The La Crosse Tribune from La Crosse, Wisconsin • Page 1

MILES ALBANY i ST. CLOUD ST. MARTIN COLFAX KNAFF MENOMONIE Colfax Hardest Hit: IOO Houses Down TORNADO AFTERMATH These pictures show some of the damage caused when a tornado struck Colfax, Wednesday night. At left a car lies propped against a tree and at right another auto lies parked under the wall of an exploded grocery store. Two persons escaped injury when the building was struck.

Additional pictures on Page 33 Unifax. Integration Bid Rejected By Moslem Rebel Leaders CONSTANTINE, Algeria (AP) de Gaulle flew to eastern Algeria today for another enthusiastic welcome. Elsewhere, spokesmen for the nationalist Moslem rebels rejected his program to make them first-class Frenchmen. Many Moslems were among the thousands who lined De route from the airport into Constantine, the mountainous, rebellion-backed eastern sector's chief city. Constantine was the second stop on De Gaulle's three-day Algerian tour to establish his government's authority over insurgent French colonists and military leaders end to launch a new drive to end the 43-month-oid nationalist rebellion.

it The massed thousands in Constantine cheered as De Gaulle Camp Douglas Man Killed By Wall Section CAMP DOUGLAS, Wis. Nash, about 45, Camp Douglas, was killed Tuesday when he was struck by a section of the wall of a building being wrecked to make way for the construction of a new elevator and feed building. The former warehouse building was partially destroyed by fire last February and the walls remained standing. George Elsing of Camp Douglas was operating a trench digging machine, making an excavation for the concrete footings of the new building, when a section of the wall fell into the ditch where Nash was working. The section of the old wall which struck Nash was reported to be six by IO feet in dimensions.

Nash was taken to the Wahl- Hare Funeral Home at New Lisbon after he was pronounced dead at the scene by a physician. He was believed to have been killed instantly. declared from a flag-decked balcony, men here have the same same The brief address was essentially the same as the one he delivered to a cheering throng of about 100,000 in Algiers Wednesday night. Nationalist sources in neighboring Tunisia said there will be no halting of the rebellion. it it it In Cairo, spokesmen for the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) said they could not accept De program for integrating European and Moslem populations with equal rights and equal votes.

The FLN has spearheaded the revolt. It demands independence as the pric of peace. De Gaulle spoke only in generalities that left Algerians rn the dark on details of his plans for ending the 43-month rebellion. But there was no doubt the general captured and fired the imagination of Algiers residents more than anyone had done in a long time. it it it open the door to de Gaulle proclaimed in offering a program designed to win back rebels whom he praised as courageous.

This was the program: Within three months the nine million Arab and Berber Moslem Algerians and the VA million Algerians of French descent will join with 45 million residents of France in voting on the constitutional reforms he is pledged to draw up. At some future date all Algerians will ballot on a single voting list for to the public these elected representatives we will see how to do what must be De Gaulle added, presumably meaning negotiations on Algeria's future relationship with France. must be opened which until now have been closed to he declared. means that the means of livelihood must be given to those who have not; had it. That means that dignity must be granted to those whose dignity was contested.

That means that the motherland must be assured to those who doubted they had But there was no suggestion of an independent Algeria. all Algeria there is only one category of De Gaulle declared. are only Frenchmen of one With Moslems outnumbering the French settlers almost 9-1, Algerian voting has been heavily I weighted to give the French the dominant voice in the. territorial I government. De Gaulle apparently offered the Moslems a chance to submerge the French in a flood of votes a prospect the militant colonists were certain to oppose strongly.

He gave no clue to the basis on which future Algerian representation in the National Assembly in Paris would be allotted. Few in Algiers believed it would be on the same population basis as for France, since that could send a massive bloc of more than l(w Moslem votes to the Assembly. It it lr The general's speech also contained an implied offer of amnesty to the rebels who have tied down almost half a million French troops in the expensive, indecisive guerrilla war. He appealed for cooperation from who through despair have thought it right to carry out on this soil a fight which I recognize myself as courageous but which is nevertheless cruel and fractricid- Frantic bursts of applause interrupted him after almost every sentence. Moslem men in burnooses and veiled women listened See DE GAULLE, Page 9 BABY BLOWN 200 YARDS Find 2 Members Of 'Wiped Out' Family EAU CLAIRE ii?) The Erling Lunn family of Colfax, at first believed wiped out by the tornado that shattered their home, produced two survivors today-one a six-weeks-old baby blown 200 yards from the demolished dwelling.

The baby was found alive in a field hours after the storm had passed. And Mrs. Lunn, first reported killed, was located in critical condition at Luther Hospital rn Eau Claire. Lunn was killed in the storm and his three-year-old son, Leon, died at Luther Hospital today. COUNCIL, BOARD IN ACCORD Eventual College Use Of School Site Seen Twister Cuts 90-Mile Swath In 4 Counties MENOMONIE, Wis.

(AP) deadly tornado cracked like a bullwhip across northwestern Wisconsin Wednesday night, leaving a mounting toll of at least 28 dead and more than IOO injured. The vicious twister unleashed its full fury on the small town of Colfax. Houses were smashed, trees splintered and stone buildings pulverized as the cruel storm, carrying torrents of rain, skirted the edge of the Colfax business district. Bodies of ll persons were recovered from the debris there. Another 35 residents of the community of 1,000 were hurt.

Sweeping out of the northwest, the tornado spun across four counties before blowing itself out southeast of Eau Claire. Rural areas near Menomonie and Chippewa Falls were hard hit. The funnel carried such force it not only blew houses and barns down, but strewed boards, plumbing fixtures and furniture indiscriminately. A northside residential district in Colfax was all but wiped out. Some newly built homes were reduced to piles of debris atop their foundations.

Others were just blown away. Automobiles, twisted into gro- Hendricksons See New Home Whirled Away By JIM KLOBUCHAR and BILL CHEVALIER MENOMONIE Wis (AP)-They hugged each other tightly, a middle-aged couple and their three children gathered together against the roaring fury of a tornado smashing into their home. felt the said white-haired Melvin Hendrickson, 58, of tolfax. wind was: twisting things in the basement. U)ssed 1,116 Tornado Victims MENOMONIE, Wis.

OB The dead in Wednesday tornado that struck northwestern Wisconsin, compiled from various sources: Mrs. Lillian Butek, 37, Chippewa Falls; her daughter Irene, IO, and son John 14. Lanny Fjelstad, 16, Colfax, and his uncle, Spencer Fjelstad, Harry Ford, Knapp. Mrs. Cora Gerber, 45, Colfax.

George House, 65, Menomonie. Mr. and Mrs. Roy Larson. Menomonie, and their son Earl, 3.

Erling Lunn, Colfax, and son Leon, 3. Vernon Mcindel, 40, Bloomer. George Nelson, 70, Colfax. Arthur Peterson, 71, Wilson. Richard Presnell, 27, Bloomer.

Arthur Quevillon, 52, Colfax. Mrs. Carl Rausch, Hutchinson, Minn. Mrs. Ted Slaga, Colfax.

William Wagner, 50, Colfax. Mrs. Arnold Schneider, 40, Chippewa Falls. An unidentified truck driver, Colfax. Mrs.

Alan Musil, Rice Lake. Henry Huth, 70, Boyd, and his son Clarence, 38. Roger Llewlyn, 14, Stanley. Mrs. John Lato, Thorp.

FIRST USE OF CONELRAD Weather Station Here Coordinated Warnings toys. Communications and power was knocked out in Colfax, forcing rescuers to make farm-by-farm visits to check for casualties and Rain was pouring down on us. The only thing I saw was oqr ler heater standing in the middle of the basement. Everything else In an air-clearing meeting) expressed needs of the La Crosse was whirling around Wednesday evening, members of school system. looked up and the house jdamage' the La Crosse Common Council The La Crosse Board of Edu- there I Afler lLs destructive northside and the La Crosse Board of Edu- ation abandoned the building a Wood pieces were flying at us in Colfax, the twister cation agreed that there is no co- year ago.

recommending to the We huddled together against Uie sKipped the busmess dlstnct stacle to eventual use of the aban- Common Council at that time that east wall trying to protect our- maul homes on the communlty ten to spread the forecast. doned Washington School site for the site be turned over to the selves Then the twister was co ie it expansion of La Crosse State Col- state coUege. and it'was just I One relief worker said IO At about 6 p.m., Chicago had re- However, early this spring the! a minutes is all it took. The blow-1 yised ifcs forecast and Members of those two groups Board of Education reversed it-1 The tornado that Wednesday ing rain that accomPanied the Weather Bureau coordination in La Crosse flashed notices Wednesday afternoon and evening of severe weather in northwest Wisconsin, but for one community toe warning might have been too late. The La Crosse weather facility is responsible for warning a wide area in western Wisconsin of impending bad weather and flood.

Howard W. Warren meteorologist on duty, said Chicago weather bureau officials at 4:40 p.m. warned of severe thunderstorms for the northern area. The Ladysmith and Eau Claire radio Cooperative's dispatcher in La Crosse called the local USWB facility. A Dairyland employe at Baldwin had called the local office after he had sighed a torn ido near Woodville.

Warren immediately gave the Conelrad (a broadcast warning system for radio and TV stations) warning order to WEAU. Eau I Clare would have about 30 minutes to get ready, it was ed, while Woodville probably ready was being hit. This was the first instance of Conelrad being used as coordinated by toe local met in informal session with rep-1 self, asking the Council not to re- right ravappd TrZIu'blow came down the street like resentatives of the State College lease the school for the reason nity 28 miles from' here had a sbe sald' Board of Regents, county and city that the Washington classrooms; cmnchld tho Downed power lines hampered government officials and labor representatives at the cottage of La Crosse's regent, Eugene Murphy, on the west bank of the Mississippi. it it it Although members of all groups bullt by the take represented expressed their desire I care sucb increases. ashington classrooms smashed the month-old Hendrick- might be needed by the system for son home like a sledge hammer the 1959-60 school year or later.

hltting a matchbox. There were The school board indited that Clght dead at Colfax its change of mind was the re-; The frail construction worker suit of increasing school enrol- told of the ordeal here ments and the lack of new schools by of Memonal Hospital, where for the continued expansion of La Crosse State College, the key word in the agreement reached in their separate statements was acquisition of the Washington School site by the college. Board of Regents Pres. William MacIntyre, Board Director Eugene McFee, La Crosse State College Pres. Rexford Mitchell and Murphy in stages let it be Thus, Wednesday's meeting made clear that all groups favor turning over the site to the state left unre- many of the injured from Colfax were brought.

As he talked he I slowly rubbed his injured left shoulder. Lying in hospital beds a few doors away were his wife, Helga, solved the conflict between the officials and a makeshift network of police, and civil defense radios were used to summon doctors and nurses. At Colfax, the wind caught several youths as they drove across the Cedar River, ripped the canvas top off their car, engulfed them in a wave of water apparently scooped from the river 15 feet below, but left them unharmed. uuiuuu ucvwecu me Gov. Vernon Thomson ordered city school board and the Com-; three companies of National mon Council over new school construction.

it it it After the meeting, some of those in attendance expressed the known that the regents intend to I hope that the aura of good feel- Roland, 15. Another son, Richard, 17, was not badly hurt and refused to leave the scene of their demolished home. it it wanted to stay there and watch the place, I his fa Guardsmen to duty in the storm area for rescue and rehabilitation work. it it Striking just alter the supper hour, the twister caught many stations were telephoned by War- station. The La Crosse County Highway Police also were notified and they in turn notified Wisconsin state police.

The powerful state police radio station then got the word to offices. it it Peterson was able to return home about 10:15 p.m. The all- clear report was flashed to the Eau Claire area by Warren about 11:35 p.m. Eau Claire stations were reported to have stayed on the air until after midnight. Peterson is scheduled to make an on-the-spot inspection Friday of the tornado-wrecked area along with Paul Waite, Madison, I consin climatologist.

A USWB I ficial from Washington, D.C., also I is scheduled to fly in for a look- I see as is the Madison weather bu- I reau chief. ask the for SIO mil- mg generated at the might1 1 Communications and power lines were torn out and extent of lion in building funds next Janu- lead to an early resolution of this hniisM a ary tins to be rn add.tton to Sin conflict by results rn Council Karen vr catarhe sr If tins additional SIO million telly the schtxtl board that it would no longer have to hold the Wash- lured firm ington School in reserve. the com. Wednesday evenings program sald we op ane with preser.tat.ons by wm, MacIntyre, McFee, Peter G. Pap- NOTES ON THE NEWS you rather have a loan? so easy Ike Wants Aid Funds To Be Kept Separate WASHINGTON (AP) President Eisenhower wants authority to spend foreign aid money in Iron Curtain countries but wants it separate from the mutual security bill now under Senate debate, Republican congressional leaders said today.

Sen. William F. Knowland of California, the Senate Republican leader, reported the stand after the weekly White House conference of key GOP members from the Capitol. Knowland himself is opposing an amendment, offered by Sen. John F.

Kennedy (D-Mass) to put into the foreign aid bill a section allowing the President to spend money in satellite countries if he finds it would help or encourage them on a course independent of Moscow. Knowland told a news conference that Eisenhower would support such a proposal if it came up as an amendment to the Battle Act. That law bans U.S. aid to Iron Curtain countries. Knowland has offered an amendment to strike the provision from the $3,712,000,0000 foreign aid bill now before the Senate.

The provision would permit the if he deems it in the national interest, to provide financial and economic assistance to any country except the Soviet Union, Red China or Communist North Korea. The bill survived its first test last night as the Senate rejected 56-16 an amendment by Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis) to shift all military aid funds from the foreign aid bill to the regular Defense Department budget. Proxmire argued that lumping military and economic aid together creates the impression that the foreign aid budget three times as large as it legal adviser to Gov. Vernon Mitchell, in which they detailed the explosive postwar growth of granted, they said, the regents will be ready to proceed with plans to replace the derelect Washington School with a new Campus School, using the present Campus School for other college classroom purposes.

it it it They stated that plans could be completed and construction start- the state college system, ed within six to eight months after legislative approval of their I MacIntyre told the group the monetary requests. This, they regents were not asking for some- said, would mean construction on thing for nothing, that the state the site might start by late 1959 was willing to pay the city for or early 1960. the cite. I McFee later, however, Such a time schedule would be cited other state college cities in in direct conflict with the current which the colleges had acquired land, some purchased, but other large tracts donated by the communities in which the colleges are located.) MacIntyre added that failure to acquire the Washington School site would not stop college expansion, though. He pointed out that the college had the alternative of condemning private property needed for expansion, al- I though this can be a prolonged process.

He and McFee made clear that lucre is no involved to the future of the college here if the city fails to accede to the wishes of the regents. Murphy noted, however, the Washington School site is not presently providing tax revenue for the city and that if the college See COLLEGE, Page 9 See VICTIMS, Page 9 makeshift network of police, and civil defense radios to marshal doctors and nurses at hospitals in the area. They also summoned ambu- See TORNADO, Page 9 Crosse of a possible tornado for the northern area. Warren notified WEAU and WEAU-TV wito these stations notifying two other Eau Claire radio stations. Warren also asked for assistance from Carl G.

Peterson, head meterologist, and Finn A. Johnson, another meteorologist. The situation appeared serious. At 6:55 p.m., Dairyland Power STORM CLAIMS WOMAN'S LIFE IN RICE LAKE RICE LAKE (JV-The violent storm that spawned Wednesday death-dealing tornado in northwestern Wisconsin also took the life of a Rice Lake woman. Mrs.

Alan Mush was electrocuted when she stepped outside her home during a lull in the storm to inspect her television antenna which had been blown down. Authorities said she died when she touched the damaged antenna dangling near the doorway of the home. Where To Find It Page Births .......................................13 Classified Adv 34 and 35 Comics 22 Community News ..................12 Daily Records ......................13 Death Notices 9 Editorials 6 Food Pages 23-32 Hal Boyle 7 Local News ll Markets 9 TV and Radio Log 22 Sports 16 and 17 Theaters ...................................13 Tri-State Deaths ......................9 Weather Map 9 Womens News 19 and 20 Crossword Puzzle 22 WISCONSIN minneapolis MINNESOTA PATH OF DESTRUCTION Map Shows Araa Whera or na Strode. tUnlfax) Two La Crosse County Traffic Patrolmen Thursday joined representatives of other western Wisconsin departments going to sistance of local police in the I tornado-hit area north of Eau Claire. Officers Milton Opland and James McHugh were to report to the office in Menomonie to help control the streams of sightseers pouring into that area I to view the destruction.

According to reports overheard on the state radio network, counties surrounding La Crosse wert also sending squad cars into the I area. A second function of the traffic police squad cars will be to help maintain communcations until i power facilities knocked out by the storms are restored. The local county men are a part I of the group from Monroe, Verj non, Trempealeau, Buffalo and Columbia county sheriff and county police department personnel go. mg to the area. -if I The Rev.

and Mrs. W. W. Kors- I rud and their seven-year-old I daughter, Cynthia, live in Colfax, Mrs. Korsrud is the former tie Stokke and a sister of Joel E.

Stokke, 1905 Mam St. The La I Crosse family has not been able to contact the Korsrud for infor- mation as to their welfare or experiences during toe Wednesday night tornado. it it it A former La Crosse family, who moved to Colfax five years ago, is unhurt, relatives here learned last night. Dr. and Mrs.

Gordon Neumann and their three children were in their home when the tornado struck at 7 m. Lac erne Neumann, in a 9 See SIDELIGHTS, Page I FINAL EDITION VOLUME 54. NUMBER 20 WEATHER Fair, cooler tonight. Friday fair with little temperature changs. Low tonight, 45; Friday, 70.

PRICE SEVEN CENTS 9 28 Dead In W. Wisconsin Tornado THIRTY-SIX PAGES LACROSSE, WISCONSIN, THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 5, 1958 FOUR SECTIONS.