=tSSs ilmumtmt JHuntittit ^tiu* _ , _ _ _ WILMINGTON, N. C., THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1947 ~ ESTABLISHED' fj|f TrumanTakes Quick Action Directs Forrestal To Take Oath As First Defense Secretary WASHINGTON, Sept. 17. — jgjnes V. Forrestal took the "th today as the nation’s first ° cre*ary of defense without ‘waiting President Truman’s re n to Washington — and Mr. Truman explained that he had directed Forrestal to do so be cause of the international situ ation. The President, enroute home from South America on the Bat tleship Missouri, did not elabo rate on this remark but aides uicklv explained that he did ,jot have anything particular in n-ind, just the general interna tional situation. gw taking the oath, Forestal assumed direction of the Army, jfavy and a separate air force, as provided in a law passed at the last session of Congress. Whether the decision to take the oath now is intended to strengthen the hand of Secretary of sfate Marshall in tijp Unit ed Nations Assembly was not stated. Marshall, in a speech studded with criticism of Rus sia, today urged U. N. to make a “supreme effort” to solve the world's “deepening political and economic crisis” and save Greece from the “attacks” of its Balkan Communist neighbors. It had beer, expected that For restal would be sworn in after Mr, Truman’s return Saturday from the Inter-American Defense Conference at Rio De Janeiro. Directed By Radio A dispatch from Ernest B. Vaccaro, Associated Press cor respondent with Mr. Truman aboard the Missouri, said Mr. Truman told reporters simply that in view of the international situation, he thought the nation should have a defense secretary. The President said he had sent a radio message directing For restal to take the oath. Pressed for elaboration, Presi dential Press Secretary Charles G. Ross told the newsmen that Mr. Truman hadn’t anything par See TRUMAN Oh Page Two COLLEGE MAKING EXCELLENT START Dean Dale Spencer Reviews Courses At Kiwanis Meeting That Wilmington College is al leady off to a flying start in the held of education was the im pression gained by members of the Kiwanis club yesterday aft er they had listened to a most interesting and factual address by Dale K. Spencer, dean of the college. Stressing the point that Wil mington College in the years to come will offer vast opportuni ties to the youth of Wilmington and nearby counties, Spencer outlined briefly, some of the things that are being done to of fer young men and women ed ucational facilities of an ad vanced nature after they have completed their high school work. The new institution, Spencer said, has a curricula which of fer four types of courses to stu dents, namely: I. University parallel which embraces two years of study in lav,', engineering, liberal arts, home economics, science or commerce. At present, 95 stu dents are enrolled for these courses. J. Terminal courses, embrac ing merchandising, home eco nomics, business administration and accounting, secreterial. Six ty-five students are presently enrolled for this group of studies. SHORT COURSES 3. Short courses: This field embraces a group of subjects which will allow a student to complete work already started end is not intended as a full two-year course of study. Cours es in traffic management and See COLLEGE On Page Two The Weather FORECAST: „St "t Carolina—Considerable cloudi , ' and mild with scattered showers in and Enst portion Thursday. Fn y- P3tily cloudy and slightly warmer ' ?c mrrd showers coastal area. T ■ Carolina—Considerable cloudi p. , 3:'d mild with scattered showers , f t ^°.ti°n Thursday. Friday, partly \T; snd slightly warmer. Urological data for the 24 hours 7:30 p. m. vesterday. TEMPERATURES Er: a m. 72; 7:30 a. m. 71; 1:30 pm* P; m. 72: Maximum 81; Mini ,'i); Mean 75: Normal 73. HUMIDITY 7v - 1 Q’: 7:30 a. m. 88; 1:30 p. m ’ '":n P. rn. 93. T PRECIPITATION ■ lor 24 hours ending 7:30 p. m j'ynes. f,ince the first of the month niches. tides for today t. s” the Tide Tables published by noast and Geodetic Survey). Hi],,; HIGH LOW ■-10:1 12:04 a.m. 7:05 a.m. lissom 12:32 P-m. 7:37 p.m. '0!° Inlet i0.20 a.m. 3:56 a.m. S».- 10:30 p.m. 4:25 p.m. hii,.-:57; Sunset 6:15; Moonrise WTnset 3:44P' ' to iv , e at Fayetteville, N. C. at 8 Mo,, dT“day 8.6 feet. - WEATHER Oa Page Iwi ANNOUNCEMENT that Maj. Gen. Willard G. Wyman (above) will become Chief of Staff ot the U. S. First Army, Oct. 1, succeeding Maj. Gen. William B. Kean, has been made in Wash ington by Gen. Courtney H. Hodges, Commanding General of the First Army. YUGOSLAV TROOPS ISSUE ULTIMATUM American Officer With Small Detachment, Re fuses To Move TRIESTE, Sept. 17.— — President Truman reported to night that 1,680,000 government employes have been let out since V-J Day in the biggest payroll slash in history. He estimated that federal em ployment now totals roughly 2, 088,000 persons, compared with a wartime peak of 3,770,000. In his only implied reference to the “get-them-off-the-payroll” economy drive in Congress, Mr. Truman said that “never before in the history of this or any other nation has a single employer, within such a short period of See 1,680,000 On Page Two Along The Cape Fear FROM A CANNON BALL TO BASE BALL — It is a far cry from the cannonading of an un friendly vessel at the mouth of the Cape Fear river to the Shaughnessy play-offs in the To bacco state league just at their climax for 1947, but every team in this year’s play-offs was from the Cape Fear river val ley, with the home field of none more than 16 miles from the river. The Wilmington Pirates ex tended the Sanford Spinners to the limit in their seven game series in the semi-finals this year. Sanford is the farthest up stream of the four contenders and the farthest from the river, some 16 miles from the cape Fear. Meanwhile, the Dunn-Erwin Twins, whose home park at Dunn is five miles from the river, while Erwin is practically on the Cape Fear, were drop ping their semi-final series 4 to 1 to the Lumberton Cubs. The Cubs, a new team in the Tobacco State league, are sit uated like Sanford, approxi ■ mately 16 miles from the river. Owned by the Chicago Cubs farm system and skippered by Red Lucas, former big league pitcher who was twice elected the most able manager in the circuit this year, the Cubs work ed their way up from the league cellar to second place. * * * BASEBALL PAID OFF Night baseball was successful this year beyond the hopes of some of th» most ardent fans in the Cape Fear valley. At Lumber ton, where experts shook their heads ominously, predicting the city was no baseball town, the Cubs played before more than 60,000 paid admissions during the regular season in spite of an unusually large number of games being rained out. Ap proximately 20,000 fans crowded into the armory field at Lum berton for the six games the Cubs played at home during the play-offs. The record attendance in the Weed circuit was registered at See CAPE FEAR On Page Two Secretary Urges Little Assembly United States Seizes Initia tive With Plan To Curb Veto NEW YORK, Sept. 17—UR —Major developments today at the United Nations As sembly: Secretary of State Mar shall, in a slashing attack on Russian policy, advanced a bold plan for a curb on the big power veto and cre ation of a “little assembly” commission to keep the peace. Soviet Chief Delegate An drei Y. Vishinsky hurriedly cancelled plans to speak to day, but said he would re ply to Marshall tomorrow “or after tomorrow.” An authoritative source said the United States has asked Britain to defer im mediate withdrawal of Brit ish troops from troubled Greece. The London govern ment has said it cannot af ford to finance the troops. The Steering committee set up a special 55-nation committee to consider the Palestine question. The United States official ly tossed the problem of Ko rean independence to the Assembly. NEW YORK, Sept. 17— — Secretary of State Marshall, making a slashing attack on Russia, seized the initiative to day in the United Nations As sembly with a bold new plan to rebuild the deadlocked ,U.N. peace machinery. To the obvious surprise and confusion of the entire Russian See SECRETARY On Page Two J! fORNEY CLAIMS LOT WAS DRUNK Queens County Official Orders Inquiry Into Fatal Plane Crash The pilot of an American Air lines experimental plane which crashed Aug. 8, killing him and two others of the five crew men aboard, was drunk when he was permitted to take off from La Guardia field, a district at torney charged today. Queens County District Attor ney Charles P. Sullivan made the charge in announcing an in vestigation to determine who was responsible for allowing Capt. Walter A. Davidson, 34 Wantaghn N.Y., to take the con trols in an intoxicated condition. Sullivan said the autopsy per formed after the non-passenger DC-3 crshed into Bowery Bay off LaGuardia Field showed “three-plus alcohol’’ in David son’s brain, a content which the city toxicologist described as a “large amount.” “The examiner’s report shows the pilot was drunk at the time of the take-off,” the district attorney said. “How could this pilot take off in this plane without being noticed by responsible authorities.” The official report by Dr. Alexander O. Gettlec, Sullivan said, showed contents of one plus in the brains of the other two killed in the crash, Co-pilot Walter R. Zundel, 28, and Me chanic Howard Hickey, 35, both of New York city. The District attorney said Gettler described this as a “small amount.” Survivors Summoned Two survivors of the crash, Chester Ball, 24, and James Till, 25, both of New York, and the dispatcher on duty at LaGuar dia when the plane took off shortly before the crash, were , See ATTORNEY On Page Two ; DECLARED to have been il legally seized by Yugoslav auth orities in the Trieste area, Lt. John C. Dwyer (above), an army doctor from Chicago, was being lease. He was fishing in the Is held despite appeals for his re onzo River with Sgt. William Smith, Waycross, Ga., when taken prisoner. DISASTER GROUP STAYS ON ALERT Red Cross Committee Still On Duty Although Dang er Here Past Satisfied that all danger of the Florida hurricane visiting these parts is past, the New Hanover Red Cross disaster committee today nevertheless remains on the alert just in case the storm should take a turn in this di rection before it expires, offi cials announced last night. “Weatherman Paul Hess says there is absolutely no reason to worry,” the Red Cross official assured. In a statement issued earlier from the office of Ken Noble, Chairman Gardner Greer thank ed the press, radio, weather bu reau, and all others who coop erated in the preparations to organize against possible storm damage here. “Should the worst have devel oped,” Greer’s statement said, “such cooperation would have insured a minimum of confusion and^property loss.” Alarm here began to subside when the hurricane hit the coast of the lower Florida peninsula, centering between Fort Lauder dale and West Palm Beach. As See DISASTER On Page Two U. S. TROOPS AID IN RESCUE WORK Japanese Refugees Take Off In Assault Boats) Deaths Mount TOKYO, Thursday, Sept. IS. —{If)— U. S. troops in assault boats were rescuing thousands of Japanese from the flooded Kanto plain East of Tokyo today as landslides to the North reported ly pushed casualty estimates in the typhoon disaster past the 3,300 mark. Flood waters from the North, bearing bodies of victims on their crests, burst through levees and bore down on Tokyo’s suburbs and the plain to the East, where refugees were trapped on house tops and dikes. The First Cavalry Division sent the first and second brigades and the First Division artillery to locate stranded families and vil lagers while the Eighth Engineer Squadron and the 302nd Recon naissance troop (armored) left for two big gaps in the shattered levees. The newspaper Yomiuri re ported, meanwhile, that land slides from Mount Akeegi, in Gumma prefecture North of To kyo, all but buried a town and two villages, killing 182 and in juring 185. Court Relieves Minds Of “Gretna Green” Pairs RALEIGH, Sept. 17- (U.B—The North Carolina Supreme Court today secured the marriage knots of 2,608 “Gretna Green” couples whose wedded bliss was threatened by a chance it might not be legal. The state’s highest court up held validity of the marriages in Camden county, N. C., by dismissing a test case brought by one worried couple to deter mine if a wartime acting justic’e of the peace was holding office legally. The court’s opinion upheld a lower court ruling that S. M. Etheridge was lawfully author ized to perform the 2,S08 cere monies between March 19. 1945 and April 1, 1947, while filling his father’s unexpired term at South Mills. N. C. The test case was the latest development in court actions stemming from charges of a “marriage mill” in Camden county. J. G. Etheridge, who resigned as justice of the peace to be See COURT On Page Two Southern Florida Beats Hurricano Miami, Palm Beach Escapg Major Damage; Citrus j # Belt Hard Hit , , __ i MIAMI, Fla., Sept. 17 —W-* The heaviest hurricane of a cade roared savagely acrosy Southern Florida today, devas tating a wide belt of citruy groves and vegetable farms but doing no major property da mage. Winds up to 120 miles an houp ripped into the rich and dense ly-populated resort area of the East coast, between Miami and Palm Beach. But although ona man was electrocuted at Palrrj Beach and nine persons werei missing, casualties were few. One man was shot to death in Miami and six others were arrested in what police termed “widespread looting” of storm battered stores. At 7:30 p.m. (E.S.T.)—eight hours after it slammed Inland from the Atlantic ocean—the hurricane howled over Fort Myers and out into the Gulf of Mexico. State police reports from Wauchula, 80 miles to thy North, said 100-mile windy whipped Fort Myers and wery continuing at 8:30 p.m. Two vessels were believed In distress off the Florida Gulf coast. Seven crewmen of the 40 foot schooner Pilar were bailing by hand after all pumps and engines failed, and the little ves sel was shipping water in heavy seas. An unidentified vessel was rushing to her aid. A 106-ton banana boat, Rita, was limping toward Cuba ott one engine, but radioed rtiai See FLORIDA On Page Two EASTERN TOBACCO PRICES UNCHANGED *t» 1 c Middle Markets Report la creases; Border Prices Remain Steady 1 Prices for the third Oar ef sales on Middle Belt tdbatoo markets were steady to slUMy higher yesterday, the Fed«$Rl and State Departments of Agri culture reported. Fair and good lemon pcfaategs led the advances with geta* of $4 and $5 per hundred poupds respectively. Nondescript was off from $.50 to $2.75 and Otter grades were firm. The quality of the offerings was not as good as on the first two days of Mis. The agriculture agencies re ported that on Tuesday a tetol of 3,346,723 pounds brought an average price of $43.78 per hun dred, a drop of $2.38 from toe opening day. Meanwhile, on the Eastern North Carolina Belt, prices wAru unchanged to lower with Se clines ranging from $.50 to $5.0Q. Sales were heavy but the qual ity of offering was low with the bulk consisting of common to good leaf and nondescript. The price average Tuesday fell to a new low for the season wnh. 10,723,823 pounds bringing an. average of $37.79, a drop of $1,78 from Monday. The decrease was attributed mainly to the Taraer proportion of low quality offer ings.” On the Border Brit, yrtsca See EASTERN On Page Two And So To Bed __ i One of the most amazing of the countless storm storitt related here during the hurri cane alert was told by Ken Noble of the publicity firm here which bears his name. Noble recalls that his brother was on duty on f destroyer in the Pacific dur* ing a tremendous typhooin. Velocity instruments on the staggering little ship record ed their limit wind velocity —170 miles per hour. Caught with two companions by a mountainous wave, Noble was washed overboard. Al most before he could realize the desperateness of his plight, Noble was lifted on the crest of the wave on to the deck of an airplane car rier some 600 yards from the destroyer. Noble managed to cling t> a gasoline hose on the deck until the carrier rolled clear of the deluge, then ho scrambled to safety. His un fortunate companions were dashed against the steel hull of the carrier and disappear* ed from view. Ken Noble re* gards his brother's safe land ing on the deck of the carrier as little short of a miracle.