Chowan Plays Campbell Tonight At 8:00
THE DAILY CHOWANIAN
Volume 1 — Number 26
Muriieesboio, North Carolina, December 17, 1959
Associated Press
Poision Attempt !
Being Investigated
MUNICH, Germany OT—Offi
cials of Radio Free Europe con
tinued to insist today that U. S.
and West German authorities
are investigating an alleged Red
attempt to poison the anti-Com-
munist station’s employes in
Munich.
This was in direct conflict
with statements by the U. S.
Army’s southern command at
j*unich, the Bavarian Ministry
of Interior, the Justice Ministry,
Political and Criminal Police,
and State Security.
All denied t h a t a poison at
tempt had been reported to
t.iem or that an investigation
was under way.
Erik Hazelhoff of Mount Kisco,
N. Y., European director of
RFE, said he had notified auth
orities after being tipped off that
pcison had been put in salt shak
ers at the station’s cafeteria
Nov. 21. He said U. S. Army
medical specialists examined the
shakers and found lethal doses
of a derivative of the deadly
nightshade plant.
Hazelhoff charged that the al-
Icdged poisoning plot was plan
ed b;- a Communist diplomat
stationed in West Europe but de
clined to identify him. He said
none of the 1,200 employes of the
American-franced private sta-
t.on were poisoned but that he
closed the cafeteria as a pre
cautionary step. The cafeteria
reopened today.
Ike and DeGaulle Asked
To Solve U.S.-French Matter
Guards Suspended;
Abusing Prisoners
RAIDFORD, Fla. (JP) — The
state has sup^nded 11 state pris-
son guards indicted on charges
of abusirg prisoners.
Twelve guards and two forme
guard officers were indicted bv
a federal jury at Jacksonville
Tuesday on charges they vio-
'ated the civil rights of 20 pris
oners who had created disturb
ances in the maximum securit,
building in May last year.
One guard had resigned. The
officers, Capt. James H. Dunr
and Lt. Earl Chesser, had bee’'
discharged after ft lp’:slativt
a^d Cabinet investigation.
Tho indictments charged the
14 h.^ndcu'fed prisoners to cell
doors from a day to a week or
more, sometimes nude and with
out food, and dousing them with
water hoses.
Beauty Is For
The Pigeons
CHARLOTTE AP — Sittmg
ur.der a hair drier is enough. Sit
ting under the gun is too much. ^
when three pigeons made their
entry into a beauty coUege here
Wednesday, the patrons began to
duck out.
■‘Our customers are so mad,”
sa d a distressed Mrs. F. W. Lor-
ri k, operator of the salon.
“We've been moving them around
the room all day trying to stay
out from under those birds.”
Firemen a'so ducked the respon
sibility, that is. They said every
time they put a ladder up to the
sprinkler pipes where the birds
roosted, the creatures would fly
away.
So Officer Fred Teer borrowed
a .22 rife from a pawn shop, cleared
the room, and with four shots picked
off three pigeons. The beauty busi
ness is back to normal now.
Freighter Sinks
But Survivors
Cannot Be Found
LONG BKACH. Calif. AP — A
freighter loaded with scrapiron
was reported sinking in the Pa
cific today. An SOS call indicated
the crew of 17 was abandoning
ship.
A Coast Guard plane sped to
the area but, six hours after the
distress call, had been unable to
locate the Guam Pioneer.
The distress call did not say
why the ship was in trouble.
A Coast Guard cutter was dis
patched to the scene, about 340
miles southwest of Los Angeles,
but won’t reach the area until
midnight.
A Navy picket boat, the Watch
man, was reported about 70 miles
north of the Guam Pioneer, and
was proceeding to the scene.
TO HEAR SOME MEN TALK
you would think they knew more
than the President, Congress, the
Pentagon, and the United Na
tions, plus the bartender.
Jupiter Missile Drops Dummy Test;
Snark Mission Proves Successful
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (JP)
—A Jupiter missile dropped a
dummy warhead on an ocean
target and a Snark flew a 2,000-
mile round trip mission in suc
cessful launchings here
Wednesday.
A test model of the Army’s
Nike-Zeus missile was fired at
the White Sands range in New
Highway Tally
RALEIGH AP — The Motor
Vehicles Department’s tally of
h’"hway deaths and injuries fi'om
fhe 24 hours ending at 10 a.m. to
day:
Killed 1
Injured rural 15
Killed this year 1,110
Killed to date last year 1,024
Injured to Oct. 1, 1959 17,679
Injured to Oct. 1, 1958 15,000
Mexico, but the second stage
failed. It was the third test of
the huge weapon, which is in
tended to be armed with a nu
clear warhead ard to intercep*
and destroy missiles aimed a
the United Stit?s.
The Jupiter, which soon will
be deployed with NATO troops
in Italy and Turkey, has been
tested over various distances to
irove its versatility.
The Snark traveled about 1,-
000 miles to the vicinity of Puer
to came back for a smooth land
ing at the cape. The 4%-hour
flight was guided all the way
from a ground station here.
The purpose of the Snark
flights is to recover an instru
mentation package in the mis
sile and to retrieve the rocket
tor future launchings as a
money-saving factor. '
PARIS (JP) — The 15 North At
lantic Allies today tossed the
U. S.-French deadlock over un
ified defense to President Eisen
hower and De Gaulle for solution.
Defense ministers of the Al
lies made a last stab today at
reaching agreement on intergra-
tion at least of their European
air defenses under command of
the North Atlantic Treaty Organ
ization. But France for the third
Jay of NATO’s annual minister
ial review held firm against the
14 other allies, refusing to pass
control of any more of her for
ces to the central command.
Informed sources confirmed
that the issue was now firmly
on the schedule for discussion
when De Gaulle and Eisenhower
meet privately Saturday, in a
session accompanying the West
ern summit meeting this
weekend.
It appeared the NATO allies
did nrt want to risk an open row
with De Gaulle and had declared
a temporary truce. But the
truce was likely to be of short
duration.
“We are determined to get
this thing settled,” one NATO
diplomat said with conviction.
France doesn’t want to con
tribute even to the unified air
defense system being pushed as
a face-saving compromise. The
United States has been leading
a campaign for over-all inter-
gration of armed forces—under
unified command—to defend
Western Europe.
De Gaulle insists on a loosely
linked alliance, with each na
tion retaining control of its land,
sea ard air forces.
Eisenhower is expected to re
mind De Gaulle that U.S. forces
were pledged to t h e continent
under the principle of intergrat
ed NATO forces. Without this
concept, the United States feels
there is little of any reason for
being in Europe.
The United States wants com
plete intergration but will set
tle for a step-by-step approach
which would unify air defenses
first. The Americans hold that
an air defense system organized
on national command lines
would be worthless in missile
age warfare because it would re
act too slowly.
In the end, some informants
said, the ministers may have to
fall back on some vague state
ment concerning the need for co
operative defense arrangements,
leaving it up to members them
selves to interpret what such a
phrase means.
The United States has warned
its allies that in this period of
constantly more expensive mili
tary equipment they also will
have to carry a bigger portion of
the load in conventional weap
ons if not in men.
Tar Heel Motorists
Spared From Auto
Insurance Increase
HAJ KIGH AP — About a mil
lion T^r rmtorists were
spared a major increase in their
auto liability rates Wednesday in
a decision by Insurance Commis
sioner Charles F. Gold.
Gold announced his findings
shortly after hearing the North
Carolina Automobile Rate Admini
strative Office state its case for
the' increase which would have av
eraged $8, or 19.9 per cent.
Rate office manager W. F.
Lauehlin said the agen^’y would
decide later if it wou'd appeal
Gold’s decision to the courts.
Gold said the office proposed
higher rates based on a new for
mula which took into account only
one year of loss experience—a de
parture from the present formula.
He also said the accident fre
quency rate in North Carolina has
not increased materially during the
past three years, according to fig
ures released by the Motor Vehic
les Department.
The rating office contended the
compulsory auto liability law has
brought about what it called a
sharp rise in both the frenquency
and cost of accident claims.
Two Prisoners
Now At Large
BOONE, N. C. AP — Only two
of the orieinal 20 tough convicts
>vho fled the Ivy Bluff, N. C., pris
on nine days ago remained at large
today following apprehension of
Woodrow Stewart near here.
The 36-year-oId Stewart, who
has relatives in the Boone area,
was overpowered late Wednesday
afternoon by an FBI agent and
Watauffa County Chief Deputy
Emmett Oliver.
Still sought in the mass break
from Ivy Bluff are Willie Shaw,
30, of Rougemont, N. C., serving
life for rape, and Cleveland Mc
Neill. 28. of Fuquay Springs, N. C,
serving 15 years for assault. Both
are Negroes.
Seventeen of the hardened pris
oners were rounded up within five
days of the breakout.
WORLD BRIEFS
Traps Costs
BRAINTREE, England AP —
Claude Grimwood of nearby Wet
hersfield paid a 5-pound $14 fine
today for illegally setting traps
for foxes. One of the traps caught
the village policeman.
The Weather
NORTH CAROLINA: Consid
erable cloudiness and mild to
day, high in the 60s. Cloudy with
rain spreading into western por
tion tonight. Mild temperatures
and not so cool in the mount
aains. Low in the 50s Friday
cloudy with intermittent rain,
little change in temperatures.
Little cooler in the mountains.
Rockefeller Will
Continue Tour
DALLAS, Tex. OT — Still
dogged by b a d wiatlier, Gov.
Nelson A. Rockefeller arrived in
Dallas today on his political fact
finding tour of the Southwest.
A majority of Texas Republi
cans, like those in Oklahoma,
are considered supporters of
Vice President Richard M.
Nixon.
Rockefeller prepared to meet
political and business leaders in
Dallas and Houston.
His chartered plane landed in
the rain and there were only a
handful of people at the airport
to meet him. He arrived an hour
behind schedule.
Problems Swapped
MOSCOW AP — The little town
of Andizhan has swapped a sani
tary problem for a transportation
problem.
By order of Police Chief Vitali
Schulman, with the backing of
mayor and council, the donkeys
which for centuries have trans
ported fruit, vegetables, wood and
what-have-you about the streets
have been barred.
Police of the community, in
Uzbekistan 200 miles from the
Chinese frontier, arrested 180 don
keys on the first day of the ban.
Pope Honors
VATICAN CITY AP — Thou
sands hailed Pope John XXIII to
day as he arrived in St. Peter’s
Basilica to place the red hat of
office on two Americans and five
other cardinals he created this
week.
The Americans are Albert Grog-
ery Meyor, archbishop of Chica
go, and Archbishop Aleos Muench,
until new bishop of Fargo, N. D.,
and apostolic nuncio to Germany.
Gov. Hodges Declares That Something
Must be Done About Prison System
RALEIGH AP — Gov. Hodges steps to be taken toward improv
declared today something must be
done to improve working condit
ions of guards in the state prison
system.
Hodges told his weekly news
conference the state “had made
an error” in trying to finance its
prison system too cheaply.
It must be corrected,” the gov
ernor declared against the back
ground of last week’s sensational
escape of 20 desperate convicts
from Ivy Bluff Prison. The state
confines incorrible convicts there.
The 1,000 or more guards in the
prison system work 72 hours one
week and 60 hours the next.
Their pay scale ranges from $2,-
700 to $3,372 a year.
Hodges was asked if he would
have recommended a bigger budg
et for guards.
He said “very definitely would
have” if the matter had been cal
led to his attention.
Hodges said the present Prison
Department budget will allow some
ing working conditions for guards
but that the major part of it will
have to wait until the 1961 Gen
eral Assembly.
He said he expects the Prison
Commission to make recommmen-
dations seen on upgrading of
guards. With limited funds availa
ble, he said guards at maximum
security prisons such as Ivy Bluff
probably will be taken care of
first.
Hodges emphasized he had not
suggested that the department
“get tougher” but “I said that as
between coddling prisoners—those
who can be rehabilitated and those
“who just don’t care.” He added
the first group probably includes
90 per cent of the prisoners.
In answer to other questions the
governor said he did not think the
tough policy caused the Ivy Bluff
break.
“I think that at Ivy Bluff you
just had a group of prisoners who
outwitted the administration at
Ivy Bluff,” Hodges said.