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Newspaper
Decatur Daily
Location
Decatur, Alabama, United States of America
Date
Jul 28, 1952
Page
1
A compact collection of short items highlights local happenings in town life. Brief notes touch on neighborhood events, school happenings, and small-scale community updates.
Five disorderly conduct and intoxication cases led the recorder's court agenda this morning along with two prohibition violations one traffic law breach and one hit and run case. The rest items note university fellowships births hospital discharges adoptions and local visits.
Edmund P. Garrett announces that a new granulated fertilizer will go on sale in 1953 to farmers in North Alabama. The TVA cooperative will run the 60 000 ton annual plant at Muscle Shoals, supplying 4 000 tons locally. The process creates a uniform nitrogen potash and phosphorus granule using a first commercial solid form.
Steel and maritime labor tensions flare as CIO Steelworkers launch a new strike in 10 Alcoa plants affecting 15 000 workers after last week’s 55 day stoppage. AFL teams and west coast sailors still face stalled negotiations while mediators push for settlements and reintegrating ships.
Sheriff’s deputies and ABC officers raided a 500 gallon still two and a half miles southeast of the Wheeler lake tourist court off US 31. The intact still was seized by ABC officers Carlos Nelson Herman Sandlin and deputies Roy Peebles Fred Clemons Henry Fowler J N Lee and Sheriff John McCutcheon. Peebles joined the force July 12 and Clemons is 28 from Decatur. Peebles served in the 31st Dixie Division. Clemons saw Army MP duty. Last Monday officers blasted two 400 gallon stills on Oden Ridge with Sandlin Nelson and Fowler involved.
A 1951 Hudson and a city bus sustained about 150 dollars in damage after a collision at Grant Street and 10th Avenue at about 11 45 this morning. Mrs S W Hill of Courtland drove the car with her one year old daughter aboard. N B Self drove the bus. No injuries were reported.
Matthias Swearson, 27, was arrested after slayings that left his wife Joyce 25 and four children Kay 4 Peggy 3 Karen 2 Matthias 6 months dead in their home on the outskirts of Bridgeport. Swearson confessed the killings saying the minister said God is a square shooter. He claimed the Lord told him to take their lives. He was found wounded and headed toward town in the family station wagon and said he was going to church.
Lovin Produce on Second Avenue halted a two ton potato purchase after taste tests indicated a problem. Auburn examiners found root crops absorbed a strong cotton spray poison, requiring a five year wait before planting again. No illnesses reported.
Two North Korean prisoners of war were killed and seven wounded in weekend disturbances in Korean POW camps. One death and all seven injuries resulted from beatings by fellow prisoners at Nonsan. A North Korean civilian internees was fatally wounded on Pongam Island when he attacked an American Army captain with an axe.
Denver dispatch reports Gen Dwight D Eisenhower resuming his presidential bid after a 10 day vacation at a Fraser Colorado ranch. He met with political chief of staff Gov Sherman Adams and discussed campaign organization and strategy with running mate Sen Richard M Nixon. Nixon, who joined Eisenhower from Denver, trained under Eisenhower in trout fishing while criticizing Stevenson Sparkman on Truman era defense.
Yesterday 40 accidents left 18 injuries and 3 deaths with 14925 dollars in property damage. One death stemmed from a July 1 crash. A year ago 20 accidents caused 14 injuries 2 deaths and 6040 dollars property damage.
Sen Brien McMahon of Connecticut dies at 48 in Georgetown Hospital from a spinal ailment. A wartime justice official and later Senate chair of the Atomic Energy Committee, he was pivotal in linking atomic power to civilization’s safety. He withdrew his name from a presidential bid while hospitalized.
A Wisner Nebraska burglar who visited Hansen Cleaners took clothing including trousers in sizes 30 and 31 shirts size 15 and caps size 74s. The crook apparently left a fairly good description of himself in the process.
HOLYOKE Colo Fourteen people including five children were held for hours in a farmhouse on the eastern Colorado sandhills by two gun armed youths during a jail break They seized weapons after beating Sheriff Clements who sustained minor injuries The escape ended at dusk when the pair surrendered after threatening a ranch family and a reunion gathering in the farm house
John and Alice Cliffe were sentenced to life imprisonment after a Circuit Court jury found them guilty of the murder of their four year old son Wayne Dolham. Prosecutors said the boy was starved and suffered a three day abuse culminating in him being gagged and bound with a noose tied to a bathroom rafter.
Automobiles and fires claimed at least eight victims over the weekend and a railroad worker was fatally injured at Dothan. C. L. McMay, 52, a car inspector for the Atlantic Coast Line, slipped under a train while connecting an air hose. He was dragged along the tracks and died from shock and blood loss. Two men, Clyde C. Sanders and John Harold Dukes, died in Centerville when their car hit a pole. H. C. Pearce, 74, died from burns in Birmingham after a flaming kerosene can ignited by an acetylene torch. Three people burned to death in Greensboro when bottled gas leaked and a flash fire struck their house. Martha Lee Jackson and her two daughters, Dora and Annie Mae, died in the blaze. A Birmingham school teacher was killed when a Highway Patrol car collided with the car she rode in. See EIGHT, on Page 2.
The Wafd party chief Mustapha El Nahas Pasha praised Maj. Gen. Mohammed Naguib Bey for ousting King Farouk and pledging a nationwide cleanup of bribery and corruption. Nahas hailed the savior role after arriving from Europe and met Naguib at army HQ. The party planned to support Naguib and new premier Aly Maher Pasha.
Torrential rains trapped ground units and halted air and ground fighting on the Korean front for a third day. Patrols were small and clashes brief as five and a half inches of rain drenched Old Baldy and T-bone hill areas. Chinese hold Old Baldy crest and upper T-bone as Fifth Air Force reports widespread foul weather.
Senator John J. Sparkman Democratic vice presidential nominee returns to Washington from Chicago with wife and daughter. University of Alabama alumni and Alabama State Society will greet him at 5 10 p m EST and a brass band is planned for a rousing reception.
Governor Adlai E. Stevenson returns to Springfield to begin his bid for the Democratic nomination for president. He will temporarily resume the governorship, then resign to pursue the White House campaign. The plan calls for a hard hitting 60 day drive led by Truman Barkley Stevenson and Sparkman with whistle stop tours nationwide.
Alabama's 1951 National Safety Council inventory shows 822 traffic fatalities, ranking 22nd nationally and sixth among its region. The death rate dropped to 10.9 per 100 million miles from 12.4 in 1950, with the overall state ranking improving to 37th nationally and 9th regionally.
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