and practically unhurt. One of them, a six year old girl lay under the tons of rubble for nearly three hours. Many hours after the collapse which rocked the rieighborhood, firemen searched the ruins for the other three. The three missing are Wayne Daniels, Jesse Robinson, 70, who is blind; and his wife, 55. Rescued were Wayne's father, Ernest Daniels, 35, and his other children, Kenneth, 11, and Cheryl, 6, and Mrs.

Robinson's sister, Miss Nannie Russell, 62. MIRACULOUS It' was little Cheryl who lay buried so long amid the shattered plaster and splintered, twisted wood that had been her home in West Philadelphia. Firemen, using a giant crane, tore away the debris, uncovering the child, and in the words, of one rescuer, finding her miraculously alive. Cheryl's first question was, "Did my brother get out?" Her rescuers could not say. They still can't.

Cheryl escaped with minor bruises. The Daniels and Robinson homes, brick and two stories tall, gave way at 11:15 p.m., plunging the occupants into the cellars and dumping furniture and heaps of rubble on top of them. HEARD FUNNY NOISE The elder Daniels was watching television. He said he heard a funny noise, started upstairs to see what was happening. "Then the ceiling came down on me." At the same time the forepart of an adjoining house fell away, but Jesse Steward, 61, who lived there, got out safely, along with two children and two visitors.

At 4:30 a.m., another neighboring house collapsed, imperiling firemen and rescue crews. But by then the occupants of that house had been evacuated together with about Record Set By Oroville Tunnel Crew SACRAMENTO, July, 18- (UPD- A crew of 80 tunnel workers digging and blasting around the clock for six days -have set a new world record for footage completed. The crew pushed a 12-foot diameter hole 603 feet through solid granite in the six days. They were working on the Forbestown Tunnel of the $55 million OrovilleWyandotte Irrigation District South Fork job on the Feather River. The old record of 589 feet was set in Australia several years ago.

Two Doctors Back Policing Of Drugs HOFFA SAYS NLRB 'NOT FOR WORKING MAN' CHICAGO, July 18 (UPD Teamsters President James R. Hoffa said last night the National Labor Relations Board- (NLRB) was "not for the working man and woman of Hoffa flew here to address about 500 members of the Chicago Taxicab Drivers Union. He supported the reelection tomorrow of Joseph Glimco as head of the union. Glimco was opposed in the NLRB supervised election by Dominic Abata, head of an insurgent faction. Members of the NLRB were "using their powers to defy, delay and harrass them (the working people), forcing them to spend money to fight the NLRB actions, Hoffa said.

"The NLRB has become a police and investigative agency, more interested in investigating alleged abuses than in insuring the rights of workers." County Fair Funds Prospects Wane PLEASANTON, July 18 Prospects are dim today that the state will soon allocate the $2.5 million needed to build a new grandstand and horse barns at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. Fair Association officials learned yesterday in Sacramento from the Department of Fairs and Expositions that major allocations for the next three years are committed to other county fairs. James Trimingham, Alameda County fair secretary. manager, said the Alameda County group was given a tentative promise of $115,000 during the current fiscal year. "It doesn't look very good for the fair for next year," Trimingham said.

"In fact, it looks as if we will have very few improvements for the next several years." other persons living in the same block. More than 500 persons. were being cared for the Red Cross at two nearby schools. All these homes were built over a 91-year-old sewer line running from the west edge of the city in zigzag course to the Schuylkill River. POSSIBLE CAUSES Pending further investigation, water commissioner Samuel Baxter, the city's emergency coordinator, gave four possible reasons for the collapse: Water and sewage running through the brick sewer might have worn a hole in it, allowing water to escape and undermine the houses.

A structural failure of the houses themselves. A collapse of the sewer for some undetermined reason. An explosion. This was considered the least likely explanation. The department officials were sympathetic, but indicated it will be two or three years before additional funds in any large amount are available.

The $2.5 million is sought rebuild the grandstand, which has been declared unsafe, and for new fireproof horsebarns. State fire authorities said racing will not be allowed next year unless the barns are replaced. Trimingham said the 000, if appropriated, possibly will be used. to make the grandstand safer. The final decision by the State Department of Finance will be made in August, he added.

Fair directors will hold their. annual, reorganization session tonight and discuss the dilemma. Co. Fair Opens Tomorrow SANTA ROSA, July noma County's annual fair opens tomorrow for an. 11- day 'run expected to eclipse former attendance records.

More than 160,000 visited last year's Three new grandstands will go into service. The new seating facilities are at the horse racetrack, the outdoor horse show and rodeo 'arena and the outdoor theater for stage shows. State and county officials led by State Senator Joseph Rattigan of Santa Rosa will dedicate the $1,300,000 race track grandstand on opening day. Features of the fair will I include: thousands of live- Abner Doble, Of Steam Car Fame, Dead SANTA ROSA, July 18-Abner Doble, a pioneer of the steam automobile, is dead 70. Mr.

Doble is survived by his wife, Alene; brothers William Doble of Menlo Park and Warren Doble of North Hollywood; son Lee of Arcadia, and a daughter, Dorothy of Sacramento. Another son, Abner Doble Jr. died at the age of 10 in 1930. Mr. Doble's first wife, Helen, lives in Marin County.

Mr. Doble, who died Sunday, had lived here since 1950 after ill health brought his retirement from years of experimental work in the field of steam engines, burners, boilers and control systems. The first Doble Steamer was built in 1915 in Waltham, Mass. Models in the 1920's became automobile collector's classics. He established Doble Steam Motors Corporation in San Francisco in 1921 but the rise of the internal combustion engine and later financial reverses caused the firm to fail.

In later years he had worked in Germany, New Zealand and England as a steam power consultant to locomotive manufacturers and other firms. There will be no funeral services. He willed his body to the University of. California at Berkeley. Suspect in $21,000 Check Theft Held Special to the Tribune LAS July 18 Arthur I.

Balaban, 37, arrested here as a suspect in two hotel room burglaries, has been linked theft of $21,090 in unsigned travelers checks from an Oakland travel agency last weekend. Police said Balaban arrived here Sunday at 1 p.m., cashed $5,100 in travelers checks and checked out of hotel room just four hours later. He was arrested in a gambling casino when guests at his hotel reported that their rooms had been ransacked. The serial numbers on the checks Balaban cashed matched those stolen from a travel agency at 2107 Broadway in Also taken in the Oakland burglary was $217 in cash and a $500 bracelet. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Balaban, who is also known as John Lake, is wanted on a Federal fugitive warrent from Dade County, where he was arrested as a suspect in a 000 burglary and grand theft case.

Herd Increase BANGOR-Maine may have 10 times more deer now than during the pioneer days. An- WASHINGTON, July 18-(M -Two members of the American Medical Association's council on drugs called today for federal policing of the efficacy of new prescription drugs. The AMA itself has opposed the idea. The two medical witnesses appeared before the Senate antitrust and monopoly subcommittee, headed by Sen. Estes Kefauver A bill by Kefauver would provide that kind of government policing power.

Dr. Charles D. May, professor of pediatrics at New York University Medical Center in New York City, testified the drug manufacturing industry has been guilty of "grossly inadequate self-restraint" in advancing extravagant claims for the therapeutic value of some new medicines. The other witness was Dr. Louis S.

Goodman, head of the pharmacology department at the University of Utah College of Medicine in Salt Lake City. He said "It saddens me learn that the AMA objects to this section of the bill which would require proof of claims for drug efficacy." He endorsed the idea personally, and suggested that the Food and Drug Administration be empowered to form panels of noted specialists to help check drug efficacy before new medicines are sold to the public. He said he was sorry that the council on drugs "was not called upon to give its collective and considered opinion this and certain other phases of the bill." Kefauver wants the government to have powers for strict regulation of the drug industry. Parley Called On Hill School Bus Service stock, agricultural, horticultural, homemaking, arts, crafts and commercial exhibits; the John Strong Circus three times daily; a carnival; free professional stage shows twice daily; a children's "Buckaroodeo" Thursday and Friday; a horse show and big time rodeo July 28 and closing day July 29. Farm Work Falls Off SACRAMENTO, July 18 4P -Farm employment in California for the first week in July was 3 per cent under June and 4 per cent under last year, the State Employment Department reported yesterday.

A new effort to reach a compromise agreement for bus service to the new Skyline High School will be made tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. when subcommittees of the Oakland School Board and AC Transit directors meet in the Transit District headquarters at 1106 Broadway. AC Transit has placed a $140,000 price tag on new bus lines to serve the hill area high school and has taken the position that the Oakland public schools should bear the cost of the service. Dr. Robert L.

Nolan, Mrs. Marjorie Hirschler and Lorenzo 1 N. Hoopes will represent the school board and board chairman William J. Bettencourt, John C. McDonnell and E.

Guy Warren will represent AC Transit. Brazil Names New U.S. Ambassador RIO RE JANEIRO, July 18 (UPD Career diplomat Roberto Campos has been nominated as Brazilian ambassador to the United States..