Huronite and The Daily Plainsman, The (Newspaper) - December 8, 1946, Huron, South Dakota 60 YEARS of Service to CENTRAL SOUTH DAKOTA The and THE PLAINSMAN Weather South Mostly cloudy In- light rains north east Sunday Partly cloudy to cloudy No important temperature change VOLUME HURON SOUTH DAKOTA SUNDAY DECEMBER SINGLE COPY Unconditional Surrender By Lewis Miners Ordered Back 120 Die In Nation's Worst Hotel Fire Good by BRUCE CAMPBELL Today five years ago Pearl Harbor Hawaii was burning Corpses ruined airfields smoking homes and sunken warships lay in the wake of the Japanese sneak attack on the unwarned great naval base The Japanese ambassador was leaving the White House mum So and the U S finally got down the job fighting a war which its owi short sighted legislators and statesmen had handicapped bj failing to stay prepared Since then many Huron citizens have fought for their country and many worked long and hard in war plants and offices Pearl Har bor won't be forgotten and are at least four Huron families closely connected with the disas Mrs Oscar Fosheim won't for get nor will her nephew LeRoy Bohr of Howard S D LeRo was an mate aboard the battleship West Virginia which went down a victim Jap aerial torpedoes was first listed as missing in action then found in a hospital He and the West Virginia came back into commission about the same time and both helped finish off the navy in Pacific sea tles Then he came home las year went to work for Texaco bought a house in Artesian ant moved it to Howard and las Nov 5 got himself elected Miner County auditor Clarence E Ulrich son of ron's fire chief E B Ulrich was in the engine room of the cruiser Honolulu when another Jap aer ial torpedo caught it The ship didn't sink Clarence wasn't hur he is now a lieutenant jg having just been transferred from California to a Texas base Huron's two naval recruiting chiefs are also Pearl veterans Chief Fire then 2nd class James Leslie who is a strictly Huron product was on the superstructure of the ship California when it was sunk while tied up The ship personne just readying for church ser vices as Japanese planes dived on it swooping down from over the tree tops on Diamond Head Out of 1400 men aboard 150 were killed The California was raise three months later The Navy will not be caugh with its b b pants down says Leslie Plans for naval re- of active duty sailors and one million reservists will help see to that Chief Quartermaster Roy sett who is a native of town N D was standing watch 9 atop the signal tower on the See CAMPBELL Page 11 Pearl Harbor Day Observed HONOLULU Dec 8 Ceremonies at Pearl Harbor marked the fifth sary of the Japanese sneak at- tack on this naval base Americans will The Navy whose harbor stil holds the battered hulks of the battleships Oklahoma and zona as grim reminders of ese treachery observed the as another work day At nearby Hickam Field the tattered American flag which flew that fateful morning and was slashed by Japanese bombs was raised by the Army Air Forces at a m the moment the anese first struck the field Con- crete buildings on the field are still pockmarked from bullets ed by Japanese strafing planes The moment of the attack years ago was written into can history by the officer of the day Lieut Charles E Dunn whose report methodically a m supervised raising of the flag a m checked floodlights Following items are Japanese pursuit and ment aviation attacked this field at approximately a m Speaking at the flag raising day Lieut Gen John E Hull commanding general of the armed forces of the mid-Pacific Many Plunge To Death Flames Convert Building Into Veritable Furnace Eyewitnesses Tell Tale Of Horror As Bodies Thud To Pavement Other Guests Are Trapped In Inferno Lack Of Fire Escapes Prevent Flight From Atlanta 15 Story Structure Worst Hotel Tragedy In History ATLANTA Ga Dec 8 ff The most frightful hotel fire in American history roared through the coff Hotel in downtown Atlanta early Saturday killing 120 persons and injuring at least 100 Men women and children plunged screaming to their deaths on pavements below their windows while scores of others were trapped and burned or suffocated in stairs rooms At daylight the sides of the tall ture were draped with torn and blankets ing in grim silence where victims tried to escape witnesses told how panic-stricken guests swung from tenth and twelfth story windows on flimsy ropes A few were rescued but most fell headlong as flames burned away their supports or they lost their grip Others were seen briefly at flaming shrieking and praying then ing into the terrible inferno At one time a half dozen broken bodies lay at the in- of Atlanta's famed Peachtree Street and gie the theater where the world premier of Gone With The Wind was Winecoff Blaze Most Disastrous By United Press The Winecoff Hotel fire at Atlanta Ga Saturday which took 120 lives was the worst hotel disaster in the nation's history and the fourth hotel fire this year Other hotel fires this LaSalle Hotel Chicago June 5 61 dead Canfield Hotel la June 9 10 dead Baker Hotel Dallas Tex June 21 8 dead Earlier hotel Gulf Hotel Houston Tex Sept 1 1933 54 dead Kerns Hotel Lansing Mich Dec 11 1934 32 dead Victoria Mansion wood N J Feb 12 1936 16 dead Terminal Hotel Atlanta Ga May 16 1938 35 dead Amsterdam Hotel San Francisco March 27 1944 22 dead General Clark Hotel cago Jan 16 1945 14 dead staged Some Saved Farmers Are Commended As First Citizens Farmers are the first citizens the country declared Dr W C Lowdermilk Washington assistant chief of the Soil vation Service hi his tory address to 300 farmers at- tending the banquet here Friday honoring progress made by South Dakotans in conserving their land They are the first the conservator ex- because theirs is the re- sponsibility of producing the for everyone Not only farmers be given more chances than members of other sions but also they should receive the best scientific and technical help available to provide the our natural resources for the fit of society Dr Seek Frontiers Lowdermilk traced the paths of peoples westward since times in their search for new frontiers for development and reached the conclusion that the frontier now existing is con- servation and upon it the race against famine will be decided Hungry people will not keep the peace With one-half of the people in the world ed according to a United Nations survey and with the world's continually increasing il evident that what land there is must be conserved to the See FARMERS Page 11 Section Worker Is Accidentally Killed MOBRIDGE Dec 8 UP Leon F Axtell 35 Milwaukee railroad section worker died lay night of injuries received Thursday when struck by a waukee passenger train near the depot Axtel working with a crew on he main line apparently did not tear or see the train A d freight was moving beside him ed Dec 7 1941 should be t the time bered as a day of warning as He received a skull fracture as a day of pride mangled leg and internal injuries Some who kept their heads were saved White haired Mrs Banks Whiteman manager of the hotel cigar counter pulled the wife and children of her er Arthur F Geele Jr from the 14th floor to the top floor ment of Mrs Arthur Geele Sr There they huddled in a corner until the fire subsided The origin of the blaze ently was buried in the charred wreckage or sealed with the dead City Fire Marshal Harry Phillips could say only that the flames started in the corridors of the third or fourth floors Phillips accompanied by fire inspectors said in every instance the flames had burned into the rooms of the third fourth and fifth floors indicating that the origin lay somewhere in the peted hallways The fire was out of control within a few minutes after it was discovered and before every piece of fire fighting equipment in At- lanta could be summoned lips said The marshal said a bellhop he had noticed no fumes or smoke when hev delivered some soft drinks to a room on the fifth floor But when he turned to leave the room he found he was trapped by flames in the way Rapid Spread The mystery that surrounds the origin also gave rise to tion as to how the fire could spread so rapidly through a resistant building The brick concrete and Wrong Thing Little Boland Michaud at his New York home shows how he reached family medicine chest from which he devoured 30 pirin tablets a bottle of cough syrup bottle of cod liver oil and a bottle of castor oil A stomach pump put him on his feet again est and most qualitative use of structure had no outside fire but was classed as Fire Marshal Harry lips said it met all safety codes when it was built in 1914 The fire apparently started on the third or fourth floor and or William B said its origin was under investigation Would-be rescuers told of ing many forms silhouetted against boiling flames praying vainly for succor that could not reach them Thudding bodies crashed hi ghastly procession into the street and into smoke filled There were 285 guests registered at the hotel which was one of Atlanta's leading eries Spreading with disastrous through the southwest side of the building flames raced stair wells and elevator shafts to trap nearly half the guests The death toll eclipsed Chicago's Salle Hotel fire of six months ago when 61 died and more than trebled the 34 dead in Atlanta's Terminal Hotel fire of May 16 1938 The nation's previous record in a hotel fire was 71 in the Newhall House holocaust at waukee in 1833 Among the identified dead was W F Winecoff one of the hotel's builders who died in his FIRE li Final Phase Of Arms Cut Work Nears LAKE SUCCESS Dec 8 The United Nations ing agreement on an arms ing program designed eventually to abolish war forever moved in- o the final phase covering the all-important aspects of tions and control The last stumbling block was a Soviet proposal for setting up separate commissions for control of arms reduction and the atomic within the framework of he security council Russian willingness to keep any checkup machinery outside the range of the controversial veto partly cleared the way for ment but it appeared that there might be difficulties over the Russian proposal for two arate control commissions one lor atomic and one for other ons Would Tie Hands The United States was said to eel that such a provision might tie the hands of the council and conflict with the U.S atomic con- rol plan which would place in- and control under an in- atomic development authority Optimism over the whole arms question was heightened with unanimous approval yesterday in a political sub-committee of a provision for expediting a draft convention treaty for tion of atomic weapons and all other weapons of mass ion Progress on the armament sue came as the general assembly prepared to go into plenary sion for final decision on a posal for world wide troops sus and another political sub- committee voted to bar Franco Spain from all organizations by the or having relations with it U S Not To Bieak In the midst of the Spanish de- bate Sen Tom Connally restated the United States tion against a diplomatic break with the Franco regime and said that his government would not halt relations even if the bly recommended such a move The troop census was by British insistence on a verification agency a plan pre- viously defeated in the political committee The ed British amendment would have the security council set up an in- agency by Jan 15 to ify troop reports and make on- checks on all data sub- mitted by the member states Both the United States and sia opposed the original British proposal Work Progresses On Alpena Building ALPENA Dee on the new foot building to re- place the Consumers Co-op store destroyed by fire a year ago is gressing and the front is nearly completed Extension Of Price Support To Aid Farmers Extra Year Of Operations Would Mean More Than A Billion Dollars To Industry WASHINGTON Dec 8 JP An extra year of government price support sibly worth more than a billion dollars to American appeared definitely in prospect today Postwar ills in the nation's economy and the world's politics operating against an early official end to hostilities are mainly re- sponsible Unless the war's end is made official before Jan 1 the price supports run at through 1949 If the government declares the war at an end it moves forward the time when it quits guaran- teeing farm the end of 1948 if the in the next 24 days But at the same time it signals the end of ers like the Ac1 for dealing with such crises as the coal strike and the draft act for filling occupation army ranks Those are only two of many factors Not Expected Agriculture Department say that with war powers still in constant use they do not expect such a proclamation this It would cut most of those powers off in six months A law passed early in the war requires the Agriculture to support prices of most farm products at not less than 90 per cent of parity for a two year period beginning with the first day of January immediately lowing the date upon which the President proclaims official end of the war With farm prices showing weakening tendencies in recent weeks the prospect of an extra year of price supports is of cial significance to farmers Of- reports indicate that de- spite advances in prices of meat animals since price controls were removed the general level of farm prices has declined nearly five per cent during the past six weeks Above Parity Level Nevertheless the farm price level is more than 20 per cent above the parity level Parity prices are theoretical standards set up by law for measuring actual prices At parity levels are declared to be equally to producers and consumers Thus farm prices have a long way to fall before they drop to he parity level and even farther sefore they reach the 90 per cent parity level at which the ment is required to halt their decline Many farm leaders arid of- look upon recent farm price declines as healthy ments which should broaden consumer buying and which should tend to discourage ers from producing excessively next year On the other hand farm of- expect agricultural pluses to develop within a couple of years which would depress prices It is because of this that an extra year of price supporting operations might be worth big money to growers GSDA Head Will Speed Food To German Zone WASHINGTON Dec 8 JP Secretary of War Patterson has announced emergency measures to speed more than tons of food to the U.S zone of many this month to meet a cal shortage caused largely by the maritime strike Patterson told Lt Gen Lucius D Clay 1 The War Department is un- to send long tons of food this month compared with in November 2 Seventeen grain laden vessels are to sail from in December with the coast guard ready to provide icebreakers in the Hudson river if needed 3 Stand-by vessels will be held in other ports to prevent seen delays and take on additional last minute cargoes Fred L Lewis of Lemmon above is new president of the Greater South Dakota sociation having been chosen at the board of tors meeting here Friday He succeeds J M Lloyd of ton who was named dent GSDA Asks Equitable Pay For Teachers The board of directors of the Greater South Dakota tion after electing officers in its annual meeting Friday adopted a resolution ing school boards in many ties to raise salaries surate with the finances of the community The full resolution Realizing that in many public school teachers are underpaid we recommend that local school boards pay salaries commensurate with the finances of the community and with the teachers qualifications training term of service and ability as cators of the young citizens of this state Fred L Lewis of Lemmon was elected president of the GSDA for 1947 succeeding J M Lloyd of Yankton Lloyd was named vice president C D Rohlffs Huron who has field director during the past year was elected manager of the SSDA effective Jan 1 and Steve W Jones Huron was named di- rector of research and agriculture George Starring who has been manager of the association since its organization on March 6 1936 was elected chairman of the board of directors and treasurer W J Allen of Aberdeen K C Kellar of Lead R T Foster of Sioux Falls and Starring were elected directors at large J O Johnson of Watertown O S of Mitchell and Guy ing of Pierre were seated as new directors as elected by members of their respective districts L R Girton Sioux Falls was re-elected councillor of the U S hamber of Commerce The board also adopted a gram of work for 1947 specifying as some of its main fields of motion and Agriculture studies highways and tourist industry information vice within the state and ty service outside the state Would Investigate Financial Affairs Of U S Soldiers WASHINGTON Dec 8 ff A suggestion that the bank counts and tax returns of can army officers and men who served in Germany a year ago be checked for black market profits las been made to the House tary committee by one of its ace investigators it was learned here The suggestion was contained in a report on a study of tion problems in Europe during the last few months The report 1 Lack of cooperation between American military officials and UNRRA 2 Promiscuousness between American soldiers and German women 3 Retention of inefficient or undesirable and 4 Close social connections be- tween American officers arid ilies of former high-ranking Nazis Bans Lifted As Union Chieftain Bows To V S Supreme Court Defeated Labor Boss Orders Miners To Return Under Terms Of Present Contract Makes Bid For tions Toward New Pact Most Restrictions Eased As Early Flow Of Coal Expected Radio Talk Cancelled Dec 8 L Lewis ended the soft coal strike Saturday afternoon surrendering in the face of action by the Supreme Court and the President of the United States He ordered the miners back to work ly under the wages and other terms of the government con- tract and made a bid for negotiations toward a new pact The sudden end of the strike brought a gasp of relief from a crippled nation The freight and express em- bargoes the curtailment of passenger service on coal ing trains and the parcel post restrictions were removed immediately The brownout restrictions that had dimmed stores and theaters reduced street lighting and otherwise Lewis Admits Who Is Boss WASHINGTON Dec 8 This is the second time within three years that John L Lewis has backed up when he ran head on into the ident of the United States During a coal strike in 1943 in the middle of the war Lewis showed no signs of truce until President velt decided to ask the miners to ignore Lewis and return to Just a few moments before Mr Roosevelt went on the air Lewis called off the strike Sunday night President Truman had scheduled a broadcast he had been expected to aim much of it at the coal miners Saturday Lewis sent his miners back to work President Truman cancelled the scheduled broadcast Martial Law Declared In Iran Province TEHRAN Dec 8 Iran government clamped martial law and a curfew on most of the cipal cities and towns of the Caspian Province of Mazandaran Saturday as the country entered a election period in which delicately relations with Russia and Allied Western powers again seemed near a crisis Army Staff announced the action in a com- which said clashes be- tween armed groups and citizens had taken place and Tehran newspapers reported that bers of the pro-Soviet party had been found with arms after the disturbance Already minor clashes between government troops and jan militia have taken place along the borders of the nearby ince of Azerbaijan whose sent democrat government is a direct descendant of the revolt of a year ago when Russian troops were occupying the area Attack Villages The Moscow radio said Iranian troops attacked the village of with tanks artillery and mortars and said new clashes had taken place at Ardebil 35 miles from the Caspian Sea in the northwest Azerbaijan area The broadcast did not locate hein Moscow broadcasts quoting Iran newspapers alleged a long list of attack and persecutions of trade unionists and party members by gendarmes and Democratic party ruffians in Like Azerbaijan Mazandaran supposedly is rich hi oil and other resources was once occupied by the Russians and has been the scene of much party ty In the clashes along the baijan border the government captured the village of three days ago and the paper reported today that the village of also had been taken from the WiU Fight The contending their own militia was capable of supervising the elections in their own territory have refused to admit the government troops and have announced they will fight nonresidential use of ric power in 21 eastern states and the District of Columbia were lifted More stringent rules however remained in effect in a few communities where utility coal supplies had fallen to low levels President Truman one hour after Lewis acted cancelled the broadcast he had planned for Sunday night but issued no comment Orders Miners To Return With the theatrics he loves Lewis announced the tion to a newt conference at 2 p.m EST with Shakespearean ences he read a notice to the miners telling them all to go back to work immediately until mid- night March 31 he stipulated But developments between now and then could make that line meaningless Lewis prefaced what he had to say by announcing he would read his letter to the miners himself so reporters might know that tis mine own made on this day and in good Questions as to said will be pure speculation Some philosopher has said how that the pursuit of motives is the most elusive in the world But two facts were 1 The President was at work on his broadcast and all tions were that it was to hava been an appeal to the miners er Lewis head This amid reports of some unionists already back at work hi scattered operations and an estimate of the National Coal Association that bituminous duction in the week ended Nov 30 was 17 percent of normal 2 The appeal from Lewis con- tempt of court conviction was hi the supreme court If upheld there the way would be cleared for additional heavy fines against the UMW for continued defiance of an injunction Hold Conference Attorneys for the government and the union conferred Chief Justice Vinson privately just three hours before Lewis ed off the strike They would not disclose what took place but pre- the conference involved the government's plea for sion of to speed the case The court may announce day whether it will hear the peal and with the strike off now there would be no necessity for undue haste Lewis announced he took his action hi order that the high Court might pass on the issues free from public pressure by the hysteria and frenzy of an eco- nomic crisis He invited negotiations for a new working agreement with either the government or the vate operators depending upon what the supreme court decides in regard to the status of the government contract and the eral operation of the mines The wording of Lewis letter may point to an early return of the mines to owners from government possession and contract negotiations with the op- See COAL 11 Conde Mayor Dies Following Stroke CONDE Dec 8 UP L C Van 71 attorney and or of Conde for 20 years died in an ambulance to Aberdeen He suffered a stroke Friday night at Groton Van Ornum also was ly identified with the League of South Dakota Municipalities He served in the state legislature in 1921 His widow survives
