WEATHER
Cloudy today, tonight and Sun
day; scattered fhowers and thun
dershowers in east today; moder
ate temperatures becoming cool in
west and central portions tonight.
The Hhelby Bale Stett
- State Theatre Today —
COMPLETE NEWSREEL COVERAGE
Jap Surrender Pictures
Also Features “MIDNIGHT MANHUNT"
CLEVELAND COUNTY’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1894 TELEPHONES 1100
VOL. XLI11-222
ASSOCIATED PRESS NEWS
SHELBY, N. C.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 15, 1945
TELEMAT PICTURES
SINGLE COPIES—6c
■
GREAT HURRICANE NEARS SUUTH FLORIDA COAST
l* * ' * * * * ■»*,# * * *.*,.##* * * * # • * * m
MacArthur Orders Japs To ‘Quit Acting Like’ Equal Of Allies
r. 8. 8. SARATOGA BRINGS VETERANS HOME—The ‘Grand Old
Lady” of the Pacific fleet—the U. S. S. Saratoga, largest aircraft carrier
operating with the U. S. Navy in the Pacific—slips through San Fran
cisco's Golden Gate with her flight deck crammed with cheering war
veterans homeward bound. The returning men are Navy veterans of the
Pacific fighting—3.800 of them.—<AP Wirephoto).
19 VETERANS: •
Twenty- Two Killed In
Army Transport Crash
KANSAS CITY, Sept. 155.—(/P)—Twenty-two persons,
including 19 veterans of European battlefronts, were killed
early today as a C-47 army transport plane crashed in flames
14 seconds after leaving Fairfax airnort.
CITY AWAITS
FEDERAL AID
Mayor Says That Airport
Construction To Start As
Soon As Grant Is Made
Shelby will be ready to proceed
with the construction of its new
airport in the Sharon church sec
tion as soon as the federal aid
for airports bill is passed, it was
stated this morning by Mayor
Harry S. Woodson who indicated
his belief that Congress would
pass the measure at an early date
City officials conferred recently
with Representative A. L. Bulwin
kle and at that time he expressed
the opinion federal aid would be
provided.
Shelby is tentatively included in
the bill for an allotment of $390,
000 for the construction of its air
port, however it is likely that the
figure will be revised. This was
the first estimate of the Civil Ae
ronautics authority when it was
proposed to put the Shelby airport
on the Hackett Blanton farm and
when a smaller airport was being
considered. The estimate has not
been revised since that date.
It is the opinion of city officials
See CITY Page 2
Cherry Invites
Trumans To Be
Guests At Mansion
§
i
RALEIGH, Sept. 15—(AP)—Pr esi -
dent and Mrs. Truman have been
invited by Governor and Mrs.
Cherry to be their guests at the
executive mansion when the Pres
ident comes to North Carolina for
a brief visit in November.
The President will addrws a
meeting of the state senate at
Statesville on November %
Only three of the 24 military per
sonnel aboard the plane were re
moved alive from the flaming wreck
age and one of those, fcSergt. Ber
nard C. Tucker, Etna, Calif., died
at a Kansas City hospital. A Euro
pean overseas veteran, he was being
flown to Camp Beale, Calif., for
discharge.
A survivor said all three members
of the crew perished.
Others brought to the hospital
were Sergt. Ora D. De Long, Bar
stow, Calif., and Cpl. Fred Ebert,
I Pasadena, Calif.
The plane was bound from New
ark, N. J„ to the West Coast and
had stopped to refuel.
NAMES WITHHELD
Army officials at Fairfax airport
withheld names of the passengers
and immediately placed the wreck
age under a military police guard.
The plane had just crossed the
Missouri river when it exploded and
crashed, one witness said.
“It looked like the entire sky lit
up,7 said William F. Maxweil, a
tourist hotel operator, nearby. “But
I only heard a small explosion.’’
Wreckage of the huge transport
was scattered over a wide area but
most of the fuselage fell on tracks
of the Burlington railroad about
five miles north of Kansas City’s
business section.
MANY ‘WANTED’
MEN ARE BEING
ROUNDEDUP
Press, Radio Told Their
"Distorted" Stories
Must Cease
SOME OFFER SELVES
By The Associated Press
TOKYO, Sept. 15.—Lt. Gen.
Masahura Homma, conqueror
of the Philippines, and the
Filipino puppet president Jose
P. Laurel were among sever
wanted men taken into cus
tody today as General Mac
Arthur’s headquarters blunt
ly informed Japan that she
was not an equal of the Allies
in any way and would have
to quit acting like one.
Besides Homma and Laurel,
those who surrendered or were
seized today included Lt. Gen.
Shigenorl Kuroda, Homma’s suc
cessor in the Philippines com
mand; Col. Kingoro Hashimoto,
the man blamed for the sinking
of the U. S. gunboat Panay in
China in 1937; Yoshitaka Ueda,
Japanese geopolitical expert; Lau
rel’s son and Benigno S. Aquino,
president of the former puppet
assembly of the Philippines.
Homma and Kuroda sur
rendered together to Japanese
police; the other Japanese
surrendered at Eighth army
heademarters r and the Filininna
were arrested near Osaka and
flown to Eighth army head
quarters.
Meanwhile Col. Donald Hoover,
head of censorship in MacArthur’s
counterintelligence office, called
in the heads of Japan’s press and
radio, told them that their dis
torted stories of the occupation
must cease forthwith and that Ja
pan was "a defeated enemy which
has not yet demonstrated the right
to a place among civilized na
tions.”
ON LIMITED SCALE
Hoover announced that the Do
mei agency, suspended yesterday
because of distortions and bad
faith, would be permitted to re
sume operations only on a limited
domestic scale and under 100 per
cent U. S. censorship but that Do
mei and any others Who trans
gressed again would be closed.
Homma glibly asserted that
he had not ordered the Bat
aan death march and that It
wasn’t so bad, anyhow, brush
ing off the proven horrors of
that cruel herding of captur
ed Americans on Luzon. He
acknowledged, however, that
as the commander he was re
sponsible for acts of his subor
dinates.
Kuroda, evidently not trying to
be humorous, remarked, “we lost
the war—there must have been
some mistake.”
Looking over the Tokyo and
Yokohama industrial bomb dam
age, he exclaimed, "terribleI”
Both generals were high on
MacArthur's list of men wanted
for questioning and possible trial
as war criminals.
OFFERED HIMSELF
At the same time Yoshitaka
Ueda offered himself at Eighth
army headquarters. He was num
ber 24 on General MacArthur’s
list although his activities were
unknown even to many of the Jap
anese, he is credited with being
the master mind of the imperial
istic Japanese geo-political bureau
On the MacArthur list, he had
been called Ueda Yachltake, with
his names transposed, spelled
See MANY Page *
TODAY IN CONGRESS:
Supporters Of Truman
Defend His Job Policies
WASHINOTON, Sept. 15 —(/P)—
Battle lines tightened today In
this history-making postwar Con
gress.
Senate Republicans met to dis
cuss what they are against and
what they are for. House Re
publicans met yesterday. Tte two
groups hope to agree on a pro
gram.
Supporters of President Truman
defended two main points of his
peacetime policy—more help for
the jobless of today, and national
planning for the jobs of tomor
row.
Many of the committee-room
preliminaries on those two issues
are out of the way. Pull-scale
fights will start next week.
The Truman administration
kept its thumb firmly on the Pearl
Harbor Investigation which is a
bout to start. Six Democrats and
four Republicans have been ap
pointed to the investigating com
mittee.
MAY HEAD GROUP
Alben Barkley, the administra
tion spokesman in the senate, is
expected to head the group. He
will be in a position to steer the
See SUPPORTERS Page t
‘HOME’ FROM BELGIUM — Gil
bert Leclercq (above) 16-year-old
Belgian boy, told immigration offi
cer in Pittsburgh that he joined
the U. S. Army in Europe, “came
home” with the Yanks, and received
an honorable discharge. — (AP
Wirephoto).
BIG TELEPHONE
EXPANSION ERA
Southern Bell To Spend
Vast Sum In Southeast;
New Phones Soon
A $300,000,000 to $400,000,000
construction and installation pro
gram—aimed to meet the expand
ing telephone needs of the south
east—was announced today by Hal
S. Dumas, president of the South
ern Bell Telephone company,
through S. M. Gault, manager.
Mr. Dumas said the program,
the largest ever undertaken by the
Southern Bell company, would ex
tend over the next five to six
years.
DOUBLES INVESTMENT
Some idea of the size of the
program is given by Mr. Du
mas when he points out that
it means that "We must in
this comparatively short per
iod of time spend a sum for
expansion about equal to the
dollar investment in the facili
ties we now possess."
A large proportion of the a
mount to be spent by the tele
phone company in the near future
will go toward clearing up pend
ing applications for service, but
beyond that, Southern Bell an
ticipates a period of substantial
economic development in the south
which will necessitate further tele
phone expansion to meet the
growing requirements.
Mr. Dumas said Southern Bell’s
post-war plans included many dif
ferent projects, some of which he
outlined as follows:
Filling as quickly as possible
applications for service being
held because of the lack of fa
duties;
Extending: and improving: ru
ral telephone service;
Catching: up with plant
1 shortages to provide for the
volume of business now being
handled;
Expanding the long distance
network.
Extension of service into
other fields as the need de
velops.
VOICES CONFIDENCE
President Dumas expressed tele
phone people’s confidence in the
ability of southern economy to re
tain and expand the position it
has gained as the result of its a
chievements under the impact of
the war. “As we see it, the south
is what you might call a ‘natural’
for rapid growth in the years just
ahead. We have a bountiful sup
ply of raw materials, a matchless
climate, a great source of native
born, intelligent labor, which has
acquired new skills in hundreds
of southern war plants.
“As the south develops so must
the telephone system which serves
its business and social life. Our
aim is to contribute to that de
velopment through the provision
of an ever-expanding, ever-im
proving service.”
Primary emphasis at first will
be placed on the installation of
equipment and outside facilities
needed to care for the more than
240,000 orders for service now
pending.
“The planning, engineering and
manufacturing phases of providing
the tremendous quantities of e
quipment needed for this purpose
are already well underway,” Mr.
Dumas said. "Some equipment
v See BIG Page 2 ^
RUSSIA ASKING
CONCESSIONS IN
SOUTH EUROPE
Demands Indicate She
Means To Become Great
Power There
ITALY'S~COLONIES
By Flora Lewis
LONDON, Sept. 15.—Cff>)—
Reliable report that the Sov
iet Union has made territorial
demands in the Mediterranean
area considerably beyond any
thing the United States and
Britain had anticipated was
interpreted in diplomatic
quarters here today as an in
dication of Russia’s determi
nation to become a Mediter
ranean power.
The Soviet proposals arose .au
thoritative sources said, during a
discussion of Italy’s colonies by the
Big Five council of foreign minis
ters yesterday.
Diplomats speculated that the
Russian demand referred to the
strategic Dodecanese Islands strung
across the entrance to the Aegean
Sea and guarding the approaches
to the Dardanelles.
The report of the surprising
Russian move came shortly be
fore the council issued a com
munique announcing Uiat all
nations which warred against
Italy would be asked to submit
in writing their peace treaty
proposals.
The establishment of Russian in
fluence in the Mediterranean would
reshuffle power positions in that
area, already a source of Anglo
French maneuvering.
RETURN CONTROL
The Big Five foreign ministers
were scheduled to meet again this
afternoon and may hold another
session Sunday.
British and American plans fo
cus mainly on returning control of
most Italian colonies to Italy with
international supervision.
Since the vast majority of the
Dodescanese population is Greek,
it had been expected that these
islands would be turned over to
Greece.
Egypt wants at least a part of
adjoining Cyrenaico and the Ethi
opians have claimed Eritrea and
Italian Somaliland on the Red Sea.
TRAIN CRASHES
INTO OIL TRUCK
Engineer Is Killed; Fire
man And Truck Driver
Are Injured
JOLIET, 111., Sept. 15. —CAP)— A
Wabash railroad train carrying the
Brooklyn Dodgers from St. Louis
to Chicago, crashed into a gaso
line laden truck and trailer at
nearby Manhattan today killing the
engineer and injuring the fireman
and truck driver. None of the ball
players or other passengers was in
jured and the train was able to
proceed to Chicago after a two-hour
delay. The Dodgers were riding in
the rear car.
Witnesses said the trailer ex
ploded following the crash and flam
ing gasoline set fire to the rail
road depot and several buildings of
a lumber company.
A railroad spokesman said the
locomotive left the track and the
engineer Charles Tedtmeyer of
Chicago, burned to death in the
car. The fireman, George Ebert of
Decatur, 111., leaped from the cab
but was seriously burned. Truck
driver was not immediately iden
tified.
The Dodgers, scheduled to play
the Chicago Cubs today, w$re ac
companied by eight sports writer.
Subs Flee From
Fury Of Storm
KEY WEST, Fla., Sept. 15. —(AP)
—The Navy reported today that big
submarines berthed at the Naval
base here have been dispatched to
sea to escape the hurricane whirling
in from the Bahamas, and small
subs submerged, crewless, to the
safety of the ocean floor at dock
side.
The latter will be brought to the
surface again after the storm has
passed. _■ _ v
Homma Denies Ordering
Death March But Ready
To Take Responsibility
By A1 Dopking
TOKYO, Sfept. 15.—(fP)—Burly, baggy-suited Lt. Gen.
Masaharu Homma denied today that he had ordered the
death march of Americans from Bataan, but acknowledged j
that he was ready “to take full responsibility for any of the i
acts of my subordinates,” and surrendered to Kanagawa !
prefect rural police for Allied questioning.
TRUMAN ENJOYS
HIS VISITHOME
Likely To Wdt Until Re
turn To Capital To Fill
Court Post
/ INDEPENDENCE, Mo., Sept. 15
—(/P)—President Truman was hav
ing the time of his life today,
mingling again with the folks who
know him best.
The former Jackson county judge,
casting aside for the weekend,
cares of the nation’s highest of
fice, relaxed and enjoyed himself
amid scenes of earlier struggles
as an up-and-coming politician.
As Mayor Roger T. Sermon
proud as a peacock over having
the president back home, put it
“I think he wanted to get bact
and put his feet on this Jacksor
county soil.”
Folk who talked things over witt
Mr. Truman figured that he had
no thought of doing anything more
startling while here than visiting
his “mama,” 92-year-old Mrs
Martha Truman, at Grand View
some time tomorrow, and calling
by his offices in the federal build
ing at Kansas City to look over
his mail and shake hands with old
friends.
SUPREME COURT
They figured he would wait un
til after his return to Washington
to announce his choice of a suc
cessor to retired Justice Owen J
Roberts as a member of the U
S. supreme court.
There are some grounds for be
lief the president may hold an
other conference on the matter at
Washington before acting definite
ly on the supreme court vacancy
After he and Mrs. Truman flew
in from Washington on the big
C-54, the “Sacred Cow,” they had
supper in their old white frame
home at 219 Delaware street.
The president then went over tc
Mayor Sermon’s house for a little
stag reception, where he renewed
friendships which have been a
source of pleasure to him since
See TRUMAN Page 2
Schooner Pounded
To Pieces In Surf
NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla.
Sept. 15. —(JP)— One man wai
drowned and six reached safety to
day as raging winds drove the two
master, 70-ton Honduran schoone:
Icaros on the beach here ane
pounded it to pieces.
Police at nearby Surfside reportec
the dead man was Cecil Wedeburn
a Honduran, who fell overboart
while attempting to rescue a dog
His body was brought to land b;
the six crewmen who rode througl
the wild surf in a lifeboat.
Capt. Bonnie Dixon said the veS'
sel.left the Bahamas yesterday am
was trying to reach Miami. Thi
Coast Guard said the craft was s
total loss.
nunuim anu uu \jrcu. oiiigciivi*
Kuroda, who followed him as com- j
mander of Japanese forces In the
Philippines, reached the rural po
lice station at 3:45 p.m. today
(2:45 a.m., E.W.T in a Japanese
war department Ford accompan
ied by Associated Press Corre
spondents Morrie Landsberg and
Max Desfor. Kanagawa police are
expected to turn the two generals
over to American authorities for
questioning about war crimes with
.which. , their names , are linked._
Both wore civilian clothing and
both said they had been retired
from the Japanese army after
their Philippines duty without ex
planation.”
Kuroda, 58-year-old officer
who spent 36 years in the army
said, “we lost the war—there
must have been some mistake.”
Kuroda said 10,000 American pris
oners were held in the Philippines
under his command (May, 1943—
September, 1944 but he knew of
no atrocities.
Both generals speak English
with pronounced British accents.
BOMB DAMAGE
Both took keen interest in the
bomb damage in the Tokyo and
Yokohama industrial areas, which
they said they had not seen be
fore. Kuroda said it was ‘terri
ble.”
Arriving in Tokyo’s TJno
station early today to surren
der as a war-criminal suspect,
Homma told me in an inter
view that in that spring of
1942 the defense of Corregldor
was so strong that he had
been about ready to conclude
that his assault was a failure
when he saw the dying Amer
ican garrison run up the white
flag.
Homma insisted that he was sur
prised to find himself on General
MacArthur’s “wanted” list.. He
also was surprised, he remarked,
when he learned on Dec. 8, 1941,
(Japanese time of Japan’s attack
on Pearl Harbor.
Now retired and wearing a bag
gy blue civilian suit, Homma as
serted :
“We have been beaten, and I
want to be a good loser.”
LOSSES HEAVY
He said Japanese landing forces
lost 28 out of their 50 boats In
the final assault on Corregldor,
and he was about ready to con
clude he had failed. Then he saw
the Americans raise the white flag.
If the crippled, desperate garri
son had been able to take the
offensive then, he said, “they
would have won.” But he conced
ed that the Americans defending
, Corregidor were virtually on their
i last legs when he began his am
phibious attack on the island fort
■ ress in Manila Bay.
Homma said he was retired from
l the army in August, 1943,—he was
not sure why—but he remarked
1 at one point in the interview that
, it may have been because “I did
i not like war.”
Homma, bigger than most
Japanese but looking nothing
■ at all like the popular concept
of a general, was calm as he
stepped from the train to sur
I render to American occupation
forces later today at Yoko
See HOMMA Page 2
FORD PLANTS STOPPED:
More Than200,000Workers
Off Jobs Due To Strikes
Dy a lie Aaauvuucu i ic»
Labor disputes, showing a
steady rise across the country
since V-J day and the subsequent
ending of wartime’s no-strike
pledgfe, today kept more than 200,
000 off their jobs, a new high for
the last several months.
The spotlight along the nation’s
labor front, focused to display the
changeover from war to peace
time production, fell directly or
the labor strife in Detroit’s >heavj
industrial area. But it touchec
over a wide section of the North
Central part of the country anc
into many sections of the easi
wiicxc ittuui Kwsuca wuu^ni umcdi
to a varied line of business and
industry.
In the Detroit area some 75,000
workers were idle as a direct result
of labor controversies. The Ford
Motor company laid off 50,000 au
tomobile workers yesterday and all
Ford plants in the country stop
ped production of new autos, trac
tors, trucks and engines.
LABOR ACCUSED
Henry Ford 2nd, executive, vice
president, attributed the layoff to
“crippling and unauthorized strik
See MORE Page »
MIAMI EXPECTS
TO MISS WORST
OF THE STORM
Core Of Disturbance Like
ly To Hit Keys Between
2 And 3 P. M.
1 50-M.p!h7 winds
MIAMI, Fla., Sept. 15.—(/P)
—Grady Norton, chief fore
caster of the U. S. weather
bureau here, said at 9:50 a. m.
(EWT) today that “Miami is
definitely going to miss tho
worst of it” as a great hurri
cane sparked by winds esti
mated at 150 M.P.H. scream
ed toward the south Florida
coast.
Norton said the storm was ap
proximately 1550 miles southeast
of Miami at 9;30 a.m., driving on
the same relentless course north
northwestward with no sign of a
turn to the north. When it strik
es, he said, the hurricane will be
traveling almost parallel with the
necklace of “keys” which stretch
out into the Gulf of Mexico.
MOVED TO SAFETY
Hurricane warnings — ominous
black and red flags—were hoist
ed along the Florida west coast
from the Keys to Napels as the
great winds whirled on after bat
tering the Bahamas.
Hurricane-wise residents in mo6t
outlying exposed areas had al
ready moved to havens of safety.
Palm Beach reported winds of
25 M.P.H. at 10 a.m., whipped by
blustering rain. Both Miami and
Palm Beach had brief power fail
ures as the storm slowly drew
nearer.
Over 100 patients at the Morri
son field hospital were moved to
the Biltmore hotel in Palm Beach.
Forty percent of them were bed
patients.
An advisory issued by the
weather bureau at 10:30 a.m.
said the vanguard ct the
See MIAMI Page 2
‘Wheelhorse’
Likely To Head
Investigation
WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 —<£>)—
An administration wheelhorse
probably will bang the gavel in a
forthcoming investigation by ten
congressional lawyers of the Pearl
Harbor debacle.
Senate Democratic Leader Bark
ley (Ky) told some colleagues he
might not be able to serve, but
indications are strong he will ac
cept chairmanship of a joint sen
ate-house investigating commit
tee.
He thus will be in a position to
direct the course of an investiga
tion many legislators think will
have a bearing on the 1946 and
1948 political campaigns.
Senate colleagues who will serve
with Barkley are George tD-Ga),
Lucas (D-Ill), Ferguson (R-Mich)
and Brewster (R-Mei. House mem
bers are Cooper (D-Tenn>, Clark
(D-NC), Murphy (D-Pa), Keefe
(R-Wis) and Gearhart iR-Calif).
Both sides disclaim any intent
to let partisan politics creep into
the inquiry. But the selection, of
members—all of them lawyers
before they entered Congress —
followed strict party lines.
PARTY LINES
Barkley, Cooper, Lucas and
Murphy are New Dealers. George
and Clark are southerners who
don’t always subscribe fully to
administration views on domestic
issues. But where it is a case of
Democrats vs. Republicans, they
are Democrats.
George won’t make tip his mind
until Monday whether to accept
membership on the committee. He
is chairman of the senate finance
committee and there is a tax re
duction bill coming along which
will demand a lot of his time.
Among the Republicans, Keefe
and Gearhart are former county
prosecutors. Ferguson, a former
judge, served as a one-man grand
jury in Detroit before election to
the senate. He and Brewster
know the inquiry ropes from their
membership on the senate war in
vestigating committee.
With 10 members who know
their way around in a courtroom,
the committee still must pick a
legal counsel when It organizes,
probably next week.