Altoona Tribune from Altoona, Pennsylvania • Page 1

iw 6 mm WEATHER: Partly Cloudy and Warmer Would 1 Bogota Revolt Could Happen Here, Congress Told Lewis Will Hear Court's Verdict Mon. Govt. Asks Conviction UMW Chief and Attorney Silent WASHINGTON The John Lewis trial ended Thursday except for the Anal Judgment. Judge T. Alan Golds-borough kept Lewis and the country In suspense by putting: off his decision until Monday He will announce then whether Lewis and the United Mine Workers are guilty of contempt Intelligence Chief Says Communists Caused Disaster In Colombia Vol.

92 No. 90 Friday, Many State Roads Still Closed By Flood Waters PRESIDENT BOXAS President Of Philippines Dies Suddenly MANILA UFi President Manuel A. Roxas died unexpectedly of a heart attack Thursday night at Clark field, where he had just delivered a strong attack on world communism. The body of the 56-year-old Roxas, first president of tha Philippines republic arrived Friday on a funeral train from that U. S.

air base 50 miles northwest of this sorrowing capital. Elpidio Quirino, 57, vice-president and foreign secretary, was advised of his chief's death and began drafting a message to the people. The new president was on a cutter in the central Pnilip-pines when word reached him, CAPITAL STUNNED This capital was shocked and stunned by the news. Roxa3 had appeared in good health when he left Thursday for Clark field make his first official visit to the big air base. He collapsed shortly after declaring in a speech that the peoples of the world "must stop and if necessary fight aggression by Communist fifth columns the world over." Great crowds gathered at Tu-tuban railway station and lined the route of the cortege from there to Malacanan palace, the presidential residence two and a half miles away.

Mrs. Roxas, prostrated with grief, was helped off the trail by Senate President Jose Avelino and assisted to her automobile by a daughter, Ruby Roxas. As a color guard formed and a Philippine army band played "Hail to the Chief" and the Philippine national anthem, Mrs. Roxas stepped from her ear. She lifted the flag over the body and kissed the forehead of her late husband.

While Roxas' sudden death was unexpected, he had suffered from a heart ailment for years. He often Used it as an excuse to avoid distasteful assignments during the Japanese occupation, when he was food administrator in the puppet government. Commission Splits On Area Milk Price HARRISBURG UP) The state milk control commission is split two to one on a proposal to re duce Pittsburg area wholesale and retail milk prices in May and June. The commission split was dis closed Thursday at a conference of the commission members and representatives of producers and dealers on a tentative order drafted by the majority. It would reduce retail prices one cent to 19 1-2 cents a quart and producer prices 48 cents to $5,23 a hundred pounds.

Before it can become final, however the majority viewpoint must be written into an order and posted at the commission offices. This must be done by April 23 if the reductions are to become effective May 1. There was no immediate indication how soon the majority members would act. Failure to post- an- order would keep present prices in effect. Chairman H.

N. Cobb, who dissented from the majority action, said at the close of the conference the proposed drop will "result in a desperate shortage of fluid milk- for the Pittsburg market for November and December of this year." He and representatives of producers organizations insisted tower prices in May and June will tend to drive farmers out of the milk business, The full effect of this, they contended, will be felt next fall when production is seasonally short Cobb read a statement in which he said he could find no "justification" for the majority's stand "that producers will receive cost of production under the prices set up" in the tentative order. The chairman said that the cost of producing milk was established by "a witness representing the only agricultural college in this commonwealth" and this testimony should not "be ignored" in writing orders. The proposed price pattern for the Pittsburg area Is similar to that recently announced for Phil-(CoatlniKd ob Pa(e 2, CoL i jp Sive U. S.

500 Wplanes tr'uncU for Vast Armada Approved Against Truman's Wishes-Would Be Five-Year Plan WASHINGTONUP) Advocates of a vast alrmada scored a thumping victory over President Truman Thursday when the house passed a bill to start building up a 70-group air force. The vote was 843 to 3. Secretary of Defense Forres-tal, backed by the President, has been supporting a 55-group force, taking the position that the bigger expansion would destroy tne balance of the armed services. WIDE SPLIT The action threw into sharp relief a wide open split within the administration. Secretary of Air Symington, who has been plugging for a 70-group air force, drew an implied rebuke Thursday from Mr.

Truman, The President said he doesn't know why Symington is differing with the administration Asked whether he will Symington, the President said he will have to answer that later. Symington had no direct comment, but his office said he "has no plans to resign." The 70-group airfonfe, as outlined by the President's air policy commission in its January report to Mr. Truman, would include 13,400 planes plus a reserve of 8,100 planes. Those who advocate a big, long-range air force as a deterrent to Russia were in command, in the house Thursday. Rep.

Case (R-SD)- called the bill a warning to Stalin to "stop, look and listen." By an unusual unanimous vote 115 to 0 the house added $822,000,000 to a $2,376,100,000 bill designed originally to finance a 55-group air force. 5-YEAR PLAN Then' it passed the entire measure, and sent it to the se.iate. The program would be a five-year plan. Additional billions would have to be voted later to complete it. The $822,000,000 increase was formally proposed by Chairman Taber (R-NY) of the house appropriations committee.

At first. $922,000,000 was proposed as an amendment but Taber said anticipated savings and other factors made the $882,000,000 figure inadequate. The open rift between President Truman and Air Secretary Symington was made public at a news conference. The President said he is supporting to the limit Defense Secretary Forrestal's "balanced" defense program with its 55-group air force. The administration program outlined by Mr.

Truman and For-restal, calljj for a temporary selective service, universal military training and expansion of the army, navy and air forces, Symington told the house armed services committee Tuesday that an air force of 70 groups is more important to American security than UMT. Mr. Truman came out flatly for the original program. He said the expanded but balanced, defense program outlined by Forrestal had been agreed to by all of the services. Jews Claim Victory Over Arab Army JERUSALEM Jewish sources declared Thursday they had won a "decisive victory" over the Arab Yarmuk army of north ern Palestine and administered a personal defeat to its leader, Fawzi Bey Al Kaukji.

The Jews said 2,000 Jewish fighters had inflicted 200 Arab casualties, captured seven of Fawzi Bey's field guns and were circling over the hills lining the famous plain of Armageddon in an effort to encircle the retreating Arabs. In a communique, Haganah, the Jewish militia, claimed a second victory, saying it had driven the Arabs out of Caiiip Tel Letvin-sky, former American military rest camp near Tel Aviv. (In Cairo, grave concern was expressed at Arab league headquarters where TransJordan's foreign minister, Fawzi Pasha, said he had received an urgent appeal for help from Faw-zi Bey who reported he was en circled by 12,000 Jewish fighters. (The Trans-Jordan official relayed the appeal to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan and predicted the British-trained Trans-Jordan Arab legion, rated the most efficient Arab military force, would Intervene on a larjre scale if Fawzi Bey was unable to extricate himself soon.) HARRISBURG CP) State highway workers piled sandbags on both sides of the low underpass at Duncannon to keep rising waters of the Susquehanna river from closing the key highway linking Harrisburg with the west and north. A crew was sent to the underpass by the highways department after the U.

S. weather bureau forecast that the river here may crest at lSa feet. Water starts flowing into the subway at the 14-foot level. The underpass is located near the junction of the Susquehani.d and Juniata rivers and used both by U. S.

routes 11 and 15. Traffic on U. S. 22 also is being detoured through the same underpass since the closing of the regular route on the east side of the river by construction. Meanwhile, the department reported high waters already have closed these roads: Traffic route 405 between Mun- PRR Union Groups Plan Wage Appeal A Union appeal for 23-cents-per-hour pay raises for Pennsylvania Railroad employes was Thursday by the Brotherhood of Railroad Shop Crafts of America, and the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks.

The demand would apply to about 5,100 local employes, 4,200 of are- machinists and blacksmiths belonging to the Brotherhood of Railroad Shop Crafts. About 900 are clerks and other employes who" are members of the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks. It was announced by General Chairman C. W. Woomer of.

the BRRSCA and Assistant General Chairman C. R. Wyland of the BRSC, that the demands are practically the same. Their statement follows: "Pursuant to the requirements of sections 4 and 7 of the agreement signed at Washington, D. Jan.

17, 1944, or other agreements establishing a basic 40-hour work week, and the railway labor act, as amended, C. W. Woomer, general chairman, and H. E. Metzgar, vice general chairman of the Brotherhood of Railroad Shop Crafts of America, local 42, together with C.

R. Wyland, assistant general chairman of the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, and other officers of the above organizations, have begun steps to revise and supplement all existing agreements to make effective the following changes in. basis of compensating all emploves represented by them: "1. All service in excess of eight hours (or the standard measure of a day's work on any day if less) Monday through Fri-( Continued on Page 2, Col. 4) WMF': "Well, did you iW an' Rill Rnjn go trout fish- I in'?" asts Ms.

yim "Yep," I se "We did." "Git anything "Nope." "What! All that high priced equipment o' yours, an you didn't git nothin'?" asts Mr. W. "We stand along th' streams an' in 'em all day an no luck. Then, along comes a kid with d.i ol' pole an' drags in a fish so it makes Bill's mouth water. I don't think 1 like fish anyhow." "Forecast fer Friday calls ftr PARTLY CLOUDY AN' WARi-ER FOLLERED BY SCATTER ED SHOWERS AN' MILD AT NIGHT AN' EARLY SAHJR-DAY.

Temp'ature at 1 a. m. wuz 40." i I i of court. At a similar trial In 1946 the same federal judge rocked the same defendants with a guilty" judgment and heavy fines, Lewis sat massively silent again Thursday. He didn't so much as shake his bushy gray hair while Assistant Attorney General Graham Morison, summing up the government's case, thrust at him with accusations.

Morison, a short, dark-haired man 27 years younger than Lewis, said the issue is simple the defendants on April 5 were handed a court order to end the soft coal strike and they let exactly one week pass before doing anything about it. GOVT. CHARGES Morison said John L. Lewis should be held responsible for his acts "as well as any other man." He told the attentive judge: That Lewis caused the miners to quit work March 15; That he "well knew" he was causing it; That he "took his time" about obeying the court order; And that he finally ordered the miners back to work April 12. Morison asked for conviction of both civil and criminal contempt.

The union's lawyer, Welly K. Hopkins, declined to sum up the defendants' case, though Golds- borough almost begged him to make a final argument. URGES STATEMENT The judge said it would help the court, and be to the public interest, to hear both sides state their positions. But Hopkins respectfully said no. He limited himself to claiming merely that the record in the trial "fails completely" to establish a case of Goldsborough sighed and adjourned court until Monday at 10 a m.

(EST). As Morison held the attention of the crowd packed in the little courtroom, the soft coal industry was gradually getting back on its feet. A sizeable majority of the nearly 400,000 soft-coal miners were back to work, heeding Lewis's telegrams of Monday telling them that miners' pensions had been granted and they should return to work. Morison said the union's claim that no strike occured was "an affront to common sense." PITTSBURG Railroads and the steel industry hardest bit victims of the coal shutdown Thursday held up any general back-to-work program More than a quarter million of the nation's 400,000 soft coal diggers were back on the job but thousands waited to learn the federal court's decision in the contempt case against their leader, John L. Lewis.

One steel company prepared to resume normal operations. The (Continued on Page 2, CoL 3) Statements To Urge PRR Shop Opening Over 200 statements signed by Altoona merchants and businessmen in support of the CIO Railroad Workers' drive to force the re-opening of the PRR shops to 12,000 employes on repair and construction work, will be presented by the union to Mayor J. Lester Laughlin and city council-men. CIO Regional Director Edward L. Denhardt revealed Thiursday night that union committeemen and stewards, armed with mimeographed affidavits and sharpened pencils, had canvassed every business establishment in the city's business district, and had reported, at a late hour, returns of more than 75 per cent.

The remainder will be turned in to the regional office Friday morning. Denhardt said, "but we are confident tonight that the great majority of businessmen are solidly behind the workers in their fights for steady jobs and steady wages." The union leader also revealed that the URRWA-CIO officers and Altoona to Go On Fast Time April 25 Retail stores of Altoona will observe fast time, starting Monday, April 26, in conformance with the practice followed by practically all major cities in the state, Collins R. Blake, chairman of the retail division of the Altoona Chamber of Commerce announced Thursday night. Last Tuesday the city officials stated that all city employes will be working on fast time, effective Sunday, April 25 A spokesman for Works Manager F. G.

Grimshaw, while announcing that "there is no change in the shutdown in dis closed that the shopmen will operate on fast time when they return to work. Middle Division employes will operate on fast time although the clocks will remain on standard time. The change to fast time will be instigated by the workers and will be granted according to regulations of the shopcrafts. The Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce revealed that 84 com munities are going to operate on daylight saving time. Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Harrisburg, Reading, Erie, Bethlehem are included among the major cities to go on fast time April 25.

Charles A. Hoofnagle, superin tendent of transportation for the Logan Valley Transit company stated Thursday night that "Logan Valley will go along with the change to fast time and that the street cars and buses will be available for the workers and shoppers." John H. Dulen, president of the Altoona Trust company, said the banks will also operate on fast time. Army to Send Combat Units To Alaska WASHINGTON (JB The army announced Thursday it js sending an unspecified number of combat units to Alaska "shortly to undergo summer training." The units will go from the west coast and Hawaii. The army said they will include combat ground troops of which Alaska has none now.

Growing attention has been given lately to the strategic position of Alaska, the United States' closest area to Russia. Rep Margaret Chase Smith (R-Me) has reported that Russian planes have "violated" Alaskan skies, Publisher William L. Baker of Ketchikan, Alaska, supported her statement Thursday. Air force headquarters in Washington and the army command in Alaska said they had received no report of Russian activity over Alaska. The air force said: "No United States Air force aircraft have crossed the" Russian border nor have there been (Continued on Page 3, Col.

1) Seven PRR Trains to Be Kept Out of Service PITTSBURG CP) The Pennsylvania railroad said Thursday that seven trains, mostly idle because of the coal shortage, will not be returned to service when other regular runs are restored Monday. Trains Nos. 414 and 415, between Pittsburg and Erie, were to have been withdrawn Monday by order of the public utility commission. They will not be returned to service. Six other trains will not be restored because of lack of business, the railroad said.

They include No. 17, Altoona to Pittsburg; No. 502. Pittsburg to Swiss-vale; Nos. 763 and 764, between Pittsburg and Washington, and Nos.

496 and 497, between Pittsburg and Baden. cago, Philadelphia and New York. Hornyak said, bringing in 19 Chinese and four Europeans, for which he received from $600 to $1,500 each. The immigration official said the "head" of the reported smuggling ring had not been arrested but is under close watch by border patrol agents. In Washington, the justice department reported a number of aliens, including some Chinese and some Europeans alleged to have been brought in by illicit methods, have been rounded up.

The department said most of these aliens intended to go to New York city and vicinity. April 16, 1948 Five Cents cy and Montgomery and between Milton and YVatsontown. U. S. 11 between Shamokin dam and Northumberland.

Traffic route 44 between Jersey Shore and Antes Fort and between McEwensville and Watson-town. Traffic route 14 between Muncy and Montoursville and south of Lewisburg. Traffic route 45 between Lewisburg and Danville. Traffic route 975 between White Deer and Watsontown; traffic route 68 in Midland borough; traffic route 51 at West Bridge-water; rural route 64007 at Brae-burn in Westmoreland county; rural route 18001 at Keating rural route 18011 between Lock Haven and Farransville; Rural route 18014 and 18033 at Woolrich; rural route 18042, old U. S.

220, between Lock Haven and Avis; traffic route 664 between Beech Creek and Monument. City to Get $19,252 For Sewage Plans Altoona's share of the state's allotment to 30 municipalities for preparing plans for sewage treatment works is $19,252, Dr. Norris W. Vaux, state health secretary and board chairman, announced Thursday night. The entire payment amounts to $201,236, Dr.

Vaux revealed, as he explained that the payments are made on the basis of up to 50 per cent of the cost of plans. This brings the total to $460,142 paid to 71 municipalities as part of the commonwealth's clean streams program. Heading the list is $98,842 given to Philadelphia as part of plans for the $7,000,000 northeast sewage treatment works now under construction. Other municipalities include: Everett, Hyndman, Bedford county, $1,452. Councilman Henry L.

Selwitz said Thursday that the Pennsylvania Economy league and city council will determine whether an authority will be instituted in order to finance the construction of two sewage disposal plants in Altoona. Booze Ban Brings Battles In Bedford BEDFORD, Pa. Nine Everett men and one from near by Bedford will be given a hear-! ing here Friday on 54 charges I stemming from what Police Chief Willard D. Kline described as brawls over shutting off drinks to "inebriates." Justice of the Peace Cyril Bingham, Bedford, said he would hold the hearing Friday but he declined to give the hour because he said "I don't want a crowd of people hanging around here." Chief Kline said the 10 were arrested Monday night after a group of men rioted and destroyed furniture in the bar of the Union hotel and Gienger's bar at Everett. The chief said the men demanded that the name of one of their number be eliminated from a list of 84 "inebriates" which police officials had given bartenders.

Kline said the bartenders in Everett and Bedford, eight miles away, were asked to shut off (Continued on Page 2, Col. S) Communists, Fascists Battle In Rome ROME (JPt Communists and Fascists battled in Tiburtino square Thursday night with chunks of concrete as Italy's turbulent election campaign neared its close. Heavy forces of riot police fought to stop the battle, when about 2,500 leftists descended with armloads of heavy missiles on the dingy square where a rally of the nationalistic Italian Social Movement (MSI was in progress. Soon the MSI followers were put to flight, and Communists took complete possession of the square, singing their songs, while police looked on. An airplane overhead dropped Communist PLANS WORLD SOLO FLIGHT Dianna Cyrus, one of the few women airline pilots, stands at Dallas, by her Mosquito bomber which she plans to fly solo around the world.

Mrs. Cyrus, widow of an air force bomber pilot killed over Belgium, flies air freight between Dallas and Burbank, for Eagle Air lines. She is preparing her plane at Love field, Dallas. (AP Wirephoto) Hollidaysburg Opens Sewage Disposal Plant Hollidaysburg's disposal plant, which was closed after running for a short time, because of the high cost of operation and the continued pollution of the Juniata river by Altoona, will be placed in operation soon. Recently, the borough received notice from the department of forests and waters at Harrisburg, ordering Hollidaysburg with many other municipalities either to construct or open plants already built, in the sweeping crusade established to clean up the rivers of the state.

The Hollidaysburg plant, of which Hunter and Caldwell of Altoona, were the architects, was completed in 1938, at a toal cost of $260,000. Of this amount was paid by the government and $130,000 by the borough, the plant being construct ed by the W. P. A. and P.

W. A. It was operated for six months in 1939, being closed temporarily. (Continued on Pige 2, Col. 8) Pupils of Nine More Schools Are X-Rayed Bright skies Thursday made much better traveling for the mobile X-ray unit on its tour of Blair county rural schools.

Nine schools in Huston and Blair townships were serviced, Mrs. C. W. Montgomery, executive secretary of the Blair County Tuberculosis and Health society, said Thursday evening. "The large mobile chest X-ray unit has to be stopped at every school, close to the door, and jacked up to make it firm.

Where the school is on a hill and we can't drive up close, the patrol boys are useful where the highway has to be used by the children in approaching vehicles," the secretary said. The society nurse and staff accompanied the unit, as well as County Superintendent J. Elmer Butts and his assistant, Paul Kurtz, and Supervisor Lemmon Stoudnour for the Cove schools, in his district. The X-raying was completed in (Continued on Page 3, CoL 3) WASHINGTON CIP) The revolution that spread death and destruction through Colombia's- capital was pictured to congress and the American' people Thursday aa a Communist-inspired horror ot a kind that can happen here. And for the first time it was disclosed that Secretary of State Marshall and other high American officials had warning before they went to Bogota that the Communists were stirring up trouble.

REJECTS WARNING Marshall, the state department said, went ahead because he scornfully rejected any idea that "a handful of Communists" could intimidate the sovereign American republics and prevent the Pan-American conference. Although the state department received a number of advance notices of trouble, one message warning that Marshall and the others might be molested, apparently never reached the department. And President Truman said the revolution was a surprise to him. He said he had heard there was unrest in Colombia and that there might be trouble but had no idea anybody was going to get shot. INTELLIGENCE CHIEF The picture of Communist plotting that flared into wild and deadly disorder was given by the head of the U.

S. central intelligence service, Rear Admiral R. H. Killenkoetter, and by Rep. Donald Jackson (R-Calif), who is here on a flying visit from the riot-wrecked capital.

"LIKE WALLACE" The admiral said Jorge Gaita.i, liberal leader whose assassination touched off the revolt, was a figure like "Henry Wallace in our country a man who played along "with the extreme left and the communists." He said conditions in Colombia are "similar to those in the United States except that they are advanced a couple of years." Jackson went further. He said what happened in Bogota will happen in the streets of American cities unless we wage an all-out fight against communism now. Hillenkoetter told a special house subcommittee. that intelligence reports beginning last January gave a warning that trouble was afoot. MESSAGE NOT SENT But the message that told of possible danger to Marshall, he said, was not relayed to the state department on the said the admiral, of a state department advance man in Bogota.

Hillenkoetter identified the official as O. J. Libert. But the state department said Libert was a "very, junior" employe with duties more or less of a housekeeping nature. Press Officer Lincoln White said it seemed inconceivable that he would have jurisdiction to teij the Central Intelligence agency that a message should be with-' held.

And he showed them an earlier dispatch saying a Columbian Communist, identified only as "Mr. was "reported to be the intermediary between the Soviet legation and Gaitan, to whom he furnished money." About the same time, Jackson was telling the house: The Red tide last weekend touched the shores of the western hemisphere. "What has happened in Bo gota can and will happen in such places as New York city, Chicago and San Francisco unless we who still remain free and unfettered gird ourselves for an all-out battle with the enemy." (The state department said Thursday night that Secretary Marshall was warned repeatedly of possibly trouble at Bogota. (But he replied, the department said, that it would be absolutely ridiculous for the American republics even to consider being intimidated by communists or anybody else.) Hillenkoetter disclosed that the Central Intelligence agency began getting reports from Colombia as far back as January that trouble was' brewing that the Communists were planning disturbances to discredit the inter American conference and American officials in particular. The CIA message on the subject said Libert didn't think it advisable to relay the warning about Marshall because he felt there was adequate police protection and he didn't want to alarm the delegates unduly.

In any event. White said, the state department was getting its own report on the impending 1 roubles along with those of the Central Intelligence agency. (Continued oh Page 9, CoL 5) Four Arrested For Smuggling Aliens Into This Country 1 OON'-f CARE HOW i MOCM MONEY YOU i HAVE PAL fl members would distribute leaflets I Frank Hornyak. border patrol to the general public before thejchief Miami, listed them as meeting with city officials. "The Edward W.

Murphy, 34. of Miami, CIO Is determined that the Al- arrestcd here and released under MIAML Fla. VPi The arrest of a Miami flight instructor and three New York city Chinese charged with smuggling aliens into the United States from Cuba was announced Thursday by the immigration border patrol. ana J.1 Chin Toy. and Chin Du Foo, ar- rested in New York, Hornyak said the Chinese will be brought to Miami for prosecution Murphy admitted that he made five flights from Cuba to Chi toona public be informed," he1 said.

"For too lone have they ac cepted with resignation or com placency the economic booting around that has been dished out to the workers by the Pennsylvania Railroad SIMM S. EAR CORONATION DIAMONDS. EAST TERMS. 1125 11th Ave..